Twitter Lists

Twitter has rolled out Twitter Lists for organizing the people you follow into manageable lists.  Announced a few weeks ago and still in beta, the feature enables Tweeters to create both public and private lists of people they are following.

Twitter Lists: A Welcome New Feature

As we wrote a while back, as you follow more and more people on Twitter, it can be difficult to keep up with your friends and favorite tweeters.  The Twitter List feature allows users to create both public and private lists from their followers list.

While @DallasMarketing is not included in the beta, we have tried out the new feature on an account that did receive the invite and anxiously await the arrival of the new feature for the Twitter masses.

How do Twitter Lists Work?

If you were invited to participate in the Twitter Lists beta, upon logging in to your Twitter account, you will see a banner announcing the new feature.

Twitter Lists are created simply by clicking on the “Create A New List” button, naming the list and then designating it as public or private.

Next, you add some tweeps to the list.  For us, we envision a buddy list that is private for friends and family and then some public lists on our favorite topics – marketing and social media, of course.

Other Twitter List Features

Under Search, a list of your Twitter lists has been added.

Next to the “following” and “followers” numbers a new “listed” count has been added to display how many Twitter lists you have been added to.

When viewing someone else’s Twitter page, clicking on the Listed link displays tabs showing the (public) Twitter Lists following that user and another tab showing which Twitter Lists that user is following.

Another Twitter popularity contest?  Noted.  But, overall, Twitter Lists will enhance the tweeting process and make engaging with like-minded others a much simpler task.

Under new FTC guidelines released this week, bloggers and other “word of mouth” marketers who make an endorsement must disclose if there are material connections with the seller of the product or service.   A material connection can include payments or free products received by the endorsers.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) press release (5 Oct 2009):

“The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.”

Given the core of social media is transparency and honest discussion, most bloggers and word of mouth marketers agree with this policy.   We have a published disclosure policy on this blog and have encouraged other bloggers and social media marketers to do the same in the past.  However, for social media marketing, the method for disclosure is not as straight forward.   We occasionally send tweets about our  (Seven Aspens’) clients and/or their products. How do you disclose in a 140 character Twitter message?

With potential hefty fines looming for violators, this is a good time to review your policies, ensure compliance and learn the best practices.  To assist in the education process, the Word of Mouth Marketers Association (WOMMA) is hosting a free webinar Thursday, October 8, to help explain what the new FTC regulations mean for marketers, advertisers and bloggers. Additionally, the Social Media Business Council provides a great Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit.

If you are on Twitter, as you follow more and more people, it can be difficult to keep up with your close friends. There is a really simple solution to keep an eye out for their latest tweets.

Using iGoogle and RSS Feeds to Track Tweets

iGoogle lets you create a personalized homepage that contains a Google search box at the top and your choice of any number of gadgets below.  All iGoogle pages start out with a Home tab on the left side of the page and you can add new tabs to organize your content.   The first step is to add a tab for your Twitter Friends.
Next, with that tab open, click on the “Add Stuff” link in the upper right hand corner.

On the Adding Stuff page, at the bottom of the left column you should see:

Click on the link.

In another tab on your browser, go to the Twitter page of the Twitter user you want to track.

For example, to track Dallas Marketing’s tweets, you would go to http://twitter.com/dallasmarketing

On the bottom of the right sidebar, under the Following images, you should see:

Right click the link and choose “Copy link address.”

Window back to the iGoogle page, click the “Add feed or gadget” link, paste the link and click the Add button.

Click the “Back to iGoogle home” link on the top left and your feed should be on the page.

Simply repeat for all your Twitter friends that you want to track.   Another use for businesses - set up a tab to track your competitors, customers and alliances or partners.   Then just pop over and check on your Twitter tabs a few times throughout the day as you work to check in on everyone.

Follow Dallas Marketing Services on Twitter.
You follow, we follow back.

By now most everyone has heard that more than 60% of US

Twitter users fail to return the following month. But, how about the graying of Twitter?

Twitter Demographics

Citing comScoreMatrix, eMarketer recently published a Twitter Demographic breakdown that shows the largest percentage of tweeters are age 25 – 54.

So, 45-54 year olds are the most likely to visit Twitter.

Guess that means you can forget those Mother’s Day cards for Mom and Grandma – just send them a tweet.

