From Retirement To Career Change

More Visibility with Twitter

If you are marketing a product or a service, think of Twitter as a traffic generating tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to your specific website.

Use your Twitter profile. It's set up just like any other website so treat it no differently from your own blog or newsletter. This means if you want to increase your Twitter subscriber base, you need to drive web traffic to your profile.

I overlooked this obvious tool when I started tweeting and often focused on how frequently I tweeted or what time of day I tweeted. I'm a firm believer now that how and when I tweet is not as important as putting up a better profile.

One of the steps I've taken is to include links to my profile in email signatures. I also talk about Twitter in my blogs and include a link to my Twitter profile:http://twitter.com/ruthanbrodsky

Other marketers have used Twitter as a tool for customer support and some have even organized a contest through their Twitter profiles.

Ask your friends to tweet about your website. They may also want to send out a link to your Twitter profile.

Make new friends on Twitter. It has a built-in function for you to track the messages of other users. It's an easy way for you to connect with people outside your usual circle.

Twitter can also be used for you to interact with other like-minded people such as people in your field or in the same industry. Search for your keywords related to your product or service and then follow those users.

Twitter is also a good vehicle for notifying your customers and clients when you are hosting an event or you have a new product. Your customers can subscribe on their cell phone or RSS feed for instant notification.

Hoping these tips are useful for you and that you use at least 2 or 3 in the next few weeks. I am certainly open to your list of tips on Twitter. Let us know how it works for you.

To your success

Ruthan Brodsky

Twitter for Marketers and Business Owners

I cannot figure out why so many middle age people and for sure those over 60 proclaim wild confusion over social networking and using twitter. My opinion is the problem is the vocabulary. Once you understand what the words mean and that you should expect a constant flow of more new words, the process of tweeting is just no big deal.

 

Twitter is defined as a micro blogging platform. It can be a private or a public publishing tool depending upon what you want. That is it allows you to publish short messages, less than 140 characters, through different mediums such as cell phones, the web, and IM. I prefer using http://budurl.com

 

It has a social element because it allows users to follow each others' messages and get updates about that they're doing. Twitter gives you fragmented communication of opinions, events, news, ideas and feedback simply because there's no room for text. You can easily follow hundreds even thousands of users and listen in and enter conversations conducted by multiple users at any point.

 

Twitter is also a tool that can push out a message you want to get attention. In other words it's a great tool for promotion – of yourself or a product you have or an event that you're giving. Think of it as another channel which connects your current and potential customers with your product or brand.

 

Twitter can be a traffic generator when links within your profile are posted or links posted within your 140 character conversation. If the links are long there are tools to use that shorten them so your website or opt in page can be linked in the  tweet. I prefer using

 

One of the best ways to use Twitter for your business is to think of it as a branding tool. You can build your personal brand as your tweets establish you as a social and business personality that is connected and approachable.  For example, if you want other opinions about how your website looks or what to do next for your business, tweet out a message asking for advice.  You'll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used for your own articles and projects.

 

More on twitter in my next post.

 

To your success regardless your age.

 

Ruthan Brodsky

Twitter and Social Media Marketing

I'm not surprised that social media has become so popular in such a short time. The shrinking number of newspapers is going to greatly add to this trend.

I've been using Twitter for a few months but the events of the past few days have finally gotten my attention: I'm going to be using twitter and other social media much more frequently and as a strategic direction for my business.

I'm also going to use it for the non-profit organizations in which I'm active. For instance, I joined the American Association of University Women (AAUW) -Birmingham, Michigan branch – two years ago and immediately volunteered to help the PR chairperson. She used to write one or two columns in the local newspapers and has a pretty good idea what information newspapers want.

Times changed. Local and regional newspapers are no longer and the group has to find other approaches to reaching the community. I suggested social networking and eyebrows were raised. The chair has no experience in social networking and I'm guessing only a few members of the group are tweeting or using Facebook. Several are using Linked In, however. I still can't figure out what makes that site feel safer to people, especially to baby boomers.

I'm pleased to announce that a PR committee has been formed and all are getting used to the idea of social networking. They even want to provide members with classes to learn how to tweet. This will certainly push my engine to learn as much about Twitter and Facebook as I can.

I am taking all suggestions you may have regarding using social networking for non profits. Scroll down to comments and type your suggestions in the blank window. And thanks for helping me out.

To your success in business and in life.

Ruthan Brodsky

Social Media Tactics for Your Business

Whether you are new to using social media or have 1000 people following you on Twitter, business owners and professionals want to know what they can do to benefit from social media.

A few of the questions my clients and potential clients ask me are:

• Which social media method has been most successful for professional or business owners in my field?
• How can social media help give me more recognition and reinforce my credibility with my clients and customers?
• Do blogs, tweets, videos and updates help us market our products or services or do clients find them distracting?

I am a firm believer that using social media as a marketing tool is a very important factor for today's business owner and professional.

• First it is a very natural approach to get exposure to your website and in a spontaneous manner. This is much different from paid advertising which has commercial overtones.
• Secondly, it is defensible because once your know how to use social media the social communities can be a source of traffic for your website.
• Thirdly, using social media is a low cost approach to marketing and has the possibility of high returns. In fact, if done by yourself, costs are limited to your time.
• And finally, your social media efforts complement your other efforts because it is community specific and does not interfere with your other approaches to getting traffic to your website. You can use it to target other websites and search engines.

According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael Stelzner, 64% of marketers spend 5 hours or more using social media and 39% spend 10 hours or more weekly. The general consensus of these marketers is that social media marketing generates more exposure for business plus it increases traffic and builds new business partnerships.

Right now I am spending 1 to 2 hours a week on social media marketing. I am convinced I should spend more but right now it is more important for me to put more of the Internet business basics in place before I get lost in a sea of tweets. When I speak of basics I am talking about creating products, landing and sales pages, teleseminar series, plus building lists with auto responders.

As addictive as tweeting can be, the basics are my priority for the next 3 months.

What about you? How much time do you spend on Facebook or Linked In or tweeting?

Share your thoughts with us. Type your comments in the Comment window and let's find out what other readers are doing.