Have you ever wondered how to use the power of Google to search for people to follow on Twitter? Check out this custom search string. I wish I could take credit for discovering it, but I can't.
While perusing on Twitter, I came across a tweet that had the following Google search string in it:
site:twitter.com bio location tx 100...1000000 followers -400
Unfortunately, I don't remember who posted this originally.
If you happen to catch this article, please let me know so I can give you proper credit. Having said that, let's look more closely at what that search string does.
Here's the breakdown:
"site:twitter.com" Says search on the site twitter.com
"bio location tx" Instructs the search engine to look in the "bio" section for the location of "tx" aka Texas.
"100...1000000 followers" Says find people that have between 100 to 1 million followers
"-400″ is code that instructs the search engine to exclude certain words from the result. It's automatically appended to the string when you hit the "search" button. I don't know or understand why, it just is.
This little "-400" snippet could come in handy if you wanted to exclude people with the phrase "make money online" or "look at my pictures" or something along those lines in their profile. I'm not saying that you should, I'm just pointing out that the option is there.
In case you haven't guessed it, the string is for an advanced Google search. Most people never use the advanced search functionality, but it's there for the taking. Every so often, I come across something like this and I remember why I think the big G rocks.
For fun, I suggest you run this search in your own city and see who comes up. I found a lot of interesting people to follow using that little search string, you might too. Let me know if this works for you in the comments.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Use Social Media To Create Leads Client ! And Of course Money
Of course, your first passion and love is for the job that you do. Home staging is challenging, interesting, and so rewarding once each project comes together and your clients reap the benefits of your magic touch. You don't want to have to learn a whole other profession just to garner interest in your business, and there are only so many hours in each day. You will find that most of your advertising and gaining public presence can be done with simple, often free online tools that are already being used by over 300 million people each day. Social media sites are the business owners best friend.
The top four sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, will allow you to easily link your business website to your respective profile pages, and this gives a greater amount of visibility to your brand or company name. By linking yourself in this way, you have a far greater chance of not only being found by those who seek the services that you provide, but of being picked up more readily by the search engines. The more popular your links become, the higher on the search pages your business will become.
If you aren't familiar with SEO or with keyword statistics, this is not a big deal at all. There are plenty of ways to keep your website updated and fresh, and people that you can hire to write the content that you need for a very fair price. This opens up your time for the important things, such as running your business, and ensures that your site and blogs are always handled in a professional way. There are also ways of uploading and feeding rich media to your website so that you can offer visitors multiple ways of seeing the value in what you do.
YouTube offers widgets, for example, that you can place within your website, as well as links to your other social media pages. What this does is allows people to see flash slideshows or even actual footage of before and after results for homes that you have staged. Most people cannot argue with a home well staged and sold, so be sure that you make your work the star of all of your online endeavors. Don't forget to add your links to all of your business and personal emails, and start building up that contact list.
The top four sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, will allow you to easily link your business website to your respective profile pages, and this gives a greater amount of visibility to your brand or company name. By linking yourself in this way, you have a far greater chance of not only being found by those who seek the services that you provide, but of being picked up more readily by the search engines. The more popular your links become, the higher on the search pages your business will become.
If you aren't familiar with SEO or with keyword statistics, this is not a big deal at all. There are plenty of ways to keep your website updated and fresh, and people that you can hire to write the content that you need for a very fair price. This opens up your time for the important things, such as running your business, and ensures that your site and blogs are always handled in a professional way. There are also ways of uploading and feeding rich media to your website so that you can offer visitors multiple ways of seeing the value in what you do.
YouTube offers widgets, for example, that you can place within your website, as well as links to your other social media pages. What this does is allows people to see flash slideshows or even actual footage of before and after results for homes that you have staged. Most people cannot argue with a home well staged and sold, so be sure that you make your work the star of all of your online endeavors. Don't forget to add your links to all of your business and personal emails, and start building up that contact list.
Learn From Social Media !How to Market Your Product
We are living in the information age, the age where ideas are more popular than products, where programs replace product, where teleseminars and webinars trump books. Everyone it seems has hung out a shingle touting their expert status whether it is in how to make money, social media, teleseminar techniques, millionaire mindsets, living longer, losing weight or any other specialty of the day. The challenge is in making sure that you are genuinely getting your information from proven talents and real experts. So before you dive after someone's latest nugget or invest in that hot program, here are some guidelines to measure their true value:
Do they "walk their talk?" Do they do what they recommend you do? Are they practicing completely what they teach? (Check them out online!) This is particularly prevalent with online business. The best teacher of teleseminars is one who is doing them frequently, has created a process, and is successful at it. You want to avoid someone who has never put on a teleseminar but proclaims themselves an expert and shows you someone else's process but has never done it themselves. A recent favorite example is a social media speaker who doesn't have a profile or presence on Twitter, none on Linked IN, and a fan page with less than 50 fans on Facebook, and no other profile on that network. They may know some things, and can contribute to a discussion, but they aren't active online, in the trenches day to day practicing what they are planning to preach.
