SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING WITH TWEETGRID

Technology has really changed the way people share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences about businesses. Thanks to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, a company’s positive image can be bolstered or destroyed overnight.

Those who take the power of social media communities seriously allow themselves the ability to steer through the minefield of public opinion and continue with great success. But companies who chose to ignore the new paradigm we have experienced for the past several years are destined to hit mine and fail.

Reputation monitoring is the big new thing in the world of business today. Community relations now takes place online… in real time… and there’s a secret weapon you can use absolutely free of charge called TweetGrid that will allow you to keep track of what people are saying about your brand as it is happening.

According to Twitter.com, there were 140 million Tweets posted just last month. You better believe that a small but significant fraction of those little messages posted on the hottest micro blogging social community board were from people expressing their thoughts, feelings, or experiences about a business product or service.

Now then… considering the massive amount of traffic pulsing through Twitter each and every day, do you think it would be worth monitoring the site for any instances where your brand is being talked about? Would you like to know when someone says something positive? Or perhaps be in-the-know when someone says something negative about their experience with your business so that you could have the opportunity to corral the unhappy customer and show them that you truly care?

I should hope that you do!

That’s where TweetGrid comes into play. All you have to do is launch the website and set up as many grids that you need in order to monitor what is being said about your business. Pick a few keywords that you think people would use for your business, enter each word into a grid, hit the <enter> button, and there you have it. Each and every time someone makes mention of one of your keywords, it will pop into TweetGrid in real time.

The key here would be to test as many keywords as you possibly can. If there are variations of the names of your business, enter them all. You could even enter common misspellings of your business name. The more the better. The bigger the population of people that frequent your business, the more chances there could be for people to talk up your brand.

If you own a restaurant or a service-related business, you might be surprised at how many people are commenting about your establishment on Twitter. People tend to Tweet a lot about the service they receive, and the quality of food at restaurants, for example. Your goal should be to reinforce and reward the positive comments, and transform the negative comments into good customer service buzz.

Throwing a “thank you” out for positive comments is a no-brainer. But what do you do when an individual says something critical or negative about your business or service? Is it possible to transform such an occurrence into something that could end up building up your reputation?

You bet it is!

If a customer tweets something that doesn’t put you in a positive light, your immediate response and offer to remedy the situation could end up transforming that unhappy person into a happy camper. At worst case, even if they are not ultimately satisfied, more people will trust you and take a chance because they will see that you care.

Simply showing that you care enough to respond is one of the best ways that you can bolster your business’s reputation. However, it goes without saying that you would need to have an actual Twitter account in order to post responses to mentions of your brand, so a little bit of research on how to get started using Twitter and knowing the best way to share your online presence would be in order.

As a side note, most businesses actively posting to Twitter have absolutely no clue as to what to post to be most effective in their marketing efforts. A lot of careless business owners “spam” the Twitter timeline with constant ads, and never interact with others in the community. That is a big mistake. Even if your only activity on Twitter was to respond to people posting about your brand, you would be leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of business Twitterers.

Make the decision now to start monitoring your brand on Twitter and take charge of what your customers reactions are. Turn every situation into a reputation-building opportunity, and watch your business grow leaps and bounds!

Do you have ideas on how to use sites like TweetGrid to better your social media monitoring efforts? Do you have a question about the strategies mentioned in this article? Share them in the comments section below!

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist

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BLOGGING AS A WAY TO DISSEMINATE NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS OR SERVICE

Your customers are looking for news about your business and/or your products on the web. Are you providing them with the information they want, or are your competitors?

To continue my Blogging Basics series, I wanted to share this video that gives a graphical and simplified view and explanation of how a blog can help your business.

If you don’t have a blog, your competitors are probably feeding your clients and customers and drawing them away from your business. That’s why it is critical that you understand this concept.

As the video states, there have been over 70 million blog sites created since 2003. Blogging has become the standard way to share information “news-style” for businesses, organizations, clubs, and groups.

But let me remind you, the greatest benefit for creating and maintaining a blog is the search engine optimization (SEO) power. You’re not just going to benefit by keeping news and information about your business on the web, but you will increase your chances of landing on the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) when potential clients are searching for info about your products or services.

