The wide spread release of Google+ also saw the platform gain a massive 10 million users signed up after mere 2 weeks of the network being live.

So, how will Google+ affect social media? And given Google’s dominance in terms of search, what will be the affect of Google+ on search engine optimisation (SEO)?

Here are 5 areas to watch as Google+ functionality further develops…

1. Integration with Gmail

Before Google+ launched, Gmail received a makeover in preparation to integrate Google’s mail service with the social network. Given that there are 250 million people with Gmail accounts worldwide (as at July 2011), this gave Google+ a powerful starting point to build the 10 million users they gained in just 2 weeks. To add to this, after Google+ beta moved from it’s ‘invitation only’ stage, the integration with Gmail made it easy for people to invite their friends by using Gmail contacts and Google verified email accounts.

The Google+ navigation bar is present when logged into Gmail and therefore Google+ is accessible through:

• Gmail
• Google Search
• Google Documents (Google’s online cloud infrastructure)

INTERESTING FACT: While it only took Google+ 16 days to reach 10 million users, Facebook reached the milestone after 852 days, and Twitter in 780 days.

2. Circles

Hailed as the ‘selling point’ of the social network, Google+’s ‘Circles’ functionality is a friend management service. Circles allows you to select ‘groupings’ for your friends and the people you Follow on Google+.

Understanding Google+ Circles is essential to mastering the social network. So, what opportunities do the Circles function present for marketers?

• The Circles functionality focuses on the concept that as humans we want to share different information with different groups of people. Therefore Circles allows you to separate the people you follow on Google+ into groups.
• From a marketing perspective, this allows for each Circle to be marketed to in a unique way or by utilising a specific, targeted message that relates to that particular group / Circle.
• The people you follow can be placed in more than one Circle – and when posting a Google+ update you can choose which group sees the information you are sharing.
• Similarly, when browsing your Google+ Stream (that contains all updates shared by your Followers in your Circles), you can choose between seeing all Circle information, or specific Circle updates in your Stream.

INTERESTING FACT: Facebook has this same functionality, but is called ‘Friend Lists’. The functionality was launched quietly in December 2007 with the same objectives as Google+ Circles.

3. Brand Pages

Google+ has held off on launching Brand Pages on Google+ in order to get the functionality of this important area of the platform perfect. Some businesses jumped the gun and sigedn up for Google+ as soon as the network launched. However, all businesses have been asked to politely leave and wait patiently for the brand focused pages to be launched.

This shows Google’s commitment to the business-focused area of the platform. Will this work? While moving Facebook’s +750 million users over to Google+ may be a challenge, enticing businesses to move over may offer a bigger opportunity for the social network. Along with a commitment and history of online advertising knowledge, Google+ and the Brand Pages are creating much buzz among businesses and marketers.

Why Google+ Brand Pages could hurt Facebook Business Pages:

• Better Analytics: Google+ Brand Pages will be integrated with Google Analytics. And for anyone who has used Google Analytics in the past, you can appreciate the value this will add in analysing and assessing the value of your Brand Page from a marketing perspective. In light of this, the Facebook Analytics, ‘Facebook Insights’ may need a refurbishment in order to compete with the detailed information Google Analytics will present to Google+ Brand Pages.
• More Customisation: It has been rumoured the Google+ Brand Pages will allow for more customisation. This doesn’t just refer to advertising and placement of ads on the actual brand pages, but also to branded page skins. These branded skins would be similar to those being currently used on YouTube. Having this function limited to Brand Pages will ensure the issues faced by MySpace when profile skins became popular does not occur for Google+.
• Further impact on search rankings: Most importantly, Brand Pages on Google+ present SEO opportunities in further building search engine rankings, specifically Google. Due to the growing importance of social networks, content and links shared on these platforms can have a positive effect in gaining further credibility for your website online. With Google+ already aligned with Google – the SEO ramifications could be significant. Will having a Brand Page on Google+ for your business help your search rankings? Will getting more +1’s via Google+ push your website rankings higher?
• Learning from the mistakes of Facebook: Google+ has the advantage of piggybacking off the mistakes, as well as the best elements of Facebook Business Pages. Google+ is attempting to brand Facebook as the place to be for a ‘social brand’ or celebrity. In doing this, they identifying a point of difference between Facebook Business Pages and Google+ Brand Pages. Focusing to get more business-minded brands utilising the platform, for example insurance, finance, health etc.. If Google+ Brand Pages turn out to be a close replica to Facebook Business Pages, the race to harnessing the business social media market could be a fast over.

4. The Google +1 Button

The +1 Button is Google’s version of the Facebook’ ‘Like’. Google has outlined that the +1 button signifies when you think something is ‘pretty cool’ or something ‘you should check out’. The +1 button is about publicly giving a business, website or article your stamp of approval.

You can only +1 items when logged into Gmail, and you can +1 in Google Search, Google+ or any website that has integrated the +1 button.

What does the +1 button mean for SEO and search?

• When logged into Gmail, search results will show if websites ranking have been +1′d by any of your contacts within Gmail or on Google+ . Although not yet confirmed, it is speculated that the more +1′s your website receives, the more online authority you have in order to gain further keyword rankings in Google.
• The +1 statistics can be tracked through Google Analytics in a new section launched in the latest Google Analytics version update. This ‘Social’ data is located within the Visitors section and looks at engagement, action and pages.
• When in the Google+ interface, you can see what content your friends have +1′d. Similarly, other people can also track the content you are +1-ing.

5. Integration with Google Search

As of early August, Google has begun integrating Google+ into Google search results. This has sparked the beginning of ‘Social Search’.

How does this work?

1. Whenever a Google+ user publicly shares a link on the social network, an annotation now appears under the search result in Google.
2. This only appears in people’s search who are friends with the person that shared the link in Google+.
3. The ‘Social Search’ component within Google highlights what links your friends are sharing on the Internet and returns results it believes based on your friends interests.

While it is not yet clear the exact impact Google+ will have on social media and SEO, it is definitely a social network to keep an eye on…

5 Fast Facts on Google+:

• 3 weeks after Google+ launched, Google’s value increased by $20 billion
• Google+ rose to 10 million users a mere 2 weeks after launching. However it is speculated that there are currently 25 million users with 4.5 million active users worldwide.
• Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook is currently the most Followed person on Google+ with 474,702 Followers. Sitting in second place is Google CEO, Larry Page.
• In July 2011, Lady Gaga had more Twitter followers (11.7 million) than Google+ had members (10 million)
• Google+ has recently integrated the ‘Hangout’ function with YouTube. This allows people to watch videos from YouTube together through Google+.

Twitter recently hit 200 million users. While the platform gained popularity through the sheer number of celebrities using the social networking site, Twitter offers significant opportunities for businesses… not only for building your online brand but creating engaging conversations with your target market in order to generate leads.

But getting started with Twitter can be daunting, especially with the use of @’s and #’s shaping conversations. So, here are some tips to help you get started with using Twitter for your business…

1. Opening a Twitter Account

Unlike Facebook, Twitter does not have dedicated ‘business’ accounts. Therefore, you simply need to setup a Twitter account. This process is easy, but there are some simple rules that can ensure your account is setup and optimised effectively for you business:

1. Twitter asks for your name when signing up. In order to have your business name, instead of your personal name – it is best to put the business name in this location. This will ensure people are able to find you easily on Twitter by searching for your company name.
2. Once you have setup your account, make sure to add an image and choose a background that is simple and professional. You can do this by clicking on your business name in the top right-hand corner and selecting ‘Settings’.
3. It is also important to add a short bio that shares your business’ main service areas, and also outlines why people would want to follow your business on Twitter. As there is a 160-character limit, you may need to play with the wording to get this right.
4. Make sure you include your business website URL so it displays on your Twitter profile allowing your followers to quickly click through to your website if required.