What is the depth of their experience? A Lifetime? Years? Months? Days?
There are many self proclaimed experts who hang out a shingle because a topic is popular, their experience is limited, but their confidence isn't! The challenge is that you won't get the real depth of knowledge you seek and deserve and you are likely to get erroneous information due to their lack of expertise.
What is the source of their expertise? Formal Training? Private Mentoring? Certification (if applicable and relevant)? Winging It? Now, I'm not suggesting that the school of hard knocks isn't a valuable teacher; it is one of the most valuable! But in the information age it is simple to enroll in programs, mentoring, and more to take your expertise farther. Check to see if your expert has. They need to know their expertise inside and out, both actual practice and the education view.
Are they recommended by colleagues and clients? Now I appreciate this may be a bit unusual, yet in this information age, it is important to know who an expert is surrounded by. It is simple enough to get a handful of rave reviews from friends, that's why it is important to look for comments and kudos from colleagues, peers, and real clients/customers. The exception is if this person's expertise is translating from another field or specialty and their reputation in that field carries them into this one.
So when you invest in yourself, your knowledge, and your expertise, be sure that you are getting it from truly qualified, experienced experts in their field. You deserve the finest in your information investment and also a source that will support you in your learning. Most (though not all) reputable programs offered by genuine experts come with a full money back guarantee. Your financial investment in your greatest asset is then well protected. Check before you dive in, experts stand on every corner, true experts guarantee the quality of their content and delivery. Results are always up to you!
Do they "walk their talk?" Do they do what they recommend you do? Are they practicing completely what they teach? (Check them out online!) This is particularly prevalent with online business. The best teacher of teleseminars is one who is doing them frequently, has created a process, and is successful at it. You want to avoid someone who has never put on a teleseminar but proclaims themselves an expert and shows you someone else's process but has never done it themselves. A recent favorite example is a social media speaker who doesn't have a profile or presence on Twitter, none on Linked IN, and a fan page with less than 50 fans on Facebook, and no other profile on that network. They may know some things, and can contribute to a discussion, but they aren't active online, in the trenches day to day practicing what they are planning to preach.
What is the depth of their experience? A Lifetime? Years? Months? Days?
There are many self proclaimed experts who hang out a shingle because a topic is popular, their experience is limited, but their confidence isn't! The challenge is that you won't get the real depth of knowledge you seek and deserve and you are likely to get erroneous information due to their lack of expertise.
What is the source of their expertise? Formal Training? Private Mentoring? Certification (if applicable and relevant)? Winging It? Now, I'm not suggesting that the school of hard knocks isn't a valuable teacher; it is one of the most valuable! But in the information age it is simple to enroll in programs, mentoring, and more to take your expertise farther. Check to see if your expert has. They need to know their expertise inside and out, both actual practice and the education view.
Are they recommended by colleagues and clients? Now I appreciate this may be a bit unusual, yet in this information age, it is important to know who an expert is surrounded by. It is simple enough to get a handful of rave reviews from friends, that's why it is important to look for comments and kudos from colleagues, peers, and real clients/customers. The exception is if this person's expertise is translating from another field or specialty and their reputation in that field carries them into this one.
So when you invest in yourself, your knowledge, and your expertise, be sure that you are getting it from truly qualified, experienced experts in their field. You deserve the finest in your information investment and also a source that will support you in your learning. Most (though not all) reputable programs offered by genuine experts come with a full money back guarantee. Your financial investment in your greatest asset is then well protected. Check before you dive in, experts stand on every corner, true experts guarantee the quality of their content and delivery. Results are always up to you!
Creating A link Bait For Your Websites
The term "Link bait" is used for a type of internet marketing that involves getting your message out and getting viewers to link to it from other websites. A form of viral internet marketing, it can be an effective tool to drive traffic to your site.
The key to using link baiting is creating content that appeals to bloggers, Diggers and other internet surfers, who in turn link to your content, drawing in more viewers and so on. While some think link bait is beyond the reach of many websites and blogs, more and more of the experts are coming to the realization that this form of viral internet marketing can be used for any type of campaign.
