5 Twitter Tips To Help Your Business

Twitter has redefined the way we communicate with each other and millions around the world are using it to connect with people, share information and form business partnerships. If you are a business owner, Twitter can help expand your business.

There are, however, right and wrong ways of using Twitter. Businesses who are looking for quick cash would be ignored and cast aside by the community. Business reputation might even be poor within the Twitter community. In order to get the most out of Twitter, you must think about what you can do for others instead of what others can do for you.

Here are five tips when using Twitter:

1. Connect with the right people

What is the point of having 2000 or 20,000 followers when none of them care about what you have to offer? Connecting with the right target audience will help you improve your relationship with them and send qualified traffic to your website.

2. Provide Value

The more value you provide on Twitter, the more you get out of it. People follow you for a reason, so make sure you don’t disappoint.

3. Network with others

Don’t be shy to communicate with others and respond to their updates. Twitter is a networking site. It’s a many-to-many communication service. It’s not just about you! Start talking to the people who interest you and build a relationship from there.

4. Know the limits

If you are a business owner, you should know that what you say on Twitter could help or harm your business. Don’t say anything you don’t want others to hear about in a professional situation. I suggest having a set of guidelines so that anyone in charge of the business profile would know what to do and what to avoid.

5. Listen to your audience

Twitter is up 24/7. That means that you have constant access to what folks need, want and are talking about. By listening to what they have to say on Twitter, you can create new products, improve your existing ones, and find new partners.

Twitter is not for everyone. If you are not willing to spend the time and effort, you are better off not using it at all. Managing a Twitter account properly takes time, and you shouldn’t cut corners in that regard. By providing real value to your followers, you can not only build relationships but also drive thousands of qualified leads to your business for free.


via :http://bit.ly/hQGp2T

Snoop Dogg is the Doggfather of Social Media Experts

@SnoopDogg just got into my “celebrities that know the true value of Twitter” group. Not that I have a real group. I personally think not many people understand the true power of what social media can actually bring to them, unlike Alyssa Milano, Cory Booker, Aston Kutcher, etc.  Charlie Sheen is not in the group at the moment. He’s too wild for me to handle.

After watching the Twitter official birthday video, Snoop Dogg caught my attention when he talked about him following Martha Stewart and why he followed her. Recently, I read an article from the man himself, saying that Twitter has changed the relationship between artists and fans and why he encourages artists to be on it, as he believes that it is one of the biggest developments he has seen.

Lesson 1: Have a relationship with your fans/customers first

“I feel it’s the number one key in music right now. Having that relationship with fans where it’s not based on your record label, it’s based on you”, says Snoop!

This is what Twitter is about. I realized this when I started to use it in 2009. It is not about “what I ate for breakfast”. That is basically what people who have not used it before would say. People who have not use it, will always say “why would I want to read what people had for lunch?” This is not true. I’ll send them to @Alyssa_Milano’s and SnoopDogg’s twitter feed in the future.

Lesson 2: Build TRUST on twitter and people will buy from you

“That’s way more important nowadays to me because that’s what the industry is broken down into –trust”, Snoop adds.

The second most important criteria not only on twitter but also on social media, is TRUST. Trust plays an important role because people who don’t trust you won’t buy from you at all. Snoop Dogg understands this as well when he said

“If I trust you and have a relationship with you, and you are telling me you are putting a record out and it’s going to be good, I’m going to buy it because I trust you”.

Summary from the other dog (me)

Twitter or social media starts with having a relationship with your customer or with people first. It is not about going for the sale straight away or posting your tweets after you registering an account.

Start with building a relationship in order to build trust. When people have built confidence in you and have trusted you, they will buy from you. Something that Snoop understands very well and behind the reason why he is on Twitter, is the fact that Snoop’s goal wasn’t just to build attention; it was to build a relationship with his fans.

via :askaaronlee.com

10 Social media marketing on a budget questions

Social media marketing on a budget requires thinking through your business and marketing strategy first. Here’s a set of ten questions to help you lay the groundwork.

