The aim is to be able to generate enough revenue to make sure that the company is able to keep itself sustained, and, according to Adam Bain (Twitter’s Chief Revenue Officer), they have given a small number of businesses the opportunity, over the past few weeks, to test out this self-service system of showing ads.

The theory behind this idea would seem to be: if Facebook can use self-service ads to create around 60% of its $3.8 billion of revenue this year, why wouldn’t a company with as many users as Twitter try to follow that sort of successful advertising model? It’s also the model that Google used to become one of the biggest advertisers around, so there is definitely potential in it.

I strongly believe that this form of advertising is going to be popular with small to medium sized businesses too just like Facebook advertising has become an integral part in marketing campaigns for hundreds and thousands of companies. The reason why this should prove popular is the fact that you don’t have to talk with a sales person – although 100 new staff have been employed by twitter specifically – and the ads can be purchased using a credit card. Considering how the internet is a 24 hour, worldwide platform that’s full of small and medium-sized businesses, this sort of flexibility is becoming a must.

To emphasize just how this new platform could increase the revenue of Twitter, it is expected that the amount of money will grow from the $45 million taken in the US in 2010, to somewhere in the region of $399.5 million by the end of 2013. Twitter has increased the number of advertisers that they have from six (18 months ago) to over 2,400 now; it’s this sort of growth that helps to back up the projected figures they have for the end of 2013.

The new “promoted” tweets are also said to be getting 100 times more interaction from consumers than the older style of online advertising. An example of this increase in effectiveness is the promotion via Twitter of the movie “Super 8″. By giving fans details on where they could see early screenings of the movie, it is thought that the movie generated an extra 15 to 18 million dollars at the box office on the opening weekend.

With the vast reach that Twitter has, this advertising platform could well see their revenue start to reach its potential, and with over 100 million people using it each month, 50 million of which log on daily, to send more than 250 million tweets each day, there is a lot of potential for it to live up to.

To get to the point where 60% of its ad revenue is made up by self-service ads, may take a number of years, but doing it in a slow and methodical way can be far more of a positive than it is a negative; as it could help them to find ways to block the fraudulent advertisers and spammers, that have caused problems for many of the other companies that have seen rapid increases in growth.

Are you still unsure about creating a corporate blog for your company? If so, be certain that the people you are competing with are not going to wait for you to get on the ball. Your profits could be leaking out to your competitors as you read this post. Blogging is an invaluable asset Are you still unsure about creating a corporate blog for your company? If so, be certain that the people you are competing with are not going to wait for you to get on the ball. Your profits could be leaking out to your competitors as you read this post. Blogging is an invaluable asset for your business when you do it right especially if you have a branding infinitive that is based around social media marketing. Corporate blogging may be one of the most lucrative forms of marketing that you can add to your business plan. Investing your time and income into a good blog will be well worth it in the long run.

Trying to sell products today is very different than it was in previous years. Open communication is a must between a market brand and its target audience. You can display how much your customers mean to you through your blog and create loyal relationships that can last for many years to come. Company blogs provide customers with updated information, new product promotions, and a way to keep an open line of communication. If you think of your company website as a promotional billboard on the interstate consider your blog a direct line to your office.

8 Reasons That Every Business Needs A Blog

1. Your customers do not respond or trust advertising that is not directly from you. Being transparent for your customers will increase their trust in your brand. If you do not make yourself available for good communication your current customers will become past customers. There is nothing like a good personal relationship where you can talk one on one and your corporate blog is the ideal setting to start building relationships.

2.         Being low in Internet search results is bad for business. When people are searching for companies on the web they rarely make it past the first few pages. Blogging makes your company search engine rank rise. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to your blogs success. Optimize each blog post with key words and phrases that you want to use to promote your brand. When you post on a regular basis and optimize your posts you will start showing up in more search results and will not get indexed into the groups of websites that do not update regularly. Your corporate blog should also include plug-ins that link your blog to your other social media sites and add features such as meta-tagging and extra SEO features.

3.  Blogs are very easy to keep updated. Anyone with basic computer knowledge can navigate and post to a blog. You don’t have to over think it. As long as your updates/posts are interesting and include relevant information they can be as long or as short as you want.

4. Your business blog needs to shine a spotlight on your specialties. There are people who aren’t as qualified as you are that are taking up space in your area of expertise. Become an authority for your product and show your potential customers that you are the best person to buy from.

