Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important for any website.  If the search engines can’t find your site, or don’t index it very well, your traffic won’t be near what it could be.  For many sites, this can translate into thousands, or even millions, of lost dollars.  Conducting a full scale SEO campaign can be a daunting task.  Simply put, you can never do too much work when it comes to SEO for your website.  However, it is often the most basic and effective SEO technique that is often overlooked the most…good content.

By putting good content on your site, and doing it consistently, you will give your website a huge advantage over most other websites.  Why?  Because most sites are garbage.  This is especially true with blogs.  How many blogs do you come across that haven’t been updated in months, or even years?  Probably a lot.  Readers don’t like outdated websites and neither does Google.  Sites that consistently post good content almost are looked on by Google and the other search engines.  This has a direct impact, for the better, on your site’s SEO.

And what is good content?  Good content is first and foremost original.  If you’re just copying and pasting stuff from other sites to post on your site, that’s not good content.  That’s called regurgitation and it’s to be frowned upon.  Second, your content should be written for people, not for Google web crawlers.  Some people think that by loading up a blog post with key words, the more the merrier, they are conducting SEO.  They are not.  Google and other search engines aren’t stupid and neither are their web crawlers.  They use algorithms to identify keyword abuse and punish, severely, those sites that engage in such behavior.  Finally, good content does not link to bad content.  What this means is that your website should not, in any way, associate itself with the “bad parts” of the Internet.  Link exchanges, sites that illegally distribute copyrighted material, sites that make heavy use of re-direction, etc. are all examples of web sites that you should avoid.

So why is good content so important to SEO?  Well, it’s important for several reasons.  First, if your site is cranking out good content, as described above, other websites will eventually begin linking to your site.  They will do this because the content you are providing has value and that type of thing rarely goes unnoticed.  Will it lead to a million links overnight?  No, but it will, I can almost guarantee you, lead to several high-quality inbound links being built for you across the Internet.  One of these links is more valuable than a hundred of those spammy links that some SEO “experts” will encourage you to crank out.

Also, consider this: If your goal is to get as many people coming to your site as possible, you had better have good content waiting for that traffic when/if it arrives.  What’s the point of going to all this work if people only visit your website once, staying only long enough to realize that it’s stupid and a waste of their time.  It would be like a retailer spending all sorts of time and money cranking out sales fliers and commercials, only to have nothing in stock when the customers show up at the store.  If you don’t have good content, don’t engage in SEO.

Producing good content is only one aspect of SEO, but it is a damn important aspect.  Is this all that your website needs to do to gain a Top 10 Google ranking?  No, not by a long shot.  However, it should be where your efforts start and finish at the end of the day.  Good content and Good SEO are not two separate things.  They are one and the same and should be treated as such.

If you would like the experts at Laser Burn Media to help you with your SEO needs, feel free to contact us directly.  We can help.

See also: How to Write Great Blog Content (ProBlogger.net)
How to Make (And Keep) Your Blog In Demand (TheFutureBuzz.com)

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Good Content is Good SEO is a post from: Laser Burn Media

With Google’s massive share of the search engine market you think that they would have brought out this feature a lot faster than they did. This new feature to the Goliath of a search engine lets people know what America is currently searching for. I thought that Google would have came out with this feature a long time ago. Yahoo had their top ten searches and they also had a section that showed what other users where searching when you searched for a specific topic.

This new feature is called Google trends. There new hot trends feature also will graph the trend for that specific search over time.

With Google Trends being a destination site though, it doesn’t get much attention outside of those of us who track web trends. That’s changing though, because in a blog post today, Google () announced that it has integrated Google Trends in actual Google Search () results.

