With Twitter riding the social media wave to a $1 billion valuation, the attention from celebrities, usefulness for everything from real-time communications in natural disasters to serving as a profitable marketing channel, a momentum of interest has spawned in how to make the most out of spending time on Twitter. Like any tool, Twitter is what you make of it. But Twitter and social communication applications like it are a lot more than just tools. One question about Twitter best practices that often comes up deals with how people (not bots) decide to follow one another on Twitter.

I ran an informal poll (on Twitter of course, another of it’s many uses) to proof a few ideas I had on what factors weigh most heavily for people when deciding whether to follow another Twitter account. My initial influences included location, bio, offline connections and others. You can read the replies to that poll here: #whyfollow. A self-assessment in combination with the informal poll feedback are what power the potential answers in this Reader Poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

By sharing your top reasons for following others on Twitter, we can all learn how to be more useful to the communities we’re trying to reach.

If one or more of your answers are in the “Other” category, then please add them in the comments below.   Sharing this poll with others is GREATLY appreciated. Can we get over 200 responses? How about 500?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
Follow Me Follow You: WhyFollow Twitter Poll |
No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

2008 MIMA Summit at The Depot

In just under a week the annual Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit will be held downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton. With keynotes from Seth Godin and Jackie Huba as well as a collection of local and national subject matter experts ranging from Greg Swan of Weber Shandwick to Scott Monty of Ford, it should be a veritable vortex of interactive velocity.  I apologize, that alliteration was so bad.

Anyway, TopRank has been asked to participate in the “Migrate” themed event on the topic of search engine optimization and social media convergence.

After writing, presenting and most importantly: being a paid consultant and self-practitioner of SEO (12 years) and Social Media Marketing (5 years) respectively, I thought it would be a good appetizer for next week’s presentation to highlight some of the most popular blog posts covering SEO and social media marketing from  Online Marketing Blog.

Top SEO and Social Media Marketing Posts from Online Marketing Blog:
(by traffic in the past 12 months)

1. 25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips (Apr 27th, 2009) – This popular post offers specific advice on justifying investment in social media strategy, how to decide on tactics and measuring success from in-house social media marketers including: Dell, Comcast, HP, Wells Fargo, Intel, Best Buy, General Mills, Ford, UPS, Home Depot, Cirque du Soleil and a mix of SMM consultants/agencies: Altimeter Group, Crayon, Ogilvy 360, Future Works, Doe Anderson, New Marketing Labs and others.

2. Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR (Nov 15th, 2007) – Excerpt: “The key with Twitter is not to look at microblogging as individual posts, but think of the overall impressions and value that can be created over time. Each 140 character or less entry serves as a seed of an idea for an overall objective. Over time, you’ll build a footprint and brand of influence within the Twitter community”. This post also includes tips from other early adopter Tweeple including:Andy Beal, Todd Defren and Michael Gray.

3. Best and Worst Practices Social Media Marketing (Feb 12th, 2009) – Many marketers are unsure about the difference between best and worst practices when it comes to commercial participation on the social web. Identifying best and worst practics is a work in progress of course, as communities develop, grow and change.  This post outlines the basic best/worst practices that will hold true for years to come. Internet years that is.

4. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog (Jun 15th, 2006) – An oldie but goodie, this post contains many of the fundamentals for creating search engine friendly blogs and has been cited by over 14,000 web sites including Search Engine Land, Copyblogger, Mashable, Stuntdubl, SEOBook, Duct Tape Marketing a and HubSpot.

5. What is Your Social Media Marketing Strategy? (Mar 25th, 2008) – Social media is hot, every body’s doing it. But the question needs to be asked: why? This post offers several good business reasons why companies should invest time, money and resources into social media.

6. Top Ten SEO Tips for PR Professionals (Apr 29th, 2009) – After presenting these ten tips at a public relations conference, I blogged the presentation and wrote another blog post detailing each of the ten tips. It should have been an ebook, but I decided it would reach more people as a series of 11 blog posts.

7. 16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited (Aug 4th, 2009) – A follow up to a post originally published in 2006 that defined a new marketing category, this 3,117 word article by TopRank’s Adam Singer offers an update that resonated well with Online Marketing Blog readers. Is social media optimization still relevant and why?

