How Social Search is Changing SEO

Facebook and Bing jointly announced an agreement that would allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “Likes” of the searcher’s friends. Additionally, Google recently began including Twitter updates in search results. It’s a natural innovation that fits into the business models of both companies and takes the trend of individualized search results to the next logical level: results tailored to the searcher’s existing social footprint.
SEO insiders have wondered whether this new search innovation would affect placement strategies, and the simple answer is yes. Yes, there will be changes to the way SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns. Yes, this will affect the industry as a whole. And yes, we believe SEO professionals will have to adapt to meet ever-evolving needs.


Changing the Method, Not the Mission
To think that this development is rocking the SEO world however is to misunderstand the realities of the industry. In roughly 15 years of existence, SEO has grown from being a small wildcat operation run by webmasters and content services to being one of the most dynamic, fast-growing sectors of the tech market. The reason for this rapid growth is because — not in spite –- of the constantly evolving nature of search engines.

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Google Has To Bring Together Its Many Assets in New, Meaningful Way

Even before all of this Google "social layer" talk started, we talked about how Google already had many of the components of a powerful social network - just spread out across different products. Basically, there just hasn't been an effective way of bringing it all together for users.

How would you like to see Google bring it all together? Share your thoughts.

Putting The Pieces Together

It looks like Google is trying to correct that, as various hints have been revealed over the last few months - the navigation bar, the updated profile, and the Google accounts for YouTube users are a few that come quickly to mind.

It appears that Google is more adamantly promoting (or inserting, rather) the Google Profile in more of its services.

MG Siegler points to a note left on the Google Groups message board, saying, "Google Groups-specific profiles will no longer be supported. Instead, you will be able to use the new Google Groups to (optionally) link your new and improved Google profile with your groups. Starting July 1st 2011, you will not be able to make changes to your Groups profile. Your profile information will be available for export from your profile page until November 1st 2011. This change will not affect the nicknames you might have chosen for yourself to participate in groups. It will only affect the custom profile fields, such as your photo, location, and occupation.

One more example of things being more tied together.

Going Public

He also points to the following message in the Google Profiles Help Center, as previously pointed out by The Next Web:

The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don't allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.

Improving Search?

That's a very significant factor of all of this as well. We have to wonder if this won't backfire in some Google Buzz-like privacy backlash, but it will certainly ensure that content there will be discoverable - by users, and perhaps more importantly to Google - by its search index.

You know how Google won't do much in the way of connecting with your Facebook account? That hurts it in search (one area where Bing has an edge and Facebook itself could become a dangerous threat). Remember when Google CEO Eric Schmidt said they'd find other ways to get that data? This may have been at least part of what he was referring to. Of course that involves people using the profiles, but we'll see how that goes.

Google's Profile Message continues:

Keep in mind that your full name is the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you'll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don't want to share.

If you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All private profiles will be deleted after July 31, 2011.

The Components of a Good Social Network

So let's look at some of the components that when brought together would give Google more of a social network-like experience:

1. Google Buzz - The Newsfeed
2. Google Profiles - The Wall
3. Picasa Web Albums - Photos
4. YouTube - Videos
5. Google Music (pending) - Music
6. Android/The Android Maket - The platform and means to obtain apps usage (including games)
7. Chrome/Chrome OS/Chrome Extensions Gallery/Chrome Web Store - Same as Above
8. Google Latitude - Location-based service/Check-Ins
9. Blogger - Blogs (More open version of Facebook Notes)
10. Gmail - Email, Chat, Video Chat
11. Google Calendar - Event organization
12. Search - important to any social network
13. Google Docs and Google Wave (tech still could appear in other services) - Group collaboration
14. Google Apps - Getting it used internally at businesses and schools
15. Aardvark - Q&A
16. Google Reader - Easily Follow news sources and share links
17. Knol - Wiki-like content to provide information pages about subjects (note: not wiki-exactly, but certainly a competitor to the information pages on Facebook)

The list goes on...

All of this can be expanded upon and promoted in Google's most powerful product - search. Google also continues to rapidly acquire new companies, which will no doubt fuel the strategy even more.

The bringing together of all of these assets in a thoughtful and useful way will be critical, which is probably why it's taking so long. Google's not rushing this, because it could have a huge impact on the company's whole future going forward. Much of it is about staying on the cutting edge of web technology - the biggest area where Google has to compete with Facebook. Facebook is taking away a great deal of engineering talent that might have once gone to Google instead (or in many cases actually came from Google) - much how Google was doing to Microsoft a decade ago.

