Driving Traffic with Twitter

Reports suggest that social networking is now more popular than email. Twitter in particular grew 33% in only a month according to Compete data. Skittles increased its own traffic by 1332% in one day after a campaign that sent Skittles.com directly to a Tweet-stream (the site has since moved to different strategies of a similar nature like a Facebook page and currently a Wikipedia entry, which is in itself another interesting story).

Many brands large and small are realizing the potential that Twitter provides. "As exciting as it may be to hear about what your friends, or total strangers for that matter, ate for breakfast, some companies are realizing that a more effective use of Twitter is to mine it for clients, recruit employees and answer customer service questions," notes Kim Hart with the Washington Post.

Twitter is becoming a primary traffic source for many sites as John Battelle points out. This will only continue to become truer as real-time search continues to grow. "Social search has been predicted (and funded) for years," says Battelle. "It's finally happening. The conversation is evolving, from short bursts of declared intent inside a query bar, to ongoing, ambient declaration of social actions. Both will continue, but it's increasingly clear why Google's obsessed with Facebook (and Facebook with Twitter). And they are not alone."

Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal and many others expect Twitter to eventually be acquired by Google. "Twitter is becoming an important communications channel–intrinsic to the web," says Beal. "Aside from the being able to pick up the company for a fraction of the $15 billion Google has in cash, Twitter is a key component of the search engines' ambitious goal: to organize the world's information." Beal finds what he perceives to be hints in the following interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

And again, there is of course that whole need for real-time search thing. But Twitter's finally just getting its own search in the spotlight (you can search within your own friends/followers with Twellow now) . There are even featured users showcased, which may or not be an indication of the widely speculated-upon revenue model for the company (Twitter might even start serving local news too).

"When people ask me when Twitter will make money, I tell them, 'In due time,' says Twitter CEO Evan Williams in a quick bio-piece chronicling his professional life up to the present. "They forget that we're only 30 employees who have just gotten started. Right now, anything we would do to make money would take our time away from acquiring more users. We have patient investors."

The average user doesn't care about how Twitter is monetizing its business though. And the users are what drive any success that it will ever have. Users are clearly finding plenty to get out of the service. It hasn't jumped the shark yet.

5 Tips for Writing Website

By Brandon Cornett (c) 2008

I'm going to ask you to use your imagination for a moment.

Think of a topic that interests you. Maybe it's your favorite sport or hobby, for example. Now imagine that you're searching the Internet for information on that topic.

The first article you come across is related to the topic you're researching, but it doesn't offer much in the way of value. It's too general and full of pointless "fluff." It makes obvious points that a third-grader could grasp. And it fails to offer any related information or resources.

The second article you come across is much more in-depth. It explains several aspects of your topic with refreshing insight. It is helpful and useful, and it links out to many related articles and resources on the subject.

If you could only bookmark one of these pages for future reference, which one would it be? It would be the second page, right?

You, like most people, would probably prefer the second page to the first. It's an easy choice, and that's because the author of the second article understood (and delivered) the most important concept of website content development -- the value factor.

5 Benefits of High-Value Web Content

This kind of content has value for the reader, obviously. But it also benefits the author / publisher. Here are the top five benefits of creating high-value website content for your small business website:

1. It keeps people on your website longer.

2. It makes people more inclined to trust you.

3. It encourages readers to recommend the site to others.

4. It encourages other webmasters to link to your content.

5. It helps you improve your search engine ranking and visibility.

All of this sounds great, you say. But how do I create that kind of small business website content? Here are the top five guidelines for creating high-value website content.

5 Steps to High-Value Web Content

1. Choose the right author.

2. Choose the right topic.

3. Address all sides of the topic.

4. Add supporting graphics, pictures, etc.

5. Link to related resources, both on your site and elsewhere.

Let's look at each of these steps in greater detail.

1. Choose the Right Author

I once worked for a company who let their web programmers write the instructions for their online ordering process. Big mistake. If their audience were programmers as well, this might be okay. But most of their customers had limited technical skills. So when these people encountered online instructions such as "Validate parameters before advancing" ... the customers would often become dead in the water.

This is a prime example of choosing the wrong author for web writing. Sure, the programmers' input is important. After all, they built the thing. But they should not be the voice of customer guidance. A skilled web writer (someone with usability experience) would have "translated" these instructions to say something like "Please fill in all required information before moving to the next screen."

Here's the key to this. The best author for your small business website content is not always the person who knows the most about the product or service from a technical standpoint. Often, it's best to have an in-house writer who plays the go-between role of "consumer advocate," getting the information from one group and translating it for another group.