The integration is rather simple. Now when you search a hot trend, you will find the trend and its graph at the bottom of the search engine results page (SERP). For example, if you search for the “Tim Tebow concussion video” (the QB for the Florida Gators who was hurt in his game this past Saturday), you will find its hotness, how it ranks in the top 100 most popular searches, and the search volume graph:

For Google to track all this data is amazing. They took an old feature from their arch-enemy Yahoo and a graphing feature and they also have a meter by the specific page that lists from the search. I have to commend Google because they have been adding many features over the last few months. Like I have posted in an early article for Google to compete with the Yahoo Portal they need to add features. Most of the recent features have not been geared towards the typical Google user, but Google will add these features in due time.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Google Search Results Now Show Hot Trends is a post from: Laser Burn Media

Sneaky people are trying to spread malware and spam on Facebook and Twitter. The newest worm that is infecting Facebook is via direct wall posts. The language is as follows:

If you see this do not click on it, it will affect your computer because it is malware.  If your computer is currently infected, change your password  and delete all the posts in question.

John Botch
www.Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com

Worms spreading via social media is a post from: Laser Burn Media

The theme of this year’s Emmy Awards seemed to be: Internet Killed the Television Star.  From the opening act to the acceptance speeches given by some of the night’s biggest winners, there was a definite negative vibe permeating the whole ceremony.  This, it seemed, was a result of the television industry finally acknowledgingthe fact that more and more viewers are leaving their televisions behind in favor of more dynamic, online media.  For anyone thinking about using television as a marketing medium, this year’s Emmys should give you serious reason to pause and reconsider your decision.

As reported by NPR:

“A year after its least-watched telecast ever, the Emmy Awards plaintively acknowledged TV’s changing role in the Internet age, bringing a collective sense of reckoning to the revamped show with everything from scripted jokes about the decline of networks to unemployed stars openly job-seeking.

And the gallows humor started from the top: Neil Patrick Harris opened Sunday’s ceremony with “Put Down the Remote,” in which the first-time host urged viewers “Don’t touch that dial/It’s been quite a while since the dial was in style, but you know what I mean … Don’t jump online/’cause this fine mug of mine needs a huge high-def screen.”

The article goes on to describe how Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the awards show, tries to make light of the fact that television is loosing so badly to the Internet…

“At one point, Harris took his own swipe at broadcast TV during a sketch in his alter ego as Dr. Horrible, the mad scientist of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, an online musical comedy he did during the Writers Guild strike.

“Television is dead,” sneered Dr. Horrible. “The future of home entertainment is the Internet. Why watch something like this (he spread his arms grandly) when you can see it like this,” whereupon he snapped his fingers and the screen shrunk to postage-stamp size. (He also touted online entertainment’s lack of interruptions — the screen then hiccuped into “buffering” mode — and panicked when his computer battery began fading, ending the bit.)”

And the television industry has good reason to worry.  Television ratings are down.  Even the nights two biggest winners, and the industries two golden children, Mad Men and 30 Rock.  These two shows, adored by critics and industry insiders, are mediocre at best in terms of television ratings.  So if these critically acclaimed, award winning shows can’t capture and hold audience attention, what hope is there for the television industry?  Not much.

And this is more than just a television or entertainment issue.  This is also, very much so, a marketing issue.  If more an more of television’s audience is moving online, shouldn’t it make sense for marketers to follow them?  Advertising on television is expensive.  And since the introduction of cable television, which provides viewers with hundreds of channels, the audience is increasingly segmented and scattered all over the place.  Worse, DVR technologies (such as TIVO) make it easy for people to simply zip past the commercials that do make it in front of them.  Simply put, advertising budgets are better spent online, for many reasons, than on television.

It’s one thing when an online marketing professional tells you to focus your marketing efforts online.  However, it is quite another thing when television stars tell you the same thing.  This year’s Emmy Awards Show made it quite clear that television insiders are terrified of the growing power and influence of the Internet.  More and more of their audience is abandoning television and turning to the Internet for their entertainment needs.  This is not a fad or something cyclical.  Last night, television’s biggest stars all turned out to celebrate themselves and no one gave a damn.  Keep that in mind when your considering spending (blowing?) your advertising budget on expensive, and increasingly ineffective television ads.  And if you would like more information on what Online Marketing can do for your business, or how it can be used to grow and strengthen your brand, please don’t hesitate to contact use directly.  The experts at Laser Burn Media can help.