1. What are your top-level business and marketing goals? Do you want to expand your pool of prospects, increase sales, or develop loyal fans?
2. What are your organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses? What can you offer prospects and the public in terms of social media content that will set you apart from your competitors?
3. What resources, both human and financial, can you apply to handling social media marketing? Who will create your social media marketing content and who will take care of the related technology and distribution?
4. How much time do you have, given your limited resources, to dedicate to another project? Working on a budget, it’s a sure guess your employees aren’t sitting around waiting for something new to do. If social media is another item for employees to do in their “free” time, it won’t get done.
5. Who’s best capable of online social interaction? Understand that the person with the most available bandwidth may not be the person most capable of representing your company in social media forums.
6. Is any one in your organization interested in performing these tasks?Bear in mind that it may not be the person you expect or desire.
7. Are there other areas where you can save resources to use in social media marketing?
8. What type of social media oversight is required? Do you have a set of social media guidelines? Is additional support or management needed?
9. What non-promotion content can you use? On social media, you should keep your promotion ratio to other content at a one to ten ratio. Too much self-promotion and readers will leave.
10. Have you gotten permission to use customers and the public’s images and other materials? Be on the safe side and ensure that you’ve got permission to use the creative commons.

via: http://heidicohen.com

Similarities between Twitter and Blogs

Good contents build communities

Content content content! That is basically what everyone say you need in order to be successful on your blog. What about Twitter? If you want to build a community on twitter, you need great tweets too. You want to post tweets that you want people to read. Don’t just post tweets for the sake of posting. If you do so and post spam, people will just look away, and this is similar to blogging.

Title is important on twitter and blogs

Title is important! On blogs and on Twitter, it makes people click your tweets or your blog posts if you have an amazing title. It also makes people open that email notification if they have subscribed via email or rss. Jim wrote a blog post on how he increased traffic on his blog using great titles. This is why I have always put great focus on the title of my tweets. Sometimes, I use a direct title like “similarities between Twitter and blogs”, and sometimes I play it more conversational like “is there any similarities between Twitter and blogs?” Some titles work better than others. Play around with it.

Will people like what I post or tweet?

Not everyone will like what you write on your blog and not everyone will like what you tweet too. Some post connects with part of your readers on blogs and on Twitter. And in doing so, you might actually cause some tension within other groups of people. You can’t write for everyone on twitter or on your blog.

Commenting builds attention for your blog and on twitter

If you don’t have enough people commenting on your blog what do you do? You comment on other people’s blogs to get them to notice you. That is basically what you do on Twitter too. You comment on other people’s tweets and get their attention. You build and engage from there and get people to notice your tweets.

Don’t tweet or blog too much

I think we shouldn’t tweet too much and fill our time line with too many tweets, same goes with blogging, since I don’t think you should blog too much. Someone whom I recently metunsubscribed from Chris Brogan’s blog because he blogged too much, although I don’t have any problems with @ChrisBrogan.  Don’t over tweet. One person who I think tweet too much or automate too much is Chris Voss on Twitter. (Sorry man, just stating it out)

via: bestbloggingtipsonline.com

The Panda Effect Is Affecting Your Ecommerce – What To Do?

Have you been watching Google alterations lately? In case you were engaged into your projects, the Google algorithm has been changed with respect to Google panda.

What is Google panda?
The websites created the keyword focused articles posted in huge volumes on the internet have been penalized for such activity. The ranking has been altered due to this. This modification is known as Panda update. The hardest hit section includes the webmasters working with shallow content or loading the internet with keywords in form of multiple articles. Some genuine websites have also been trapped in the content farm web.

Panda update and you?
The low quality websites have been targeted that have copied content or are not useful. The websites working hard to keep their content clean may get better ranking for their high quality task. Google is trying to clean up its algorithm so there is an enhanced experience for its users.

• Linking will never remain simple: SEO and link building experts have to scrape out possible duplicate content on your website.
• Do not put all your bets on the same engine for ranks: You have to focus on improving your website on an overall basis. Just depending on the Google ranking may have given you a negative impact.
• Google Adsense awareness: The text and links involving advertising gimmicks need to be evaluated before you begin to exploit them for generating revenues.
• Getting quality links will not be the same: Using the article based websites to get organic links for your website will need some pondering now.
• Stay away from spam and try to keep your website as clear as possible to ensure thepanda effect is not changing your hard earned rankings.

