Internet Business Mastermind .com » Twitter

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #69: Twitter as a Quick Website Updating Tool

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:35:10 +0000

Twitter only lets you submit 140 character updates or "tweets." Nevertheless, we can't deny the fact that Twitter is the best and fastest way for us to update customers, colleagues, suppliers, etc. If you have not done it yet, then you are getting left out. It is best to start using Twitter to promote recent updates about your website. You can give links to articles or reviews you have made, new products you have to offer, or even the maintenance schedule. In this case, you don’t have to say anything blatantly commercial. Instead, you can simply point out ...

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #66: Boost Your Traffic with Twitter Contests

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:33:46 +0000

Twitter has now become a very popular marketing platform. You can use it not only to directly promote your products but to create a buzz to get more traffic and further establish your online presence. One recent trend in this web 2.0 site is to create “re-tweeting” contests. The idea behind these is both simple and brilliant. If you can do this properly, you can rest assured that your Twitter account will get a tidal wave of new followers. Creating a "re-tweeting" contest is very easy. Here are the steps you need to take: Start by coming up ...

Start by coming up with a sufficiently desirable contest prize. After all, if you are not willing to give good prizes, you won't be able to convince anyone to join. Some prizes you might want to offer are: $150, free products, or a gift card.
Once you have decided on the prizes, then you can already announce the contest. You have to discuss the details of your contest. You have to say when it will happen and how the winner will be chosen. Ideally, you can give prizes for free via a raffle. There is a catch here, however; in order to enter the raffle, a person must a) be a follower and b) must re-tweet your contest announcement.
Hold the contest on the scheduled time and date. Tweet reminders every day, for the last 4 days before your contest. Once the day and time arrive, start drawing raffles and discussing prizes with the entrants.

The idea behind this, as I’ve said, is simple: each entrant in your contest will re-tweet to tens, hundreds, or even thousands of followers. The followers of your followers will see the re-tweet, become your follower and then re-tweet to others. This is a viral strategy that allows you to gain not only more followers but a lot more potential customers.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #57: List Building With Twitter

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 01:27:09 +0000

Twitter and Facebook are today's hottest social network and microblogging sites. Having a member base consisting of millions, there is no wonder why they have become great marketing platforms as well. That is exactly why, in an earlier Web 2.0 marketing tip, I mentioned that you can use your email list to grow your Twitter follower list and your Facebook fan base. However, doing the reverse can actually be very beneficial as well. That is to say, you can use Twitter and Facebook to grow your email list. Can you just imagine it? With Facebook and Twitter, you can reach out to hundreds of thousands of prospects; getting even a mere 5% of those you are able to befriend will already give you a big mailing list. You can then use this list to continuously promote your products and services. But before we get too excited, let us see how this will work. First, you need to deal with your marketing campaign and mailing list. To make best use of email marketing, you need an autoresponder. Everything else is just too much work, especially if your list grows over time. This is how autoresponder works:

If you don’t already have an autoresponder, get one such as Aweber.
Create an email series that includes several product pitches.
Begin capturing subscribers.

Once you have setup your autoresponder, you can announce this on Twitter or post a status about it on Faceook. You can't simply just say "Subscribe to my email course today!" or something similar. Rather, tell your fans and friends (on Facebook) or followers (on Twitter) that you are giving free, useful content through a free subscription. Once they subscribe, you can send the promised to them and start sending pitches and informative emails after.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #56: Create A Firesale

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:27:07 +0000

Twitter has become such a popular and powerful marketing platform, thanks to it being home to millions of members. In Web 2.0 Marketing Tip # 55, we discussed how Twitter can be a great medium for promoting your new products. However, that is not the only thing you can do with this great network. With Twitter, you can also easily promote a firesale you are holding. Firesale What is a firesale? A firesale means bundling several of your products together and offering them for a price significantly lower than what the products would usually cost. When it comes to ...

Firesale

What is a firesale? A firesale means bundling several of your products together and offering them for a price significantly lower than what the products would usually cost. When it comes to achieving success with a firesale, here is something you must remember: You must set a time limit for your firesale, the shorter the better. Of course, for a lot of people to participate in your firesale, you'll have to promote it. Here is where Twitter comes in. Here is what you have to do:

Let your followers know you're having a short-time steep discount.
Tweet reminders of the firesale each day of the firesale.
Thank everyone who participated and, if you would like to, ask for feedbacks.

A firesale, if attractive enough, can put quite a few new customers on your list. While the initial firesale may not give you the biggest profits due to low price, you can then continue to market and upsell to your list of customers.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #55: Use Twitter To Sell Your Products

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:21:51 +0000

When it comes to Web 2.0 marketing, you will find that Twitter is one of the most popular media to use. Not only that, but Twitter is also one of today's most popular social networking sites. There is no wonder why Twitter has become a great tool for marketing just about any kind of products today. Have you tried using this powerful tool yet? Twitter for Promoting Products It is quite easy to start promoting and selling products on Twitter. What you just have to do is to gather followers, which would be composed mostly of your ...