See also: Is Your Business Carpet Bombing?

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

What We Learned from the Emmys is a post from: Laser Burn Media

Ah, yes, blogging.  It seems like today almost every person, business, brand, and organization has a blog.  And why not?  Blogging represents one of the easiest, most cost effective, and efficient ways to get your message out.  Blogging is perhaps the single easiest way for many small businesses to get their presence online.  However, there is a huge difference between having a blog and having an effective blog.  Here are five ways that your organization can get better at blogging…

1. Post blogs on a regular basis.
   And by “regular basis,” I don’t necessarily mean every day.  However, you should be posting at least two to three blogs per week.  This helps ensure that your blog remains relevant and doesn’t appear dead to anyone who might want to browse your site.  If the last blog post was from three weeks ago, a reader may give the impression that you don’t care all that much about your blog.  Readers want relevant content and they want it on a consistent basis.  Give them something new to look forward to and don’t make them wait over a week to get it.  Because they won’t wait.
2. Try to use only a handful of categories for your blog posts.
   Most blogging software allows you to assign your posts to categories.  It is FAR better to use only a few categories than to create a new one for every post.  This will help keep your blog more organized and, in turn, make it easier for your readers to find things.  As an avid reader of many blogs, I know from personal experience that I’d rather browse through ten or eleven categories than thirty or more.  Think of your categories as sections in a newspaper.  By using and working with only the bare minimum of post categories, your blog will look and feel more focused, be easier to browse, and will help ensure that your readers don’t have to struggle to find information they need when they need or want it.
3. Link to some of older blog posts from time to time.
   When you’re writing a blog post, always be mindful of other posts that you’ve already published that may be relevant.  By including links to these older posts in your new blog post, you are providing the reader with more resources.  Also, it’s much more likely that a reader will spend more time on your blog if you make it easy for them to navigate from relevant post to relevant post.  As an added bonus, internal links (which is what these types of links are known as) make it easier for search engines to index your blog.  This helps ensure that your blog is better represented in search engine results and may also lead to higher traffic on your site.
4. Blog about things that interest you.
   This is because if you aren’t really interested in what your blogging about, it will become harder and harder for you to keep at it.  The Internet is filled with the rotting remains of dead blogs who’s authors have simply given up on them.  Do not let this happen to your blog.  Additionally, the quality of your blog will be much better if you are writing about things that your passionate about.  If you aren’t excited about what you’re writing about, don’t expect your others to be excited to read it.
5. Promote your blog posts.
   If you’ve taken the time to write the post, why not take a few extra minutes to help tell the world about it?  The easiest way to do this is to post links to your blog post on your Facebook, Twitter feed, and/or Myspace page.  Additionally, be sure to submit your posts to sites like Digg and Propeller.  All of this takes about five minutes of your time, but can result in much more traffic hitting your blog.  You write this damn thing for people to read so take the time to ensure that people actually know about it.

Blogging is a great way for you to promote your business, build your brand, and increase your visibility.  However, like anything worth doing, you have to put the time in to ensure that your blog is as effective, as interesting, and as well organized as possible.  Additionally, a well written and maintained blog helps build your reputation as an expert in your industry.  If you would like the experts at Laser Burn Media to help you make your blog as effective as possible, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.

See also: Five Ways to Get Better at Twitter and Five Ways to Get Better at Facebook

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Five Ways to Get Better at Blogging is a post from: Laser Burn Media

It seems almost every business, organization, politician, and celebrity has their own Facebook page.  Most of these pages, however, are all fairly generic and look exactly the same.  They are also, usually, boring, unimaginative, and add little value to either the organization or the “fans” of the Facebook page.  All of this is unfortunate because a well maintained, well thought-out Facebook page can prove to be tremendous asset to the organization.  Here are five ways you can get better at Facebook.

