Twitter. Barack Obama does it. Stephen Fry does it. CNN does it. But why should you?
At face value Twitter seems totally irrelevant. Why would you want to know what someone is doing right now? Well if they just posted that they were making a cup of tea, or putting the dustbins out, it probably would not have taken off like it has. So why is it so popular, useful (and yes, addictive).
On a personal level.
You can create a group of your friends and aquaintances and easily keep track of what they are up to. Emma’s just gone into labour. John’s just bought a new computer. Fred’s feeling really under the weather. This kind of social networking is fun, but not a lot more.
On a business level.
Imagine you have a group of like minded people, all of whom you can communicate with. You could be a teacher and want to talk about after school clubs. You could be a web designer and want to talk about the latest developments. You can ask questions, answer other peoples questions. You can become a respected Twitterer in your field.
Imagine, you can Tweet with customers and potential customers, and have a dialogue with them, any hour of the day. You can let them know what you are working on. You could ask them for feedback, or thoughts. You could share pictures. Â If your Tweets are interesting your followers increase, therefore your relationships with your fellow Tweeters improve and so do your chances of more and better customers.Â
Also don’t forget to put your Twitter address on your contact information.
You can also post your Tweets directly onto your website.
There are numerous Twitter applications out there to give you Twitter stats, different layouts, and ideas of people to tweet with, just search on Google and take your pick!
Large businesses often do not understand social media, in fact they probably do not like social media and try to ban it, (For example not allowing youtube in the office!). However there are many benefits of social media for business if used correctly.
Do be realistic at all times, do not just use it as a selling technique. This is like cold calling or door to door sales and nobody likes to be sold to, remember people like to choose and make a purchase more than being sold to.
Here are some of the social media sites and how they can be used to benefit your business.
Twitter
Microblogging is the term used to describe Twitter. Basically it is a site where you can post up to 140 characters which can include a link. However if you’re selling something you do not Tweet (post) to say “Hey buy my product at …”, nobody will follow you, or your network of followers. The best way to use Twitter is to form relationships with other Twitterers by ‘joining the conversation’.
Twitter asks the question, ‘what are you doing?’ and to be blunt put in what your doing, take part and reply to other peoples conversations, even if they are off topic, it adds personality to you, people may like to know that you love coffee. Have a read of why should I use Twitter and watch the video.
If you have an ecommerce or commercial business you need to know your customers and what they want, you want to be a professional or an authority on your area. So if your selling mobile phones, you would talk about mobile phones, different makes, different models, give advice on how to use some features. Never say “Go to my website ….”. The link to your website is there on your Twitter profile and people who like your advice and comments will know how to find your website.
A good use of Twitter would be to provide a URL to a product in this example a mobile phone, where you can offer a £50 saving just to your Twitter followers, this way it has an added benefit to your potential customers.
Facebook A very personal and popular social network, however you can create pages or fanclub pages and allow your customers to submit photographs, videos, comments and discussions. Do not be afraid of bad press. For example if you’re selling software and somebody says, “I could not install the software”, or “this software is rubbish.” you can speak to the person and resolve the issue directly on your Facebook page.
This will allow your customers and potential customers see how quick you are at resolving a problem. You will also see customers talking to each other and saying “How great your software is” and “how useful you are” and this builds up your customers trust in you, your company and your service or products.
Youtube
Most companies stayed away from Youtube, however now more and more large organizations are using Youtube, for example the BBC, Sky News etc. You are now probably thinking “How can I use video?”. Well if you’re a photographer you could record a short video tutorial on how to take a good photograph. If you sell mobile phones you could show a short video of opening up the box, setting the phone up and show some of the features the phone has to offer. You can embed a YouTube video into your website which in turn adds value to your site.
The growth and popularity in social networking over the last five years is incredible, make sure your business takes part in using social networking websites, they are free and you need a website designer who can utilise your ecommerce design and who understands the best practices in using social media to promote your company and your website.
I have been asked “what is Twitter” and “Why should I use Twitter?”
Twitter is described as micro blogging, Twitter is a unique way of saying what your doing.
Who Cares?
Well believe or not millions of people care. No matter who you are, people are always interested in what you are doing. So much so it was used during the US elections between Obama and McCain supporters. Twitter realised the popularity of it’s service prior to the elections and set up a dedicated area. So every time somebody typed in a candidates name it would appear in a constantly updating feed.
Now I will use the example described in the video below. Within hours it can show you the real world.  That is interesting facts about real people. You are basically following people who have similar interests or hobbies to yourself. You get to find out what they are doing and if they follow you they get to see what you’re doing.
Now for the video that explains exactly what Twitter is.
What are the business benefits of Twitter?
Imagine your business has a Twitter blog, you post to it daily with what you are doing.
You place a link on your website that other Twitter users can follow. That is your customers or potential customers. They can be kept upto date with what your business is doing.
So you maybe launching a new product?
You may have read something in the news.
Or you might be working late in the office!
Letting people see what you are doing is a good thing. It attracts people to you.
Follow me on Twitter and always see my latest ‘tweet’ on the right hand side of this webpage to see what I am doing. You will get to know a lot more about me, my interests, what I am reading and I promise I will never Twitter about mowing the lawn!
As predicted Google improves search with a more personalised search.
After reading John Batelle’s book about Google simply called ‘Search’, Microedge search engine optimization specialist is not suprised that ‘Google has unveiled a tool that will allow users to customise and refine their search queries.’ (bbc.co.uk 20/11/08) Â
Google’s SearchWiki lets users remove, re-order,  or add search results. This basically stores the users personalized search request and the next time the search is performed, the personalised results are returned. From a web users perspective this is a huge leap forward for Google: providing a search to match the search user.
The begining of ultimate search results.
In the future Google will learn from your actions to deliver better search results. Never again will we need to crawl through pages of results. This reminds me of the Itunes  ”You may also like” or Amazon’s “People who purchased X also purchased Y”.
As Google gathers your search criteria and search habits, it will be able to deliver a more customised search result for your query. For example, with your search for “Apple”, you could be a shopper looking to purchase apples (the fruit) or a computer user looking to purchase a new Apple Mac. This is a simple example of how 2 different users are looking for entirely different results, yet it could be picked up by Google to deliver the most relevant results just for you.
The impact this will have on search engine optimization (SEO) is unclear at the moment. However I feel this is clearly a good move by Google and will ensure more relevant searches lead to more relevant visitors to your website. For affordable search engine optimization please contact us.
For more information about the new SearchWiki please visit Google Labs
Here are some facts from usability expert Jakob Nielsen which clearly outlines several areas.
Providing emails are not unsolicited and they are targeted, an email newsletter is more likely to be read than a web page!
19% of newsletters are fully read.
The dominant behaviour is to scan the newsletter, so keep it to the point!
35% of the time, participants only skimmed a small part of the newsletter.
People skip the introduction blah blah text!
The difference between todays email newsletters is not only how they are read, but also how they are formatted. For example Outlook uses the Microsoft Word rendering engine to display HTML emails.
Keep it simple and to the point
Why use RSS?
On Jakob’s study, 82% of users had no idea what this term meant. Sometimes people are using RSS in Yahoo or Google without even realising it! RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, however it appears most people do not find it simple!
Here is a great video that explains what RSS is in plain English
RSS news feed
Twitter. Barack Obama does it. Stephen Fry does it. CNN does it. But why should you?
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Twitter
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