This can happen simply by realizing that the internet is more than just a mass market. It is, ultimately, a collection of very specific niche markets with link savvy consumers who want more than just the popular lists or entertainment. Your children can be using the link bait method without even realizing it if they link to products they like on their MySpace or Facebook pages. The internet is filled with unexplored potential to be discovered on a daily basis. All you need to harness that potential is a good understanding of the method and a means to use it.
Going beyond the basics on your website is an excellent way to generate link bait. Rather than just listing products you can also give tips, advice etc. on using your products. Giving extra information increases your visitor's understanding, encouraging them to buy and to pass on the information to friends who will also pass it on. This is called giving the customer added value and is a popular way to generate traffic.
By using the tools, methods and ideas plus social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook you can easily generate link bait and tremendously increase the traffic to your site.
The key to using link baiting is creating content that appeals to bloggers, Diggers and other internet surfers, who in turn link to your content, drawing in more viewers and so on. While some think link bait is beyond the reach of many websites and blogs, more and more of the experts are coming to the realization that this form of viral internet marketing can be used for any type of campaign.
This can happen simply by realizing that the internet is more than just a mass market. It is, ultimately, a collection of very specific niche markets with link savvy consumers who want more than just the popular lists or entertainment. Your children can be using the link bait method without even realizing it if they link to products they like on their MySpace or Facebook pages. The internet is filled with unexplored potential to be discovered on a daily basis. All you need to harness that potential is a good understanding of the method and a means to use it.
Going beyond the basics on your website is an excellent way to generate link bait. Rather than just listing products you can also give tips, advice etc. on using your products. Giving extra information increases your visitor's understanding, encouraging them to buy and to pass on the information to friends who will also pass it on. This is called giving the customer added value and is a popular way to generate traffic.
By using the tools, methods and ideas plus social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook you can easily generate link bait and tremendously increase the traffic to your site.
Travel The States Via Twitter
Where in the USA do you want to go today? If you use the Internet to plan family and adventure trips, perhaps you have browse sites developed by the many tourism bureaus established around the country. For every state and territory in the union, there is a department encompassing that entire region, and multiple cities and towns within are certain to have organizations that more precisely market their area. It's no surprise, too, to see so many bureaus and tourism representative entice Twitter users to follow them and get the low-down on hotel and attraction specials and upcoming events.
If you're the wandering sort, here are fifty (give or take a few) profiles that ought to be on your follow list. Note: not all accounts below are officially representative of their respective visitors bureaus, but do reflect travel tweeting for that state. To visit just tag on the Twitter profile name after the URL.
If you operate the state's tourism bureau it is necessary to have all social media profile visible so prospective visitors can follow your updates. Consulting with a search engine and social media optimization company that specializes in travel and tourism is a good way to raise your online awareness as people plan their vacations.
Alabama - TweetHomeAla
Alaska - AK_Vacation
American Samoa - SamoaNews
Arizona - ArizonaTourism
Arkansas - ARTourism
California - CATourism
Colorado - Visit_Colorado
Connecticut - HartfordCVB
Delaware - DE_Vacation
District of Columbia - DCWire
Florida - VisitFlorida
Georgia - GeorgiaTourism
Hawaii - AlohaSpots
Idaho - VisitIdaho
Illinois - EnjoyIllinois
Indiana - VisitIndiana
Iowa - IowaVacation
Kansas - TravelKS
Kentucky - KentuckyTourism
Louisiana - LouisianaTravel
Maine - MaineTourism
Maryland - MDTourism
Massachusetts - MA_Vacation
Michigan - PureMichigan
Minnesota - MN_vacation
Mississippi - VisitMS
Missouri - MissouriLife
Montana - VisitMontana
Nebraska - NebraskaTourism
Nevada - TravelNevada
New Hampshire - VisitNH
New Jersey - NJ_Vacation
New Mexico - NMTourism
New York - NY_Vacation
North Carolina - VisitNC
North Dakota - ND_Vacation
Northern Marianas Islands - GoToMarianas
Ohio - DiscoverOhio
Oklahoma - OklahomaTourism
Oregon - TravelOregon
Pennsylvania - VisitPA
Puerto Rico - MeetPuertoRico
Rhode Island - RIEvents
South Carolina - SCTourism
South Dakota - TravelSD
Tennessee - TNVacation
Texas - TravelToTexas
Utah - UtahVacation
Vermont - VermontTourism
Virginia - VisitVirginia
Virgin Islands - Virgin_Islands
Washington - WA_Vacation
West Virginia - VisitWV
Wisconsin - WIBestBets
Wyoming - WyomingTourism
If you're the wandering sort, here are fifty (give or take a few) profiles that ought to be on your follow list. Note: not all accounts below are officially representative of their respective visitors bureaus, but do reflect travel tweeting for that state. To visit just tag on the Twitter profile name after the URL.