1. Add original content to your Facebook page.
   People need a reason to visit your Facebook page, so give them one.  By uploading content (videos, pictures, announcements, etc.) to your Facebook page, people will have a real interest in paying attention to your page.  Additionally, by providing this exclusive content to your page, it provides value to your Facebook fans and visitors.  This goes a long way toward shaping the page into an effective business tool for your organization.
2. Send out regular updates to your fans.
   One of the benefits of both Facebook Pages and Groups is that it allows you to send out messages to all of your fans or group members.  This is an ideal way for you to pass along important information to your target audience.  It also provides a way for you to achieve top of the mind awareness with your followers.  Many people join a group or become a fan of a page and then forget all about it.  By receiving regular updates from you, this is less likely to happen.  A note of caution, though: Keep your updates regularly spaced out and DON’T spam the hell out of people.  One or two messages a month is fine.  One or two a week is pushing it and can do much more harm than good.
3. Pay attention to your Facebook fans and group members.
   Facebook is a social application.  This is important to remember, because it’s all too easy to simply use it as a forum for you to blast out information to you audience and ignore what they are talking about.  Your Facebook page is an amazing way for you to not only communicate with your audience as whole, but also individually.  By interacting with your Facebook followers on all levels, you add more depth and personality to your page.  This is an easy way for your page to rise above your competitors, build relationships with your target audience, and build and strengthen your brand.
4. Take advantage of the Facebook Event feature.
   Whenever you can, it is always a good idea to interweave your “real life” business with your virtual identity.  Hosting exclusive events for Facebook followers in an excellent way to strengthen your relationship with your online followers and add value to your Facebook page.  By promoting exclusive events, open only to Facebook friends, you provide an incentive for your target audience to pay attention to your page.  It also allows you to strengthen your brand and build loyalty.   But best of all, these events create a way for you convert online friends into real-life customers.
5. Incorporate Facebook into your customer service strategy.
   Facebook provides a forum for you to speak with your target market, and also provides a forum for that target market to speak to you.  By allowing your customers, or potential customers, to voice their opinions, questions, complaints, and feedback on your Facebook page, and to then respond to those concerns, you make your Facebook page a valuable tool for your customers.  Knowing that an answer to their concerns is only a click away on Facebook, you can go a long way towards building and maintaining confidence in your products, your brand, and your commitment to meeting and exceeding your customers’ expectations.  When isn’t that a good thing?

Some businesses and organizations see a Facebook page as a Pet Rock.  They really want one, but once they have it…they’re not so sure what they should do with it.  By incorporating these five simple strategy’s into your Facebook page, you can transform it from a meaningless novelty into a valuable business tool.  And if you’re serious about using the power of social media to help build and strengthen your business, organization, or brand, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.  We can help.

See also: Five Ways to Get Better at Twitter and Five Ways to Get Better at Blogging

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Five Ways to Get Better at Facebook is a post from: Laser Burn Media

Okay, so you’ve gotten on the bandwagon and have set up a Twitter account for your business or organization.  But how can you now use your Twitter account to help grow your business, build your brand, and develop meaningful relationships with your target audience?  Here are five fairly simple things that you can do to get better at Twitter.

