February 19, 2009
Twitterable? What To Twitter About
A great deal of your success on Twitter is based on what you choose to Twitter about.
We covered this a bit in last week's article, but it's worth reconsidering and going deeper.
The key is to recognize that every follower you have on Twitter is earned, and that every post you write has the potential to attract more followers or to drive off the ones you already have.
No stress...
First some don'ts:
- In last week's article we stressed the importance of NOT filling your Twitter feed with totally personal items that nobody cares about. Don't greet the world when you get up, tell them what you had for breakfast, or when you're going to bed. Unless you're a celebrity, who people actually get paid for taking pictures of you doing those things, twittering on those subjects will just push people away.
- Don't do inside jokes that only a few people will understand.
- Don't complain about the world. Nobody likes whiners in real life, and they certainly aren't going to continually follow you if you do it online.
- Don't use it as a place for spouting off on whatever subject is on your mind at the moment. Think, then write.
- Unless your audience is following you because of your religious or political views, you generally should stay away from those subjects. Sorry, I know. You'll never believe how hard it was for me to not hit the enter key after writing some amazing posts during the recent US election...
Now some do's:
Several other tips:
- Don't pitch your business right out of the box. Shockingly, about 80% of the people who send me a private message include their URL in the very *first* communication they have with me. That's just not cool. Build trust, then tell people about your business.
- Some people use a strategy of interacting with their readers by using @ replies liberally. Frankly, many people think that's rude. If you want to have a private conversation, have a private conversation by using d theirusername rather than @theirusername. @ sends the message to everyone, d just to them.
This is a public medium, so keep your private conversations to yourselves.
Admittedly, some people totally disagree with this, and you can turn off the receipt of @ replies in twitter (highly recommended,) but many people refuse to follow people who have high levels of @ replies and comments that aren't of general interest in their post lists.
- If you're going to send something on that someone else has written, it's appropriate to "retweet" it. Type RT @theirusername then the point they made. That attributes the information to the source.
By the way, one of the key measures of Twitter success is the number of times you've been retweeted. We'll cover how to improve your retweet rate in a future article.
Let me know how your Twitter campaign is working. I'm always interested!
And, if you decided to follow me on Twitter last week, welcome. If you didn't here's your chance!
Click the follow button underneath my picture.
Don Crowther
Follow me on Twitter
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Connect with me on LinkedIn
Posted by Don Crowther at 01:34 PM | TrackBack
September 25, 2007
Using online video to promote a launch
Using outrageous online video to promote your business
When Andy Jenkins wanted to promote the product improvements in his online traffic and conversion training system called StomperNet, he decided to use a powerful new online tool - online video.
As a marketing professional, you're probably already aware that:
- Video is huge - YouTube is one of the top 3 sites in the world!
- Tons of people are accessing it - over 63% of those with broadband in the US are watching online videos, which has increased 18% over the past year
So how do you get your story seen in online video? One way is to add entertainment to your message, which is precisely what Andy chose to do.
I recommend you watch this video on SEO and online traffic building to see what I mean. It's clearly a spoof, but it's generating a ton of buzz online. Plus, he's also added another interactive tool on the page, to further involve the viewers.
Not badly done!
Posted by K at 02:47 PM | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
How To Instantly Get Onto Newsweek's And The Washington Post's Website
Psst - Wanna hear a really cool secret?
Would you like to know how to quickly and easily get included and linked to from the Washington Post's and Newsweek's websites?
(This is great stuff!)
Blog about them!
Yep, it's that easy. And it costs you nothing! Just a few moments of your time!
Both the Washington Post and Newsweek have now added a cool new feature to many of the pages of their sites - a box which reports what people who write blogs are saying about the stories and writers in their stable.
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Newsweek’s Trackback Box |
Technorati then includes a link to your article in their box, and a portion of it, including a link to your site, is run on the Washington Post or Newsweek site.
