Category: Twitter

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Twitter Tweets to be Indexed by Bing and Google – Wow!

This is huge news for the world of search engine organic placement and inbound link creation if you did not understand these recent releases from both Bing and from Google.

First the background:

Bing is to index Twitter tweets and Facebook status updates:

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091021/exclusive-guess-who-else-is-coming-to-dinner-twitter-microsoft-bing-deal-confirmed-but-so-is-facebook-bing/

Google is to indext Twitter tweets:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html

If you are not already using Twitter this is an excellent reason to start right away. Not only will this new decision by the search engines allow inclusion of the very freshest news and updates in their index via rabid Twitter users who want to tweet just about everything, but tweets with links will be indexed too.

At least the indexing of tweets and links appears to be in the offing at this early stage. Meaning specifically that if you link to your website in tweets, you may now be driving search traffic not just Twitter user traffic, you may build web authority, and may even now use tweets as entry points to your blog or website. Additionally if Google or Bing count the links as inbound links – WOW! Now we just don’t know for sure if the real SEO benefits mentioned will stay in the mix until tweets start to be indexed and we can really evaluate traffic and if the engines filter tweets in some way to prevent organic benefits, but the potential benefits of this announcement to tweeters is huge!

So if you are not involved in Twitter why take a change that one of the biggest new ways to drive search traffic to your site will pass you by? Build your base before there is a huge rush. Establish your account as an authority now and not a newbie that will be lost in the shuffle.

 Twitter is free but if you need professional help we have a nicely developed Twitter service program and a great track record in growing account followings. Check out our Twitter services to see if we would be a good match for your needs.

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Does Twitter Impact Your SEO Placement?

I had a colleague tell me that they have stopped blogging and now spend most of their efforts on Twitter. I was mystified as to why and found out that this person thought that Twitter would help with their organic search placement. “Yikes! Don’t stop blogging!” I said, “Twitter does nothing for SEO and blogging does.”

Twitter is great for social networking and driving traffic to your website, but for now, search engines do not index tweets so you get no SEO juice from Twitter. Blogging is still one of the very best and easiest ways to help improve your web authority and potentially your organic placement. Each one of your blog posts, unlike tweets, is indexed by search engines and builds content in your search authority profile that search engines routinely review with their spider bots.

If your blog is housed on your website server under your domain, you geet the SEO juice from your blog post. If your blog is under a different domain or at www.Blogger.com you get the links and traffic but not the SEO juice and web authority.

So, the bottom-line is even if you do Twitter, don’t stop blogging. Blogging actually works harder for you to bring you long term benefits at this point than do tweets when it comes to SEO.

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What Can Twitter Do For You?

Twitter is hot, but many people still do not understand why they should Twitter for their business. Here’s my answer in a nutshell: Twitter gives you a voice. Twitter drives traffic to your website. Twitter allows you to go viral with a message.

Just those three things that Twitter does for you makes it an incredibly valuable tool as part of your marketing arsenal.

Twitter gives you a “voice”

What do I mean by that. Well, Twitter puts a voice and persona behind your corporate message. When you interact with followers on Twitter you exchange personal information and points of view. You remove the corporate mask and become a “real” person to followers – someone they can relate to and may want to get to know better.

Twitter drives traffic to your website

If you do not understand the value of Twitter yet, sign up for a bit.ly account and shrink every one of your tweet URLs in your bit.ly account first before you put it in TweetDeck. At the end of the week look at the number of clicks to the links you tweet about. The figures will stagger you. If you have worked to really connect with your followers on Twitter they will reward you by clicking your links. If some of these links are to your website, you are actively driving traffic to your own website.

Twitter allows you to go viral with a message

You just cannot put a dollar price tag on this one. It ranks up there with invaluable exposure. When you have something important to share, a hot news tip, a new point of view, or a discovery when you share it on Twitter your message can go viral. First you tweet it and share it with all of your followers, them some of your followers will retweet your link and note to all of their followers, some of their followers will retweet and so on and so on. It is easy to get massive free exposure or have a message go viral using Twitter and the power of personal connection.

If that’s not enough?

Remember this is all free! You just have to take the time to tweet. Certainly anyone can write 140 characters with a link and take advantage of all Twitter has to offer. You really should give it a try!

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Twitter – Best Practices

How can you effectively use Twitter, how often should you tweet, what should you tweet about, when should you tweet? These are just a few questions that I get asked frequently. In this post I will share with you my best practices and recommendations for effective Twitter use.

First Twitter is a very conversational and casual medium. Consider it like a “big” instant message to the world. Each tweet can only be 140 characters including spaces so you have to be concise and yet persuasive in each tweet to build your following. Here are some of my top tips to consider.

  1. You do not need to necessarily use proper punctuation in order to stay in character count. You can drop your period and move to one space at the end of a sentence.
  2.  Consider using common abbreviations such as mgmt. instead of management or gGr8 instead of great. However don’t get too cryptic, most people will know LOL (laughing out loud) but may not know LMAO (laughing my arse off). You get the drift, only abbreviate when you need to and when it will be understandable.
  3. I recommend, for people really wanting to build a following, that they do between 5 to 10 tweets a day.
  4. Space out your tweets. Don’t send out all ten tweets one after another, space them out using a system like TweetLater (now weirdly called SocialOomph). I usually do one tweet the first thing in the morning and then program my tweets out for the rest of the day separating them by at least one hour.
  5. Make your tweets be valuable to readers. When you don’t offer interesting information you will not grow your following. I focus on interesting links, cool tidbits, interesting information you may not have known in the field I am tweeting on, and sometimes (but not in every tweet) a link back to my website to a specific page, feature or service. Make sure that tweets you do are more than self promotion. I have found that I really grow my following quickly when I take this focus. Additionally when you take this approach more followers will promote you to a special category where they hang on your tweets versus just being a tweet in the crowd. You will leverage your Twitter power with this approach, I know from experience.

Don’t feel like you have the hang of Twitter? We can start you out, just check out our Twitter services.

Do you have another tip you want to share here? Love to hear what you recommend, just click comments below and leave me yours.