Email was amazingly fast when it was new. Instant messaging was even faster. Instant became more powerful with Twitter — you can send messages to an unlimited number of people at once, and those people can receive your messages a variety of ways. A rotating quote on the Twitter.com home page describes Twitter as "the telegraph system of Web 2.0."

What is Twitter?

Twitter is described at the Twitter site as a microblog. It's that and a blog on steroids at the same time. Instead of writing a blog post (or in addition to writing one), you type and send a short message of up to 140 characters via the Twitter site, your mobile phone, an instant messaging program, or a third party application. The message goes out to cyberspace instantly and to people who are subscribed to your feed. Or in Twitter language, your followers (people who receive your Twitter updates) can read your tweets as soon as you send them — via mobile phone, IM, RSS feeds, and the Twitter website.

Unlike blog posts, you can specify who receives your twitters, and you can send private messages to individuals in your network. You can also track specified words and be updated via mobile phone or IM whenever a word you're tracking is used. (Web updates are reportedly coming soon.)

Who twitters?

People who want to tell their followers that they just had lunch or are on their way somewhere twitter. Friends and family members twitter to stay in touch. Some people use Twitter to share something interesting that they came across or to give their opinions about recent events. Adults twitter. Kids twitter. Unfortunately, spammers also twitter (but if you don't follow them, their spam won't reach you).

Twitter isn't only for casual conversation and tidbits. Barack Obama uses Twitter to announce events he's attending and updates to his website. CNN uses Twitter to announce breaking news. A conference organizer posts deadlines and updates via Twitter and used Twitter to announce that three followers would be randomly chosen to win conference passes.

The growth of Twitter

Twitter has been experiencing growing pains. Recently the Reply feature had to be turned off temporarily in an attempt to keep Twitter working during high load times. While this article was being researched, a "Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again" message appeared several times at the Twitter site. But those who thought that Twitter wouldn't last appear to be wrong. As with blogs, Twitter has continued to grow in popularity and usage. According to a May 2008 report, nearly 1.2 million people per month had signed up with Twitter in the past three months. Twenty-four percent of users are classified as heavy users, and traffic is much higher on weekdays than on weekends.

Twitter as a networking tool

Twitter allows users to follow other people for short periods of time or indefinitely. It can help users build relationships and develop new ones. You can learn more about people in your network by following them via Twitter, and you'll have more to talk about with them. When you're looking for someone for a particular task or job, you'll be better able to decide whether you want to work with them.

Some ways to network with Twitter:

Publish tips and interesting bits of information related to your area of expertise. You'll develop more followers and build a reputation as an authority in your niche.

At events, update followers with schedule changes, your whereabouts, brief reviews, and tips on what to avoid and what not to miss. Give out your Twitter username to people you meet at events, and if you follow each other, you'll have added to your network.

When you have a good number of followers, ask questions via Twitter about how to solve a specific problem or to find out who has information about a topic. Chances are that someone will know the answer, and the interaction will help build relationships.

Search Twitter conversations via Summize.com for topics that interest you, and start following people whose tweets are about your interests. Add a lot at first and then reduce the list to those whose tweets are most worth following to you. Some of them may start following you as well.

Twitter as a marketing tool

Twitter can be useful as a marketing tool to be used with other marketing methods. Because people have to choose to follow you and can stop following you at any time, it's a form of permission-based marketing.

Examples of uses for Twitter as a marketing tool:

* To summarize and link to new blog entries, newsletter issues, and other updates to your website
* To announce sales and other time-limited offers
* To introduce new products or services
* To publish news about your area of focus, especially breaking news
* To share bits of knowledge that are useful to your followers and that help establish you as an authority in your field
* To initiate conversations with your followers

Publish your Twitter username at your website and on your business cards, and keep your tweets with your Twitter business account professional.

Related blog articles

* How to Become a Known Niche Authority
* Newsletter or Blog? Have Both!
* How to Market Your Brand via Social Media Websites

Social Book Marking Syndrome: What’s Wrong With Digg?

Social Book Marking Explained by Web Hosting Provider

Amidst the information onslaught brought about by the web, sorting the good content from the bad isn’t an easy task. In fact, it’s almost impossible unless this information comes with some authority. Any bozo can post his opinion that the world is flat and soon develop a cult following among other flat-Earthers. Still doesn’t make it so.

The authority of much of the content on the web (take it from somebody who consumes web content by the metric ton) is suspect. The problem with web content is good old contestability. I can read it, but I can’t contest it, discuss it, debate it or kick it around with the author.

