Courtesy of twitter.com

What is Twitter For Business?

Twitter is a very large, very prominent social site, but they are also acutely aware that many of the business people on their platform, have no idea how to use it properly. As a result of this inability to adequately market on Twitter – bounce rates are higher, and owners are choosing to market more on the ‘easier’ platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.

Twitter for business is their solution to this concern. It will function like the Facebook blog, and Allfacebook.com, which is the total resource site for all things to do with the social network. Business owners will be pleased to find simple-to-use tutorials that provide powerful tips and advice, which will help them gain followings and sell on Twitter.

The Homepage Structure

Twitter’s slogan ‘grow your business, 140 characters at a time’ is splashed across their homepage, with a button that invites you to begin advertising right away. This is clearly part of Twitters strategy to increase the reach of their advertising networks. Twitter for business is therefore a learning resource and a promotional step up for Twitter.

• The site will improve Twitter’s ad revenue, as it teaches people how to effectively use their advertising options.

On the homepage, Twitter promises that they’ll help you master the basics, build your community and market on Twitter. They don’t
disappoint.

Courtesy of Twitter.com

The Basics Area on Twitter For Business

The basics area on the site introduces you to Twitter and why you should be using it. Twitter cites the main reasons as, growth, learning, listening and connection. There are several other Twitter for business areas in this basics section that teach you:

• Twitter glossary of terms and functions (tweet, mention, hashtag etc)
• It tells you who is on Twitter and what they talk about
• According to Twitter, 94% of Twitter users want to hear about your discounts
• This section discusses Twitter mobile, and how 60% of fans use it
• You’ll learn how to establish your brand personality
• How to tweet daily in an organized fashion
• How to write star-quality tweets that work
• How to use photos, videos and other content on Twitter for business
• The best practices to use, how to measure them and how to secure your account
• Click on what kind of business you are for more in-depth tutorials

The Build Your Community Area on Twitter For Business

This section shows you, the business owners, how to make the right impression with your profile, and how to engage your initial audience. From creating a stunning profile, to building your fan base, attracting followers and integrating your efforts – there’s a practical section for you to read on this powerful new learning resource.

Twitter also recommends that you work with others, and educate your employees to work with Twitter to increase your reach. On nearly every page, there is a small section pushing the Twitter for business advertising options.

Courtesy of Twitter.com

The Marketing With Twitter Section

On Twitter for business, you’ll find the ‘marketing with Twitter’ section that takes a closer look at more advanced Twitter strategies and practices. From targeting, to working with analytics, running promotions and executing marketing techniques – you can figure out how to do it all here on the platform.

The most interesting section here was about scaling. I find that in business, companies always find it difficult to grow after they have reached a certain number on their social networks. This section introduces some fresh ideas about TV and Twitter, and how 95% of conversations about TV happen on the platform. It’s well worth reading.

You can also move onto the promotional section, where Twitter will teach you how to engage your audience with events, launch products on Twitter, how to use incentives, and finally – how to create exclusive deals that will drive your overall results. It’s all very clever, and very nicely done. I would recommend sifting through this resource, even if you’re a pro.

The Ad Products Section

There is a section that explains their advertising products in more detail, though the entire site really pushes businesses to use this service that they offer. I find myself feeling like Twitter for business is half about learning and half about selling.
This section will take you through each form of advertising (promoted accounts, promoted tweets etc) along with the analytics potential and pricing for each service.

Courtesy of Twitter.com

The Success Tab and Blog

Twitter for business has also included a success section, as social proof that their ads and platform can really help business owners earn more money and gain more social reach. They haven’t really touched on using Twitter Vine yet, as it’s still so new – so watch out for an addition on this at a later point.

If Twitter can figure out how to integrate advertising and Twitter Vine on their platform, they just might be able to break through the glass ceiling and really skyrocket their ad revenue. Search the Twitter for business success section to hear all about brands making Twitter work for them. Otherwise check in at the blog for the latest news and updates.

The Final Say on Twitter For Business

All in all, the videos are great, the content good and the experience is worth a go. Advanced users will find these resources interesting but shallow, as they are geared towards a novice market. However, I would suggest checking it out anyway. Don’t let the pitch fool you though, this is Twitter trying to push advertising on their users. It’s not a bad thing, but be prepared to see it for what it is.

