I do wonder at times if some Twitter users have any time to get any work done. Several of the more prolific ones that I follow swear they spend no more than 30 minutes a day on Twitter, but I really find that hard to believe. Many times it seems they are twittering just to say something, like ‘Good morning Twitterverse’ when they begin their day, give more details than I want to know about what they had for lunch, what their children said to them, or when they take a nap.
I realize that this is part of the ‘like, know, and trust’ process that enables people to get to know each other, but sometimes it’s simply too much information..LOL. I’m Twittering primarily to market my business. Consequently, I try and limit my personal twitters to no more than 2 per day. My clients, who create Twitter accounts for marketing, as well, tell me, ‘I’m signed up. Now what in the world do I Twitter about? How do I market my business with this tool?’
Here are 10 strategies that I use regularly to market my business and my expertise via Twitter. Remember, you have only 140 characters for your tweet (Twitter post).
1. How you’re helping clients. Talk about specific ways that your business helps clients and use their Twitter ID if you have their permission, i.e. ‘Just finished @clientname brainstorm great Internet marketing plan for 2009″ or ‘Finally finished setting up Quickbooks for local hardware store — now they can invoice their clients’
2. What you’re doing in your business. This is a perfect time to tell others when you’re blogging, writing an article, creating your weekly ezine, recording your podcast, i.e. ‘Had great interview with Jane Smith today on speaking to grow your biz. Great ideas! Subscribe to podcast & listen here (URL here)’
3. Useful tool or resource you’ve found. I run across these all the time in my daily activities, and Twitter is a perfect place to share,. i.e. ‘Found great new Firefox plug-in to monitor & check multiple Gmail accounts at same time at (URL here)’ or ‘Read great blog post on workíng at home with kids under 5 at (URL here)’
4. Ask a question. Need some ideas or some quick brainstorming? Twitter is an ideal place to gather opinions, i.e. ‘Help! Desperately seeking new laser prínter. Recommendations?’ or ‘How do I find training organizations online?’
5. Conduct a survey. What do your Tweeps think about a particular issue? Ask them via Twitter, i.e. ‘Quick poll: Do you get more clients from Facebook or Twitter? Respond at (URL here)’
6. Report on live events. The latest Twitter trend seems to be tweeting what’s happening at conferences or workshops. In order for Twitter users to follow a particular event, it’s usually referred to by a name preceded by a # sign, as in #JVAlert, for example, to make it simpler for people who want to follow those posts. So, if you were at an event, you might tweet ‘#JVAlert John Smith speaking on affiliate programs. Just got great idea on training affiliate managers!’ Just don’t get so wrapped up in tweeting that you ignore the content delivered in the conference!
7. Product or service launch. If you’re about to launch a new product or introduce a new product, let your Twitter followers know, i.e. ‘Pre-launch pricing for new DVD set about how baby boomers can start an online biz. Get $100 early bird discount at (URL here)’
8. Responding to others with advice or answers. The way to build professional relationships on Twitter is to help your tweeps. So, if someone asks a question, comments about something to which you have a response or an idea, or you want to ask a followup question, this is the perfect place to do so.
By Donna Gunter (c) 2008
”
(Via KDI Media : Savannah, GA.)
Everyone knows about the major social networking accounts: Facebook, Myspace and now the surge of Twitter. People often choose one of these 3 top sites because it has the most users or their friends are already there.
However, these social networks are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other social networks, some more geographically based and some interest based. So how many are enough? Which ones should you make sure you’re using.
The open ocean of social networks is vast. CNET recently annouced that the ‘build-your-own-social networking site’ Ning, now boasts 22 million registered users and one million different social networks within the site. The social rating and networking site Digg continues to grow with close to 10 million unique visitors per month. And the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon has 7.5 million registered users.
These numbers don’t even account for the many smaller social networking sites that are popular in Europe and Asia and the niche sites that are interest-based — LinkedIn for the business crowd, fuzzster for petlovers, Model Mayhem for models and photographers, TikiCentral for lovers of Polynesian Pop and so on. All these sites, though different in their approach, are social in nature. So which ones should you use? All of them? Just one of them?
Before answering these questions, it’s important first to ask what is your goal with social networking. Business? School? Marketing? Networking?
If you’re using social networking just to keep up with friends and family, then you’re best sticking with Facebook. Facebook now features 200 million users, which means there’s a much higher likelihood that your friends and family are going to be on Facebook, compared to other sites.
However, if you’re looking to connect with a specific demographic, then you should find out which social networking sites they use. This could mean attaching yourself to one of Facebook’s Fan pages or you may need to seek out a niche site as mentioned above. Ask yourself this question: Where do my people congregate online?
This doesn’t mean you should sign up for 10 social networking sites! Social networking takes time and effort. Unless they have a dedicated Social Media Manager, most small businesses or individual ventures don’t have time to keep up with this many sites. You’ll be spread too thin and will never really become a member of any site.
Therefore, stick to a limited number of sites. Two to three social networking sites is a pretty safe number. This keeps you from being spread too thin — although you’ll still probably find yourself ‘playing favorites’ and devoting more of your time to one of them.
How many social networking accounts do you have? Is it more than 10? Should there be a standard number?
(Via Tutorial Blog.)
Free, Legal and Online: Why Hulu Is the New Way to Watch TV
“What’s a hulu? In August 2007, this question ricocheted through the blogosphere to a chorus of derisive laughter. Fox and NBC were going to make the Internet safe for television! They were building a ‘YouTube killer’! And they were calling it Hulu! It was almost too perfect—an absurdist topper to the idea that two major broadcast networks could devise an Internet video service people would actually use. The name was even more delicious than the venture’s placeholder moniker, NewCo., which the online world had changed to Clown Co. And now Hulu? It means ‘snoring’ in Chinese, one blogger declared. ”Cease’ and ‘desist’ in Swahili,’ Michael Arrington reported on TechCrunch. ‘Perhaps they should have just stuck with Clown Co.,’ he added.
Jason Kilar read these posts and winced. A 36-year-old ex-Amazon.com executive newly relocated to Los Angeles, Kilar had followed—even admired—many of these bloggers for years. Now he was Hulu’s CEO, and their ridicule wasn’t so funny.
What’s a Hulu? Kilar had gotten the same question from Jeff Zucker, chief of NBC Universal, and Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation, Fox’s corporate parent. In English it means nothing. In Mandarin, when pronounced another way, it means not snoring but ‘bottle gourd,’ which, in an old Chinese proverb, stands for a ‘holder of precious things.’ If you say so, they responded.
Even Kilar was starting to wonder whether he could make this thing work. Along with the new name, he had just announced that Hulu, which he had been running for only seven weeks, would launch in beta in two months—much later than expected but far too soon for a team that had barely gotten started. He was heading an operation of 20 people holed up in an office suite in West LA. To meet the deadline, he had turned the place into a bunker: Newspapers covered every window. People were sleeping on air mattresses on the floor. Half-eaten pizzas littered the empty cubicles. Fruit flies were the only visitors.
But Kilar would make it work. He and his crew would emerge from their dismal cave with the sleekest, easiest-to-use, most professional video site on the Internet. Not only would it deliver shows and movies from Fox and NBC Universal, it would take you to programs from every other major network and studio. Full-length episodes. Entire seasons. For free. Within months of that late-August announcement, Hulu would be among the top 10 US video sites in number of clips streamed. Om Malik, one…
(Via Wired News.)
Always have your stuff when you need it with @