Google has been criticized for its social efforts a lot over the years. With Larry Page taking the helm again, and reportedly looking to get back to the more startup-like atmosphere that Google had in its early days, there is another fascinating element of which we just don't know the pending impact.

About the Author: Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

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Social Media and Conan O'Brien

The way I see it, NBC has little chance of survival in the next ten years. They've proven themselves so caught up in the normal TV schedule way of thinking that they fail to understand their audience, what little of it is left.

Their lack of knowledge about social media, how it's formed and how it can control the conversation is part of their failure in this situation and may very well be part of their failure as an organization.

Conan O'Brien on the other hand was able to harness the internet and social media to make a stand and, in the end, become more famous than he ever was before.


I'm going to explain this slowly, for the folks at NBC, if they are reading this. Let's think of Conan O'Brien & Jay Leno as a brand, and that the internet is the next big media thing, where there will be millions and millions of Americans making decisions about their life based on what they read on the internet. When people run a search on this website called GOOGLE, they get thousands of pages of choices that they can read about the topic in which they are interested. That perhaps in the future, someday, consumers and people who watch television (aren't they the same?) will be able to type in "Conan vs Jay" and get real time results that help shape their thinking about the subject, and therefore create brand identification and/or brand alienation depending on what happens.

Now for the rest of us, who understand Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and a bunch of other three word phrases with Affiliate, Marketing, Search and Interactive in them, here is some more high level explaining.

NBC, as a company, is still very much focused on Television being the predominant source of entertainment in the next ten years and hasn't done much thinking beyond that. Despite paying people like Jay & Conan ridiculous amounts of money, their audience base plummeted each year as more and more people turned to independent internet entertainment. So they did not consided exactly what might happen, if they started to make changes in their schedule, move Jay Leno back to his previous slot and basically kick Conan to the curb.

Jay Leno, as funny as he might have been, isn't exactly a representative of a modern, fast-paced, growing generation. He might get some people to stay up and watch the news before falling asleep during his monologue - but on the whole, no one can say he has his finger on the pulse of... well... anything.

You say, and perhaps the executives of NBC say, "we need to prop up our affiliates and their news shows, before we lose them." So what? Television as a medium is on the way out, or at least changing. I don't know anyone who actually watches the news at 11, let alone cares that Jay or Conan are right after it. The news has no relevance, since most of us have already learned about it 6 hours earlier from some blog or websites. As for humor and jokes, we've already spent most of the day on YouTube instead of doing our job, watching some kid falling down five flights of steps while eating a cheeseburger. Jay Leno isn't going to keep our attention for more than one minute, while we wonder what his chin would like in 3-D.

So, what does this have to do with marketing? First of all, Conan O'Brien has managed to come out looking cleaner than a toothbrush at a Palin family reunion. When you google results regarding his dispute with Leno, you find tons of commentary and articles supporting him, putting him out there as the champion of the people, the underdog, the teabagger of comics.

While it's more than likely he will just appear on another network, there is also a chance that he will take this momentum and create something completely unique on the internet. Anything he does on the internet will immediately be covered with millions of links, tweets and AIMs - all pointing to his new project. With the NBC money that he is walking away with, he could easily just make his own website, his own comedy channel, his own comedy network and become very wealthy on just the buzz surrounding his name.

I sincerely believe that Conan knew exactly what was going to happen, and used the internet to his advantage. Many of his writers and publicity team are very modern, having grown up on the internet. They knew that if they needed good publicity they would only have to turn to the internet in order to get the point across.

They used social media to covertly create "I'm with CoCo" groups while at the same time constantly making sure there was new "buzz" to pass around on twitter. From posts on Craigslist of Conan selling himself to the highest bidder for favors to late night tweets from the writing staff to their fan base, they knew that they could always win the war with an audience - that frankly is a lot more internet savvy than the Leno fan base.

Anyone engaged in social media marketing, needs to look closely at how Conan did this, how he made it seem to be organic and natural and then allowed it to seemingly take its own course. He knew how to create buzz, but more importantly content for internet buzz fodder. He knew that the one-liners that could be posted on Twitter were a thousand times more powerful than any ten minute monologue that could be spoken by ...urhmm... that other guy.



