While Twitter is still in its infancy stage, it has already made quite a splash in the media and within the social marketing community. Let’s face it, when the President of the United States is sending oval office tweets, well then, it’s been officially cemented in the American socioplex. It’s now estimated that over 14 million in the US are Twitterers (according to Nielsen Online). But what does this mean to you? Here are the top 5 reasons Twitter will change the way some companies do business as we know it.

1. New, faster way to collect consumer data
   Previously it was time consuming, often difficult and extremely expensive to gather consumer data. Large corporations will pay thousands, even millions, for market research and it is very effective in determining how the public views your product as well as the competition and much more. With Twitter, a company can get real time opinions and feedback from its consumers. For example, when Apple came out with the new iPhone in June 2009 people flocked to Twitter to share their thoughts about the new product. It was impossible not to notice it while on Twitter that day. When Firefox released its latest upgrade people looked to Twitter to voice how they felt about it. It has been reported that companies, such as Apple, Ford and Southwest Airlines, are among some of the corporations following and gathering consumer data from Twitter and listening to what the public is saying, their gripes and concerns. I boldly ask, why not make use of this free, real-time information? While you may not be a household brand, it can still be an effective way to communicate to the public – but more importantly, to let them communicate to you.
2. Unlike Most Social Media, It Actually Helps TV and Print
   Media outlets such as CBS News, TIME and NBC News are on Twitter and are not afraid to use it. CNN has over 1.5 million followers, which ranks third among all the people or companies who use Twitter. It’s undeniable that people have access to news faster. It’s only been eight years since 9/11 and you can probably remember how the story developed over the course of 24, 48 and 72 hours – just imagine the coverage of that fateful day if onlookers and people inside the towers had Twitter at their fingertips. Not long ago, however, with the growth of the web and social networks were on display during the massacre at Virginia Tech which took much less time to reach the masses. Twitter has provided an outlet for TV and print to grab more viewers and provide information faster. Normally social media takes away from traditional media, as people are watching less TV and reading fewer newspapers and magazines while devoting their energy and time to their Facebook wall and profile.
3. Extreme Local Marketing
   If used correctly, Twitter can be utilized as a wonderful marketing tool. Before, it would take a hefty advertising budget and creative genius for a local business to grab the attention of potential consumers. Twitter has changed all that. Now a local business can target people living in their area to alert them of special offers, merchandise, sales and upcoming events. Where traditional marketing might have cost hundreds or thousands, marketing on Twitter is completely free. In the future, I would not be surprised if Twitter users followed local businesses to find the best deal on an oil change or the cheapest movie tickets.
4. A New Way To Drive Traffic To A Blog
   In business, if your company has a blog, it is important to post interesting and insightful content but without an audience to notice and read the content, your efforts are futile. Twitter provides a free way to drive more traffic to your site. Quickly post a link to the latest blog entry, which will alert your followers new content has been posted to your blog.
5. New Ways To Get Quick Data
   Twitter gets information to people fast. Now that people have Twitter on their mobile devices, they can get information faster than ever before.

Twitter began as a social media tool and is quickly gaining speed as an absolute marketing weapon to compete in the marketplace. If used properly and creatively companies can tap into information they only dreamed of before. How is Twitter helping your business?

Targeting your audience is arguably one of the most important elements of a business. Not clearly understanding who your core audience is can often be an elementary but detrimental mistake to your company. In an article found in BusinessWeek, they simply argue the old saying, “You can’t be all things to all people.” However, all too often, people try to do just that in business. By trying to appeal to everyone you end up isolating and turning away your “core” audience.

To establish who exactly your core audience is, BusinessWeek suggests doing a quick exercise: Take a minute and jot down three types of customers your company doesn’t want. Oh, and this is important: You can’t choose people like shoplifters or “sale-hoppers” – the kind of customer that no business wants. If you find it difficult, especially in this current economy, to think about customers you don’t want, try to describe your best customer in terms of some key demographics or attitudes. Next, take that profile and turn it inside out, revealing a customer type with the exact opposite characteristic. Odds are they are the kind of customer you do not want to chase.

This same concept should be applied to your website. Everything from design to the content should specifically appeal to your target audience. If your main demographic is business men, ages 25-50, that are career minded, driven and informed citizens… a simple, strait-forward site will specifically appeal to them. This age group will want information quickly at their fingertips without having to search. However, if your target demographics are teenagers with a disposable income, who are technologically savvy… a funky, cutting-edge, bold website would be appropriate.