QUICK TIP: If your business name is not available on Twitter, make sure to find an alternative that is not too long, and is as close to your business name as possible. For example: @Web_Profits

2. Twitter Terms

Twitter has a 140-character limit for each message, or ‘Tweet’, shared on the platform. In order to make the most of this character limit, there are certain functions you need to be aware of. Here is a list of Twitter terms and functions:

• Tweet: A Tweet is simply the message and content you share on Twitter. On Facebook, it is called a ‘Status Update’ and on Twitter it is called a ‘Tweet’.
• Follow / Follower: On Twitter, your fans or people who ‘Follow’ you are known as ‘Followers’. It is ideal to Follow back anyone who Follows you who is relevant to your business and industry. This is good Twitter etiquette, and not only shows you are active on Twitter but that you are interested in what your Follower(s) have to say.
• Mention: You can mention other people on Twitter, and similarly people can mention you by utilising the name you chose when signing up to Twitter with an @ symbol. For example, if you were writing a Tweet that included a link to an article written by the Australian Newspaper, you could include @Australian to show the source of the information you are sharing.
• ReTweet: When you see content / a Tweet shared by another person on Twitter, you can choose to share this content within your own Twitter. This is known as ‘ReTweeting’. This Tweet you have chosen to share will then appear exactly as it is displayed on your business’ Twitter.
• Twitter Stream: The Twitter Stream is the main area your Twitter opens up to after signing in. This ‘stream’ is a culmination of all the people you ‘Follow’ on Twitters Tweets.
• Message: A ‘Message’ is simply a direct message that you can send privately to a user on Twitter. The user must already ‘Follow’ you on Twitter to be able to send a direct message.
• Hashtag: Hashtags # are a really important element of Twitter, not only to assist building your followers, but also for promoting your credibility on the platform. When writing the content for your Tweets, look at the main topics that relate to the information you are sharing. These main topics are what should be hashed. It is also important to check Twitter by performing a search to ensure your hashed topic is ‘trending’. Utilising Hashtags also ensure that your shared content will appear effectively in searches performed on Twitter.
• Trending: The term ‘trending’ is used in Twitter for when a topic is being widely discussed or Hashtagged. It is ideal to only hash topics that are ‘trending’ in order to ensure your content shows up in a popular topic area in the search component of Twitter.

QUICK TIP: Make sure not to use more than 4 Hashtags per Tweet. Hashtags used in moderation are effective, so make sure you hash the most important topics in your Tweet.Think of Hashtags as the theme of your Tweet.

3. Developing Effective Tweets

Tweeting on Twitter allows businesses to quickly and effectively share content, news flashes, and sound-byte information. The 140-character restriction can often make developing content difficult. Here are some quick tips you can follow to ensure you are Tweeting the right type of content for your business:

Tweet Tips:

• Your Tweet should add value to the people reading them and those who Follow you… they should provide education or relevant industry updates. Share blog articles from your website, industry news, articles, videos and photos.
• If you have a blog on your website, make sure to share these articles on your Business’ Twitter. The more articles you write for your blog, the more content you can Tweet through Twitter that provides a link back to your website, which is the ultimate goal.
• Like Facebook, it is important to not sell or push your business, services or products through the Tweets you share on Twitter. Focus on education, updates and engagement.
• Engagement is the key with the information you Tweet. The more interesting the content you share on Twitter, the more likely you are to build Followers and keep those already Following you. The Twitter Follower can be fickle, so it is important to maintain your Followers’ interests.
• When sharing content on Twitter, it is ideal to share the link to the content you are referring to. This not only builds your Followers’ interest, but also assists with further educating your market. When sharing online articles on Twitter, use link-shorteners to be able to help assess click rates. A free link shortener option is http://bit.ly

QUICK TIP: If you are just getting your business involved with Twitter, as a starting point try Tweeting twice per day. You can then build this up to focusing on Tweeting quality content 15 times per day. It is important to keep momentum within Twitter for your business. To ensure you keep your Followers interested, make sure to build a strategy that is manageable, with Tweets scheduled daily / weekly.

From a business perspective, Twitter allows you to quickly share information, gather market intelligence and build valuable relationships with people who are interested and care about your company and your brand.

Make sure you’re part of the conversation about your brand on Twitter…

LinkedIn allows you to advertise to these professionals, and it can work very well for some businesses and not at all for others. In this article you’ll learn whether LinkedIn advertising is right for your business or not, and how to make it profitable if it is.

Who should advertise on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn advertising is ideal for companies that operate in the B2B space, such as accountants, consultants and lawyers. LinkedIn advertising is also ideal for institutions that want to attract the attention of highly qualified business professionals, such as universities advertising MBA programs.

If your product or service is mostly sold to end consumers, LinkedIn is probably not the right platform for you.

DIY or Agency?

So you figured out that your target audience is on LinkedIn… the next question is, do you outsource the management of your advertising campaign or do it yourself?

Depending on the size of your target audience, your advertising campaign might only cost a few hundred dollars per month. In that case the management fee of a professional online marketing agency will be the same or higher than your ad budget. This might not be worthwhile for you.

If you have a larger audience and you are spending $500, $1000 or more every month on LinkedIn, you will benefit from an expert who manages and optimises your campaigns because they have the expertise required to get the maximum return from your advertising spend.

What else do you need to make LinkedIn campaigns profitable?

If you don’t have a high-converting web design and a strong offer, you shouldn’t be advertising on LinkedIn. Think about it… LinkedIn members aren’t actively searching for anything on LinkedIn, which means that your ad really needs to capture their attention and compel them to act… and the better your offer is, the better your results will be.

What kind of offer? In most cases, you won’t be able to go for the sale straight away. You’ll need to have a strong free offer that really talks to the main benefit your prospects are after, for example: a free report, analysis or consultation. Make sure that whatever you offer really delivers value to your prospects.

How do you evaluate the success of your campaign?

LinkedIn currently does not offer its own tracking solution. That means in order to evaluate the performance of your LinkedIn advertising campaign you need to setup tracking yourself.

You can use a free Google Analytics account to track your campaigns. Make sure that you setup dedicated tracking links using the Google URL builder. That way, you can monitor how many leads or sales your campaigns generate.

If you don’t have a ‘thank you’ page that people get redirected to after requesting your free offer, you won’t be able to track your campaign performance, so make sure to set one up.

The recipe for success in a nutshell…

Your target audience is on LinkedIn, your business sells B2B products or services, you have great free offer, you have a high-converting website, and your campaigns are being tracked using Google Analytics.

With all of those factors in place, LinkedIn advertising can be very profitable for your business.

1. Facebook Business Page

When setting up a presence on Facebook for your business you must setup a Facebook Business Page, which is different to a Personal Profile. Setting up a Facebook Business Page will provide you with the following benefits:

• Anyone can view your Facebook Business Page
• Facebook users can become a Fan of your business page
• You can view statistics about your business page through Facebook Insights
• You can run Facebook Ads directly to your business page
• You can send an update to all of your Facebook Fans
• You can stream your Facebook page directly through your website
• Facebook users can become Fans directly from your website
• You can get more than 5,000 Fans (personal profiles only allow up to 5,000 friends)
• It’s against Facebook’s terms to setup a personal profile for a business, and Facebook can take it down.