About The Author
In perhaps the fastest growing industry ever, one person has made a name for himself as a leader and innovator. Pace Lattin, the publisher of the top newsletters in new media and online advertising, is one of the inventors of many of the technologies and methods that have become standards in the industry. He has been called many things, including a rabble-rouser, a guru, an innovator and a watchdog -- but one thing stays the same: he is one of the most interesting leaders and commentators in the online advertising industry. Marketing Sherpa, a leading marketing research publication called him the most influential journalist in online media for a reason. IndustryPace.com

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Digg's New API Allows Digging of Stories and Comments

By Chris Crum
Digg released a new version of the Digg API today, which lets developers write and contribute data via OAuth. This API supports the digging and burying of both stories and comments.


"In addition to the revamped API, we focused extensively on usability and have included an updated API documentation section on Digg with more detail on each API method including code and response examples," says Digg's Jeff Hodsdon. "Today’s changes, as well as our updates this summer to the API license, give developers much more freedom to create (and profit from) great new applications off the Digg platform."

"To help showcase some of the new functionality, we’ve created a reference app off the new API, a streamlined version of the Digg site called DiggLite, which can serve as a blueprint for any basic Digg-based application," Hodsdon adds. "It includes a river of the most recently popular stories, which can be Dugg and buried remotely, and the means of breaking things down by top-level topics. You can find it at digglite.com or download the source code on Github."






Developers interested in keeping updated on happenings with the Digg API can follow @diggapi on Twitter. Digg says it will communicate any API-related issues and downtime information through the Twitter account.


At first, only a limited number of beta testers will be able to create apps that can write data, using the new API. Digg is requiring developers interested in creating apps to send a brief description (along with their Digg username) to api@digg.com.

About the author:

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

Twitter: @CCrum237

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FTC Guidelines Raise Big Blogging Questions

By Chris Crum

Update 3: The new FTC Guidelines went into effect this week. A recent WebProNews interview with Wendy Piersall, Founder of the Woo! Jr. Network, looks at some interesting points about them that you may not have considered - some "gray areas" if you will.

Update 2:  Now Cleland says, "If people think that the FTC is going to issue them a citation for $11,000 because they failed to disclose that they got a free box of Pampers, that's not true. That's not going to happen today, not ever." (via)



Update: The FTC is now saying that the $11,000 fine is not accurate, at least for the first violation. Fast company got some responses from Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC, who says:


“That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law. To the extent that I have seen and heard, people are not objecting to the disclosure requirements but to the fear of penalty if they inadvertently make a mistake. That’s the thing I don’t think people need to be concerned about. There’s no monetary penalty, in terms of the first violation, even in the worst case. Our approach is going to be educational, particularly with bloggers. We’re focusing on the advertisers: What kind of education are you providing them, are you monitoring the bloggers and whether what they’re saying is true?” [empahsis added]


Cleland addresses more of the concerns here.



Original Article: The Federal Trade Commission has released its revised guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The revisions include a focus on "bloggers" and social media users, requiring them to properly disclose when they have received payment in the form of either money or product from a company or organization and produce content regarding said company or organization. The word is that bloggers can be fined up to $11,000 per post for not disclosing.



Have you ever mentioned a free product you received online and not disclosed it? Comment here.


The reasoning behind the guidelines seems noble enough - provide transparency and keep consumers safe from hokey information. However, the concept of the government dictating how this happens does not sit well with a lot of people. The revisions (which can be found in this 81 page document [pdf], should you care to peruse them [they start around page 55]) have ruffled quite a few feathers and the conversation has become one about free speech.


Well-known author/editor/publisher Jeff Jarvis makes a really good point. He says the FTC assumes that the Internet is a medium. "It’s not. It’s a place where people talk. Most people who blog, as Pew found in a survey a few years ago, don’t think they are doing anything remotely connected to journalism. I imagine that virtually no one on Facebook thinks they’re making media. They’re connecting. They’re talking," he says. "So for the FTC to go after bloggers and social media – as they explicitly do – is the same as sending a government goon into Denny’s to listen to the conversations in the corner booth and demand that you disclose that your Uncle Vinnie owns the pizzeria whose product you just endorsed."


It's not hard to find echoes of Jarvis's sentiment all over the web. Although, I don't believe I've seen it as eloquently put as with the Denny's analogy. Still, not everyone sees the FTC regulations as a bad thing. In fact, Google's Matt Cutts stepped into the conversation with Jeff Jarvis, expressing a bit more enthusiasm for the guidelines.


"As a Google engineer who has seen the damage done by fake blogs, sock puppets, and endless scams on the internet, I’m happy to take the opposite position: I think the FTC guidelines will make the web more useful and more trustworthy for consumers," he says. "Consumers don’t want to be shilled and they don’t want payola; they want a web that they can trust. The FTC guidelines just say that material connections should be disclosed. From having dealt with these issues over several years, I believe that will be a good thing for the web."