With this in mind, it is extremely important to consider details like font size, content, images and the use of other technology, like videos, audio, and social networking in terms of your target demographic. For example, a site targeting older adults, such as AARP will have text that is larger than normal, with a clean, probably white background. It will side with a more simplistic theme, making the hierarchy of information clear and concise. On the other side, a website like MTV whose target audience is teens, has a provocative, bold, changing background with a quickly rotating main image. One big element to consider or compare is content. AARP has much less content on the home page than MTV, and gives more information on the articles it features. These are small, but important details that can turn viewers or customers away from your website.

Another example of the importance in understanding your target audience is the difference in ESPN and E!Online. While it is probably very clear that ESPN targets males and E!Online targets females, it is important to note the differences in how content is displayed on both websites. ESPN has loads of information displayed in quick, short sentences, as men usually want the information quickly with only the main points. The visitor is hit with over 20 scores or stories in just the top of the site, where as E! Online is very image intensive; each story has a photo that enhances the story. Women tend to enjoy looking at photos, as well as reading every detail of a story.

Whether your core audience is technologically savvy men and women or children under ten years old, it is important to make sure your business, brand and website target them. Remember, by trying to appeal to everyone, you will separate the brand from your target audience.

In short, Microsoft says of its new search engine, “Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.”

Great! But will it be able to grind away at the 65-70% market share Google currently keeps? Ironically, looks as though Microsoft will try and do it the old-fashioned way – a massive advertising campaign.

Google is to search engines as Kleenex is to tissue. A brand embedded deep into the minds of most Internet users and Microsoft has a significant uphill battle in front of them to try and change the habits in this mainly Google-Only society.

The word is that Microsoft plans to spend $80 to $100 million in online, TV, radio and print, according to AdvertisingAge. If nothing else, the computer giant is doing its part in keeping ad agencies and traditional media alive with this beast of a campaign. But their sole mission is to convince the public that there’s a new alternative to the search engines of today.

This is a perfect example of giving consumers something they don’t even realize they need or want. If you ask the typical Internet searcher, chances are they won’t complain much about what Google and Yahoo have to offer – it’s likely they don’t know enough about today’s search engines to realize some of their shortcomings. That’s what Microsoft hopes to expose with their monstrous ad campaign – simply, that searching online can be better and here’s how:

• When shopping for products on Bing, the search engine will reveal product reviews, specs and pricing on the search page. It may also include a unique feature called “Bing cashback” – which will reward the searcher with a cash back guarantee if they click through and make the purchase.
• Searching for a health issue? Bing will give a quick summary of any ailment you may be searching for. Think of it as a small drop down box that lets you quickly read about the injury, sickness or disease that you’re searching for. (From a website owner perspective, I’d like the searcher to get the info from my site, not straight from Bing)
• The Travel search feature is pretty cool since it displays the best deals on the web in a single view. This could become Bing’s most popular feature. It also includes a simple sidebar in the left column that offers related information and links to your destination city. And Bing even includes a search bar for your airline and flight number that displays your flight status.
•  The local search info that Bing displays is very similar to that of Google and Yahoo. It may be more of a different structure and organized look that Microsoft was attempting in this department. There are some helpful reviews included if you’re searching for a new restaurant and they claim that Bing offers better directions that its competitors.
• If you’re searching for new or used cars, the automotive-type search results give you a quick glance at price, mpg, safety ratings and reviews along with photos and videos of the car you’re searching for.

All in all, Bing may have a few new bright spots and early indications are that it’s done a nice job in accurate search results and easy-to-use features, but the question remains – will it be enough to pull people away from Google?

Has this email shown up in your inbox before:

“Dear yourwebsite.com,
I recently came across your website and noticed that it was difficult to find on the search engines. We’d like to offer our SEO services to you. Please reply.”

Yes, it’s obviously a spammer but not too far from what many “SEO companies” and “SEM providers” try to use to convince potential clients to go with them for their search engine marketing and optimization needs. All too often business owners and marketing execs are sold on one-size-fits-all packages or outrageously priced consulting deals. The language is way too technical and hard to understand and a lot of these so-called SEO experts deal in scare tactics and sleazy methods. It adds up to giving the industry a bad image and putting businesses at risk of being banned from the top search engines.