2. Choose the Right Topic

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don't tell people what you want them to know -- this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.

If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product 'A' >> And this is a web page that explains product 'A' in detail.

3. Address All Sides of the Topic

Whether you're writing about one of your products, or you're creating a tutorial of some kind, you need to cover all the angles. There's nothing worse than website content that leaves the job only half-done, telling you why a certain thing is important but not pursuing that lead.

When you are close to a certain topic -- as is the case with people who create a product or service -- it's easy to assume everyone else understands it as well as you do. But the opposite is usually true, so you need to explain all sides of a topic when you write content for your small business website.

Want to keep your pages relatively short for easy reading? You can do that while still offering complete information. That's what hyperlinks are for!

4. Link to Related Resources

Here's the key to developing great content for your small business website. Try to create authority documents that others in your field would link to and recommend to others. One of the key criteria for a resource document is that it links to plenty of supporting information, both on the same website and elsewhere on the web.

In addition to being good for your readers, this kind of useful content will make other webmasters more inclined to link to your website. This adds to your link "popularity" and can further improve the search engine ranking of your small business website.

When writing a particular web page, try to think of it as "the ultimate guide to [blank]." This is the first step to creating the kind of authority documents that eventually dominate the search engines and drive endless web traffic for the authors. But it's rarely possible to create an "ultimate guide" to anything in just one page, so be liberal about linking to other sources on your own website and elsewhere (as long as they are not direct competitors).

5. Add Supporting Graphics, Pictures, Etc.

Reading online can be hard on the eyeballs. You can make the reader's job easier in two ways. First, you can format your content appropriately for web reading (short paragraphs, narrow text columns, lots of bullet points, headers, sub-headers, etc.). Secondly, you can add supporting images and helpful graphics.

Well-placed graphics can improve website content in a number of ways. Images are more enticing than text upon first glance, so they can help attract and retain readers. They also help you clarify your message with visual reinforcement.

Conclusion

I have a motto I use regarding website content. "If it's not worth putting online, don't put it online." This is my reminder to myself that I need to use the techniques outlined above to create superior website content. Because that's the kind of content that leads to online success. Apply these lessons to your small business website and watch your own success increase!

About The Author
Brandon Cornett operates a web marketing firm in Austin, Texas and is a web writer at large for dozens of websites and blogs.

Webmaster Tool Box

By Sharon Housley (c) 2009

Here is a collection of what we consider "must have" tools for webmasters. These tools will benefit any webmaster, both novices and experts alike. Arm yourself with these tools in order to achieve a more professional online presence.

• Custom 404 Page

Use a custom 404 page, so that if a user incorrectly types a webpage URL, they will still retain navigational options within your site and be provided alternative solutions. When a domain is correctly entered, but a specific webpage's URL is entered incorrectly, it is possible to display your custom error page to the visitor. By providing users with a navigational bar and further assistance, rather than leaving them with a generic "page not found" error screen, you can often keep prospective customers on your site by providing them with navigation alternatives.

• UrlTrends

UrlTrends is a service that shows historical trends, so that webmasters can see how their SEO efforts are affecting websites in the search engines. UrlTrends should be used in conjunction with web-logging software.
UrlTrends - www.urltrends.com

• Favicon

Polish your website by adding a Favorite Icon. When a "favicon" is available on your site, and the site URL is entered in the user's web browser URL box, the favicon will be displayed beside the URL. This gives the website a more professional and polished look. Favicon HTMLKit - www.htmlkit.com

• Color Matching

Match the primary web colors with those used in your logo. Simply choose a preferred color using the ColorBlender service below, and a 6-color matching palette and blend will be automatically calculated for you.
ColorBlender - www.colorblender.com

• Online WYSIWYG Editing

Online webpage editing allows for collaboration, so that different users can log in and edit web pages.
Edit - www.edit.com

• RSS Feeds

No longer considered to be just a nice addition, RSS feeds are now a "must have" for popular websites! Create RSS feeds for newsletters, press releases, educational articles, product tutorials, new product promotions, or just about any other sort of web content. FeedForAll - www.feedforall.com

• MaxEmail

MaxEmail's very affordable Internet fax and voicemail service allows a fax message to be delivered to an email address as a PDF formatted attachment. This allows fax messages to follow you regardless of your location. And, it also eliminates the need for a costly extra telephone line and a dedicated fax machine.
MaxEmail - maxemail.com

