Carl V. Natale is an avid fan of small business in Maine. He uses this blog to share useful advice and tips each day. And you can learn more by following @MaineBusiness on Twitter.
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The Takeaway is featured in Alltop — all the top stories.
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Why Twitter will matter a whole lot more
Nov 2, 2009 05:29 AM
There is a school of thought that teaches that the most cost-effective way to generate new leads is through blogging. Optimize your fresh, relevant content for search engines and readers (you know, people like you and me). Add compelling calls to action, you have the best Internet marketing strategy in the world.
This school of thought has room for social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Not much room. They can be useful tools for customer service and reputation monitoring. But they can't beat blogging for brand awareness.
I'm going to agree. Yes Twitter has business value. But blogging has more.
So far.
That will change soon. Two things will turn this paradigm around. First, we have Twitter lists.
The feature was rolled out Friday but I was playing with it for about a week or so before that. At first I didn't see how useful it could be.
I use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter accounts. (Yes accounts. I have a twit personality.) And it has a Groups feature that allows me to see tweets from specified users. Other Twitter apps have a similar feature.
The day I got the invitation I noticed that Hootsuite wasn't updating my groups' timelines. It was a perfect day to try a competing service.
But now I see a lot of people subdividing the Twitterverse into lists. Here's why it's a powerful feature:
It categorizes people. That may seem unfair and arbitrary. But that's life. We all fit into someone's arbitrary categories. But these list titles are are basically keywords describing the types of people that use Twitter.
It strokes egos. We can track how many followers and retweets are attached to our Twitter accounts (Well I do). Now we can obsess over how many times we are listed.
Not only do you have followers but your lists have followers too. More ego boosts.
And there are public and private options. Only I can see the privatized lists I create. Do with this feature as your dark heart desires.
OK, I can tell you don't see how this changes anything except the amount of time people will spend on Twitter. But consider this plan for Google to include tweets in search results.
You know how Google ranks what it thinks are the best pages for you to find your information? It's a very complex algorythm that has created an industry called SEO experts. So how will Google rank tweets? I bet there's an algorythm for that.
There are a ton of factors to consider.
How many followers do you have?
How many people do you follow?
How often do you tweet?
How many people retweet your tweets?
How many lists do you have? And how many followers to those lists?
How many list are you on? And how many people follow those lists?
How influential (figured by combining the previous factors) are the people following you and your lists?
So now we have to start figuring out SEO for Twitter. Because if you link to your blog from a tweet, you're going to want that found high up in search.
Don't panic - yet. Because Bing is doing it too. And don't forget Facebook updates. They're going to be in search engines too. Now you can panic.
Why? Consider this tweet from Sunday night:
He is using his Twitter network to find a home. Yeah he's looking in classifieds and Craigslist. But he's also asking people he knows for their recommendations.
Soon when you Google "place to rent in Portland" you're going to see this tweet. And you're going to be able to find the response with recommendation. Substitute this with "need a good plumber in Westbrook." If you're @JoeThePlumber, you better be using Twitter so you can answer the request. Otherwise friends and followers may offer your competition as a recommendations.
And thanks to Google, those recommendations will be findable when someone enters "plumber in Westbrook ME." More than ego will be at stake when you look to see who has listed you. Someone with a lot of followers, is on a lot of lists and has a knack for using short keywords will be king on Twitter.
The blog will still matter. Businesses will need to blog to build authority. But social networks will be incredibly valuable tools to drive traffic your website.
This school of thought has room for social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Not much room. They can be useful tools for customer service and reputation monitoring. But they can't beat blogging for brand awareness.
I'm going to agree. Yes Twitter has business value. But blogging has more.
So far.
That will change soon. Two things will turn this paradigm around. First, we have Twitter lists.
The feature was rolled out Friday but I was playing with it for about a week or so before that. At first I didn't see how useful it could be.
I use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter accounts. (Yes accounts. I have a twit personality.) And it has a Groups feature that allows me to see tweets from specified users. Other Twitter apps have a similar feature.
The day I got the invitation I noticed that Hootsuite wasn't updating my groups' timelines. It was a perfect day to try a competing service.
But now I see a lot of people subdividing the Twitterverse into lists. Here's why it's a powerful feature:
It categorizes people. That may seem unfair and arbitrary. But that's life. We all fit into someone's arbitrary categories. But these list titles are are basically keywords describing the types of people that use Twitter.
It strokes egos. We can track how many followers and retweets are attached to our Twitter accounts (Well I do). Now we can obsess over how many times we are listed.
Not only do you have followers but your lists have followers too. More ego boosts.
And there are public and private options. Only I can see the privatized lists I create. Do with this feature as your dark heart desires.
OK, I can tell you don't see how this changes anything except the amount of time people will spend on Twitter. But consider this plan for Google to include tweets in search results.
You know how Google ranks what it thinks are the best pages for you to find your information? It's a very complex algorythm that has created an industry called SEO experts. So how will Google rank tweets? I bet there's an algorythm for that.
There are a ton of factors to consider.
How many followers do you have?
How many people do you follow?
How often do you tweet?
How many people retweet your tweets?
How many lists do you have? And how many followers to those lists?
How many list are you on? And how many people follow those lists?
How influential (figured by combining the previous factors) are the people following you and your lists?
So now we have to start figuring out SEO for Twitter. Because if you link to your blog from a tweet, you're going to want that found high up in search.
Don't panic - yet. Because Bing is doing it too. And don't forget Facebook updates. They're going to be in search engines too. Now you can panic.
Why? Consider this tweet from Sunday night:
@GriffinClubMerv Find me a good place to rent IN Portland - 2+ bedroom, $1200-$1500 heat INCLUDED. I'm tired of being told heat is $75/mo, then it's $200.
@OldPortCandy @GriffinClubMerv re:Portland rental - have u tried Cloutier & Toothaker? Hands down nicest apt I ever rented, all incl...
He is using his Twitter network to find a home. Yeah he's looking in classifieds and Craigslist. But he's also asking people he knows for their recommendations.
Soon when you Google "place to rent in Portland" you're going to see this tweet. And you're going to be able to find the response with recommendation. Substitute this with "need a good plumber in Westbrook." If you're @JoeThePlumber, you better be using Twitter so you can answer the request. Otherwise friends and followers may offer your competition as a recommendations.
And thanks to Google, those recommendations will be findable when someone enters "plumber in Westbrook ME." More than ego will be at stake when you look to see who has listed you. Someone with a lot of followers, is on a lot of lists and has a knack for using short keywords will be king on Twitter.
The blog will still matter. Businesses will need to blog to build authority. But social networks will be incredibly valuable tools to drive traffic your website.
Duke of URL says,
There's another view and roundup of opinions at http://ittybiz.com/social-media-social-proof/ I especially like Dave Troy's (http://davetroy.com/?p=644) look at the economics of Twitter. He asks the question I didn't and should have: What will people pay to be on certain lists?
Nov 2, 2009 07:55 AM
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