What did you think of the new Twitter for business page? Is it useful?

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Who is Kristi Hines?

There are people that live in the background, but really deserve to be in the spotlight online. One of these people, is Kristi Hines. She blogs for sites like Social Media Examiner, Kissmetrics, Search Engine Journal, Wordtracker and Search Engine Watch.

Her own blog, Kikolani.com, is about blogging and being a professional content producer. Kristi Hines is also an avid social media expert, and knows a lot about marketing on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The Twitter Tools and Strategies You Should Be Using

According to Kristi Hines there are several tools and strategies that you can use to improve your results on Twitter. Twitter strategy is notoriously difficult, especially for a novice business person online. Act on these excellent tips.

Courtesy of logallot.com

• Use Bit.ly to track your Twitter links, to see how many people click on them and when. That way you can measure the impact of each tweet effortlessly.

• Kristi Hines loves Buffer, an excellent tool to hit the internet and the smart way to publish your tweets. Use buffer to schedule your tweets and use their incredible analytics system which helps you determine the reach and impact of your tweets.

• If you have a team of people working on your Twitter page, use a tool like Hootsuite or Cotweet. They allow multiple users to work off the same dashboards, creating, organizing and scheduling tweets. They also have nice analytics to use there.

• Do you struggle to get content to your fans? How about creating a newspaper for them in one click? All you have to do is add your Twitter account, and it will curate tweets for you in certain hashtag categories. Great extra for your fans.

• Kristi Hines also likes SocialOomph, another Twitter tools that simplifies the chaos of using Twitter. Secure your page, use link shorteners, create, schedule and track keywords. Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner uses this tool.

• Simply taking the time to select the right tools to use on Twitter can rapidly improve how you run your account. Kristi Hines endorses many of the same tools as Jeremiah Owyang and Seth Godin.

Courtesy of kikolani.com

There is a real strategy behind which tool you choose. Some focus on tracking, while others are more concerned with the art of tweet creation. Play around with the different tools mentioned here, and decide which one will suit you best.

Like Kristi Hines, I’ve tried Tweetdeck, Buffer, Hootsuite, Bit.ly and a number of other tools. At the end of the day you have to choose one main tool. For small businesses I would recommend using Buffer, as an up and coming management tool.

Join our Twitter page here!

What Twitter tools do you use on a daily basis?

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#1: Use a Validation Service

Are you tired of the thousands and thousands of tweets, and absolutely no interaction from any of your followers? A lot of Twitter accounts are spammers, and there’s only one way to deal with those – sign up for a Twitter validation service! Each person that follows you will have to validate that they are human.

#2: Use Your Direct Messages Properly

Direct messages are a great way to share incentives with select fans. Run a Twitter competition, and tell your fans that the prize will be delivered in a DM link. You can get a lot of interaction on Twitter from this one simple marketing play.

#3: Streamline Your DM Auto Delivery

If you have an auto-tweet that is delivered to the direct message box of new followers – please make sure that yours is friendly, non-intrusive and does not sell anything to anyone. People don’t like spam, sales spam, or other spam, disguised as an incentive.

#4: Advertise As Much as You Can

If Twitter is a big earner for you, there’s nothing more lucrative than setting up an advertising campaign on the platform. People are hesitant to spend advertising dollars on social sites, but once they do – they never go back. Step out of the box and advertise – your earnings will increase rapidly in no time!

#5: Don’t Only Use Hashtags, Create Them

Hashtags can be used to great effect, when the small business marketer creates and markets something unique across their social pages. Use hashtags to promote a new product, give away a great incentive – or to get the word out on a local event. It doesn’t have to trend to be extremely valuable to your users.

#6: Use Your Connect Page To Open Dialogues

Click on your ‘connect’ page to open your interactions section in Twitter. Find out who has retweeted your tweets, favorited them, followed you, spoken to you and more. Target recent folks who want to open a dialogue, and do! Create genuine friendships with people, and Twitter will become a marketing hive for you.

