TwitterToolsReviews |
- 4 Ways Growing a Twitter Following That Matters
- 8 #Tips for Running #Social Media #Promotions
- Facebook Graph Search Adds Posts: This Week in Social Media
- Get Better Results with Twitter
- Dial Into Google Hangouts By Phone: This Week in Social Media
| 4 Ways Growing a Twitter Following That Matters Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:55 AM PST Is Twitter working for your business? Are you looking to grow a larger and more relevant Twitter following? This article will show you four actionable steps you can take to improve your Twitter experience. Why Twitter Is Not Just a Numbers GameMany brands, businesses and marketers have already discovered how powerful Twitter is for finding and engaging their audience. Its low cost, immediacy and viral nature make it a favorite tool for everyone from news organizations to celebrities to small businesses. Yet when marketers jump on Twitter for the first time, they wonder why they don't get an overwhelming response to their initial tweet. Soon they learn that they must develop a following. They see others with followings of 500, 5,000 or 50,000 and they want some of that. So they start to Google "how to get more followers on Twitter" or falling for tweets like this one:  If it sounds too good to be true… Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not too difficult to build a following on Twitter if you're willing to partake in some shady, bad-karma tactics—from following and unfollowing people to creating hundreds of bogus accounts that follow you and retweet everything you say to buying followers on the black market. But few if any of those followers will provide you any value for the time you put into Twitter. So I'm also here to tell you that it's not how many followers you have, but how many relevant followers you have. Having 20,000 followers who don't respond to anything you share is equivalent to shouting from the top of the Empire State Building and claiming all of New York City as your audience. Yes: more engaged followers are better than fewer engaged followers. So, let's focus on getting more engaged followers. Building a relevant Twitter following comes down to four core concepts:
With that framework in place, here are some tips, tools and tactics to attract relevant followers on Twitter. #1: Find and Follow Relevant PeopleYour audience is out there… Now, how to find them? Start with a strong profile. Because most people will check out your profile before following you, it's important to put your house in order and present yourself in the most engaging way possible. This includes:
Discover new people with third-party tools. One of the first places to start your search for relevant people is at one of the many Twitter directories out there. In a discussion around Twitter tools in Social Media Examiner's Small Business Networking Club, everyone seemed to have a favorite tool or tip. Social media marketer Paul Wylie recommends Twellow (for the clean interface) and WeFollow (for finding influencers). You can search by industry, location or keyword for starters.  WeFollow has many categories. Thus, whether you’re targeting personal trainers or WordPress trainers, you’ll find them here. Karen James, a social media coach from the UK, likes Tweepi to check out people before she follows them. Karen Black, a digital marketer also from the UK, uses ManageFlitter to do bio searches, as well as keep an eye on her followers. Use these tools to search for your own industry and the industries of your ideal customers. Leverage other people's Twitter lists. A great source for new people to connect with is other people's curated Twitter lists.  Whatever your interests are, you can find well-curated lists and subscribe to them. Twitter users often create lists or subscribe to other people's lists to improve their  Some lists are more serious than others. Use Twitter's search functionality. You can use Twitter's search functionality to find relevant people and engage with them. For example, let's say you had a product or service for NASCAR fans. Start by doing a search on #nascar within Twitter.  Searching on #nascar will help you find passionate NASCAR fans whom you can then follow. You could then join the conversation by @ (mentioning) them, answering their questions and otherwise engaging them. If your business is more local, like a restaurant, you can find out who's hungry and in driving distance.  Filter your search by geography to find local people on Twitter to follow. You could then reach out to those starving denizens on Twitter and offer them a discount or free drink if they come in now and mention "Twitter" as they place their order. For more ideas on finding and following the right people, be sure to check out 7 Twitter Strategies for Growing a Great Following. #2: Tweet Interesting StuffEasier said than done, right? How do you find interesting content? Here are some ideas. Use Google Alerts. Set up Google Alerts (or a similar service) to get daily email updates about all of the things that are of interest to your audience—from "vegan recipes" to "grilling product reviews"—and share them through Twitter. Share media. Photos and videos are a proven way to engage your audience. Use photos to share your activity or events so your business will get click-throughs and comments. A real estate agent might share a video walkthrough of a new house and ask "what do you think?" A retail shop may share photos of some new additions to their display window. A travel agent might share pictures from a beach vacation and ask, "Are you ready for your getaway?"  