• Royalty-Free Images

Locate stock photos to incorporate into your web design. Use royalty-free stock photography to add professional, high-quality images to your website. Photo Wizard - www.photo-wizard.net

• Submit Corner Web Assessment Tools

These web assessment tools help you use search engines to effectively monitor who links to your website, how many links, and who your competitors are. The tools include search indexing, link tracking, and competitor identification.
Submit Corner - www.SubmitCorner.com

• Ranks.nl

This service assesses keyword density and prominence of a domain. The tool parses keywords and assesses the number of times a keyword occurs, and then discerns the density of the keywords.
Ranks.nl - ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

• Webmaster Toolkit

The Webmaster Toolkit is a collection of webmaster tools developed to help webmasters with daily webmaster chores. The suite of free tools and resources included continues to grow, and contains something useful for the beginner and the advanced webmaster alike. Webmaster Toolkit - www.webmaster-toolkit.com

• HTML Web Templates

Make it clean and professional. Use easy-to-edit HTML web templates for web design.
Web Design - www.webmaster-templates.net or www.webdesign-elements.com

• TrafficZap

This website includes script, page rank checker, link popularity checker, and more.
TrafficZap - www.trafficzap.com

• Compete.com

Web Analytics - Stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles for the top 1,000,000 web domains. Identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level.
SiteAnalytics - siteanalytics.compete.com

• Thumbshots

Easily add thumbshot images to your webpages. Integrate website thumbnails by simply copying and pasting HTML code. Additional software is not needed. Thumbshots - www.thumbshots.org

Use top-notch tools to make web maintenance and management a little easier.

About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts.

Where's Social Media Headed?

By Nipa Shah (c) 2009

Barack Obama started using social media and the marketing gurus went "Oh my God, he's a genius, now all we have to do is use his name to promote this and voila, clients will be lining up to buy social media marketing (SMM) services". Well, it didn't quite happen that way. And the wonderful case study that was "Presidential candidate Barack Obama" became a not-so-active name on various online portals including, Twitter, where from November 2008 to May 2009, his twitter update has had five posts. Yep, only five posts in six months.

So what is happening in the Social Media world right now?

Well, first of all, social media website use has exploded with millions of people using popular Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and dozens of others. I personally "play" and "work" on many, but my favorites remain Twitter and Facebook.

Celebrities and politicians seem to have found a way to pontificate one-way to their audiences. I say pontificate because most of these are rarely engaged in a two-way discussion, more times sending out their updates but not really engaging with others who may wish to interact with them. Politicians and celebrities across the globe have taken their messages to their fans and followers on Twitter and Facebook.

However, millions of users and dozens of so-called SMM experts later, small businesses remain offline and are positively scared of using social media websites.

The business owners I interact with when I'm speaking at an event or when I'm networking offline (yes I still do that) are concerned about using social media websites to promote themselves. They are worried about the lack of privacy and a misconception that they need to be technically savvy to use such websites as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. These same business owners also mention lack of time and lack of trained "marketing" resources which prevent them from taking the social media marketing plunge.

For marketers, social media marketing means a huge opportuníty. The opportuníty comes from being able to demonstrate actual results to end clients in the form of visibility and generated buzz. For small businesses who have taken the social media marketing plunge, it means visibility at low cost. For everybody, Social Media Marketing means; buzz, visibility, website traffic and leads, assuming SMM is executed properly.

Social media marketing is here to stay and can bring tremendous value to those who know how to leverage it. From gaining new clients, to gaining visibility, branding, and credibility, not to mention leads, social media marketing is one activity that everybody needs to "find" time for and "create" a budget for.

As an individual seeking a new job or as a business seeking new clients, here are some very basic yet very key strategies to keep in mind when embarking on the social media marketing journey:

• Reap what you sow: This saying applies very well to Social Media Marketing. If you don't begin leveraging social media websites to promote yourself or your business and especially if your competition is, you'll be left behind in the dust of their visibility & buzz.

• Make Time: Either make time for social media marketing for yourself / business OR find an expert who can do it for you. Not doing anything is not an option. Find a marketer who knows social networking.

• Land your next opportunity: Remember the impression you want to cultivate online. You wouldn't go to a face-to-face networking meeting and complain "how tired you are", "how sleepy you are" etc. Then don't do it online either. Online networking has reached a new level and you need to show your "networking" savvy by creating an impression which will land you the next connection, a new client or whatever you seek.