Commenters essentially tell Matt the whole thing would smell a lot better if he were the one regulating it. The reasoning for this is that Matt is involved with the industry. He is not a government worker that has been one his whole life. He's been in the field. He knows the score. The argument coming from most of the opposition is not about the fundamental principle of making content more trustworthy for consumers. At the root of it, it appears that people are much more concerned about a government body of regulators who aren't necessarily involved with online content production telling them how it is, when there are many, many questions about what falls under the criteria.


A number of these questions are nicely placed in an "open letter to the FTC" from Ron Hogan at MediaBistro's GalleyCat. Here are a few of them:

 

- If an unpaid blogger at the Huffington Post "endorses" a consumer product without meeting the FTC guidelines for disclosure of "material connections" to the makers of that consumer product, who's liable: the blogger or the Huffington Post?


-  If a blogger prints out a series of blog posts and distributes those printed copies, is he now the publisher of a newspaper or magazine? If so, the Village Voice is distributed for free, so can a blogger/publisher distribute his newspaper or magazine for free, too?


-  What if a blogger confines herself to stating demonstrably proven facts about a book, its author, its contents, and the matter of its publication? Does the FTC consider that an endorsement? What if she confines herself to stating such facts and includes links to an ecommerce site? Has her writing somehow been transformed from a statement of fact to an endorsement? 

There are plenty more where that came from. The list goes on. You can probably think of a few yourself. It may be hard for the guidelines to be enforced. The FTC does acknowledge that its guidelines aren't exactly the law themselves. The FTC says:

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

It should also be noted that the rules presumably apply to publications beyond bloggers and social media users, but for some reason it appears that "bloggers" are the ones with whom the FTC had on its collective mind when drafting these guidelines. You have to wonder if they are able to come up with a definition for "blogging" (others have had trouble in the past. Even those directly involved in the online content industry). The rules are scheduled to take effect on December 1st.
About the author:

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

Twitter: @CCrum237

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Gain Links Or Make Friends - Which is Better Online?

There's much to be said about the respective values of social media and SEO, both as individual entities and a collective. A cornerstone of search engine optimisation is linking, whilst social media is all about being, well, sociable. But which is better today?

That's very much a question that's open to debate, depending on who you asked, you could expect to hear a whole range of answers. Networking has become ingrained in the Internet marketer's psyche, building relationships whilst interacting with your fellow professionals and consumers. But can it really compete with building an impressive linking infrastructure when it comes to marketing your website online?

Let's start with the positives...



Both techniques work in very different ways. You build links by making requests, payments (only to the right people - directories and the sort) and creating content that causes a stir. Networking can of course help this process. When you get noticed by more people, they may be inclined to link to you; there's no guarantee of course, but social media is a way of raising a profile and showing off your expertise to the world - prime link bait conditions.

There are easy ways to get links and hard ways. Even if you create a fantastic blog, a great new piece of shareware or a stunning design, there's no guarantee that people will find you. Quality links are often those that happen organically, the kind of thing that you can't force. Article submission and press releases will guarantee at least one (sometimes more) link back to your site; whilst the every little helps strategy is a good one, that link can take time to gain and time is precious, particularly when the outcome doesn't quite justify the means.

Of course the main reason most people create an article or release, at least in an SEO capacity, is to get it picked up and syndicated across a number of sites. The dream ticket is a major news agency picking up a story on their newswire and sending it global; this of course is extremely rare. To do this, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be interesting and it needs to offer something new. Regurgitating the same stuff over and over again may save time, but that could well prove to be a false economy.

But once again we're thrust back into the realms of Web 2.0. If you want to get people talking about your content, you may first need to start shouting about it. Herein lies the weakness though of social media.


...Now for the negatives

There is still a cloud of mysticism that hangs over the social side of the Internet. Just how effective is it? If you have the time to dedicate to interact with the wider community day in day out, then the benefits can't be argued. Normal people have become celebrities, whilst the celebrities themselves have been out there growing legions of new fans. All very positive. But what is the value of a follower or a friend? Commenting on blogs, reciprocating tweets and conversing offers a fantastic community spirit; allowing users from all around the world to get involved in a continuous conversation.

What all this won't do, necessarily at least, is improve your site and its strength. You might get traffic, in fact you will almost certainly get traffic, but if this comes from the same basic group of people, none of whom have the slightest interest in using your business or buying your products, is it really worth the investment of time? Friends and followers aren't just an ego trip; it shows a level of influence and provides a wider sphere of influence. A strong linking strategy though goes further.