2. Facebook Fans

A Facebook Fan is somebody who has ‘Liked’ your Facebook Page. A Facebook Fan is similar to an email subscriber except that they have ‘subscribed’ to receive updates through Facebook rather by email. You can see all your fans by referring to the side navigation of your Facebook Business Page.

3. Facebook ‘Like’

The Facebook ‘Like’ is used throughout Facebook. It allows users to give a ‘thumbs up’ (ie a positive recommendation) to messages they receive within Facebook and, through the Facebook ‘Like’ website button, directly on your website as well.

You can ‘Like’ the following…

• Facebook Status Updates
• Facebook Comments
• Facebook Business Pages
• Websites
• Web pages

Importantly, when somebody ‘Likes’ your Facebook Business Page, they become your Fan.

4. Facebook Wall

All Facebook Pages, including your Facebook Business Page, have what is referred to as a ‘Wall’. The Wall is the page that your Fans land on every time they visit your Business Page and can also be navigated to via the side navigation. Your Wall is used to share information with your Facebook Fans.

Your Wall is where you build the relationship with your Fans by posting interesting, relevant and informative updates, referred to as ‘Status Updates’. Of note, a Facebook Page only has one wall.

5. Status Updates

A ‘Status Update’ is the information you share on your Wall. At the top of your Facebook Wall is a content box with the words ‘Write something…‘ This is where you post your Status Update (ie the information you want to share with your Fans) on Facebook. To post a Status Update, simply write what you want to share and then click on the ‘Share’ button to add your Status Update to your Wall.

Here are some quick tips you can follow to ensure you are posting the right type of Status Updates for your business on Facebook…

Status Update Tips:

• Your Status Updates should add value to the people reading them… they should enrich their lives. Share industry news, articles, videos, photos and anything else that adds value.
• It is important to not sell or push your business, services or products through Status Updates because Facebook users are not ready to be sold to (yet).
• The goal of your Status Updates is to build engagement with your Fans. This is achieved by receiving ‘Likes’ or ‘Comments’ on the information you’ve shared.
• You can include links, videos and images in your status updates… and this is definitely something you should do because it builds and increases engagement.
• When you post a link on Facebook it automatically generates a preview of the link. With that in mind, sharing web pages and online articles that have enticing images can increase the level of engagement.
• Take your time constructing the wording of your status update. It’s important to structure your message correctly in order to build engagement and drive conversation with your Fans.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Always make sure to check that you are posting as your business (rather than you) before posting your Status Update on your Wall. You can do this by clicking on ‘Use Facebook as (Business Name)’ in the right-hand panel underneath the Administrator information.

6. Facebook News Feed

The News Feed is the first page that is seen when people login to their Facebook accounts. The News Feed displays Status Updates from people they are connected to and business pages they are fans of. When you post a Status Update on your Wall the update is visible within the News Feed of all your Fans. And because there are no spam filters, your updates get straight through.

7. Facebook Comments

A Facebook Comment is when a Facebook user adds a comment on a Status Update you have posted on your Wall. When this happens, you can continue the conversation by adding a reply comment. Any Facebook user can make or reply to a comment on your Wall.

8. Facebook Share

The Facebook Share button allows your Fans to share the information posted on your Wall. Underneath your Status Update, next to the options ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’, your Fans can also choose to ‘Share’. When choosing this option it opens up a Share box where your Fans can post their own opinion or comment on your Status Update and then post it on their own personal Facebook wall, visible to all of their connections. Importantly, when a Fan shares your Status Update it includes a link back to your Facebook Business Page.

Now that you have a better understanding of Facebook Marketing, you can go and establish a presence on Facebook for your business. And as with any area of social media, it’s important to have fun and experiment… just make sure that you are adding value and enriching the lives of your Facebook Fans.

Quick Fact: As of 2011, Australians are now the largest users (per capita) of social media, overtaking the U.S.

Is your business on Facebook? If not, why not?

The time has now come again… with the upcoming U.S. elections in November, Barack Obama has re-launched his online marketing campaign with the hope of achieving similar, if not better, results than in 2008 (of course this time he has the benefit of already being the President).

In this article I’ll cover 10 areas of his 2011 strategy, as well as explaining how you might apply them in your business.

1. A High Performance Website Is Used To Drive Action

When you go to www.barackobama.com the first page you see is a landing page that is focused on one thing… to get your email address and zip code. The main call to action is red so it stands out. It is obvious what they want you to do. They also use the words “I’m In!” in the button to encourage people to follow through.

Barack Obama’s people know that the key to gaining maximum leverage from those who visit his site is to capture their details and stay in touch with them on a regular basis through email marketing… the entire website is geared to drive email subscriptions and donations.

Action: What is the main action that you want your visitors to take? Are you capturing the email addresses of people who visit your website? Think about the best free offer you can make and integrate that offer into your website to drive action.

2. Split-Testing Is Used To Achieve Maximum Performance

Even though the website will be performing well, the Obama team know that the ultimate judge of what makes a good landing page is how people react to it. With that in mind, the Obama team is split-testing various designs of the landing page and measuring which one produces the best results.

And when you consider how much traffic his website will be receiving, an improvement in the conversion rate of just 1% can mean hundreds of thousands of additional voters subscribing to their database.

Action: Use Google Analytics to identify the highest visited and highest performing pages on your website. Then use Google Website Optimizer to split-test various elements on the page to improve performance.

3. An Offer Is Made On The ‘Thank You’ Page

As soon as you join the mailing list you are taken to a ‘thank you’ page that encourages you to make a donation. The ‘thank you’ page is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on the website because it is the page that is displayed immediately after an action has been taken (in this case the submission of the form).

Notice how Barack Obama is looking at the form? Naturally, your eyes are taken to the top of the form as well… this isn’t a coincidence. The caption below an image is nearly always read by the visitor, and they have used that to sell the benefit of donating to their campaign.

The form also gives you options of how much you can donate, which means that people can donate as little as $10 or as much as $1,000 or more – it takes away any issue that people might face with how much they should donate.

Action: Review the ‘thank you’ page that visitors see after they take an action on your website. What else could you offer on that page to drive additional action?

4. Email Marketing Is Used To Build The Relationship

Once you subscribe, Barack Obama uses email marketing to build a relationship with you over time. He shares updates on what he has been up to, opinions on various issues and he educates you over time. His emails are written from the first person, from him to you, further building his credibility and trust.

At the end of every email is a call to action to ‘donate now’, although this isn’t pushed heavily. The main focus of every email is to communicate a clear message, which is done masterfully.

Action: Do you have a database of prospects or clients? Then implement an email marketing strategy that develops the relationship, builds trust, and establishes your business as the leader in the market.

5. Blogging Is Used To Connect With The Market

Barack Obama uses blogging to communicate with his visitors and supporters. He shares articles, commentary, YouTube videos and Twitter updates.

You’ll also notice that there’s a ‘Donate Now’ button on every page, to drive action (at the date of writing this article the button is blue, but in 2008 it was red and stood out a lot more, indicating that the donations component in 2011 may not be as important as it was in 2008… or maybe they’re just split-testing it).

Blogging aligns perfectly with social media, which I’ll cover shortly.

Action: Setup a blog on your website and use it to connect with your visitors. Sharing educational or informative articles works best when combined with email marketing and social media marketing.

