I'm on holiday the next little while so I thought I'd share some links to five of the all-time most popular articles I have ever written for my blog:
Apparently blog posts with numbers in the title do very well. ;+)
I hope you enjoy these, and I look forward to resuming writing again later this Summer.
After the unexpected popularity of my article 10 Facebook Tips for Professionals, I figured I would follow it up with some tips for the micro-blogging platform known as Twitter.
Although Twitter has been around since 2006, it's only recently started to generate interest from the public at large. One of the things I like the most about Twitter is that it is an open platform and the uses for it are limited only by people's imagination. Every day I discover new and creative ways that people are using Twitter, some good, some bad. As with any new medium, there are and will continue to be growing pains as we all figure out what the ground rules are and how best to use this new tool. I, for one, still consider myself to be in my 'kindergarten' years with Twitter, however I have learned a few tips and tricks along the way that I am happy to share with you:
I hereby present my list of 10 Twitter tips for business professionals who want to get the most out of Twitter without making too many newbie mistakes:
Use your real and (length permitting) full name as your Twitter ID and Display Name - Don't start Twittering using some cutesy or cryptic alias; that just makes it hard for people to find you and figure out who you really are. If you can, avoid using an underscore in your Twitter ID: JaneSmith is way more professional than Jane_Smith and is also easier for people who are using mobile devices to type. And capitalize the first letter of your first and last name; it makes them easier to read.
Make sure you upload a photo of yourself right away - If you don't include a photo of yourself as part of your Twitter account, you will limit the number of followers you will get. And use a real photo, not an illustration, avatar, or your company's logo. People want to have a relationship with you, not an illustration. Choose a recent colour or black and white headshot of yourself, and make sure the photo is tasteful. For best results, the image should be a JPEG sized about 128 by 128 pixels, but remember that it will be displayed in much smaller sizes on different Twitter clients, including small screens on mobile devices, so make sure it is legible even when tiny.
Include a compelling and accurate description of yourself in your Twitter account - People will refer to this when deciding if they want to follow you. Make sure you include pertinent information such as the name of the company you work for, your job title, a brief description of what you do, and a link to your corporate Website or blog. Remember to keep search engines in mind and feature keywords that are relevant to your profession in your description. This will make it easier for new people to find you via Twitter search.
Choose a professional looking Twitter profile design, or create your own - The Twitter account settings allow you to choose from a number of simple design templates for your profile. I recommend that you pick one that best (or at least better) aligns with your professional brand, or tinker with the colour schemes until you get something that works. If you really want to present a slick image, get a custom Twitter background design created for you. There are numerous free and affordable paid Twitter background design services. One of the ones I have used and can recommend is Twitbacks.
Understand the important difference between a public reply and a Direct Message (DM) - When you reply to someone that you are following, using the "@BillSweetman" syntax, everyone following you and them can see your conversation, and a permanent public record is made of the exchange. A Direct Message, using the "D BillSweetman" syntax, is strictly between you and that one other recipient (although in order for this to work both recipient and sender have to be following one another). Confuse the two and you could end up in an embarrassing situation.
Be judicious about Re-Tweeting - Twitter is about sharing, however if all you are doing is continually re-tweeting other people's posts instead of contributing your own original content, this will soon begin to grate on your followers. After all, if your followers really cared about what someone else was Twittering about, they'd follow them.
Watch your P's and Q's - Twitter is a public forum, and your posts are archived forever. While it is always advisable to avoid getting into a war of words with someone, Twitter is the worst possible place to have a dustup since everyone has a ringside seat. Sadly, that hasn't stopped some folks from getting into some very nasty, and very public, Twitter fights. Try to avoid making the same mistake.
Be careful about mixing business with pleasure - Consider creating two separate Twitter accounts, one for business use and one for personal use. If you tie your personal email address and a more 'casual' photo to your personal Twitter account, your friends and family will easily be able to figure out which is the right account to follow.
Follow but don't expect to be followed - While you are free to follow anyone on Twitter that you so choose, don't expect them to follow you back. Not everyone wants to follow hundreds or thousands of people, and just because you followed them doesn't mean they are obliged to follow you, nor should you be upset if they don't.
Don't try to "market" on Twitter; try to "share" instead - Just because Twitter allows you to post promotional messages 24/7 doesn't mean that anyone is interested in that kind of content. If you want to attract and keep followers, focus on contributing items of value. Let them know about something you just heard or discovered. Solicit feedback on a project or ask a question. Sing the praises of a product or person. Recommend other people they should follow. Or provide an update on what you are working on right now. Think sharing, not shouting.