8. 5 Link Building Tips for New Websites (Mar 20th, 2009) –  KISS, as in Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s sage advice for many things, including blog posts. This link building basics post from TopRank’s Dana Larson hit the nail on the head for many new web site owners in search of those ever elusive first links to boost search engine rankings.

9. Lowdown on Press Release Optimization (Oct 24th, 2005) – One of the first really popular blog posts we ever published, still gets new links every week from sites like WebProNews, Bruce Clay, Techipedia, LED Digest and Yahoo.

10. SEO Basics: 6 Tips for Google Webmaster Tools (Apr 7th, 2009) – Google set the stage for formal search engine support of the webmaster community by developing Webmaster Tools (thanks Vanessa Fox) and TopRank’s Thomas McMahon wrote up this popular tips post highlighting some very useful features.

BONUS!  While not one of the most popular posts overall in the past year, a few recent entries made on Online Marketing Blog speak specifically to the presentation I’ll be giving at the MIMA Summit next week:

SEO & Social Media Roadmap – How do you plan for a social media strategy? How do you leverage the Yin/Yang benefits of both SEO and Social Media for objectives, tactics, specific tools and measuring goals? This post attempts to answer those questions specifically.

Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success – This post was published over at Mashable and focuses on making the most out of combining SEO insights with social media marketing tactics through development of a roadmap.  Like any digital marketing effort, a combined SEO and social media program is most effective that identifies a target audience, specifies measurable goals and a strategy to guide implementation of tactics.

Hopefully your appetite has been stimulated enough to come to our  MIMA Summit SEO/Social session right after Seth Godin’s keynote. If not, you’ll definitely have actionable tips you can use in your SEO and Social Media Marketing efforts today.

Session Details:
The Intersection of SEO and Social Media

Oct 5, 2009 – 9:45 am
Tactics Track, Salon C
Hilton, Minneapolis

Session Overview:
Successful social media efforts build community, better connect brands with customers and can influence both media coverage and increased sales. Yet implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content for search is literally “leaving money on the table.” Useful social content (blog, video, images, audio and applications) that cannot be discovered via search is a lost opportunity to reach audiences that are looking.

Why do so many companies fail to leverage their participation on the social web for SEO? This session will provide specific “Do’s and Don’ts” of social media optimization and provide attendees practical examples of how companies can leverage SEO and social media content to improve their search marketing performance.

If you like video, here’s an interview with Phil Wilson of Minnov8 & myself talking about SEO/Social and what I’ll be presenting at MIMA Summit.

Win a Free Pass to the MIMA Summit!

Want to attend the sold-out MIMA Summit in Minneapolis next week but didn’t get your ticket in time?  Or maybe you’re a Seth Godin fan and just can’t stand the fact that you’ll miss hearing him speak in person.  Well dear readers, we just might have the solution to that problem.  TopRank Online Marketing has one extra ticket from the corporate table we purchased for the MIMA Summit and we’re going to give it away.

All you have to do is leave a single comment below with a creative and/or compelling reason why we should give YOU a free ticket to next week’s MIMA Summit ($595 value) OR if you Tweet a similarly creative link to this post, that will show up in our comments too. We’ll pick one lucky winner on Thursday Oct 1st.

Sound easy? Sound doable? Then get to it.  If you comment, be sure to enter your email address so we can contact you. If you Tweet, be sure to follow @toprank so we can DM you. We will ONLY contact you if you win and will not rent, sell, post, hack or do anything unsavory or sinister with the information you provide.

Obligatory Q and A:

Q: Does it include gratuitous coffee in the morning before Seth speaks?

A: If MIMA provides it with the corporate table tickets, then you get it. Pretty sure they’ll be offering coffee. Maybe even some bacon.

Q: Does it include lunch?

A: Pretty sure lunch is included. If not, I’ll buy you lunch.

Q: Does it include door to door pickup service from my home in Ham Lake to downtown Minneapolis with sidetrips to Starbucks on the way there and Lucia’s Wine Bar on the way home?

A: I don’t think so.

Q: OK, what about cab fare?

A: Nope.

Q: Transit pass?

A: Not going to happen.

Q: Bus fare?

A: That would be, ah, no.

Q: Schwag?

A: MIMA Summit events and sponsors have been amazing with their schwag generosity. Can’t imagine this year will be any different.

