Does Your Company Twitter? 10 Tips To Become A Great Business “Twit”

Posted on April 5, 2010 by cgseo

What do you think of when I mention Twitter? Do you think about teenagers posting what color socks their wearing to school today? Or do you think about the sales/conversions your company makes by utilizing these accounts? Social media is a fantastic way to increase your brand exposure. By creating a successful Twitter account you essentially have a direct line to your customers. Utilize the following tips to gain “followers” and to maximize your company’s Twitter experience. 1. Carefully Choose Your Twitter User Name Make sure you put some thought into what username you want to use on Twitter. Do you want to use your company name, brand name, or your full name? Each one of these types of user names has an advantage, for instance we use @DKS_Systems for our Twitter user name. @billgates chose to use his real name even though he is the founder of his company Microsoft. It’s up to you; decide which one is the best fit for your company. 2. Your Twitter Image Your Twitter image is what everyone will see next to your username. Every time you publish a tweet people will see this image. Does it make sense to put your company’s logo as the image? Alternatively you can post a picture of yourself. Considering Twitter is a social network I like to suggest that everyone posts a picture of themselves. This I believe adds more of a community feel and less of a B2B connection. I find that it’s easier to get people to follow your account with a personal picture than a company logo. This is an issue you can always test as Twitter easily allows you to update your picture within your account settings. 3. Twitter Profile Optimization The search engines will index your Twitter profile so it’s important to optimize as much as you can. Below are a couple fields you can change to help your profiles search rankings. Title Tag – This is your “Name” followed by your Twitter user name. Meta Description – Google shows your profiles “BIO” as your meta description. So keep in consideration whatever you type here is what will show up in the search engines. Your website URL – take the www out of your URL. This way people can see more of the actual web address. Twitter only shows 17 characters. Our website address just makes the cut and shows “http://dkssystems” 4. Customize Your Twitter Background Twitter allows you to create and display your own custom background. Create a background image that displays more information about your company! (I will freely admit that I too really need to work on this tip!) This is by far the best resource I can point you to on how to create the best Twitter background for your account. 5. Be careful who you follow You may not have any control over who follows your account however you do have full control over who you choose to follow. Don’t follow any accounts that you wouldn’t be willing to explain to your boss or even your clients. I have never seen this being an issue however it would be a real shame to lose a sale/client over you choosing to follow a specific political candidate or questionable celebrity. This tip doesn’t apply to every user; however it’s something to keep in the back of your mind. 6. Use Hash Tags In Your Tweets It’s very important that you use Twitter just like everyone else on the website. #hashtags help categorize your tweet in with a specific topic. If you’re talking about SEO you might want to consider adding #SEO at the end of your tweet. This way anyone who is searching for “SEO” tweets will find yours in the results. 7. Don’t Spam People Who Follow You! Remember how I suggested that you be careful who you follow on Twitter? If you send out ten tweets in a one minute period your followers are going to be annoyed. If you annoy them enough they may just un-follow your account. You need to publish your tweets sparingly. I would suggest a couple of tweets an hour at most. This is just a general rule and is something you will need to figure out as you get use to your Twitter account. 8. It’s Not All About Business Don’t bombard your followers with your company’s products and or offers. Twitter is a virtual hang out space for everyone. If someone in real life got in your face and tried to make you buy something wouldn’t you avoid them each time you saw them on the street? However, if one of your “buddies” suggested you go see the latest movie or buy a certain product wouldn’t you take it into a little more consideration? Make sure to tweet about everything. The color of your socks, your amazing fast food lunch, and a funny joke someone told you etc. After several of these posts you can slide one or two tweets advertising your product or service. 9. Think Before You Speak… I Mean Tweet How many times have you read in the news about a celebrity or a successful business person putting their foot in their mouth? People don’t always think before they tweet. Twitter is not a place for you to complain about your clients or customers. You don’t want to say anything that will sabotage your brand or company either. My rule of thumb is before I submit a tweet I ask if my boss would be ok with reading this. If I think it’s questionable I will re-phrase it or choose not to tweet that message. Just remember to think before you tweet, if you don’t you may get yourself and or your company in trouble! 10. Personal Messages and Re-Tweets As mentioned before, Twitter is all about being social. Talk to your followers, ask them questions, and make sure to answer any questions they may ask you. You want to maintain a form of friendship with your followers. Twitter allows customers/clients to have a direct access to you that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Take advantage of this, write them personal messages. (Tweets only they can see) Also make sure to re-tweet (RT) their tweets if you find it interesting. Building these relationships may help you create some sales in the future. Have You Created A Twitter Account Yet? I hope that this article has shown you the value of investing time into Twitter. Twitter is a fantastic way to keep in touch with your existing clients and customers. When customers get a sense of satisfaction they are more willing to make additional purchases. Twitter also gives your company an opportunity to reach out to people interested in your niche. Engage with them and answer their questions, you may just have another customer in the future if you do it right. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Does Your Company Twitter? 10 Tips To Become A Great Business