Follow Dallas Marketing Services on Twitter.
You follow, we follow back.
Twitterific.

Apparently Twitter needed a Wingman to answer to the most common question of the Twitterverse, “How is Twitter going to make money?”

The Twitter Wingman

According to Wired’s Danny Dumas and Steven Leckart, Twitter is introducing the Wingman, a handheld, pager-like device for all things Twitter on the go.   So Tweeps, give it a look and, of course, then tweet about it.

Follow Dallas Marketing Services on Twitter.
You follow, we follow back.
Twitterific.

sezWho, who had aspired to be the universal profile service for social media sites, has called it quits.   Following in the footsteps of other recent social media sites, such as Furl, sezWho sent eMails to users stating:

We wish all those at sezWho the best as they move on to other endeavors.

A new study shows that marketers are slowly making the transition to social media marketing with 63% stating they will increase their social media marketing spend in 2009.

clipped from www.emarketer.com

Let’s talk about budgets.
It took a while.

Even though tens of millions of users were flocking to social media sites every day, most marketers stayed away. They either didn’t understand how to join the conversations—without sounding like shills—or they were frightened away by the prospect of associating their brands with questionable content.

But things are changing.

Companies are learning how to leverage social media and tap into the rising tide of consumers participating in social network sites, blogs, wikis and Twitter.

According to the “The ROI on Social Media Marketing” report by Aberdeen Group, sponsored by Visible Technologies, marketers have developed the tools and methodologies to drive marketing ROI by listening to and learning from customers and prospects.

The money is following the methods.

Aberdeen found that 63% of the companies in their survey (defined as best-in-class) planned to increase their social media marketing budgets this year.

Are you engaging with social media brand evangelists?

“Companies use multiple approaches to identify the individuals who wield the greatest amount of influence in any given topic area and to track changes in their influence over time,” said Jeff Zabin of Aberdeen. “Best-in-class companies engage these top influencers as brand evangelists, and then track the impact of their words and actions in terms of return on marketing investment.”

eMarketer estimates that social network advertising alone will rise over 17% this year to $2.35 billion, up from $2 billion in 2008.

WeFollow is a new user powered Twitter directory by Digg’s Kevin Rose.  With a sleek interface and #hashtag directory, it is catching on fast.

Add Yourself to the We Follow Twitter directory

We Follow lists the most popular Twitterers by categories created with #hashtags.   Adding yourself is simple:  Sign in to your Twitter account, visit WeFollow, click on the “Add Yourself to WeFollow” button

then simply add 3 hashtags that describe you or your Twitter topics.

What, pray tell, is a hashtag?

A hashtag is a way to create groups of content on Twitter - they function like tags on other social media sites, like Flickr.  So, when you tweet, if you are speaking about the subject of marketing, and you use the word marketing, add a #hashtag – #marketing – to add additional context and metadata to the tweet.

#hashtag.org tracks tweets by hashtags in real time, so check it out too.  This is a great way to find others to follow with similar interests.  Looking for tweets on Dallas?  Here’s the Dallas tweet directory on #hashtags.org.

Dallas Marketing Services is a marketing blog
published by Seven Aspens Consulting

73.1% of North America is using the internet.   Can they find you?

Source: Internet World Stats, rates based on full year 2008.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a process that enables prospects to find your site using organic, or free search. SEO is one of the most cost effective ways to promote a website, increase traffic & improve conversion results. Search engine optimization involves the selection and use of key words and key phrases, combined with numerous other factors, that if successful, result in achieving a higher place in the results returned on a search engine page.

Paid Search or PPC

Unlike SEO, which is free, PPC or pay per click campaigns may be purchased to drive website traffic through advertisements placed on search engine advertising networks.

The two primary methods include:

• Paying a fee for an actual page ranking. In some cases, the more you pay, the higher you will rank. Examples include Shopping.com, NexTag, Pricegrabber and Shopzilla.
• Bidding on keywords or phrases that appear in, or are associated with, text advertisements. Example:  Google AdWords

With careful attention to PPC keywords, ad copy, price, headlines, geo-targeting, dayparting, landing pages & other ROI factors, PPC campaigns can deliver significant results.

Landing Pages

A landing page is a type of greeting page – pages that is an extension of the PPC or direct mail advertisement in look, feel and message and helps bridge the advertisement to the website by greeting the visitor.