We take a very different approach at lifeBLUE Media in that we will first speak your language before ours. You’re probably not expecting us to be experts in your field and more likely wanting us to listen to what you’re needing and trying to accomplish. Most SEOs are trying to sell services that aren’t understood, needed, or wanted - instead of listening, educating and helping the client before presenting the ideas.

Simply put, website and search engine marketing is very new to most business people and they don’t quite understand the opportunities that exist. It can absolutely be a new revenue stream for their business that they didn’t realize was possible. A search engine marketer’s job is to learn about the business and its customers then unlock all the ways that can bring in new sales and customers – while building an important and long-term partnership.

Too many SEOs stay close to their own kind and don’t leave the comfort zone to learn about new clients and different industries. SEO and SEM conferences and seminars are filled with, you guessed it SEOs. Yet, these same SEOs should be attending Oil & Gas conventions, or financial planning seminars, or fashion tradeshows – to learn about the challenges their potential clients are facing.

Like the aforementioned spam email that might find it’s way into your inbox, so too will the “Guaranteed Top Ranking” email or package that you might be offered. Don’t bite on that bait - nothing is guaranteed in the SEO world when it comes to getting ranked in the search engines. Instead, SEO companies should guarantee customer service, transparency in what they are providing their clients and, most importantly, a value to the business or company they are working for. For mutual long-term success, it’s best that the SEO companies deliver more value than the client expects. That should be the guarantee.

So, you want to make a buzz?  Do you want to make impact?

Get in line… or you could cut in line.

Most people try to create a buzz by taking the “please everyone” road.  The thinking usually falls in line with “maximize our popularity by making sure we don’t do anything that someone won’t like.”  It does not take a rocket scientist to poke a hole in the logic of that statement.  The Internet is a place that everyone goes to.  Grannies from the backwoods of Tennessee and some of these people are busy clicking away on the Internet looking for what’s important to them.  You can’t please them all.

Why not take notes from what Red vs. Blue did?  They capitalized on something they loved and others loved.  Now these former punk teenagers are making a living producing Internet-based comedy videos.  They were even given a nod by Bungie, the producers of Halo, the video game they used as the backdrop to their comedy.  While you can’t really infringe on intellectual property like a viral video series might, you can identify yourself with what your clients like to follow.

So here’s the question: what are your clients fans of?  Who do they get giddy for?  If you can legitimately put your product on that bandwagon, you have built in publicity.

Sounds crazy?  Sprint didn’t think so. They’ve spent a great deal of money on a campaign for their mobile products featuring the popular Internet radio station, Pandora, Twitter, and others.  Those ads created a buzz.  It captured people’s interest because they were already interested in the subject matter.

So go ahead and cut in line.  Find something that your clients are already interested in, make a legitimate connection to your product or company, and see what happens.

According to emarketer.com, U.S companies are spending approximately 10% of their annual advertising budgets on the web today, compared to 7.5% two years ago. On the surface that doesn’t look like a mind-boggling jump in online spending, but in the advertising world these types of philosophical shifts take time to develop - but when it eventually happens it doesn’t take too long for the momentum to pick up. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing with advertising budgets.

Some things to consider:

• Consumers are in more control now than ever before.
• Brands are living and dying by social acceptance.
• There have been dramatic changes in usage patterns.
• Economy is down, technology advances are up.

Ten years ago, I sat in my advertising campaigns class at Texas Tech University listening to the professor preach about reach and frequency, target markets, cost per impression, media spending between TV, print, radio and newspaper, integrated marketing plans, surveying customers, and so on … all good points for a young, aspiring ad exec to learn but, not surprisingly in 1998, any insight into internet-based advertising and marketing was untold and unknown.

And so, 10 years later, the shift is upon us. And it’s all good.

Advertisers are realizing the tremendous benefits of going online with their money. For one, search marketing is easy to track and allows you to quantify a true ROI unlike spending dollars on an outdoor billboard or magazine ad.

It’s also non-intrusive compared to the 23 minutes of each TV programming hour that is taken up by unwanted commercials. The viewer is enjoying the program, investing their time to only get that time interrupted by a commercial that probably has little relevance to their life. Enter the greatness of the DVR.

