5 Ways Twitter Chats Can Help Your Business

Does your business use Twitter?

Have you considered using Twitter chats as a marketing tool?

As the use of hashtags on Twitter continues to flourish, conversations built around specific hashtags—or Twitter chats—have become commonplace.

While you may be familiar with how to use Twitter chats for personal networking, you might not know they can also be used by brands to achieve business goals.

In this post, I’ll show you 5 ways your business can benefit from Twitter chats.

#1: Connect With Customers and Prospects

Hosting an event is a great way for a business to bring its potential and current customer base together to learn, engage and build a deeper relationship. Not all businesses can host a conference or seminar, but every business can host a Twitter chat.

The key to hosting a Twitter chat that helps your business connect with potential and current customers is to choose a topic that resonates with your customer base. Whole Foods, for example, hosts a weekly Twitter chat that discusses (you guessed it) food.

HubSpot hosts a weekly Twitter chat that discusses the science and data of inbound marketing. Their Twitter chat is run in conjunction with a weekly webinar on inbound marketing, which makes it a great lead generation tool for their business. Especially considering that, according to the Hashtagify tool from CyBranding, the #scichat hashtag gets an average of 12 million weekly impressions.

HubSpot combines lead generating webinars with Twitter chats.

As the host of a Twitter chat, you can expect to gain lots of new followers each time you hold the chat. In addition, you’ll build your social influence (i.e., Klout) when you’re retweeted and mentioned during each chat.

As your chat grows in popularity, your business will become synonymous with the Twitter chat topic, and thus achieving recognition as a leader in your space.

#2: Build Authority

Many businesses use social media with the goal of building themselves up as an authority in the eyes of their customers and in their industry as a whole. Appearing as a Twitter chat guest to answer questions about your area of expertise is a surefire way to boost your authority.

So, how does one get invited to a Twitter chat as a guest expert? The best way is toactively participate in the Twitter chats you’d like to be a guest on. Get to know the host of the chat and tweet with him or her on a regular basis. Staying in the forefront of the host’s mind and acting as a valuable resource in the Twitter chat is bound to lead to a guest opportunity.

If you want to take a more proactive approach, send an email and let the host know that you’d love to be a guest on the chat sometime. If the host is familiar with you and believes you’d be a good fit, he or she just might agree.

With the goal of lead generation in mind, be sure that you update your Twitter profile appropriately before the chat. For example, if you’re a social media expert who is going to be a guest talking about Facebook, include a link in your Twitter bio that takes new followers from the chat to your Facebook services page, book or product.

As the guest of a Twitter chat, you can expect to gain lots of new followers during the chat as well as if/when the host writes a recap with the highlights of the chat. You might even get some business leads from people who find out how knowledgeable you are about your topic during the chat.

#3: Create One-on-One Relationships

As an active participant in a Twitter chat, you have the chance to demonstrate your knowledge to customers and colleagues. The more often you participate in a specific Twitter chat, the more relationships you form and the more recognition you gain in your industry.

Each time you participate in a Twitter chat with valuable comments and advice, you’ll gain new followers. You’ll also generate leads for your business as people in the chat visit your profile to connect with you, so make sure your Twitter profile is updated tohelp people learn more about you and your business.

#4: Stay Informed

Not everything has to be about your business’s bottom line. Attending Twitter chats in your industry as a spectator can be a great educational experience.

In Cases on Formal and Informal E-Learning Environments, there’s a chapterdedicated to a case study on how higher-education professionals used the weekly #sachat as a learning resource for student affairs.

As a spectator, your goal is to find Twitter chats where other professionals and experts in your industry meet to discuss common issues. Marketing professionals, for example, will find lots of Twitter chats with educational opportunities in the Ultimate List of Twitter Marketing Chats by Raven Tools.

#5: Promote Your Brand

If you know that a particular Twitter chat attracts your target customer base, then it makes sense for you to approach the host of the chat about sponsoring. Sponsorship packages vary based on the Twitter chat you’re interested in, but many include some of the following opportunities:

• Mention of your business as the sponsor for the Twitter chat during the chat itself, as well as in articles and social updates on other channels used to promote and/or recap the chat (Facebook, Google+, etc.).
• Promotion of your products and/or services during the Twitter chat.
• Positioning of your business as the featured guest of the Twitter chat that allows you to work with the host on questions that help you market your business.
• Advertising banners on pages/websites devoted to the Twitter chat.

Some examples of Twitter chats that offer sponsorship include #blogchat, #TGTaste,#SocialChat, #FoodieChats and #PPCchat. To find sponsorship opportunities that are relevant to your business, search for Twitter chat sponsorship on Google.

In Closing

Before you decide to be the guest or host of a Twitter chat, be sure to find and observe a chat within your industry so you know how they work.

There are many Twitter chats happening on a regular basis and you can find them on this Twitter Chat Schedule by Tweet Reports, or by searching on Google for your keyword + Twitter chat.

What do you think? How have you been involved with a Twitter chat? What were the benefits? Please share in the comments!

Learning How To Sell On Reddit, 4 Lessons with Louis CK

Reddit is undeniably an intimidating and sometimes foreign social space.