Twitter for Promoting Products

It is quite easy to start promoting and selling products on Twitter. What you just have to do is to gather followers, which would be composed mostly of your customers, prospects, and colleagues. You can then start tweeting. Naturally, most of your tweets should be quality information about your industry. However, it makes complete sense to use Twitter for selling your products and especially create buzz around product launches. When you have a new product coming out, you should also tweet frequently to let people know about the upcoming launch. You can tweet reminders every few days and every day, five days before the actual launch. You can also upload twitpics and start re-tweeting contest. There are a lot of things you can do to make sure that Twitter will help you profit with your product. Of course, there are certain things you have to keep in mind. One thing you must remember is this: Obviously, you should have your Twitter account(s) in place looooooong before your product launch or promotion. Why? Simply because you need to have followers to get your promotion seen. Aside from that, it will also help you if you have already established your online presence and credibility before you start selling with your Twitter account. So, create your account early and start building up your followers. Also, you must know that this article relates not only to your customers but, especially for newly launching products, to JV partners as well. When planning a product launch, consider early enough how you can use Tweets to drive customers and JV partners to your related web sites. Don't make the mistake to mix customer and JV promotions, though; each has its time, and each has its own communication channels.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #43: Email to Twitter

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:05:39 +0000

How big is your email list? If you have been working on email marketing for some time now, you have probably acquired a good number of subscribers already. Well, are you marketing on Twitter? If yes, then you must surely discover how you can benefit from using your email list to get more customers from Twitter. Using Email List to Get More Twitter Customers If you began your email marketing campaign using a free email account, say, like Gmail, and then opted to use an autoresponder, you will need to manually copy your contacts from your mail to ...

Using Email List to Get More Twitter Customers

If you began your email marketing campaign using a free email account, say, like Gmail, and then opted to use an autoresponder, you will need to manually copy your contacts from your mail to your autoresponder. Now, if you are going to use your email list to find more customers on Twitter, you will have to follow the same steps. That is to say, you will use Twitter to search for each person by email address. Every time you find new people, you will request to follow them. Of course, not every one you wish to follow will respond and follow you back. Nevertheless, doing this will help you jump start or expand your Twitter marketing campaign, giving you a significant boost to your reach. To achieve success with this strategy, however, you must remember to continuously stay focused on developing your list of Twitter followers and ignore all other objectives for the time being. You see, it is good to have a clear strategy. Sure, you can benefit from working on multiple revenue streams at a time. Also keep in mind that handsome profits will not come to you overnight. Hence, if you cannot sell your products to your followers immediately, you must think that it is okay. You just have to worry about getting them to follow you in the beginning. When you already have a big follower base, you can then focus on trying different Twitter marketing strategies.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #34: Twitter Feeds on Your Homepage

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:58:48 +0000

If you want your site followers to stick longer and keep coming back, then you have to employ various strategies that will make your website more dynamic. There are a lot of strategies you can employ, but one of the most appealing choices will be to create a scrolling Twitter feed. Adding Scrolling Twitter Feeds Adding scrolling Twitter feeds is actually quite easy. Basically, you will just add a script that cycles through all of your tweets, displaying them in sequential order in a nice-looking frame. This is always a nice touch to add to your site. Not ...

Adding Scrolling Twitter Feeds

Adding scrolling Twitter feeds is actually quite easy. Basically, you will just add a script that cycles through all of your tweets, displaying them in sequential order in a nice-looking frame. This is always a nice touch to add to your site. Not only will it make your site look more appealing and dynamic, but it will also encourage your visitors to join Twitter and follow you. This way, you will gain additional point for your site and you will get additional customer for your Twitter marketing campaign as well. To create such a feed, all you have to do is use a widget like this: Scrolling Twitter feed widget. This widget will let you generate code which you can simply copy-and-paste into your site editor and voila! You already have scrolling Twitter feeds on your website!

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #24: Make Readers Your Facebook and Twitter Advertisers

Ralf Skirr — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:49:05 +0000

When it comes to Web 2.0 marketing, it's important that you gain a lot of followers or fans, depending on the medium you are using. There are various ways you can accomplish this, and one we have already pointed out is the fact that you can start contests with reports, discount coupons, and the like as prizes. However, not all marketers have enough money or products to give away. If you feel like you don't have enough resources or you are simply feeling lazy to organize such a scheme, then you have to learn this other ...

Easy Way to Get More Fans and Followers

Facebook and Twitter have become very powerful marketing platforms, thanks to them being home to thousands and millions of our targeted customers. However, if you can't get a good number of fans and followers, marketing on these media will be in vain. Do you want to get more followers for your Twitter account or more fans for your Facebook page? Why not try this approach?

To get started, simply ask your readers to tell friends about your Twitter page or your Facebook fan page through a status update or tweet.
In your status or tweet, include 2-3 lines of encouraging text. You can simply say that you will appreciate if they recommend your page to friends, should they find your content and resources useful.
Let your current friends and followers do the scouting and inviting for you.

