Regardless whether you use a free or low cost tool to get started, it is important to monitor social media efforts and take the results back to your business goals.

LONDON—Last month, citizenrobert was enjoying “the pleasures of slow cooking.” The month before, he was battling with “brutal” winds in Suffolk.

Citizenrobert, it turns out, is Robert Phillips, the U.K. chief executive of public-relations firm Edelman, and he has been using the microblogging site Twitter to share his views and anecdotes with his 815 “followers.”

Mr. Phillips is part of the small but growing community of senior executives using the short-messaging site as a business tool to engage with customers.

Twitter itself is growing fast. The company doesn’t report figures itself but estimates put the number of users at four million to six million. In the U.K., traffic has grown to October’s 3.3 million unique visitors per month this year, estimates say, from just 121,000 unique visits per month in October the prior year.

Around 80% of the 30 major brands, including retailers and auto makers, use Twitter for daily tweets, market-researcher Forrester Research found.

The study also said retailers are the ones with the biggest number of “followers,” while auto makers follow best practices, like updating their feeds constantly, more consistently.

* How to Tweet: Tips to Light Up Your Brand

British fashion retailer Topshop, a unit of Arcadia, has more than 45,000 “followers” and uses its Twitter feed to interact with shoppers. “We’ve got that Friday feeling … none of us can sit still,” it wrote recently. Though there are exceptions. German car maker Opel GmbH, General Motor’s cash-strapped unit, stopped updating its Twitter feed in September. Admittedly the company has much bigger problems to worry about.

While most senior executives still regard Twitter as a diversion from work, some have been quick to incorporate “tweeting” as part of their extremely busy routines.

Paul Johns, vice president of Complinet, a multinational provider of risk and compliance information for financial services, says using Twitter has turned into real revenue for his company.

Mr, Johns, who is 40 years old, didn’t understand Twitter as first. “Then somebody told me it’s basically microblogging. I instantly saw a very good business opportunity.”

Mr. Johns usually tweets three or four times a day in between flights or meetings, using his Blackberry.

Mr. Johns says his company is able to generate cash through Twitter by putting up a link to a trial system with a unique URL, so that way the firm knows which deals come from Twitter.

That doesn’t come naturally to many senior executives. Loic Le Meur, founder of video-blogging company Seesmic, says senior managers find it really difficult to forget their executive roles and just be natural.

“Companies shouldn’t think too much when using Twitter,” Mr. Le Meur says. “It’s not like as if they are writing a press release. Just take your Blackberry and share something quick.”

But at the same time, public-relations experts recommend that companies wanting to connect with consumers come up with the right strategy, so that all people tweeting for the company have some kind of cohesion.

Nate Elliot, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that when considering engaging in social media, the corporate world should set out clear objectives of what it wants to accomplish.

“Do companies want to get the message out and talk directly to consumers and fans? Or do they want to get new ideas to improve their business? These are so many things you can do as a business,” Mr. Elliot said.

“As a company you have to ask yourself: what are our objectives and would Twitter help us? Who is the right person to manage our Twitter account?” Mr. Elliot said.

Senior executives aren’t always the right people to manage Twitter accounts, Mr. Elliott added.

In a recent study of how companies should represent themselves on Twitter, Mr. Elliott says companies should find the right department to manage each of their accounts.

“In many companies, marketing owns the entire organization’s Twitter activity. But many of the objectives you can pursue through Twitter are better suited to other parts of the organization,” he says.

Corporations should make sure that each Twitter account serves a particular purpose, from informing local consumers of particular offers in their area to announcing major decisions or new products.

“Honda Motor has several dealerships tweeting locally, but no easy way for consumers to find specific streams for their areas— and no obvious objective for what each local dealership should be tweeting,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Honda Motor Co. said the company was using Twitter as another tool to talk to customers and that it allowed more freedom for its franchised-dealers to tweet “within reason, whatever they want.” She also said Honda is putting together a “system” to help their dealers tweet better.

Burger King Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. have been victims of so-called brand-jacking. In July, a person with no links to Exxon Mobil registered the name “ExxonMobileCorp” and started tweeting on behalf of the corporation. Exxon Mobil contacted Twitter to request the person stopped tweeting under the company’s name, a spokesman said. Ever since that incident, Exxon Mobil has an official Twitter page.

In a separate incident in late 2008, an Indiana University student pretended to be the manager of the Burger King account on Twitter. The student even managed to build a significant amount of followers. A spokesman for Burger King wasn’t immediately able to comment.

To turn all of this into revenue, Twitter is also designing plans to launch corporate accounts in an effort to start generating revenue. The microblogging site has said it will offer tools aimed at improving companies’ tweeting skills by the end of this year.

