All Entries in the "Microblogging" Category

The Blog Writing One-Two Punch

I used to call a combination of blog writing and article writing for Internet marketers a powerful one-two punch. While it can still be a powerful marketing puglistic combination, I’ve discovered one that is even more powerful – the blog-Twitter punch.

Savvy Internet marketers have discovered that Twitter is one powerful traffic driving machine. But if you use Twitter for delivering the hard sell, it likely won’t do much for you. Twitterers who are successful at using Twitter to drive traffic to their blog then to their website are doing it by using Twitter as a reputation tool to draw followers to themselves then to drive those followers to their blog and website where they can close the sale. It’s powerful targeted marketing. Have you set up your Twitter account yet?

Will Google Introduce Real-Time Search?

It’s been rumored for awhile. Twitter will knock down Google. Google will buy Twitter. The two will marry and live happily ever after. Yada yada yada

OK, let’s get real. Loic Le Meur, founder and CEO of Seesmic, asked Larry Page what he thought about real-time search. The Page said he thought it was a good idea. Actually, it something like, “Yeah, I know, Twitter’s kicking our ass, but I need to look good so I’m going to say we’ve always needed it and now those pogues down in future product development are agreeing with me now that they see Twitter kicking our asses.”

Or something along those lines any way.

So the big question is, will Google develop a real-time search engine? Will it use semantic technology? How will its ranking algorithms be structured? Will domain age go away? Will blogs benefit?

Stay tuned. More to come.

Is Twitter A Blogger’s Best Friend?

Should you be on Twitter? Should you have a Twitter account? I think you should. But there are other reasons to use Twitter. Even if you aren’t a Twitterer yourself, you can use Twitter as a blogger to help you come up with topics to write about. This ability plus the use of Twitter to promote your blog posts is a very powerful combination.

CNET recently reported that Twitter Search is adding the ability to crawl links, making Twitter Search an actual real-time search engine. That means in addition to finding the latest tweets on a given topic you can also find the latest blog posts and other information published online by conducting a Twitter Search. While I wouldn’t abandon Google just yet, this does add a level of competition between Twitter and Google. In terms of real-time search, Twitter wins.

Of course, Twitter hasn’t officially announced the availability of this technology or started allowing users to search the entire Internet. But when it does then every blogger would benefit by using Twitter to promote their blog posts. Twitter will likely the the way that future searchers use to find information right now, the most recently published information, on a topic of interest. And you’ll want to be there.

Have You Started Your Twitter Opt-In List Yet?

In the past, savvy Internet marketers would build an e-mail subscriber list and send out periodic e-mails to that list. It was a great marketing tool because all you needed was an autoresponder, a little tool that sent out all your e-mails on a prescheduled calendar. You wrote up all your e-mails at one time, loaded them into your autoresponder and set it on autopilot. That was it.

Today, Twitter can do the same thing except that your prescheduled messages have a 140-character limit. That’s OK. You can use free tools at your disposal to make this happen. Here’s how:

• Sign up for a Twitter account
• Open up an account at Tweetlater
• Promote your Twitter account like crazy
• Sign in to your Tweetlater account and presechedule your tweets. You can schedule minutes, hours, days, or weeks ahead. Write out your tweets and schedule them at time intervals that you feel appropriate for your list.
• Build value into your Twitter list by adding tweets between scheduled messages.

That’s about it. Now you have a Twitter opt-in list that you can use for marketing purposes. Need help setting it up? Call us.

Is TwitWall Another Blog Platform?

TwitWall is a standalone social application for Twitter. If you have a Twitter account you are automatically set up with a TwitWall even though you may never use it. I wonder how many Twitterers do not even know they have a TwitWall. I just discovered mine a couple of weeks ago.

The point behind TwitWall is that you can say more than the 140 character limit that Twitter enforces. Good idea, but why not just write it on your blog? Then you use can use Twitter Tools to post the link to Twitter from your blog?

There is a practical reason for using TwitWall. It does appear to be just another blogging platform, but I don’t write to mine every day. Just when I have something unique to say that I really only care that my Twitter audience reads. TwitWall does have some advantages though. No. 1, when you write to TwitWall, your blog post automatically Twitters instantly. Just like Twitter Tools. But it’s also social and accessible to every other Twitterer with a TwitWall. Therein is your advantage.

If you have a strong Twitter following, you can use TwitWall to go into greater depth about some of your tweets. But don’t do it too often. Another reason to use TwitWall is you can target specific types of Twitterers who can find you through TwitWall and follow you based on your TwitWall postings. It’s just another way to reach the right people for your niche. Just don’t overdo it.

Visit my TwitWall.
Follow me on Twitter.