It definitely did not help Amy’s Baking Company when they had their Facebook meltdown. Cheery Woody Harrelson managed to enrage Reddit users by marketing his movie on the platform.

And even geek royalty like Kevin Rose can screw up by not learning the rules of the game on Reddit.

Yet, as 2014 nears, the site branding the title “front page of internet” can boast the following stats:

Getting a link submission on the front page of Reddit yields incredible potential, both in terms of exposure and generating sales.

Acknowledge The Mountain

However, there are two over-arching obstacles most marketers face when attempting to achieve this:

1. The Reddit community is generally biased in their content preferences, primarily leaning towards humor/memes, inspiring/captivating images, nostalgia, liberal news, gaming, interesting and/or celebrity AMAs (live Q&As), and technology.
2. The Reddit community has a keen eye for marketers/PR practitioners and will massacre any attempts to blatantly promote a brand/product.

Learn The Ropes

These factors make Reddit unappealing at first glance; but fortunately, there is a learning curve.

Part of this learning curve involves changing the way we think about social media marketing – at least with Reddit as the medium. On Reddit, we need to understand the community and/or sub-communities (known as subreddits) we’re targeting, including the social norms and preferred content.

After understanding these values, we must also shift our goals from promoting to engaging.

Instead of thinking, “How can we sell?”

We should be thinking, “How can we help?”

By providing real value to the Reddit community, responding to comments with honest help, and mentioning a product or brand only when appropriate, we can see positive ROI.

The famous comedian, Louis CK, has performed multiple AMAs on Reddit, and is a prime example of how to properly engage the community. While he does command a cult following that basically ensures his success on any social media channel, highlighting his social mannerisms and product drops help us understand how to maximize Reddit as a Redditor –not a marketer.

Here are 4 vital lessons from Louis CK on Reddit

#1 – Disclose information right off the bat

Alright, so immediately Louis discloses information about his product; a new standup special. There are two reasons a disclosure like this is successful on Reddit:

1. He is offering a product that would normally sell for around $20 for an insanely low price. What’s more, it’s easily accessible right on his site.
2. His massive cult following already supports his content.

Let’s reflect this onto a marketing perspective:

1. Identify a pain point (such as a demand for a cheaper product) and disclose an exclusive offer for Reddit. You should not disclose any personal information; however, you should let redditors know you’re a sales/community representative for the brand. You should refer to a particular post where redditors expressed a desire for your offer.
2. If your brand already has a strong following, even a dozen can make a post successful.Ask your subscriber list if any of them are redditors and if so, what they’d like to see from your brand on Reddit. Just ask them!

#2 – Be yourself

Simply being yourself satisfies the expectations redditors have when they comment.

And they do have expectations.

If you’ve disclosed you’re a sales rep they aren’t expecting you to crack jokes like Loius CK, but they are expecting you to prove you’re not just another flak speaker.

Redditors want to know you’re a redditor.

This means answering questions in a conversational tone – and slipping in some light humor can’t hurt either. You can go above and beyond their expectations by writing detailed and valuable responses that are helpful or educational. In turn, this reflects positively on the brand you hope to promote, and reassures redditors your product is worth checking out, at the very least.

#3 – Strategize a social media promotion

via Forbes/AP

Louis CK is not just a brilliant comedian. He also has a knack for making smart business moves and recognizing the potential of emerging platforms.

As we previously saw in the first example, Louis was promoting his $5 digital download.

This download was doing more than providing a sweet deal for his fans. This download stripped the normal business model of a middleman and higher prices. Instead, it defied all popular ticket-distributing platforms, and operated solely on his website.

He followed up by hosting the AMA (previously mentioned) and netted the following:

• $4.5 million in sales in just 45 hours.

This tactic leads right into the fourth lesson:

#4 – Don’t focus on big money; please your fans and the money will come

As Louis and many news outlets have noted, this strategy actually nets him less money.  By cutting the middleman and standing against the Ticketmaster model, his ROI lessens.

However, ROI is relative to the values you’re expecting. Louis understands the value of brand loyalty and how it quantifies.

As marketers, if we primarily focus on pleasing fans and fostering a community, we’ll inevitably drive sales. Referrals are relative to brand disposition.

His fans even dedicated a subreddit to him.

But let’s get back to viewing this from a marketing perspective.

Posting on Reddit is much different from Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  You have little influence masked behind anonymity and all of your content is up for public judgment.

But here are some ways you can take action:

• Join a subreddit that relates to your brand. For example, a construction software company could get involved in the construction subreddit.
• Study subreddits by paying attention the most successful content, highlighting major themes, preferred media forms, and social norms.
• Comment on posts by answering or asking questions. Offer a perspective that is unique to your position and brand. If someone ever asks for additional information, you can always send them a private message offering more disclosure. Essentially, you’re harvesting a lead by providing free customer service.
• Try submitting posts in a niche subreddit based on the research data you’ve collected. This helps develop a better understanding of how redditting works.

Just like any new marketing endeavor, there is a learning curve. By investing the time needed to understand and market on Reddit, the potential to fuel various business pipelines opens up.

