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.