Total incremental time investment: 5 minutes. Value of that mention on their site? Priceless (sorry, Mastercard...) Do this 10 times a week and you could get some pretty significant additional traffic, while building your PR presence at the same time.
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The WashingtonPost’s Trackback Box |
This tactic is huge! Not only does it give you direct control over whether your comments get displayed on their sites, but:
- You get a link into your site that will generate visitor traffic
- You get into the habit (or better yet, systematize the process) of submitting your blog postings to Technorati, which is sure to increase your traffic and reputation in the future
- And probably most importantly, you raise your visibility to the writers at these key media outlets, improving your expert status and increasing the chance that they are going to call you the next time they need a quote in an article.
Think about that last point while I tell you about a conversation I had last week with my good friend, blogger extraordinaire, Dave Taylor (Intuitive.com - Leadership for the 21st Century and AskDaveTaylor.com - Tech Support and Business Questions being among my favorites >
I was asking Dave about why he invests so much time in tracking the blog postings of other people. His answer was very revealing.
Dave makes it a point to track blog postings from opinion leaders in the spaces he covers. When he sees something interesting, he quickly posts a comment to their blog, and oftentimes writes something about their posting in one of his blogs.
After a few instances of this, that opinion leader starts seeing Dave's name over and over again in his comments and trackback links section and wonders who this Dave Taylor guy is that seems to be so fascinated with their work. So the opinion leader checks out Dave's sites, finds him to be a brilliant thinker and someone who deserves respect. Then oftentimes they drop him an email, give him a phone call, make some comments on Dave's blog, and eventually set up meetings and conversations that go way beyond the content of the original postings.
In other words, Dave is using blogs as a way to develop personal relationships with a number of key individuals, people who are normally so insulated from the general public that there would be no way he could otherwise get into contact with them.
And, once personal contact starts, Dave finds that it's already progressed way beyond the normal "let's get to know each other" status, because both parties have already developed a positive opinion of each other, know the other's opinions and capabilities, and are interested in seeing how they can benefit from the relationship.
Another way to get publicity on these sites is to post comments on their blog postings. Here is an example of a comment from the Washington Post site. Note that it contains a link to the site.
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Now let's take Dave's excellent points and bridge them to working with members of the media.
As you know, reporters and editors are oftentimes difficult to contact and are, by training, skeptical of people who approach them.
But what if you were to find their blog (many media outlets are now providing blogs for their key personalities and encouraging / forcing them to write in those blogs), read it regularly, then when you see something where you can add intelligently to the conversation, you post a comment to their blog and / or write about their posting in your own blog, linking back to them?
Repeat this several times. Eventually they're going to notice you and want to find out more about you. You'll get an email or a phone call. Conversation will ensue. Pretty soon, you'll be seen as an expert in your particular subject area in their minds.
The keys are
1. You've got to have a blog!
(Don't have one yet? Get one today! Don't know how? Check out our Blogging For Business training manual
This report will not only teach you about blogs, but will show you many of the techniques you can use to make blogs work for you!)
2. You need to make sure that you always add value to the conversation.
"Good post" or "Check out my site for more on this subject" do NOT add value to the conversation. Think of Bambi's Thumper the rabbit, who was recently quoted with a modification of his famous statement for the blogging world by saying "If you can't say something well, don't say anything at all!"
Need some guidance on how to write comments that work while attracting attention to your company or cause? Check out our special report How to Write Crisp, Compelling Letters to the Editor that Promote Your Product, Service or Favorite Cause. It's about letters to the editor, but the content bridges very well to writing comments and blog postings in a way that will be seen as contributing to the conversation.
3. Be consistent.
Doing a single post can get you listed on their website once, but it probably won't develop a relationship with the reporter or opinion leader. That takes repeated, brilliant comments over a period of time.
Try these techniques before your competitors do. The results could be phenomenal!
Posted by Don Crowther at 11:38 AM | TrackBack
September 10, 2004
Computer Forensics: Power To The People
Computer forensics hit the media this week with the news that the recent memo, broken by CBS's 60 Minutes, about Bush's National Guard service is now being questioned as a fraud.