In fact, most of the time, the author’s name doesn’t appear anywhere attached to the document and, frankly, some of this blather reads like it’s written by 8-year-olds. Too bad, because along with unreliable, biased, inaccurate data, the web provides access to quality content, well written, properly researched and relevant.

The key is to sort through all this web “noise” to find the pearls of wisdom that await. Or better yet, have other web users do it for you. That’s the thinking behind book marking sites - web hosting provider explains: let the readers decide what’s good quality. In theory, a good idea. In practice, not so much.

Digg It - Web Hosting Provider Explains

Digg.com is, perhaps, the best known of the many book marking sites that have sprouted like so many digital mushrooms. Here’s how the company describes its mission in life:

“Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.”

Other book marking sites worth a mention are: Technorati, del.icio.us and Yahoo’s My Web.

So let your web hosting provider break it down: these and other book marking sites enable you and others to assess the quality of what you read and hear, as you read and hear it. Look below this post and you’ll see two rows of links to book marking sites. By clicking on any of those icons and signing up, you can bookmark useful information, helping others find the good stuff.

These are seals of approval from readers who, at least it’s assumed, have some knowledge of the subject pinged. And this is where the system starts to unravel.

Freedom to Choose Does Not Lead to Good Choices

There’s a mistaken belief (at least in the U.S.) that freedom of expression translates into equality of expression – that all opinions are equal. Could anything be further from the truth?

When readers ping a blog post, their expressing their opinions. These opinions, from unknown, unverifiable sources, are then used by others as a determinant of quality.

The Bias of Authority

Using social book marking does, indeed, level the playing field. Your digg is as good as any other reader’s digg. All count equally. However, well-bookmarked sites are given authority by readers – readers with personal agendas, biases and mis- or dis-information.

The original intent of these sites was to point readers in the direction of articles worth a read. Unfortunately, many of the most pinged sites, blog posts and other web content lack real authority. Readers ping content for any number of reasons, not simply because it is reliable content. In fact, in many cases, just the opposite is true.

For example, political sites receive a lot of pings, especially during campaign season, which is now non-ending. Are the articles that get pinged unbiased references? No. Do the people behind the site have an unspoken agenda? Of course.

Unfortunately, book marking has created a “bias of authority” in content that is anything but authoritative.

It doesn’t take much to create this bias of authority, either. Content with as few as 100 diggs makes noise on the site, drawing attention. (Note of caution to novice diggers. Don’t digg your own pings over and over. The book marking site will recognize the repeating IP address and ban you and your diggs.)

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t network with others who share your views and ping certain rhetoric to build its credibility. The problem with social book marking is that it creates a “jump on the bandwagon,” herd mentality, which in turn delivers at least the cachet of authority, interest and/or readability, i.e., content worth putting down the Pop Tart and reading.

The Bias of Book Marking Frequency

Older computer users don’t bookmark as much as younger users who view the web as their own screen-based playground. Younger users are more likely to express their opinions (1) because they know how and (2) because they believe in their opinions enough to take the time to ping a piece of content.

This slants the tabulation of book marking activity to a much narrower demographic. Pingers are younger, computer savvy and fully functional online. The Gen-Xers, Gen-Yers and the Millennium Generation grew up with mouse in hand and they intend to use it, even though many of these book markers lack authority, experience, expertise and judgment.

So, we have a narrow web segment of non-authorities to determine “the value of content” according to digg’s mission statement above.

While it’s a noble mission and does further the cause of egalitarianism on the web, social book marking must be taken in context. It does not bestow authority. It does not validate an author’s opinion. It does not represent a broad, universal sampling and there’s no way to ascertain the authority, biases, conceptions and misconceptions pingers bring with them when book marking web content.

The only thing diggs and other bookmarks indicate are that, for some reason unknown to all, an unknown web user thought, for some reason untold, that this content was worth your time.

The value of this information must be defined within the above parameters, which doesn’t leave much value at all.

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Having an Event? Use the Web to Keep the Administration of the Event Simple

Getting married soon? Thinking about getting the old gang together for the 20th high school reunion? How about simple clan gathering or professional group convention? Events like these can be greatly simplified in the logistics department through the use of an event site – a web site that announces the event, enables attendees to sign up, book plane reservations and other accommodations - web hosting provider explains.

Event Sites Simplify Chores of the Event - Web Hosting Provider Explains

And as webmaster/event coordinator, an event web site simplifies the administrative chores by keeping track of the who, what, where when and how questions – all from a single source.

Creating a Website

Don’t be scared. It’s easy, screen-driven, drag and drop, click and type. Templates are available online. In fact, when you shop for a web host to host your website it shouldn’t cost more than $7.00 a month for a fully-functional site that you build using modules, server side applications, software goodies, a blog and other cool stuff. And it really is click and post. Click and upload to the site blog. Update regularly.