7 Twitter Tools For Bloggers

If you aren’t on Twitter yet then you are way behind. Twitter is one of the best tools for bloggers. You can drive so much traffic to your blog from Twitter and many of your followers are targeted traffic and will be repeat visitors. You can actually start relationships with people like you on Twitter and end up doing business with them.

Mashable recently posted about 100 tools for Twitterers and on their list are 6 tools specifically for bloggers. Here is Mashable’s list:

95. Add to Any: Get your posts shared on Twitter by using Add to Any on your WordPress blog.
96. TwitThis: Make use of this plugin to send Twitter messages about your blog post.
97. MyTwitter: Use the MyTwitter plugin to display your Twitter status on WordPress.
98. Twitpress: Twitpress will send out a Tweet every time you post a new blog entry.
99. TwitterCounter: With this plugin, you can display the number of followers you have on Twitter.
100. TwitterFeed: Announce your blog post on Twitter with a customized message using TwitterFeed.

I would add one more Twitter tool to this list. It’s called Twitter Tools, a WordPress plugin that allows you to tweet your blog posts and turn your blog posts into tweets. At the end of each day Twitter Tools will compile a mashup of your tweets and post them as one post on your blog. It’s a cool tool and I highly recommend it.

How To Promote Your Blog Posts Through Twitter

There are ever increasing ways to promote your blog posts today. Twitter is another tool that you can use to promote your blog. Here are a few ways to use Twitter to promote your blog posts:

• Open your Twitter account in your blog’s name
• Link to your blog from your Twitter profile
• Install Twitter Tools and set your settings to post a tweet for your blog posts
• Send your tweets from your blog using Twitter Tools
• Set your Twitter Tools settings to post a blog post every time you tweet
• Use the daily tweet rollup feature in Twitter Tools
• Send a tweet with a link to your latest blog post
• DM your Twitter friends and ask them to retweet your blog promotion tweet
• Ask your social networking friends to tweet your newest blog entry
• When you comment on other blogs, include a link to your Twitter profile

Twitter is becoming a powerful force in online marketing. I highly recommend it for every blogger.

Don’t have a blog? Learn how to get a blog for your business today.

Promote Your Blog Through Twitter

Twitter is fast becoming the best way to market your blog. Through Twitter you can promote your blog and your static website easily and widely. You don’t even have to spam Twitter to do it. Follow these tips for the best blog marketing through Twitter:

• Place a link to your blog in your Twitter profile
• Use Twitter Tools to post your tweets from your blog
• Set your Twitter Tools settings to create a new blog post for every tweet
• Have Twitter Tools provide a daily update of your tweets
• Put a widget on your blog promoting your tweets
• Link your Twitter profile to your Facebook profile so that your Facebook status changes on every Twitter update
• Set your Twitter Tools plugin to tweet every time you post a new blog post
• Tweet often, not just when you post to your blog
• Reply to tweets by others
• Use Twitter to establish and build relationships; that leads to new readers

Some bloggers have replaced their blog with Twitter. I say keep your blog and use Twitter to add new readers to your blog. Make Twitter a part of your marketing funnel.

Learn more about how you can use Twitter and a blog – consult with a professional blog consultant.

Twitter Tips: Just A Little Friendly Advice

After Twittering for a couple of months I’ve got a few tips on how to best use Twitter for some effective marketing:

• First, add valuable information, not trivia
• Shorten your long URLs because you only have 140 characters
• Don’t spam – you won’t get link juice from your tweets any way
• Don’t make your tweets short sales come ons
• Be selective choosing your friends and the people you follow
• Manage your time; it’s addicting
• Don’t follow everyone who follows you
• Don’t just click on any link; some people hide malware with short URLs
• Brand yourself with your company name as your Twitter profile
• Block spammers

Twitter is a useful tool, but it is a tool. Know its limitations and don’t expect miracles. You can increase your reach with Twitter, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

Brought to you by Blog Content Provider.

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Twitter Tools: The Automatic Way To Microblog

Microblogging has become all the craze and Twitter is the leader in this realm. What is microblogging? If you do it the Twitter way, you write a little post of 140 characters or less. Twitter Tools is a WordPress plugin that automatically tweets your blog post when you post it. The message appears like thus:

namecritic New blog post: Disaster Aid: What Are You Entitled To? http://tinyurl.com/5urc56

It’s starts with your Twitter name, followed by “New blog post” and a short description with the URL to the post linked as a Tinyurl. Beautiful!

With Twitter Tools you can have one Twitter post automatically done every day with no effort. All of your followers will see it and the more followers you have the better off you will be to market your blog. But you have to have a Twitter account.