Reasons Why? You Need to Stop Ignoring Twitter:

Why Twitter is Becoming Increasingly Important to Marketers:

There have been many articles written about why to use Twitter, and at IT Bloke we have certainly published well more than our fair share of them.  However, the landscape is constantly changing, at an alarmingly fast rate. New trends, ideas, applications, and features come out, and they further emphasise Twitter's place in said landscape.

As stated above, IT Bloke over the years has published many articles about our favourite little social networking tool, Twitter, http://www.twitter.com and the  Twitterverse.

Following on from this I thought it would actually be slightly more informative to publish actual reasons why it has become increasingly important for marketers, and why it should not be ignored as potentially one of the greatest marketing tools that we now have have in our armoury.

1. Twitter Lists:

Twitter Lists are changing the game. We recently looked at several reasons why, but also consider that with the Lists gadget, your tweets may appear all over the web if you can get onto lists. They will appear on sites and blogs, which are more than likely going to be related to the niche you are in anyway if you have the right audience on Twitter.  Also if done correctly it can be quick and effective way of getting your message out through all the new Social Networking Conduits that are now appearing, (a subject we will be discussing next.)

2. The Openness of Twitter:

The openness of Twitter, social media and the web in general, pretty much means that your messages on Twitter won't be limited to your Twitter audience. Facebook and other social networks will bring tweets in. People will share them, screenshot them, link to them on blogs, etc. Twitter is a means of getting your message out to more people, but it's not necessarily only limited to the people on Twitter that will see those messages, don't buy into the fact that Twitter is limited to Twitter, see our article on: Ignoring Social Media at your Peril: as Toby persistently loves to remind us, "Twitter now has a Twittterverse"

3. Building Valuable Relationships:

Laura Fitton, the author of Twitter for Dummies, chalks up success on Twitter to four basic concepts: listen, learn, care, and serve. Basically, if you listen to the community, you will learn, and if you show that you care, you are more likely to get more out of your efforts. Serving means providing something of use to the community. If you don't know what you're not doing then, you may be setting yourself up to fail.

4. Traffic That Cares:

Twitter can bring you not only random traffic, but traffic from people who are actually passionate about the niche that you are a part of. Retweets are huge in this regard. Guy Kawasaki calls retweeting the sincerest form of flattery. He has a point. He notes that people are willing to risk their reputations by retweeting your content, (or even destroy yours, LOL)

5. Staying Current:

Being found in Twitter searches (not to mention real time search in general, which is starting to become a main area of focus for all of the big search engines, not to mention all of the standalone real-time search sites) provides a lot of opportunity for exposure. We have already discussed this here and gave tips for getting found in real-time searches.

6. Connecting with Local Customers:

There are a variety of ways you can connect with local consumers and customers using Twitter and Twitter-related tools. There are tools like the IT Bloke favourite of  http://journotwit.com/ ), which let you find Twitterers in your area, for example. Another thing to keep an eye on is Google's new Social Search. It's currently just a lab experiment, but could become more. It certainly has potential.

A recent Search Engine Land article made some good points about the potential of local marketing with this tool, which delivers Google search results based on the communities you are a part of. It draws from Google profiles, which include the networks that people are connected to (based on what any person includes in that profile).

7. Going International and Multi-lingual:

Twitter is expanding into more languages. If you thought Twitter was important to marketing already, consider that for most of its existence, it has only been available in a couple of languages. Now it's in Spanish, and many more languages will follow. That's not only going to be huge for international and multi-lingual marketing efforts, it's going to be huge for Twitter's growth, and the more Twitter grows, the more potential customers are out there.

8. It's Still Young:

Consider that Twitter is just getting started in the grand scheme of things. It's still young. There are no doubt going to be a lot more features added in the future. And don't forget about the thousands of Twitter apps that are already out there that can make Twitter useful in different ways to different people and businesses. Take some time and explore them.

I hope that has now given you a few reason why you should not be ignoring Twitter in you upcoming marketing Campaign, here at IT Bloke we have a great deal of hard fought for knowledge on the subject of doing just that, so if you would like any further assistance in using the power of Twitter to enhance you brand our company please do not hesitate to give us a call and start a conversation on the subject, Regards….. Ashe, IT Bloke – London.