For best results, you might want to use any of these tools or posts they can easily use and re-post or re-tweet:

Tell-a-friend scripts
Direct links for social bookmarking
Pre-written e-mail copy
Facebook update/comment
Pre-written tweets

You might be wondering: Will this bring instant massive traffic to your Web 2.0 business profiles and primary website? The answer? Probably not, but if you combine many of these tiny steps, which take very little time to do, you will surely reap a combined result that's worth it!

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #22: Power of Twitter and Facebook Combined

Ralf Skirr — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:46:03 +0000

Facebook and Twitter are great marketing platforms you should not miss using today. Why? The top reason will be: Because those are the places where thousands of your customers will be! While it is beneficial to market on both social network, however, in time, you will find that it can be tiring; you will need to post an update in Facebook and then tweet it on Twitter. Logging in and out and doing several tasks twice can be boring, don't you agree? How to Save Time When Marketing with Facebook and Twitter One way to save some time ...

How to Save Time When Marketing with Facebook and Twitter

One way to save some time while maintaining your presence on both Facebook and Twitter is to link the two accounts. This way, whenever you post a new tweet, a status update will instantly be posted on your Facebook account. The process it involves is very simple. Aside from that, you won't need to hassle yourself and move between the two accounts and re-post the same messages multiple times. Does that sound good to you? If yes, then you should check this out: http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/. Here, you will need to login to directly access the app. Once you are logged in, the Facebook page will present you with a request from Twitter app to access your information. All you need to do is click the "Allow" button. Once you do, your Twitter and Facebook accounts will be connected. After that, every time you post a tweet, your Facebook account will will automatically be updated.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #17: Integrate Your Web 2.0 Marketing Efforts with Everything Else

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:15:06 +0000

Twitter and Facebook are great marketing platforms on their own. However, if you want to optimize the result you will get from them, it is best to use them to complement your other Web 2.0 accounts as well as your primary website. Your web sites, blog, and Web 2.0 accounts are probably created at different times, and at such, you are using them for separate purposes. Perhaps, you did not have the big picture at that time, so never planned on how to interconnect these different "points of contact" for your prospects and customers. Need for Integration While you ...

Need for Integration

While you might be getting good profits from your Web 2.0 accounts, it is still a good idea to connect all your sites and Web 2.0 profiles. This way, you can deepen the connection with your visitors easier, as you are giving them more ways to stay in touch with you. For example, it has become common on news channels to refer watchers to company and reporter Facebook profiles and Twitter profiles. The reason for this is simple: by getting people to follow them through social networking sites, those news stations gain yet another medium through which they can advertise and engage watchers. Aside from that, their customers are able to know more about them, further establishing their loyalty. If you opt to integrate your Web 2.0 accounts with your other marketing website and blog, you can gain those same benefits as well.

Cross-Promotion

Aside from integrating your marketing platforms, you should consider cross-promoting, too. You can try any of the following cross-promotion methods:

If you do print advertising, you might consider using it to channel traffic to your social networking site profiles.
You can add a badge for your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking accounts to your web sites and blog.
You can use your blog's news feed and publish them on your Web 2.0 accounts.
You can add links to your web sites and blogs on your Web 2.0 accounts.

If you use the above strategies, you can rest assured that the traffic all your marketing platforms get will be boosted, and your profits will generally increase. Aside from that, you will have more ways to keep in touch with your customers, and you will have a lot of options for tasks such as:

Collecting consumer data
Product launch advertisement

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #8: Use Twitter For Market Research

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:53:51 +0000

Web 2.0 platforms can be very easy to use and can yield great benefits. Unfortunately, however, marketers often approach Web 2.0 with the wrong attitude. They hope that by simply creating a Twitter account, or any Web 2.0 accounts in general, adding every person who is willing to follow them, and spamming blatantly commercial messages will make them lots of money. Quite obviously, this is a misconception. In fact, this is one of the worst ways to make money with a social network, as potential buyers will see through it easily and will choose to opt out. On the ...

Market Research with Twitter

In the past, it was very hard to observe your customers when they talked casually about your products or about competing products. However, this is something you can easily do with Twitter today. In Web 2.0 marketing tip #7, I recommended that you use the Twitter search engine to find tweets related to your business niche. The idea was to find people suitable as followers or people to follow. Today’s idea is: using Twitter search for your topics as part of your research about your business.

What to Search in Twitter

There are a lot of things about your business that you can discover through such a simple task. Some keywords that can help you with your search are:

Your name
Your company's name
Your web site's name and URL
Your products' names

You can also use Twitter search for finding out:

The names of your competitors as well as their companies' names, products, and web sites
Other keywords related to your niche and the problems your products solve

Finding out what your customers think about your business and products can help you develop your business and achieve long-term success. Learn everything that can help you business by using Twitter search today.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #7: Using Twitter Search to Find New Followers

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:11:36 +0000

If search engines are used for finding specific information, what can you use Twitter Search for? For finding specific tweets about your business, of course! One great way to utilize Twitter to get more sales is to use the Twitter search engine to find tweets related to your business’s niche. This is an easy way to locate people who might be interested in your products or services. This strategy involves a simple process: Determine keywords related to your business Use the Twitter search engine to locate tweets that include your chosen keywords Follow the tweets back to the source Determine whether ...