Despite the feverish tone of the recent media hoopla around Twitter, I am very bullish about the future of Twitter. We've hardly scratched the surface of its potential. Twitter was originally dismissed by many as a quirky geek distraction (I admit to being one of those skeptics), but it is rapidly emerging as a flexible communication platform for both business and personal use. I hope my 10 Twitter tips will help you take better advantage of this new medium. And if you want to follow me on Twitter, my Twitter ID is BillSweetman. Good luck, and happy Tweeting!
Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!
That's the rallying cry for a presentation I am giving at the Canadian Marketing Association's National Convention in Toronto on April 28, 2009.
The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at Canada's largest marketing conference. This national convention is held each spring in a different city and welcomes thousands of attendees.
Here are the details:
"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
10:30 - 11:30 AM
Register for the conferenceForget about thinking big. You need to think small! Until recently, it was expensive if not impossible to market to a highly segmented target audience. Not any longer. Discover how marketers and entrepreneurs can use social media and emerging Web tools for affordable and effective mini-targeting. No matter what the size of your company is, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.
If you’re a marketer, you will learn how to use the principles of minivertising to generate interest for your client’s products and services, no matter how constrained their budgets are. If you are an entrepreneur or business executive, you’ll discover affordable and measurable ways to attract highly motivated customers to you, almost overnight.
For more information and to register, visit the CMA National Convention Website.
I hope to see you there.
P.S. Here is a link to the list of Minivertising Resources.
I will be attending, and speaking at, PodCamp Toronto next weekend, February 21-22, 2009 in downtown Toronto.
PodCamp Toronto is a free "un-conference" devoted to social media, and despite its name is about way more than just podcasting. I attended PodCamp Toronto two years ago and loved the energy and inclusiveness of the event. I highly recommend it, and you can't beat the price. Yes, it really is free to attend and hear from (and interact with) many of the sharpest minds in social media today, including Chris Brogan, Collin Douma, and Eden Spodek.
I will be giving a talk entitled "The Secret World of Domain Names" on Saturday, February 21 at 3:30 PM in Room 229. This will be a marketer's guide to domain names, and I plan to shatter some common domain name myths and show you how to buy, protect, and rescue your domain names. I will also explain how you can use domain names to generate a steady stream of targeted traffic. And for the first time ever in public, I will take you behind-the-scenes of the domaining (domain name investing) industry, a secretive, billion dollar industry that you can get a piece of for less than $10.
I'm really looking forward to PodCamp Toronto, hanging out with my fellow social media enthusiasts, and sharing my passion for domain names with everyone.
For more information about PodCamp Toronto, visit the PodCamp Toronto Wiki. See you there!
At long last, I can finally reveal one of the cool initiatives I have been working on at Tucows over the last little while:
On October 29, we officially launched YummyNames, our new service that offers marketers the ability to purchase or lease premium domain names from the Tucows Domain Portfolio. As our tagline says...
"Why settle for a lousy domain name?"
That same day, I got new business cards, since I am now the General Manager of YummyNames. Woohoo!
The Tucows marketing team did an amazing job supporting the launch, so I'm going to explain what YummyNames is all about by sharing some of the material they created:
The overwhelmingly positive response we've received so far from the marketing and advertising community proves that there's a need for a marketer-friendly premium domain name service, and I am delighted to be heading up this new service.
We've got lots of work ahead of us, but we're off to a great start! I hope that you agree.
Are you an entrepreneur who drinks coffee? Or do you know one that does?
The reason I'm asking is that I've just finished putting the final touches on the presentation I am giving this Wednesday night (October 22) at a unique entrepreneur's learning event in Toronto.
My talk is entitled "Measurable Marketing on a Coffee Habit Budget" and I am going to show everyone in attendance how to use Search Engine Advertising to generate hundreds of qualified business leads a month for less than cost of one Starbucks coffee a day.
I'll be explaining and showing how Search Engine Advertising works, sharing some of my expert tips and tricks, and I will be giving away a gift worth over $50 to everyone who attends. Yes, everyone!
The last time I gave a presentation like this, people paid serious money to attend.
This Wednesday's entrepreneur's event is special, however, because the cost to attend is $0. Zip. Nada. Nothing.