When a local client is searching for your product, the chances that person picks your business are far greater if you are on the first page of the results that pop up on the screen. It is rare that searchers ever go past page 2 or 3 when drilling down through the results, unless there are no direct matches for what they are looking for.

Google’s search engine loves blogs, because they constantly feed in new information, unlike static web pages. That’s why it is time for you to take serious consideration on starting your business blog in the near future.

Stay tuned for the next post which will showcase my favorite free blog services. Meanwhile, if you have a question on business blogging, feel free to ask your questions in the comments section and I’ll do my best to help you see the light!

Carlton Flowers
Business Blogging Consultant

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

Business owners, click the image below for information on how you can get your hands on my special report, “Social Media Reality Check“!

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WHAT IS A BLOG, AND WHY IS IT CRITICAL TO THE GROWTH OF MY BUSINESS?

That, my friends, is a question that I am frequently asked by entrepreneurs and business owners. Therefore, I’ve decided to start teaching about blogging on, well, my blog site!

I am excited to announce the start of a long series on the topic of business blogging. People these days want to know if blogging is something they should consider for their business, their profession, or other special line of work. And the answer to the question is a resounding yes. Blogging is critical to the growth and future success of your business.

A little history on this strange word, a “blog” is actually short for the word “web log”. It was coined by Jorn Barger in December of 1997 to describe a website that acts like an “online journal” of sorts. Just as you would enter daily updates into a journal with pen and paper, you can create “blog posts” on a blog site to update readers who are interested in what you are writing about within your area of expertise.

Blogging can be a great way to build an audience and gain credibility in your field. It is a relatively low cost (and even no cost) marketing strategy that has the possibility of getting you instant exposure. Blogging can be significantly cheaper than traditional means of advertisement like billboards, newspaper ads, radio spots, and television commercials.

The Transformation From Websites To Blogs

When the Internet first started, the common practice was to build “static” web pages. I use the word “static” to mean that they basically sit there and do nothing. The main purpose of a static website is to give basic information about the business and how to reach them.

As time went on and the Internet progressed, people learned how to transact business on their websites, and e-commerce was invented. Not only could you get basic information about a business, but you could also make purchases and have the items shipped to you.

But the next big transformation that the Internet went through was the social media revolution, and the expansion of the “blogosphere“. This phase brought us real interaction among people on the net like never before. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter hit the scene with great fanfare. At at the same time, blogs started comprising a great percentage of the sites on the Internet that were also getting significant traffic.

Instead of just presenting basic contact information like most boring static websites, the blog site allowed businesses to publish cutting edge information on a regular basis just like a newspaper service. They also afforded people the ability to make comments and interact with the people reading their articles.

The biggest advantage for business bloggers? Their customers will find them first before finding non blog-using competitors. That brings me to the next topic for your learning pleasure, “search engine optimization”.

Search Engine Optimization

In this day and age, people go straight to Google to find businesses versus the old days of thumbing through the phone book. You, as a business owner, want your website coming up on the top of the search engine results pages (or “SERPS“) for maximum exposure.

That’s where “search engine optimization” (or “SEO“) comes into play. SEO means designing and tweaking your site to give you the best chances of landing at the top of the SERPs for the search terms that relate to your product or service.

For example, if you own a local plumbing business, you want people seeing your website on the first page of the SERPs when they type in “fix broken pipe” on Google. If they have a leaky pipe spraying water all over the house, they aren’t going to sift through page 10 of the search results, they are going to pick a plumber from the first page!

If you are looking to harvest all of the Google searchers within your local community, you don’t really have any other choice. The blog is the king of the hill for SEO and its ability to magnetically attract Internet traffic.

Because a blog site is comprised of articles written on a regular basis, be it daily, weekly, or monthly, the search engines always detect that there is something fresh and relevant being added to the site. Google and the search engines love new and updated information. Current info gets lots of credit when it comes to website ranking.

Once you have a blog up and running, it is highly advisable to stay up on the latest SEO techniques to keep your high ranking on the SERPs within your niche. It will pay you great dividends in the long run.