Determine keywords related to your business
Use the Twitter search engine to locate tweets that include your chosen keywords
Follow the tweets back to the source
Determine whether the person involved might be interested in your niche
If yes, invite him to follow you

Initially, a lot of people you add may not follow you back. Nevertheless, if you persist, over time, you will find it relatively easy to accumulate 50 new followers each day; when this happens, you’ll gain momentum. Of course, you must not only think about getting new followers. You must also strive to create interesting tweets, come up with offer coupons, or provide vital information. If you do, you will find that most of your messages will get re-tweeted, expanding your reach and possibly bringing in new followers without you exerting extra effort. Why not try it today? Log on to your Twitter account, do a search for some important keywords related to your business, and start getting new followers.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #5: Tracking Your Twitter Results

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:21:19 +0000

If there's one essential thing that a lot of marketers seem to forget, it is this: tracking marketing results. Tracking how your campaigns and marketing plan is doing is important if you want to discover: If you are getting profits If there is something that can be done to improve your products or services If you have to adjust your current marketing strategies or use entirely new ones As with any marketing campaign, you should monitor your Twitter promotional campaigns by tracking the results... Twitter Tracking Systems to Use If you want to track your Twitter results but are unsure where to ...

If you are getting profits
If there is something that can be done to improve your products or services
If you have to adjust your current marketing strategies or use entirely new ones

As with any marketing campaign, you should monitor your Twitter promotional campaigns by tracking the results...

Twitter Tracking Systems to Use

If you want to track your Twitter results but are unsure where to start, then let us offer several tools that can do the work for you or ways to discover your results:

http://search.twitter.com/ -One free way to find all instances of people talking about you or your business on Twitter; this can give you a rough idea of how your marketing plan is fairing.
Tweet Beep: http://tweetbeep.com/ - This service will automatically email you whenever something about you or your business is tweeted.
Analytics/traffic statistics program- this kind of program will help you determine how much traffic you have received from Twitter. If you don’t currently have a good traffic statistics program, you can get one for free Google (http://www.google.com/analytics). Google Analytics is a tool will tell you where all your visitors come from, including those that come from your Twitter profile or your Facebook fan page.

Aside from tweets, you might also find it beneficial to track whether the links in your tweets get clicked and how often. I'm using HootSuite for this as it has lots of useful features for professional tweets. However, you can easily find a more suitable one online, if you prefer.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #3: Twitter Profile Tweets

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:49:25 +0000

If you're into web 2.0 marketing, there's no doubt you need a Twitter profile. Twitter is a very popular social networking and microblogging platform, one that currently competes evenly with Facebook. Creating a Twitter Profile It's actually very easy to create a Twitter profile. First, you must go to http://twitter.com and look around. Once you are familiar with the site, go to the sign up page (https://twitter.com/signup) and create one or more accounts. (See Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #1.) Once you have setup your Twitter account, it is critical that you spend some time to personalize your profile: this ...

Creating a Twitter Profile

It's actually very easy to create a Twitter profile. First, you must go to http://twitter.com and look around. Once you are familiar with the site, go to the sign up page (https://twitter.com/signup) and create one or more accounts. (See Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #1.) Once you have setup your Twitter account, it is critical that you spend some time to personalize your profile: this is the key to achieving success with Twitter marketing.

Why Personalize Your Profile

Personalizing your Twitter profile will help you establish a credible identity. This way, you will not be perceived as spammer when you ask Twitter users to follow you. When it comes to setting up a personalized profile on Twitter, there’s not much to do. It’s very easy and takes only 5 minutes. All you have to do are:

Login to your Twitter account and go to your Twitter settings page
Select a pre-existing background (or create a customized one)
Select or upload an avatar thumbnail photo
Fill in your “Bio” and “About me” section (you can put short descriptions here)
Add your primary web site URL

That is all there is to it! Here are some useful reminders, though:

Avatar- As far as your avatar goes, it is probably a good idea to use the logo for your internet business. If you don't have one, you can choose to upload your picture instead, if you feel comfortable enough to do so.
Background- It can be a good idea to create a custom background, so that it includes your logo.
Bio- Regarding the bio section create a bio section that briefly explains what your business does and what the purpose of this Twitter profile is (i.e. to give away free stuff, to hold contests, or to provide free information).

Twitter can be a great platform for reaching out to a lot more customers. If you plan your actions well, it can surely be your key to success.