Experts have warned, however, that not all managers will be willing to pay for a service offered by a relatively new and untested site. Pundits are also unclear as to how exactly the company is planning to generate cash. Twitter didn’t respond to an email requesting more details on its plans.

Write to Javier Espinoza at javier.espinoza@wsj.com

For original article here

Global Assist offer Twitter marketing services for your business.  For more information call us at 888-828-9826 or click on the image below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bookmark & Share

But having a good product and a good service fortified with good information will never put you out of business, but it needs something to make it grow faster as far as profits are concerned. A few number of salons and spas have found this very effective — the solution is through Social Media. Everybody can create social media profiles for free, and this is a very effective way in promoting businesses, indirectly of course. The factor that will make social media work for you is through building relationships. Persistence is highly required and great sense of responsibility in responding to every member of your social media network. Building relationships has no haircuts… I mean short cuts.

Based on recent studies, online media which includes social media networking leads the list of the top media that creates a huge impact on all demographics. Young people and adults alike are into social media networking, like Twitter or Facebook. They belong to various age groups with different interests and goals and you should find your own niche that you know who will be interested in your products or services.

According to C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research, younger crowds want the latest styles through popular online sites where their friends go and that makes social media sites the main target, therefore, salons and spas need to get active on social media sites since these sites attract young potential customers which can help your business go viral! According to some reliable findings as well, a great number of salon and spa appointments are already made on these social media sites.

We can therefore conclude that in trying to win more customers for your salon or spa business, you can show social media enthusiasts that you can extend your services for free by providing valuable information about your product and service. This how you win the trust and confidence of people in your own niche. As you strengthen your relationships with them, you can also offer exclusive discounts to them. Of course you don’t have to directly “sell” your product or service to them because that could leave a bad impression on your audience. A subtle way to do this is to know what their salon and spa needs are and offer some few tips on how you can help them with their salon and spa concerns. Using this selflessly will have you getting their trust and they can share your links to others lovingly that could go viral eventually.

In any business, quality customer service is very important. You can use social media as a tool for you to assist your customers in every way you can. The advantage of social media is that it is free, but very powerful because it is word-of-mouth advertising that works into play in these social media sites. It is then important to maintain a good reputation and you will have many people “following” your tweets and posts and the like in no time.

Here is an idea of what you can promote, create a short video about your business and post it on Twitter, Facebook, etc. to tell your prospective customers what you can do.  Or send them coupons and special offers to entice them to try out your business.  For more ideas on how to promote your business, call Global Assist at 1.888.828.9826

Click here to view the embedded video.

Social media is the new wave of marketing that is responsible for bringing millions of dollars in revenue to traditional and online retailers.  Social media tools have become a force to reckon with in terms of marketing and promotions that have revolutionized the marketing world.  The participation of retailers marketing in the world of social media has risen dramatically in 2009 according to a study conducted by Power Reviews, a reputable e-commerce consultancy and software provider.   Some of the most popular social media tools and applications being used today by retailers are Facebook , MySpace , YouTube , and Twitter.

According to these surveys, social media applications are now being used by almost 50% of top brands and retailers.  Facebook Fan Page is leading the race at 86%, followed by Twitter at 65%, customer reviews sites such as Yelp at 55%, and viral video podcasts such as YouTube and MetaCafe at 50%. The surveys have also shown that brands have exploded in popularity because of social media in the past 6 months.  The social medial  adoption of many brands and retailers have resulted in increased sales through “referral” marketing that goes viral as proven by marketing experts. The increasing sales are due to the increased brand awareness and brand loyalty created through the use of social media networking tools and applications.

Social media applications are free to everyone and people do have the basic human need of belonging, whether to a certain group, community, or network. This makes social media a powerful marketing tool for any retailer. Social media sites are also constantly developing increasingly effective tools and applications to retain their existing members for fear of losing their members to newer and more socially-engaging social sites.   This leads to a constantly improving product that benefits both retailers and consumers.

Social media has created a new wave in brand and retail marketing and we will definitely see the use of the applications in marketing for many years to come.  On the other hand, retailers have expressed fears because their product can be rejected on a larger scale in social sites.  One of the critical phases in success or failure in social media is the “building the relationship” phase. These relationships cannot be achieved overnight.  It requires a great deal of time, patience, and persistence.   A retailer who can commit to all these requirements will definitely reap the benefits for many years to come.

Where did Twitter come from?