Anyone who has the basics of computer use down can build an attractive event site complete with a data base to track those RSVPs.

Wedding Sites

What a great idea. Just keep the wedding website password protected so it isn’t open to the whole world – just guests with the log-on password

Invite honored guests using traditional means, an invitation on engraved stationery, but provide the URL for the RSVP page of the event site. This makes accepting or respectfully declining a simple click and go item on the day’s to-do list.

If people are flying in from faraway places, provide links to booking sites, information on the accommodations you’ve arranged with the toll-free reservation number and provide a schedule of events – rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, ceremony (with address, or better yet, a printable map to all key locations), reception and beer bash later in Room 18 at the CheckRite Motel. (Why do I always get the room next to the seminar revelers?)

Post pictures of venues – the exterior of the restaurant, the church, the motel, etc.

If you’re ambitious, you can also deliver a live feed of the weeding itself so those loved ones who couldn’t make it can still be a part of the festivities. Continue streaming all through the reception. You’ll have a glued-to-the-set audience. (“Oh, there’s cousin Irene. She looks good after the nose job last year.”)

After the wedding, upload your best wedding pictures and allow your site visitors to download their favorites.

Add a sign-in blog so site guests can leave best wishes. And, if you’re registered at a certain store, provide the URL. It simplifies the gift-buying for attending guests and non-attending friends. Don’t look at it as a blatant plug to buy a gift. Think of it as a web convenience that’ll save guests time.

Finally, maintain the site for at least a few months after the event to allow all visitors time to see the fun, download you doing the limbo and leave their best regards and a gift – all from a web site.

Class Reunions

Start early. Build the class reunion website and create a data base of classmate contact information. Post the “Missing in Action” list for leads on lost comrades of the classroom.

Again, if you expect people to be flying in, provide links to airline and motel reservation sites.

Provide locations and maps, a schedule of events and a sign up form. Use old yearbook pictures to tweak the nostalgia nerve and use the site to recruit old friends to help pull off this once-every-10-years blow out. (If this is the 40th or 50th class reunion, have a lot of antacids. We don’t all age well if you know what I mean.)

Corporate and Industry Events

Large, multi-national conglomerates have their own internal email and other communications systems. If these resources are available to you as the event coordinator, set some face time with the IT guys who will build the site. Provide them with a list of “must haves” along with specs on these must haves.

Industry events, conventions on a regional or national scale, require extensive planning. However, email invitations with a link to the site are acceptable, even in the button-down world of top tier management. Make it easy to sign up. The more people will sign up.

Provide a complete event schedule on the corporate website. Individual speakers and times, topics and locations. Make it easy for the visitor to plan how to best utilize this get-together of like-minded industry peers and beers.

Again, link to your selected airlines’ site for booking reservations. (Hey, become an affiliate of the booking site to generate a little more revenue without  really trying.). Maps showing selected accommodations should be printable.

The schedule might also include a detailed menu for dinners and built in free time to allow the real work to get done through networking.

So, contact by email all of those companies and individuals that you’d like to see at the company or industry event. Advertise the fun (a complete Hawaiian luau on the beach) but keep the focus on business.

Talk to Me.

Two main benefits to creating an event web site: (1) ease of communication between participants through a site blog or other radio button options; and (2) the automated collation of data – who’s booked where, who’s attending which seminars, plane landings and take offs – everything in a simple-to-use, inter-relationship data base, which means you can find a specific piece of data lots of different ways.

Provide an email option and put your old friends on classmate patrol to track down the guy who always sat in the back, never said much, kind of nerdy. Oh, yeah, it was Bill Gates

One Stop Does It All

Drive traffic to the password protected site through conventional means – direct mail (the snail variety) for weddings and family get-togethers, emails for business is acceptable and efficient.

All event sites should enable the visitor to RSVP, choose between the surf-and-turf or the chicken, book flights, book rooms, rent cars, attend all functions and register for all of this with a few clicks.

Impersonal? Some might see it that way, but it’s a time saver for everyone who wants to be a part of the event in some fashion. So, put it all on site, provide an acceptance or rejection RSVP page for the data base. Provide live feeds, pictures in real time and interactivity on a global scale via the grooms laptop and fast-as-blazes web cam.

Spread the fun. Hook up with old friends. Hug long lost relatives. Share your special day with all your friends and family who sent regrets.

Or, if the event is profession- or industry-related, put together a list of corporations, think tanks, poo-bahs and gurus within the sphere.

