Archive for twitter
Are You Twitter Savvy? 3 Non-Negotiables for Twitter Marketing that Get Results
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Twitter stormed onto the Internet scene in 2006, and has experienced exponential growth since. With over 200 million registered users and 460,000 sign ups on a daily basis, it is the social network that everyone is talking about, but its potential for marketing is still shrouded in mystery for many. Just how can a business capitalize on Twitter and be assured of great results? For a business to succeed on Twitter, there are three non-negotiables: Listen, Monitor, and Connect:
- LISTEN to the ongoing stream with Tweetdeck.
Tweetdeck is a free download that allows you to monitor the flow of Twitter traffic continuously - and in any configuration you desire. This means you will get to actually listen in on the thoughts and conversations taking place across your marketing demographic. Take it from Ernest Hemingway, who said, “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Too many times, businesses approach Twitter thinking only about what they can announce, link to, or advertise. By taking the time to actually hear what potential customers are talking about, you can learn about their needs and how your business may be able to meet them. You can interact with a select group of Twitter users and engage when appropriate, which will help you have a better chance for conversion when you do so.
- MONITOR the conversation for keyword relevance.
Twitter’s demographics are often misjudged. Many people assume that Twitter is used primarily by teens. The truth is that the median age of Twitter users is 31, older than the median for both MySpace and Facebook. Your potential customers are currently using Twitter, and many more are joining every day. Use Tweetdeck to create a column of keywords for your target market. For instance, if your product or service would be of interest to a new or expanding business, you can create a Tweetdeck column to follow the keywords “new location”.
- CONNECT with potential customers.
Rather than simply dumping links all over Twitterdom, a practice that yields few results and may even bring about negative reactions to your brand, make a genuine attempt to connect with potential customers or clients. Think about this: What specifically does your business have to offer that would be a benefit to them? You can point a potential customer to your site to look at a specific product, a helpful article, or an image that creates an immediate and memorable connection with your business. Be willing to go the extra mile. You might jot a physical note and send it to the business, wishing them well at their new location. Do not forget to include your Twitter address, inviting them to follow you as well. Part of real connection with your market means sometimes just being a part of the conversation by commenting (when appropriate) WITHOUT posting a link or promotion. This helps all users feel more at ease and helps them see your posts as genuine, not as an invasive sales pitch.
Don’t underestimate Twitter’s growing influence and scope. You are sure to reap the benefits of Twitter marketing by following the Listen, Monitor, and Connect strategy outlined here.
Vanilla Forums 101
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I have talked plenty of times with you before on free forum scripts you can easily setup and run from your web hosting account. By far, the most unique one I have seen is Vanilla. The Vanilla Forums script is a great open-source, standards compliant forum script. However, that is not what impresses me. The thing that impresses me the most is the fact that is stands out from the rest of the crowd and refreshes the idea of what a set of forums should look like.
What Makes Vanilla Special?
Now a simple audio podcast can not do justice to how graphically different this forum script looks and feels. Rather than having a list of subforums, and within those having threads, right from the start you are seeing all of the most recent threads that have been posted on. That brings you the proverbial meat and potatoes right off the bat. You can categorize your posts into different subforums, but that is a secondary option rather than the first. When you visit a forum, you want to see the new stuff first. The fact that Vanilla-powered forums do that right off the bat is just amazing. I wish more forum scripts would try this different approach.
You have full support for themes and add-ons, so you can really get down and dirty when it comes to customizing the look and feel you want your forums to have. The documentation is lacking in a few areas, but overall it does get the job done.
Here are a few more amazing features that I am sure you will enjoy:
- Embed Vanilla – You can very simply embed your set of Vanilla forums within your website.
- Social Connect – Let users sign into your forums with their login details from OpenID, Google, Twitter or Facebook.
- Vanilla Connect – quickly embed details about your Vanilla forum in your WordPress blog.
You can also import your forum posts from just about any other forum script into Vanilla with their easy import option too.
Overall, Vanilla amazes me, plain and simple. If more script developers out there thought outside of the box like these guys do, we would have a wider selection of great looking websites.