When to Take a Social Media Break

Posted on April 5, 2010 by cgseo

Twitter became my priority. It became my obsession. I should’ve been shutting down and enjoying a moment in life, a moment I can never get back. Instead, my mind was focused on how to condense the moment into 140 characters and share it. Looking back, I lost memories and failed to get the most out of many experiences because I was too busy thinking about how to share. I lost track of the moment. Around 3 months ago, I decided enough was enough. My life had become a massive extended relationship. I was losing focus on the core people, and priorities, in my life. I was spreading myself too thin for fear of not ‘sharing’, or turning my back on social media. So, I decided it was time to take a serious break and shut down. This never meant my online relationships were inconsequential. It meant that I chose spending uninterrupted, focused time with my new fiancée over swapping snippets online. It meant that I’d rather be in the pool throwing my 3 kids than sitting on the sidelines with a Blackberry. It meant that actually talking to my fiancée was a more productive way to spend my time than thinking of things to say online, and hoping they were clever enough to be repeated. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting a complete abandonment of social media. I’m suggesting that, in my case, it was time to walk away and get a better handle on it. It was time for me to devote my life to my immediate network, not just my extended network. It was time for me to justify the time I spent, in all aspects of my personal and professional life, with results. Here are 10 things I learned during my social media break. People in my extended network understood my need to focus on my immediate network more than I thought. They didn’t take it personally. My immediate network noticed I was paying attention to them much more. I would touch base with my online friends in other ways that were much more personal. People from my extended network reached out and became what I would consider real life friends. When I would check back in online, not much changed. Many of the same people were saying the same things. The extra time I now have improved my quality of life. Social media was very much an all or none proposition for me. If I wasn’t doing it actively, part-time participation lacked interest (excluding my desire to make sure friends are well). I came away with a much better concept of how to manage my time, and what it should be devoted to. My driving improved greatly. My closest relationships became closer, and new relationships flourished, while my extended relationships remained pretty much the same. I very much wonder how may other people have felt out of control with their social media usage. Have you ever wanted to just walk away from it and take a break? Do you feel I was incorrect in handling it the way I did? Is there anything you’d like to know about how it has changed my outlook? Please feel free to share your story, or ask questions, in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you have to say. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . When to Take a Social Media

Diamond iPad : A Smart Social PR Campaign with SEO Focus

Posted on March 16, 2010 by cgseo

This morning I started my day in a rather unqiue fashion which did not involve rushing into the office or trying to find some time to run to the gym. I brewed a cup of coffee, sat down on the sofa and turned on the morning news. MSNBC’s Morning Joe is usually my morning news of choice, but today I picked CNN’s Headline News and zoned out, catching up on the stories of the morning. One of the first stories on the “news” was the buzz surrounding a $19,999 diamond encrusted Apple iPad. The first thing that came to my mind was “ Is Apple pulling a Victoria’s Secret? ” but after listening to the story, it was not Apple at all that put out the diamond iPad, nor is there an official diamond iPad. The actual story is Mervis Diamond Importers, a pretty large diamond store in the DC/Northern Virginia area, has announced a prototype diamond iPad which according to Mervis will be available for ordering in June. Social Media & Blog

