Blogging is a new industry, and while it is already huge, it seems the surface hasn’t really been scratched yet. Learning how to use blogging to enhance business might be something you’ll want to do in order to establish your online brand. One of the latest forms of blogging is micro-blogging, as in Twitter or Plurk.

There are lots of reasons why opening an account with Twitter is a great thing to do for your business:

1. Joining Twitter is free, easy and takes only seconds (OK you’re right, that’s two reasons right there).
2. You can create a Twitter network that links you up with some really impressive people in your niche. We even have celebrities like Britney Tweeting now. You can find best selling authors like Scott Allen and towering business personalities like Guy Kawasaki.
3. Twitter is one of the best ways there is to keep abreast of trends in your niche. Communication is essential for anyone wanting to succeed in this information age, and if that information can be had in real-time on a breaking news basis, just imagine what an edge that would give you compared to your competitors who have not yet discovered Twitter. Many times we hear important news before it breaks in print and broadcast media. There have even been instances where they’ve taken queues from us–not always successfully. Jill Whalen calls it the ‘water cooler aspect,’ and that about sums it up.
4. Even if you don’t feel like it now, grab your Twitter ID (especially your name) now in case you really regret it later when you see that everyone’s using Twitter, (chances are you will).
5. Twitter is a fantastic way of getting inspiration for your blog or website, or any other project you’re working on. Users often use it for feedback, canvassing the market and a lot more. Here’s just one example of how bloggers get material for posts as well as business development ideas.
6. Have questions about business? Give them up to the Twitter universe. Chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
7. Used correctly Twitter can be a superb reputation management tool both for getting the good word out and suppressing the bad. But that will only work if your Twitter network is already well established when you have a reputation crisis to contend with.
8. Some really interesting writers/artists are easy to link up with.
9. Itinerary coordination: Obama‘s presidential campaign made extensive use of social media channels including Twitter for announcements and coordination.
10. Twitter makes a very effective mode of communication and coordination if there’s a crisis, or heaven forbid, a disaster. But if you’re not already established on Twitter with an effective network, when a crisis erupts it’ll be too late.
11. If you choose to you can keep an eye on your market/network anonymously by signing up for Twitter in another name. You can have as many accounts as you want, and if you use an Twitter client like Twhirl, Spaz or Tweetr for Mac you can tweet in more than one profile at once.
12. You can Tweet from your PC, laptop, handheld or smartphone.
13. Twitter takes far less effort to keep up with than some other social media platforms, such as FaceBook, for example. You are in complete control of how much interaction you choose to take on.
14. All the coolest bloggers like Tech Crunch, Problogger, Copyblogger and lots more, are on Twitter. And before all my blogger-friends raise a howl of protest, I cannot list all you cool and notorious bloggers on here I want to finish some time today.
15. You can post your Twitterfeed to your blog or website to increase your network and provide enhanced interactivity for your clients/customers.
16. Join a multitude of entrepreneurs who are actively promoting their goods or services via Twitter in the form of special offers and so on.
17. There are a multitude of Twitter applications such as Twitter Grader, or Mr Tweet that will help you gauge your popularity, market reach and even shortcomings. All vital for social media marketing in any form.

My Big Announcement

It won’t be news to you that one of the best way to get quality backlinks is guest posting for a website with complimentary content to what’s on your website. In reality of course, if you pick your guest posting venues carefully you get a whole lot more out of the deal than just hot backlinks.

If you’re writing for a blog that gets a lot of traffic then some of that traffic will definitely spill over onto your own. You will also gain exposure in your chosen field. If your writing is good you will even be establishing yourself as an expert, and that’s a truly priceless prize.

See Me on Marketing Pilgrim

I’m lucky enough to have just had my first guest post, Getting the Hang of the Twitter Culture accepted over at Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim. This is an important step for a successful blogger, and so exciting for me. Just look at that traffic (oh sorry, if you don’t have the Compete extension for FireFox you won’t be able to see that!). Not to even mention the Google PR of 7. This will make for some highly valuable backlinks. You can be sure that I will put aside time from my frantically busy schedule to write more posts for Andy because it benefits me almost more than it does him.

By the way, if you go over to read my post, please be sure to give us a Stumble or add us to your other favorite bookmarking venue if you like it. You could even Tweet about it on Twitter.

I have been offline for a while because my ISP had a technical problem that affected a whole batch of DSL subscribers. FAIL.

Back to Business!

So when I finally got back online I had a whole pile of work to catch up on. I only had three-and-a-half hours sleep last night. But so far today I have installed a WordPress theme, tinkered with two others, and caught up with a whole load of email correspondence.

One of my clients chose a really great WordPress theme over at Revolution. Very nice theme, although a little complicated to set up–much more so than regular WordPress themes.

I may decide to use one of those themes on here, they’re so professional-looking. We shall have to see if I even have time to get around to that any time soon.

The blog is taking over!

Interestingly I have had a number of clients recently who want WordPress installed on their main website. They have heard good things about it’s flexibility and the fact that in general, the search engines love it. It certainly makes it easier if a number of people need to upload content to a website. I love it and always encourage anyone who wants to install WordPress.