However, we might bring a TopRank mugs. We’d bring the TopRank Old English Sheep dog, but he has a sinus infection and believe me, you don’t want to be around when a 90lb sheep dog sneezes.

Any other questions? Please Tweet them to @toprank or email seo at toprank dot org

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
10 SEO & Social Media Posts To Read Before MIMA Summit |
16 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

He’s building a network of 25 minisites and sharing what he’s doing every step of the way. He started with a conservative goal of making $3,000 a month and decided one way to reach that goal would be to launch 25 niche mini sites. Each day he’s blogging

Dear Twitter,

RE: Making Money to Support your £1Billion Valuation

I have money. Not a lot of it. And I don’t want to give it all away. But I do have some. I would like to reach out from my pocket and give you a few quid if it makes a difference. However, unlike you, I don’t want to give anything away free, so please find below some things I want to pay you for.

OK, I want to pay for the use of my a/c. It has made huge difference to the way I work and mix with my community. And because of twitter, I feel valued amongst my peers. So I would like to pay you a fee of £5 a month for the use of my a/c. Its not a lot, but like I said I have money, but not a lot of it. If you don’t want to charge me, I still want to give it to you to show my appreciation for a great service. Please let me know where I can send you the £60 a year.

I am a marketer. I love data. I am also very nosy. So I will pay you a further £2 a month to find out:

1. A time line of my followers and when the started following me.
2. Who left my followers count (I used Qwitter but it doesn’t work properly anymore. Any way I want the data in a dashboard please.)
3. I would like to know who blocks me.

I am willing to pay you an extra £10 a month to show me some real stats. Something like google analytics. Some of the stuff I would love to track:

1. Number of clicks on tweet links I send out.
2. Retweet numbers
3. Who retweeted and who clicked on my links. (yeah I KNOW you are tracking clicks – just share that data with me, please)
4. People who clicked on my profile link.
5. Incoming links to my profile from other sites.
6. Number of visitors coming through my profile from other sites and search engines.
7. What keywords people used to find my links.
8. I want it all in ONE place.

So as a simple user, I am willing to part with £17 a month for the above. I know you have an analytics service coming out for businesses, but I am not that rich. And I know there are third party tools that can give me a lot of this data. But they aren’t very reliable, and I don’t want to pay them, I want to pay YOU. So you can improve the service better. So I can show you my appreciation.

Regards

Rishi Lakhani

p.s I asked a few people whether they would like the service…

p.p.s Of the millions of users you have, even at a ceiling of £10 a month, and say 50,000 users buy the service, then you get £500,000 a month = £6M a year. Not a billion quid, but better than you are getting now right? Plus I am a cheapskate, I wouldnt pay more, although the hundreds of small / medium sized businesses may pay much more.

p.p.p.s Can I get a cut of that action?

Not getting the rankings you want? Hire us for Search engine optimisation

Make Money Online! Twitter, Heres How:

Running a social media campaign is a great way to get lots of visitors to a website but its very hard to target the campaign to a particular country. If your goal is to generate links, buzz or blog subscribers then worldwide traffic is fine but what happens if you are primarily interested in local visitors?

In the past most people have used Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon as the main networks to seed a viral article or blog post and this week I loaded up Google Trends to see which of these was biggest in the UK. As you can see below the daily traffic figures are nothing to get excited about and traffic to all of them seems to have dropped a lot in the UK during 2009.

However what is exciting is the chart below which includes Twitter data. Judging by these figures Twitter is the best place for doing a viral campaign to target UK users.

Of course Facebook is still by far the biggest site but it’s not really a link sharing site in the same way as Twitter & the other social media sites are.

London leads the way

According to The Telegraph London leads the way with social media and Digg is quoted as saying:

Nearly 10 per cent of traffic to news recommendation site Digg comes from London alone, making it the top city worldwide. A Digg spokesman said: “Nearly 10 per cent of traffic to Digg is from London and the UK is our second largest country next to the US.”

Apparently London is the largest city on Twitter too:

Last month, Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive and co founder, said that London is the service’s “top Twitter-using city”. Talking to BBC’s Newsnight, he said: “We have definitely noticed the UK has exploded for us recently… London is our top Twitter-using city.”

