While that is a great job at PR by Google, I’m not buying it. Google really messed up here for a number of reasons. One, they forced all of the users of their gmail service into Google Buzz. Two, they forced each user to auto follow all of the other gmail users in their contacts list. Three, they made the default setting post your “buzzes” publically. Hello PRIVACY ISSUES! A simple apology is just not good enough from a company of that size. They didn’t just lose email files, their server didn’t just shut down. They essentially made everyone’s private issues public. Google, the largest search engine on the face of the earth, one of the most influential companies in the history of commerce, and the single largest holder of information in the world, made a big no no.

I don’t know if you’ve been reading about the latest search battle news but I’m pulling for Bing. Besides, competition in the search engine marketing world will be good for most internet marketeers. So the next time you search, I’m encouraging everyone to Bing It!

Unfortunately the answer is not all that simple. First you have to ask yourself a few questions. One, who is your audience and are they on Twitter? Two, what are you trying to do with Twitter? Three, does Twitter fit into your time budget? And Lastly how will you measure Twitter Success? I’m going to be attempting to clarify each question for you throughout the rest of this article.

The first question is a question that everyone should always ask themselves before getting into any endeavors with their business or marketing plan. Who is your audience? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you had better find a new profession and quickly, this economy is not a forgiving one, and there is certainly no room for businesses that don’t know their market. Is your audience using Twitter? do a little bit of research behind this one. Use Twitter Search and search for some of your market’s main keywords, if there is a lot of conversation about your product, genre, or niche then you might be onto something. If not, don’t waste your time. There are plenty of other great places to spend your time trying to acquire customers.

If you decide that you’re going to set up a Twitter account for your business the next question to ask yourself would be, what are you trying to do with Twitter? Just like anything else you have to have a common goal in mind and a plan to reach that goal. Do you want overall brand awareness? Another place to share your blog links? Or do you want to drive direct traffic and sales through Twitter. Whichever way you decide to go there are a different marketing techniques and best practices in order to get you to that next level.

Does Twitter fit into your time budget? We all know that Twitter is a free service and that Dell claims they made $1 Million in sales on Twitter last year, but are you Dell? The answer to that question for most of us is a definite NO! It is going to take time to build your Twitter following, and in my experience from a direct sales standpoint with Twitter, it takes a longer time to actually get people to want to purchase from you. So figure out if it is worth your time to start the campaign before you do.

The last question you’ll want to ask yourself is how will you judge Twitter success? This should go hand in hand with the reasons you are joining Twitter in the first place, but if you aren’t getting those sales right off the bat, how will you measure success? How are you going to measure the amount of brand awareness Twitter is bringing you? These are generally answered through whatever analytics program you use for your site but make sure you have this in mind as well.

After you have asked yourselves all of these questions I think you’re going to be well on your way to getting started with Twitter. You’ll certainly be well ahead of about 85% of the Twitterverse anyway. The reason my company has stopped spending time on Twitter is because of the infestation of the spam community and the lack of sales directed through Twitter. It has however been a great traffic driver to specific content that we are trying to push. Now that you know the questions you should ask yourself, start answering them already will you!? I mean time is money people! Have a good one.

1. Reddit.com – This website can absolutely exploded your site with traffic, and it could start a chain reaction that leads to your site getting quite a lot of traffic. Check out how I got 3000 page views in 24 hours? To see the power of Reddit.com when generating traffic.

2. Digg – Best seo social site online. Can be used to get your site indexed on Google quicker within 24 hours but also can bring in tons of free traffic if used well.

3. Yahoo answers is best used when you are promoting something specific. Search yahoo for something related to your market and answer the question. This is important as you don’t just want to be another spammer, you need to show that if the person clicks on your link they will receive quality information.

4. Google, Yahoo and dmoz.org directory. I only found out recently, but having your site indexed on one of those major directories is a very powerful backlink to have and can do wonders for your Google search position. All are free to submit unless you go for the piad inclusion, it’s worth it if you have the money. But if not don’t worry your site will be eventually get indexed and you will have a very good backlink to your website.

5. Stumbleupon – I can’t get my head around Stumbleupon.com and that is why it is not ranked high. However, in terms of traffic it can bring in as much and in some cases even more then reddit.

6. Blogs – Blinklist.com – Mybloglog.com, Blogger.com – and Technorati.com. Again by creating your own profile and submitting your site, not only do you create an online presence so people get to know you, but you are placing a link on a site that will increase your page ranking and again will bring in more traffic. This will be less then the other social sites, but none the less it has an added advantage and that is the traffic will be more specific to your market.

7. Twitter and Friendster.com to keep your readers updated. Again, with the release of Twitter as a new form of marketing was created. By creating followers on your profile you can easier update your readers on your latest site news. Again another great traffic source.

8. Another good idea for free traffic is to search on Google for your market and then type in ‘directory’. This is quite simply the best way to get targeted traffic.

9. Reviews. Another way to get massive traffic is through review sites (but only submit if you are prepared to take a beating, not everybody is nice lol). Such as Reviewmyweb.com and Xomreviews.com/. You can even extend this further by joining sites as such the digital point forums and asking people on the forum to review your site. However, if you really have a unique product submit your site to killerstartups.com and if selected this will increase your sites visibility online – and it 100% free.