All poorly managed pages having repetitive articles and irrelevant content has to be removed, because it will have a long term impact on your overall ranking. You need site management to tackle panda effect. Your years of hard work can be compromised if you miss out on simple ways to take your genuine website out of these ranking lows.

What can I do to save my work?
How to react to this massive change in the algorithm would be your biggest problem. SEO, link building and everything web related maybe affected. You can choose the social media as your approach to mend things on time so your trade is not suffering on a large scale. You can get your product descriptions and market image in balanced mode. Google can be really taxing in their algorithms. You can reverse the effect of Google panda on your website with a strategy to improve content quality on the website.

Slow and steady effort to get quality content on your pages that is relevant will ensure you are not tagged under content farm.

via:blackidsolutions.com

Apple to Start Shipping the Next iPhone in September [REPORT]

After the rumor that Apple won’t announce the next generation of the iPhone in June or July (which was the case with all previous iPhone announcements), comes a report that the new iPhone is coming in the fall.

Apple’s suppliers will begin production in July, and the finished product is likely to begin shipping in September, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

As for the actual features of the next-gen iPhone, details are scarce as always; one of Reuters’ sources claims the device will look similar to the iPhone 4, but it will feature a faster processor.

To quickly piece together all the iPhone rumors and reports we’ve seen, this is what we have:

• The white version of the iPhone 4 should become available within two to three weeks.
• The iPhone 5 (if that’s what Apple will call it) will be an evolutionary upgrade, visually similar to the iPhone 4 but with a better camera, processor and a bigger screen.
Take all of these with a grain of salt as Apple has been monolithically silent about the matter, as always.
[via Reuters]

Blogger, Redesigned

As we shared before, our team has been hard at work on a brand new, next generation design for Blogger. After doing a sneak preview at the South by Southwest conference back in March, we received some great feedback from the media: 

• Half A Billion Blog Posts Later, Google To Give Blogger A Revamp
• Google’s Blogger Is About to Get an Overhaul

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the public launch of our redesign! But please wait a second before you go check out your Blogger dashboard, because we’re planning a gradual rollout that will start with a limited set of users who visit our new feature testing ground, Blogger in Draft. At the start, only some of you (lucky draws!) can see the new design on Blogger in Draft. Over the course of the next few days and weeks we’ll be ramping up to support all Draft users. There is no sign-up or activation process required from your side; just wait, and you’ll notice your dashboard has changed to the new design when you log in to Blogger in Draft.

Although our team has been hard at work cranking out tons of new features over the last year or so, it’s been a while since our user interface has had a major update so we’re very excited about Blogger’s fresh new look. However, there’s much more to the redesign than shiny new graphics and pages—we’ve essentially rewritten the entire application from scratch, using the latest web technologies that will enable us to make future updates in more agile and flexible ways. 

We decided to make the new UI available to our loyal Blogger users as quickly as possible. We realize there might be some ‘rough edges’ (see this page for the known issues) but fear not, we’ll be continually updating and improving the experience until it’s ready to graduate from Blogger in Draft. Our team is also very eager to hear your feedback, so please don’t hesitate to let us know of any bugs or suggestions by clicking on the “Send feedback” link in the navigation bar (or directly on this form).

image n content via : bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/

iPhone 5, Kindle Lending & AT&T Earnings

iPhone 5 Might Not Ship Until September

Shipments of the next-generation iPhone might be delayed until early fall, reports suggest.

Amazon Announces Kindle Lending Program

Amazon announced that later this year Kindle users will be able to borrow e-books from more than 11,000 U.S. libraries.

AT&T Reports Solid First Quarter

AT&T posted positive first-quarter results with revenues up 2.3% year-over-year at $31.2 billion.