#7: Use Your Twitter ID Everywhere

If you haven’t yet put your Twitter handle on your business cards, emails, pamphlets, on your blog author signature – everywhere – do that now. You have to build credibility for your Twitter ID, by making it as popular as your actual name. Think of it as a name, with a lot of information attached to it. You want people to see it!

Use these 7 explosive Twitter tactics to expand your following, increase interaction and create a great name for yourself on Twitter. Once the word is out that you’re using your account like a pro, the rewards will come. People appreciate a well-managed account, even if it’s just based on ‘interaction’ page replies.

Are you harboring an explosive Twitter tip that you’d like to share with SMM? Leave it here!

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Redesign and Simplicity

Twitter’s mantra has always been about simplicity, and they do a great job of keeping that intact with these new changes. The redesign has shifted their basic navigation buttons to the left, instead of the right – and the three main buttons are now home, connect and discover, at the top. The most interesting is the discover tab that pulls in articles and posts from around the internet, that have been tweeted about.

Twitter Brand Pages are Coming

Aside from small improvements to search and navigation – the biggest change was the introduction of Twitter brand pages. Right now, you can’t set yours up yet, but the microblogging platform plans to open them to the public in the next few months. This is what you’ll want to keep an eye out for, as it enhances your business profile on Twitter. More clicks, media and sales are on the horizon.

The brand pages are outstanding. They’re reminiscent of Youtube’s brand pages, only they’re much easier to look at, and use. When the brand pages are rolled out, you’ll be able to display a much larger logo or avatar to your fans – and you can upload a ‘banner’ graphic below your information for better brand identity.

In the spirit of providing great content to your Tweeting fans, you can also pin certain tweets to the top of your page. This means businesses can promote certain tweets continually, without having to tweet a million times about something important. On the right, you’ll have a list of your information – like who you’re following, and what lists you’re involved with.

But I have to say – the best part of the new brand pages is the media functionality. Now, each tweet that contains a video or image has the ability to expand that media right on the page. And every single reply that you get from fans is detailed below the tweet, so that others can join in the conversation more efficiently.

Improved Communication Across The Board

This has turned Twitter into a much more convincing social community. Before, on personal profile pages, messages were disjointed and it was difficult to keep track of group conversations. The new layout means that videos and images are equally as important as Facebook videos and images – as they prompt additional interaction.

Brand page owners can set certain tweets so that the media is open, for visual impact, to enhance their pages. The pitfalls of this new functionality are already becoming apparent. Coke for example, spends a lot of time replying to individual tweeters, which makes their brand page seem one dimensional.

The new layout and design will have Twitter marketing strategists searching for ways to even out the content influx and replies. Timing, scheduling and media are definitely going to become more important. All in all, a fantastic step up for Twitter. We can’t wait until we can get our brand page up!

Check out these live brand pages: @DisneyPixar, @CocaCola, @McDonalds.

Do you like the new Twitter layout? Tell us what you like about it!

Courtesy of telerikwatch.com

#1: Trending Topics Filter

It’s nice that every time you log onto Twitter, you get to see which topics are trending in the world, but they are very rarely useful. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to filter these topics by niche or category? That way you can keep track of what’s hot and trending in your field. Less “Birdy Nam Nam” more “Social Business.”

#2: Lists That Don’t Profile Publish

Following lists is fun, but it’s a bit of a hassle wading through one-on-one person spam. Instead, why not allow users to publish exclusively to certain lists? It would increase list popularity, improve hashtag use, and make for a true second location to visit on Twitter. No on wants to see these posts on your profile.

#3: Can and Can’t See Profile Tweets

We always check out someone’s profile before following them, but a lot of the time – you can’t make sense of it. When you start a conversation with one person on Twitter, it litters your profile with conversation. All the good stuff ends up hidden. Instead of choosing between a great profile and a good conversation, why not add in a tweet profile editor, where you can show or hide certain tweets?

#4: Hashtag Filtering

It’s great that hashtags can solve a lot of filtering issues, but what if you only want to see a hashtag used by one specific person? Yes there’s the refine search option, but wouldn’t it be easier to have a little one click button on your Twitter page? Simply pop in the hashtag you want to find, click the button and it automatically does it. No more 10+ screening options. Twitter users like it short and quick.