6. Social Media Is Fully Integrated Into The Website

In 2008 Barack Obama had a presence on 16 different social media platforms, and promoted all of them on his website. In 2011 that number has been reduced to two… Facebook and Twitter, which reflects the growth and market share that these two websites have achieved in the last 3 years. Of course he still uses YouTube to stream his videos and Flickr to host his images, but he has limited his social networking to Facebook and Twitter.

Every post on his website lets you share that post on Facebook and Twitter, and you can invite your Facebook friends to the Barack Obama site right from the widget in the sidebar. This is where blogging aligns perfectly with social media, because people are much more likely to share a piece of information rather than an entire website.

The biggest point to take away from this is that if Barack Obama, with all the resources at his disposal, is only focusing on Facebook and Twitter then why would you spend any of your precious time on anything else.

Action: Integrate Facebook and Twitter with your website and, in particular, your blog. The better the information you share, the more people who will also share it.

7. Campaigns Are Segmented By Market

The website is segmented by state so that supporters can stay up to date with what is happening in their state. This allows Barack Obama to use the main website for his national messages and the state pages for state-based messages.

Segmentation drives engagement with his supporters because they only hear about what is related to them (and aren’t receiving updates about states they might not care about)… this is critical to the performance of his website and social media campaign.

Obama has also setup Facebook and Twitter pages for each state, to further drive engagement.

Action: How can you segment your market to drive engagement? Take a look at your website, database and email marketing and think about how you can refine your message for each segment.

8. Facebook Is Used To Communicate With Facebook Users

Barack Obama’s main Facebook page has more than 20 million Fans… and this doesn’t include the fans he has on his state-based Facebook pages. He uses Facebook to share updates on his campaign, ask his fans questions, share YouTube videos and drive engagement.

Importantly, he doesn’t try to sell anything through his status updates (ie he doesn’t ask for donations). He uses Facebook to drive engagement… and with feedback on his status updates regularly exceeding the 5,000 comments mark, he is doing it well.

Action: Setup a Facebook page for your business and start communicating with your market with the aim of driving engagement.

9. Twitter Is Used To Communicate With Twitter Users

Barack Obama’s main Twitter profile has more than 8 million Followers. He uses Twitter to share opinions, thoughts and updates on his campaign. Obama also uses hashtags to participate in conversations.

It’s a great way for Twitter users to stay up to date with the Obama campaign.

Action: Setup a Twitter profile for your business and join the discussion.

10. A Mobile-Friendly Website Connects With Users On The Go

Barack Obama has a mobile-friendly website for smart phones. With the growth of mobile Internet usage, having a mobile-friendly website is critical for delivering a great experience to mobile phone users.

When you visit the main website on your phone, it automatically redirects you to the mobile-friendly version of the site.

Mobile users can stay connected by sharing their phone number and receiving text alerts from the Obama campaign. They can also make a donation directly from their phone.

Action: Review Google Analytics and find out how many people are accessing your website via a mobile phone. If it is higher than 5% then consider building a mobile-friendly website for your business.

The Strategy

Barack Obama’s strategy hasn’t changed much since 2008… build up a database, grow social media followers, encourage donations, and build credibility and trust through ongoing and sincere communication. The main difference in his campaign this time around is that he is focusing only on Facebook and Twitter to connect with people through social media.

The most important thing to take away from this article is that the process of achieving success online is the same in every market… even when running for President! Here’s the strategy:

1. Develop an effective website that drives action
2. Drive visitors to your website using marketing and advertising
3. Build a relationship with your prospects through email marketing & social media
4. Expand your reach through mobile
5. Implementing all of these steps together is the key to success

We know this to be true because this is the exact strategy we use for ourselves and our clients to achieve success online.

For bricks and mortar businesses, location-based social media strategies provide a great opportunity to increase exposure and drive sales, as customers can now ‘check-in’ or ‘rate and review’ the business through Facebook Places, FourSquare and Google Places.

What Is A ‘Check-In’?

A ‘check-in’ is very much in the hands of the social media community and it is where a social media user tells all of their friends, family and connections that they are at a particular location.

On a smartphone you can check the Facebook and FourSquare apps to see if your business is listed, although it is likely that your business will already have a listing created by users who have already ‘checked-in’. If you don’t have a listing, then you can simply add one. It will then appear whenever people in the surrounding area click on the ‘check-in’ button.

Once the listing has been created on a mobile device you, as the business owner, are able to claim and edit the place listing (upon providing the necessary verification). With Facebook you can integrate it with your business Facebook page, and with FourSquare you’re able to create check-in rewards and setup loyalty campaigns.

Check-In Deals and Incentives

FourSquare and Facebook are developing platforms that offer incentives to people who ‘check-in’ to your business… this has major benefits to your business.

• FourSquare has created check-in deals that allow businesses to reward new customers with a deal or discount, or provide loyalty incentives. For example, after a certain number of check-ins you receive a free coffee.
• Facebook check-in deals are currently being rolled out in five cities in America and their release date is yet to be announced for Australia. However, when they do arrive it will be important for your business to be well positioned with a Facebook place setup and an active Facebook page.

Reviews and Ratings

Google Places now has an application for iPhones and Android phones that allows users to search for nearby restaurants, cafes, ATMs, attractions etc. Once you’ve chosen a nearby listing you’re then able to review and rate it. These ratings and reviews are displayed within the mobile application, in Google Places and within your organic Google search listing (which has a direct impact on click through rates). Google also personalises your search results based on ratings you have previously made.

Facebook Places and FourSquare also allow you to post a comment with your ‘check-in’, which is where customers can post a review about your business.

The more positive reviews you can get for your business, then the greater your success will be.

What’s The Benefit?

There are major benefits to setting up your business with Facebook Places, FourSquare and Google Places.

• It’s Free Advertising. If someone checks-in to your business on Facebook then it appears on their Facebook profile and all of their friends, family and connections can see it. On FourSquare all check-ins are visible to all users, regardless if you are connected to them or not. The more people that know about your business, the more customers you will get coming through the door.
• Word of Mouth. Research shows 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations whilst only 14% trust advertisements. Social media offers businesses a form of advertising that leverages the relationships of your customers and drives word-of-mouth (the most valuable form of advertising). Your friends’ check-ins are as pure as an advertisement can get!
• Get Them In The Door. With 20% of all searches on Google.com being local in nature, having positive reviews on Google Places will increase the likelihood that somebody searching for something in your area will actually visit your business.
• Drive Sales. The more people you get through your door, the more check-ins you will receive, and the more sales you will achieve.

How To Get Started

Getting started is easy. All you need to do is setup a listing for your business in Facebook Places, FourSquare and Google Places.

The more difficult part will be encouraging your customers to ‘check-in’ to your business and share positive reviews. The key here will be to integrate these platforms into your business. For example, if you’re a café, including text on your menus that say ‘Did you enjoy your experience here? Then share your experience on Facebook, FourSquare or Google Places’. It’s just an example, but you get the idea…

There are endless possibilities and innovations with social media marketing and location-based strategies and they are increasing every day. Is your business ready?

What You Should NOT Do

1. Don’t fly blind.
Before posting your first update on Facebook and Twitter it’s important to have a goal for what you want to achieve. If don’t have a goal when entering this new marketing channel, then you have no framework to work within and no clear strategy for how you will convert your followers into clients. Sit down with your team and brainstorm topics you can share through your updates, why you want to share those topics and what level of engagement you expect to achieve.