Web 2.0 Marketing Tip #1: Consistent Web 2.0 Identity is Key

Ralf Skirr — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:44:29 +0000

Seeing that you have found these Web 2.0 marketing series and have already started reading this first tip, you are surely ready to enter the world of web 2.0. Before you go out and spread the word about your business through We 2.0 sites, it’s important for you to spend some time carefully thinking about your Web 2.0 identity. That is to say, before you create a Twitter account, launch a Facebook fan page, and begin to market your business through web 2.0 channels, you need to know what image you want to project. Beginning Your Web ...

Beginning Your Web 2.0 Campaign

When it comes to Web 2.0 marketing, the first thing you will want to do is... ...decide whether you should create profiles based on:

Your business
Yourself
Both.

Each of the three options has benefits, but it is ultimately up to you to decide which will work best for your particular situation. Once you have selected your route, you should create accounts on web 2.0 sites and setup a profile that reflects your choice. For instance, a Twitter account for your business should focus exclusively on business activities and not your personal life.

Emergency Cash Tip #15: Use Twitter to Market Your Myspace Forum Product

Ralf Skirr — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:31:27 +0000

If you used emergency cash method #14 (Myspace Forums to Sell Products), you now have: an inexpensive, entry-level product, a sales page, and a check-out system. All you need to do now to make more cash is direct additional traffic to it. While posting on Myspace Forums was a good way to start, there are still a lot of options available for traffic generation. One such option is Twitter. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s a social networking service that allows you to add and remove friend as you would on Myspace or Facebook. The difference is that the main purpose of Twitter ...

If you used emergency cash method #14 (Myspace Forums to Sell Products), you now have:

an inexpensive, entry-level product,
a sales page, and
a check-out system.

All you need to do now to make more cash is direct additional traffic to it.

While posting on Myspace Forums was a good way to start, there are still a lot of options available for traffic generation.

One such option is Twitter.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s a social networking service that allows you to add and remove friend as you would on Myspace or Facebook.

The difference is that the main purpose of Twitter is to send out 140-character “tweets” to your friends; and, in return, to read what they are tweeting about.

Of course, Twitter can also be used to make emergency cash.

To do this, you’ll need to start by creating an account if you do not already have one.
After that, you will want to begin adding people who might be good targets for your sales campaign. You can do this by searching to see who is tweeting about topics related to your product. You can then add them.
After a week or so, if you worked diligently, you will have hundreds of followers.
What you should do next is begin making tweets that do not directly pitch your product. Instead, they should simply communicate interesting and useful information about your product niche.

Your goal in this whole process is to spur some interest in your twitter profile.

There you will place a link to your salespage. That’s right: instead of using your profile to conduct a massive pitchfest, you will use it to draw people in naturally, so that they view your profile on their own terms—and then decide whether to buy.

Pimp Up Your Profile! At Twitter…

Ralf Skirr — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:16:34 +0000

Hey guys,

5 minutes ago I uploaded a custom background to my Twitter profile.

http://twitter.com/RalfSkirr

I’m using it now to add a blog news sidebar to my Twitter page.

You can do the same with your own Twitter profile. Login and use the menu to go to:
Settings - Design - Scroll down to ‘Change background image‘.

There you can upload any image from your computer as new background.

5 Steps To Going Viral On Twitter

Ralf Skirr — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:51:01 +0000

Copyblogger published a great article titled ’5 Steps To Going Viral On Twitter’.

At Twitter ‘going viral‘ usually means that your Tweet gets re-tweeted by others. The more ‘generations’ of re-tweeting a post of yours gets, the more people will see your message.

The author, Dan Zarella, unveils his detailed research about:

What phrases work best as ‘call to action’ to make your Tweets go viral?
What is the best time to post your viral Tweets?
What’s the most important thing your post needs for best chances to go viral?
How to increase your rate of ‘virability’?
What types of content make the Twits fall in love with you and get them to re-tweet?

It’s really a great article, very focused and with clear instructions how to make your marketing messages on Twitter successful.

Read it here:
http://www.copyblogger.com/go-viral-on-twitter

IM Strategy (2) – How Barack Obama Used Internet Marketing To Win Presidency

Ralf Skirr — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:01:28 +0000

Internet Marketing Strategy, Part 2 of 7

Does internet marketing work? The short answer to this question is yes, but there are plenty of fantastic examples of how it works.

A good one is to consider the election of Mr. Obama.

Regardless of whether you are from the U.S. or not, and no matter what side of the ticket you were rooting for, one thing has to be said. Mr. Obama’s ability to use Internet marketing, including internet marketing methods, helped him win this election, according to many professionals.

Mr. Obama’s campaign is the most successful internet marketing campaign ever conducted.

The e-strategy blog called his campaign “The Perfect Political Storm”.

They wrote:

His brilliant use of the Internet and his get-out-the-vote efforts will be studied as a textbook example not so much of a multichannel marketing campaign as an every channel campaign. The campaign will be studied within the political world for bucking history and actually getting young voters to cast their vote.

Obama used the many, many tools in Internet marketing to help him to win his election because he and his campaign moreover knew the importance and success it could bring.

The world goes to the web to learn what it needs to, in today’s culture. More so, the Internet provides an easy, affordable way to reach millions of people every single day. No other medium offers this.