#5: Hashtag Collections

Sometimes when we’re on Twitter, we come across a hashtag we really enjoy. Then suddenly, it’s gone. How about a widget that allows you to store your top 5 or collections of hashtags, that can be viewed by your community? They will help define your business account, and add great crowd sourced info to your profile.

Twitter will continue to evolve, and hopefully we’ll see some of these changes in the future. There hasn’t been much discussion on how the Google+ vs. Facebook debacle will affect Twitter – and we think it’s more than they’d like. Both Google and Facebook have spent a lot of time and money expanding their services, and we’d like to see some from Twitter as well.

There is so much more that they can do to make their site business friendly, improve on spam filters and update their hashtag technology. If they do these things, it’s likely that Twitter will remain a prominent player in social media.

How do you think Twitter can improve? We’ve given you some suggestions, now add to the list!

Courtesy of myresonancescore.com

#1: Use Your Background Space

Get a custom design created for your Twitter page that promotes your other pages, business or products that you sell. This space is free to use, so use it! Marketers that have great background info go on to get more clicks, follows and sales.

#2: Tweet About Trends

You want to get more followers on your page, so keep up with the daily trends – and include them in your tweets. Tweeting trending topics is a great way to source new followers, and drive more traffic to your websites.

#3: Use Links!

Tweets that contain links are retweeted more often than tweets that don’t. If you want a tweet to go viral, or to syndicate properly – say it with a link. Just use your tweet space to promote the link, instead of trying to cram a story in 140 characters.

#4: Add Photos

People love to see that who they’re interacting with on Twitter – are real. Add unique photos to your Twitter feed that promote your business. The key is to keep these photos unique to your Twitter page, so don’t syndicate them anywhere else.

#5: Blog Product Punts

Punting a product gets very little response on Twitter, unless you’re a corporate giant with an excellent deal. Instead, shape a blog post around your product, and promote the post. Include great info, and make it relevant for more clicks.

#6: Free Offers

If you’re giving something away on Twitter, you need to find an interesting way to offer it to your community. A lot of ‘free’ things are given away on this platform that end up being spam, or worse. Include a link and a friendly, witty comment.

#7: Real World Promotion

If your business exists in the real world, you need to let your customers know that you’re on Twitter. Instead of running an online Twitter promo, do one in real life – where a client gets the prize. Post the results and photos on Twitter!

#8: Help Other Sellers

Retweet the links and product placements of other Twitter users, then shoot them a message to say that you’ve helped them. Do this often enough, and you’ll build an army of people that are always willing to retweet your posts.

#9: Advertise on Twitter

Take advantage of Twitters sponsored tweets, or become a promoted business. Really, this is the only sure-fire way to build a large following in no time on the platform. If your community is a little thin, start here.

#10: Tweet on Facebook

Add your Twitter stream to your Facebook page. It will help filter some Facebook fans over to the microblogging platform. You could also run Twitter promotions on your Facebook page, and drive new traffic there that way.

How do you monetize Twitter? Is there something specific we’ve left out? Please let us know, under the post!

Courtesy of oomeo.com

#1: Big News Always Wins

A sure-fire way of creating and promoting a hashtag that has the potential to go viral, is by monitoring the news. Big stories always hit Twitter first, and if you can get in there with a valuable hashtag – the moment is yours. The bigger the issue, the longer the trending topic will be on Twitter. Learn how to spin these stories to your advantage, and keep your eyes on Google news.

#2: Your Opinion Matters

Or more directly – everyone else’s opinion matters. Hashtags that prompt personal opinion are very popular, especially if they’re funny or teach your followers more about who you are. Everyone likes to speak about themselves – use that in a strategic hashtag to get people to notice your business. Once the trend gains momentum, you can do a bit of PR about its success for additional exposure.

#3: Don’t Underestimate Incentives

How do you get almost ten thousand Twitter users to use your hashtag in a tweet? Easy – promise them something for free. A large prize will get people tweeting your hashtag repeatedly, and the retweets will never end! Remember to make the entry easy, the prize something special and to spread it everywhere you can. These tweets have been known to go viral in a matter of hours.