CELEBRITIES, TWITTER IN HASTE REPENT AT YOUR LEISURE........

OR ~ AK A THE END OF THE ROAD FOR THE TRUE ROCK AND ROLL LIFESTYLE.

Hi all, following on from my recent post, ( Ignore Social Media at your own Peril: http://www.itbloke.net/?p=522 ) , I have finally come to the conclusion that although I personally think that the rise of Social Media Marketing and real Citizen Journalism is a brilliant thing, I think it really will be the end of  the true rock and roll lifestyle for many, Rock, Rap and Country super stars and to be fair all celebs in general, LOL.

Personally I can't wait until the first allegedly squeaky clean and god fearing country singer in total disgrace, as he gets caught on Camera Phone snorting some illicit Drug or propositioning a much older shady lady of the night, would you not simply love to be a fly on the wall and watch the expression on his face as he suddenly realises that the media of the event went viral all over the worlds social networks in less than ten minutes of it being made.

Yet another angle we have to consider is, the ever growing mass of famous people who are now making real gaffs using Twitter, and to be honest they are making these gaffs with good reason, Twitter to the un-educated seems, to be fair, well,  really quite  innocuous, I mean 140 characters what harm could that possibly do.

New Tool Brings New Mistakes

Most would argue that the micro-blogging site that has attracted millions of users, including celebrities and politicians, is a powerful tool for communication. But it's amazing how much trouble that 140 characters can cause in reality and I predict we have worse to come.

Just like hitting "reply all" instead of sticking with the simple "reply," one errant Twitter message available for all with an Internet connection to see, can send its author ducking for cover.

"While Twitter is a new tool that brings with it some new possible ways to make mistakes, people make mistakes in all of the different communications we already have," said Sarah Milstein, author of "The Twitter Book" and social media consultant (she was the 21st user of Twitter). "What makes Twitter different is that the messages are public so that anyone can see them."

Like a blog, Twitter is public but, unlike a blog, the messages, photos and links can easily be re-tweeted or passed along virally to other users, she said. That combination means that regrettable postings can be sent far and wide and then, to make matters worse, easily searched for on Google.

"Be thoughtful about your posting, be interesting, because Twitter is a medium where people choose to get your message," Milstein said. "If you're thoughtful about your individual messages, it also helps to take a step back when you're doing something potentially inflammatory or that you may regret later."

The question I have to ask here is; how long before someone really famous, like http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/ ) drops a real gaff, (lets not forget Cheryl Coles Racist attack in Guildford) or are they now at least intelligent enough to leave twittering and tweeting in the twitterverse to either  a social media conscious PR Agent or WOM promotion companies, obviously.

Also with the rise of the Citizen Journalist and Social Media Connected, Camera, Smartphones, ( See my article on: Smartphones & Social Networks are making the classic Web and intranet obsolete http://www.itbloke.net/?p=486 ) I predict that within a year or so,  celebs will really have to watch what there doing as there whole life will then truly be  under constant scrutiny, and the slightest mistake they make, verbally, visually or otherwise will be broadcast around the world in seconds possibly ending there career.

So from here on in muscicians and celebrities alike will now have to think oh so very carefully about everything that they say, do and of course post, (in fact every single aspect of there lives), and never ever again know who they can really trust, in fact this will in theory force them to live a very sterile lifestyle and isolated existence even more that they already do,  and well to be fair, "THAT'S NOT VERY ROCK & ROLL IS IT NOW!" but hell the old saying go's "there is a high price for fame" and now is the time the next generation of future celebs start paying "WITH THERE CONSERVATIVENESS", or they will be repenting at their own leisure, LOL, Regards….. Ashe, IT Bloke – London.

TWEETING IN TWITTER'S TWITTERVERSE

Well we have all heard of the BlogoSphere, well now we have the Twitterverse, {obviously, or so I am told}.

I found this rather interesting graphic of the twitterverse and being as though Twitter has really proved it's metal in the past few days in Iran, I thought that I would share it with you.

It  ‘visually charts the important tools to help communications, service, marketing, and community professionals more effectively navigate, engage, analyze and measure participation on Twitter’You can find the full size version here. ~ Regards..... Toby: IT Bloke... London.