Landing pages should let the visitor immediately know they have arrived at the right place and alleviate any concerns that would cause the visitor to hit the back button. Well-designed landing pages increase conversion rates, such as completing a form, completing a purchase, etc. and improve the ability to track ROI for marketing campaigns.

Social media marketing

Social media sites, when used correctly, can provide an environment for creating business relationships and building awareness with a group of users that can, and probably already are, influencing your market.

According to a September 2008 study conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for Cone, nearly six out of 10 Americans who use social media interact with companies on social media websites. The researchers found 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with their consumers through social media, at least when needed.

Blog Advertising

One popular method of advertising is on blogs and websites through affiliate programs.  Affiliate networks are intermediaries that connect advertisers with websites and manage the payment process.

Affiliate advertising differs from pay per click advertising in that fees are generally paid as a % of sale rather than for the click. The blogger or website owner applies to be accepted into the advertiser’s affiliate program and, if accepted, selects from an inventory of ads to placed on their site. The most common ad is a 125 pixel by 125 pixel size ad format.

When someone clicks the ad, goes to the site and purchases a product, the website owner earns a commission based on an amount that was previously established according to the program.

Blog advertising is increasingly becoming an important part of the online marketing mix. A 2008 Jupiter Research study found that more than a quarter of people that read more than one blog per month trust blog advertising. Additional demographic findings from this study were that multi-blog readers tended to be in their thirties with incomes over $75,000 per year – a demographic sought after by most all online retailers.

Many major blogs offer advertising directly on their websites. Major blogs will have a “how to advertise page” while others can be contacted directly requesting rates.  Rates can range from $10 per month to $10,000 per month.

Considerations prior to advertising include blog content, traffic, impressions and the tactics used to achieve traffic. Alexa ranking, number of comments and page rank should also be taken into consideration, with an understanding that some factors can be manipulated.

Webinars

Webinars are simply seminars conducted over the web using webinar technology that allows everyone to see the same thing, at the same time, while you talk.

Webinars are a very effective marketing tool that can be used in a variety of ways:

Host a webinar on a scheduled basis for prospects, such as once a week, for an online product overview (sign up is via an online form on your website)

Conduct training seminars and product updates for existing customers

Partner with other industry organizations that offer webinars to their user base on current topics and industry education.

Next-> Marketing Budgets

Update: Furl shut down its services on April 17, 2009 and is now a part of Diigo.

Did you ever find a website with some great information, bookmark the URL in your browser and then return later and the site had been changed and the information was gone?
You should have Furled it.

Social bookmarking site, Furl, lets you File URLs – and not the just links to URLs - but actual archived copies of web pages that can then be read, shared and searched.  So if the actual website has changed or is down, your saved copy of the page is waiting for you on Furl.   Want to see the new version of the page?  Just hit refresh and it is delivered to you.

Furl provides an excellent opportunity for businesses and/or individuals to build an archive of industry information and establish themselves as subject matter experts within the Furl community and beyond.

Having been around since 2003, Furl has developed a feature-rich social bookmarking platform with some of the most interesting being:

• Archived pages can be assigned topics (tags), keywords, comments, ratings and portions can be clipped for summary purposes.

• Furl builds a full-text index of all saved pages creating the ability to search your personally saved information, as well as all publicly saved pages by all FURL members.

• Furl recommends similar public Furl links and topics based on your interests and also suggests Furlmates (Furl members) that have similar saving patterns.

• Get social with Furl by emailing saved links, joining or starting groups, subscribing to other Furl members’ saves and commenting on Furl members’ public archive pages.

• Syndicate your Furl archive with RSS or add a link list of your latest public Furl saves to your web page or blog with cut and paste javascript.

• Keep your stash private or share it with the world. Each saved item and topic can be marked public or private (the default is public) and you can decide whether or not to have your Furl archive crawled by search engines.

Ready to Furl?

Simply sign up and set up your Furl preferences. Although not required, make your Furl life easier by adding the Furl toolbar to your browser.   Furl also has an extensive FAQs section with numerous tips and help, Furl screencasts, import tools for importing favorites and bookmarks from browsers and del.icio.us, and a variety of export tools for creating back-up copies of your archives.