Twitter? Really?!!!

Yes....REALLY! I remember when computers were seen as toys (I was really young then;-)). They were toys until they evolved and people started recognizing that without them you can no longer communicate, organize or manage. Now look at them.

I remember when email was deemed to be a flash in the pan. Not anymore. Websites were considered nothing more than an extended business card. Now they're the centre of commerce and information.

Now we have TWITTER, and people are trying to figure that one out. How can 140 characters be of any use to anyone? Trust me, it's more valuable than any other marketing activity you could be doing.

Here are five areas that Twitter adds incredible value:

Search Engine Optimization - when used properly, meaning when keywords are used, when the right links are used and when activity is constant and consistent, twitter provides valuable influence on your web site's PageRank and it establishes some pretty powerful back link support to help search engines find and recognize you.

Market Research - the key to effectively using twitter is in defining what your area of expertise is. For me it's social media and Internet marketing as a whole. So I only follow social media people that I consider experts in those areas. Most posts from these experts tend to have a link to an article, a study, an example or some other information that helps me become stronger, more aware and ultimately more useful to my clients.

Market Reach - my value to my clients is in my experience, knowledge and commitment to social media and Internet marketing. Their core competence is not. So by being able to synthesis and digest important information that will help them understand and benefit from this valuable subject area, and by becoming socially engaged themselves, I now have the opportunity to expand my reach. How? If the content I send out is engaging, interesting and/or supportive, there's a great chance they will retweet to their followers....and then the followers will retweet...and so on.

Engagement - Out of sight, out of mind. Or perhaps a better way of putting it, Reputation equals Repetition. If we are not in contact with someone on a regular basis, it's easy to be forgotten. When we can strike up a relationship with others and be able to keep them in the loop on key subject matters regularly and often, they give us permission to keep connected....and if we are good about it, they will engage others for us.

Measurement - Twitter is a great way of measuring your influence, engagement and social value. In fact I wrote an article a number of months ago that provides a number tools that will help to make measurement easy and fast.

Remember Twitter is just one venue, and should not be considered your only Internet Marketing vehicle. A good strategy comes from research; combined activities including websites, blogs, twitter and other online tools; and from commitment and effort.

Social Media Is Better For Traffic!

Ah ha moment time!!!! In just two months of Social Media activity for two of our clients, we've quadrupled traffic for one client, and multiplied traffic by a factor of eight for another. And it's not just traffic for the sake of traffic....it's qualified traffic!

We've been following the site statistics quite closely since the launch of these two sites, and monitored social media activity as well. Our anticipation at the beginning of these partnerships was that the social media activity would boost the search results. That may in fact happen, but with just two months in for Google and Bing to do their work, it's too early to tell. Mind you, the keywords we positioned are working very well for them in search.

What we found is that in both cases the majority of the traffic is coming directly from social media activity. In fact, the traffic is being driven by 'influencers' in social media that discuss and promote our clients. So it's not fly by night visitors...it's valuable visitors.

A tell tale sign of this relevancy of traffic is indicated by the number of pages each visitor goes to within the site, and the time that they spend on the site. Again, in both cases the results are incredible. Now content has a lot to do with that, but knowing that we've attracted and retained qualified visitors gives us and our clients a strength they couldn't get from traditional media....atleast not for the price;-).

So, bottom line, make social media an active part of your internet marketing strategy and you'll see returns like you've never seen before.

Strategic Internet Success - Anjolique.com

An interesting thing about Anjolique.com is that they are battling in an industry that is comprised of the likes of such companies as Vera Wang, Davids Bridal and Alfred Angelo, some of the biggest names in wedding dress supply. The competition isn't the interesting thing....but the battle that's being won is!

Anjolique.com is now inching closer and closer to reaching the online traffic of their high budget counterparts, and their online activity is already proving to drive traffic to their dealer's sites....and it's only been ONE MONTH!!!

It was a tough leap to go from the traditional magazine advertising model that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the revolutionary marketing medium of social media and search engine optimization, but it's already paying off.

The critical first stage of the transition focused on rebuilding their existing site, which comprised entirely of images and no text at all. A huge no no for search engines. Content, design, flow and strategic search engine modifications were carefully orchestrated to deliver the desired outcome of being found and being attractive and resourceful.

The second stage involved the creation and integration of social media properties that enable the company to market through conversation, a marketing paradigm shift that is ideal for their target market. With a highly active Twitter page and an information rich Facebook site that seamlessly mingle with their Anjolique.com site, traffic and sales are growing quickly. In fact, in the first two weeks of this year, the site has more than doubled the unique visitors it had for the entire month of January last year!

A well executed Search Strategy, and clever Social Media Strategy and a committed leadership team in the company are helping to drive traffic and success to this amazing wedding dress supplier.