If you operate the state's tourism bureau it is necessary to have all social media profile visible so prospective visitors can follow your updates. Consulting with a search engine and social media optimization company that specializes in travel and tourism is a good way to raise your online awareness as people plan their vacations.
Alabama - TweetHomeAla
Alaska - AK_Vacation
American Samoa - SamoaNews
Arizona - ArizonaTourism
Arkansas - ARTourism
California - CATourism
Colorado - Visit_Colorado
Connecticut - HartfordCVB
Delaware - DE_Vacation
District of Columbia - DCWire
Florida - VisitFlorida
Georgia - GeorgiaTourism
Hawaii - AlohaSpots
Idaho - VisitIdaho
Illinois - EnjoyIllinois
Indiana - VisitIndiana
Iowa - IowaVacation
Kansas - TravelKS
Kentucky - KentuckyTourism
Louisiana - LouisianaTravel
Maine - MaineTourism
Maryland - MDTourism
Massachusetts - MA_Vacation
Michigan - PureMichigan
Minnesota - MN_vacation
Mississippi - VisitMS
Missouri - MissouriLife
Montana - VisitMontana
Nebraska - NebraskaTourism
Nevada - TravelNevada
New Hampshire - VisitNH
New Jersey - NJ_Vacation
New Mexico - NMTourism
New York - NY_Vacation
North Carolina - VisitNC
North Dakota - ND_Vacation
Northern Marianas Islands - GoToMarianas
Ohio - DiscoverOhio
Oklahoma - OklahomaTourism
Oregon - TravelOregon
Pennsylvania - VisitPA
Puerto Rico - MeetPuertoRico
Rhode Island - RIEvents
South Carolina - SCTourism
South Dakota - TravelSD
Tennessee - TNVacation
Texas - TravelToTexas
Utah - UtahVacation
Vermont - VermontTourism
Virginia - VisitVirginia
Virgin Islands - Virgin_Islands
Washington - WA_Vacation
West Virginia - VisitWV
Wisconsin - WIBestBets
Wyoming - WyomingTourism
Promote Twitter On Regular Basis
If there is an online social network out there, businesses are a part of that community in an effort to boost traffic to their website. These social networking sites are dedicated to the interaction of people who want to read and share information they find on the Internet. Many users will share links, online reviews and articles via with their friends which is why the business finds a great home within these networks.
If you are trying to promote a business with a social networking website, it is not as simple as signing up and logging in to post. You need to familiarize, read and join.
Familiarizing yourself with an online social network and the tools the network offers is the perfect first step to Internet marketing. Each network will offer different tools, but all are used to share information with users. Before posting and adding friends to your network, take a look around at the top users and the website itself. There could be some hidden marketing gems that you would never see if you just jumped into the socialization.
Reading the terms of service is another huge step in creating and maintaining a strong social connection with your readers. Each social network will have a different set of terms. These details in the fine print could include information about linking to outside sources and the number of links allowed per post. It is important to know what rules you need to follow and keep track of those rules with a handy "How To" guide for each network.
Joining groups within the social network is a great way to build readership without spending hours looking for friends who are interested in your niche. If you are running a dating website, for instance, there could be a social networking group within the site that already has thousands of members. Joining this group will give you immediate access to people looking for information on dating.
Along those same lines, many business niches have groups within social networks as well. These business niches will often be filled with other businesses looking to promote their products or services which could mean learning more about online marketing but will often not lead to additional hits on your website.
Forums as Social Networks
Forums are a form of social network that tend to be a bit more rule oriented than say FaceBook or MySpace. There are forums available for every website niche, but joining these forums and sharing often requires following a set of rules. Many forums require a new member to post a certain number of times before they can share a link in a signature or within a post. This can be a great thing as it takes time to build a relationship with members of the forum.
Relationships are at the heart of social networks and those relationships can mean all the difference to a website that wants to build quality traffic. While links shared on social networks are not (as of the posting of this article) indexed by search engines, that is not to say they won't ever be indexed. Just imagine the power of your website if you get into the habit of posting regularly on a social network when a search engine begins to recognize these links.
If you are trying to promote a business with a social networking website, it is not as simple as signing up and logging in to post. You need to familiarize, read and join.