You can go download Vanilla and install it yourself at vanillaforums.org.
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How to Research a Reliable Reseller Host
Posted by: | CommentsWhen searching for a reliable reseller host your best tools are to utilize the vast resources of the internet or even by personal experience. By conducting solid research you will be able to arrive at the best decision to fit your business model and hosting needs. Visiting forums, message boards, review sites and engaging in conversation with those that have previous utilized your host are great places to start.
There are three primary suggestions on how to research a reliable host including:
- Visit industry websites
- Contact experts on the subject
- Utilize Twitter
By visiting websites and forums specific to the reseller hosting industry you can gain excellent insight into the various aspects of different companies. Also, there are several specialty sites that post industry news and company reviews. Forums are one of the most popular mediums as they allow customers to appraise hosting companies and share experiences with each other.
By contacting experts on the subject of reseller hosting you have access to someone that is much more knowledgeable than yourself. Experts can give you the cold, hard facts mixed with their own personal experiences and help you make the best determination based on your personal needs. You can contact them in person, on the phone or indirectly through an academic journal they have written.
Finally, Twitter can be another powerful research tool. Twitter differs from a regular search engine tool in that it is real-time and uncensored from actual customers of the reseller host you are reviewing. You have the ability to see an immediate view of how that web hosting provider is doing. If there are constant problems with the company, it will appear in a Twitter search.
The most efficient method for using this tool is over the course of a few weeks to acquire accurate information. First, reduce your pool of reseller hosts down to a few. Then search for the web hosting providers name and look for tweets that mention the name. Finally, gauge the writer’s satisfaction level and make your decision.
Research is the key to uncovering the truth about any company. If you want accurate and reliable first-hand experience about a specific topic or company, utilize the research methods mentioned above. This will allow you to be an informed consumer and thus have a piece of mind that you made the right decision.
.Co Domains and Shortened URLS
Posted by: | CommentsThe new .CO domains are being bought and sold furiously as a formidable market is currently being built around the hottest realty on the internet right now. With the dawn of a new and exciting public domain web site owners and domain speculators everywhere were purchasing 2,3 and 4 letter domain names by the thousands within weeks of their release. Nearly every short .co domain name has been bought by companies that undoubtedly used software to calculate every single short term calculation possible and purchase it automatically. However, this doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for short .com domains, as is explained in the following paragraphs.
The Purpose of .CO Domains
The .CO domains do not have any particular purpose, however they are now being used for all sorts of commercial purposes including but not limited to eCommerce, personal blogging, picture sites, music sites, and video sites, social sites, news sites, sports sites and any other kind of web site imaginable. Twitter is using a .co domain as a link service, however many are under the impression that this site will be used to shorten .co domains, even though it is actually intended to do much more as an overall link service for Twitter that indexes all links and collects information about them for Twitter. They are also supposed to be using the domain as a link shortener as well for Twitter development purposes. Many people wonder how Twitter got a one letter .CO domain when a normal person can only purchase a three letter domain and others are considered invalid in domain registrar databases. According to the news, Twitter paid more than a quarter million dollars for T.CO, its new .CO link service.
Shorter .CO URLs
Twitter in the aforementioned example is just one of many large web sites that are purchasing and utilizing a .co domain to shorten their domain name. Overstock.com also purchases O.CO, which is perhaps one of the most memorable web sites ever bought. Overstock’s search engine optimization specialist stated that he believes the new domain will bring in twice the amount of traffic tot he Overstock web site within the coming decade. It should be noted however that the average site owner will not be able to afford one of these one or two letter domain names, as Overstock paid more than $300,000 for O.CO.
New Brands and .CO Domains
Even though you can’t find a two or three letter .co domain, it is still very possible to purchase .co domains that have very basic keywords in them. For example, it may still be possible to purchase a 6 or 7 letter .co domain that is an actual word or existing product of some sort. Since .CO domains have just been released to the public for sale, there are many .CO domains are available that have .com counterparts. For example, there may be a web site entitled example.com. A couple of months ago you may have been able to purchase example.co, even though you are not the owner of example.com. This would give you the opportunity to capitalize on the popularity of an existing web site.