#4: Occasions Trend Often

The next time Christmas, Halloween or Easter happens (or a famous celeb passes away) – use it to create a trending topic. There will be a lot of competition here for the most imaginative and user friendly hashtag that will beat the rest – but it’s totally worth it if you succeed. When something big is on the horizon, you can bet its going to trend on Twitter. Question is – will it be your hashtag?

#5: Finding The Niche Market

The creator of the hashtag #FollowFriday was a genius. He came up with a way to engage all Twitter users, every single Friday for all time! While these are the most difficult to create, you should always be thinking about it in the back of your mind. What do people in your niche obsess about? What does everyone need all the time? On specific days? Brainstorm! Include your community in the search.

Creating a Twitter trending topic can be good for exposure, but they are quite difficult to achieve and sustain. No one knows why a hashtag will trend, but this much is clear – it’s not because all your friends used it, or because you used it 1000 times. Trends are genuine products of viral sharing. You can’t force a trending topic, but you can certainly reach for it.

What was your favourite trending topic today and why? We want to know, so please leave us a comment below!

Courtesy of mashable.com

News on The Update

The Twitter photo gallery pulls in pics from hosting sites like Photobucket and Twitpic. The functionality is still quite basic, and the limits are quite staunch – only 100 images allowed. Once you upload an image…you can’t delete it yet, but hopefully that’s on Twitters top priority list. All you have to do is click on the image icon (the camera) at the bottom of every tweet to get Twitter to work its magic.

Using Your Photo Gallery

Use hashtags (#) to organize your photo stream, especially if you’re going to be planning some great image marketing. Now that Twitter allows photos, you can whip out all of those excellent product images, promo pamphlets and team shots that you’ve been dying to share with your community. Your goal is to increase your sales directly from Twitter, which has been difficult in the past.

Your followers can flick through your photo feed, and decide to buy then and there – something the traditional 140 character tweet made nearly impossible. Images are far more persuasive for browsers than words, so use this to your advantage.

Image Ideas

• Run photo competitions based on your brand. Track entries with a chosen hashtag.
• Release promo images and ask your followers to retweet. If they retweet, make them liable for a special offer or an incentive of some kind.
• Upload informal images of your business, team or guest appearances to personalize your feed.
• Upload your brochures, sales material or price lists – the more exposure they get, the more you will sell.
• Ask your followers to create a tweet (with your hashtag) based around a photo or product you’ve uploaded. Remember the incentive.
• Get creative. Use original artworks, cartoons or vectors to make your brand come alive.

These are just some ideas that you can incorporate into your Twitter marketing strategy. Individual personalities are finding the photo stream functionality extremely popular with their followers. Businesses can learn a thing or two from the celebs that have embraced the feature. Personal photos taken on impulse are a nice change from the stiff, posed images of the past.

Images are a great tool to inspire conversation, discussion and debate. If you need to pick up the interaction on your page, why not publish an image of someone else’s new product? Give it a review, and ask your followers to do the same. With this new direct feature on Twitter, marketers and business owners should be careful not to flood their followers with marketing material.

Involve other people’s products, images and comments to make the most out of this new feature. As always, it should be 80% conversation and 20% marketing. Product images are nice, but don’t forget to visit your favorite community feeds and comment there too! Soon direct sales from Twitter to your business website will soar!

Have you used Twitters photo gallery yet? What do you think? Leave your comment below!

Courtesy of paysoncooper.com

#1: Not Being on Twitter is Lame

Twitter exists so that businesses can find new and exciting ways to exploit its functionality for business purposes. Not being on Twitter, when all of your competitors are…well, it makes you look like you’re behind the times. Use Twitter to prove to the world (and your clients) that you love technology, and that you’re ready to use it to improve the lives of your staff, fans and clients.

#2: Presence Equals Presents

Twitter is a superb way to promote products, services, free giveaways and contests. A tweet can go viral in a matter of hours. If your business isn’t harnessing the power of the viral tweet, then where have you been? Use Twitter to give back to your client base, to grow it and take your relationships to new heights.