Here are 10 ways to maximize Reddit for business, such as testing new products and increasing brand disposition.

Thanks for reading!

What are your tips for successful marketing and/or communication on Reddit?

4 SEO Tools For Checking Back Links

SEO tools are an essential part of optimizing your website and for detecting technical issues that may hurt your search engine optimization efforts. While some SEO programs are available for subscription fees, there are others that are free to use. As website owners, we can be grateful that we have access to SEO tools that will help with our SEO efforts.

While we have covered SEO tools in 5 Fabulously Free SEO Tools and 12 Sensational Absolutely Free SEO Tools, the tools that I will be covering today provide more in depth analysis of your website.

One reason why you might like to use these SEO tools is to conduct a back link audit on your website. Google Penguin algorithm updates have heavily targeted unnatural links to websites. Penguin 2.1, which rolled out on October 4, 2013, takes a closer look at exact match and rich anchor text. If you have seen a decrease in your website’s search engine placements, you will want to perform a link audit to determine what may be causing the drop.

However, the worst time to do a link audit is when you notice something is wrong. By monitoring your websites back links and anchor text as well as other data on a regular basis, you will be able to take steps to stop a problem as soon as you discover it.

Let’s explore 4 SEO tools that you may not be aware of.

1. Moz Open Site Explorer

The Moz Open Site Explorer is an online search engine for links provided by Moz. There is a free version that offers a limited link analysis overview. Paid subscription plans start at $99 per month. These enable you to explore your site’s inbound links or what websites are linking to your site, allowing you to determine if those links have the “nofollow” attribute.

Other features include the Mozrank domain name authority, link anchor text and more. Examining your website’s back links is important, especially in the aftermath of Google’s Penguin algorithm updates. The paid subscriptions offer more data that you may be interested in investigating.

2. Majestic SEO Site Explorer

Majestic SEO offers a suite of SEO tools to analyze your website. The Majestic Site Explorer – Backlinks can be linked to your Google Webmaster Tools account to provide back link data including the source URL, linked anchor text, the target URL and more. The reports will help you examine the back links to identify any that may be questionable or on spammy pages. Subscription plans are available starting at $49 per month.

3. Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools offer an entire suite of tools to help you analyze your website. Under the Reports & Data section, you will be able to examine page traffic, search keywords and inbound links. The SEO Reports section is Bing’s tool that will scan your website every other week and automatically report on the 15 SEO best practices for on page optimization compliance.

4. Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is the one SEO toolset that you may have heard about or are currently using. I have mentioned it before, and it is an important tool to include. In the dashboard under search traffic, you will find “Links to Your Site”. On this page, you will be able to see the domain names that link to your site, your most linked content and how your data is linked. This information will give you an overview and will help you determine if you need to investigate incoming links more thoroughly.

Take Away

In the season of Thanksgiving, we can be thankful that we have SEO tools to help us monitor our website’s link profiles and determine if there are any issues that need to be addressed. Both Bing and Google Webmaster tools provide an overview of back links and if you are looking for a more in depth tool, you may like to consider a more comprehensive one. While this article is an overview, it will give you a glimpse of what tools you may want to add to your SEO arsenal.

Have you ever used any of these tools for a back link analysis or do you have another that you prefer? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Business and Marketing Tips for the Beginning of the Holiday Season

Is anyone else completely shocked and overwhelmed that the holiday season is quickly approaching? I can’t believe that it is already closing in on the end of September. It seems as though the time of year that is coming is one of deals, bargains, and sales campaigns. Any business or retailer who doesn’t make an effort to capitalize on the holiday season is frankly just silly!

Here are a few examples of concepts that you might want to promote and how to make the most of them during the holiday season:

Retail Establishment or Website – we all know that retail rules when it comes to the holiday season. If you own a retail business or a website that is retail-based, take this golden opportunity to offer new products. Introducing new things in a time that people are already planning to purchase is a great idea.  And of course, you’ll want to offer specials and savings that are tailored to the holidays. Rather than just discounting things for the heck of it, take the time to really think about products that you offer that would make great gifts OR would help gift-givers make their lives easier.

Business or Website that Offers Services – A company that offers services rather than goods can still capitalize on the holiday buying season. Consider marketing gift packages to your customers that can be given to others. For example, if you have a cleaning service, bundle 3 cleanings and offer them for a discounted price. Your regular customers can take advantage of these deals for themselves, or they can purchase them to be given as gifts.

Website – some websites aren’t necessarily aiming to sell goods or services, but merely to draw people into the site to browse and link to other sites. Holiday themed content can help to bring more readers to holyour site. You can also consider linking to other sites that have holiday themes as well.

Blog – since blogs are content based, it’s easy to incorporate holiday content. In addition to writing posts that are holiday themed, you can run contests that give away merchandise or services that can be given as gifts or even serve as holiday décor. You can also arrange to guest post on other blogs or trade posts with others in order to draw more eyes to your site. Also, holiday keywords are hot! Make sure you utilize them as much as possible.

(Photo Source)

Read more: http://jureklepic.com/2013/10/10/business-and-marketing-tips-for-the-beginning-of-the-holiday-season/#ixzz2jyOQdKZm