What are your competitors doing?

Welcome back everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here, so let’s get it going again. I’ve been busy playing WAY too much Modern Warfare 2 recently and ended up neglecting this blog. I’ll be posting more from now on.

Back in the last post, I had talked about taking a look at your competitors and seeing what they do on Twitter. Now let’s dig in a bit deeper, and take a look at what you should be paying attention to.

Personally I like both Twitalyzer and TweetStats, but I like the information from TweetStats just a bit more. After you’ve managed to find your competitors Twitter accounts, go ahead and just plug them into these sites and see what you come up with. For today, let’s take a look at stats for my buddy Kenny Hyder‘s account, @kennyhyder (Great for SEO news and other random oddities).

5 Things to Consider Before Your Tweet

 

For now, let’s forget about trying to build up your list of followers. Even before you register a Twitter account, consider these 5 tips and avoid wasting precious time on Twitter.

Will you benefit from Twitter? Is your product or service interesting or helpful enough to promote and build followers?

First off, not all companies belong on Twitter, and not all companies will benefit from being on there. Most companies can always use more customers and visitors, but is Twitter the place where you should be spending your time and resources? Some industries may require more time than you can afford to invest. Take a lawyer for example. Just one or two clients may justify the amount of time spent on Twitter, but what type of information can you share on Twitter? Building a loyal following takes more than just sitting there on your computer typing about case you’re working on, simply because you can’t directly discuss the case, and you may not want to give away free legal advice on Twitter.

Why You Should Use Twitter for Your Business

So last time we looked at some stats and history of Facebook, and talked about why Facebook should be a part of your marketing plan. This time, let’s take a look at Twitter. On the surface, Twitter looks even simpler than Facebook, and most people can’t seem to grasp the importance of Twitter and how it’s gotten so big.

It seems like every time that I mention the word Twitter, someone brings up the argument of “I really don’t care if you’re going to the bathroom or if you’re eating dinner. You don’t need to post that on there.” Really? I thought I absolutely had to. Ok that’s a big lie. I would never post about going to the bathroom on Twitter. But really, if you’re complaining about these types of tweets, there are two things that are most likely happening. A) You’re following the wrong people, or B) You actually aren’t even on Twitter and are just re-hashing a complaint that you heard someone else make.

Now, let’s take a look at the real benefits of Twitter… for the people that don’t sit there and follow people that are talking about bathroom breaks.

Why You Should Use Facebook for Your Business

Last time I explained what Social Media is, but didn’t get too in depth. This time, let’s take a look at Facebook and dig into the stats a bit. It’s pointless to get involved in something without knowing why, so this is where we obviously should start.

What the hell is Social Media?

I’m pretty sure that if you’re a small to medium sized business owner, some guy off the street has either walked into your store or given you a call at some odd hour trying to sell you on the whole idea of Social Media Marketing. After doing this whole SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) thing for about 2 years, I’m going to have to agree with these sales guys about how important Social Media Marketing can be to your business. But before we dive into the details about how to market your business, let’s take a look at what Social Media is.

If you’re in your teens, or even your 30s and 40s now, you’ve probably heard about these new fangled websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. Some of you may have even heard of sites like Digg.com or Yelp.com. Now how many of you have actually looked into how these websites work?