Twitter is about to “Cash In” all their Traffic

Have you seen Twitters new homepage? They just released it a few days ago. After one glance at Twitters new homepage, are you still thinking Twitter won’t find a way to make money?

Twitter has slowly been expanding their real time search functionality (search.twitter.com) and continues to make it more apparent to their users. The most recent is when they added the search box to the sidebar.

I think eventually, this sidebar will become a “Sponsored Results” section. And as an paid search advertiser myself, I would be a fool to not want to buy paid search ads on Twitter.

That’s exactly what Twitter is going to do.

Get ready for the new Google Adwords. Maybe Twitter Tweetwords

The more Twitter followers you have, the more leverage you have to promote your brand or website. Before I list these 10 tips, just think about how important Twitter is when it comes to promoting your brand. It’s not hard to imagine that if you offer some type of value to people, naturally your Twitter followers will climb in a short amount of time.

Think about having 500 followers. You simply leave a quick “tweet” about a new post you wrote on your blog. You just advertised to 500 unique visitors for free! There’s also a good chance that a few of your followers will “re-tweet” your message to all of their followers as well!

The moral of my ramblings… Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter!

10 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers

1. Be Social: Be active with your followers – Reply to them, comment on what they’re doing.
2. Be Smart about who you Follow: Follow people with a large number of Followers and reply to them. Your replies will be in front of thousands of followers. Don’t follow someone just because they have a lot followers, be sure they are of interest to you as well.
3. Blog Posts: Have a blog? Guest posting on a blog? At the end of each post, ask people to follow you with a link to your Twitter profile.
4. Email Signature: Promote your Twitter account in your email signature.
5. Forums: When posting on forums, leave your Twitter profile with your signature on your threads.
6. Activity: Twitter more Often. When you use Twitter more people will find you through Twitter search.
7. Promote: Create a Twitter badge on your site promoting your Twitter profile.
8. Facebook: Facebook has an application that includes your Twitter updates. Add that application to your profile.
9. Other Social Networks: Add your Twitter Profile to all of your other social network profiles.
10. Acknowledgment: When you get a new follower send them a direct message and say “Thanks for Following.” They’ll be more likely to be an active follower and tell their fellow friends to follow you as well.

Does anyone else have any other tips on how to get more Twitter Followers?

This is what really busting my chops… over the last few months Twitter has hit mainstream and it’s off the chain. Along with Twitter, there’s also Facebook, YouTube and every other social network out there that are growing bigger and bigger everyday. This is all fine and dandy but now we’ve got every person on Twitter claiming they’re social media expert. Really? You’re kidding me right? So after a few months of “tweeting your tweets” and setting up a Facebook account you’re now a Social Media expert!?

I’m no expert that’s for sure and I’ve got plenty of learning to do still. If you want to see an expert in Social Media go read Chris Brogans’ blog.

Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh but if you agree with me can you let me know so I don’t think I’m crazy.

For some strange and unknown reason the peeps and Twitter have more then one search function for Twitter. It almost seems that Twitter has neglected to fix one of the search tools too. I guess the other one is cooler.

The “Twitter Search” I am refering to today is the one you’ll find at the footer of Twitter. Also know as “search.twitter.com” If it happens to be your first time using search.twitter you’ll see why they have neglected to fix the other search tool.

Twitter Search isn’t only used to Increase Followers

Some of you might be surprised that Twitter Search has more benefits then increasing your followers. Most are guilty for it but it seems like more and more people will follow you to get the follow back. In the past week I have had a handful of new followers and when I go to look at their profile I see something like this:

“lgkajlsdkjrlkeja” is now following you!

562 Following, 28 Follwers, & 2 Updates.

I mean following someone for the simple reason that they have something in common with you would just be insane right? (Insert Sarcasim). Wrong. Think about this. No matter what interests you have, what industry you work in or even what your favorite baseball team is (*Cough* Boston Red Sox) there are people on Twitter that have more in common with you then you think.

Use Twitter Search to Leverage “Trending” Topics

This can be very helpful to find up to date information on any specific topic. The best part about using Twitter Search to do it, is you’ll see hundreds and thousands of different views on the subject. It’s not like you get the story from a single persons opinion. You can spend 5-10 minutes learning the details of the story and create your own point of view.

Also, depending on what type of work your involved in this can get you a head start. Maybe you’re a blogger wanting to publish a new post about this topic, an affiliate marketer wanting to see trends, or whatever the case may be I think you get my point.

Follow fellow Twitterers with your Same Interests

Here’s what I find powerful about Twitter. I live and breath anything online – marketing, blogging, design, etc. I follow people on Twitter that are complete geniuses about my industry and they openly share their knowledge. I can’t even count how many times a new app has come out or someone reviewed a new keyword tool and I was lucky enough to come across it before a big majority of people do.