2. Don’t self promote.
It’s great to share updates about your products or services, but it must be done subtly and should not be overtly promotional. Self-laudatory statements about your business can come across as arrogant and can cause disengagement with your social media followers.

3. Don’t forget about the character limit.
For Twitter, the character limit is 140 and Facebook is 420 (including spaces). With Twitter make sure to be concise and communicate your entire message in a single update rather than breaking it up. With Facebook it’s important not to make your update too long… because if it is too long, your fans will need to click on ‘expand’ to see all of the information, and this can affect the click-through-rate of people reading your updates. Experiment to see what works and identify the ideal character count formula for your business.

4. Don’t make it personal.
It’s important to maintain a two-way conversation with your clients and prospects. However it’s also essential not to make it personal or become openly agitated. If the conversation does take a tone that is uncomfortable, ask the person to message you directly so you can resolve the issue in private.

5. Don’t delete.
It’s important that you don’t delete content from your Facebook or Twitter pages. Be cautious before posting an update. Make sure the links you share work and the grammar is correct. Don’t delete any negative comments from your followers… respond to them instead, even in sticky situations. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule when comments are slanderous, racist, promotional or discriminatory.

What You Should Do

1. Educate and share information.
Any article you read online that educates and informs on your service or industry is great to share on Facebook and Twitter. But don’t just post the link to the article… Instead, write a snazzy headline or conversational lead-in point that entices your followers to read the information being sharing. Engagement should always be the goal of any item posted on Facebook and Twitter.

2. Identify what is relevant and interesting to your prospects and clients.
Think about your business, and then think about your clients. If you’re a personal trainer, share information on health tips, nutrition tips and new updates about weight training. From petrol prices to news updates to something you saw on the street – if there’s an informative and engaging angle to your business, share it!

3. Vary the format of your content.
While articles are informative, also think about sharing images and videos. Have you seen a great 2-minute video on YouTube that relates to your industry? Then share it! Similarly, images of your latest website launch, the latest fashion item you’ve received in your store or photos of a finished veranda you’ve just installed for a client are ideal to share on Facebook and Twitter. Again, keep in mind when posting a video or an image that the lead-in sentence is engaging to your followers and compels them to read or watch on.

4. Involve your clients in your brand.
How can you involve your clients in your brand, product and service? One idea is creating a competition that asks your followers to submit an idea for your next wallpaper pattern, or to develop the concept behind your new logo. Any way you can get people talking and involved in your brand will make sharing content and having a two-way conversation that little bit easier.

5. Entertain.
Utilise content that entertains and makes people laugh. This could be a joke of the month, or a funny news article. Drawing on the lighter side of your business allows you to engage with your followers to make them giggle and have a laugh together. Remember, most people are on social media so they can be entertained as well as being informed.

6. Develop social-media-only offers.
By creating an offer or promotion that is a “Twitter Only Offer” or a “Facebook Freebie” your prospects and clients will have another reason to follow you. It also makes your followers feel special, and that they are being rewarded for remaining faithful to your brand online.

7. Think about your business and your people.
A great way to engage with your clients and prospects is by showing the fun and energetic aspects of your business. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to post images or updates from company outings, such as sports days and awards nights. Importantly, always make sure that these types of updates are outweighed by educational and informative information.

When creating information to share through social media, it’s important to have engagement at the forefront of your mind. Ask yourself “How can my business connect with my prospects and clients to create a two-way conversation?”

And, let’s face it – not all of our businesses are exciting or interesting – the key is finding the fun, compelling, and interesting areas of the industry and then sharing them to engage with your followers.

Communicating through Facebook and Twitter with your clients and prospects is an amazing way to improve your brand’s reputation, drive business growth and generate sales and leads online. So what are you waiting for? Start creating compelling and engaging content… and get your hands dirty!

With updates in search and Google’s focus on sharing real-time information, Tweets and Facebook streams are now included in their search results. This development now allows us to draw a direct correlation between social media marketing and increasing your business’ presence in Google to drive further organic traffic to your site.

Whilst the need for your business to utilise social media platforms (eg Facebook, Twitter etc) is undeniable, many businesses are baffled as to where to start.

Here are 7 steps to follow to ensure your entry into the social media world is well planned and thought-out.

1. Know Your Audience

It is important to know who your target market is. These may not necessarily be the same people you market to via other marketing channels. Therefore, it is important to have a clear outline of who your audience is, and ensure you market to them effectively with relevant information and a targeted message.

2. Outline A Strategy And Clear Goals

Before entering social media it is essential to know what you want to achieve from entering into this space. Ask yourself some basic questions to clarify what your business needs social media for, and what you are trying to achieve:

• Do you want to build brand exposure?
• Do you want to increase sales?
• Do you want to communicate with your clients and prospects on a new level?

Regardless of your reason for entering social media, it is a “must” that you know what you want to achieve so you can plan the path ahead and identify the actions necessary to achieve your goals.

3. Develop a Voice

Often the hardest part of social media is not knowing which tools to use or how to use them, but creating the voice or persona for your business and brand. Creating a Social Media Policy, which outlines your social media guidelines and best practices, is a good place to start developing your voice. The first step in the process is to decide the tone you will use and the information you will share. Some suggestions include:

• Formal and business orientated
• Informal
• Energetic, fun and kooky
• Responsive
• Helpful
• Generous

Once you have developed your brand’s voice and set a tone for your blog articles, status updates and tweets, you can begin developing the content to share through these platforms.

4. Create Useful and Meaningful Content for your Target Market

It is important to remember that utilising Facebook or Twitter is not another avenue for your business to directly advertise or self-promote. The amazing opportunity social media opens up for your business is to communicate with your clients and prospects in an open and level playing field. You can directly engage in conversation, and they in turn can directly engage with your brand. Therefore, it is important to communicate and share content that interests, excites and sparks conversation. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Share information on your industry; news, updates and research.
  Build your brand to be the thought-leader in your industry.
• What is your target market interested in?
  For a brand like Nike, their consumers are most likely interested in sports. Share stories on sports, the latest scores or trends in sports fashion.
• Can you involve them in your brand?
  Are you testing new services or creating a new product? Get your social media “followers” engaged to assist you, for example, in choosing the next pattern for the latest release of Sorbent’s new toilet paper. In this sense, your current and possible customers feel like they have a direct involvement in a brand they “know and trust” and this builds further brand loyalty.
• Build your brand and business’ people through social media.
  Have you had a recent company sports day or team building lunch? Share some information and photos of your people interacting and enjoying the brand they also work for. This helps your brand and business come to life. However, when doing this, ensure you stick to the Social Media Policy and business guidelines.
• Find a fun side of your business and exploit it.
  If you are a bar restaurant, share your favourite “A Man Walks Into a Bar…” joke and encourage your “followers” to also share a joke. Find a kooky element of your business, and share it – people love to laugh and get a giggle.

5. Maintain Brand Consistency

Don’t forget who you are, what your brand stands for and the overall goals of your business. Make sure you stay true to your brand and don’t get carried away by the new opportunities that social media creates. Your brand’s consistency is one of the most important assets your business has. Utilise social media to further build and develop this consistency. Remain true to the overall brand voice, Unique Selling Propositions and guidelines.

6. Integrate Offline and Online Activities

Make sure that your online activities are incorporated into your offline communication and advertising. Ensure that your website URL as well as your Facebook and Twitter details are included on your corporate stationary and documents, business cards, email signatures, TV advertising and print advertising. This is where your offline and online worlds collide and become one.

