Trying to comprehend, much less ‘use’ all of the various social media websites and services
for marketing purposes can be daunting, but each can provide a unique boost to your business. Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites, and for good reason.
Most people don’t sit around reading tweets, (I just received over 300 tweets in the last 15 minutes) but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that your tweets will be seen by more and more people depending on how many followers you develop. Obviously, the more followers you acquire, the more valuable Twitter will be to your business or cause. More on developing large numbers of followers in a moment…
Twitter is not just about sending a message to your followers. You can integrate Twitter effectively into your blogs or websites in several ways. One of my favorites is a plug-in that adds motion to the side of your site by scrolling 30 of your latest tweets continually. So everyone who comes to your blog, without being one of your Twitter followers, can see your Tweets with the message and blog link you sent to your followers. (Look to the right of this blog to see what I’m talking about) When you understand how valuable this could be, your marketing imagination should kick into an even higher gear!
Also, you can include Twitter icons in your blog for readers to click, which will tweet your blog post to their followers. If your article is different enough, and truly offers value, then it can become highly viral and spread to hundreds and thousands of people beyond your own list of Twitter followers. Look again to the right and you’ll see Twitter, Facebook, and other links in a vertical column that will send this post to your followers. You can add this feature to your WordPress blog in a matter of a few moments – simple as pie!
As your marketing efforts mature, you will be inter-connecting a variety of sites and services that each have their unique purpose and benefits. To repeat, Twitter is certainly an integral cog in your overall strategy. You can use it to tremendous benefit, although value will only occur over time.
So, don’t be overwhelmed. The process doesn’t take place overnight. Nope, it’s one step at a time, and soon you’ll be in contact with thousands and thousands of people.
Gaining more Twitter followers: You can simply go to someone’s Twitter page you admire or like, and see the list of who they are following and/or who follows them. You can easily “follow” any of those people you want to – people who seem interesting or who have similar interests. Many, will in turn, choose to follow you back. Later, you can “cull” the list of those you followed, who have not followed you back, if you like.
The more value you see in utilizing Twitter in your marketing campaigns, the more importance you will attach to growing a bigger list! You can follow people one at a time, but that is a very slow process. An alternative is to find a Twitter service that automatically adds followers. There is nothing unethical about building your list this way. Followers don’t have to be former friends. One such service, among many, that seems to be gaining traction is: TweepFollow: http://tweepfollow.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=305
TweepFollow not only provides followers, it also has a generous affiliate program that if you will promote it / share it, you should be able to recover the 29.00/mth service charge in reasonable time, and then create positive cash flow. We’re testing it now and will report our results in real numbers in the next few weeks.
Get excited about building your Internet presence via various sites and services. Be diligent, and your results will pay off!
Next – Mobile Marketing & Advertising is sizzling hot, and will be the next wave. If you are serious about your marketing, I encourage you to go ahead and get a Smart Phone if you don’t have one already (iPhone, Blackberry, etc). We’ll cover some of the basics of this incredibly hot trend soon in an upcoming post…