Using Twitter more Effectively

At the moment it seems you can't escape stories about Twitter.  With all the hype and celebrity endorsements, lots of people are asking “how do I use Twitter?”.   

There are plenty of sites out there that will tell you how to use Twitter, but not so many to warn you of the pitfalls.If you take a minute to learn from this list of useful Twitter tips then you'll be Twittering away with the best of them.

DO self censor.Unless your updates are protected, anyone can see what you are currently Tweeting.Bear in mind the story of the girl who managed to Tweet her way out of a job because a hiring manager read her thoughts on the position she interviewed for.

DON'T confuse Twitter for a chat client.No one wants to see their screen full of irrelevant Tweets from a conversation they're forced to eavesdrop on.

DO remember to retweet.This can be a good way to build up a following of like minded Twitterers.

DON'T endlessly try to sell things.Okay, we get it - you have your own blog.Twitter isn't a one way street - talk back!

DO follow back, but….

DON'T be offended if not everyone follows you back.Users with thousands of followers are unlikely to see your Tweet through the hundreds of other tweets anyway.

DO be funny, informative and creative.

DON’T automatically DM.  This is the Twitter equivalent of spam and a faceless “hi – thanks for the follow” is impersonal and off-putting.

DO use it to get help.When you have built up a reasonable following you’ll find it easy to find answers to your questions quickly.

DON’T twit if your message is likely to exceed 140 characters.Spreading messages over the course of several tweets is just going to confuse and irritate your followers.

These handy hints should see you on your way to getting started.  If you are likely to spend a significant proportion of your online time on Twitter then there are plenty of guides on the net telling you how to use Twitter effectively.

It seems as though everyone is getting into the blog writing game. Blogs are fun to write. Many folks enjoy writing a blog about their passion or hobby. Others do it to bring attention to their business offerings. At some point you will most likely want to monetize your blog. Once you learn how to start a blog, start writing good content, and gain visitors, you will be able to make some money.

You can make money blogging in numerous ways. You can sell advertisements. You can join an affiliate program and collect a commission on products you recommend and your readers purchase. Selling your own product is also a great option. You can make money blogging in just about any method you can creatively think of.

The following are but a few of the options available to a blogger for making money from their writing and content. Not all are worthwhile for every blog. If you are writing a political blog with conservative views then posting Google Adsense advertisements may not work as well as getting a commission from selling political books.

Probably the most common means of making money with your blog these days is through the Google Adsense program. This program allows you to place Google Adwords on your blog, otherwise known as Adsense, and if visitors click on an ad then Google will share in the revenue.

Is Adsense right for your blog? Let’s say you have blog about golf and posted an article about ladies golf clubs. The advertising block from Adsense would most likely show ads about ladies golf clubs, if available, and at the least golf clubs. Google allows you to share in the revenue when your visitor clicks on one of the ads in their program, or network. When your earnings reach at least a hundred dollars, Google would then send you a check.

Other ways of making money with your blog include affiliate programs where you promote products and services in exchange for a commission. There are numerous programs such as Shareasale, Commission Junction and in-house programs like Amazon.com that you can submit an application to. If your blog is popular enough and gets a lot of traffic you might be able to sell advertising space to companies. An online store could be set up, linked from your blog, to sell goods you create or dropship.

The means to make money from blogging are many and quite easy to implement. You will have to promote your blog and entice visitors to buy the products that you are marketing.

Businesses are beginning to realize that a website isn’t enough to make a powerful online presence. Marketers have started to include blogging as a vital part of their online search engine optimisation and marketing mix. Surpringly there are still many businesses out there that have no idea how blogs can help them.

They simply came up with a blog, not knowing how to make it work to their favor. Blogs are highly versatile tools that are capable of executing the different aspects of marketing—from the basic market researches down to creative guerrilla marketing, blogs offer businesses a lot of breakthrough opportunities.

Below are 5 of the most practical ways in which a blog can help your online business.

1. Writing blogs can create stronger links with your target market
Your brands gets a personality or at least its easier to get one when you publish a blog. Your blog allows people to directly interact with your brand, and they expect some sort of reply or acknowledgement that someone in your company has received and read their messages.

Maintaining this feedback loop allows you to keep an eye on your market and gives you a better conversion rate of prospects to loyal clients.

2. Blogs attract fresh insights and inform you of new category trends
Keeping communication lines open for your blog visitors, you will undoubtably gain fresh insights and new suggestions. The beauty of this is that you don’t need to pay anyone to talk to the consumers for you, but you still get the information straight from the primary source.

It’s now up to you how you organize the information that you’ve gathered; make them work towards your advantage. You can take it a step further and cross check your data. Visit your comptitors blogs and see what their visitors have to say about them. Doing so would definitely give you a better view of your marketplace.

3. Blogs allow you to test your market before a full launch
Before fully launching an ad or any creative promo and campaign, you can execute a mini version of your plan through your blog and see how your audience responds. Suggestions and comments will pour in, giving you ideas on how you can improve and tweak it to better suit your market.

Companies spend a lot of money conducting FGDs and researches. These end up costing as much as—sometimes more than—a full-blown campaign. While blogs cannot replicate the accuracy of professional research groups, they can work well for a lot of market-driven studies.

4. Increasing your online exposure is possible through blogs
The blog network survives on a complex link network. Bloggers are usually fine with linking fellow bloggers that they find interesting. It pays to befriend top-ranking blogs in your category and those that belong in other related categories.

Ensure you make available, regular content and keep it updated to make sure your credibility is high.

5. With blogs there is more room for creativity
Your blog can be the fun alter-ego of your corporate website. While this doesn’t mean a complete dissent from your brand’s identity, blogs allow you to close the gap between how you define your brand and how your market perceives your brand.