Photos engage, especially if you tie them into a giveaway. Talk to people, not at them. Chances are, what is of interest to your audience is what they're already talking about! Rather than trying to get the ball rolling, why not keep it rolling?See what your audience is talking about and engage them in that conversation. Ask questions, answer them, retweet and respond. For more ideas on how to create more interesting tweets, check out 26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets. #3: EngagePeople on Twitter who don't talk to other people are significantly less engaging and less likely to get followers. Just because someone didn't immediately follow you back doesn't mean that you can't engage them. Check out their conversations and see if you can jump in with relevant comments, or retweet some of their links. Also, being part of conversations will get you in front of more people, increasing your chances of being followed. Get involved with #chats. Anyone can start a chat on Twitter by using a hashtag. You can find a long list of chats in this Google doc, along with days and times. By joining the conversation at appropriate chats, you can quickly build your relevant followers… Assuming you have something valuable to add!  If you’re looking to engage bloggers, you could chime in at the #BWEChat. Schedule chats to reach a wider audience. While there are many marketers who hate scheduled tweets—I'm looking at you, Unmarketer—many others embrace the tactic. Using a tool like HootSuite or Buffer, you can schedule out a day's, week's or month's worth of tweets. I would recommend you use a scheduling tool to supplement your regular tweets rather than replacing them. If you're going to schedule your tweets, try to be aware of when people respond to anything you share. When people respond to your tweets and you're not there to respond to them, they're less likely to engage you in the future. #4: Promote Your Twitter Account Through Other ChannelsLeverage the following you've built elsewhere by promoting your Twitter account. Talk up Twitter at your website, blog and through email. At flyte, we include our Twitter handles—with clickable links—next to all of our bios. We also include links to our Twitter handles from all appropriate blog posts.  People can follow you without having to leave the page they’re on. You can also include a "follow me on Twitter" call to action in your email signature file, email newsletter and all other correspondence. Leverage your social media outposts. Likewise, include links (and calls to action) on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube. You may be tempted to sync all of your updates and tweets together using a tool like Ping.fm, HootSuite or TweetDeck. While there's nothing wrong with this, use this technique judiciously. Certain platforms may not be as "chatty" as Twitter, and if we're already connected on LinkedIn and you're syncing all of your tweets and LinkedIn updates, what's the value of getting the same content on Twitter? Get more visibility with a Paper.li newspaper. Paper.li is a free service that allows you to create "newspapers" out of your Twitter feed (as well as some integration of Facebook and Google+). Your daily paper.li can pull from the people you follow, your lists, or specific keywords or hashtags you include. Paper.li can also tweet out your daily paper, including which people contributed your "top stories." I've found that these tweets often get retweets from the people mentioned, and suddenly they're sharing your content with their network, elevating your brand.  Promoting the people you’re following encourages more follow-backs and engagement. In this video you can see how to create your own paper.li daily: One caveat: I no longer recommend including hashtags to pull in new people to your paper.li. Turns out some disreputable people might be using the same hashtags, populating your paper.li with spam. So how do you bring in fresh content from new people to your paper.li daily? Here's what I did: find people you respect and look at the targeted lists they've created. Then you can include their curated lists to help round out your paper.  Using others’ lists can greatly improve your own paper!Now It's Your Turn! What do you think? What tips, tools or tactics have you been using to build your own relevant Twitter following? Share something in the comments box below and include your Twitter handle and you'll be sure to pick up a few new followers! The post 4 Ways Growing a Twitter Following That Matters appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. The post 4 Ways Growing a Twitter Following That Matters appeared first on GrowYourTwitterNetwork. The post 4 Ways Growing a Twitter Following That Matters appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| 8 #Tips for Running #Social Media #Promotions Posted: 08 Feb 2014 07:52 PM PST Have you thought of using social media contests and sweepstakes to build and engage your audience? Previously I wrote How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest outlining some