5. Blogs take up minimal time but reap huge rewards. In less than an hour a day you can promote your company to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people that are interested in your business. One of the best parts is all that it costs you is that short amount of time. Blogging is one of the best forms of free advertising.

6. An important part of sales generation is your brands awareness. It is a general thought that you will need to “touch” the customer three to seven times with the idea of your product before the customer will purchase it. Keeping an updated blog is an opportunity to reach out to your customers every day. Eventually your fellow bloggers with back-link your articles and that will cause your brands popularity to improve.

7. Blogging is like creating free focus groups on a daily basis. Your customers can tell you all the time what they think about your product. You will know what turns customers off of your different merchandise or services and what keeps them coming back for more.

8. The main reason your company should have a blog is because you really can’t afford to not have one. Blogs are one of the easiest ways to promote your business. The revenue a blog can bring you will be well worth the short amount of time needed to run it. Hiring a professional to set up your blog is probably the best way to go. After you have it integrated and matching your website you can maintain it and watch your business grow.  for your business when you do it right especially if you have a branding infinitive that is based around social media marketing. Corporate blogging may be one of the most lucrative forms of marketing that you can add to your business plan. Investing your time and income into a good blog will be well worth it in the long run.

Trying to sell products today is very different than it was in previous years. Open communication is a must between a market brand and its target audience. You can display how much your customers mean to you through your blog and create loyal relationships that can last for many years to come. Company blogs provide customers with updated information, new product promotions, and a way to keep an open line of communication. If you think of your company website as a promotional billboard on the interstate consider your blog a direct line to your office.

It’s always nice to be liked, it gives us a feeling of being accepted, or that we’re doing things that keep other people happy; but what does it mean for you if you have a brand that’s ‘liked’ online?

Now, more than ever, companies have a golden opportunity to interact with their customers, to find out what those customers either like, or dislike, and whether this interaction can help to create new customers from the many people that will now see them as a wholly likeable company, on one of the biggest social networking sites around, Facebook.

If you are looking to enhance your friendly persona, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by Facebook promotion, then you’re going to want to take a note of the ten tips below.
1. Always listen to what people are saying – This is as close to being able to listen into other people’s conversations about you as you’ll be able to get.

Take note of the things that people don’t like about your product, as much as you do about the things they do like, and get involved in these conversations, if possible. If people know that you care enough to get involved, and they see that you’re making changes based on what they’re saying, then you’re going to find yourself creating a better customer feeling about your products.

2. Using the EdgeRank Formula – If you don’t already know, EdgeRank is the way that Facebook determines what’s going to be at the top of the News Feeds. Why is that important? Well, most people are going to notice what’s at the top of the News Feed, and if that’s you and your product, you’re going to be seen by a lot of potential new customers.

This is going to give you a great advantage over any other company online as your Facebook marketing effort will put you ahead of your fan’s friends, so no competing for attention further down the line. Make sure you use this advantage by grabbing their attention further, videos, photos and short text should help to do that. Also, make sure you don’t go in with ‘obvious’ advertising; nobody on a social site is looking to be advertised to.

3. Engage with people – Remember, you’re taking part in a social site, so be sociable. That doesn’t, of course, mean that you have to act in a way that’s going to bring your companies image into disrepute, on the contrary, by talking to, and listening to your customers you’re going to start to build a rapport, and this is going to help you to get genuine feedback about your products.
There are some very large and successful companies that are doing this already, if it works for them, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work for you; in fact, if your company gets a reputation as being approachable then it will help with customer loyalty.

4. Be on hand to answer negative comments – People have found that the internet is a good place for them to vent their frustrations and, due to the very nature of the internet; this negativity about your company can be made known to other potential customers very quickly.

You now have a fantastic opportunity to address those frustrations. Be quick to get your point across, and don’t be afraid to say if you’ve made a mistake, in fact, showing that your company has a human side, and can apologies, when appropriate, can give a lot of positivity to your Facebook marketing.

5. Positive comments are great publicity, so respond to them, too – Not only is it good to be quick to respond to comments that could damage the reputation of your company, it’s also a great idea to say ‘thank you’ to the people who are prepared to say how good your company is.

These comments will be seen by a lot of people, and if they can see that you’re appreciative of good feedback, then that may encourage them to post their experiences of dealing with you and your company, too.

6. Being genuine – Share things with people that will give them more of an insight about you and your company. That doesn’t mean that you should be ‘airing your dirty laundry in public’ but, if you have some interesting story about something that led to a new innovation in your product, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t share it with people.

