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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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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WHAT IS MORE VALUABLE THAN A GENERIC TWITTER FOLLOWING OF 10,000?

These days, people are more focused on building a massive list of Twitter followers than anything else. I’ve seen people build up to 10,000 followers within months just by randomly following different accounts. The goal is to increase influence and build a huge list of potential customers.

But I’d trade 10,000 useless bulk followers for 10 “Personal Walking Ambassadors” any day of the week.

What the heck is a “Personal Walking Ambassador”, and why would I place such a value on these individuals? They are real people that you have made a personal connection with who are willing to shout your message to the world, free of charge, because you have made a powerful impact upon their lives.

If you had 10 people promoting your mission and message on their own accord, of their own free will, you would make a bigger splash in the world that that of having a junk Twitter following of 10,000 or more. In all actuality, I think the 10,000 person figure is very conservative.

Want a good example of a “Personal Walking Ambassador”? I am one myself! I just happen to be a big fan and promoter of the book “The Go Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann.

After listening to the audio version of this book, I contacted Bob Burg and John David Mann on Twitter to express my gratitude and to let them know how much their book affected my personal mission in life. They both responded, and I instantly became a “Go Giver” Ambassador! I had been a Bob Burg fan for 10 years already, so this meant a lot to me.

Go take a look at some of the Personal Walking Ambassadors that Bob & John have amassed from their great book. Read some of the biographies of the people listed on this page, and tell me if you would rather have ten of these or 10,000 randomly generated generic Twitter followers! Which do you think would skyrocket your influence?

Follow Bob & John on Twitter by clicking here —> @bobburg @johndavidmann

Last but not least, if you have not read it yet, do yourself a favor and get the book! Now!

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MORE THAN ONE IN 3 SMALL BUSINESSES NOW USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONNECTING WITH CLIENTS

In 2008, I predicted a meteoric rise in the use of social media websites for marketing purposes on the part of small businesses. At the time, the majority of business owners did not have the foggiest clue as to what Twitter even was, let alone taking the time to use it as a marketing tool. Today, practically 40% of small businesses are using social media sites to reach out and connect with potential new clients.

National retailers caught on to the trend long before local small business owners, but we are still seeing some amazing breaking developments in the corporate retail sector. I was shocked when I came home from Walmart on the previous day to find a “Find Us On Facebook” message printed on the back of my store receipt. That took the cake! But this is the trend in full swing, and the wave is starting to gain strength in the small business community.

There are several reasons why it is finally catching on in the small business sector. First and foremost, it is a practically free marketing strategy. With the economy down to bare bones, no small business can afford to spend money without considering every cost-cutting alternative. Secondly, with the monstrous growth of Facebook, it is rather obvious that you’ve got to meet people on the Facebook platform if you want their attention. This holds true because Facebook is where most people are spending their waking hours these days, no matter what age they may be. Lastly, technology has made social media more accessible to the general public more than ever thanks to the smart phone explosion.

All of this adds up to one thing… the small business community is finally cluing in to the goldmine of prospective clients waiting to be courted on the social media scene. Read more about it right here on the Read Write Biz blog site.

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GETTING BACK TO THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF TWITTER MARKETING

In today’s podcast episode, I’ve decided that I need to get back to the basics of Twitter marketing for business owners and sales professionals. The night I recorded this podcast, I received about 25 new follows on Twitter from various marketers and business owners. 25 out of 25 of these new business followers were absolutely failing the test of grabbing my attention and engaging me. I saw so many basic violations of fundamental Twitter marketing, I decided I needed to devote an entire podcast to the basics of Twitter business marketing.

In this 10-minute podcast, I give several examples of some of the things you do NOT want to do if you are a business trying to make an impression on the Twitter community. When you violate some of these fundamental marketing rules, you turn people off. It can be hard, if not impossible, to reverse the effects of a negative first impression. With that in mind, it is very important for you to take heed to the advice given in this podcast if you are new to Twitter marketing. I hope you find this helpful, and as always, if you have any questions or would like to comment on the topic, you are welcomed to share your input and opinion on the blog post below!