Computer forensics are showing that this memo has a low probability of being written in the timeframe claimed, because of a number of elements in the type shown in the document.
But the key isn't the story itself, it's how the questions of fraud were generated and brought to the attention of the media - it was through blogs. A number of bloggers started questioning the authenticity of the documents once they were released, which then raised the story to national attention.
Blogging has risen to the point where a single post in a well-read blog can then get echoed and built upon in literally hundreds of thousands of other blogs, until the noise level reaches a point where even the monolithic news organizations simply have to pay attention.
Blogs, which are basically pieces of software that allow anyone to easily and immediately post items to a website, are becoming incredibly popular as ways to communicate stories to the world. Many companies are now using them profitably to build their business, communicate their point of view, and to attract additional traffic to their website.
Blogs are also becoming powerful tools in the PR arsenal, both through blogging on your own company's site and getting bloggers to write about you on theirs. I've had a great deal of success with this tactic and strongly encourage you to follow suit. For more information on how to use blogs to build your PR, see our Training Manual Blogging For Business: How To Build Your Business Using Blogs
Also, we saw a comment made by one of the political analysts reporting on Dick Cheney's speech during the Republican National Convention. He stated that (paraphrasing) "I received a couple of emails on this point..." during the speech.
Now, isn't that interesting? A network TV political analyst talking, literally seconds after the speech is completed, about how the emails he received during the speech influenced his thought process, which in turn, influenced the thoughts of millions of viewers.
In other words - here's a case of individuals getting their opinions reported on network TV because they made a compelling point in an email to a commentator.
The key principle to understand here is that news reporting is starting to become democratized with more and more people becoming reporters or at least having a hand to shape the reporting process.
While this has its good and bad points, it does create an opportunity for us - opening up chances to get our stories publicized that didn't exist in the past. Not only can we, as individuals, gain the attention of the media, but there are also many new sources that report on the news, giving us more potential reporting opportunities.
Watch for these signs and think about it. How can you use the democratization of the media to help build your PR presence?
Posted by Don Crowther at 02:09 PM | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
How to instantly get your business blog postings to show up in the search engines and generate tons of free search engine traffic to your site
Search engines love blogs.
Blogs tend to be frequently updated, contain fresh insights on hot topics, link to other sites, and provide resources for further topic exploration.
That's one reason why blog entries tend to predominate over regular website pages for many search topics.
There are two things that you should know to make sure that you optimize the search engine placement for your blog. First is how to write your blog entry so that it does well in the search engines. Second is how to make sure the search engines find your blog.
How To Write Blog Entries So They Rank Well In The Search Engines:
1. Before writing any blog entry that you want to use as a search engine traffic magnet, figure out what keywords you want it to be found under when people search. Most of the time you will be most successful with two word combinations or higher ("marketing strategy" rather than simply "marketing".)
2. Use your chose keyword combination frequently throughout your post. They should be in your headline, the first sentence of your copy, and around 5% of your copy throughout your posting. Don't go much higher, as you will then be penalized and won't show up at all.
3. Write good content to which people will want to link. Most search engines rely not just on the words on your page, but also the links into a given page to determine where sites rank in their results. So, if you write great stuff to which people choose to link, you'll generally do much better than writing carefully crafted, keyword-dense copy that is so bad that nobody sends links your way.
4. Write postings that are longer than normal blog entries. Search engines discount short content pages, as this is a favorite tactic of spammers. 250 words or more is ideal for placement with the search engines.
5. Structure your blog template well, with your headline as an h1 tag, your headline as your title tag, using your blog's keyword function to get your keywords placed another time on the page, etc. You may want to ask your programmer to work with your blog's template for you to optimize these factors.