Every link you earn will join a wider group of inbound pointers. Google likes websites that people like pointing to. Therefore Google likes nothing more than a site with links going to all pages, coming from a variety of sources and in a natural fashion. Whilst there are dangerous links out there, toxic ones that will cause more damage than good, these can be avoided and banished if needs be.

Whether it's on a directory, bolted onto an article or has come from a respected source organically, the power of the link is hard to question. Aside from a permanent new gateway for targeted traffic to find you, it adds vital strength to your website's overall profile. PageRank maybe all but defunct, but that doesn't mean that links are treading the same path.



We would never discourage people from using social media; it has fantastic potential and is evolving all the time. But if website promotion and search engine marketing is what you're looking to do, the tried and trusted link may well prove a more constructive use of your time. It maybe a quieter way of going about things, anti-social even, but links get you seen on search engines and search engines get you seen by consumers.

Your online profile may ebb and flow, your popularity wane, but when you build a strong link profile you create stability and open the door to continued development. They are the foundation to any successful site; so whilst it's always nice to have flighty friends, the stability and long-term benefit of a link is still very much the method of choice for most.

Stephen Logan works as a Copywriter for leading Hampshire-based SEO Agency Impact Media. They offer a full range of search marketing solutions including expert Link Building services.

Author: http://www.site-reference.com/

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How You Use Social Media Can Kill Your Business

By Nicole Hernandez (c) 2009


The social media movement has expanded the number of people we can reach and connect with on a personal level. The new relationships and connections we create with people all over the world can have a profound effect on our personal and business growth. We learn about cultures and nations that we were, perhaps, previously ignorant of. None of this is a new concept, but what may be is how quickly you can destroy your business by using social media incorrectly.

Transparency is a Utopian Concept

Not too long ago, Michael Fortin wrote an article titled Don't Be Transparent, Be Authentic Instead. That article is an important read for any social media wrangling business blogger and you can search for it online.

That article is the tip of the iceberg in the concept of 'transparency' being too Utopian to work within the jaded confines of our society. Of course, true transparency is ideal. Many things about a perfect world are. Unfortunately, as a group, most of the world isn't ready or willing to accept true transparency without penalty.

When Transparency Fails

Let me give you a couple of examples of transparency failure we've seen.

Failure 1: We had a copywriter who was posting on Twitter about the work he was doing. He made several posts within a few hours which were ugly complaints about a client and how 'stupid' he felt that client was. We obviously considered this unacceptable and immediately removed him from our list of subcontractors, but think about this: If he was hoping to use Twitter to get more client work - how many potential clients just read that and thought... "I'm not going to risk being badmouthed on here, I'll find someone else." Everybody gets frustrated, but what if the client he was working on read that? Put it this way, if you wouldn't say it to your client directly - don't post it either.

Failure 2: We had a designer who was a day late returning her design phase work. When we contacted her, she said she had a family emergency the night before and was unable to send in her work because she wasn't home. A quick check on Facebook showed that she was actually out at a party that night and posted multiple times while drunk talking about how much she was drinking and even hinting at wanting to bring a man she met there home with her. Obviously, we relieved her of the design work, handed it to another designer who caught up on the time schedule, and didn't again work with her. In this case, people are allowed to have a life, we understand that. But if you cannot get your work done and have to lie about why - it's a problem. If you do not have enough class to not post details about your 'wild nights' to everybody on your social networks -- that's also a problem.

How We Monitor Social Media Conversations

My business has been around for over a decade and is very focused on client satisfaction and excellent treatment of our web design clients. We have a network of hundreds of copywriters, designers, and coders who work with us on projects. However, even with screening of those experts when they come on board with us - you don't always know someone until you have observed them over a long period of time.

That's why we monitor what they say online.

How do we do that? Well first we get as many of their social profiles as we can. Usually, we ask for a list of them. We've also found that most people won't provide them all. We then Google search the usernames of the ones they have given us because most people use the same usernames over and over. We also monitor blogs, and check for listings of social networks on those.

We have a system set up to consolidate all their social media comments into one master feed. That master feed can then be browsed directly to see what they're up to, but that's a lot of things to read each day. What we do is take the master feed, run it through a filter that creates two sub-feeds based on certain things we think are important to monitor. The first sub-feed is created by running the master list through a keyword & synonym filter that pulls out words related to business - for instance, "client" "business" "work" etc... The second sub-feed has a filter that runs their posts through a check for foul language and words like "sex" "drugs" "drunk" etc... There are hundreds of words in each filter.

