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4 Steps to Crafting the Perfect Twitter Bio
Dec 1st
What if I told you the most important 140 characters you write on Twitter aren’t your actual tweets, but your Twitter bio? Well, it’s not far from the truth, especially if you consider that your Twitter bio is often the deciding factor in whether or not someone follows you. Unfortunately, we don’t think about that and many of us create our Twitter accounts without giving any thought to optimizing our bio.
In yesterday’s post on mastering good blogger outreach I talked about how small business owners can use tools like Tweepz to search Twitter bios and help them find blogger and media contacts to reach out to. Well, guess what? Small business owners aren’t the only ones searching Twitter bios to find relevant people to follow. So are news outlets, potential customers and anyone else interested in learning more about your brand or industry. So what are you leaving in there for people to find?
Below are 4 quick tips to help you craft the perfect Twitter bio to make sure you’re attracting the right people and allowing like-minded folks to find you.
1. Use Keywords
As I mentioned above, you’re not the only one searching Twitter to hunt out potential contacts – so are your vendors, customers, would-be customers, colleagues, etc. Make it easier for them to find you by incorporating the keywords they’re most likely to search for. If you’re not sure what types of keywords to include, ask yourself:
- Who do you want to connect with on Twitter?
- Who would you want to find you?
- What would they be looking for? What need would they have?
These are the types of terms you want to be sure to use to help people locate your account. Be careful not to use too many, of course, or your bio becomes unreadable and appears spammy. But you’re on Twitter for a specific business purpose, it makes sense that your bio would reflect a bit of that.
2. Use a Real Location
Something that makes Twitter unique compared to many other social networking sites is that there’s no site standard for how people handle the Location box. Twitter asks, “Where in the world are you?” and users are able to fill in their city, state, country or even make up something they find particularly witty. While it may be tempting to get creative, don’t. Always opt to include your full city and state. This is important for people who want to add you to neighborhood- or city-specific Twitter lists, media contacts who want to talk to someone in their local area, or even a potential customer who is looking to find someone knowledgeable about tile within 50 miles of their home. If I’m looking to talk to someone about insurance in my area, setting your location as “up, up in the air” won’t help me find you. Again, you’re using Twitter for a reason. By giving detailed, relevant and accurate information, you help the right people find you.
3. Describe What You Really Do
Another area where Twitter users get clever is in giving themselves fake titles. Again, I would urge you to resist the temptation and to use the limited space you have to accurately describe what you do. While it’s nice that you consider yourself the “Wizard of SM,” what people really need to know is that you’re the “Director of Social Media” for your company. While you may jokingly call yourself a “Web Fairy,” if your real title is “Lead Web Designer,” use that, because that’s what people will be searching for and it’s how they’ll get to learn a bit more about you. Users don’t always have much to go on when they’re evaluating whether or not someone is worth following. Make sure you’re giving them the proper information.
4. Don’t Use a Shortened URL
Twitter offers you space to share your URL with whoever is looking at your Twitter profile. Take advantage of it. And when you include a link, make sure it’s the full link to your website, blog, social profile, etc. Avoid using a shortened URL; using a full one helps people trust that you’re sending them to a trusted location. An unfamiliar URL from an unfamiliar user account can turn someone off before they even have the chance to investigate what you’re all about.
Just because Twitter doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for you to tell the world who you are and what you’re about (that’s what your tweets are for), doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make good use of the space that you do have. What you include in your Twitter bio can often be the main factor in whether or not someone follows you. It can also be the only hope they have of even finding you on the site. Make sure you optimize your bio as much as possible to help you attract the right people.
4 Steps to Crafting the Perfect Twitter Bio
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Perfect Storm Blueprint (new From Potpiegirl & David Bocock
Nov 7th
All New Training Combing The Best Of Local Offline Marketing And Affiliate Marketing. No Clients! No Cold Calling! Must See This New Twist On Internet Marketing.
Perfect Storm Blueprint (new From Potpiegirl & David Bocock
Perspective and Passion: Sounds Perfect for Business
Aug 4th
I was tweeting back and forth with Anne from Step-Up Finance (@Step-Up Finance) and she said something interesting:
“Perspective and passion… sounds perfect for poetry.”
It makes me think of an article I read about poetry by Michael J Bugeja*. (Stick with me; I haven’t gone all artsy on you.) In it he says, “Poetry has been the literary vehicle of truth.” Whether you agree or not, whether you care about poetry or not, truth is important.
So what has your business been used for - to solve a problem or advance a lie? Have you ever purchased something based on the power of marketing, just to get it home and see it break on the first use? Have you ever griped about the general lack of customer service and the fact that some people (and companies) sell lies and create more problems than they solve?
