In today’s webinar, Guy talked about a couple tools that he uses to assist in his Twitter activities:

Objective Marketer is a site that helps you schedule different updates across all your social media accounts. It provides tracking of all the links you post and reports the amount of traffic you’re getting. You can easily manage a social media campaign and measure your efforts.

At first glance, even Guy admits that he thought Twitter was a waste of time. That was until he discovered the possibilities of Twitter Search. For example, do you sell cameras? With this search feature, you can find users who are interested in photography and you can get that info down to miles within your proximity!

Twitter Feed is a great way to schedule posts from your blog feed. As Guy mentions, if it’s worth writing about, it’s worth tweeting! This tool is a great way to get more juice from your old blog posts.

• Watch your grammar – Just because you’re limited to 140 characters doesn’t mean that you should watch your grammar. Double check Tweets as often as you can. Check out Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb by Copyblogger
• Trending topics – Sometimes, useful events and stories make Twitter’s list of trending topics. Some prompts may even help you if you’re at a loss with what to update.
• Retweet useful info – It could be a breaking story or a helpful article. Pass it a long and add a message of thanks to the person you’re retweeting.
• Ask useful questions – Whether it’s for personal or market research, this is a great way to engage with your followers.
• Mind your quotes - Many studies have shown that quotes or words of wisdom often receive the most retweets. Tired of the same old quotes, why not make one of your own?

• Instead of asking for e-mail addresses, why not offer customers a free download or coupon?
• Instead of sending snail mail for an upcoming event, why not invite locals on Facebook?
• Instead of just a traditional press release, why not push it towards all your social media profiles?

All the capabilities of direct marketing can be incorporated into a social media forum if you take the time to do some listening as well. I think direct marketing and social media can go hand in hand and it’s definitely something that we have to look forward to in the future.

Any point where this starts looking bad?

Why Organic SEO Content?
We all know that investing in organic SEO is a good long-term decision. Relevant content will help you stay in the ranks for appropriate key words. It’s just another direct marketing resource to keep in your tool box. About 4 out of 5 internet users arrive at their online destination via search engines and that’s where your content will matter. When paired with a PPC campaign, you’ll get the most out of your online marketing efforts. If you need to learn more about how to tweak your organic SEO content, check Search Engine Land for easy-to-understand tips.

Trying Your Hand with Promoted Tweets
The goal of search marketing is to drive your message through all user channels and new promoted Tweets can help you do just that. It’s helpful for business as they can target related #hashtags and trending topics. For example, the Death at a Funeral remake used this hashtag to convey the quirky plot line.  This is probably the easiest and most fun way to engage your audience. Trending topics are meant to be fun most of the times… I mean, “#whenyoursingle”, “igotFIRED” and more – the opportunities are endless. There’s debate whether users will actually click on sponsored ads. My guess is that they definitely will. A good amount of people have even retweeted (or shared) this Death at a Funeral ad with their followers! Like any other ad platform, you can now use Twitter’s sponsored feature to drive traffic to your page.

Applying Marketing Goals with Twitter
From raising brand awareness to simply gaining sales, there are many different direct marketing goals. You can even use Twitter as an extension of your customer service. As you think about the goals you want to set for your business, you should also think about using Twitter to reach your audience. There are some different consumers to consider before you start and today, we’re going to discuss the Twitter voyeur.

Taking a Look at the Voyeur
Let’s face it, there are lots of them. They go by many names: the voyeur, the lurker, the shy guy, or even the n00b. Not everyone on Twitter is actively contributing, but their presence can’t be ignored. For example, you may be a boutique owner. Although it’s great to network by following others in your industry, they’re not going to buy what you have to sell. It’s the customers you want to reach out to. Offer rewards and give your followers the inside scoop. Inactive users may stay quiet, but they make take advantages of good deals you offer. Not everyone wants to build and maintain an online relationship with their so-called “friends”. It takes thought and effort, so others may just not have the time.

Monitor with Twitter
Even for those who don’t post to Twitter, it doesn’t mean that they’re not watching. Twitter is a useful, social, and entertaining resource. Some may just browse Twitter’s trending topics to see what others have to say. Twitter is a great tool for small business or individuals to use to gain insight. Bigger companies definitely use it to monitor their brand.

Use Common Sense
Although Twitter is an informal channel, don’t fly blind by forgetting to set a goal. In direct marketing, you have the influencer, decision maker, buyer etc. You can appeal to these same types of consumers when it comes to Twitter. The best thing you can do is to be consistent with your marketing message. Keep some Twitter don’ts in the back of your mind while you do so, and have fun!