Whether this is testament to the way we use social media or the way all BT IP addresses seem to resolve to London remains to be seen.

Not getting the rankings you want? Hire us for Search engine optimisation

The UK Social Media Landscape

Any marketer who’s successfully made the move to social media will tell you the rules of traditional marketing have to be reexamined. That’s particularly true with Twitter, where brands have just 140 characters to inform, evoke emotion and inspire action. One of the most basic and critical rules for brands on Twitter? Be authentic and transparent in all you do.

Check out these 5 Twitter tips for staying authentic and transparent:

1. Reveal who’s behind the Tweets. It doesn’t necessarily matter who it is—the CEO, the social media manager or a marketing intern. It just matters that the person is in fact a person. Putting a face and name behind your Tweets through a photo and brief bio can help followers relate to and connect with your brand.

Kodak is an excellent example of a company that’s put a face to the brand on Twitter. The company’s official Tweeter, chief blogger and social media manager Jennifer Cisney (@kodakcb), leaves no guesses as to who she is and what she does. Her Tweets strike a healthy balance between letting her personality shine through and offering too much irrelevant information (i.e., “Sitting on my couch watching Desperate Housewives and eating popcorn.”)

2. Show some personality. It doesn’t have to be all business all the time. Have some fun with your Tweets by telling humorous stories or poking a little fun at yourself every now and then.

Part of what makes Ford Motor Co. head of social media and Tweeterati Scott Monty (@scottmonty) so successful and popular is his ability to make followers feel like he’s an old college buddy or family friend. His bio tells his followers he’s “a generally nice guy.” But his genuine Tweets—a combination of marketing insight, Ford and auto news, and his own personal anecdotes—lets them know that’s the case. (Scott Monty video interview here)

3. Admit when you’re wrong. With the explosion of social networks over the past few years, bad decisions and unfortunate snafus are exposed sooner rather than later. So it’s important for brands to fess up first and show their willingness to rectify the situation. With that said, why not turn a negative situation into a positive one?

After you’ve admitted to a mistake, strike up some friendly competition by asking your followers to submit their own “biggest oops moment.” Choose—or better yet allow followers to vote on—the best story. Offer some sort of an incentive to the winner, whether it’s a coupon, a free product or a gift certificate.

4. Get to know your followers. Let’s face it: Your followers—and potential customers—have more on their minds than just your brand. Ask your followers questions about themselves, gain a sense of who they are and customize your responses to them based on their personal details.

In the end, not only will you be viewed as an authentic and trusted brand on Twitter, you’ll also obtain valuable information on customer demographics.

5. Don’t get carried away by your accomplishments. With trial-and-error, know-how and a little luck, you’re likely to find much success in your social media and Twitter efforts. But don’t let it go to your head. Keep in mind that it’s your followers who gave you that success.

You’d be hard pressed to find a Twitterati that’s been more successful at using Twitter for customer service than Frank Eliason (@comcastcares) from Comcast. But what keeps them relevant and useful for followers over the long term is their ability to remain genuine and humble amidst widespread popularity. (Frank Eliason interview here)

While there are any number of ways to fail while trying to effectively market on Twitter, social media usage by companies has matured enough for a growing number of good examples to emerge. Being aware of what’s working for others can be priceless insight for how to develop your own genuine communications and brand experience with customers on the social web.

What are some brands that have done a good job at staying authentic and transparent on Twitter? What other Twitter tips do you have for remaining authentic and transparent?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
5 Twitter Tips for Staying Authentic and Transparent |
3 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

There are many pitfalls that one must overcome when trying to make a living as a self-employed affiliate. One of the toughest is conquering the little voice in your head. You know, the one that says

Aaron Wall just posted “SEO, Where is it going?”. Coming from one of the spearheads of the industry, the question alone was enough to encourage me to read the piece.

One of the lines that made me really think was “As if there is ever one “right” answer.” This was pretty much in direct response to a Tech Crunch Interview by Eric Schmidt, to quote a quote:

So I don’t know how to characterize the next 10 years except to say that we’ll get to the point – the long-term goal is to be able to give you one answer, which is exactly the right answer over time.

