Following up from the last set of Social Media Marketing webinars where we covered the basics of Twitter and other Social Media tools and sites, I have been getting questions about using Twitter for business purposes. In response to those questions, I wanted to write out a short list of Twitter for Business best practices and some of the most popular tools that make these practices possible. This list of tools, techniques, and what is possible is changing and expanding almost daily with the explosion of Twitter usage and discussions of Twitter merging with some other site/partner. Thus I expect to stay current on using Twitter for business purposes we will need to repost more on this topic from time to time.

• Be Real (don’t hide) -

It is important that you completely fill in the registration and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like “PatrickAtDell”). In the profile section, post your website. I wouldn’t recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.

With the profile bio limited to 160 characters, you want to get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don’t have much space to talk about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content located in the background image. That’s why the keywords have to be in your description.

Finally and possibly most important is that you need to upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if you are representing a company. If Twitters don’t think you are real, they are less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the worst and they won’t follow you.

• Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond) -

For a business or business person to be relevant in the Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and elicit responses. Respond to other user’s questions. Tweet not only your own relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable. Promote and/or attribute others where there’s a reason to do so. You can build a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don’t look like you are just out the get them to buy something.

The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as well as your activity. There’s a number of search tools that will help you here to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.

The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There’s a big difference between using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to “elite” status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.

• Automate (where possible) -

Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed automatically, and build ranking faster and easier. There are several automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business presence without having to hire a back room full of people:

–TweetBeep -Set up alerts for various keywords, people, different attitudes, and links.

–Summize (Twitter Search) – Search for your keywords, click a button and you have a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on what’s happening.

–Tweetlater – one of the more versatile tools related to Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct messages to people that follow you, and managing multiple Twitter Ids at the same time.

–Twitscoop – extends what Twitter Search can do with both real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in the cloud.

–Twellow – This is another research tool that extends Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people’s profiles or what they are Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search. Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the US and Canada.

–Remember the Milk (RTM) – A real unique and cutting edge use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks, things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.

• Re-purpose existing content-

With taking care of customers, blogging, keeping up profiles on numerous social media sites, all while running a business, maintaining your online presence can quickly become overwhelming. Use tools like Twitterfeed to automatically Tweet content from an RSS feeds of your other blogs or sites, and Alterthingy, another tool that helps you aggregate and repost your content across the multiple sites, and profiles you need to maintain.

In addition, several blogs (Wordpress for example) are building Twitter widgets to be able to display your tweets (and others) on your blog, thus keeping the blog actively changing and a target for better search engine ranking and more active visits.

There are any number of other ways you can use Twitter for Business and this note really only scratches the surface of what is possible. As the popularity of Twitter grows so will the unique and inventive ways of using this innovative tool.

About The Author

Urvi Mehta is a passionate Social Media Evangelist who thrives on teaching and consulting business owners and organizations on how to use Web 2.0 and social media tools and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help create buzz and influence their branding online.

She is the co-founder of PR Easy (http://www.PREasy.com), a full service online marketing company which serves clients around the world. Urvi teaches her clients how to utilize social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to establish themselves as authorities in their industry, acquire more clients and ultimately increase profit.

Urvi holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois in Chicago and is considered by her peers as someone who “holds nothing back and gives real meat.” She has recently started a blog, http://www.UrviMehta.com where she discusses Social Media Strategies.

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If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…

The tragedy of a Twitter strategy | Real Estate and Technology …

I have a terrible confession to make, especially considering that I'm apparently one of the most influential real estate people on Twitter: I treat Twitter like a toy — gasp! And … I have no Twitter strategy at all. I apologize. …

Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData: This Week In Business: Zappos …

This Week In Business: Zappos Twitter Strategy. Well, you can't throw a Pottery Barn catalog without hitting somebody who promises business success on Twitter. I find the whole Twitter thing vexing. My own presence (follow me here) …

Twitter Lists – the big picture

Why does Twitter care whether you use the web interface? My guess, money. There has been a ton of speculation on Twitter's monetization strategy and the discussion revolves around 3 ideas. Twitter could purchase an app like Tweetdeck …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

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Twitter is a rapidly growing social networking community and offers a lot of opportunity for businesses through simple ‘Tweets’. If your Twitter marketing strategy is successful then it will help in driving higher targeted traffic to your website. Here’s an example of what this digital word-of-mouth social marketing is capable of.

According to New York Times, Curtis Kimball operates a crème brûlée cart in San Francisco. Once he noticed a stranger in the queue of friendly faces who wanted to buy his dessert. He came to know later on that the stranger had actually heard about him on twitter. Come to think of it – Curtis Kimball doesn’t know what twitter is and he has never advertised. You can very well imagine how much good a well-planned Twitter marketing strategy can bring upon your business.