7. Remain Focused and Dedicated

Effectively managing a social media campaign can be a difficult and time-consuming task for your business. If you do choose to implement a social media campaign for your business, it is incredibly important that you commit and remain dedicated. Some ways to ensure this are:

• Create a Social Media Champion within your business.
• Organise company brainstorms to develop creative ideas for competitions, campaigns and new ways to engage with your audience.
• Utilise scheduling software to help manage your Facebook status updates and Tweets on Twitter.
• Create a goal for the amount of social media activity required. Eg. 10 Tweets on Twitter and 2 status updates on Facebook per day. This way you will maintain regular activity and not lie dormant.
• Measure success. The best way to know that social media is working for your business is to track the performance and engage your Directors by reporting on the increase in brand identity and online enquiries / sales.
• Have fun. Understand and commit to the opportunities social media creates for your business, and have fun whilst doing it.

FAST FACT: In 2010, social media use within Australia rose by 36.1%, overtaking search engines as the most visited sites by Australian Internet users.

Is your business using social media yet? If not, it is definitely time to start thinking about it.

1. Get Your Demographics Right

The most common mistake advertisers make is to target an audience that is too broad. You need to know your demographics, it’s most likely that it’s not men and women aged 18 to 50 across the whole of Australia. Don’t set your demographics as broad as that. There will be certain age ranges that respond better to your products or services. Equally, your product might be purchased mainly by one gender. If you don’t know your demographics, keep testing until you find the most responsive demographic.

2. Use Google Analytics To Track Your Facebook Traffic

You should be tracking your traffic using the Google URL builder. Every ad can be assigned a specific ‘campaign name’. That way you can evaluate in Google Analytics which ad converts the best. In order for this to work, you also need to have goal-tracking setup in Google Analytics.

3. Split-Test Images And Headlines

A higher click through rate on your ads means you will be paying less per click on Facebook. The image usually has the greatest impact on your click through rate, followed by your headline and ad copy. Therefore it’s important to split test images and ad copy in order to get to the best performing ad possible.

4. Use A Strong Offer

It’s most likely that people are not actively searching for your offer on Facebook. Their main purpose of being on Facebook is not to purchase your offer. That’s why it’s essential to come up with a compelling offer. If you cannot go for the straight sale, you can test offering a free report in order to build a database. Offer value to the database, build a relationship and then sell them your product.

5. Interests, Hobbies, Likes And Workplace

Facebook is unique in the way you can target people. Make use of the targeting options as they can provide great ROI when used in the right way. What are your customers’ interests and hobbies? Where do they work? What high school or college do/did they go to? What Facebook groups are they part of? For example, as a recruiter you might be targeting people who work for certain companies.

6. Likes On Your Facebook Page

Another angle to build a following is to advertise your own Facebook page. When you send traffic to your Facebook page, the goal is to get people to like your page. That way, whenever you post an update on your Facebook page, people will see this update in your newsfeed. This is where your Social Media Strategy becomes important.

7. Test, Test, Test…

So what’s going to work for you? Sometimes it’s not the obvious. You need to test every possible angle and not give up too early. Is it best to build your following through a Facebook page or by offering a free report on a landing page? Or should you be going for the sale straight away? The only way you can find the best angle is by testing every idea you come up with.

Social Media And Your Business

A recent national survey conducted by Optus found that only 28 per cent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) are currently active in social media. In the same survey Optus found that over 50 per cent of SMBs not involved in social media believe that social networking is not appropriate for their industry. The survey highlighted that SMBs owners were ‘yet to be convinced’ that social media was worth the time and investment.

Let’s cut to the chase, it would be unrealistic to say that social media marketing was right for every single business but it would also be wrong to dismiss it without proper thought. Social media is developing at an exceedingly fast pace, each week there is a new announcement or development: this week Facebook’s Zuckerberg announced a new modern messaging system, in the last month there was the big news about the partnership between Facebook and Bing that will return search results based on the Facebook “Likes” of the searcher’s friends and networks. This fast pace of development should not deter businesses from getting involved with social media, but rather view it as a challenge or adventure and get on board now whilst the majority of businesses are also still learning.

Social Media Is Not An Instant Revenue Booster

For any business it is vital to work out the return on investment when committing time, energy and money for marketing. However social media does not have a straightforward quantifiable return on investment, it is a tool that will promote your business, place it on people’s radars and build a larger client base. Thus the direct return on investment is much harder to calculate and will span a larger time period. You can however measure popularity for example by re-tweets, likes, followers and number of bookmarks. These are all indications of brand popularity that are then likely to convert to sales in the future.

Social Media Is Free Promotion For Your Brand

Social media provides your business with a platform to perform to potential customers or consumers. Your business can provide industry updates, links to relevant news articles or showcase new products, designs, releases. Whilst updates and content should not focus on selling, sharing information about sales, free coupons or more interactive challenges can work if used sparingly. For example: Are you in the area? The next ten customers who mention this update will receive a free coffee/25% discount/ etc.

Social Media Is A Relationship-Building Tool

This is a business to client relationship that does not centre around money, it is interactive and provides businesses with the opportunity to become ‘liked’ by customers or clients. You are able to increase your client base through visibility of being ‘liked’ by fellow friends, family and colleagues. Social media transforms your business into a live entity that can engage and communicate with its clients. You are able to test the market, gain feedback and engage your clients in ways much more complex than simply one-way sales or marketing.

Social Media Increases your SEO Progression

Social media link building increases your SEO rankings by creating fresh content and by building the number of links to your website. Both of these elements are valued highly by Google and are important contributors that help achieve top rankings. Search engines are increasingly giving weight to social media profiles in their rankings, search now shows the latest ‘twitter’ feeds and news articles are now being listed showing how many people ‘like’ or have shared the article.

How Will You Use Social Media In Your Business?

Social media is the future; its presence is far more than ‘social’ it pervades every aspect of our daily lives – on the news, on the T.V, on the radio, it pops up in conversations with friends, neighbours, colleagues, it is now part of work within business plans and strategies. This may appear overwhelming or daunting, but do not let this put you off: it is exciting, new and fast-paced.

If you want your business to grow and to evolve and to exhibit dynamism and innovation then embracing social media is a must. It should be viewed as simply one more component of your marketing and business strategy. Treat it like any other part of your business: with thoughtful time and planning, bestow care and attention to detail, handle responsibly and maintain focus and brand consistency in all your efforts. Social media is new and mysterious; herein lies the excitement, the opportunity to learn, and most importantly the chance be part of the social media revolution.

5 Tips To Growing Your Social Media Presence On Facebook and Twitter

• Engage and respond. Post regularly and always respond to answers or comments.
• Offer value. Provide interesting and informative information and tips that are of interest to your clientele.
• Link Link Link. All your social media accounts should be linked to leverage your presence on all of them, install sharing tools.
• Join discussions. Get involved by reading and commenting on other people or companies blog in your industry, establish an online presence and reputation.
• Be creative. Enjoy the potential of social media, experiment and play with its possibilities. If you don’t think it’s of value or interesting then don’t post it.

What do you think?

With about one and a half million young voters under the age of 25 eligible to vote this year, Labor should have been able to attract this group if they had adopted a stronger online election mobilisation like Barak Obama in the last U.S. election, or even Kevin Rudd’s successful 2007 campaign. Australia was a world leader in this area of online election mobilisation, so what happened in 2010?