Seem a bit 'big brother'? It probably is - but reputation and client treatment is very important to us.

Here's the thing: If we can read it and you can lose work with us over it... how many POTENTIAL clients did you lose also?

7 Ways to Edit Yourself

We're not suggesting you stop having a life and stop making mistakes. You can post about those things and it simply makes you a more interesting person to read about. Just use common sense:

• If you wouldn't say it to a client or boss - don't say it where they can read it either.

• If you wouldn't say it to your grandmother - don't say it on your public posts.

• If you wouldn't say it to a police officer - don't post it on your social networks. For that matter, don't do it either.

• If you plan to lie to your boss - don't put the truth where they can see it.

• If you plan to go out and get drunk and know you have a tendency to post while drunk - give your phone to a friend to keep for you.

• Learn how to use privacy settings and understand how visible your posts are on different social networks.

• If you want a place to vent - create a completely different identity for yourself to do that. Name no names in your posts, and make no connection to your other profiles or email addresses.

Consider it all part of Internet Etiquette. Social networks are great to hear more personal things about someone and we encourage people to share a bit of themselves online (using normal cautions etc..). In the long run, full transparency is too Utopian for our modern world to handle well. We're still at a point in our societal growth that when someone seriously calls a client an idiot - they tend to get a bit upset about it.

About The Author
Nicole Hernandez is a web developer with a specialty in web standards and accessibility. She is the owner of Website Style and publishes technical articles on her blog called Beyond Caffeine.

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Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks you a basic question, "What are you doing?" It allows anyone with an account to write up to 140 characters in a text field as a means to update, comment, promote or communicate to others who are "following" you. When people follow you, they see what you've recently contributed when they login. They see your "tweets", which are the messages you leave.

And of course you can follow others who tweet about the things that interest you. As an Internet marketer you may want to follow other Internet marketers, for example.

Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you'll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful.



It's important that you don't abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you'll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag.

Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promo. It acts sort of like a mass emailíng blast to your house email list, but it's a heck of a lot easier and faster. This is the power of Twitter.

One thing that I've noticed with Twitter is that it can seem overwhelming at times. The sheer information on Twitter, the 'how-to's', tutorials and all the other ubiquitous advice on how to use and take advantage of it can seem hard to understand and implement. So here's an easy-to-understand list of the top ten ways in which you can use Twitter to market yourself, your business and your website.

The Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter for Marketing:

1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)

2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you'll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.

3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?

• You'll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they're selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?

• Since every link has 'http' in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.



4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your house email list. Invite these people to join.

5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.

6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.

7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.


8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you're at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you're doing and invite people to visit you in person.


9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.


10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep you and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.

By Jason OConnor (c) 2009

You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven't already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.


And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don't only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.






About The Author
Jason OConnor is a Web consultant. He writes for The Net Gazette, a Web marketing newsletter, and owns Oak Web Works, LLC, a Web design and marketing company.

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Understanding News Feed Differences With Facebook And Twitter

By Robert Scoble

Facebook yesterday turned on a bunch of new features on its news feed ( here is TechCrunch's writeup of the new features).



It looks a lot more like FriendFeed, even though Facebook claims that the FriendFeed team didn't work on these new features.

What does it do? Now Facebook mostly displays items that got engagement. You know, comments. Likes. Tagging. Etc.

This makes Facebook much more useful because you only see the items that your friends have found important enough to comment on or "touch" in some way.

Overnight my news feed went from something that looked pretty cold and lame to something that has tons of "warmth."

I am SO GLAD I deleted most of the people I had friended on Facebook and went down to a core group of people because I'm getting some pretty good items there now.

But I notice it now has the thing that most of my friend's hated about FriendFeed: there are people on my feed I didn't invite all of a sudden.


Here's how that happens.

Let's say I'm a friend of Maryam Scoble, my wife.

I see all her items. That is cool. But it also displays me any of HER FRIENDS who comment on her items. I might not care to read her friends' opinions on politics or whatever. But I can't easily get rid of them.

Twitter, on the other hand, doesn't have comments. So you can't easily have a back and forth conversation about something like you can over on FriendFeed or Facebook. But it has a HUGE advantage: I only see items from people I invited to get on my home screen.

That is a HUGE advantage for controlling noise and for keeping yourself productive. Especially after you get Twitter's new lists feature, which lets you split your contacts up into separate pages (I have a page of just Venture Capitalists, for instance, which is a completely different feed from my page of tech journalists).