So I Need A Blog… What Is My Next Step?

If you are a business owner, professional, or expert in your area of knowledge, you have gotten this far in the article, and you don’t own a blog site, it’s time for you to take action. If you seriously want to harvest the high number of your potential customers using Google each day, make an action plan and get started.

There are three different ways that you can take the blogging for business strategy to the next step. They are as follows:

• start a blog site on your own using a free blogging platform
• purchase a “canned” blog site from a professional service provider and manage it yourself
• hire an SEO expert and blog designer to set up your site provide regular content

On the next edition of Blogging Basics, I will give you several choices of free blog services that you can use right away. I’ll also talk about some of the paid blog services, and why you might prefer to use them over the free services. We’ll also talk about real results that local business owners are getting from using the blogging strategy.

Until then, make sure to bookmark my site, and also subscribe to my RSS Feed by clicking the link below so you don’t miss a single post!

Carlton Flowers
Your Business Blogging Coach

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

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QR CODES WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

The future of local business marketing is here. There’s a small black and white box with a strange pattern in it that will change everything. They’re called “QR Codes“, and you need to know why they will impact your business for the better if you utilize them.

If you are a small business owner, your local advertising and marketing will be revolutionized by incorporating QR codes in your flyers, print ads, billboards, and every single place that you display your business identity.

The days of traditional advertising are over. I will even boldly say that marketing your business on the Internet or on Facebook without QR codes are going to quickly be useless. Why? Because there’s a new mega trend about to hit. And it’s mobile marketing.

Smartphones are everywhere. More of your customers are packing iPhones and Android devices than ever before. When they want to check out for options eating out or shopping, they’re not sitting at home on their home computer to search. They’re reaching for their smartphones.

Within one year, there will be more searches conducted using a smartphone than the home computer. Studies say that 240 million searchers will use their cell phone, while 200 million will use a PC. The gap will widen as more and more people utilize their smartphones as their primary Internet device.

In fact, mobile marketing will give you your biggest bang for your advertising buck. It is a wise investment. You can forget about wasting time and money designing fancy web pages that aren’t optimized for viewing on a cell phone.

The new formula for reaching your potential clients and bringing customers back on a consistent basis will be combining a mobile optimized landing page with traditional advertising and QR codes (plus a little bit of stealthy marketing).

More and more smartphone carriers have free QR code-reading apps, and they are using them. The newness scanning QR codes piques interest and curiosity, and it is quickly becoming popular. Just imagine the rush of new business that could generated by using this new technology right now, while it’s hot.

Just when we thought Twitter, Facebook, and social media marketing was the big new thing, technological advance brings us another paradigm shift in the way we will interact and do business on a local level.

Are you a small business owner or leader of a community group or association that depends on driving new customers and clients to keep your business thriving and growing? Then you better get on this now, and strike while the iron is hot.

You have two choices: figure all of this out on your own, or keep your mind and focus on the daily aspects of your business and let an expert handle it for you.

For the busy folks in the latter category, I suggest you contact me immediately and find out how you can be up and running within days with QR Turbo. I’ll even give you a free 30 minute consultation and live demonstration.

But if you hesitate, I’ll be swamped, and you’ll be left paying a consultant 5x the price for what I can provide for you.

Just pop an email to carlton.flowers@gmail.com with “QR Turbo Fee Demo” in the subject line, and I’ll contact you and schedule a visit.

I’ll also throw in a super free insider tip on how you can use Google Local to set up a free listing that will land you on page 1 of the Google search engine results for your locality.

You will want to get this info before your competitors crowd you out, leaving you on page 2 or 3. And believe me, that could mean the difference in massive traffic to your business (or your competitor). It is mission-critical.

If you want to keep your status as “top-of-mind” for your niche, or kick your competitors off the roost while they are sleeping, I’ll expect to hear from you soon.

All the best,

Carlton Flowers
Your High-Tech Marketing Strategist

Don’t miss a single post! Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

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I’VE GOT A GREAT WEBSITE… BUT I GET NO TRAFFIC!