Even big and powerful companies like Starbucks, Dell, and Comcast use Twitter regularly to keep in touch with their customers, to get feedback from them and to promote their new products. But more than that, twitter is a very useful marketing tool for small businesses and even home-based businesses.

If you have a home based business and if you are looking for targeted traffic to your website and loyal customers then you need to devise a Twitter marketing strategy. The basic idea is not to sell your products on twitter; the basic idea is to create a group where you can post any information related to your business. The more you interact with people and your target audience on Twitter, the wider your reach will be.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 59-page Report:

“Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!”

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

Also, quickly download his FREE “Explosive Traffic System” report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ unique visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

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Most people are puzzled about how to combine their Twitter Marketing Strategy with their Twitter for SEO efforts. In fact, most naysayers say that Twitter (and social media) in general are useless for search engine marketing.

I say they are plain wrong!

Granted, Twitter does not have link juice. But because of their insanely high pagerank, your tweets and even your Twitter profile page can get on the first page of Google just with the simple backlink strategy that I’m about to reveal in this 7 step Twitter SEO blueprint below:

1) Use a keyword research tool to find a keyword phrase you want to rank for.

 

2) Write the Tweet with the keyword phrase in it. Ideally, it should link to a blog post or article of a similar topic for additional traffic.

3) Write a simple 250 word article on EzineArtlcles and use the keyword phrase as an anchor text to your “money” tweet.

4) Write another simple 250 word article on HubPages or Squidoo with an anchor text backlink to your Tweet.

5) Digg both your EzineArticles articles and Hubpages/Squidoo post

6) Use a social bookmarking software like OnlyWire to bookmark the Diggs.

7) Ping everything, including the RSS feeds.

Now, just wait a few days for your Tweet to rank for your keyword phrase on Google. If you’re fortunate, the properties that you use as incoming backlinks to your Twitter feed can get ranked on the front page of SERPS as well.

This is one of the best ways to use Twitter for SEO tricks as a profitable compliment to your Twitter Marketing Strategy. Try the 7 step plan and let me know.

And now I would like to invite you to witnessing innovative Twitter marketing strategies in action by following my Twitter account at http://TwitterKenneth.com

From Kenneth Yu – The Puppet Master and @EmailCopywriter on Twitter.

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Twitter: How do you turn device updates on?

Okay so I want to receive updates from someone I'm following, however they aren't following me. When I clicked the button to follow them, it said that device updates are off. How do I turn that on? Are they supposed to be following me?

P.S I read how you do it on twitter, but honestly it confused me!

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Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…

Tester gesucht: Facebook und Twitter auf Xbox Live

Damit wird Microsoft seine Spielekonsole auch um Schnittstellen zu Facebook und Twitter erweitern. Microsoft hatte bereits anlässlich des Sommerupdates …  Read More…

Der fünfte Betakey auf Twitter Allods Online

Als der erste Betakey zur europäischen closed Beta von Allods Online auf Twitter veröffentlicht wurde, waren es unter 20 Personen im Durchschnitt, …  Read More…

Pure Sensia – Internetradio mit Twitter und Facebook

Mit dem WLAN-Internetradioempfänger Pure Sensia können Anwender auch Facebook und Twitter nutzen. Dazu bietet das Gerät einen 5,7-Zoll-Touchscreen. …  Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…

Twitter Goes Mobile In Japan » ulyssesonline.com

Japan always seems to be at the edge of technology. So, it doesn't surprise me a bit that Japan would go mobile first with Twitter before the United States.

Striving For Four Billion Mobile Users, Twitter Strikes SMS Deal …

In the US, many of us use Twitter through its website or through a third-party client that uses its APIs. But an original …

Send SMS Tweets to Twitter from Airtel Mobile : Send START to 53000

The SMS deal helps mobile phone users who does not have wireless Internet or data plans. To try Twitter in your Airtel mobile phone, send START to 53000.

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

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Twitter is a service that is rapidly increasing in popularity. It is a cross between a social networking website and a micro-blog. With over 2 millions users, Twitter is becoming a popular way to stay in contact with friends, family, coworkers, and more and is becoming even more popular every day.

If you have yet to try Twitter, you will want to do so. As previously stated, Twitter is a combination micro-blog and social networking website. For that reason, some internet users bypass the opportunity. One of those is internet marketers and home based workers. If you work from home or from your computer, your main goal while online is to make money, not make new friends. This mindset is beneficial, but it can also hurt you and your business.

Despite what you may have heard, you can do a lot more than update your friends and family on a new job, grade in a class, or an upcoming trip and there is even Twitter Marketing. It is easy to network and make new friends, or followers, on the Twitter website. This is where you have the potential to market yourself and your online business. In fact, Twitter can be used to increase your sales. It isn’t recommended that you outright advertise your product or service on Twitter, but there are unique approaches that you can take.