1. Interact with your followers and those who you follow.
   This sounds like a no-brainer, but it is shocking how many businesses simply use Twitter to blast out links.  Doing this adds very little value to the people who follow you and will quickly result in your tweets being ignored.  By taking the time to respond to and interact with your fellow Twitterers, you will go a long way to turning your Twitter account into a strong business tool and not simply a novelty.
2. Tweet about more than just your business.
   Yes, I’m sure that your business is very interesting.  However, what you want to avoid is becoming that annoying ass who, whenever you see them, prattles on and on about themselves.  Endlessly tweeting about you and only you is a sure fire way to loose followers and have those who still do follow you ignore most of what your saying.  Talk about your business, but also mix in other things.  Trending Twitter topics, current events, the weather, music your listening to, movies you want to see, etc.  This adds some personality and depth to your tweets.
3. Tweet in words, not abbreviations.
   “Today sign SJR16 Offshore Oil/Gas Revenue bill;passed unanimously;urges responsible OCS drilling & method to share $ from developmt w/states.”  That is an actual tweet from Sarah Palin.  If you want to take the time to try and figure out what the hell she is trying to say, have at it.  You could probably, after the third or fourth read, decipher it.  However, in this lightning fast information age, you can not send out garbled messages like that.  If I can’t understand what you’re talking about immediately, your wasting my time.  Don’t waste your followers time.
4. Don’t max out your 140 character limit with every tweet.
   Yes, Twitter allows you to insert up to 140 characters (including spaces) into your tweets.  However, when you can, try to keep it to 130 or less.  Why?  Because it makes it easier for other Twitter users to re-tweet your tweets.  A re-tweet, for those that don’t know, looks something like this: RT @LaserBurnMedia: “original tweet here”.  Being re-tweeted is a good thing.  It puts your message in front of more people.  However, if you constantly max out your character limit, you make re-tweeting your messages almost impossible for your followers.
5. Don’t mass follow people.
   Following a few thousand people, hoping that they will return the favor, is silly.  It may get you more followers, but it does nothing to help you use Twitter to build relationships.  No one cares about how many people you have following you, or how many people you are following.  If your tweets are meaningful, relevant, and interesting, then you will gain followers.  And those followers will actually care about what your tweeting about.  Mass following others will only result in your Twitter account becoming irrelevant and largely ignored, even by those who follow you.  Think quality, not quantity and it will pay dividends for you down the road.

These are five simple things that you can do, every day, to help get better at using Twitter.  Twitter is an insanely powerful communication tool, but like any tool, if you don’t know how to use it, it will result in disaster.  With a little thought and effort on your part, you will go a long way towards making your Twitter account a powerful part of your marketing and communication arsenal.  If you would like to have the marketing experts at Laser Burn Media help use the power of Social Media to build and strengthen your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.  Have a great day, all!

See also: Five Ways to Get Better at Facebook and Five Ways to Get Better at Blogging

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Five Ways to Get Better at Twitter is a post from: Laser Burn Media

The first thing that you want to do is register your domain name. There are many websites that you can do that with. You can also check website names on many other different sites. Make sure that you set up your web hosting separately from your domain.

The second thing that you want to do is set up your hosting account. Hostgator for WordPress

I use HostGator to host my WordPress blogs because they make it easy to install, and they have great online & phone support. They are also very inexpensive at less than $10/month for unlimited domains, sites and/or blogs on that one account.

Make sure that you use the cupon code ‘wordpress’ and you will get our first month of hoasting for a penny. It may take up to 72 hours for all the paperwork and things that need to get done and set up.

Install WordPress
You don’t have to download WordPress and then try to manually install it yourself – that’s doing things the hard way. Instead, go back to your HostGator welcome message and find the link to your control panel. You will have to use the temporary IP Address link since your domain hasn’t propagated yet. Log in to your control panel with the username and password in that same email.

Once you log in, scroll down and look for the Fantastico button. It’s towards the bottom, under Software/Services. Under the navigation on the left, choose WordPress and follow the instructions to install your WordPress blog.

Choose a WordPress Theme
While you’re waiting for the domain to propagate, do a search for “free wordpress themes”. Pick one (or pick a few) and download the zip files. Unzip or extract the files.

Next you’ll need to upload your new theme to your hosting account. I prefer FTP, but you can also upload files from within the control panel. Upload the entire theme folder to the wp-content/themes directory in your account. If you need help, see this 6 1/2 minute video: How To Change, Edit, or Install a Wordpress Theme.