How To Make Sure The Search Engines Find Your Blog Entries:
Many people think that the secret to getting listed in search engines is submitting each page to the engines on a regular basis. That practice may have worked well in the past, but now search engines give top credit to pages that they find on their own through following links. Thus, smart bloggers work hard to make sure that there are multiple links to their key blog listings:
1. When you write something great, link directly to that post from your main website using the title of the entry or better yet, your targeted keywords as the text in the link.
2. Make comments on other people's blogs, linking into your page that discusses that same topic, again, using your targeted keywords as the text in the link.
3. Use the power of RSS syndication and server side includes to pull your headlines and short excerpts into other pages on your site, such as your index page and news pages. This process gets technical, so I won't explain it here, but here's an example of a site pulling a blog's entries into their pages using RSS: Aviation News. There are several programs out there that make this possible, one of my favorites is CaRP. Tools like these can be used either to pull results in from your own blog, or from other many other news sources.
4. Submit your blog and its RSS feeds to each of the blog search engines. You can find them either by searching the web for topics like "promote your blog", "blog search engines" and "RSS feeds", or can cut the time required dramatically by picking up a copy of Blogging For Business, which contains a list of the top 50 places to promote your blog.
As you do so, and as you write a constant stream of great copy, you'll discover that your blog is not only showing up in many different search engines, but that tons of traffic are coming to your site as a result.
Finally, we promised to show you how you can instantly get your blog content into one of the top search engines.
Yahoo has a great feature in their MyYahoo service which allows you to pull the most recent posts from whatever blogs you choose and have them displayed each time you open up your myYahoo page, like this:
While this is a great way to be able to easily track posts made to the blogs that you find most interesting, it's also a great way to get Yahoo to add your entries to their index, quickly and at no cost.
Here’s the way this strategy works. Simply go to Yahoo and click the MyYahoo link close to the top of the page.
If you don't have a MyYahoo account follow their simple instructions to create one.
Once you get into your MyYahoo page, click the choose content button, then on the resulting page, click the box for RSS Headlines under the MyYahoo! Essentials header.
This will make RSS Headlines live on your MyYahoo page. Click the Edit box next to that option which will take you to a Choose Your RSS Sources page. In the top box there, put in the address to your blog amd save your results.
Now, go to your blog and make a blog posting.
Come back to your MyYahoo page and refresh it. It may take a couple of tries, but, assuming that Yahoo’s server’s not too busy at the moment, you should see the content update on your MyYahoo page, with your brand new post being pulled into your MyYahoo page.
Here’s where the cool part comes in. Calling an RSS listing into a MyYahoo page also triggers the visit of a Yahoo spider to your site, checking out any of the pages that haven't been previously indexed in their search engine.
So, in the process of pulling your RSS feed into your MyYahoo page, you've also alerted Yahoo that you have a new post, which usually means that your post will be added to their index in record time! I've seen it work in as little as 24 hours. Try it yourself and see what happens! Then watch your traffic soar...
Aren't you glad that you came today?
Posted by Don Crowther at 05:10 PM | TrackBack
July 09, 2004
Join Us At Global PR Blog Week 1.0
Next week's going to be an exciting one - it's the week where we will participate in something that's really revolutionary.
Next week (July 12 - 18, 2004) I and 27 others are joining in Global PR Blog Week 1.0.
It's a unique conference. You don't have to travel, pay to register, or even sit through any yawner lectures.
You simply read the participant's posts on their individual blogs. Read, learn, then implement.
I've elected to participate each day of the conference. (See the whole program here)
My participation includes:
Monday: The new PR: how to use your blog to get placements with key media sources.
Tuesday: How to instantly get your business blog postings to show up in the search engines and generate tons of free search engine traffic to your site.
Wednesday: The five stupidest PR tactics almost every company tries - don't waste your PR budget on these money pits!
Thursday: Seven must-have elements in every Crisis Communications Plan.
Friday: Tomorrow's PR today - where PR is going and how to make
sure that you get there first.
To get this information, drop by our blog each day where they will be posted.
I look forward to seeing you there, plus you can read all of the other participants' contributions through http://www.thenewpr.com