For my local friends in Jefferson City and Columbia, Missouri, don’t forget about my free audio CD offer for February, 2010. I’m giving way copies of my social media marketing seminar CD entitled “The Seven Secrets of Revolutionizing Your Business Through Social Media Marketing” just for the asking. Contact me via Twitter or just give me a call to request your copy, and I will personally deliver it to your place of business. If you’d like, I will even shoot a video interview and feature your business on my blog!

Excited about your success in marketing,

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist
(573) 893-9498

Play Now:

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I wanted to lern y’ins how to dig a garden. This instruckshunal video should teech ya cleerly how to do so.

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Part 2 of the “Wood Chopin” special, this video teaches the proper fire litin’ techniques as presented by Carlton Flowers, expert wood cutter and fire starter.

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Here’s another short family video (more coming soon) of me and my son Scott. He’s the oldest of the 4. We were out in Holts Summit at the farm I grew up on, cutting wood for the outdoor furnace that heats my parents’ house. You can see the old farm house in the background that we first lived in before we built the house I grew up in. But anyhow, this is how you take care of business… “Country Style!”

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“HELP! I’m addicted to buying info products!”

You’re sitting up late at night staring at the computer screen, mesmerized by yet another information product for $97 that will purportedly change your financial life. You can’t take your attention off of the riveting ad copy. It is just too convincing! You have your credit card in-hand, and you’re ready to hit the “BUY NOW” button and check out… despite the fact that this is the 10th info product that you will have bought this month alone!

Forget the fact that you just bought a PLR package the day before for $7 that had you just as mesmerized as you are right now. You were moved to purchase by the slick marketing ad copy, and you  downloaded the information only to find out that it would be a lot of work to “re-brand” the PLR product. So you decide that you are going to “shelve” it for later.

Meanwhile, back to the current offer, you’re thinking that this would be a much quicker “hit” because the writer promises “all you have to do is point your mouse, click a few buttons, upload a couple of files, and watch your Clickbank account explode!”. So this obviously is a better buy. You decide that you need to make this purchase, generate the quick-hit profit, and then go back to that PLR product that needs more work.

But the truth of the matter is the fact that you do this all the time! You are constantly distracted by offers (great offers, for that matter) because you are on 15 different email lists of the most popular Internet marketing gurus! Now you are caught up in a vicious circle that seemingly has no escape route. Your bank account is suffering, and there is no end in sight. But to add insult to injury, you are also signed up for several “continuity” products, averaging $49 per month per program. You don’t even have time to read these great programs, let alone implement them.

I sat stuck in this exact info-vicious-cycle that I call “Info Product Overload” for several months on-end. I didn’t know what to do. It was like an addiction. A powerful addiction by the strongest “drugs”. But the “drug” happened to be the slick marketing ad copy of the gurus selling me their products. There was no wonder that I was stuck in an info addiction, because the Internet marketing gurus were getting their ad copy skills from the world’s greatest ad copy writers. You know who they are, and they are that good. They know how to hook you. They know how to make you buy… by giving you the feeling that you will be left out in the cold while everyone else is making tons of money on their product.

So where does it leave you? Broke, and frustrated. I know that’s where it left me. But the solution is coming. It’s almost here. An “IPO” is coming for $7 that will not only completely solve “Info Product Overload”, but it will make you money too. No, you will not get rich, but at worst-case, you will be cured of this evil condition inflicted upon you, and you will more than likely make your money back. At best, you will probably make enough money to go out on the town for a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant.

If you are sick and tired of being hypnotized by info products and slick-talking emails on a daily basis, get on my notification list. You will get an email as soon as the report is done. It will be short, sweet, straight to the point, and effective. Plus, you will be given Master Resale Rights (MRR) to this guide. Be the first to get it and re-distribute it. You will be the “info hero” to your friends as a result… and you just might make money during the process.

God bless, and power to the “regular” people!

Sign up below (no gurus or marketing experts, please)

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