Still Waiting?
At this point you are probably still waiting for your domain name to propagate (meaning the nameserver update hasn’t taken effect yet so you still can’t see your new WordPress blog when you type your domain name into a browser).

There isn’t much you can do at this point since most of your links – including your WordPress admin login – depend on the domain name. So while you are waiting, decide what your first few blog posts will be about. This is a good time to do some keyword research. I use Free WordTracker – just put in words related to your topic to get some about me page and edit or add categories. Finally the most important thing that you want to do is install the comment spam plugin. This will help you because you will most likely get spam posted to your website and you do not want your customers to see those comments. good 2-3 word phrases to start with.

Now open Notepad and write a few blog posts, based on the keyword phrases you selected. It’s a great starting point because you know people are searching those phrases, and are specifically interested in those topics. Save your notepad file and go have dinner.

Once the domain is working  log into the WordPress Dashboard. Type yourdomain.wp-amin/. Once the site is loaded use the username in and password that you choose when you installed WordPress. Then you want to activate your theme, edit/delete the default post and delete the test comment.  Then you should fill out the about me page and edit or add categories. Finally the most important thing that you want to do is install the comment spam plugin. This will help you because you will most likely get spam posted to your website and you do not want your customers to see those comments.

John Botch

laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

How to start a Wordpress blog is a post from: Laser Burn Media

There are many people searching everyday about starting a free online business. Since so many people search for these types of websites there are many offers out there. So many people want to start a business in these tough economic times. There are many other people that want to work for them selves and there are many more people that want to work from home.

Home Business Ideas

There are so many home business opportunities and internet business ideas, that it can be a little overwhelming to figure out where you should start. We talked about a few of the different business models – from ecommerce sites that use wholesale dropshipping, to offering a service or starting your own blog.

You can make money online in a variety of ways. Just a few examples include: sell your own product, offer services, sell advertising on your website or blog, or promote other people’s products and/or services.

That last option is called Affiliate Marketing. It’s basically commission-based sales, and I compare it to the offline model of selling Kirby vacuum cleaners. When you make sales, you make money. You can sign up as an affiliate for a company and they will give you an Affiliate Link. You promote that link, and anyone that goes through your link to make a purchase will be tracked – resulting in a commission to you for that sale.

This is the internet business model that I focused on during our conversation over lunch yesterday. I actually use a variety of internet business models to make money online myself, but Affiliate Marketing seemed to be a perfect match for my new friends.

Some business models are active, while others are more passive. An active business model requires a more active role on your part. A membership site for example is high maintenance. If you offer services, then you need to interact with clients and take phone calls on a regular basis. I prefer passive income models, which allow you more freedom and flexibility.

That’s not to say that active business models cant be incredibly profitable and successful, just that something more passive seemed like a good fit once I got to know her a bit.

To clarify, when I say passive I dont mean that you wont have to work at it. I think we’ve all kind of figured out by now that “get rich quick schemes” dont really work. And we were discussing real, legitimate ways to make consistent income online. Not spotty one-off ways to make a few bucks here and there.

We discussed the realistic investment of time and money, and I confessed that I put a lot of time in upfront to get each of my internet business models up and running (some more than others). I explained that you could invest money to get sales rolling in quicker, or you could invest time (up to 6-12 months even) to get your sales up to a good level on a consistent basis. You’ll make money along the way of course, but geting that consistent income is the key.

Going that route, you can get started for less than $10. Yes, literally.

The passive part comes in after you have your affiliate site up and running – once you’ve done that groundwork. With affiliate marketing the merchant is handling orders, shipping and customer service. All you have to do is send them traffic through your affiliate link.