This is the biggest difference now between Twitter and Facebook and is one that keeps rubbing in that on Twitter you should follow lots of people and brands that you care about, while on Facebook you should follow only people you REALLY care about because they will drag into your view all THEIR friends and that will make your feed noisier and less valuable.

Hope your friends choose their friends carefully.

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Social Networking for Business Guide

By Erica Erwin (c) 2009

It seems like there's an over-abundance of social sites nowadays. For a newbie, it can be quite intimidating when first joining a network or two and building a community. A handful of questions may run through your head:

• Which networks to join?
• How to participate?
• What's enough, or too much?
• How will it help my business?

So, to answer some of these, I'd like to present my "Social Media For Dummies" overview. First, a quick recap of my favorite networks and what they're about.

Facebook - The ultimate platform for keeping up with (stalking) friends. I joined Facebook way back in 2005, you know, when it was just for college students and before you could even share photos (gasp!). I've witnessed the evolution of this mega-network over the years, and it has become, not only the 4th largest website in the world, but the best place to find people, keep up with them, and inform them. It is the son of Classmates.com on every possible steroid ever ingested by humans. The ability to share and communicate with friends and colleagues is seamless. Overall, Facebook is a great place to start your social networking endeavors.

LinkedIn - A must-have in every business person's arsenal of tools. If you are (or hoping to be) in business of any sort, LinkedIn is a great place to set up shop. Very similar to Facebook, minus the annoying applications, plus job postings and resumes. This is where you network with those in your industry, join groups, research companies, and prospect clients. Build your credentials by asking colleagues for recommendations or head to the "Q&A" section to provide advice.

Twitter - Share, Learn, Meet. I wouldn't be surprised if Webster adds a new definition for "tweet" this year. Within the first half of 2009, Twitter has gone from nearly 5 million users to over 23 million. It is the social media platform of choice at Fortune 100 companies. Easily share links, pictures, videos, articles... Oh, and personal updates... with followers. Twitter is kind of like the cocktail party of social networks. Here, you can easily reach out to strangers by tuning in to their tweets or quickly replying to them. A limited amount of customization keeps annoying advertisements and outlandish profiles at bay, unlike the outdated MySpace.

Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, reddit, etc. - Social Bookmarking to share and store your favorite links. You just read an article over at NYT.com that you loved. Use one or more of these bookmarking sites to share it with the world. Looking for information or articles on a certain subject? Head to one of these sites and search your topic, you'll be able to peruse a list of articles or sites that others have found useful or interesting. Not only are these great for sharing, but storing sites for later use as well. Say you have a home desktop, a netbook for travel, and a work computer... customize your bookmarks and easily access them on each computer without updating each machine.

FriendFeed - All of your networks in one place. FriendFeed lets you put all of your networks in one big stream. Users can see your Facebook status, latest Tweet, pictures posted on Flickr, blog post, bookmarked article and much more when they follow your feed. Much like Twitter, but a whole lot more.

These are the networks that I tend to spend most of my time on and are probably some of the key ingredients that should be in the pot. Every person and business is different and may need to change their recipe accordingly, but the key to all of these is to contribute and become a part of the conversation.

Now What?

So, now that we've covered some of the major players in the social networking field, it's time to discover how we can use them. As a person in business, especially an industry with a significant amount of its target market online (which is really all of them now), you've got to understand that these networks are an integral part of their lives. Just like in previous decades where television commercials were considered a major part of any advertising/marketing plan because every one watched TV... now, as many are leaving cable in the dust and turning to the Internet for their information and entertainment, it's more crucial than ever to join the ranks of the digital pioneers.

However, the people using these networks are smart. They don't fall for blatant advertising traps like they used to. They want to know that there's something in it for them. If your product isn't it and that's all you're talking about on Twitter, then they'll ignore you. Social networks aren't about advertising - they're about building relationships.

Say you run a small business, maybe you own a restaurant, a clothing boutique, a PR firm or a chiropractic firm... What is in it for you?

• Take a look at your customers or clients when they're in your office or store. Are they on their iPhone or Blackberry checking email? Did they mention finding you online? Did they hear about you from a friend? If you can answer "yes" to any of those questions, then you're missing out on connecting with your customers and should probably put on a pot of coffee, cause you're going to be here for a while.

• Social media is a chance to be at your market's finger tips when they look at their phone or get online in a friendly and non-obtrusive way.

• You can quickly address customer service issues by communicating directly with the customer.

• Prospect new clients.

• Learn about trends in your industry, stay up-to-date with competition and network with power players in your industry.