Interview with Geno Prussakov, Outstanding Affiliate Marketing Expert

Posted on March 4, 2010 by cgseo

I love Twitter for putting me into contact with really outstanding people (well, since I don’t have time for conferences, Twitter is my major source of valuable contacts). Today I am happy to feature the interview with one of the marketers who has always been someone I’ve looked up to. Geno Prussakov is a well-known affiliate marketing expert, author and contributor to 3 books (including his bestselling “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing”) and a number of industry’s magazines and journals, international speaker (most frequently appearing at Affiliate Summits ), blogger , educator, and award-winning affiliate program manager. 1. Please tell us a few words about yourself. What brought you to the affiliate marketing? I was born and raised in Eastern Europe — in the southwest of the former Soviet Union, now a country of its own, Moldova. I lived there until the age of 21, which was when I travelled abroad for the first time. The first Western country I travelled to was England. I studied psychology, psychology, modern and classical languages at the University of Oxford, while completing the Master’s leg of my 5-year linguistics degree in Moldova. It was a fun time of travelling between two countries, and studying at two universities at the same time. After that I travelled to the U.S. where I studied counseling psychology for two years. After that, I went to Cambridge (yes, back to England) to get my Master’s degree in international relations. At the same time I started my first online business, a Russian gifts and collectibles store. After playing with paid search marketing, banner advertising, and other available types of advertising/marketing I discovered affiliate marketing, and started my first affiliate program. It was initially run on an in-house platform, but in 2004 I moved it to ShareASale (an affiliate network I’ve worked with for over 6 years already). As that affiliate program developed, I was approached by another merchant who asked me if I would manage their affiliate program too. I agreed. In 2006 I bade RussianLegacy.com farewell, and turned into a full-time online marketing consultant and affiliate program manager. In 2007 I published my very first book (must of which was based on my own affiliate program management experience), “ A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing “ . To date it is one of the bestselling affiliate marketing books out there… At present time I am actively involved in the affiliate marketing industry, working on a doctorate degree along the way. 2. I remember I first got to know you from Abestweb forum. It was like three or four years ago. You were on each and every thread helping people with your answers. Can describe the place? Are you still active there? ABestWeb.com is by far the largest and most active affiliate marketing forum out there. It brings together affiliate marketers operating across the whole spectrum of the industry: affiliates/publishers, merchants/advertisers, affiliate network reps and owners, in-house and outsourced affiliate program managers, representatives of other vendors and agencies that work in the affiliate marketing channel. It’s a busy place, and one that affiliate marketers trust, and come there to voice out their questions, concerns, and share ideas. Many people that I now call friends were met by me through ABW. At this time I am not as active in that forum as I used to be (too much going on in my life, and I must prioritize), but devote more time to research, blogging, and my writing efforts. 3. When did you start blogging and why? I wrote my very first blog post on November 18, 2007. Yes, I came to the world of blogging much later than most online marketers out there. Initially, I blogged to keep affiliates posted on the news about the affiliate programs I managed at that time. With time, and especially after starting my doctorate studies in early 2008, the topics of blog posts changed from broadcasting the news to writing on the practical topics (and issues) that all affiliate marketers can relate to (e.g.: marketing methods to use and “how-tos”, best practices for affiliate program managers to adhere to, digital marketing statistics, mobile commerce and marketing, etc). Today I am a firm believer that any blogger who wants to be really successful at it should forget about broadcasting. It worked a few years back, but no longer. You can’t take any more from the online space than what you yourself have contributed. 