So you are a business owner, and you are trying to increase your sales by offering your products or services on a website. You spent a pile of money paying a designer and a programmer to get your site up and running. The day finally came that your site went live, and after all of the fireworks fizzled, you discovered the fact that you have a little bit of a problem… YOU HAVE NO VISITORS!

The buildup and letdown described in this scenario is a common occurrence with brick-and-mortar business owners that are trying to increase their cash flow with web-based sales. Most will turn to SEO “expert” consultants or other marketing consultants and spend yet another considerable amount of hard-earned money to fix the problem and bring the much-needed traffic to their website. But the fact is, they are overlooking the most effective and cheapest solution to the problem… Twitter marketing.

Twitter just happens to be the fastest social media community on planet earth for attracting and retaining new potential clients within a specific geographical area. There is no other way to accomplish such a feat on any other platform on or off the internet. When properly implemented, a Twitter marketing campaign can start bringing in targeted customers within days of getting started. To tap into the ever expansive reservoir of potential clients dwelling within the Twitter community, follow these simple steps:

1. Create A Friendly Twitter Presence – If you don’t already have an account, get one now. Post your picture so people can identify with you as a person. Make several well thought-out tweets to introduce yourself to the community, and tell everyone about yourself and why you are there.

2. Create An Inviting Profile – Your profile should be clear about your business intent, but it should also let people know that you are a human being who likes to interact with others, have fun, and give back to the community.

3. Link To A Custom Landing Page – Create a special Twitter landing page just for your Twitter visitors. Focus on selling yourself before your products or services. By doing this, you will create long-lasting relationships that will translate into sales from life-long customers instead of one-time buyers.

4. Use Twellowhood.com To Find New Prospects – Use www.twellowhood.com to find people in your local target market to follow. Introduce yourself and get involved! This will create the bonds that you need to grow a loyal following of new clients for your business.

5. Post Every Day - Don’t let a day go by that you don’t post to Twitter. Give more to the Twitter community than you take by sharing meaningful information and interact with your followers. This will give you the best long-term return for your investment of time!

For advanced ideas on aggressive Twitter marketing, check out my Twitter Turbo program at my blog site, www.carltonzone.com!

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TWITTER TRAINING COMING TO CENTRAL MISSOURI!

Today I was blessed to have been interviewed by the awesome David Lile on KFRU Radio in Columbia (1400AM). David is a very charismatic gentleman who carries quite a large following with his radio broadcast. He had some great questions waiting for me, and admitted that he has not spent much time at all on the social media front, nor was he entirely motivated to do so. But by the end of the interview, he saw value in social media participation for business owners and professionals, and even stated that he may look into getting on Twitter and Facebook himself!

We had 3 callers in the latter half of the interview who all had excellent questions. I was surprised that all were interested in learning how to use Twitter, and wanting to know ways that it could be integrated into their marketing strategy. From the questions that were asked, I get a good feeling that there is a need for fundamental Twitter marketing training in Central Missouri. I plan on helping people get the basics of Twitter marketing by providing basic info in my marketing strategy podcast, and also through live webcasts. In the future, as demand dictates, I will be offering workshops and individualized consulting.

My goal is to help business owners and sales professionals explode their current market base and expand the extent of their reach by utilizing the popular social media networks, thus increasing traffic to their businesses and increasing profits. All of this is possible with the right methods and a solid strategy. For more information on social media marketing, listen to the audio podcasts on www.carltonzone.com/blog and chime in to the discussion.

Do you have a question about using Twitter or Facebook to promote your business or organization? Write in a response to this blog post, or contact me via email at carlton.flowers@gmail.com. I’ll be waiting to help you!

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist

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TWITTER LIST BUILDING – TAKE THE DIRTY SHORTCUTS, OR BUILD NATURALLY?

In today’s podcast presentation we’ll talk about building your following on Twitter. Do you prefer to ramp-up the speed of your follower list growth artificially, or do you prefer “organic” follower building methods? With artificial Twitter follower list building, people hire consultants to handle the grunt work of collecting masses of new followers. Others pay an outright fee for a bulk amount of followers. But with organic building, these Twitter citizens prefer to meet and connect with others based on common interest and 1-on-1 interaction.