How did Obama use internet marketing to win the Presidential Election of the United States?

Using internet marketing tools, websites, and even things like GoogleAds helped him to make it happen.

First of all he had his own website.

http://www.barackobama.com

Besides giving information about his campaign the very purpose of this site was (and still is) to get people to subscribe to his email newsletter.

Once you do this you’ll get regular promotional emails. And most often you will be asked to support him with donations.

Before you enter his web site you are forced to see the name squeeze page. (If the president elect can do it, then you can do it too to build a list of prospects.) The design and content of the squeeze page changes often, but the purpose is to get visitors to part with their email address.

Social Networking For The Campaing

Next he (or rather his campaign) created a Barack Obama profile on ALL major networking web sites. That includes the 2 most used web 2.0 sites that we people from the so called ‘Internet Marketing Niche’ are using and promoting: Twitter and Facebook.

Barack Obama on Twitter

In fact, http://twitter.com, a useful tool that allows individuals to put out a 140 character message about what they are doing right now was used by Mr. Obama as one of the many methods of internet marketing.

By gaining a huge following and communicating through them in short clips, he could converse with everyday people, put his message out and do it all without spending a penny for it.

http://twitter.com/barackobama

At the time of writing this, January 5 2009, Barack Obama has a following of 154,537 people on Twitter.

I’m working on it too, hehe. I ‘collected’ my first follower on Dec 27 2008 and today, 9 days later, I’m at 946 followers.
http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

Barack Obama on Facebook

Another example of this is Facebook. Everyone on the web knows that Facebook.com is a haven for younger generation individuals who like to find each other and chat. The trend has grown. In fact, businesses, politicians, and even employers are using it as a tool to connect with others. Mr. Obama’s Facebook page was yet another form of internet marketing that helped him to get his message out.

http://presby.facebook.com/barackobama?q=barackobama&ref=ts

You wouldn’t believe it, he’s already set his eye on the significant year 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BarackObama2012/40275089374

And here’s me again. http://www.facebook.com/people/Ralf-Skirr/1019486454?

There’s A Marketing Lesson To Be Learned…

I’m not throwing my own accounts in for promotional purpose only. I’m throwing it in to bring your attention to a very important fact:

You and I are nowhere near the multi million dollar budgets Barack Obama’s campaign had, right?

Yet the very cool thing is – we can use the very same web sites that powered his campaign and it doesn’t cost a dime.

I have my own Twitter and Facebook account just like the President elect has, and you can do it too. It’s on a smaller scale, but that’s a good thing because your personal or business goals are on a smaller scale too.

We’ll come back to that in the next part of the IM Strategy series.

Barack Obama’s Personal Blog

Just like many small business internet marketers he’s keeping a blog too:

http://www.barackobama-2012.blogspot.com/

As you can see, there are excellent ways that internet marketing works. For most of the general public, you aren’t trying to win the presidential election. Nevertheless, these tools can still be used to help virtually anyone to gain success in getting traffic to their website.

Here’s just a few of the profiles Obamas internet campaign has created. You could – as part of your own internet marketing strategy – make use of the same networks.

Barack Obama on Facebook
http://presby.facebook.com/barackobama?q=barackobama&ref=ts

Barack Obama on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom

Barack Obama on Digg

http://digg.com/users/ObamaforAmerica

Barack Obama on Twitter
http://twitter.com/barackobama

Barack Obama on Eventful
http://eventful.com/performers/barack-obama-/P0-001-000000162-8

Barack Obama on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Barack Obama on Eons
http://www.eons.com/members/profile/barackobama

Here’s an excellent visual representation that illustrates Obama’s campaign.

It’s worth checking out, you could easily create a similar map for your own campaigns. Pay special attention to the social networking illustration on the right.

See it in full size as PDF.

That’s it for today, tomorrow we’ll finally reveal the 3-step-internet-marketing-strategy. We’ll explore these three parts and find out how you can put them to use no matter what type of Internet marketing business you have.

As usual: Your Comments Are Welcome…

Twitter Series Part IV – 6 Content Ideas for Your Twitter Posts

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:42:06 +0000

Okay, so here’s the fourth instalment of my Twitter series. Thanks for stopping by.

If you’re a Twit, you can follow me here: http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

Today’s article is about ‘What Content to Post to Your Twitter Updates.’

Before you begin posting Twitter updates, you need to be clear about your main goals for using Twitter. If you’re focused before you get started, you’ll write much better posts and get targeted traffic to your blog.

Always remember that 100 targeted visitors are worth more than 10,000 un-targeted visitors.

There are many different ways you can use Twitter, and everyone uses it a little bit different.

Before using Twitter consider these goals:

Driving traffic to your web site or blog.
Positioning yourself as authority in your specific niche.
Building your brand.
To make your web site a networking experience by adding Twitter.
To draw people’s attention to a specific campaign.
To get subscribers for your email marketing.
To maximize the number of Twitter followers.