4. Which niches (in your experience) are more profitable when it comes to make money being an affiliate? This is a very popular question, and naturally so. My answer to affiliates is always twofold: (i) focus on the niche of (a) your passion and (b) knowledge/expertise, and (ii) pick your partners carefully. While the first point is self-explanatory (don’t pretend you know something that you really don’t — it’ll show), by the second one I mean partnering with affiliate networks and advertisers that have a solid reputation and track record in the industry. It is also crucial to underscore that “profitable niches” should never be measured by the commission levels that are being paid by advertiser/merchant. Always look at the broader picture. Remember to look at such metrics as conversion, average order value, reversal rate, cookie life. For example, hosting companies have historically had high commission payouts (anywhere from $50 to $150 a sale, with select ones paying as much as $300-400/sale). Sounds attractive, doesn’t? Well, hold your horses before you spend all of your money on those paid search ads, or advertising on other types of properties! Hosting affiliate programs are also known to have some of the highest reversal rates in affiliate marketing history. While many affiliate networks will not disclose this piece of information to you, it is not unusual for a hosting company to reverse between 50% and 80% of all affiliate transactions… Do your due diligence before you dive into any niche. And once you’ve made up your mind to focus on something, take it easy, building up on previous successes, and avoiding previously-made mistakes. 5. You’ve been in the affiliate marketing for ages. Do you consider yourself a pioneer? How did the affiliate marketing evolve since you first got into it? I came into affiliate marketing some 7 years ago, whereas the industry itself is some 14-15 years old already. I wouldn’t call myself a pioneer of the industry ; maybe one of the pioneers in systematizing the knowledge, and bridging the gap between traditional management science, principles of leadership and affiliate program management. These are the areas that I’ve been closely working in for the past few years, making parallels and translations (must be my linguistic background moving me) between theories and theorems of traditional business contexts and digital marketing industry. Much has changed since I’ve originally gotten into this industry. Google has become smarter, online consumers have gotten shaper and pickier, Social Media evolved, mobile marketing is quickly gaining power, FTC and federal governments around the world have acknowledged digital marketing (and affiliate marketing in particular) as an integral part of strategies that businesses now use, affiliate marketing professional organizations have evolved… I see all of these as positive trends. We’re getting more organized, while the market is pointing us towards the path of ongoing education and improvement; and this means we’re growing. 6. Social media changed the world of SEO dramatically. Is it the same with affiliate marketing? How do you leverage social media? Yes, social media is definitely changing the world of affiliate marketing too. Numerous affiliates are actively utilizing Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to engage consumers. The ones that are using more creative approaches succeed. Be it something as basic as a Facebook game or comparison shopping app, or as advanced as a social shopping network, affiliates that develop something that really adds value leverage any new trend better than the rest of the crowd. 7. Do you remember the best (affiliate marketing related) advice someone has ever given to you? The best advice I have ever received, and one that I keep on going back to (on a daily basis) comes from a quote that belongs to Henri-Frédéric Amiel, a Swiss poet and philosopher. I have it hanging over my desk. Amiel wrote: “Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.” Any time laziness, which I believe to be one of the most widely-spread obstacles, comes through, I re-read these lines. Talent doesn’t have to be of worldwide significance. Do what you do best, and do it passionately and self-sacrificingly. It’ll pay off. 8. What are the best places for the newbie to learn affiliate marketing? Forums (like the www.ABestWeb.com that we’ve mentioned), blogs (on a daily basis I personally read www.ReveNews.com , www.AffiliateTip.com , www.AffiliateAdvocacy.com , www.AffBook.com , and follow a number of other industry-specific blogs), podcasts (most of affiliate marketing ones can be found at www.GeekCast.fm) , and certainly books and resources on other related fields. Affiliate marketing — especially when it comes to the marketing part — does not exist separately from the rest of digital marketing. It is closely intertwined with search marketing, web development, web analytics and CRO (conversion rate optimization), and is dependent on all the online marketing trends that shape the broader digital market (including mobile). Therefore, you want to be constantly learning, implementing, testing, perfecting, and never give up (even when you burn yourself). Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Interview with Geno Prussakov, Outstanding Affiliate Marketing

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