Easy steps you can take to add Twitter followers

Twitter is one of the hottest marketing tools in the world. Everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinion, share news, make people laugh andeven put together political campaign.  Twitter allows you to influence people’s lives, careers, and daily life events. In short, Twitter has become a publicity powerhouse.

It costs you nothing to market on Twitter.  It is absolutely free, targeted advertising.  And Twitter is viral.  People who care about what you say will re-tweet your comments and share them with others.  That’s why it is so important to build relationships.

Now, let’s talk about how your business can add more followers on Twitter:

1. Educate: Give a good business tip that might help your followers.  Share with people what you do and how you can help them.  Educate your followers.  It’s all about helping them!
2. Profile description: It is not a job application so make your profile light, easy, and enjoyable to read. Be yourself. People want to know who you are. Avoid silly avatars.
3. Speed counts: Reply to people right way if they’ve said something to you, especially if they are not yet a Follower.  Then follow them back.  Establish rapport as quickly as possible.   Give them something valuable to read or think about.
4. Available tools: Use the search feature to find people and topics you want to discuss in your niche.  Bring offline clients online to follow you or motivate them to start their own Twitter profile.
5. Be yourself.  Do not create new persona on Twitter. Be yourself and maintain your brand.  Twitter is part of your overall marketing strategy. Be consistent.
6. Compliment freely: Praise people, compliment them. How do you feel when someone praises something that you’ve said or done? Everyone loves compliments – pay it forward.
7. Questions:  People love questions. Ask and you’ll start a conversation. Questions create a dialog. Make sure when readers answer that you reply back to them. Courtesy is the best policy on Twitter.
8. Be a good host: Invite friends and followers from other social networks. For example, I invite friends from Facebook to follow you on Twitter. They love it and it is fun and simple.
9. Re-tweet: Re-tweet or repost what others say if you like it and it makes sense to you. Try to find out what people do first before you re-tweet. Read their profile. It is a must if you want long term relationships.
10. Keep control of your marketing: Make Twitter part of your overall marketing strategy. Send all traffic to your blog; Don’t give anything away for free without asking people to opt-in; Build solid relationships;  Tell followers about your book, your speaking engagements, offers and more.
11. Links: Include links on Twitter to your blogs, your other social networks, your press releases, articles and other publicity platforms.

The volume of followers on Twitter gives you leverage and more traffic. Quantity counts. That’s why it’s important to build relationships and, in doing so, builds a network.

Building a Successful Mobile Marketing Campaign

Want to communicate and engage your audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device? Try building a mobile marketing campaign. Any effective mobile marketing campaign should complement and be an extension of your overall marketing strategy. When planning your mobile marketing campaign, you’ll want to incorporate certain elements.

Convenience:  Make sure your website is easy for customers to access and browse on mobile devices. Your customers don’t want to pinch, zoom, and scroll all over your site.

Locally targeted:  More and more mobile searches have local intent. Virtually all new smart phones come with GPS.  This is very helpful, because customers’ phones can send their location information.

Integrated:  Your mobile campaign need to tie into your company’s overall marketing strategy. Inform customers about your promotion by putting everywhere you live: your website, newsletter, Facebook, etc. 

Time sensitive:  Mobile marketing lets you engage your customers as soon as something comes up.  For example, if you own a restaurant and it’s a slow Friday night, send a text message to your customers offering a special or discount.  Text messages have a 95% open rate, making them an especially powerful marketing tool.

Customer involvement:  Getting your customers involved will dramatically increase results. Try giveaways, polls and contests have all been used successfully to build customer lists.  Ask customers to text in their vote, or to enter a drawing for a chance to win an iPad, or to come up with the best caption for a photo.

Exclusive: To encourage people to opt-in to your offer, give them a good reason. Present them an exclusive offer. For example, “Text FREE to 1234567 for a free cup of coffee.”

Permission:  Successful mobile marketing campaigns ask for permission. They’re transparent.  They also tell users how they can be removed from the list.

The Importance of Local Search

A recent survey from Pew Research found that 79 percent of US consumers conduct local searches on the Internet before making a buying decision. For marketers, the survey also reveals the need to vary content marketing campaigns to target each demographic, as well as the value of local Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As a result, it’s become increasingly important that businesses understand what local search is and how it works.

A search that is intended to find something within a specific geographic area. Often these types of businesses are location-specific, but the people searching for them are most likely elsewhere. While potential customers aren’t currently in their immediate area, they hope to be some time in the future. For example, the consumer might search on the following words: “ski resorts in utah”. Other examples of these types of businesses are cruise lines, car rental agencies, campgrounds, and convention centers.

A search to find information online with the intention of completing a transaction offline. Example: “chinese restaurants in las vegas”. Often local internet searches are searches that the consumer would have traditionally done using printed materials, such as the yellow pages. For some brick-and-mortar businesses, nearly all search is local search. Most of these are local-centric enterprises that only draw customers from within a specific service area. The consumer might search on the following words: “chinese restaurants in Las Vegas”. Other examples of these types of businesses are barbers, manicurists, dry cleaners, laundromats, delicatessens, and sandwich shops. It’s pretty much a given that if a consumer is searching for these types of products and/or services, they intend to make that purchase from a local business.

Still other business draw clients from both nearby and far away. Examples of these enterprises are financial advisors, consultants, regional hospitals, household movers, and mortgage companies.

Clearly the types of business you promote online determine how to best market to your Internet customers. Local search is a mish-mash of what people are searching for, where they’re searching for it, and how search engines display the results. Welcome to the world of local search!

Marketing Matters to Your Customers. It Should Matter to You.

Cause marketing is now the norm for businesses. What is cause marketing?  Simply put, it’s a mutually beneficial partnership between a nonprofit and a for-profit (your business) for mutual profit.  It’s also known as cause-related marketing (CRM).

American Express first used the phrase in 1983 to describe its campaign to raise money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. American Express donated one cent to the restoration fund every time someone used its charge card. As a result of the campaign, the number of new American Express cardholders grew by 45%, and card usage increased by 28%. And the Statue of Liberty restoration fund?  In just four months, more than $2 million was raised for the project.

Your customers want to know that you share their desire to make the world a better place by supporting an important cause. Consumers now routinely turn to brands that stand for a cause. In a recent poll, 87% of consumers say they would switch from one brand to another if the other brand were associated with a good cause.

And businesses are taking notice. In 2010, companies spent $1.62 billion on cause marketing — up from 1990, when the number was just $120 million.

Where do you begin? For most companies, it’s best to start small by partnering with a local charity and working on a small campaign. If you’re ready to take on a larger cause, begin by contacting the development department at the charity you’re want to partner with. Remember, they are looking a solid ROI (just as you are), so be prepared to give them information on your platform, target audience and level of visibility. Make sure that the organization can provide you with similar solid stats on your ROI, too. After all, this is a partnership that you want to grow over time and not a one-time marketing boost. Like any good partnership, it must be nurtured and cultivated.