important foundational steps: be clear on your marketing objectives, know your audience, understand different promotion types and plan ahead! If you're looking to gain even more traction with social promotions, here areeight additional tips to enhance your next social media campaign. Ensure Your Promotion Doesn't Get You In Hot WaterIt's difficult to run a successful campaign if your promotion is blocked, removed or challenged in a court of law. So before we get to the fun part of marketing, there are a few logistical tips to keep in mind. #1: Running a Facebook Promotion Requires an AppMuch has been written about the Facebook Promotional Guidelines and how to run a compliant promotion. The guidelines have evolved, but the most important requirement remains the same: any promotion (i.e., something where a consumer enters for a chance to win a prize) on Facebook must be handled through an app. If you know what you're doing, you could develop your own Facebook app, but you might prefer to personalize an "off-the-shelf" app by a variety of companies such as North Social, Wildfire or Strutta. Some are inexpensive and no-frills, while others provide a more robust set of features and options to connect you with your customers and personalize the experience. If you choose a third-party app provider, choose a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer so you can feel confident you're in compliance with Facebook's platform policies.  Look for developers and platforms that display this badge with the Apps qualification. #2: Twitter Promotions Must Provide Rules DisclosureAny contest or sweepstakes must provide participants with terms and conditions of entry and Twitter is no exception. With only 140 characters to work with, this becomes one of the bigger challenges of running a Twitter-based promotion. The easiest way to address this is to host the rules on a separate web page and include a short link when tweeting about the contest. Alternatively you can host a landing page with all of the contest details and requirements and direct traffic to that page, rather than having the interaction take place within the Twitter stream. For larger-scale promotions, you may wish to utilize a third-party service such asCMP.LY to ensure compliance.  In this example, the CMP.LY service is used to provide a short URL linking to the terms of the promotion whenever it is shared on Twitter. #3: Beware of the LotteryNo, I'm not worried about you blowing your paycheck on Powerball. But lotteries are the domain of the government and you want to ensure your promotion isn't deemed an illegal lottery. Any promotion that contains the following three elements is considered a lottery:prize, element of chance in winner selection and consideration (cash payment, purchase requirement or extensive effort required to enter). Since you wouldn't have much of a promotion without a prize, you must eliminate either chance or consideration (or best of all, both) to steer clear of potential legal concerns. Tips to Build BuzzOnce you've dotted your I's and crossed your T's on the legal and policy side, it's time to think about how to drive traffic and build momentum for your promotion. #4: Make it Easy for Users to ShareThis is the most important tip when it comes to marketing. Much of the value in a social promotion comes from the increased ease for participants to share your promotion through their social graph. One of the reasons contests such as "Retweet to Win" are so popular is the nearly frictionless sharing. If you're using an app on Facebook to encourage viral sharing, ensure that the sharing options are easy and intuitive. However, it's also important to be aware that over-sharing can lead to the perception of spam, so it's important to strike the right balance. Note: It's against Facebook policy to directly reward a user for sharing. You may use Facebook apps to reward referrals, but be careful not to directly incentivize sharing.  Integrated share tools make it easy for contest participants to share if they want to. #5: Regularly Promote Your ContestContest organizers will often schedule a bunch of communications when a promotion launches, then fail to maintain communication throughout the campaign. Be sure to share key milestones and events (e.g., contest round ending, finalists being selected, just reached 100 or 10,000 entries). If you're running a user-generated content promotion, it's also a great opportunity toshare content (e.g., popular or unique entries) that will drive greater engagement. When posting about your promotion on Facebook, be sure to utilize the pinned post feature to keep the post visible at the top of the timeline. And don't forget to utilize all of your social channels—it's OK to promote your Facebook contest on Twitter and Google+.  In this example, a compelling image is used to draw attention and a direct link to the contest app is provided. #6: Amplify Your Message Through PartnersTap into the power of partner marketing by including sponsors and providing them with exposure in exchange for cross-promotion. Also be sure to identify influencers (journalists, bloggers, etc.) whom you canreach out to and share news about your promotion. If you're running a contest with a judging component to evaluate entries, you may want to invite influencers to be a part of the judging panel. Attaching their name to your contest adds credibility and gives them a good reason to talk about it!  