• Don't end up in jail or unemployed: If you don't want to end up fired or end up in jail, be careful about what you say online. Professional behavior should be the norm (even for teenagers who don't realize the impact of what they put out there on Facebook). Prospective employers, prospective clients, current clients, and anyone who wants to look you up, can and will. Once you've put something out there, it is out there forever.

• Frequency matters just as much as content: Blogging once a month or writing a tweet once every week or posting a FB status once every other day is not the way to grow your visibility. All marketing activities require frequency, consistency, and long-term effort. You wouldn't expect one advertisement in the Detroit Free Press to generate leads immediately or ongoing. Similarly, marketing online requires consistent, frequent, and long-term effort.

Again, remember, not doing anything is not an option.

Just like email and voicemail, yes, those now archaic technologies that we don't even think about; texting, Facebooking, Tweeting, blogging, and audio & video podcasting are all slowly becoming mainstream. Social media marketing is also fun, quick, and a cost-effective way to get visibility and it provides the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere in the world.

Implement Social Media Marketing correctly and you'll find that practice does make us perfect!

About The Author

Nipa Shah is the founder and visionary who has shaped Jenesys Group, LLC and is known as an expert in the field of Marketing Online and Search Engine Optimization.

Social Networking with Training Wheels

By John Jantsch (c) 2008

Look, I don't really think that the mySpaces and Facebooks of the world are that important for the typical small business as they stand today. There may be very practical business reasons for some to actually use these and other, what are called social networks, for business gain, but most people that have jumped on the social network bandwagon have found themselves left with a "is this all there is" kind of feeling.

To those, I say this, the value of the current public social networks for business folks is not what you can get out of them for gain today, but what you can learn by using them for practical gain tomorrow. That's why SpacebookedIn makes sense for you now.

The Facebooks of the world are busy teaching millions and millions of business folks how social networks work, how social networking works, how shared applications can be viral and ever-present. The real payoff in my opinion is that the wave to come after the Facebook bubble bursts is the "personalized business network." Once everyone of your customers and prospects knows how to use what are easily replicatable social networking tools, like building profiles, sharing video and connecting based on mutual interests, your job of building your own social business network around your own very specific community of niche will get a whole lot easier.

2008 will be the year of the personalized social business network. So, if you've decided to take a pass on the whole social networking trend, I would suggest that you use this handy list to start learning to ride this bike with the training wheels on.

Ten ways to get started with Social Networking

1. Read 10 blogs - sign-up for a Bloglines account and search for and subscribe to 10 blogs about social networking - you can return daily to your page on Bloglines to find and read all the new content on your 10. Of course you can add blogs about your industry and interests here too.


2. Comment on 10 blogs - posting relevant comments to blogs you read is a very simple form of social networking. It's also a good way to get some extra visitors your site or blog.


3. Join Facebook - Join and create a profile. Find and friend some of your existing contacts using tools on Facebook. You'll be surprised how many people you already know have Facebook accounts. Facebook has some real value for you because of the rich set of tools and large amount of active users. This is a great place to experiment with how people interact in social networks. Once you get your feet wet you may also find that Facebook is a great way to connect with business contacts you may never bump into otherwise.


4. Create a mySpace page - this service is really embraced primarily by musicians and the younger set. It also happens to have a large underbelly contingent so be warned, but it is a great tool for learning how to build a presence outside of your web site.


5. Join LinkedIn - this is a service that's been called Facebook for business. It is really about meeting and connecting with like-minded business folks. It is a great service for people looking for a job or to make connections with people who may be out of reach without an introduction.


6. Visit Ning - this is the largest custom social networking service that allows you to create your own community using a variety of tools that can be branded to match your current site.


7. Create a Workbench profile - this one's a little self-serving as this is my new social business networking site but it's a good example of the personalized business community that's the next wave for small business.


8. Create a Twitter account - this tool is pretty silly on the surface, it allows you to type in 160 characters or less what you are doing right now. It feels like a giant waste of time but a very large and active community has grown around this kind of micro-blogging and you should understand how people are using it.


9. Create a StumbleUpon profile - This is a social network built around discovering and recommending sites that you like. Active stumblers can send a lot of traffic your way.


10. Create a Digg account - this site allows you to keep up to the minute with what's happening in the world of business. Users submit and vote on what is believed to be the most important content.

You might also consider Mixx, Squidoo and Flickr as places to find and develop niche related communities when you're ready to really get out there.

Think of mySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook as your labs - get in there and experiment for the future. then start planning your own personalized social business network.

About The Author
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.