Also, when following and be followed by people with your interests you help each other. I know I find myself asking for feedback or advice and I’ll get instant responses. The same works on the flip side. The point of Twitter is to be social, so be sure to return the favor and in the end, everyone is happy.

Twitter is Valuable

Use Twitter to your advantage. Find people with your interests, create and build relationships and be the biggest sponge you can be because there’s no shortage of valuable information from this awesome community.

Call me crazy but this is what I think, do you Agree or Disagree?

The point is, I think there’s a different Twitterer in all of us.

So why type of Twitter User are you?

When I asked this question on Twitter, here are a few of the responses I got:

I think it’s important to know this. With the power that is behind Twitter it is important to continue your social interaction with Twitter. If you’ve setup an account and you’re not using it then you’re missing out.

Here’s my take on the different Twitter Users

The Observer

You tend to sit back and watch the conversations take place. You occasionally update a new tweet or even reply to someone. This is not effective and of course, it’s not social. You’re wasting your time by doing this. Get in the conversation and make some new friends. You’d be surprised how many cool people are out there.

The Socializer

This is the type of Twitter Follower everyone loves. They’re responsive, always have great tweets throughout the day and for the most part they are a good Twitterer. Just beware, you give your fellow Twitterers some breathing room. There are some Socializers that update and reply so often, that they begin to take up your first 2 pages of your tweets. All in all the socializer is a great Twitterer.

The No Follower

The Twitterer that wants everyone to follow him/her but doesn’t feel the need to follow you back. I understand it to a certain extent. Once you get to a certain amount of people you’re following it can be difficult to maintain your profile. This is your “Results not typical” Twitterer. Unless you’re some amazing human being or have a huge brand don’t count on this happening to you. You’re fellow Twitterers will eventually start falling off and you’ll regret not following them.

The Replier

I enjoy having “The Replier” as a follower. It’s nice to be able to ask a question for genuine feedback and know you’ll get some answers. If this is you, just don’ forget the either side of it. Are you leveraging Twitter the same way. Don’t be afraid to use your Twitter followers as your feedback team. In fact, if you are a replier, chances are your fellow followers will be more inclined to “return the favor” for always being social with them.

The Automated Robot

Now, there are 2 scenarios how the automated robot twitterer interacts with his/her followers.

1. When you follow him/her you get the automated message right in your inbox. Usually it’s something like this. “Hey thanks for following, now check out my blog. (Insert Link to blog)”
2. You know what their tweets look like. The ones that take the 140 characters of the post and add the link to the rest of the post. They didn’t take the time to write out an interesting title to have you click the link. If you don’t have time to write 140 characters and paste a link then you need to really look at your schedule.

Why do I care what type of Twitter User I am?

The truth is, there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter. I think all of the different types of Twitter users are great in their own ways. If you can focus on all the different ways to leverage Twitter as a “Twitter User” then that is when you can get the full power out of Twitter. You become intriguing to follow, you provide feedback, you get feedback, people enjoy reading your tweets, etc.

So possibly taking a little bit of all the different types of Twitter users is a good thing.

• It’s good to observe, but don’t forget to join in the conversation
• It’s good to not take on too many followers but still be curtious
• It’s good to reply but don’t make that all that you do.
• It’s not good to be automated. This is a social network, knock it off and start being social.

I know there are plenty of different variations of how people use Twitter but I think this post covered a big portion of them.

What are your thoughts? Don’t you think it’s important to work on being a better Twitter user?

Today I wanted to touch on a great way to leverage and optimize the traffic coming through your Twitter Profile. Let’s face it, Twitter and other social sites for that matter are taking off. The traffic and interaction of people on these social sites is tremendous day in and day out.

Make your background personal

When you have a twitter profile you are able to make it your own. You can change a variety of the colors, change the background image, etc. I want to show you a few examples on ways you can alter or change your Twitter profile background to promote your brand. Below you find two examples of both mine and Aaron Dommer’s Twitter Profiles. You can see by both screenshots we are promoting a couple different sites and it also matches our profiles.

JR Farr’s Twitter Profile (Follow JR Farr) – Click to View Larger

You can see I have made my background a little more personal and I have also included a few other places you can find me. I have only noted a few places but you could list as many or as little as you like. Or perhaps, you have a logo or email you want to have people see. Basically you have a whole piece of real estate on the side to do whatever you like!

Aaron Dommer’s Twitter Profile (Follow Dommizzle) – Click to View Larger

Again, the same idea of promoting other sites or ventures Aaron Dommer is involved in.

Head over to your Twitter Profile and Test it Out!

This doesn’t take much time to do and it’s obviously worth the time. Now, if you haven’t already thought of it, I know that this isn’t a very trackable method of advertising or promoting your brand. I figure, this is just wasted space on your Twitter profile and why not put it up there right?

Best of luck my Twitter Friends!

“What is the point of Twitter?”

Hopefully this helps shed some light on that question and shows you just how cool and powerful Twitter really is.  Hope you enjoy!

Please leave any feedback!