PR firm Affect tapped influential people in the PR and marketing world to serve as judges and help them find the ultimate summer intern. Tips for Contests Featuring User-Generated ContentI am a big believer in the power of user-generated content promotions, but having been involved with many over the past five years, there are a couple of key lessons I've learned. #7: Prime the PumpAny time you're asking users to submit content into a promotion, it's a good idea toseed the contest with a few submissions. These can be sample entries that you create which are not eligible to win or submissions from participants who have been encouraged to enter early.  In this contest run by Social Media Examiner’s own Mike Stelzner, Mike provided his own sample entry to help inspire participants. The key is to have some entries right away to break the ice and provide others with inspiration for their own submission. #8: Think Twice Before Relying Solely on the Court of Public OpinionContests featuring user-generated content often incorporate a component of public voting. This is something I would encourage because it drives greater virality, with participants naturally incentivized to share their entries and voters taking an active role in the outcome. However, if your contest is decided 100% by public voting, you need to be prepared to relinquish control of the outcome to those individuals with the largest social networks and/or those using vote-swapping and other tricks to try to game the system. The most popular contest model among our clients uses a round of voting to narrow the field of entries down to a predetermined number of finalists, and a panel of judges then decides the winner. By employing a set of predefined judging criteria, the client is able to retain some discretion over who is named the winner(s) while still generating a lot of voting and sharing activity up front. Another option is to use judging criteria to select finalists and then open it to voting. Regardless of your preferred contest model, ensure that your platform of choice is well-equipped to handle voting and the potential challenges that come along with it. A Success StoryRecently Mari Smith launched her very first contest. Mari wanted to do something fun and rewarding for her fans, and to introduce a new webinar she was hosting. She was consistently enthusiastic about delivering a great experience for her community and utilized many of the tips outlined above.  Mari did a great job of promoting the contest and keeping fans engaged by profiling interesting segments along the way. Mari invited everyone to submit their Facebook cover photo for a chance to win a Facebook Makeover valued at $1,000. In just three weeks, the promotion received nearly 400 entries, which in turn generated 1,500 shares and more than 3,000 click-throughs. An additional 2,000 people subsequently participated as entrants or voters as a direct result of another entrant sharing the promotion with them. The contest received more than 25,000 visits in just three weeks, providing great exposure for Mari and generating a significant number of signups to her webinar. I've seen companies of all sizes use promotions in a similar fashion to inexpensivelyacquire and engage fans, build awareness for a new product and ultimately drive conversions to sales. What do you think? What would you like a social promotion to do for you?Please join in the discussion below. The post 8 #Tips for Running #Social Media #Promotions appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Facebook Graph Search Adds Posts: This Week in Social Media Posted: 08 Feb 2014 12:27 PM PST By Cindy King
What's New This Week?Facebook Adds Posts and Status Updates to Graph Search: "Now you will be able to search for status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments to find things shared with you."  “Search for the topics you’re interested in and see what your friends are saying, like "Dancing with the Stars” or “Posts about Dancing with the Stars by my friends." Facebook Announces New Features for Mobile Ad Unit: To help drive engagement and conversions, Facebook adds "new features to mobile app ads that are designed to help businesses reach people that have already downloaded their apps and direct them back into specific features, content or products within the app."  “Businesses can now choose from seven different calls to action within mobile app ads.” LinkedIn Adds New Features to Mobile: The LinkedIn app for mobile has "flatter, cleaner and more modern designs" and you can now "keep your professional reputation fresh by accepting endorsements from your connections and by adding skills to your profile."  “You can recognize your connections for being awesome at what they do by endorsing them from your phone.” Here's some up-coming news to follow: Facebook Updates Ads Content in News Feed: Facebook is "working on some updates to the ads algorithm to improve the relevance and quality of the ads people see." Facebook Introduces Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram to Home: "You can view more of the content you care about on your lock screen. When you wake up your phone, swipe through photos and posts from Flickr, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram, in addition to Facebook."  “Connect these apps to Home to get started. This feature will begin testing within the Facebook for Android Beta program.” Here's an interesting tool worth noting: Tweet Binder: A cool tool to analyze, classify and share twitter impact reports. Click here to see how Tweet Binder looks for Social Media Success Summit activity.  “With Tweet Binder SEEK LITE you can get tweets up to 2.000 tweets (7 days old) per search for free.” What do you think? Please share your comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post Facebook Graph Search Adds Posts: This Week in Social Media appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Get Better Results with Twitter Posted: 08 Feb 2014 05:03 AM PST
