November 2009 Biz Talk Articles

Feature Article:

Still Think Twitter is a Waste of Time?

If you’re not convinced that the social networking site Twitter can be useful for your small business, you’re not alone.  Twitter may have started out as a novel way for users to share random details about their lives (like what they had for breakfast or what movie they’re watching), but that is changing very quickly.  Businesses of all sizes are finding Twitter to be an effective online marketing tool, and there is growing evidence to suggest that the major search engines (like Google and Bing) are now starting to add Twitter “tweets” to their search results for users. 

Why does that matter to your small business? Because using Twitter in your marketing mix means that it could also improve your visibility in the search engines. It’s another way to gain exposure for your business, get your business listed higher on the search results pages, and get your brand mentioned more often in the web resources that users still turn to the most – the search engines.

Here are a few reasons Twitter has become so valuable as a small business marketing tool:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Like most small businesses, you probably have invested at least some time, money, or both into optimizing your web site for the search engines (and if you haven’t, you already know that you should!).  Being active on Twitter can support those efforts and make your investment in SEO even more valuable. 

Studies show that nearly 80% of people still turn to search engines first (mostly Google) when they look for products and services on the web, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.  Getting your business to show up for your most important keywords and phrases is just as important as ever, and using Twitter can help attract the attention of the search engines, and improve the chances that they will include your business in the search results.

Qualified Traffic – Often, the traffic that comes from being active on Twitter is highly qualified, since users have already opted-in to follow you and are interested in what you have to say.

Real-Time Search – Social networking sites have really pushed the search engines into focusing on how to add real-time search to their results, since sites like Twitter are excellent at providing users with news as it happens.  On Twitter, users can search for news and events and get instant, up-to-the-minute results, where a search engine’s results may be hours, days, or even years old.  It’s only a matter of time before the search engines have real-time search rolled into their results, making your Twitter activity more powerful.

Viral Marketing – Because social networking is so popular with users, the information you provide to your Twitter followers can travel all over the web as they share your “tweets” with their networks of friends and colleagues, who then share with their networks, and so on.  Your tweets are also not limited to Twitter users, either, since people can pull your tweets into their Facebook pages, link to them on a blog, put them in their bookmark lists on Delicious, etc.  

Building Relationships – Twitter, as with other social networking sites, is all about providing something of value to your followers, and being a part of the overall conversation happening online today.  Customers want to connect with the companies that they do business with, and they are participating with businesses in a whole new way.  Twitter can help you build those strong relationships with customers that can increase brand loyalty and help you stay top-of-mind.

Constant Innovation – The speed with which new social networking applications, ideas, and features come out means your small business must find ways to stay in front of customers, no matter where those customers are.  Twitter has only been in existence for a couple of years, which means it is just getting started in building up its repertoire of gadgets, widgets, and applications that people will find useful.  By using Twitter now, your small business will be poised to take advantage of these new innovations as they come along. It can also give you a significant advantage over competitors who may have to play catch-up with building up followers and establishing their own presence in the social space.

No Time to Waste
Twitter, like many other social networking sites, is changing the way small businesses market online, and it’s a change for the better.  Twitter is a free service, it’s easy to use, can be customized, and is a great way to boost your presence online.  Your Twitter efforts can also increase your customers’ loyalty to your brand and your company, and meets a need that consumers themselves revealed to you by opting-in to follow you in the first place.  And now that Google and Bing have announced the upcoming inclusion of Twitter “tweets” in their search results, Twitter can support your SEO efforts like never before as well.

Clearly, Twitter can be categorized as many different things (a viral marketing tool, customer service channel, SEO strategy, etc.), but a waste of time?  Just the opposite.

Marketing Tips:

The Case for Integration

Online marketing methods like web sites, email campaigns, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) have been effective strategies for small businesses for many years.  But now that social marketing has burst onto the scene, many small businesses are struggling to keep not only their existing online efforts afloat, but to also get on board with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Adding new marketing tasks to an already busy to-do list can be overwhelming for many small businesses, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  So what’s the secret to getting the most benefit from social marketing without spending too much additional time performing the tasks? The key is integration.

Integrated social marketing has two major advantages; 1) it enables you to write your message once, yet publish it to many accounts all at the same time, and 2) your message can be automatically redistributed to multiple online channels through RSS feeds and other web applications and widgets. 

If your social profiles are not integrated, they are like a bunch of islands where each one must be individually updated every time you want to share information.  But integrating them means that the same piece of information can be posted once, then “fed” to other channels automatically using a variety of tools and technology.  For example, you can use Facebook widgets to pull information from your Wall and have it display on your web site automatically.  Or you can use an RSS feed to display your Twitter “tweets” on your Facebook page.  By integrating your profiles, new information is being shared automatically, saving you the time and effort of posting and maintaining the same information to multiple separate profiles.

There are three basic areas where integration can help you get the most out of your social marketing efforts and make the process of updating them more efficient.  They include:

1. Integrating social profiles with each other – make sure you take advantage of the features available in each social marketing tool so when you post information to one, it is shared among the others without additional effort on your part.
   
2. Integrating social profiles with your web site – add links to your social profiles in your web site navigation, and embed social networking widgets on your web pages to keep fresh information automatically posting to your web pages without actually having to make additional web updates.
   
3. Integrating social profiles with your existing marketing efforts – take the marketing materials that you have already created – brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc. – and re-use them as custom tabs on your Facebook profile (like a newsletter archive), or use them as content for posts. 

Building Effective Web Sites:

Face It: You May Need an Upgrade!

When it comes to marketing your small business on the web, your customers and prospective customers already expect you to have a great web site that provides them with the information they need, built into an intuitive, easy-to-use web site, all wrapped up in a great user experience.  This isn’t simply a bonus that customers hope they will find when they visit your site, it’s a flat-out expectation that they already have.  So how does your site measure up?

Here is a list of some of today’s basic features that should be included on a professional-grade web site. If your site doesn’t have most of these items, then it may be time to just face the facts: it’s time for an upgrade!

• Use CSS-based layouts, architecture, and navigation system (no frames-based or tables-based layouts, and no image-based pages or menus, etc.)
  
  
• Include links to social profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
  
  
• Add a blog, but only if you can be consistent in posting at least a couple of times per month (and more frequently is even better)
  
  
• Use a custom-designed, professional web layout and design that is consistent with your corporate branding and identity (avoid template sites, since they can send the wrong message about you as a business)
  
  
• Add web video, RSS feeds, web widgets, and other useful technology that helps give users a great experience
  
  
• Publish useful content, articles, resources, user tips, case studies, and informative content – visitors hate content that is little more than general purpose marketing fluff
  
  
• Provide benefits, answers, and highlight the solutions that solve customer problems; always give customers a compelling reason to select you over your competitors
  
  
• Supply visitors with web-based forms for feedback, and provide information request forms so customers can easily connect with you from your web site
  
  
• Offer visitors multiple ways to contact you; e.g., phone, cell phone, fax, email address, social sites, physical location (if appropriate), etc.
  
  
• Use a clean, modern design that is free from visitor counters, blinky graphics, Flash intros, pop-up ads, or any other outdated web conventions that can portray your business in a negative light

Like it or not, web users already have certain expectations of your web site before they even type in your URL.  Be sure you don’t disappoint them or give them a negative impression of your business, or they will simply click the “back” button and keep looking.  So take a good look at your web site and ask yourself if it’s an accurate reflection of your business, if it meets your customers’ needs and expectations, or if it’s really just time for an upgrade.     

November Special Offer