Once your site is up and running, you’ve set up your systems (such as a newsletter, blog, or whatever fits your model), and you’re driving traffic to the site… most of the “work” from there can be automated, and maintained in very little time. For example, I can usually run a site like that in as little as 5 hours a week. That frees you up to create more just like it, and duplicate your income

Starting a Free Online Business

I mentioned above that you can get started for less than $10. I know that a lot of people are interested in starting a free online business, but this small investment is well worth it. Especially if you are serious about making a consistent income with a real online business.

You could actually spend a lot more than ten bucks, but if you take my advice you’ll save a lot of money – and still end up with a solid internet business model.

The first thing that you want to do is find what you are good at or what you want to sell. You will then need a domain name (web address) and hosting service. If you are going to use hoastgator you should use the online promo code ‘wordpress’.  Then it is time to develop your website. It is easy for you to get it built by someone, but there are many resources out there that will take you step by step through creating a webpage. You can also use the tools that the hosting site gives you to build your website.

If you have any trouble with this there are many discussion forums that you can ask questions and get them answered. Nothing is truly free. But this is a way to keep it as cheap as possible.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Starting a free online business is a post from: Laser Burn Media

Many celebrities how have over one million followers on Twitter.  Kevin Smith (@ThatKevinSmith), the famous movie director, actor, and comic book writer, is one of them.  However, unlike most of the One Million Follower Club, Mr. Smith actually routinely interacts with many of his followers.  What’s more, Kevin Smith has also began using Twitter as a sort of stage, performing marathon Tweet sessions where he responds to questions posed by his followers.  Unlike many other celebrities, Kevin Smith isn’t just on Twitter.  He is actually using Twitter to build his brand and he is doing an incredibly effective job at it.

One of the most powerful benefits of Twitter is its versatility.  Tweets can be sent and received in any number of ways.  Twitter allows people from all over the globe, with all levels and types of communication technologies, to interact in a seemless conversation.  A person can choose if she wants to talk with one other person or one million other people.  This represents an incredibly powerful tool with almost limitless potential.  However, sadly, many Twitter users think that a successful Twitter campaign means having lots of Twitter followers.  That’s a myth.  A successfull Twitter campaign uses Twitter to build, grow, and communicate with an audience.

Kevin Smith understands this.  He uses Twitter on a regular basis to <gasp!> actually interact with his followers.  This results in Mr. Smith building a relationship with his followers.  He responds to what they Tweet.  He answers their questions.  He offers up his Twitter account as a way for his fans and followers to “speak” directly to him.  Even better, because of this relationship, his 1,000,000+ followers actually pay attention to what he Tweets.  Because Smith has built a relationship with his followers, his Tweets matter more to them than most of the others they follow.  Kevin Smith has found a way to use Twitter to get his audience to pay attention to what he Tweets.  How many Social Media Managers working for big corporations have yet to achieve something like that?

One of the ways Kevin Smith has been so effective at using Twitter is the way in which he responds to his followers.  He doesn’t simply obide by the typical @UserName <insert response here> format.  What he does is this…

Via @othermattreed “Did John Hughes passing hit you harder or in a different way than you’d think?” Very. On a few levels over the week.

See the difference?  In his response Smith includes the question along with the Twitter user name of the person who posed it.  This may seem like some stupid little detail, but it’s not.  Because all of his followers can now see, in the same Tweet, the question and the response, the Tweet has more meaning.  Had he used the typical @UserName <reponse> format, the only one would understand the response in its propper context would be @UserName.  Most of his other followers would have no clue as to what Smith was responding to, and without context, it would have no meaning to them.  As a result, they would simply tune it out.

Kevin Smith is using Twitter more effectively than most.  He has used it to grow his audience, build a relationship with that ever-increasing audience, and found a way to add value to his Tweets in the minds of his followers.  He talks with them, not at them.  Anyone, or any organization, seeking to do the same would be well advised to pay very close attention to Kevin Smith and his Twitter account.  He’s showing how it’s done.

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Twitter Role Models: Kevin Smith is a post from: Laser Burn Media