Amid the vast range of online marketing tools available today, Twitter is a bit unique. That’s because unlike Facebook, it doesn’t give you the option of outright advertising; neither is it restricted solely to business contacts, like LinkedIn, nor does it allow for the depth of expression that a personal or company blog would. It’s simply a place to go and share your deepest – or maybe quickest – thoughts and impressions with the world. But can you really help sell anything in 140 characters or less?

As it turns out, yes you can.

Lots of companies are turning Twitter into a valuable part of their overall Internet promotional strategy. The key to making their campaigns work is to treat the site like the unique forum it is, rather than trying to use the same tactics you would on different platforms.

Here are three tips to help you get the most out of Twitter marketing:

Be fun. The quick-hit nature of tweets means that your potential customers are going to have the attention spans of small insects; for that reason, your tweets are going to have to be at least a little bit informative or entertaining to attract readers.

Start conversations, not pitches. Twitter, like all social media sites, is a bad place to speak at people. Engage potential customers in questions and conversations – at least a few of which that weren’t started by you – rather than going straight into your marketing message.

Think stealth. When you do tweet an offer you want potential customers to follow up on, wrap it in a softer message, like a note about industry trends or link to an informative article. Otherwise, all the trust and goodwill you’ve built up to be lost in an instant.

I am going to carefully pick my battles. That’s why signing up for Naymz isn’t in my immediate plans.

There is a lot of “buzz” out there about social media marketing. Even in the past quarter we see more “social” sites popping up, Naymz and Google Buzz to name a couple. It’s all so really cool, isn’t it? Frankly, it is a bit overwhelming.

It has always been important, but more so today, that as a business owner or manager you not lose focus on your core products and services. If Social Media is not one of your core money makers, then I would suggest to you that it not become one of your core “jobs”.

Don’t let yesterday’s Virtual Assistant turned Social Media consultant scare you into thinking the sky will fall if you don’t get a Twitter account. Pick the social media services that will contribute to your business.

If you do need advice about how Social Media & Search Engine optimization may contribute to a successful business, ask people who have used the internet to build a successful business. I don’t mean people that have built a job… I mean people that have built a business.

April 1, 2010 Ulistic Inc., a Calgary Social Media consultancy and search engine optimization service have opened a registration site. The new registration site is where Ulistic will feature upcoming training workshops.

Currently workshops, scheduled and ready for registrations include;

• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media for Business Owners
• A Social Media Breakfast for Real Estate Agents
• LinkedIn for Business

The Ulistic approach to internet consulting is based on empower the client to take ownership of their online presence through education and support.

A practical “newbie” training…‎ By Sandy – Mar 30, 2010

I have been privileged to take two of Ulistic’s social media courses and they have helped me overcome my fear in this area. They taught it in an understandable, hands-on method so that when I left, I felt confident that I could do this. Other courses left me feeling overwhelmed, rather than equipped. Though they’re very experienced in this field, they didn’t make me feel that my questions were silly. I felt very comfortable during the course and excited to try it out for my business. Thanks, Ulistic!!‎

As a distributed technology and communications platform, the people who created the internet did not intended it to become a soap box for customers to burn their service providers in effigy.

The question used to be, “how can I get my website on first page Google?”  Now the question is, “how can I get this offensive blog posting off of first page Google?”

Reputation management is becoming a term that more and more businesses are learning. Reputation monitoring and effective response are a part of your daily chores. If not today, perhaps tomorrow.

David

…because dogs don’t have thumbs.

It’s really a matter of how you look at life. When people make statements, it isn’t really the statement that counts, it’s what pops into the listeners head that counts.

Years ago, I read a list on “email etiquette” that included the caution that one day “you” will write an email and regret it. Social media sites like Twitter, Meetup and Facebook take us into a whole new world of “one day you will regret it”. We have matured beyond email etiquette to needing social media etiquette.

David

As Google continues to develop it’s “Local Business Centre” one of the new advents is the introduction of physical labels that include a barcode. These physical labels are being sent to business owners that have already verified ownership of their Local Business listing on Google maps.

The barcode, or QR Code that is on the label allows people with smart phones to simply scan the code with the phones camera. Litterally within a fraction of a second, you receive all of the business details from Google’s Local Business listing including any coupons or offers that the owner has posted.

Reviews are also returned. The good, the bad and the ugly are returned. In fact Google even suggests that there is no better time than the present to leave a review -

“Leave a review right after you leave the business. What’s a better time to write what you think, than when you’ve just visited?”

There are already several QR Code scanning apps on the App Store. I dropped a $1.99 and got one and scanned the code on this page… It works very quickly.

To learn more about being a “Favorite Place on Google” you can visit this page here

Cheers -

David

]]> http://www.davidawest.com/2009/12/08/google-favourite-places-and-bar-codes/feed/ 1 http://www.davidawest.com/2009/11/25/how-is-your-business-being-promoted-with-social-media/ http://www.davidawest.com/2009/11/25/how-is-your-business-being-promoted-with-social-media/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:05:45 +0000 David West http://www.davidawest.com/?p=262

This is pretty brilliant – this YouTube video explains how Ikea used existing tagging capabilities of FaceBook to encourage syndication and interaction with their online gallery promoting the opening of a new store.  Watch the video…

10 years ago it was a tough sell to convince a small business that they should get a website. Today, most business owners and entrepreneurs turn to online marketing, and a website is usually first on the list.

There is more to online marketing today than just your business website. Are you missing the boat?

Read the recent post at my article on Web 2.0 & Missing the Boat here where we write about Calgary website design, marketing and other business related topics.

Web 2.0 & Missing the Boat