Business Blogging

Here is a video from YouTube that describe Twitter…But keep reading for advise on using Twitter to help your Small Business.

Besides being a platform to answer the question what are you doing, Twitter is also an excellent platform to help people find what you’ve done.

Looking at Twitter as historical reference page to your ideas, suggestions and links you can begin to see the hidden power behind twitter.  Your customers don’t care if you are eating eggs and toast, they care about new ideas and business happenings.  If your business is already using a blog (and you should be) then you should use Twitter as a second landing page for data.

Thinking of twitter as your business’s own personal news wire, you will post important links to information, blog articles and new web pages.  Visitors to your Twitter page will see a consolidated list of information and link to the appropriate location.

Because your links can get lengthy, using a url shortening tool is critical.  My favorite is cli.gs, but there are dozens of tools available for FREE.  I like Cli.gs because it keeps track of the number of times people click on my link.  It also allows me to re-tweet older messages with timeless knowledge.  This leads me to tip number 1.

Tweet about important info and give enough of a lead-in so the visitor knows the full intent of the link.  People HATE bait and switch, if your blog article is about a trade show display, say so in your tweet, don’t reference some cheesy suggestion of massive business growth.

Twitter is just the first of MANY micro-blogging opportunities (Jaiku, FreindFeed, Pownce, Tumblr, and Indenti.ca are but a few others).

Created by a Cornell student, Jack Dorsey, Twitter originally started as an idea for a dispatch service for couriers and taxis.  One of the most used website on the internet (Compete.com) Twitter has gained name recognition alongside, Microsoft, Apple and IBM.

But Why?

The short message and multi-platform (i.e. computers and cell phones) nature of twitter takes away the need for careful attention to language.

Most of us are timid when it comes to writing business blog articles because we fear our writing skills are below par.  However, Twitter only allows messages of 140 characters (or less) to be sent; this gives the user a pass on crafting compelling messages.

Short instant messages does not mean the information will be read, just that it will be easy to send.  So much of the dot com revolution has been stimulated by the dream of simplifying marketing.

Without spending much time at all on Twitter, you’ll find a bevy of useless blurbs, feeble attempts to grab attention and lots of spam.

If I have Not Scared You Away…Good, because Twitter can become a pivot point for your marketing program.

Everything you do in business should be thought of as news.  Therefore, Twitter could be used as a press release announcement tool.  Putting extra links to important information in places where search engines can grab and catalog–and more importantly, find new reasons to visit your company website.

Micro-blogging is another way to deploy company press release data.

Put simply, twitter is an internet / cell phone instant messenger.  The software limits your “tweets” to 140 characters or less.  Using the “follow” option, you can have “friends” tweets delivered directly to your account window.

So What? What is all the Hoopla? Why does everyone you meet say, “You’ve got to get on twitter!!!”?

Like any new communication medium, understanding the various applications of the technology is a process of experimentation.  I am not going to suggest you rush out and join twitter, but I will suggest there is a business application.

Over the next few pages and posts we will explore practical small business applications for twitter.  We will explain the pros and cons of internet marketing via twitter.  We will also talk about how to use twitter as your own personal news delivery system for company happenings.

• Overview of Technology and Small Business Application
• Getting Started With Twitter
• Building a Following
• Marketing Campaign Kick-off
• Evolution of the Message
• The Future

(Stay tuned as the content is created–lots of GREAT news and suggestions for how to use Twitter is coming soon!)

Adding supportive photos can enhance your article and help draw a better point.  For example:

Lets assume you are a photographer and you are writing an article that would bring expecting fathers to your message.  You write a story about a client who was seeking a gift for his wife that made her feel as beautiful having their third child as she was having their first.  In your story you write about the glow of beauty your client described every morning around his wife.  To enhance the story, you find a photo of a morning sunrise.

So how do you insert a photo into your blog article?

See this picture below, the red circle is around the “Add an Image” icon you click to start the process.

When you click on the icon above, you are presented with a popup dialogue box where you will be promoted to locate the picture file on your computer.  For formatting purposes, start with photos that are no wider than 500 pixels.

If the photo you are using resides on another website, then choose the “From URL” tab, otherwise, click on “Select Files” button.

If your browser does not support Active X, then your screen will not show the “Select Files” button.  In this case, click on the link to “Browser Uploader”.

Located the file (or files) on you hard drive and click on select.

At this point your photos will be uploaded to WordPress and added to a Gallery associated with your post.

Your next option will be the formatting of your photo in relation to your post text.

The next dialogue box gives you the option to left or right justify your photo, which will wrap your text around the photo OR None or Center.

Notice the size options, depended on your photo size, WordPress will try to size your photos.  Be sure your photo is NOT wider than 500 pixels, otherwise the photo will not lineup correctly on the website.

We suggest you experiment with captions and descriptions.

In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”.

The four P’s of Marketing are:

• Product
• Pricing
• Placement
• Promotion

Internet marketing is just another way to market…right?  Well, sort of.  We can market using traditional means and experience success, but the internet, unlike any other medium, allows a more personal approach.

Anyone with a TV knows the name Billy Mays.  Infomercials use personality based marketing to build a relationship between the presenter and viewer.  The problem with TV is there is no long term search value to the personality of the presenter or presentation.  Using the internet, we can create a infomercial type discussion with long term search value.

We need four additional P’s:

• Personality
• Purpose
• Perspective
• Patterns

Personality as in a personal look at you. Your hobbies, believes, and personal experiences.  These become connection points to others like you.  All things being equal, people prefer to do business with people they like.

Purpose: Trying to get listed high enough for your industry keywords is very difficult.  Our purpose, then is to capture attention from prospects when they are NOT looking for business, but rather browsing the interest for entertainment, education, or encouragement.

Perspective should always be focused on the desires of your target customer.  If your target customer likes dogs, then writing about your love of dogs will build a relationship with the visitor.

Pattern could also be called strategy.  Since we are writing on topics of interest, not necessarily connected with business, we need some way of drawing readers over to our business website.  If we are targeting dog lovers, then we need to include a subtle hint how our love of dogs affect our business life.