Further News

• Intel blew past Wall Street’s estimates with its first-quarter earnings report.
• Online petition platform Change.org is suffering denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the wake of a campaign calling for the release of Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

via : www.blogsolve.com

Amazon Partnering With OverDrive To Bring Kindle Library Lending To 11,000 Libraries Across The US

Who says Amazon is trying to kill the local library? The company’s latest venture brings the power of the Kindle to public and educational libraries through a partnership with OverDrive. That sounds like love, not hate.

Exact usage details weren’t released, but patrons will be able to check out ebooks from their local libraries on all Kindle models and platform apps. The Whispersync technology will then preserve digital notes and bookmarks in case the book is checked out again or purchased through Amazon.

OverDrive, being a digital infrastructure company, will likely provide the necessary services for libraries. Lending digital books is not a new concept and is something that, thanks to the silly concept of a limited number of digital copies, isn’t currently widespread. Hopefully the Amazon/OverDrive model solves some of the issues currently associated with ebook lending.

The venture was just announced so chances are you know more than your local library. The presser does mention that Kindle Library Lending will come later this year so stay tuned for all the details.

AMAZON TO LAUNCH LIBRARY LENDING FOR KINDLE BOOKS

Customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 local libraries to read on Kindle and free Kindle reading apps

Whispersyncing of notes, highlights and last page read to work for Kindle library books

SEATTLE—April 20, 2011—(NASDAQ: AMZN)— Amazon today announced Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.

“We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. “Customers tell us they love Kindle for its Pearl e-ink display that is easy to read even in bright sunlight, up to a month of battery life, and Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read between their Kindle and free Kindle apps.”

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer’s annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

“We’re doing a little something extra here,” Marine continued. “Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

With Kindle Library Lending, customers can take advantage of all of the unique features of Kindle and Kindle books, including:
Paper-like Pearl electronic-ink display
No glare even in bright sunlight
Lighter than a paperback – weighs just 8.5 ounces and holds up to 3,500 books
Up to one month of battery life with wireless off
Read everywhere with free Kindle apps for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Windows Phone
Whispersync technology wirelessly sync your books, notes, highlights, and last page read across Kindle and free Kindle reading apps
Real Page Numbers – easily reference passages with page numbers that correspond to actual print editions

Amazon is working with OverDrive, the leading provider of digital content solutions for over 11,000 public and educational libraries in the United States, to bring a seamless library borrowing experience to Kindle customers. “We are excited to be working with Amazon to offer Kindle Library Lending to the millions of customers who read on Kindle and Kindle apps,” said Steve Potash, CEO, OverDrive. “We hear librarians and patrons rave about Kindle, so we are thrilled that we can be part of bringing library books to the unparalleled experience of reading on Kindle.”

Kindle Library Lending will be available later this year for Kindle and free Kindle app users. To learn more about Kindle go to www.amazon.com/kindle.

via: www.blogsolve.com

Google Video Prepares To Enter The Deadpool For Good

Looks like Google Tags wasn’t the only product on the chopping block today — now Google Video, the mostly-forgotten service that was once YouTube’s rival, is getting the axe too.

Google just sent out an email to users who have previously uploaded content to the service informing them that on April 29 2011, the site will no longer host any more videos. Users are being encouraged to download and reupload their files to YouTube. The news was first reported yesterday by CenterNetworks.

Google actually stopped allowing uploads to Google Video back in May 2009, but existing videos have played fine until now. The news will likely frustrate some people, as Google’s help page assured users that while uploads were being disabled, their content “would remain hosted by Google Video”.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time now. Google Video launched back in 2005 — you originally had to upload footage using a desktop client instead of a web form — and was selling premium content as early as January 2006. But rival site YouTube came out of nowhere to become a viral phenomenon, which prompted Google to acquire it in October 2006.

We’re adding Google Video to the deadpool, though the service still lives on (if only in logo) as Google’s search engine for video at video.google.com.

Here’s the letter that’s being sent out:

Dear Google Video User,

Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.

On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We’ve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don’t want to download your content, you don’t need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)

We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven’t done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. To learn more go here.

Here’s how to download your videos:

Go to the Video Status page.

To download a video to your computer, click the Download Video link located on the right side of each of your videos in the Actions column.