• Provide existing customers incentives, coupons or interesting information to keep them tuned in to your brand.

Many people will pay thousands of dollars trying to get these things with traditional techniques. Social media is free... despite, of course, any operating costs like time and possibly design fees to add a professional touch. You need to be on here... Do a Google News search for "small business social media". BusinessWeek, LA Times, NY Times will be some of the publications insisting you buck up and make it happen.

How to Participate Effectively:

• Do not start a social media campaign if your intention is free advertising. No one will listen and you will waste your time. Period.

• Take a minute and figure out what you want to get out of being involved in social networks. Research how other businesses have been successful. Make a plan. Mashable is a great place to learn about social media.

• Twitter is a great place to find people in your area, geographically or by industry, and interact with them. Start a conversation, always give if you ever want to receive and don't constantly advertise. No one likes spam... so don't spam your followers with pleas to go to your website or go into business with you. Provide your followers a coupon or discount if you're hoping for business from them... Keep them up-to-date on any changes to your menu or services... Share fun pictures from happy customers... Follow-up with an unhappy customer or use your competition's bad customer service as a great way to introduce you into their lives. Just remember to keep it real, be you, because every one wants to know that there's a human behind your username.

• Facebook is generally most successful for companies with a large following or customer base. But that doesn't mean you should skip it... create a personal profile so you can network with friends and family. By being there, you can instantly share things about your business with people who already like you and will probably listen more than the average stranger. By keeping your brand in their mind, they'll be more likely to spread the word and pass you along to their friends, and so on. Word of mouth, my friends...

• LinkedIn is a must for anyone in business. Very straightforward here, like a virtual resume on steroids. It's always good to network with past and present colleagues and continue to build relationships, because you don't know when you may need them or vice versa.

Last Words: Keep your brand consistent among all of the networks you decide to join. Monitor your brand using tracking tools. And remember to Collaborate, Communicate, and Participate.

About The Author
Erica works with marketing online, social media and public relations for a small-business improvement firm. Visit: www.webplus5.com www.businessways.com

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Is Twitter Still Important To Businesses?

By Lydia Mazorol

It's funny that so many really think that Twitter only started this year. It was actually founded back in 2006 and most professional internet marketers, search enthusiasts and regular bloggers were playing with it from the start.

Business associates and clients know that I have suggested using Twitter for business starting back in 2007 (I like to play and test things before I recommend it to anyone). And, I still get the question "Is Twitter just a Fad?"

My best answer to that is emphatically "NO"! If we take the hypothetical and suggest that Twitter is, in fact, going to go away, I am willing to bet you big money (cash only, please) that there will be something almost exactly like it that would take its place. Think about it...Twitter is currently one of the best forms of online real-time information available right now. We have all seen the impact of this online form of information, good, bad or ugly and, I believe, we will continue to look for it in some form or another, through means of Twitter or other. If Twitter were to suddenly go away, something else would follow suit immediately and without question.

What that means to the online industry is that we all need to know how this sort of information works, how we can make it better, how we can control it, and, basically, how we continue to use it. This real-time form of communication, made celebrity-status by Twitter, is a fundamental way in which we now communicate online.

Twitter, Twitter applications, the Twitter brand ... who knows what will happen with this independent company, maybe Google or Microsoft will be looking to talk to them ( http://www.dbtechno.com/internet/2009/10/08/twitter-in-talks-with-microsoft-and-google/), hmmm?! - But, the way we have learned to interact online in this quick, easy, real-time fashion will never go away. It may change slightly and hopefully it will only get better. My job as an Internet Marketing professional will only be enhanced by this. Allowing me yet another avenue to help businesses and clients learn to communicate online in effective, engaging and appropriate ways. It gives me, and everyone online, additional ways to rank, market products or services, branding options... and make money that pays my bills!

We have gotten used to getting our information "now", updated regularly and always current. I don't see the Twitter bird flying off anytime soon - colors or names may change but the function will not. We should look to continually learn more about real-time functions and tools AND keep on the understanding that this type of real-time information is as an added benefit to business, not just a passing fad!


Here's a great video of stats and other info pertaining to various social channels (it supports my thoughts [wink]) from Socialnomics.net on the Social Media Revolution:


So, bottom line...go get started, get used to using and incorporating some of the real-time tools we now have access to. Twitter, for now, is a really cool one to check out.

---

About the Author:
Lydia is head Chief Technical Officer and founder of Search Visible Websites. Her Internet background spans more years than she wants to admit to! She has watched the public access of the Internet grow and develop and learned the art and science of white-hat SEO from the ground up.

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