WordPress Makes Search Engine Optimization and Pleasing Visitors Easy

The major advantage in using WordPress is the fact that it becomes really simple to add new content to your site on a regular basis. This alone will make the search egnines, and Google in particular, love you to bits. More to the point, if there’s plenty of interesting information on your website your visitors will love you too.

The old ways of getting the word out about your business, such as TV and newspaper ads, and even cold calling, are largely falling by the wayside. More and more we’re seeing companies making it big using social media strategies that don’t include traditional marketing and paid advertising. One oldie that’s still going strong, however, is optimized press releases.

Why? For many reasons, not least of which is the valuable inbound links optimized press releases provide for your website.

I know you’re here to get the skinny on creating hot press releases, so here’s what you need to do for a press release that is all you hoped it would be.

How to Write a Press Release

1. Select the keywords or phrases (search terms) you want your press release to rank for (no more than two or three).
2. Create a headline that will be irresistible, preferably using a hypnotic marketing word or phrase.
3. Plot out your release so that you don’t miss any important points that you want to get across.
4. Write the body of the press release, making sure it is in third-person apart from what’s inside quotes. Write in news format (third person, most important points first): if your press release read like an ad you will never get it accepted with any reputable press release distribution company.
5. Be sure to include 4-5 links to your website. The first link should be a URL and the others should be links with anchor text (a word or phrase that is hyperlinked). Some press release submission sites will allow you to put a link in the excerpt section. This is highly desirable.
6. Make sure you include an About section that tells people briefly what you do and why you’re great, that can be used again in press releases for your company.
7. Include a contact section, that can also be used in future press releases.
8. Submit your press release to a reliable company. Look at how many readers that company has. Don’t go for something new just because it’s offering free inclusion. Better to pay for a press release that will actually be of benefit–especially if you just paid to have someone write that press release for you. Some good ones include:

• PR Web
• PR Newswire
• i-Newswire
• PR Leap

Too Busy to Write Press Releases?

If this all seems like to much work for you, or if you feel you’d like the advantages of a professionally-created press release, just drop me a line and we’ll get the show on the road.

For the second time in as many weeks I’m breaking my own rule about no politics. Along with millions of other people around the world, I am thrilled that Barak Obama won the US elections. For posterity I’m embedding this video of some of his promises. Let’s review after a year and see how he gets on.

Fear Settles Over the SEO Industry

Reading through other SEOs’ blogs recently, and generally keeping my finger on the pulse of the search marketing world, I have noticed an insidious mantle of fear settling over the entire industry. Even a few died-in-the-wool search professionals are falling prey to this unease. Why?

At first it might seem that the Outers are simply looking to position themselves as the ‘goody-two-shoes of SEO’ as far as Google is concerned. But I see it as more sinister than that.

A few months back a tiny minority of prominent search consultants began ‘outing’ other SEOs or high profile businesses who they deemed were making use of ‘Black Hat’ SEO techniques such as buying links. I don’t want to get into the whys and wherefores of this situation because I’m only a small-scale consultant and I don’t want any of the big guns blasting me out of the water. I’m not scared; it’s purely a policy of self-preservation. However, someone I respect highly is Aaron Wall, and he said it all in his blog post.

I think that industry-wide fear is precisely the effect that’s required by a few high-profile individuals intent on carving an even bigger share of the market for themselves. Those who are at the top of their field and would like everyone to look to them to see which way to jump next. To create a situation and then set yourself up as the judge and jury is a great way of making those who are not in-the-know look to you as the ultimate expert, is it not?

Stand Your Ground

I’m not falling for it. I’ll keep on in exactly the way I have so far. As a matter of fact the SEOs in question have taken a nosedive as far as I’m concerned. I no longer regard them as the industry-leaders I once did.

And while we’re on the subject of outing, I’m also in agreement with Aaron about those who consistently expose little-known loopholes that top SEOs use to get good ranking for their clients. Of course as soon as Google knows that we know, they have to do something about it. This kind of thing gives me the creeps.

Let’s go back to our example of link buying. Buying links only recently became a no-no, and even though Google has made it quite clear that link-buying is frowned upon, we cannot really see the point in penalizing websites for an activity that’s really difficult to track. I’ve never bought links. Not that I personally think it’s wrong; I’ve just never done it. But I think it’s totally underhanded to out someone just because they’re doing it.

My advice to anyone who is thinking of hiring an SEO consultant, or maybe even doing a bit of work themselves, is go for it. Don’t be put off and made to feel that if you can’t afford the big boys that you shouldn’t attempt SEO at all. And no, I’m not going to use their strategies by ‘outing’ anyone here. I’m afraid you’ll have to do your own detective work.

But if you notice that on their blog someone has made a practice of exposing the practices of another professional on several occasions, be wary of them. They might pick on your business next.

PS: If you doubt that working when you haven’t had enough sleep doesn’t do you much good, consider this: I tried to publish this post earlier on and it just wasn’t working out for me. I thought WordPress was up the creek. I had an appointment to go to so I thought I’d sort the mess out when I got back. Of course I just discovered that I was tryingt o publish the post as a page. Duh. I need sleep.

PPS: While I was faffing about Glenn over at Divine Write beat me to it. lol. Well done Glenn.