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P.S. Follow Me on TWITTER

My main goal of this post… How these 2 are connected and why they are beneficial.

I don’t want to assume that everyone knows what a Lifestream is, or what Social Media is.  So, I thought I would do a brief post about what the foundations are of Social Media and what a lifestream is.  By the end of this, I hope you see why it’s beneficial.

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It’s all centered around Social Sites

Click to view LARGE IMAGE

Photo Credit – Brian Solis

So you’ve probably heard of several types of social networking sites such as:

• Digg
• Stumble Upon
• Flickr
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• And 100′s More…

All of these sites are some way or another considered social sites.  Each consist of thousands of members that have the ability to interact with each other in several different ways… from a social standpoint of course.

Let’s look at a few examples…

Facebook – Allows you to interact with people all over the world.  You create a profile of yourself and basically create your personal brand.  You can share all types of info as you wish.  Share photos, personal info, your business info, etc.

Flickr – Allows you to interact with other members of the site but through pictures.  Say you’re a photographer and you post your portfolio work on your Flickr account.  You work is now scattered throughout millions of people on Flickr and is literally in front of thousands of eyeballs.  It’s quite fascinating when you think about.

Digg – How Digg works. Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by the community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and “Digg” what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.  Thus, creating loads of traffic to your website

When focused, this is considered Social Media Optimization

Basically, when you interact with several different types of social networks you are promoting your personal brand or your company. These social sites have thousands of visitors a day and with how granular they are you can have instant qualified traffic.

Here is a detailed explanation of Social Media Optimization from Wikipedia.

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a “Digg This” button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines such as Technorati.

Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an Online Reputation Management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

Lifestream takes all of your social efforts and combines them

If you take a look at my lifestream, you’ll see that it displays all types of updates from what I have done in any given day.  Based off the social sites that I have accounts setup with, it displays my day in reverse chronological order.  Visitors to your site/lifestream will get a sense of what interests you, what your promoting and start to see your personality.

Here is another example of a good buddy of mine – View Aaron Dommer’s Lifestream

What’s the outcome of it all?

On a personal level

When creating a brand, whether it be personal or a company there needs to be a foundation.  People want to know the origin of where you came from or what you stand for.  As people follow you or connect with you on these social sites, it gives you the opportunity to bring out your or your companies personality.  This allows each visitor to engage with what you’re doing.

They become familiar with your face, see what your interests are and are more intrigued to follow you and what you’re doing.

As far as traffic and SEO efforts

Using Social Media to gain leverage on your website traffic and SEO is a must nowadays.  These social sites again have authority throughout the search engines and again bring in thousands of visitors.  Add the 2 together and you’re creating backlinks to your sites and gaining more exposure to your site.

Lifestream is a reciprical

On the flipside, when you bring a unique visitor your site, you can have the process run the otherway.  People can instantly follow what you’re doing and gather a sense of who you are.

I sure hope this shed some light

Social Media is something that can be very powerful.  You can promote anything and everything.  Use these social sites to give exposure to your companies products/services, your business partners, friends and family.  They’ll praise you for it and it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside

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If this did help or if you have any other suggestions about the benefits of Social Media leave some feedback!

It’s much appreciated

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Search Engine Strategies – San Jose 2008

Whew, so the first day of Search Engine Strategies is finally complete.  What a crazy day, I have so much in my brain right now it’s almost overwhelming.  There are so many things I can apply to what I am doing currently, let alone what I haven’t already implemented.

The sessions I sat in today we’re extremely valuable to me.  I was able to get an insiders look from high end experts deep inside the search engines themselves as well as reputable website conversion experts such as Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now and Grok Dot Com.

Here is a quick breakdown of what my day consisted of:

Universal & Blended Search

• The expert panel consisted of Senior Level Management from the following search engines

Pay Per Conversation

• Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder, Future Now Inc.
• Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google

Storytelling Marketing: Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing

• Gary Stein, Director of Strategy, Ammo Marketing
• Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc.
• Larry Lawfer, Founder/President, YourStorys.com

Opening Keynote Presentation: Lee Siegel

• Lee Siegel, Author of “Against the Machine”

So yeah, pretty informative day yeah?  Yeah you’re right.  Also, on top of that, I received a signed book from Bryan Eisenberg – “always by testing – The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”  You can purchase the book here at amazon. As I get some time to read through the book I will make a review post on what I have learned from the book.  Apperantly the book has over 250 different mulit variant testing scenarios.  I believe it after sitting in a hour and half session with him.

This guy is awesome.  I made a comment about it on Twitter today, and within minutes he responded to it and started following me on twitter.  I just thought that was so neat, and just solidified my thoughts about him and Future Now as a company.

I apologize for such a brief post.  I will breakdown the following items when I get a few breathing moments. I just need to put down the main points and then I will start to share my experience with you throughout a few posts breaking down Search Engine Strategies – San Jose!

More to Come…

-JR-