Do It Yourself, Online Marketing/ pt 7 microblogging on Twitter

Microblogging via Twitter  

Today I'm looking at chp. 3 of  "The social media marketing book", by D.Zarrella.

Microblogging is a form of blogging that limits size of each blog.
Twitter limits blogs to 140 characters, so it's a good tool to announce news, events, new blog posts etc.

Here's some research that Dan did on Twitter
1.Using your first & last name as a handle is good, but if you have a common name( Ken Smith) the use of characters/numbers ( ken_smith) results in fewer followers on average.

2.Accounts that have bios have better chances of getting more followers.

3.Here is a chart that shows relationship of content of your blog and the average number of followers that the blog attracts.

Accounts labeled official,founder,expert & author also rank high.

4. People who refer to themselves as a spouse or parent have higher than average followers.

5. Those who refer to themselves as boy or girl have fewer followers.

6. Using emotions in your blog content results in a negative relationship with number of followers.

7. People who have more followers, than people they are following,themselves, have larger audiences.

8.Retweets is a powerful, viral marketing tool.
i) 11:00 am - 6:00 pm EST is the most popular time to retweet
ii) asking to retweet " please retweet"  works, if used in moderation
iii) posting about social media, especially Twitter itself, gets retweets
iv) use "clients" to help manage lots of followers & do updates from your phone.
      Dan's fav client is hootsuite

Online marketing at a Fraction of the Cost: pt 6/building backlinks

Today I'm looking Dan Zarrella's "The Social Media Marketing Book",

where he talks about getting links to your website, by searching for

industry related blogs and then becoming acquainted with these 

bloggers by responding to their posts.

When you respond to posts, (either positively/negatively) you can 

usually put in a link to your site.

I did some extra research into links, and here's what I found at

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-build-backlinks-article-16.php

Anchor text is the most important item in a backlink. It must also

include your keywords. Anchor text is the word(s) that you click 

on to open the hyperlink. So if you have the best search engine, 

then “the best search engine” would be the anchor text.

Other Ways to Build Backlinks

The Backlink Builder tool is a source to find links. When you enter 

the keywords of your choice, the Backlink Builder tool gives you a

list of sites where you can post an article, message, posting, or 

simply a backlink to your site.

Affiliate programs and news announcements and press releases 

are also good for boosting traffic. Look for these directories in web.

Online Marketing..at a fraction of the cost /Part 2

PART TWO (Getting My Feet Wet)

According to "THE ART OF SEO, MASTERING SERACH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION"
the internet has forever changed, the way man creates,publishes, distributes,
finds information & resources . All organizations & individuals need a web
presence, and in turn need search engines to bring them traffic. Search Engine
Optimization is the "key to success" in the web economy.

Project #1 ( Taken from "THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BOOK")

As Dan suggests, I visited other blogs to get a feel for this whole blogging thing.
The ultimate goal of which is to help me find my own unique blogging topic.

The results ?
I've discovered that out there in the "blogispere", there really are no topics that
are truly unique. What is unique however, are one's own personal experiences &
points of view. . I've concluded that blogging, just like networking, smoozing,
guest speaking,waxing eloquently at social gatherings in general is really the art
of holding someone's attention through conversation.

Some people are interesting to talk to; others are a complete bore.
Ultimately, a good blog is about being an interesting personality, who has
something worth your while, to listen to.

On my next posting I'll fill you in on my blog topic(s).
I've got 5 different websites to consider, so I've got my work cut out for me!

How to Market Online...for a Fraction of the Cost

I want to tell you a true story about marketing & advertising.
Several years ago, when most advertising/marketing efforts
were still done via print media, I met a marketing "consultant"
who guaranteed to refund my money in full, if I didn't get at
least a 200% return on the fee I would pay him to conduct a
marketing campaign for my company.

He even took me out to lunch in his attempt to woo my business.
(I learned a long time ago, that if let people who are trying to sell
you something, talk as much as they want to, you'll learn some
very valuable information)

Over lunch the consultant unwittingly told me about a visit he
had made to one of his clients.
He told me that as he sat in this client's office, he couldn't help
notice a large bookshelf behind his client's desk- stacked with
all kinds of books on advertising & marketing.

Then the consultant hung himself.
He looked me straight in the eye & in his own words said,
"I thought to myself, What does this guy need me for with
all those books?"

What the consultant was telling me is that , he,
(the marketing expert)
had read the same books as his client and was in effect ,
selling this businessman information he (the client)
already possessed, but had failed to act upon.

That's what I think most internet consultants do.
They've just read the books & then sell the info
back to us at an outrageous profit margin.

Are you a website owner, who is as fed up as I am,
when it comes to all those "consultants" who are
always in your face bragging how they can drive
your website to the very top of the rankings on Google?

Are you intimidated by the words ONLINE
MARKETING because the so-called "experts" have
unnecessarily made it a mysterious & complicated subject?

Ticked about their exorbitant fees.

From my own research I know that, in the 21st century,
Search Engine Optimization & Social Media, are the
pillars of online marketing... for all businesses
- both large & small.

As a small business owner I've decided to free myself
from the grip of these characters and investigate how
this whole online marketing thing works myself.

To this end I'm studying 2 books that I discovered on on Amazon.com;

1) "The Art of SEO, Mastering Search Engine Optimization".
This comprehensive book was written by four SEO professionals;
Eric Enge,(Stone temple Consulting)
Stephan Spencer (Netconcepts)
Rand Fishkin SEOmoz)
Jessie Stricchiola ( Alchemist media Inc.)

Together they have over 35 years of search engine optimization experience.
The goal of this book is to simplify a seemingly complicated & layered topic,
which is the reason why I chose this book from the hundreds of other
SEO books out there.

2) The other pillar of my online marketing adventure is the book
" The Social Media Marketing Book "

Its' author Dan Zarrela - the inbound marketing manager for HubSpot -
has written extensively about the science of viral marketing in blogs
including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagariam Today,
ProBlogger, Sopcial Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, & SEOScoop.


My plan is to study these books, page by page and immediately apply the
knowledge I gain from the expert advice of the authors to my own websites.

I will post the results of my investigation weekly, starting next week.
Please fell free to take advantage of my research for your own purposes.

In helping myself, I hope that I will help you.Eventually we will help each other.