When you boil it right down there are two fundamental ways that you can get better results with Twitter. 1. You can get better engagement with your existing followers. 2. You can get more followers. So let's take a few minutes and explore these two elements of Twitter success. How to Get Better Results from Your Existing FollowersTo get better results from your existing followers you should be proactive with your engagement and posting. Set aside a few minutes each day to help spark conversation with people in your network. Share their content and spark conversation around common interests. Get to know your followers better and help them out if you can. Identify the keywords that matter the most to your business and use Twitter search to find people tweeting about the topics that matter the most to you. Follow people back when the connection is relevant and this will help you retain the followers you have since there are free tools like Manage Flitter make it easy to mass unfollow people who don't follow you. The content you share also plays a pivotal role in your Twitter success. Share the kind of content you wish other people would tweet about. For best results create your own content (ideally on your own WordPress blog) even if it is just list posts and compilations of content from other people. How to Get More Followers and Multiply Your SuccessGetting more Twitter followers is more of a challenge but it gets easier as you go since the more followers you have the more your momentum and social proof will make it easy for you to take your network to the next level. If you have your own blog you can implement a Twitter "Follow Button" so that people can follow you directly from your site. I use Twitter follow buttons for all of my websites, and you can find one in the right sidebar of this blog. If you use a free blogging solution it is probably impossible for you to implement one of these. If you want an instant boost of influence and social proof I recommend you check out the service: Grow My Twitter Network. For more powerful follower getting tips I recommend you check out this epic article I wrote with 50 ways to get more followers. The post Get Better Results with Twitter appeared first on GrowYourTwitterNetwork. The post Get Better Results with Twitter appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
| Dial Into Google Hangouts By Phone: This Week in Social Media Posted: 08 Feb 2014 03:00 AM PST By Cindy King
What's New This Week?With UberConference You Can Dial Into Google Hangouts: With the UberConference app, you can now call into Google hangouts from your phone.
Tumblr Adds Support for SSL: "You can now take extra precaution against hackers and snoops by enabling SSL security on your Tumblr dashboard. Just head over to your Account Settings and flip the switch."  "It doesn't change anything about the dashboard; it just encrypts your connection to it." Path Adds Video to Android: "You'll be able to share up to 30 seconds of video with the people you care about."  "To capture a video, open the Path camera and hold down on the camera button." Here's some other social media news worth following: Twitter Introduces Data Grants: This is a pilot project in which Twitter will give a handful of research institutions access to their public and historical data. Here are a few cool social media tools worth checking out: Instaradio: An Android app that is a "new way to share your voice and the sounds around you."  "Broadcast audio to anyone, listen to the people you care about, be featured in the Editor's Picks and connect with your friends' microphones." Peek Calendar: A tool that "cuts away the overwhelming features of mobile calendars."  "It redefines an on-the-go experience for people to use when they need it, so that they are not consumed by its entirety and benefit from its existence." Fuzel: A tool that allows you to create photo and animated collages on your iPhone.  "Create fun collages with Fuzel's creative tools." Other MentionsIntroducing Social Media Marketing World: 60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author of Youtility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner's mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California. Check out this overview of the conference or click here for more details. What do you think? Please share your comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post Dial Into Google Hangouts By Phone: This Week in Social Media appeared first on Make Money Online With Twitter Marketing. |
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