So what do you do about these types of people and organizations? In my opinion, you simply solve the problems that they will not solve. If you do so with excellence, that makes you unique and that’s good for business (provided you know how to market the difference). You keep your word. You overdeliver. You solve problems and simplify things even when it seems impossible.
Excellence is good for business.
It’s what Apple, Google, BMW and BusinessWeek’s 50 Most Innovative Companies 2010 do. They excel at solving a problem. Disney tackles boredom with entertainment. Sony complements silence with sound quality. Amazon gets a book in your hands or in your Kindle. Wal-mart gets everything to you cheap. And Coca-Cola is refreshing.
I’m not assuming you like or use any of these companies; I’m simply pointing out that they excel at marketing their solution and the problem they choose to solve. Your company can do the same.
Perspective is good for business.
If you look at BusinessWeek’s lists of its 50 Most Innovative Companies and compare 2009 to 2010, you’ll see many of the same companies. In the car industry alone, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Ford Motor and Honda repeatedly make the list. These companies provide products that let us handle the road in the style and with the budget we choose. Each brand brings a different perspective to the driving experience.
In the same way, each small business can bring a different perspective to the problems that it solves.
Passion is good for business.
Do what you love and understand
- so that you’re prepared to put in the necessary effort
- so that you’re committed to solving the problem for the people you serve
- so that your passion shines through, naturally.
Apple seems to be passionate about computers and simplicity. BMW seems to be passionate about the driving experience. I’m not particularly passionate about any of that, but I reap the benefits because they are. As consumers, we are happy to repeatedly use products that solve our problems, free up our time, give us status (it’s true) and clear our minds so that we can just ride, create or do whatever it is we need to be doing—personally and professionally.
As small business owners, if we do what we love, then the passion shows up.
Perspective and passion…sounds perfect for business.
_________
*Michael J Bugeja, “Seven Poetic Techniques to Sharpen Your Prose” (Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild, 2009), p. 260
Perspective and Passion: Sounds Perfect for Business
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
How To Have The Perfect Wedding – It Is Possible
Jul 1st
Here’s What You’ll Discover Inside: The truth about why almost every wedding ends up with a glitch and how to handle every situation with ease- every time! How Vendors are ripping you off – deep secrets on how to keep your money out of their pockets!
How To Have The Perfect Wedding – It Is Possible
Perfect vs. interesting
Apr 7th
There are two jobs available to most of us:
You can be the person or the organization that’s perfect. The one that always ships on time, without typos, that delivers flawlessly and dots every i. You can be the hosting company or the doctor that might be boring, but is always right.
Or you can be the person or the organization that’s interesting. The thing about being interesting, making a ruckus, creating remarkable products and being magnetic is that you only have to be that way once in a while. No one is expected to be interesting all the time.
Fedex vs. Playwrights Horizons.
When an interesting person is momentarily not-interesting, I wait patiently. When a perfect organization, the boring one that’s constantly using its policies to dumb things down, is imperfect, I get annoyed. Because perfect has to be perfect all the time.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Compared to perfect: the price/value mismatch in content
Mar 31st
“How’s the wine?”
You really can’t answer that question out of context. Compared to what? Compared to a hundred dollar bottle? Not so good. Compared to any other $12 bottle… great!
“How was the hotel?”
“How’s the service at the post office?”
In just about all the decisions we make, we consider the price. A shipper doesn’t expect the same level of service quality from a first class letter delivery than it does from an overnight international courier service. Of course not.
And yet…
A quick analysis of the top 100 titles on Amazon (movies, books, music, doesn’t matter what) shows zero correlation between the price and the reviews. (I didn’t do the math, but you’re welcome to… might be a good science fair entry). Try to imagine a similar disconnect if the subject was cars or clothing…
For any other good or service, the value of a free alternative that was any good would be infinite–free airplane tickets, free dinners at the cafe… When it comes to content, though, we rarely compare the experience with other content at a similar price. We compare it to perfect.
People walking out of the afternoon bargain matinee at the movies don’t cut the film any slack because it was half price. Critics piling on to a music video on YouTube never mention the fact that HEY IT WAS FREE. There is no thrift store for content. Sure, we can get an old movie for ninety-nine cents, but if we hate it, it doesn’t matter how cheap it was. If we’re going to spend time, apparently, it better be perfect, the best there ever was, regardless of price.
This isn’t true for cars, potato chips, air travel, worker’s comp insurance…
Consider people walking out of a concert where tickets might be being scalped for as much as $1,000. That’s $40 or more for each song played–are they considering the price when they’re evaluating the experience? There’s a lot of nuance here… I’m certainly not arguing that expensive is always better.