We will discuss the difference between the two methods, along with the following topics:

• When Twitter becomes nothing more than the Chicago phone book
• What happens when cheaters, scammers, and con artists all get together in one community
• The advantages to organic Twitter follower list building
• Why trust is vital to Twitter marketing for businesses
• The “Instant Rock Star Bait-and-Switch” dirty Twitter tactic

As always, feel free to post your comments and questions below, or call our Google Voice line at (636) 377-0006 and leave a short message to voice your opinion!

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 Dirty Twitter Follower List Building Tactics [9:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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UPS VIDEO – SEIZING SOCIAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

This video by Adam Ostrow via the Mashable blog comes from the “Seizing Opportunities” video series produced by the UPS company. Adam gives a straight-forward explanation of why you should monitor the social media activity in your industry and create your own social media marketing plan.

We all realize by now that business marketing is making a serious shift to social media sites. The three most important social media platforms today are Facebook, Twitter, and blogging in general. If you are just getting started in “web 2.0″ marketing, this would make a great foundation, and you don’t have to create anything elaborate. Getting involved and interacting with people should be your main goal.

Adam explains that it is vital to keep track of what is going on in your industry. A good way to do this is to follow industry leaders on social media websites. For example, I pay close attention to Fox Television’s Clayton Morris on Twitter to stay on the edge of social media strategy consulting. A useful site that you can use for searching out industry leaders is Twellow.

Next, you will want to decide on what management software platforms that you will use in order to stay up on the information that industry leaders are putting out on the web. For example, desktop applications for Twitter such as Tweetdeck or Twihrl will allow you to organize the way that you keep up with this information. There are also numerous cell phone applications that allow you to track Tweets. You can even sign up for social media alerts which will email you any time your business name (or one that you are tracking) has been posted to a social media forum.

Overall, I consider it a “best practice” to stay connected with industry leaders and your clientele via social media websites in order to maximize your exposure and marketing potential. Enjoy the video!

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IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE METRICS OF “STONEHENGE MEDIA” ADVERTISING WITH WEB 2.0 LEVERAGE

How do you currently measure the success of your “Stonehenge” media advertisements? What type of feedback or response do you use to gauge the effectiveness or success of a newspaper ad, radio spot, tv commercial or billboard? In today’s podcast, we’ll talk about traditional performance metrics for Stonehenge media and how you can leverage your response rate with the addition of social media marketing.

Additionally, we’ll discuss “click tracking” as a method of evaluating effectiveness, and whether or not this is a dependable indicator. Listen to the podcast and post your questions and responses below!

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 Measuring the Effectiveness of Traditional Media Advertising [11:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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BUILDING A MASSIVE TWITTER FOLLOWING – IS THIS THE BEST WAY TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS?

In today’s podcast, the topic of discussion centers around Twitter marketing. Is it really advantageous to spend time building a huge Twitter following for business exposure? We’ll discuss the pros and cons of Twitter “list building”, and whether or not you are really getting the most bang out of your buck. Also up for discussion: paid list building services and what you really get for your money.

We are now seeing everything from website sales pages to even eBay auctions promising to add a certain number of followers to a Twitter account for a certain fee. Some are even charging an exorbitant amount of money for their service, but what do you end up with? What is the quality of the list that you have paid your hard-earned money for? And who’s to say that the list sellers aren’t pulling a scam on their customers?

As easy as it is to create fake Twitter accounts, I would be cautious about the validity of purchasing guaranteed followers. Even with real accounts, there’s still no way to qualify the list members. I caution any sales professional or business owner to seriously think about delving into list purchasing before wasting their money. Many Twitter community members now frown on others who participate in artificial list building. In the end, you may not be able to “buy” your online reputation back if your fast-track idea turns sour.

Last but not least, I give my insight on what metric you really SHOULD be tracking instead of the size of your Twitter following or the number of clicks you generate from your link posting. Most marketers gauge success by the number of clicks they receive for an online advertisement or pitch. However, there is one metric that goes far beyond click counting. What is it, you ask? You’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out!

Click the podcast icon below to listen in and then share your thoughts, questions and comments on the blog!

Play Now:

 The Truth About Twitter List Building For Business [9:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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