#3: Use Your Work Force as a Twitter Arsenal

Instead of complaining about how often your employees sneak a peek at their Twitter pages, enlist them in building your Twitter community. All you have to do is create a practical Twitter policy document, and let your employees loose on the Twitterverse. They all have different ways to connect, so you’ll grow your community much faster!

#4: Bite Sized News Updates Fresh From The Crowd

It can be tough wading through Google news, or checking the latest headlines on 5 different news sites. Instead simply follow certain hashtags in your niche to keep up to date on the latest breaking news. The news is so real, even the print media publishes versions of it from Twitter users. Use Twitter news to advance your own content marketing strategy.

#5: Branding and Fandom

Twitter allows your clients to experience your brand, not only see it. With every tweet or interaction, you are building a perception about your business that people can relate to. Use Twitter to take your brand identity to a whole new level online. Design is important, but these days – so is your tone of voice.

#6: Real Time Customer Connections

Dealing with clients or customers can be time consuming and costly. When you use Twitter as a place to respond to real life queries, complaints and suggestions – you save time, money and are able to connect with your client in an instant. It’s a very efficient way to keep tabs on customer sentiment, and to monitor your products progress online.

#7: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who You Know on Twitter

You’re practically expected to be close friends with your competitors on Twitter, or with other industry authorities. Twitter is an excellent place to foster these relationships, as the chatter is generally short and to the point – and easy to keep tabs on. Soon you’ll be guest blogging on each others blogs. Use Twitter to establish your authority. Learn about tweeting here.

There are a 100 more reasons why your business needs to use Twitter – can you think of any? Please suggest some below, and let’s build a super-list!

Courtesy of Hongkiat.com

I say genuine, because many first timers are so excited to get followers, they follow hundreds of random people and follow-back every single person or marketer that follows them first. This is the WRONG thing to do. So here are some great tips on building a genuine following.

1. You Have 5 Followers But You Would Like 100, Now What?

Begin to gradually build your following by interacting with specific people that are relevant to your field or business. To find them, locate and save searches that target unique keywords.

Whenever you are browsing Twitter looking for people to follow (as you should be doing, everyday – and being very selective) there is a “save this search” option at the top right of your screen. Bookmark the areas that you find are brimming with relevant people.

2. Get Into a Daily Rhythm (or Mini Strategy)

It begins with finding people for your timeline. Once you have them, connecting with them will be easier and worth your efforts. If you fill your timeline with businesses and random marketing nonsense, you’ll never find anything worth commenting on.

Get into a rhythm each day of posting at least one or two general, entertaining tweets – so that people that visit your profile to check out your business, can see you’re not all marketing. At the same time build a list of hashtags that you can repeatedly use to index your tweets, so that the right people will read them.

Make a point of replying to questions or thoughts that your Twitter community is tweeting in your timeline. To get closer to a specific person or business, retweet their comments as well.

Then come up with a few questions aimed specifically at certain followers on your page. The ‘@’ is a powerful tool, it pops your message straight into the “@Mentions” tab of that person’s profile. When you get closer to your fellow tweeters, you can ask them to retweet posts that you would like to syndicate.

With each tweet, reply and retweet – you’ll get followers that are genuinely interested in what you have to say. But you’ll also get spammers – so when you follow back the genuine readers, exclude the followers that you can see are only in it to send you rubbish messages. Simply click on their profile. If they have three thousand follows, and 8 followers, they are spammers.

To Recap

1 – Tweet unique keyworded, non marketing messages daily.
2 – Actively look for tweets in your community to reply to.
3 – Retweet your followers tweets to get closer to them.
4 – Once you know them a little better, ask them to retweet specific tweets of yours.
5 – Integrate personalized marketing messages into your daily tweet regime.
6 – Only follow back people that are relevant or interested in your profile.
7 – Use the @ function to send tweets direct to their profile.
8 – Keep an eye out for relevant hashtags and searches to source more genuine followers.

Get into the mini-strategy rhythm, and you’ll eventually understand how to communicate effectively on Twitter. Not only that, but you’ll have a primed community of interactive followers that want to hear about your next promotion or special deal. It’ll take time, but when you’re ready to scale up to using a program like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite – it’ll make all the difference!

What is your Twitter mini-strategy? How do you connect with your followers? We’d love to know!