Just hook up with a good web host that offers a complete tool kit, 24/7 client care and costs at about $7.00 a month – a small price to pay for the events of a lifetime.

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How to Generate and Use Social Media Buzz

Move over, SEO. Social media optimization is also in the spotlight. Web hosting provider explains...

Search engine optimization used to be the main tool that webmasters used to bring traffic to most sites. Web hosting provider explains - social media optimization (SMO) is a hot topic in Internet marketing because of its increasing role in generating traffic and interest. Linked with SMO is SMM, or social media marketing. SMO plus SMM equals (ideally) social media buzz.

Social media, SMM, SMO, and social media buzz explained

Social media is the term for websites where people interact, bookmark, and discuss opinions, experiences, and perspectives. Forums, blogs, and wikis are social media sites, along with social networking sites such as del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, and StumbleUpon. Also part of social media are sites where users can post their opinions and experiences about specific products and services, such as Amazon.com and TripAdvisor.com.

Social media marketing (SMM) is promoting your website, services, or products via social media. It's marketing that encourages people to pass on a message about what's being marketed.

Social media optimization (SMO), a sister of sorts of search engine optimization (SEO), is optimizing your site content and accessibility for social media sites. It's working to increase the likelihood that people will link to it from social media sites and talk about it. While different from its SEO sister, SMO helps with SEO because it results in increased inbound links.

Social media buzz is the intended result of SMM and SMO — people talking about and linking to your site, services, and products.

See the links at the end of this article for more information about social media, SMM, and SMO.

How social media buzz works

Since it began spreading online, "word of mouth" has become more influential. People tell people about something of interest to them, and the effect multiplies as more people tell more people by writing about it and linking to it. The result is social media buzz.

Instead of having to ask friends what they know about something until they find someone who does, people can now search online to find people talking about it. And when they have something to say about it, they can join in too, adding to the buzz. They can also start commentary themselves, and people from almost anywhere can join in.

As we wrote about recently, a recent survey indicated that consumers give more weight to the opinions of other consumers than to any other forms of advertising. Recommendations from consumers were trusted by 78 percent of those surveyed, with 61 percent indicating that they trusted consumer opinions posted online, compared with online banner ads at 26 percent, for example. When consumers have positive things to say online about what you offer, those opinions are more valuable than most paid advertising. Conversely, if those opinions are negative, they can hurt your business.

How to generate social media buzz

Write for your audience.

• Research social media sites to see which ones are most likely to produce links to your type of content, and focus on those sites.
• Create content that your audience will want to link to. Study the most popular articles at those sites, and write content that will appeal to the same audience.
• Provide quotable leads or pull quotes that people will want to copy and include with links to your site.
• Think beyond keywords. Continue using them for SEO, but what type of content and writing style will appeal to your target audience? Find out, and create it.
• Keep your content fresh. Revise current content to keep it from looking dated, and keep adding new content.
• Offer something unique. Fill a niche that hasn't been filled yet.

Help your audience find you.

• Start a company blog and add content to it regularly.
• Publish articles at online article directories with links back to your site.
• Look for opportunities to publish articles as a guest blogger at other blogs, with a link to your site included.
• Add social bookmarking buttons to select social media sites after articles at your site.
• Create a profile at targeted social media sites, add useful links to various sites, take part in other ways, and post links to key pages at your site.

Talk to your audience.

• Respond to comments about your site where responses would be welcome (check the site terms first).
• Join in discussions where it would be appropriate to do so.
• Quote some of the comments at social media sites in your blog, both positive and negative, and respond to them there.
• Invite comments after your blog articles and respond to those comments.

Give to your audience.

• Offer something free that would appeal to your audience: free information, free tools, free trials, free subscriptions, etc. Make it easily accessible.
• Hold a contest and promote the contest and its prizes. Make the contest and prizes relevant to your products or services. Create a contest page detailing the rules and prizes, and link to the contest page from your social media site profiles. Announce the contest via your mailing list and blog, press releases, and contest sites. Write about the winners after the contest for more publicity.

How to use social media buzz

You've got lots of people talking about and visiting your site. Now what?

As with SEO, getting traffic is just the first part of the job. What people see after they arrive will help determine the conversion rate. The difference is that when you get traffic via social media buzz, you have an audience that expects to interact. In addition to providing quality content, give them opportunities to continue to interact:

• Include links to your blog, product review pages, and contact page.
• Update the page getting the buzz with links to new content. Give your audience fresh content to talk about.
• Include calls to action, such as a newsletter signup box or a link to a contest page.
• Invite people to take part in a survey or be part of a product or usability test group.
• Use feedback you receive to improve your services, products, or site.