As for how you can use Twitter to market yourself or your business online, start with updates. For example, do you sell handmade products? If so, quickly describe the product you just made and provide a link to the website where it is available for sale. Instead of saying buy my product, ask for feedback. Depending on how your message is viewed, the link may not be clickable. Even still, internet users may key your link into an internet search to see and review your product for you. If anyone likes it, they may buy.

Since you can use Twitter to do more than just update your current friends and family members, you may want to get started. If you do not already have a Twitter account, the first step is visiting the website, which is located at Twitter.com. You will see a link to get started. Click on that link and fill out the form. You will be required to create a username, a password, and provide your email address.

Next, you will be brought to a page that asks for your email account’s password. There is a security message on the side stating that your password will not be stored and that your email account will not be accessed without permission. This step is to allow you to see if your email contacts have Twitter accounts. If so, add them. You can also bypass this step.

At the top of the page, where your email password is asked for, you will also find the option to invite by email. This is a great alternative if you do not want to provide your account’s password or if your contact list is not updated. Enter in a number of email addresses, and invites will be sent to your contacts.

Also at the top of the page, you will find the option to search for friends or followers. You can search by name or location. This option is ideal if you want to connect with former friends, family members, or coworkers whose email addresses you do not have or know.

Although you can easily add Twitter friends and followers that you do not know, some are cautious about accepting invites. For marketing purposes, use the internet, message boards, and other social networking websites for information. For example, if you sell homemade products, you may also belong to an arts and crafts or home based business message board. Post a message asking for Twitter contacts. In no time at all, you might have quite the following. Remember, the more Twitter followers you have, the more you can market your business. But don’t forget you really want targeted visitors when using Twitter Marketing

About The Author

Caroline Bourke runs her own business from home. Check out her website on how to Market Your Product On Twitter or perhaps Twitter For Internet Marketing.

http://www.thegooglewatch.com/web-traffic/5-clever-ways-to-market-your-product-on-twitter.php

http://www.infoproductinternship.com/121/internet-marketing-video/5-reasons-to-use-twitter-for-internet-marketing.php

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On their website, I 80-Equipment invite the online truck shopper to “Just say FIND IT!” (http://www.i80equipment.com/locator.html) and they promise to help you find whatever you’re looking for. It’s only a matter of time before twittering truckers adopt this on Twitter too.

Remember two months ago, when people asked what Twitter was. Now if you’re a business and you’re worth your salt, you want to be Twitterin’.

For any business though, it is a calculated decision to twitter. You don’t want to start Twittering until you’re sure that you’ll have followers. It’s probably a costly mistake in the business world, to be seen Twittering with only 5 followers in tow. You want to start twittering when you’ve got a solid client-base who would do repeat business with you, if the need arises, and who will happily follow you, if invited.

Twitter is a great tool if you want to give your clients and potential clients a forum for a dialogue, and even more importantly if you want to let them see what you’re up to. The logic of Twittering is if you like being well-informed as to what’s happening in your industry, you keep your client-base and other people in your niche market in the loop, and gather a following. And then, at some point, your following will do a 180 degree turn. You’ll start attracting the ‘big fish’ in your industry. Like-minded professionals, who have interesting business partnerships and deals to offer, will approach you because of your following. This is where Twitter is miles ahead of other social networking platforms. Twitter acknowledges that it’s all about your following. “If you have the numbers, let’s talk” is the attitude.

Most people get that Twitter is a social network. But ask them about micro-blogging, and you might get a few raised eyebrows. But that’s what Twitter is about – it’s micro-blogging. And in this era of information overload, micro-blogging is the freshest, user-friendly alternative to blogging.

If you want to be with the top players, hang out where everyone is hanging out. Twitter ranks as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide. You’ll be looking for elbow space alongside 6 million monthly visitors, and close to 10 times this number of monthly visits. It’s where people who are going places go.

I 80 Equipment, based in Colona, IL has earned the reputation of being #1 Supplier of Quality Bucket Trucks Digger Derricks and Cranes. I 80 Equipment also have a sales hotline service, and they are always happy to walk you through any aspect of a truck purchase, be it choosing the right truck for your company, ensuring your drivers know what they need to know, or getting financing.

I-80 Equipment has earned themselves a strong reputation for the quality trucks they offer, their 77 point inspection and their financing solutions. And their name is known nation-wide as well internationally. They sell boom trucks, bucket trucks, crane trucks, digger derricks, and other heavy equipment for many different industries. They Twitter.

About The Author

i80equipment is an online New & Used Bucket Trucks store. Offers a wide variety of Bucket trucks, Boom Trucks & Crane Trucks.

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