Once a video has been downloaded, “Already Downloaded” will appear next to the Download Video link.

If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all.

Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.

Thank you for being a Google Video user.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team

via techcrunch.com

LivingSocial Acquires SocialMedia For $3 Million

Fast growing daily deal service LivingSocial, whichjust raised $400 million, has acquired long suffering social advertising network SocialMedia, we’ve confirmed. The price was just $3 million, all in LivingSocial stock. Unfortunately, the company had raised around $10 million from Charles River Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Naval Ravikant and Jeff Clavier.

SocialMedia’s biggest asset today is probably its domain name. But a couple of years ago the company was tearing it up. They were one of the first companies to create a Facebook ad network that used your friends’ pictures in the ads. 2008 revenue was $15 million, and 2009 revenue was on pace to hit $25 million. Facebook tried to acquire the company, says one source. SocialMedia declined, and shortly afterwards Facebook threatened legal action against them for privacy policy violations.

What’s most fascinating about the acquisition isn’t the soft landing that the company has pulled off. It’s LivingSocial’s financials and capitalization information, disclosed during the deal negotiations, that has now landed in my inbox. More on that in a follow up po

5 Simple Web Apps For Saving Time at Work

Much has been made of some excellent mobile and tablet apps that let users stay productive on the go. But let’s face it — the majority of your work is still done at your desk, and much of it, perhaps, in a web browser.

And despite all your settings, apps and software, there are always those little pain points that cost you time and productivity. They’re not major issues, but little tasks that could be quicker and easier.

Enter the humble web apps that, while overshadowed a bit by the smartphone revolution, are still the bread and butter bookmarks of daily workplace productivity.

We’ve highlighted five free online tools that are simple, clean, and built to knock out those cumbersome work tasks, no downloads required.

Got a few bookmarks that you can’t get through the work day without? Share the wealth in the comments.

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1. Zamzar

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There are few things more frustrating than receiving an important file that you can’t open. Zamzar is an online tool that can convert a wide range of file formats. Simply upload the file, choose the output format, enter an email address, and you’ll get a new version in your inbox.

Converting text documents may not seem like an incalculable feat, but Zamzar can translate many audio and video formats as well. Handy!

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2. Ge.tt

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Email attachments can be cumbersome, especially with larger files. If you’re looking for a dead-simple way to share in the cloud (especially if you’re still lamenting the death of Drop.io), give Ge.tt a go.

Two clicks will upload your images, docs, zip files, etc. and generate a tidy link that you can ping over to your co-workers. They can view certain files in their browser or download whatever they need from the package.

Ge.tt storage is temporary (unless you create an account), so use it for quick transfers, not cloud archiving.

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3. Ninite

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Setting up a new PC is a surefire way to kill your day. Connecting the cables and transferring your data is only half the battle. Then you need to hunt down all the apps you use regularly.

Ninite streamlines the process. Check off all the browsers, readers and media players you need on your new machine and download them all in one shot via an automated installer. Best of all, Ninite eliminates the extra “junk” (toolbars, add-ons) that sometimes come packaged with common applications.

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4. CopyPasteCharacter

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If you work on any legal, scientific or multilingual documents throughout the day, you may have a need to add certain symbols to the text that are not immediately available on your keyboard.

You could go into the special characters map in your word processor, or if you’re feeling particularly nerdy, memorize the Alt key codes that you need.

But better yet, why not throw open a browser tab with CopyPasteCharacter.com and snag your symbols with one click? You can even copy the HTML values if you’re working in code.

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5. LucidChart

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Need a visual aide to get your point across? PowerPoint has its flaws, and Photoshop requires some requisite skills even if you’re just doing the basics.

LucidChart, on the other hand, is a drag-and-drop way to create impressive flowcharts and diagrams right in your browser. Pop your shapes onto the graph, pull down some arrows, add descriptions, colors and titles, and you’ve got a professional diagram you’d be proud to show clients.

A free LucidChart account allows two people to collaborate on a document, 25 MB of online storage, and a maximum of 60 objects per document. Inexpensive paid options offer more collaborative and storage features.

There’s also a handy Chrome browser app.

via mashable.com