Related blog articles

• How to Market Your Brand via Social Media Websites
• Get Your Website Tagged
• Socializing Your Site to Success: Using Folksonomy to Build Traffic
• Web 2.0 for Webmasters
• Bad Web Press: Can It Be Fixed?

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How About a Webinar? Web Hosting Provider Explains

The growing popularity of webinars in recent months indicates two things: (1) they work and (2) you should be holding them regularly. Web hosting provider explains...

Webinar, the word, is a back formation of web-based seminar. It’s broadcast over the web, and webinars come with lots of different looks, varying production values and information that generates leads and sales. A webinar can be a one-person presentation, a lecture, a work shop, discussion group or seminar, and available topics are limitless.

What’s On Your Mind?

Webinars differ from webcasts. Webcasts are one-way streets. The webcast runs, the viewer watches. The end. With a webinar you add the element of interaction. Your viewers can comment and ask questions, they can bring up new topics and bring a lively energy to even the dullest topics.

These “give-and-takes” are a great way to build a site community and brand recognition.

Preparing Your Webinar

First, decide on the topic. It can be a narrow focus or once-over-lightly discussion on the area of your expertise. If you’re a stock broker, you can produce a webinar on the basics of investing, Investing 101, or you can discuss the advantages of moving existing assets into cash flow instruments. Just remember, know your audience and know your stuff.

Now, who to invite? You can limit the number of invitees or throw the doors open to the world. Webinars that actually provide useful information are often broadcast from subscriber-based sites. Sign up for $499 and talk to your industry leader for an hour a month.

Other webinars are open to anyone who wants to log on and participate. As the leader of the group, it’s up to you to keep order. Fortunately, webinar software allows you to toss out malcontents and keep things moving smoothly.

Whether your webinar is invite only or wide open, make sure attendees have access to pre-webinar information. You can email invitees directly or provide a download from your site about an upcoming webinar. Obviously, you want to include the date and time the webinar will take place but also provide an agenda – the topic or topics that’ll be covered. This way, attendees have a context for your presentation and they can prepare questions for you to answer.

Remember, those in attendance will be able to talk to you in real time so a lot of hemming and hawing won’t deliver the knowledgeable, confident persona you want to project. So prepare notes. Have some facts and stats to back up your key points and think about questions that might come your way.

The fact is, you’re the teacher the viewers are your students. So have a lesson plan or topic list to keep the flow flowing.

Production Values

Production values are simply how good the webinar looks and sounds. They include everything from lighting to quality sound (use a good mike) to the backdrop behind you. These things may or may not count depending on your audience.

For example, if you’re an 18-year-old stock picking whiz, a computer-mounted camera showing your dorm room is acceptable. However, if you’re talking to potential business associates or partners in the corporate sphere, the production values should be much higher.

In this case, hire a video shooter with a hi-res cam. Use a lapel mike to cut down on “room tone” (that echo-y sound you hear when a live mike goes dead) and use an attractive office setting – even if you have to rent studio space. Your audience will have certain expectations whether you’re broadcasting from the spare room or a spacious office conference room. Know what those expectations are and exceed them. If someone has paid $999 to participate in your webinar, they aren’t going to be overly impressed when you appear in a stained, seedy bathrobe.

Who Should Use Webinars and Why?

Webinars are low- to no-cost productions, guaranteeing a positive return on your investment. Your prep time will be your biggest “expense.” So, low costs make webinars attractive to site owners on tight budgets.

A picture is worth a thousand words and a webinar is worth more than that amount of verbiage. Webinars are ideal for training and explaining complex tasks or systems. For example, if your business model is complex, it’s simple to prepare a PowerPoint presentation that explains these complexities visually with charts, graphs and other illustrations. This makes webinars the perfect solution for distance learning.

In many cases, workers are required to earn a certain number of continuing education units or CEUs. For example, private detectives and security guards must accumulate a certain number of CEUs each year. So, there are lots of websites that offer webinars that can be applied toward the participant’s annual CEU count. In fact, there are many CEU-based sites that charge for webinar access on a class by class basis. This provides the flexibility workers prefer when selecting which webinars to view and which have no relevance to their work.

In today’s world economy, many companies have employees around the world. Webinars are a great way to get some face time with employees working 10 time zones away. This is a great morale booster and a terrific way to illustrate new products and procedures in house. The fact is, webinars are a great way to keep in touch, disseminate new information and to close a sale.

One recommendation: Participate in a few webinars before you plan one for your own subscribers. Once you see how effective these tools can be, you’ll find new and better ways to make them work for you.

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