While the average Australian voter is probably not directly affected by this turn of events its implications are more significant and do impact all.

The 2007 Election

Kevin 07’s digital campaign highlighted a key difference between himself and John Howard (ie contemporary vs old), however, its effectiveness was much greater than that. The Labor party and Rudd in particular were able to communicate directly and effectively with the electorate. Messages got through and were understood.

Also, many young Australians, a lot of them first time voters, were galvanized into action and helped to sell the message for the Labor party. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight but it was planned for and when they were needed, these supporters went to work.

Search Engine Optimisation

It is interesting to note that while many advertising dollars were spent on traditional TV and radio advertising, little was done to forecast what voters would be looking for on the web. Would people look up “how to vote” on Google or even more simply type in “election” searching for a general update?

Search engine optimisation is about having your website on or near the top of the search engines, most notably Google. In this manner when people are looking for what you offer – be it business or politics – they can readily find you. International online gaming companies spent huge amounts of money to predict what the most popular search terms would be on Google for the 2010 Football World Cup. They then carried out search engine optimisation for these terms well in advance so they’d be at the top of Google by the time the Cup started gaining maximum impact and exposure.

We knew we’d have an election coming up this year and yet search engine optimisation has not been an active consideration for either major party, even though its effectiveness on advertising dollar for dollar invested would be hard to rival.

Social Media

In contrast to 2007, our recent election has been one of little planning and much caution. We’ve seen nowhere near the cut through or mobilisation using social media. Each major political party knows their election messages and their key differences over their main political opponent. These messages are being communicated across many of the larger social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. However, you get the distinct feeling that the format is more lecture like – we talk you listen – rather than we talk and listen.

Within social media you need a policy of engagement. In applying this style you not only start to exercise the full power of what social media signifies, but you also obtain the significant benefit of engaging your very target market in your politics. The Greens have understood this and have used Twitter in particular to deliver their messages, engage with their critics and most importantly to swing undecided voters. This has clearly made a difference.

To be fair both Gillard and Abbott have been thrust somewhat unexpectedly into leaderships roles and so would not have had their online strategies mapped and ready to use for this election. However, both parties should have been prepared irrespective of who was at the helm.

What if?

There will be many lessons learned from this extraordinary election and it has served as a reminder of the power of every vote cast, which ridicules Mark Latham’s direction to leave the voting form blank.

The lesson probably most acutely felt right now by both major parties is what could have been if they had applied effective social media and online marketing to their 2010 election campaigns.

If you would like to obtain a copy of the Web Profits media release “Labor failed to communicate with young voters”, please contact MacGregor Public Relations on 02 9968 3600 or email randerson@macpr.com.au

Here are 7 steps for using social media to build links to your site:

1. Write The Best Very Articles You Can – the key to building links using social media is to write quality articles that provide extreme value to your readers. If you feel that you are giving away too much quality information then you are on the right track. The more you give your readers the more natural links you will receive in return. Keep in mind that the article has to be so good that it compels people to take the time to link to it from their own blog or website.

2. Create a Facebook Page – rather than sharing your content to your friends and family, create a company Facebook page and share your articles through there. Make sure to promote your Facebook page on your website to get as many fans as possible. Unlike email, where you are battling with spam filters and open rates, sharing content on your Facebook page will appear directly in your fans’ news feed right away.

3. Share Your Content On Twitter – Twitter has been the fastest growing social media site in the last two years. Open an account with Twitter and share your articles through your status updates. Make sure to use a good headline that really stands out from the crowd and include a link to your article. You can open an account with bit.ly or su.pr to measure real time traffic from your status updates.

4. Share Your Content On Other Social Media Sites – there are literally hundreds of social media sites on the Internet, including LinkedIn and Google Buzz. Time permitting, create accounts on as many social media sites as you can manage and then share your articles through there, similar to Twitter. You can use services such as ping.fm to update all of your statuses at once.

5. Share Your Content On Social Bookmarking Sites – social bookmarking sites are a little different to social media profiles because they are simply a way to share links to websites that you like. Submit your articles to the top social bookmarking sites including Digg, Delicious, Mixx and Stumbleupon. Make sure to use a headline that really captures people’s attention.

6. Add Social Media Functionality to Your Blog – including links to the top social media and social bookmarking sites at the end of each article makes it easy for your readers to share it with their network. Using the Tweetmeme plugin for your blog allows your readers to share your article through their Twitter account with a click of a button, without ever leaving your site. There are Facebook and Google Buzz WordPress plugins for as well.

7. Become a Guest Blogger on High Traffic Sites – there are many blogs that rely on fresh, quality content published on a regular basis to drive their advertising revenue. If you have examples of high quality blog posts you have written in the past, many blog owners will be happy for you to write an article for their blog. Becoming a guest blogger on high traffic blog will increase your social media presence, the number of fans and followers you have and the number of people that subscribe to your blog. Some guest bloggers will also allow you to include a link back to your site within the article. Of course, make sure you share any guest blogging articles across all of your social media and social bookmarking profiles as well.

Using social media to build links is about creating quality content and then promoting that content online. Social media link building not only increases your SEO rankings but also positions you to start taking advantage of the massive amounts of traffic available across social media sites… which will only continue to grow over the coming years.

Do you have any other social media link building strategies?

Feel free to post them in the comments section below…

Although Twitter is a relatively new service, it has been receiving some great press and is starting to be used by many small businesses and large companies around the world – including some major media companies, marketing companies and computer companies…

In fact, ABC has its own Twitter feed, which they reference at the end of some of their shows.

So a few months ago I decided to see for myself what this Twitter thing was all about…

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a “microblog”. Think of it like a blog, only smaller… in fact you only have 140 characters (not words, characters) to communicate a message, so what you say has to be short, concise and of interest.

Twitter is simply a means to communicate with an audience of people who want to hear what you have to say.

How Does Twitter Work?

Using Twitter is very easy – you sign up for a Twitter account and then start posting the 140 character messages, known as ‘tweets’, immediately. Once you’ve posted a tweet, it goes into your Twitter feed. Anybody who is following your tweets will then see your update within their own Twitter account – similar to how a blog’s RSS feed communicates with RSS readers.

Of course, if your ‘followers’ are subscribed to hundreds of people, you may only have exposure on the main page of their account for just a few seconds, which is one of the reasons that people Twitter so much – so they can stay top of mind.

By default, Twitter feeds are set to public. This means that you can search for anybody who uses Twitter and see all of their past tweets.

Does Twitter Work For Small Business Marketing Purposes?

Facebook, in its early stages, received alot of positive press in the media about what it would mean for the future of marketing. Many companies were joining Facebook, and nearly everybody I knew personally had joined as well.

Facebook was, as we were led to believe, the next big thing…

And while it still has some time to perform, Facebook hasn’t yet become the marketing channel we were hoping it to be… in fact, it hasn’t even turned a profit yet!

Sure, you can run some paid advertising to Facebook users, but it hasn’t (at least in our experience) provided a channel for consistent and reliable sales and revenue.

Twitter, at this stage, is very similar…

It can work, and I’ve seen some examples of it working well, but not for the average small business owner who doesn’t yet have a large email database.

The Challenge With Twitter

One of the main challenges with Twitter, like any form of Social Marketing, is that it requires a very long-term perspective that cannot be implemented without some form of short-term revenue producing activities.

The companies that are achieving success with Twitter are those who are already well known. They already have a very large database of prospects and/or clients who know who they are, and may well have already purchased from them in the past. For them, Twitter is another method of communicating a message.

