The AllTwitter section on MediaBistro.com has an interesting post, 50 Reasons Why Nobody Is Following You On Twitter.
In the past I have discussed how to automate your Twitter stream using free online services. However they are not a replacement for true interaction with your followers.
Write your own Tweets when you can, ask questions and share interesting finds. Use automation when you can’t be there, interact with your followers when you can.
This is a guest post by James Williams who is the Community Manager for TM International, a Paris-based recruitment agency
Social Media is going to become the key for business survival. It is not unlikely that, in the future, social media may even become more important than a company’s website. Refusal to accept this threatens to result in failure. No matter what your company does, or what sector of business you are in, if you do not have a social media presence then you are simply ignoring an opportunity and risking your future. Continue reading How to use social media to benefit your business
I have been going through the reports that I get on CrowdBooster. It shows how many followers I have and how many mentions and retweets. I can see how my followers react to my messages, what sort of interaction there is.
One thing that I am now testing is scheduled Tweets. CrowdBooster recommends the best time to send out Tweets. This is to ensure that they get the best exposure to my followers.
This got me thinking about timing not just for Tweets but for blog posts as well. Up to now I have been using Tweet Old Post plugin for WordPress, not exactly timed as such as it has set times between updates, not set times of the day. I also use the schedule facility in WordPress to set the times new posts become available. But they don’t appear on my Twitter timeline straight away as I use TwitterFeed which has a time delay of about 2 hours.
The best time of day to post new blog entries depends on your audience. Where are they based? When do they check their emails, Twitter and RSS feeds?
Knowing the right time to schedule blog posts and Tweets means you can catch your followers and readers at an optimal time. Meaning you are more likely to be read and not get lost in the background noise.
Twitter is still an important part of social networking . You will read plenty of advice on how to use it and why you should use it. Time is always a limiting factor, so how can you keep you Twitter account looking active?
I created my own ‘newspaper’ that is based on a twitter list of expat businesses in France. It gets published on Twitter once a day and the tweet mentions a few who are in the newspaper. So they get to see it in their time line.
Head over to Paper.li and sign in with your Twitter ID. You can choose how your newspaper content is selected. Take a look at my ‘Expat-business in France‘ newspaper.
I use a plugin on my WordPress based blog called Tweet Old Post. It selects posts over a selected time period and posts between selected times. I have set it up to select posts older that 5 days and no older than 15 days.
The latest version has problems, it can stop your blog from working so I recommend version Version 3.2.2, it works just fine for me. Check out the plugin site for exact details. However, I’ve not seen another plugin like it and it really does work. It gives a chance for your Twitter followers to see your post again in case they missed it the first time.
TwitterFeed takes your RSS feed and updates Twitter with you latest posts. It can track who has clicked each link by usng an URL shortening service. Not much to say about this because so far for me, once I set it up it has worked really well.
I don’t use services to send out tweets at predetermined times. I write blog posts in advanced and the automated services that I do use take care of the rest. However, many do find them useful, for more check out this brief article on Search Engine Journal, 3 Awesome Ways to Schedule Your Twitter Updates.
There is a Facebook app that allows you to sync your Facebook updates with Twitter. It was created by Twitter and is fairly easy to setup. InsideFacebook.com has an article that shows you how, How To Sync Your Twitter and Facebook Status Updates.
As you read articles on other sites, look for the social media buttons at the bottom (sometimes at the top as well). If you read something that you find interesting then click the tweet button and share it. Do this if you think that your followers will find it interesting, especially if it’s related to your industry.
While automated services can keep your timeline looking busy, they do not replace you. Don’t forget to tweet responses to ReTweets, Direct messages and mentions. Remember, it is a social network so be social!
Internet users find your business site in different ways. How they find you also indicates what sort of visitor they are and what they are looking for.
If a visitor arrives at your site from a search engine then they are most likely looking for an answer to a question. They could be looking for a product to suit their needs. Are you making it easy for them?
Remember that they are arriving on a page within your site and not the home page. Ensure the navigation is easy so that they can find similar products and services that might suit them better.
Facebook is group oriented, friends and family etc. Facebook pages creates groups of people who like what you and your business do. Make sure your site keeps them interested.
Do something really well and it will spread within the group, do something bad and it will spread even quicker.
If you write updates with links to your latest post, remember they may well leave comments on Facebook and not on your blog.
Twitter has evolved in to a networking site for the here and now. It’s not so much group oriented or close nit as Facebook but more like a large crowd. They like to share with tweets and retweets. Twitter users like to be the first to share new stuff they have found.
You can exploit that by creating exciting content on your site. Make it easy to share it on Twitter.
Use a good analytic’s system such as Google Analytic’s. Check to see where visitors are coming from and which pages they are reading. Are Facebook visitors reading different content to Twitter visitors? Are search engine visitors more likely to buy?
One of my friends has had their Twitter account hacked, I received this private message (DM) from them…
Hey theres a bad blog going around about you, seen it yet? (URL removed)
It will lead you to a site that pretends to be Twitter, you will need to login to access the message that the DM alluded to.
As you can see from the photo above, it looks just like Twitter but the URL is wrong – but not by much.
It’s built to capture your Twitter username and password. For the moment that seems to be all it does, who knows what they will do with it later.
Norton, the anti virus people, have a report on it and so far it does seem to be harmless.
If you get a message from someone like this, please let them know so they can change their password. Actually, it’s a good time to change yours now.
Which social network you focus on depends on the message you are trying to put across and who you intend it for. So lets take a quick look at the top 3 networks and see what they can do for you.
According to research (Just how many active Twitter users are there?)…
… there are 56 million accounts on Twitter following 8 or more accounts. There are only 38 million following 16, and just 12 million following 64.
That’s against the claim by Twitter that there are 175 million registered users (from the above article). That’s still a lot of people.
While it’s good to use Twitter for announcing business activity, messages just fly by. Trying following 50 people or more and it can be hard to keep track. That’s why many use it for topics that are immediate, competitions, discounts, new products etc etc.
One trick bloggers use is to send out automatic tweets from their archive as well as new posts. By keeping a trickle of new tweets on the go, you can try and maintain a healthy profile.
The main use for Twitter? For all things that are immediate; real time events, discussions, questions and answers and maintaining a profile.
According to Facebook, there are
- More than 800 million active users
- More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
Facebook is indeed a social place, it started off for students then on to friends and family. With the amount of interaction going on, business caught on and did very well out of it.
With business pages and groups, a business can keep their future customers, clients and fans updated and hooked. It also encourages interaction so ‘fans’ feel they are a part of whats going on.
The main use of Facebook? Community building around products and brands. Building trust and the feel of a one to one relationship. Brand loyalty can be maintained and increased.
While Google has been around for about 12 years, this is the first real foray in to proper social networking. This brand new service has 25 million users, according to the Search Engine Journal.
Business pages are not yet available so it is filled with individuals trying to get around and finding out how they can make the best use of it. New features are still being added and bugs are being squashed.
So while it seems Google Plus is limited, now is the time to get used to it and be around when the business pages are added. Ever thought to yourself, wish I had used Facebook and Twitter ages ago? Well now’s your chance to be at the begging of Google’s new venture in to social networking.
The main use of Google Plus? Great for individuals networking with each other and sharing interesting stuff. Until the business pages turn up, it’s yet to be proved what it can do for brands, products and services.
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