How Twitter Can Help Your Online Marketing Efforts

Hello All,

I am sure if any of you watch any TV now-a-days, there is definitely a new online phenomenon going on that everyone is crazy about.. Twitter.com. Twitter is a simple online tool that allows anyone to publish a post in 140 characters or less. It gives you the ability to create your very own online network by either "following" other members, or allowing them to "follow" you. There are some people who have a following of thousands of people, most notably celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, who won a competition against CNN in attaining one million followers!

Twitter is fascinating to a lot of people, especially working professionals and baby boomers who do not use popular social media networks like MySpace or Facebook that have a much younger, college orrientated audience. Its simple to use and effective. Twitter is also is mirrored with a mobile application which allows you to view, post, and reply to your followers from your smart phones. Cell phone updates account for over 70% of Twitter activity, therefore making it a very powerful and unique application that attracts people "on the go", especially working professionals.

Now, as a business owner, figuring out how such a new and popular online application can help marketing efforts can, at first glance, seem very tricky. How can you convey a strong marketing message with only 140 characters or less? And, more importantly, what tactic is useful in doing so?

Depending on your marketing campaign online, Twitter can either become a burden or a gold mine. It all varies on what your goal is. If you are trying to gain a marketing base, Twitter can be your answer. Rather than spend hundreds of dollars buying opt-in email lists, with the risk of becoming a spammer, Twitter can give you a vast audience who are guaranteed to see any marketing message you convey.

Twitter now allows the ability to post pictures, hyper links, and even media links that are very useful and can spread a viral message almost instantly. For example, with the recent movie release of 'Bruno', studio execs credited Twitter on its almost 40% audience decline the day after the movie was released! Many people "tweeted" bad reviews about the movie, consequently costing the producers of the movie millions of dollars. As you can see, Twitter can become both a blessing and a nightmare, varying very much on what you market and what your product performance is.

For companies that offer services, Twitter can become a useful informational tool that can let people know of new promotions, areas of business, or of recent company news. Usually, people on Twitter follow others whom their friends are following, so such a trend can become useful if you have current or new customers following.

One of the biggest problems with businesses and Twitter is that they do not have the time nor know how to add new followers. Obviously assuming that you have to go out and find people to follow you, most whom you never met, can seem like a very tiresome burden. But, as I said before, Twitter has the ability of becoming the ultimate viral message. If you add one person, chances are their friends will follow. So, becoming active, answering direct questions regarding your posts, and checking back regularly with new postings will almost surely help grow your audience at a steady pace.

Twitter may not work for you, and you may not have the time to Tweet all the time. But, if you currently employ a social media marketing campaign, using Twitter as a TOOL to promote all your Social Media efforts can work wonders, improve your audience, and give you a great Viral tool that can save you tons of money!

Online Press Releases and SEO

SEO is a hot tool that many companies are trying to take advantage of, and ofcourse, the competition is fierce. In that, Google is the goldmine that many companies want to maximize exposure on. Google attracts over 75% of web searches worldwide.

How can you take advantage of this powerful search engine? Well, aside from basic SEO setup and techniques on your website, popularity is king. Google wants to know how popular your website is and measures this on its online visibility. That is, how many websites link in to your site, and how many websites mention your site URL. The latter is achieved by many smart online marketers using online press releases.

Online press releases allow you the power to link an article back to your website by entering your URL throughout the press release. It is wise to include the full URL instead of just your name.com (ex. http://www.rgpacific.com). When you send out your press release, your goal is to have as many sites, directories, and blogs pick up your press release and publish it. Alas, you will have several dozen, even hundreds, of links to your site that can tell Google your website is creating a buzz!

The best online PR service is PRWeb.com, since it gives you the most exposure depending on the price you are willing to spend. It can get quite pricey, but even the minmum package gets you on blogs and permanently online. Your article will be published on yahoo and aol, but only for a limited time, so do not assume Yahoo News will have an article on your site forever! Some people think that it does and even post a review link on their site, and after a few weeks the link is dead. Don't feel that embarassment! The worst thing you can do is tout your website with dead links!

If your budget is small or you want to feel out how Online PR works, there are several PR sites that post your press release for free. Some are freePR.com, pr.com, Prlog.org, and others. Doing a quick Google search can lead you to them if you want to use others. Be careful though, and be smart in what you publish. Alot of PR wires review each press release, and a few are charging for the use of URL's since the practice is becoming quite popular. Also, your press release must contain some kind of content and purpose. Use it to review a new feature, service, or product of your company. Remember, the goal is for someone to post the press release permanently, and to do so they need a reason to. Just making press releases for the heck of it eventually becomes repetitive and can lead to minimal impact on your website SEO plan.

For more info about online press releases, feel free to post questions here and I can get back to you when I can. Visit my website www.rgpacific.com if you need more advanced services. Remember, your article copy, or content, is vital for online success. Always have a plan!!

How to Drive Traffic to your Website

In my experience as a web marketing consultant to small businesses, the most asked question is always this: How the heck do I get visitors to my website without spending a fortune? Stemming from this question, which boggles the mind of every business owner who hears about the internet, there seems to be a lot of questions out there about what the internet can really do for a business. This is the main reason I am writing this article.

Most small to mid-size business owners do not have the resources to launch glitzy media campaigns with banner ads on ESPN, CNN, or AOL. On the contrary, most of them are on tight budgets and look to the internet as a viable alternative to regular print advertising, which gives them no solid results. Unfortunately, they are not aware of many low cost methods and techniques other than banner ads that they can afford with their marketing budget. The internet promises so much, but to many business owners who know little about it, achieving success means either hiring a full time web developer or outsourcing the work to someone else. Ultimately, a business owner is promised no more than what he or she knows. Internet Marketing consists of a series of different options, methods, and trends. The goal for a online marketer is to explore the different types of online marketing that exists so that you can have the tools and knowledge at your disposal that you need in order to either make an informed decision about outsourcing your work, understanding what it can do for you business, and if you can ideally do it yourself. Whether you know HTML, own a website currently, or are planning on developing one, finding the right business model is the key!

The benefits of online marketing are endless. It is a new marketing channel that is quickly becoming a necessity for all types of business. As a consultant, I have worked with niche market clients such as Home Repair, Law, Restoration, Landscaping, and more. Every industry sees an advantage with marketing online, and with good reason. The internet gives you not just the opportunity to sell your product or service to the world, but the ability to track and retain information from every marketing method you implement. It is a revolutionary product that allows you to choose your audience, as precisely as possible, and can increase your Rate of Return (ROI) to a higher rate that TV and Print can never match. This is the reason why so many companies are going online, and why Google, Yahoo, and other web companies have become such a powerful presence in everyday life. The internet has become a medium, and any company looking for longevity and growth needs to utilize the internet in order to gain or match their competitors in every market.

Later on I will give you a background into the most popular and common online marketing techniques. I will also show you how they are used, how they work, and what impact they can have on your business. You can use this blog as a reference point to your everyday business routine and will hopefully serve as a milestone in your quest to creating a more profitable business utilizing the methods you will learn in this book. Please keep in touch! and remember… The more you know about internet marketing, the easier it will be for you to find business online.

Ray Galan
www.rgpacific.com