One obvious way to get the most SEO value from the micro-blogging platform, twitter.com, is to get natural links to your site and establish yourself as an authority in your chosen field. By “following” other “Twitterers” and getting them to follow you, you establish your own, mini-community of sorts and increase your online presence. Having your business featured on this site also shows that you are in touch with the latest evolution in Internet marketing, Social Media Optimization! If utilized correctly, it can take your business to new heights.

The 140 character limit for your “Tweets” is precious real-estate and has to be used wisely. Common sense suggests that you need to use URLs in the posts and precise keywords in the URLs. You have to keep in mind, however, that Twitter shortens any URL over 30 characters and all are “nofollow”. So, keep your Tweets short, to the point and make sure you’ve conveyed where that URL is taking the potential visitor. The URL might not necessarily tell them.

Another important advantage for Twitter is that the Twitter profiles themselves are indexed by the search engines! Some even get a great Google PageRank. I think the reason for this could be that the user pages are subdirectories (www.twitter.com/username) and the popularity that Twitter enjoys could filter down to its subfolders.

Twitter’s recent surge in popularity has created a whole Twitter counter-culture with websites, like twitterfeed.com, providing an option to link your Twitter account to your website’s RSS feed. By setting up an account on Twitterfeed, you are able to “feed” the RSS link to your blog posts and completely automate the Tweeting process.

Unlike other types of blogs, Twitter is merely a way to link to industry news, your website and leave messages for your friends, co-workers and industry peers. The 140 character limit might be slightly intimidating for more verbose individuals, but it’s a unique way to get the word out about your new product or press release succinctly. It’s a new type of business card, but instead of having a limited number of ways to get the word out through traditional networking, you get exposure to millions of people all clamoring to be heard.

By now I’m sure everyone has heard that social media and online communities can be profitable for companies to pursue as part of an online marketing strategy.  Many understand the value, but often don’t think they have time to incorporate this into their schedules. The whole idea of social media is to be social, to communicate with others, and to expand your online network. So yes, engagement is everything. Unless you take just a few minutes each day or each week to participate, you won’t be able to maximize the benefits that can result. Lately as I have talked with clients about social media channels, I often hear that they just don’t have the time. Today, I wanted to take a few moments to suggest some simple ways to partake in social media.  

1) Blogging – Write a new post on your blog. We recommend that this should be done at least once per week. Blogs are great from a search engine optimization perspective as they add fresh content to the site that the spiders will recognize, but they also enable you to engage in a dialogue with potential customers.  If you don’t allow for comments on your blog, this fresh content is still great to have and is another way to work a few of your important keywords into the content. You could also comment on other blogs within your industry.  If it’s appropriate, reference your site, which will result in an inbound link and additional visitors. This allows you to get your name out there and provide information to educate others about you or your company.

2) Connect – If you’re already a member of a social media site, as most of us are, take a few minutes each week to update your profile.  Do your Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn profiles contain the most up to date information about you?  Set a goal to make a connection with someone new each week; even if it is just one or two more people.  The more connections you have through these channels, the better.  This networking and reaching out to others is just another way to build relationships with others in your industry. You never know who you might meet.

3) Write Reviews – We are all customers in some way, shape or form, and I am sure we can all agree that reviews have an impact on our consumer behavior.  For example, if you’re looking for a hotel and in doing so, come across a bad review on a particular hotel; are you likely to stay there?  What about a restaurant, a specific product or service?  The point is that reviews can definitely have an impact on your business. I would suggest that you frequently look for reviews about your company, product, or service.  This can be a great way to understand what people are saying about you.  Also, do the same for others. If you have a good experience, write a review. Google Maps, Yelp, and CitySearch are a few great places to start.

4) Share – There are many sites such as Flickr and Picasa that are great for photo sharing.  By uploading photos, you can interact with hundreds, even thousands of people who are interested in similar topics. This is great place to join groups and comment on others’ photos.  Again, this circles back to joining and making connections within these online communities. Although Flickr has “nofollow” tags to picture captions and comments, participating in this community and others that are similar, can still be beneficial from a search engine optimization perspective. There are areas such as personal or group profiles and discussion boards that do not contain these “nofollow” tags, and including links back to your site here will enable you to benefit from the link juice. Take a few minutes and browse through these photo sharing sites. You’ll see that there are groups for almost anyone and there’s sure to be a place that’s a good fit for you as well.

Social media marketing can be very effective, but engagement is the most important component. You’re not going to be an expert in all of the social media channels overnight, and no one expects you to be, but the only way to gain a better understanding about how to best benefit from these channels is to get involved.  If you’re not familiar with a certain social media channel that you think may be applicable to your industry, see what it’s all about.  Yes, it may take some time out of your day, but who knows, it could lead you to a new friend or even new customer.

This 2008 presidential campaign has been unique in many ways, but one aspect in particular that I have been fascinated with is how social media has become an influential part of this race for the White House.  I never would have thought that when Facebook and MySpace first were established that they would have experienced the tremendous growth that we have seen in the last few years.  Today companies, organizations, groups and even presidential candidates have profiles on social networking sites.  

These sites have been particularly valuable among the younger population and have played a significant role in engaging young voters during this election season.

Through online networks, candidates are communicating with younger supporters and are reaching out to voters in a way that hasn’t been available in the past.  Essentially, through social networks, presidential candidates are able to become part of voters’ social groups, their “friends”, in efforts to gain support.  A shift away from preaching and more toward conversing with supporters has become apparent.  This shows the power of social media.  It allows for a more intimate and personal connection, a relationship that can hopefully build trust.

The legitimacy of the presidential candidates and their message is also reinforced through social media.  If a candidate slips and is inconsistent with something that they say or their perceived message, it will likely be known in real time.  That is the good, and sometimes bad thing about social media, blogs and perhaps the Internet in general.  Information can spread very quickly and with active bloggers everywhere, this is inevitable. 

Not only do these sites open another channel for communicating with voters, candidates can also utilize them to observe their campaigns. Through blogs, the way in which voters are receiving a candidate’s message can be monitored. Demographic information about supporters such as where they live, their age, and other interests are all available. This can be leveraged and help the candidates to better understand who and where their key supporters are.

Today, it has almost become a necessity for candidates, and anyone trying to gain supporters for that matter, to have a presence within multiple social media networks.  They are able make use of these communities as yet another tool to build their campaign and individual “brands”. It is interesting; some people say that they would not vote for a candidate who didn’t have profiles in social media networks and other online communities, as it would indicate that they are not current with the times.  Would you?