In fact, I do think it’s probably true that a low price increases the negative feedback. That’s because a low price exposes the work to individuals that might not be raving fans.
Free is a valid marketing strategy. In fact it’s almost impossible for an idea to have mass impact without some sort of free (TV, radio, webpages, online videos… they’re all free). At the same time, it’s not clear to me that cheaper content outperforms expensive in many areas. As the marginal cost of delivering content drops to zero (all digital content meets this definition), I think there are valid marketing reasons to do the opposite of what economists expect.
Free gets you mass. Free, though, isn’t always the price that will help you achieve your goals.
Price is often a signalling mechanism, and perhaps nowhere more than in the area of content. Free enables your idea to spread, price, on the other hand, signals individuals and often ends up putting your idea in the right place. Mass shouldn’t always be the goal. Impact may matter more.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Is There a Perfect Name for Your Business?
Nov 13th
Naming a business is like naming a baby — the name you choose reflects your hopes and dreams, your taste and style. A great name gives a baby and a business a certain leg up in the world. This is why big-budget start-ups hire naming firms. Even without an expert branding background, you can choose a great name for your fledgling business by investing a bit of time and thought.
Be your own guinea pig.
List 20 of your favorite existing business names. Do you see any trends? Do your tastes fall toward neologisms such as Acura or Kodak? Portmanteaus such as Microsoft and FedEx? Evocative symbols like Apple or Hot Italian? Your preferences are likely to resonate with your clientele as well. Use yourself as a bellwether.
Be Practical.
Remember that the end user of your name is your clientele. Choose a name that helps them make the right associations with your business. Names that evoke the value of your services are preferable to names that are generic, non-sequitur, or simply cute. Consider the case of MicroMidas, a start-up firm that turns waste microorganisms into useful industrial polymers. How might we perceive this business differently if it was named Northern California Polymers, or worse, Poo Plastics?
Thinking again about the needs of your client, be careful with unusual spellings and foreign language letter constructs. Your clientele might not know the correct pronunciation of the Vietnamese ng-, the Mandarin qi, and the French –ix. As a result, they’ll avoid saying your business name, even to recommend the excellent services they received from Jerry Nguyen’s Chamonix Chalet.
Brainstorm.
It’s time to get out your pencil! If you have weeks to decide, keep a growing list handy. If you’re short on time, try to make yourself create ten names. Do this even if you have your heart set on one idea; it takes just a bit of time and you’re likely to find an even better name. If you haven’t tried it before, see if you can invent a new word or two to add to the list.
Now look at your list. Which names match your business, your style? Which names appeal the most? And which names are likely to create unflattering double-entendres or awkward acronyms? Consider Gap’s doomed brand, Forth and Towne, or the discarded salon name Blow.
When you’ve narrowed the list to three or less, search them on the Internet to make sure that you will neither infringe on a trademark nor accidentally name your business after a porn star.
Make the Call.
If you’re having trouble choosing between your top two or three, survey friends, coworkers and clients. Choose bravely and wisely and be confident in your decision. Your business has a great new name! Time to celebrate.
Above all, don’t let the name be your business’ bottleneck. The great secret of naming is that there is no perfect name — just a lot of great ones. Within the bounds of reasonable taste, no name will make or break your business. The substance behind the name ultimately trumps any label.
Sonia Mansfield is the content editor for PsPrint and editor of PsPrint Blog. PsPrint is an online printing solutions company, which you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.
View full post on Business Pundit
5 Steps To the Perfect Client
Nov 3rd
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Image credit: Photofinish 2009 via Flickr
One of the foundational elements of any marketing strategy is a narrowly defined target client. For the small business I take that a step deeper to something I call the ideal, or for the sake of this post, perfect client. That one perfect kind of client is what all business should understand and I think it’s unique to each and every business.
You can’t simply define a set of demographics to find the ideal client – the ideal client finds you, but then you’ve got to build your entire business around that understanding.
The 5 steps below, applied to your current client base and worked in order, will tell you more about your true ideal client than any marketing class or book ever will.
- Find your most profitable clients
- From the above group identify those that refer
- From that even smaller group find common demographic characteristics
- Take the time now to understand the behavior that makes them ideal
- Draw a fully developed biographical sketch to use as your marketing guide
I explain each of these steps in great detail is this week’s column at AMEX OPENForum.
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Finding the Perfect Business Idea
Sep 29th
| But before we get started, let’s clear up one point: People always wonder if this is a good time to start their business idea. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