With Search Marketing, the advertiser is not intruding on the searcher’s life … merely waiting and prepared for when the time comes that the consumer is searching for that advertiser’s specific product or company. Again, the consumer is in control now, and likes it that way.

The soaring popularity of social networking sites online has opened new channels for companies to generate brand awareness and interest. Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising and with sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, the communication lines have never been as open or as far-reaching.

So, you may be like many business owners and marketers these days who are trying to find the most cost-effective ways to spend advertising dollars that will translate into more sales, better brand awareness and increased market share. The tide is turning away from traditional methods and heading more into the digital arena. The same emarketer.com study referred to earlier estimates that 15% of most ad budgets will go towards online marketing by 2013 … that’s double the original 7.5% spent just six years earlier. A clear indication that the shift is on.

For businesses large and small, capitalizing on social media is a bit of a no-brainer. Social networking is revolutionizing the way businesses learn about and interact with their consumers.

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have become crucial audience information. The likes, dislikes, tastes and trends of a company’s existing and potential consumer base are all there, ripe for analysis, targeting and retention. American consumers remain relatively energized about the interactivity of social networking. Almost 50 percent described themselves as enthusiastic about socializing via computer and mobile devices in a recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Despite the unprecedented access and reach provided by social media, there are some limitations and considerations that business leaders should take into account. Here, we’ll spell out a few pros and cons of using social media for your business.

Pros

• Building Brand Loyalty
  Social networking allows businesses to connect with consumers in instant, nuanced ways that can strengthen a company’s position as an authority, an expert or an advocate. Social networking is also a great way to get a feel for complaints, shortcomings and other issues that might be missed or glossed over in traditional surveys or interactions with clients. It’s a simple and effective way to cultivate a degree of brand loyalty.

• Grabbing data
  Marketers are using information from personal networking pages on MySpace and Facebook to craft targeted ads uniquely tailored to a person’s tastes. During the Easter holiday, Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs Facebook page has more than 165,000 fans. Cadbury Crème Eggs have more than 380,000 fans. Combined, that’s more than a half-million people who to some degree identify with those brands. That’s also a half-million people whose personal information can be mined for companies and marketers.

• Measuring impact
  Don’t let anyone tell you this stuff is immeasurable. Is there any way to predict whose friend of a Facebook friend will wind up becoming your biggest fan? No. But there’s a host of metrics and analytics that companies can use - some extremely cheap or free - to get a handle on the effectiveness of a given social media campaign.

• Online presence
  Generating quality content and garnering quality links are key ingredients in the ever-changing recipe for boosting a company’s presence in the search engines. Utilizing social media is a huge part of the equation. Share photos of your product on Flickr. Post videos and tours on YouTube. Get some reciprocity going among your company’s blog and those of industry commentators, opinion leaders and even detractors. Use the networking abilities of each site to tie them all together - your blog post to photos to the YouTube group. It can translate into widespread exposure.

• The Power of People
  At the day’s end, word of mouth still reigns supreme. People are simply more apt to purchase or be moved in that direction if they’re spurred by the recommendation or insistence of someone they know - and even by those they don’t. Posting videos, photographs and product descriptions invites consumers to evaluate and comment on a company’s offerings. And if you’re offering a quality product, those positive reviews can carry tremendous weight with prospective customers.

Cons

• It eats time and resources
  Social media campaigns involve a bit more than updating your Facebook status once a day or cranking out a blog post every week. Just shoveling thoughtless content into your blog or ignoring your Twitter feed will push consumers - and the search results - away. Companies have to allocate time and resources to social media campaigns, either in-house or via outsourcing. Like any sustained marketing effort, it’s a commitment. It’s also not always cheap. At larger companies, you’re typically looking at a larger, vertical integration of marketing, public relations and communications strategies and campaigns.

• The whims of the marketplace
  This one confounds corporate veterans to no end. Massaging the message is one thing, but controlling it in a social media environment is difficult once the public grabs hold. Bloggers can rip your product to shreds for giggles. A video mocking your corporate identity and ethos might wind up inextricably linked with your original YouTube piece. Beyond that, there’s no guarantee that your blog post, your LinkedIn networking fodder or your laundry list of Tweets will get any attention. Creating quality content helps, but finding those key outlets and echo chambers - think aggregators like Digg and Reddit - is what can push you into the stratosphere. And the interests and dislikes of that realm can change as the wind blows. Building a social media base is paramount and time-consuming.