You can use Twitter for all of this, or you can choose just one of these goals and run with that.

You could even create different Twitter accounts for different purposes.

What Content Should You Post To Your Twitter Updates?

I’m assuming you’re not tweeting only for personal reasons, but to enhance your business!

The Twitter site has one question and one question only – What are you doing?
How you answer this is totally up to you.

Try to come up with answers that…

are interesting to read.
make them pay attention for what you post.
make them visit your sites.
make them reply and comment on your updates.

Be a person, not a faceless marketer.

To start out with, you’ll want to post a few things that are related to you personally and not your Blog, site or products directly. Remember, first and foremost Twitter is a social networking utility. People have a low tolerance for blatant advertising.

A lot of people simply post about what they are doing in their daily routine. You’ll see a lot of posts like “Eating dinner.” or “Starting this new project.”

If you’re having trouble answering the question “what are you doing” try thinking of it in terms of “what are you interested in” or “what has you attention.”

But only a small part of your posts should focus on your private life. After all you not only want to entertain but also give value to your readers.

Promoting your Blog.

The most basic way of using Twitter to build traffic to your Blog is to post updates on Twitter whenever you make a Blog post. It is even possible to automate the process of adding new Blog posts to Twitter or vice versa adding your newest Twitter updates to your Blog.

If you do submit a back link to your own Blog, be sure to add more to your Twitter update than just the link. Tell them what the specific Blog post is about. You don’t want to be seen as someone spamming his link all over Twitter.

But there’s so much more to Twitter than that.

Ideas for non-Blog post related Twitter posts:

Share valuable information and useful tips. You can post URLs related to your niche, or just interesting articles and sites you find while browsing the Internet.
Write replies to other people’s Twitter updates.
Ask them questions. Ask people what they think of the latest news story, their opinion on a given topic, or what they ate for lunch. By asking them questions you can build your relationship with your followers.
Add to the value of your twitter feed by sharing some personal tips that aren’t on your Blog. 140 characters offer enough space to share a short, helpful tip. Ideally of course post tips related to your industry.
Share links to other people’s sites and explain your view.
Share your own opinion on popular topics. You can submit links to current news, preferably those related to your niche, and offer your comment.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Do you have a few ideas on your own? Please post them below. I appreciate any addition that makes this page more helpful for everybody.

And as always at the end of these Twitter articles I’d like to point you to my own Twitter page: http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

And when you go there remember that old Genesis song…

Here you go…

Twitter Series Part III – How To Create A Twitter Account

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:04:02 +0000

So today I created my own Twitter account and I made a screen recording of it.

It needs some editing, then I will post it here in a day or two.

Ralf

Twitter Series Part II – 4 Ways To Jumpstart Your Business With Twitter

Ralf Skirr — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:14:02 +0000

Welcome to the second part of my multi-part series on Twitter. Today let’s go over a few of the ways that you can use Twitter for your business.

If you want to, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/ralfskirr.

1. Getting Traffic to Your Blog Posts or Your Web Sites.

Did you know you can add links to your Twitter posts? Thus with a simple 140 character message to Twitter, you can have lots of readers come to your sites.

When you use Twitter, you’ll be able to tap into parts of your existing market that you weren’t aware of before. Plus, you can not only find tons of new readers on Twitter, but you’ll also remind current readers to re-visit your site.

Be prepared though that if you’re going to use it just to post links to your Blog, you’re going to be a bit disappointed.

Since Twitter is a social networking tool, people will quickly unsubscribe from your updates. On Twitter, people want to know more about you and see a more personal side of you.

This is why it’s such a powerful way to drive traffic to your Blog.

2. Connecting With Your Readership.

When you blog in a traditional sense, you’re speaking to your readership from a distance. You write your post, edit it and then post it. During all of these activities, you’re removed from your audience; they may read it even months after you created it.

But when you use Twitter to communicate, it becomes a conversation. You can show more of your personality to your followers and truly communicate with them on a different level.

A Twitter update shows up on your and other people’s sites instantly.

This can get them more interested in you and your Blog, which will build more traffic over time.

While you connect with your (new) readers, you also want to position yourself in your reader’s mind. That’s what the third Twitter benefit is about. Read on…

3. Building Your Brand.

In order to stand out amidst the large amount of Blogs and Twitter accounts online, you need to develop a persona for people to connect to and identify with.

You can accomplish this through your Blog, but you can further your branding by using a Twitter account.

You need to figure out what makes you unique in your niche and then extend these differences between you and others in your Twitter posts. Decide what your persona is, and then make sure your Twitter posts reflect that.

Before I finish this article, here’s an important Twitter benefit that’s largely overlooked by many marketers. Twitter is one of the fastest and cheapest ways for

4. Researching Your Niche.

With Twitter, your target market can be at your fingertips. You can spy on their interests, ask them about their needs and automatically get ideas for your Blog posts or for profitable products.

Interact with other people, answer their questions and ask them questions back. This way you can become part of the community.