Jack Dorsey,  an American software architect created Twitter. A micro-blogging and social networking service that basically sends messages to its followers with a limit of 140 characters per “tweet.”  When he first analyzed the idea of instant messaging, Dorsey had thought of how to share posts amongst a number of friends easily.  Twitter has now obtained notice in the world market and has received a trendy status to teens,  movie stars and now is moving on to the business community. Due to its 140 character limit, it is from time to time referred to as the “SMS of the Internet”

How can it be used for marketing your business?

Twitter permits businesses or business owners to interrelate with their customers or networks by broadcasting information and updates as well as address comments or concerns about their products or services. These messages are broadcast over the Twitter network, thus letting businesses achieve reaching a greater number of possible customers.

Most of the leading networks and organizations have been using Twitter to provide updates to their followers. Since, these tweets can be viewed using mobile phones it becomes a powerful communication tool.

How to use it?

To use Twitter for business, it is as easy as following this 5 simple steps:

1.    First you need to log-in and become a member of the site. Use a provocative username that best fits your company. Then you need to expand your network by adding followers or following other people’s tweets. This way people will recognize your company’s profile.

2.    After creating an account, do not forget to put your logo in instead of your picture. You want people to recognize your brand. Think about using a Twitter background that is consistent with your company’s image.

3.    Talk to people; once you have developed a network, start sending tweets. It does not always have to do with the product or service you are selling, try to talk to your followers and show that there is a human behind the logo. This way people will become comfortable with your company. Always keep in mind that your posts are a reflection of you and your business.

4.    Provide creative posts:  suppose you owned a restaurant, you could “tweet”  your followers/customers about daily specials, enhancing it with pictures to add to their delight.

5.    You get immediate customer feedback.  If you receive a compliment, grace them with your gratitude, if you however receive negative feedback, acknowledge that you have read it and improve your service or product. This way they will know that you are taking comments seriously and can cause repeat business.

As a reminder you don’t need to read and reply to every “tweet” thrown at you. If you are running a bigger staff, assign more than one individual to updating the tweets, this way there is a variety to the type of message received by your followers.  Or if you don’t know how to get started or don’t have the time or people resources, consider hiring a virtual assistant to help with the task.  Twitter is just one of many social networking sites you can use to promote your business.  You may consider using Facebook, Youtube , Linkedin, Flickr and many more.

Soon you will be surprised when your revenue increases as more and more share your tweets and more and more people are introduced to your product.

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, a little boost from doing social media marketing does not hurt.  It is basically an additional tool that can be exploited to increase social ties with your existing client relationships. Excellent people skills are valuable in person as well as online.  To go hand in hand with establishing fruitful relationships with your customers, you must open your mind with social media marketing. It will increase visibility for you and your practice. Here are some little tips that can help you cope up with this marketing tool.

1.      While a number of people are aware of the worth of being visible online, most dentists are still working up the idea of social media. The query of whether to join or not is lurking in their minds. Some even have complete aversion over it which is a bit disappointing considering the promises that this marketing tool can entail. This tool magnifies the power of yellow pages to attract new customers. For example compare two existing websites offering the same type of service and skills. One is joining social network sites and the other does not. You will observe that while the other is waiting for emails and calls from prospective clients the other is gaining popularity on blog sites. Making them and their services known to more people, thereby gaining new customers every day.

2.      There are a lot of social media networks available in the market. The best way to be found is to join the ones with wider networks. Join in using your dentist URL page as username or your clinic’s name. If you have a logo, put it as your profile picture to be recognized.

3.      Take care of sharing your information in online networks with the same rationale as you would any other social institution.  In other words, don’t blog about something that will hurt your profession.

4.      Communicate with your network as you would with a patient or a friend. Just as we all do in person, we would also like to be treated well online. Comment on other people’s blogs or messages, making them aware that you exist. The good thing about that is every time you make a comment your created username and picture will appear, hence your URL and logo as mentioned above. It will be free advertising if you do that. But be always sensitive on the comment and always leave it on professional level.

5.      Use keywords on your blogs or messages in social network that will optimize your search engine. Hence, leading them to your own website.

Social media is not an end-all marketing answer for all.  Start from inside, review the quality of your client care and communication relationship.  Then decide whether it is a normal thing for you to partake in social media sites. Remember that whatever medium of marketing you used the most important part is how you care for your clients and how show them your love of work.

If you have been introduced to the world of cyber blogging, then you must have heard of WordPress and TypePad.  If you are just getting started, congratulations!  WordPress.com and other blogging tools are available to assist you in sending your thoughts and work into the cyber world. These products have been competing for your attention, but which to use will depend on you and your personal needs. Let me give some tips for you to enhance your knowledge of the most common blogging tools.