• It’s still early
  As the American mainstream media can attest; figuring out the best advertising business model online is a constant struggle. No one has perfected it on Facebook or any of the other prominent social media outlets. The efficacy of paid ads in these locales is still a question mark, one that companies have to consider when examining their marketing budgets. Another wrinkle is that the return on investment can take significant time to develop, given the nature of relationship building.

The first step towards implementing a successful SEO strategy is to understand your indicators. There are many, both public and private metrics, available that website owners rely on. Here we will discuss some of the most prevalent out there.

Google Analytics

Perhaps the most widely known analytics tool, Google Analytics, keeps it simple. At a glance, a person can see up to the minute traffic or view trends across months and years. Google Analytics also shows the percent of new traffic, the average time spent on site, the bounce rate (measure of users who leave right away without clicking) and average pageviews. One of the best parts is, you have the ability to graph everything, giving you a better visual representation, plus browser and user profiling.

In short, Google Analytics has been designed for user friendliness and simplicity. Also, it is totally free! The technical consideration involved is a required JavaScript snippet be included in any pages to be tracked. And while small, it will add some overhead to your page load time. Like all tools it’s not 100% accurate; a fact that becomes clear after you begin seeing the variances between tracking tools.

AWStats

AWStats is an example of a few programs which run locally on the server hosting your website. Although not as slick as google analytics, a logfile analyzer like this is going to provide the most detailed and accurate raw numbers available. Since this program falls in the realm of server management, typically the webmaster or IT are the only people who have access to it. This is probably a good idea for security reasons and business continuity. Reporting is available yet also considers most companies often keep these numbers confidential. Some other notable alternatives include Webalizer and W3Perl. Though not native, all these programs can be run on Windows Server.

Omniture

There is a handful of companies tracking general internet activity, and Omniture is a big time example. Through opt-in tracking cookies being distributed by major companies such as Apple (possibly iTunes / Quicktime) and Adobe (Flash), this Omniture has been comprehensively analyzing web traffic for greater than 10 years. Membership with them provides a suite of tools, similar to Google Analytics, but with greater depth in their reporting. There is more emphasis on keyword analytics and click-through ratios. Omniture’s staff of SEO professionals, are happy to sell you as large a customer service plan as your company can afford or requires. Working with a reputable SEO firm, or adopting their processes into your website, is perhaps the only way to comprehensively understand your site’s traffic.

Doubleclick vs Adsense

Website owners want to spend less buying ads and make more running them. Ad revenues and expenses are the only numbers some SEO marketers secretly even care about. To that end, the ad management company (or companies) you choose will provide the reporting and analytic tools by which you track those figures. The difference between Doubleclick and Adsense is like the difference between a Lexus and a Camry. Both cars are actually owned by Toyota, meanwhile both Doubleclick and Adsense are both in fact owned by Google. Also both programs basically do the same thing though Doubleclick offers the luxuries that come with greater cost.

Both ultimately allow you to purchase ad space, sell ads on your own site - and track the results online. Facebook has also moved into the game recently, offering PPC campaign deals to the public strictly on their site. And since they are number 5 on Alexa and with 30+ billion page views per month, facebook makes for an interesting side note at least.

Alexa

In short Alexa is the Nielsen ratings of the web. Surfers voluntarily install the Alexa toolbar which tracks Internet usage. Using that data, Alexa releases a near real time overall site rank list, up to the top million sites. These site rankings are not perfect. Certainly they are skewed by the disproportionate number of tech’s who run the toolbar. However, this imperfect list is still the best and most widely accepted measuring stick available.

Your site’s Alexa ranking should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, if you can get a handful of frequent visitors to install the toolbar – it can dramatically improve the score for small or new sites. A bustling side-project type website might find itself anywhere between 100k and 300k. The competition begins to stiffen as a site passes the 100k mark. In other words, the frequency of sites actually spending money to promote begins to increase. Meanwhile the top 1,000 places are mostly dominated by companies with infrastructure to support a web business of that size.

Summary

The task of reviewing this data is best if shared between a marketing decision maker and the webmaster. The accumulated information not only provides realistic perspective on your site but will likely drive your SEO strategy. The services described above are only the tip of the iceberg.

SEO programs, applications, websites and strategies are a thriving and highly competitive business that has become dense with experiments, theories and sleight of hand.