Twitter is not a replacement for email marketing, SEO, PPC or banner advertising. Instead, it should be used as another method to communicate with your database so they can learn more about you in order to feel more comfortable in spending money with you.

An example of a company using Twitter successfully is Dell, who uses Twitter to release very limited special offers to their database, ahead of email marketing and direct mail campaigns. They are one of the biggest success stories I have heard about to date, generating $1m in revenue using Twitter in 2008.

But if a multi-billion dollar company can only generate $1m in revenue (not profit) from Twitter, what hope does the small business owner have?

Is Twitter Worth Your Time?

I started experimenting with Twitter around four months ago to see how it can be used for small business marketing.

While it is fun to use and following other people is interesting, I haven’t seen the practical applications yet… I haven’t seen a proven strategy that can be used across various industries to earn a consistent and reliable profit.

If you are going to experiment with Twitter you need to remember that it is social marketing, not direct marketing. If you are to be successful online you first need to refine other elements your strategy first. If you haven’t yet implemented all of the steps outlined in How To Grow a Business Online then don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter… your time will be utilised far better by implementing those points first.

Of course once this is accomplished and you are maximising all of those areas, Twitter can be used as another method to reach your audience.

The major benefit of marketing with Twitter is the fact that you can do it from your mobile phone. And because you don’t need to be in front of your computer you can tweet when out shopping, when waiting in line, when you’re bored, anywhere…

This means you’re not encroaching on other elements of your marketing campaign, because using your phone to Twitter is not causing any opportunity costs in you not working on a higher value marketing activity. Of course, if you are spending the time on Twitter instead of email marketing or preparing blog content, then it’s probably not the best use of your time.

How To Get Started With Twitter

If you are ready to give Twitter a go and see what it’s all about, here’s a quick start guide for how to get the most out of Twitter.

1. Create a free Twitter account – which takes just a couple of minutes.
2. Search for people you know and who you want to follow and then hit the “follow” button underneath their thumbnails to follow their tweets.
3. Start to tweet about yourself. Remember, you’ve got 140 characters to say something, so it needs to be short, concise, punchy and interesting.
4. You’re not Dell (yet) so use Twitter to speak about yourself, your life and information of interest to your followers. The aim is to build a relationship with your customer so they feel more comfortable spending money with you. This could be tweeting about family, holidays, articles on news sites, articles on blogs and so on. It’s all about building relationships within 140 characters or less.
5. Of course, if you release a new product or if you have a special discounted offer then you can tweet about it… but like any form of relationship building it, you want to have a higher ratio of information-rich content to sales messages.
6. Take note of how other successful companies are using Twitter. Follow Dell, and some of the other larger companies, and see how they use it. Take note of what appeals to you and what you respond to and try to implement that yourself.
7. Once you have some Twitter history, send out an email to your database giving them a reason to follow you on Twitter, such as offering limited time discounts for Twitter uses, or posting content unique to the Twitter
8. And get advanced notice of new articles and ebooks by subscribing to my Twitter feed.

What To Avoid

There are some things that you should avoid, as these can hinder rather than help you and your followers.

1. Avoid automated software programs that manage your followers and automatically respond to them. This may seem a good idea at the outset, but automation is hardly ever a good thing with social marketing, and Twitter is all about building relationships.
2. Avoid following everybody who follows you. If you’re following 100,000 people, there’s no way you will be able to find the tweets of the people you actually know. So only follow the people you want to actually learn about and hear what they have to say.
3. Try not to follow people you don’t know, except when you want to know them or do business with them. At the end of the day, you want to enjoy logging in and seeing what other people are doing.

When I first started using Twitter I was allured into using automated software programs, and was told to follow everybody that was following me. What ended up happening was that I stopped using Twitter altogether because everytime I logged in there was a list of tweets from people I didn’t know, and I couldn’t see any of the Tweets from the people I actually wanted to hear from.

Twitter provides another method of building a relationship with your clients. But its practical application for the average small business owner is yet to be confirmed and as such it should not be a major component of your marketing strategy.

Hopefully Twitter will release a better monetisation strategy for small businesses this year.

Please share your thoughts below.

It all starts with your profile. This should tell the world about you and your business, and provide an essential link to your website. The beauty of social networking sites is that they allow you to introduce yourself to the world, rather than just your business, so make the most of your profile and add valuable content which gives real value to any passing visitors. If you can attract people with interests similar to those of you and your business, the traffic to your website is likely to increase as a result.

Allocate some time in your schedule to visit the profiles and pages that belong to other members of these sites. Leave comments wherever you can, but remember to be polite and respectful – people can always trace you back to your networking page and be equally negative about you. That won’t help your business at all.

The main aim of this networking exercise is to get people to return the favor and visit your profile or website. As you start to receive more comments and backlinks in this way, your profile will start to appear in search engine results – which will lead to even more traffic.

Many social networking sites have a plethora of groups you can join to raise your profile even higher. Joining a group which has a specific interest means you will be effectively plugging your business into a market which you know will be interested in what you have to offer. Make the most of it, and join as many relevant groups as you can.

You should also try to give people a reason to come back and visit your page again and again, and the best way to do this is to give stuff away on a regular basis. E-books, downloads, reports… anything that is pertinent to your business would be ideal. Make a point of saying there will be something new every week, as this encourages repeat visits. Just make sure you can stick to your promise.

Don’t forget that networking can be done offline too. Speak to everyone you know and urge them to start their own profile pages. They can then link to yours and generate even more traffic and interest for you. If they will write a review of one of your products, so much the better. Ask them to get their friends and relatives to join the networking revolution as well; even if only a handful actually link back to you and your products, your traffic and sales will benefit.

The best known sites for downloading podcasts are iTunes and the fairly new podcasts.yahoo.com, and making your content available here exposes you to a potentially huge audience. Visibility is the key if you are to reach the market who will be interested in what you have to say.

Don’t overlook lesser known podcast directories either. You will be asked to list your podcast in a specific category, so make sure you pick the most appropriate one in order to reach your target market.

Creating a good podcast will be easier if you plan ahead and write a script for yourself. The best business podcasts have a single focus and are packed with useful information that will leave the listener itching to come back for more. Remember to speak slowly and clearly when recording, and ensure there is no irritating background noise.

‘How to’ angles are extremely popular, as they are specifically designed to help people achieve something. If the subject of your business warrants it, try and plan a series of podcasts to encourage repeat listeners. Each podcast should be complete in itself, but should also be worth more when listened to as part of a whole package. Think of each one as a separate chapter in a non-fiction book.

Podcasts are like gold for internet marketers, as they allow you to build better relationships with your audience. Instead of just being a face on a website, represented by written content, they can hear you speak. If you have real enthusiasm for your subject they will be carried along with it and will lap up every podcast you produce in the future.

Podcasts have long term appeal as well. They can be downloaded onto an MP3 player and listened to while on the train, out jogging or wandering round the shops. They provide a much more intimate way of getting in touch with your target market – and the very nature of them means you will have your listener’s undivided attention. It’s a powerful medium to master.

A podcast is also perceived as being of high value. This in turn gives people a positive view of you and your business, and if the content of your podcast is of high quality, your listeners are much more likely to explore the products and services you have to offer.

To get the most from podcasts you need to view them as a long term venture. One single podcast won’t do the trick if you are looking to build credibility. Make them a regular part of your marketing arsenal and you will open yourself up to a whole new audience.