WordPress started as software that you can install onto the Web server of your choice, but now  has 2  versions:  WordPress.com which is a hosted turnkey solution, WordPress.org for installation on your own domain.

TypePad has no installation task to be accomplished. Your blog and the control screens through which you operate the blog, all reside on TypePad computers, not your computer. You pay a monthly or annual fee for a chunk of server space and access to the administrative controls.

What are the features of a blog?

Bloggers create posts and share with their cyber networks by using a blogging tool such as WordPress or TypePad. A post is essentially an online journal entry.  It holds a blogger’s thoughts on anything they can think of that includes words, pictures, videos and links.  A significant feature common to blog sites is the facility to sort posts so that they can be located effortlessly. These would increase the traffic on posts and make it easier for anyone who is looking for a specific topic to search an entry; this capability is usually found on either side of the screen depending on your blog’s design. These blogs would have time stamps from the time you uploaded them. This would allow a blogger to properly archive their entries.

What are their similarities and differences on blogger tools?

WordPress is free while TypePad is not, although if you obtain a full version of WordPress  you will have to pay for web hosting and your own domain, unless you opt to go with WordPress.com which provides the service absolutely free, but does not allow you to put ad sense on your sites.

WordPress has wide-ranging theme types as opposed to a TypePad.  TypePad, however, is uncomplicated in regard to CSS codes, as it does the job for you, so without having any  code knowledge, you are able to switch the customized themes.

TypePad does not offer pages, as the system only allows a blogger to select a certain number of words to be published upfront and the rest would have to be accessed via archives.  WordPress offers multiple pages at the bottom of each page you can either go to the next page, if there is one or previous page if you want to go back.

WordPress has made plugins available on their system to improve its function. These plugins include: tags, popular post side bar, lists of related posts, subscribe to other people’s post or to a comment on your post, SEO tools, social media interaction tools, and much more.

TypePad is reliable during upgrades and maintenance as opposed to WordPress.  If a new version of WordPress is released, you can upgrade it to your existing WordPress, however, you have to do this on your own. TypePad, unknowingly to its users, do the upgrades for you so you don’t need to worry about your PC’s configuration.  Latency on the server may be experienced during this scheduled updates.

So if you are still a bit unsure, just try both for the meantime and compare. This will help you decide on which tool to use for your blogging pleasures.

The study also shows the following results:

• The return on investment is unclear, 66%
• Now is a great time to experiment with it prior to the 2009 holiday season, 63%
• The primary ROI is in listening to and understanding customers, 58%
• We’re pursuing it now to avoid being latecomers, 54%
• We’re pursuing it because of the buzz surrounding it, 50%
• We use a specific set of metrics to measure social marketing initiatives, 36%
• It has helped to grow our business, 34%
• We’re pursuing it because our competitors are, 28%
• We’re pursuing it to satisfy senior management, 15%

Social media marketing for your business is worth looking into.  Our social media marketing assistants can help you get started.  Call us today at 888.828.9826 to find out more.

There are many benefits of joining social media sites for your business but always the end result is desirable and it is a step forward in growing your business. If you are a newbie in social media marketing, then the easiest solution is to hire social media virtual assistants. Starting and joining social media sites can be quite time consuming and can be hard for first timers, with social media virtual assistants, you can jump start your social media marketing campaign because you bypass the learning curve.

Joining social media sites can drive traffic to your website. The more traffic that your website gets, the more chances of making more sales for your business. It increases the amount of people that will know about your website and the products and services that you offer. Although traffic does not guarantee a sale, it will arouse the curiosity and spread the word that such a service and product exist which could then lead to a future sale.

It’s a given fact that joining social media sites will need time and a certain level of dedication. For you to keep hold of your followers you always have to have something new to offer and you always have to be good content in the circulation. This is where social media virtual assistants can help you with time consuming tasks. They can do the hard work and labor for you while you enjoy the rewards that it brings for your business. It is important for you to define what you need and what image you need to portray when joining social media sites and from there, you can communicate it to your social media virtual assistants so that they can make it a reality.

One concern for many business owners is the fear that some social media virtual assistants will replace them and jeopardize their social networking efforts. Although a valid concern, you must understand that simply hiring a marketing company or a social media virtual assistant won’t replace you, in fact it should be stated clearly that your participation in social networks is imperative for the campaign for be successful.  Interacting with your audience is still a must to know! Your social media virtual assistant acts strictly with your set of instructions and materials will still come from you because more than anybody else, it is you who knows your business and where it is headed.

If you are not using social media to market your business, your competitor is!  Get started right away.