10. Finally number 10, to get your site instantly indexed on Google submit your website to stat sites such as Cqcounter.com,Alexa.com, Websiteoutlook.com and Siteanalytics.compete.com. These sites are constantly indexed by Google and by referring your sites to them. You increase the chance of your site getting indexed by Google, create more backlinks, increasing your Google rankings and in doing so (if you use the this and the tactics above) drive a hell-load of free traffic to your website.

To view the original post please click here

1. Figure out your Target Market: Find out who your target market is. That can be your entire customer base, or just a select few of them. Either way you decide to do it, make sure that you know who they are, if you don’t know who you’re dealing with in any marketing idea, chances are it’s going to die hard and fast.
2. Give Something People Want: Look, I’m sorry this might seem like a pretty basic idea, but you won’t believe how many emails I get from people asking me why their idea flopped, then I find out they were giving away a wiener whistle to their target market of Business Executives. Okay that was a bit of an exaggeration, but comparable ideas have come across my inbox. Give away an appropriate product for your target audience i.e. a free webinar on real estate investing to real estate investors.
3. Determine the Info You Want From Them: Okay now that we’ve got the prize all figured out, determine why you’re even giving the product away. What sorts of information do you want, what is the goal of the giveaway? Do you want their email address? Do you want more Facebook Fans? Whatever it may be decide what it is and work it into your plan.
4. Set Your Plan-But Make it Easy: Okay now we’ve got your target market, the product you’ll be giving away, and the goals of the campaign, now it’s time to set up the plan. Let’s say for instance you want to get more email addresses, it’s pretty simple, but just have them sign up for your email newsletter to get the free gift. Or if you want more Facebook Fans make sure they have to become a fan to get the gift. Make it easy, if it takes too many steps, it’ll never work for you.

MOST IMPORTANT PART BELOW:

5. Let them Spread the Word For You: Look I am assuming that most of my readers are pretty intelligent and creative thinkers, judging by the emails you send me. Most people’s plan will fail, if they don’t let other spread the word for you, you are more than likely going to flop, especially if you don’t have a blog with tens of thousands of readers. How do you do that? When they sign up for your email newsletter, have them forward it onto 5 firends. When they become a fan of yours on Facebook, have them automatically update “I just entered to win a free (Blank) JOIN NOW”

If you follow this plan, I am 100% certain that you can and will have great success with giving away your free product. I have seen it work on hundreds of occasions, it’s not spammy, it’s easy to do, and people find real value in it. They will love spreading the word for you especially if they find value in the product you’re giving them for free. So get out there and start giving, that’s the key to a healthy online relationship with your target market.

I’ll leave you with this. My top 3 best practices for creating brand loyalty and trust with social media and that equals sales for you.

1. Ask the consumer – So you want to add a new product to your website? Go to your Twitter or Facebook page and ask your followers which one they like best. They’ll appreciate the fact that you want their opinion and they’ll feel as if they have some ownership in the decisions for your company.
2. Follow your brand mentions- Watching to see who is talking about you and what they are saying is important. That way if a customer has a complaint to make, you can deal with it out in the open and take care of them. That visibility and transparency will create brand loyalty and trust down the road.
3. Give away free stuff – The best way to win people over is to give them something for little or no return on their part. I realize from an ROI standpoint that might be hard to do but they’ll tell their friends and that word of mouth marketing is what you really should strive for.

It’s not hard really. You just have to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Wake up people, welcome to the new economy. The consumer driven economy.

Step 1:
Build you network of caring followers. Post about things only related to your topic. Follow only people who are interested in your topic, and engage with people who are interested in your topic. The ability to create your own little niche of sorts on twitter is one of it’s greatest features. Using search.twitter.com you can find people who are talking about topics that are related to your field and engage with them.

Step 2:
Engage these followers in some way. Whether that just be general comments, contests, or by posting news updates about your product you need to engage these people and let them know that they are important to you from the start. My favorite thing to do is a contest. They work EVERY time because there is always going to be a small niche of people who are just looking for free stuff.

Step 3:
Determine your Twitter sales approach. Twitter is a great tool for a lot of things. It can be used for customer service, blogging, or sales. If you are looking to make your Twitter account drive more sales for you you have to be sales oriented. Use it to post your sales and deals but also use it to help your customers out with any problems they might be having with your site.

Step 4:
Give people incentive to follow you on Twitter. This should be done whenever you are trying to get more of your customer or user base to engage with you on social media. Give them a discount code just for following you. It’ll make them feel like they are a part of something exclusive and special.

Step 5:
Announce that you are on Twitter. Put a twitter icon on your front page and link it to your twitter page. Blog about your Twitter account. Let people know that they can find you on Twitter and let them know that just for following you you’ll give them an exclusive discount code.

The best way to sell things online is to test new and creative ideas. I challenge all of you to try and push the boundaries of normal practices and put your own spin on them. These are more of guidelines to help you get started selling on Twitter than anything else. Take my ideas and give them your own creative boost. That is when you’ll be able to really take off with Twitter and your other social media campaigns.