Aaron went on to suggest how the various Google SERPs properties such as rich snippets may over time discourage users to click through to the content creators site. This is where I branch off. I don’t know the long term future of SEO, what it will be and how it will change. And I don’t really want to speculate. It’s an unfolding drama that I am willing to wait out.

But, I am interested in the right here and right now. What is SEO right now? Is it about ranking? For set keywords at the highest possible positions? I think not. It’s about a blend of strategies, and one of the most important ones Brands should be really focussing on is page share. The writing has been on the wall from the first time Marissa Mayer blogged about it.

Currently a range of ranking positions exist on the first page of SERPs, including but not limited to:

• Video Results
• Image Results
• News Stories
• Blog Results
• Book Results
• Map Results

 
These are further enhanced by the use of  Rich Snippets, Site Links, Search in Search Box, Inline links, related searches, to name a few. Add to the mix Adwords, Adwords Enhanced site links and Google Base results.

Where does that leave a brand?

I recall a few years ago I attended SMX and was in a session presented by Jon Myers, who discussed the use of Search Engine Results Pages as a brands landing page. This was in late 2007, the same year Google introduced more results in SERPs. Its late 2009, and google isn’t letting up. More recently we were treated to Photo layers in Map results.

In a very short and unsatisfactory way, I conclude, SEO right now, at least at the Brand level, is about delivering all the brands content on the brand query, with the maximum possible page share.

After all, there isn’t, one correct answer to a brand query. But there is room to guide the searcher to the right content. 

You worry about your sites landing pages, ever wonder what you are losing to Universal search properties that aren’t under your control?

Not getting the rankings you want? Hire us for Search engine optimisation

Future of Search, Universal Search and a Brands Responsibility to SERPs

The Joy of Giving Week is being celebrated from 27th September to 3rd October 2009. The Joy of Giving initiative is a national movement, that aims at engage Indians in different “acts of giving” money, time, resources and skills.

A lot of events are taking place as celebrities, corporates, NGOs and individuals are giving their support to the initiative.

Some key events taking place are

• Design for Giving contest aims to reach out to over 30,000 schools and have over 100,000 children for bold, fresh ideas that will be documented and showcased to demonstrate that our children can ‘design’ solutions for India’s greatest challenges!
• India Giving Challenge provides a way for NGOs to raise even more money for their cause through a matching grant from GiveIndia.
• 7 Day Gift challenge – Give one gift each day for 7 days to a friend or a complete stranger. Put a little thought to each of the gifts that you make. See the world change and see the change in you.
• Joyfest is a cultural event in your campus, during the ‘Joy of Giving Week’ where the students will make it happen. Your college will invite a local NGO of its choice (orphanage, old people’s home, blind school) as guests of honour and put up a cultural performance with a mix of popular events.
• Battle of the Buffet – Leading 5 star hotels & top restaurants in the city sponsor a fundraiser for NGOs. A donor who makes a donation of Rs 5K to an NGO will be given an invite to this event.

What are you going to give?

Related Posts

1. Cyber Giving Week : Yahoo for Good
2. Gift XO Laptops to Children: Give One, Get One OLPC Program
3. Google Joins Banned Books Week 25 Years Anniversary
4. Four Day Week Challenge : Thank God It’s Thursday
5. Join Mozilla Service Week

Original article: Celebrate Joy of Giving Week: What Will You Give?
Copyright 2009. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Now you can submit websites, advertising campaigns and videos for the 14th Annual Webby Awards, which honor the best in Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video and the Mobile Web. This the best time to get early bird pricing and enter your best online work to be judged by the 650-member IADAS jury.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category: The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award; in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards, while the online community votes for the winners of The People’s Voice Awards.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Submit your site and get the best publicity ever. You can submit your website, ads or online video for $255 only. Get a discounted rate of $150 in Blog-Personal/Culture, Personal Web Site, NetArt, Student and Weird categories; also in Viral and Student Film & Video categories.

What will be your five-word speech?

Related Posts

1. 11th Annual Webby Awards : Call For Entries
2. Tenth Annual Webby Awards : Call for Entries
3. 10th Annual Webby Awards Nominees
4. Webby Awards 2005 Winners : Boing Boing for Best Blog
5. Panasonic Online Video Fest : Submit Funniest YouTube Videos

Original article: Submit Websites, Ads, Videos for Webby Awards
Copyright 2009. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.