Just attended an interesting webinar, “7 Strategies to Convert Friends, Fans, and Followers into Paying Customers”, with Matthew Arndt. He went over some noteworthy things, like the three main problems that people have with social media. Those problems would be how to:

1) Build quality relationships over social networks
2) Effectively communicate with friends, fans, and followers
3) Turn your network into potential leads

There’s No Single Solution

There is no real single solution to these problems. Although you can scour the internet for tips from self-proclaimed experts, you should try your hand at it. There’s no real way to learn and improve your social media strategy without getting involved. It takes time and you may have to change your plan, but the results are worth it. After all, you don’t have to go it alone. There are helpful tools for your profiles. Some being WeFollow, Mr. Tweet, and Facebook Page Insights. Take the time to integrate these resources as you also come up with blogs, PDFs, and even free contests to involve your customers!

You can’t just accumulate friends and expect business to come flooding in. With spammers and robots on Twitter, quantity doesn’t mean as much as quantity. When coming up with a social media plan, you need knowledge and expertise. While it helps to stay up to date with current information, you’ll also need a team to help you implement a comprehensive strategy.

When it comes to Facebook marketing and Twitter advertising, which do you prefer? Both have advantages and disadvantages and social media marketing is still in its early stages of development. Users may have trouble keeping up with all the new changes as marketers struggle to find an effective strategy. An analysis from Compete, shows that Facebook is in the lead, but is Twitter a threat? I believe that Twitter and Facebook are strong competitors that and can be strongly beneficial when properly utilized.

People like to use Facebook because they can keep in touch with old friends and easily meet new ones. However, with Twitter, individuals and companies can build a strong following and promote their awareness of their brand. It is important to keep up on changes with both of these giants because it is hard to tell which has more potential. Taking it up a notch, viral marketing is also becoming prevalent on these social networking sites. For example on Twitter, Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a “popularity” contest and won! This may be a victory for Kutcher and embarrassing for CNN, but both parties certainly gained more followers. How are some pros and cons of both Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook
+ Rapidly growing number of users
+ Potential to use third party applications for advertising
+ Some report using Facebook messaging more than email to connect with real friends
- Takes time to learn how to navigate
- Requires testing and research to realize long term benefits
- Numerous applications and features could clutter your message

Twitter
+ Easy to use, navigate and use to promote or share anything
+ Cost advantageous in comparison to Facebook (for the time being)
+ More people can be exposed to your message without any formal confirmation or even logging in
- Limited to 140 character for each update
- Potential for abuse by spammers
- Too early to tell how effective it is in advertising

• 45-54 year olds are amongst the top users
• 85.3% of all Twitter users update less than once day
• 53% of females and 47% of males make up all of Twitter users
• Twitter is most active on Tuesday – Wednesday and Friday follow
• Marketers are using Twitter. 15% of users who follow more than 2,000 people identify as social media marketers

So, why is it important to keep up with Twitter? An article on BusinessWeek, argues that Twitter lacks the ability to retain consumer attention and that it will take time before it is widely used as a broadcast medium, rather than a social networking utility. Whether it is a fad or here to stay, Twitter is growing everyday. From 2008 to 2009, there were over 20 million unique visitors to the site. By using Twitter, companies are able to keep consumers updated in real time. Dedicated fans or potential consumers will especially appreciate frequent and up to date Tweets. Also, the good thing about Twitter is that it does not hurt your business. When it comes to social media sites, early Twitter adapters can benefit from gaining experience while competitors may not fully understand its use. By being more connected and accessible to your consumers, you may also learn more than you would through using traditional methods of marketing.

Amnesia Razorfish, a leading creative agency, invited both companies on the social utility site, Twitter. The agency encouraged both companies to become friends or Twitter followers. Surprisingly, the two giants agreed and even extended greetings to each other. This may be a first for the two and we will all be able to witness how this experiment works for them. Frenemy relationships are not solely for publicity, but gives you an edge on what your competitor is up to. A company who fails to take direct and indirect competitors seriously will suffer a huge disadvantage. Some other big frenemy relationships include: Google and WPP Group, eBay and PayPal, Facebook and MySpace.

This new online relationship will not only give publicity to Coke and Pepsi, but may even promote a positive image for both companies. Nowadays, traditional advertising may be trite and monotonous to the public. Since more consumers are turning to the internet, companies can now use social media advertising and viral marketing in order to attract online attention. When approaching online marketing, the competitor-friendliest companies may be the most successful. As the well-known saying goes, it is important to “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”.