If you add a lot of people to your follow list who are in your niche, pay attention to their problems, their questions and the type of things that they share.

This can all be part of your niche research and you can incorporate what you find there in your Blog or in the form of a new product. You’ll find that your Twitter account can be a treasure trove for Blog post ideas.

You can use the information that you find on Twitter to create Blog posts that meet the needs of your readership. You can also address specific questions or concerns.

You’ll be surprised at what a great brainstorming tool your Twitter account can be. You’ll read someone’s update and then it will get the wheels turning for a Blog post, or even a series of Blog posts.

That’s it for now, 4 ways to enhance your business with Twitter. Thanks for reading. Follow me at http://twitter.com/ralfskirr and as always: feel free to add your input below…

Twitter Series Part I – What Is Twitter?

Ralf Skirr — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:23:13 +0000

Twitter is a new and really hot trend in the blogsphere and if you’re not part of it, you’re missing out.

Twitter has totally changed the way that people communicate online and it should be an indispensable part of your overall marketing plan for your web sites and blogs.

If you’re brand new to Twitter, or even if you’ve been around on the site for some time, you’ll find out in this Twitter article series how you can use it to create a whirlwind of traffic to your blog and open the doors to brand new subscribers.

So What Exactly is That ’Twitter’ Thingy?

First of all: Twitter is a free service available at http://www.twitter.com/. If you haven’t been there before just follow the link to the main page and check it out.

Or see it in action on my personal account at: http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

But I still haven’t told you what it is or what it does…

Twitter has two main components. It is a combination of a blogging tool and a social networking site.

1. The Blogging Aspect of Twitter.

When creating an account you’ll get your own page at Twitter.

Here’s mine for example:

http://twitter.com/ralfskirr

You can post messages to your twitter page just like you can post articles to a blog. Your messages are limited just to 140 characters, which is why some people call it a “microblogging” tool. You have to keep your messages brief and too the point.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to get the point across in the allotted space, but it also leaves room for a lot of creativity! Coming up with ways to say what you have to say in that small space is part of the fun of Twitter.

You’ll find out what to post to your Twitter page and how it helps your business in the upcoming articles in this Twitter series.

2. The Social Networking Aspect of Twitter.

Just like social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, you can add “followers” (called ‘friends’ at the other sites) and follow other people as well.

They’ll receive your updates and you’ll receive theirs.

That’s why Twitter is a fantastic way to get more traffic to your blog and build a relationship with your readership. It can spread your message virally all over the web.

Let’s Look at How Twitter Gets Your Message Around.

There are a three different ways of posting on Twitter that you need to know about.

1) First, there’s a regular post.

When you type in a message to Twitter and hit “update” it will be viewable by all the people who are following you.

2) The next type of post is a reply.

When you type in a regular message, people may reply to your post.

You’ll see your user name with the symbol @ before it when someone replies to your message. You can respond to other people the same way. You simply type @ and then their user name directly after that.

Replies are viewable by everyone who is following you or the other person you are replying to.

Read that again: Replies are viewable by everyone who is following you or the other person you are replying to.

Can you see how powerful this is? You’re not only getting your message to your own subscribers (=followers), but to your subscriber’s subscribers as well.

3) Finally, there’ a direct message to individuals.

If you want to send a private message to someone that no one else can see, you can send a direct message. To do so, simply type the letters dm with the person’s user name.

You’ll receive messages from others on a special page of Twitter and be notified via e-mail when someone direct messages you.

The direct message is something that you won’t be using much for marketing; focus on posts and replies instead.

To summarize: Twitter let’s you post very short messages to your own Twitter micro-blog page and that message will be shown on your follower’s pages – and in case of replies on your follower’s followers pages as well.

It’s an easy and fast way to get your message in front of thousands of people.

Feel free to post your comments and questions below.

In the next part of the Twitter series I’ll talk about ’4 Ways That Twitter Can Jumpstart Your Business’.

What Web 2.0 Can Do For Your Business…

Ralf Skirr — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:26:20 +0000

For several years now Web 2.0 is THE big internet hype.

We’ve seen shooting stars like youtube and myspace rake in billions.

Newcomers like Facebook, Twitter and the like are the big hope for marketers and business owners to profit from networking.

All the internet traffic is attracted to the web 2.0 properties like being sucked in a black hole.

If you’re ignoring the trend, you’re bound to lose your business.

How can you secure your share of traffic?

There are 4 main questions about leveraging web 2.0 for your business:

Can established web 2.0 sites like Facebook be tricked into sending loads of traffic to your site?
Can you make personal contacts to leaders and important people in your industry?
Is it possible to gain #1 search engine rankings for your own home pages using the web 2.0 sites?
And finally: What about creating your very own web 2.0 site tailored to your business niche? Is it worth the investment in time and money?

The web 2.0 category of Internet-Business-Mastermind is here to answer these questions and inform you about the most profitable web 2.0 strategies.

Make sure to sign up for the newsfeed on the right hand side to get notified about these profit producing articles.