You can get all the details and register for the event here.
I'm donating my time and energy because the event helps to support a really good cause (Street Kids International) and the people organizing it are terrific. You can read more about that in my blog post from last week about this event.
I hope to see you and your friends there. With our without your cup of coffee. ;+)
As you may have noticed, I've been busy spreading the word on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter about the 11th annual Digital Marketing Conference, which is being held in Toronto on October 29th and 30th. I'm on the Organizing Committee for this year's Conference and after months of planning we are now finally able to publicly share our excitement about the speakers and sessions we've arranged for you to experience.
Here, in my opinion, are seven of the best reasons to attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference:
So there you have it, a small taste of the inspiring and informative agenda we've got planned for you at this year's Digital Marketing Conference.
Don't wait until the last minute to register. For the last several years, the Digital Marketing Conference always sells out and we literally have to turn people away at the door. Head on over to http://www.the-cma.org/digital for more details and to register today.
I hope to see you there.
My good friend Kindha Gorman officially launches her own Web writing boutique, MightyThink, this week. Since I have always admired her wit and way with words, I thought that interviewing her about her new company and writing for the Web might be both educational and fun.
Q. So I just have to ask you, Kindha, what motivated you to leave the stability of a full-time job to launch your own boutique, MightyThink?
Starting a content development firm like MightyThink has been one of my long-time goals. After spending considerable time learning about the domain name business, I saw an opportunity to contribute.
As the domain industry changes, relevant and quality content is becoming essential for premium domains. Websites have so much more potential when the content is useful, timely, and engaging. That's where MightyThink comes in.
Sure, a cushy full-time job has its perks but writing is my passion. Launching MightyThink is my way of being involved in this exciting domain industry by doing what I, and my team of writers, do best.
Plus, my fourth grade teacher said I had a problem with authority, so I figured I should just become my own boss. It's best for everyone.
Q. What's the most frequent mistake you see people making when it comes to the copy on their Websites?
Sadly, the Web is full of boring, irrelevant, and outdated copy.
Above it all, the most common mistake I have noticed is Websites that don't properly cater to their target audiences. When creating content for your site, think of your readers and the reasons they're likely on your site. Does your site give them all the information they need? Is it clear? Is it engaging? Is it visually friendly? Is it easy to read?
When you have a domain name, or a brand you want to market, you have a great opportunity to captivate your audience and make sure they visit again.
Since we're on the topic, here a few more of my pet peeves:
- Unclear messages;
- Long pages;
- Outdated information;
- Long paragraphs and no white space;
- A lack of keywords to entice the search engine;
- Off-topic and/or boring copy; and
- Spelling and grammar mistakes (A big no-no easily fixed by hiring an editor. The spellcheck function, by the way, is not an editor.).
Q. A lot of companies are interested in launching a blog but struggle with creating the content for it and keeping the blog updated. What advice do you give to clients like this?
A blog is a great tool to ensure there's fresh content on your site. The downside is that you have to invest a certain amount of time and energy to make sure people come back regularly. It sounds easy but there's some planning involved.
If you want to get your blog bookmarked by your target audience (and I imagine you do), the blog needs to be:
- updated daily;
- about relevant and timely topics;
- written in a conversational tone;
- professional looking and sounding; and
- interesting!
This may seem like a daunting task, especially since there are only 24 hours in the day. Many companies hire outside writers, who understand their goals and messages, to act as their voice. This frees up much-needed time, but still maintains a relevant blog.
Q. How important are online press releases?
A keyword-rich and well-optimized press release is quickly becoming an invaluable marketing tool for businesses to generate traffic and drum up clients.
Not only do online press releases tout news about your business quickly and effectively, they also can be easily optimized with keywords to ensure they're indexed by the almighty search engines. By adding some strategic links and relevant keywords, your little press release (and your Website) will attract the eyes of journalists, researchers, RSS feeds, search engines, news subscribers, and most importantly, your target audience.
Here's a tip: If you're writing the news release yourself, keep your press release to one page, two pages if absolutely necessary. If it's any longer than two pages, journalists become grumpy. No one likes a grumpy journalist.
Thanks, Kindha, and best of luck with your new company!
Kindha Gorman is the owner and brain behind MightyThink's brawn. With over 10 years of experience in writing, marketing, and strategic planning, Kindha has written for magazines, newspapers, Websites, large retail chains, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, and high tech outfits. Throughout her varied career, she has learned a thing or two about good writing. Just ask her. She has bored many of her friends with lectures about the proper use of commas, hyphens, and semi-colons.
Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!
That's the rallying cry for a keynote address I am delivering in Vancouver on September 11, 2008.
British Columbia Association of Integrated Marketers (BC AIM) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at a Marketing Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Here are the details:
"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Presented by BC AIM
Thursday, September 11, 2008
11:30 AM - 2 PM
Four Seasons Hotel, 791 Georgia Street West, Vancouver, BC
Register for this EventForget about thinking big. You need to think small! Until recently, it was expensive if not impossible to market to a highly segmented target audience. Not any longer. Discover how marketers and entrepreneurs can use social media and emerging Web tools for affordable and effective Mini-targeting. No matter the size of your company, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.
If you’re a marketer, you’ll learn how to use the principles of Minivertising to generate interest for your client’s products and services, no matter how constrained their budgets are.
If you’re an entrepreneur or business executive, you’ll discover affordable and measurable ways to attract highly motivated customers to you, almost overnight.
For more information and to register, visit the BC AIM Website.
I hope to see you there.
Last week, I officially launched my newest online venture, Hollywoozy, the first Website devoted to reviewing movie domain names.
One of the many reasons I am always launching new things is that it gives me a chance to experiment with and refine different marketing tactics, and Hollywoozy is no different.
What is different this time, however, is that I am going to lift up the curtain and share some of the marketing tactics I am using to promote my venture, along with the results. In most cases, these tactics do not involve spending any money, although they all require spending some time to implement.
In this first chapter of my Internet Marketer's Diary, I am going to list five of the key tactics I used leading up to Hollywoozy's official launch on July 20, 2008. I consider these the essential building blocks of a good online marketing campaign.
1. Build the Site with Search Engines in Mind
In addition to following SEO (search engine optimization) best practices, one of the best ways to ensure a site is very search engine friendly is to create it using a blog platform, because search engines love blogs. My site was created using TypePad, which is my favourite professional blogging platform, however you could probably achieve similar results using WordPress. I also made sure that my site featured the most heavily searched keywords and key phrases that I was targeting. For instance, since Hollywoozy is about movie domain names, I made sure the phrase "domain names" was used extensively throughout the site on every single page.
2. Invite the Search Engines to Crawl the Website Prior to Launch
I wanted to give the search engines a head start on finding my site, so I added discrete links to my new site from some of the other heavily trafficked Websites that I own. This got my site indexed by Google a few days prior to its official launch, so that when people started to search for "Hollywoozy" in Google on the day of launch (which many did, according to my Web analytics reports), the site was already listed in Google's search results.
3. Use Tags to Define the Content of the Website
Prior to launch, I registered my site with Technorati (the leading blog directory and search engine), complete with a keyword-loaded description and lots of relevant tags. Technorati is frequently and deeply crawled by the search engine spiders, and within 24 hours Google had found Hollywoozy's listing on Technorati.
4. Generate Targeted Traffic via a Multiple Domain Name Strategy
I am proud of the unusual brand name I came up with for my site, however I am the first to admit that "Hollywoozy'" is not a descriptive name. That's why I also registered moviedomainnames.com and a few other descriptive, keyword-loaded domain names, which I pointed to my new site. The $28 (total) I spent registering the four domain names was the only cash outlay I made towards marketing the Website. That's peanuts to pay for the targeted type-in traffic my site will likely get from these domains over time.
5. Invite Some Enthusiasts to a Sneak Peek
In the week prior to launch, I used my Facebook status line (and Facebook's message service) to invite my friends and colleagues to let me know if they were interested in getting a "sneak preview" of my newest venture. The curious keeners who responded got early access to my site. Not only did they tell some of their friends and colleagues about the site (thank you, everyone!), but they were also a great source of feedback and ideas. Michel Neray, for instance, suggested I make a small but important tweak to how I displayed my domain name reviews, and I quickly took him up on the idea. All told, about 20 people in my personal network got an early peek at the site, and they helped to quickly spread the word post-launch.
In the next chapter of my Marketer's Diary, I will reveal the tactics I used to kick off the official launch of the site, as well as share some of the results to date. For a taste of how successful the launch was, try doing a Google search for "movie domain names" (which is the focus of my site) and see if you can spot Hollywoozy in the search results. ;+)
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