Familiarizing yourself with an online social network and the tools the network offers is the perfect first step to Internet marketing. Each network will offer different tools, but all are used to share information with users. Before posting and adding friends to your network, take a look around at the top users and the website itself. There could be some hidden marketing gems that you would never see if you just jumped into the socialization.
Reading the terms of service is another huge step in creating and maintaining a strong social connection with your readers. Each social network will have a different set of terms. These details in the fine print could include information about linking to outside sources and the number of links allowed per post. It is important to know what rules you need to follow and keep track of those rules with a handy "How To" guide for each network.
Joining groups within the social network is a great way to build readership without spending hours looking for friends who are interested in your niche. If you are running a dating website, for instance, there could be a social networking group within the site that already has thousands of members. Joining this group will give you immediate access to people looking for information on dating.
Along those same lines, many business niches have groups within social networks as well. These business niches will often be filled with other businesses looking to promote their products or services which could mean learning more about online marketing but will often not lead to additional hits on your website.
Forums as Social Networks
Forums are a form of social network that tend to be a bit more rule oriented than say FaceBook or MySpace. There are forums available for every website niche, but joining these forums and sharing often requires following a set of rules. Many forums require a new member to post a certain number of times before they can share a link in a signature or within a post. This can be a great thing as it takes time to build a relationship with members of the forum.
Relationships are at the heart of social networks and those relationships can mean all the difference to a website that wants to build quality traffic. While links shared on social networks are not (as of the posting of this article) indexed by search engines, that is not to say they won't ever be indexed. Just imagine the power of your website if you get into the habit of posting regularly on a social network when a search engine begins to recognize these links.
Increase Your Twitter Productivit
Owning and operating your business keeps you very busy. That's a given. Busy people need effective tools to make their marketing efforts more productive with less time spent. Following are four social media tools that will increase your productivity and help to substantially grow your small business.
Blogpulse
Blogpulse is a web site designed to allow you to efficiently search through the various new blogging trends and also to simultaneously follow various blog conversations. It's an amazing tool to help you weed through all of those blogging entries that have absolutely nothing that you are looking to learn.
TweetDeck
Twitter is absolutely huge! No social media marketing strategy is complete without it. With TweetDeck, you can manage conversations, create new groups, opt to follow new friends or groups, manage multiple twitter accounts, enter new tweets and keep your eye on various trends involving social media networking. In addition, you can instantly update your FaceBook profile from your TweetDeck home page.
Flock
Flock is an Earth-friendly new web browser that integrates your various social media networking websites right into your home page. You can follow all of your friends that are on MySpace, Twitter, FaceBook and more simply by starting up your Internet browser. There are also special media bars for Flickr, Truveo and YouTube. Additionally, a simple click of an included icon allows you to instantaneously access your accounts at Gmail, Yahoo and/or AOL. And if all of that were not enough, this browser also supports Photobucket, Digg, WordPress, Blogger and more.
Jott
Jott is a service that allows your family, friends and work associates to leave messages for you by calling a specific number and leaving a voice mail. That voice mail is taken by the Jott system and turned into a text message. That message is then sent to your specified e-mail address, cell phone or web site. Jott is gaining huge momentum as a very effective social media resource.
Enhance your marketing productivity by regularly utilizing these and other social media tools and resources!
Blogpulse
Blogpulse is a web site designed to allow you to efficiently search through the various new blogging trends and also to simultaneously follow various blog conversations. It's an amazing tool to help you weed through all of those blogging entries that have absolutely nothing that you are looking to learn.
TweetDeck
Twitter is absolutely huge! No social media marketing strategy is complete without it. With TweetDeck, you can manage conversations, create new groups, opt to follow new friends or groups, manage multiple twitter accounts, enter new tweets and keep your eye on various trends involving social media networking. In addition, you can instantly update your FaceBook profile from your TweetDeck home page.
Flock
Flock is an Earth-friendly new web browser that integrates your various social media networking websites right into your home page. You can follow all of your friends that are on MySpace, Twitter, FaceBook and more simply by starting up your Internet browser. There are also special media bars for Flickr, Truveo and YouTube. Additionally, a simple click of an included icon allows you to instantaneously access your accounts at Gmail, Yahoo and/or AOL. And if all of that were not enough, this browser also supports Photobucket, Digg, WordPress, Blogger and more.
Jott
Jott is a service that allows your family, friends and work associates to leave messages for you by calling a specific number and leaving a voice mail. That voice mail is taken by the Jott system and turned into a text message. That message is then sent to your specified e-mail address, cell phone or web site. Jott is gaining huge momentum as a very effective social media resource.
Enhance your marketing productivity by regularly utilizing these and other social media tools and resources!
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