7. Value for money – Why not give people something that they can’t get anywhere else, if they become one of your fans on Facebook?

This sort of Facebook promotion can bring you a lot of fans, and having a lot of fans means you have a lot of people that you can let know about new products, and they can spread the word. Because they’re doing so much to help your company, why not give them something really valuable, like 50% off of one of your best selling products?

8. Sharing stories – This was touched upon earlier, but is well worth repeating.
A lot of people are interested in how people get to where they are in life, and they’re just as interested in how products were arrived at, or improved upon. Many online are looking to start or improve their own businesses, so this can be a great way to inspire people, and if your company is associated with inspiration, that can only be a good thing for you.

9. Be ready to surprise – This should be a surprise in a good way. Are you looking to make a certain number sales of a product, or sign up x number of fans, or maybe have y number of downloads of a report? In that case, why not give people a surprise incentive if you get past that goal?
If you have something that’s of value, but you can give away a certain number of for free, then tell people that you’ll do so once the goal has been reached, but limit the number to add a certain amount of scarcity to the offer.

10. People are on there to socialize, not to be sold to – How would you feel if you went out with your friends, and all they did was try to sell things to you; you’d leave, wouldn’t you?
People go online, to social networking sites, to meet up and chat, they’ve had enough of the usual commercialism for the day, so the last thing they want is your company popping up and pushing your product.

While it’s fine to sell, don’t be a sales person, give them a way that they can buy from you, and get involved in conversations in areas that concern your product, but don’t ‘push’ it on anyone – that’s how you make a sale on a site like Facebook.

So, if you want to make the most of your Facebook marketing, then think like a buyer, and decide if you’d ‘like’ your company if you saw them and how they interact with people on Facebook.

We all know that Twitter has a huge number of users, and keeping track of everything that’s going on, even in your own sphere of followers or people you’re following, can be difficult; but did you know that you can fix that by using hashtags?

Hashtags (#) are a quick and easy way for you to show that there’s a part of your tweet that links back to a larger discussion on the subject. For instance; if you were talking about the subject of hashtags, and wanted people who are interested in the topic to be able to find your tweet, you’d include something like #hashtag in the tweet. Now, when any one does a search for #hashtag, they’ll see your views on the subject, too.

Doing this makes life so much easier when you’re short on time, but still want to get all of the latest gossip on a topic. The hashtag has broken out of the confines of Twitter, and is making its own way in the real world.
The hashtag has started to find its way into emails, chat windows, and even normal everyday conversations. It has become the shorthand of a community that even finds text-talk to be too long and complicated to use. It has also, and probably somewhat inevitably, found its way into some of the advertising that you may have seen recently, and not had a clue about what was going on.

Of course, if you have a Twitter account, you could just login and see what the ad is all about by typing the hashtag and word into the search box; plus you may also see a number of comments by people who have used the same hashtag and word to give their own feelings on the product; so it may not be the best strategy if your product doesn’t live up to the hype.

Now that it’s hit the main stream, however, hashtags seem to have developed a few new meanings.

Some people use them as shorthand for what they actually mean to say i.e. ‘this is turning out to be another #BadDay’ or they can use them in an ironic way i.e. ‘government votes for pay rise #GovernmentCutBacks’. Yes, technology is evolving, and so is the language; though it isn’t always getting any easier to understand.

So, while this may be taking on a completely different meaning in the real world, and the advertising agencies may be about to discover that being right on top of social change can often backfire somewhat, there are still plenty of advantages in using this technique in your own tweets and Twitter campaigns.

You’re going to be able to quickly find out what people are saying in any niche that you may be targeting, and you can quickly add your own comments to the discussion, too. You may even discover that trying to come up with a whole tweet to get your idea is no longer necessary if all you have to do is use a hashtag. It can save you a lot of time, and may even help you to connect better with the more tech-savvy of Twitter users; that may encourage them to follow you, and try out your product.

Is using hashtags on Twitter a good thing? Yes, it is a good thing; you just have to make sure that you keep up with developments so that you’re not going to be seen as being that ‘#LoserAdSpammer’.

And don’t forget to follow my hashtag #FunSat every Saturday morning at 10am cst

Lady Gaga has done what many in the industry thought to be impossible; she’s knocked Oprah Winfrey from the number one position in Forbes 100 Most Powerful Celebrities.

Clearly, having a media empire that rivals that of many small countries isn’t quite enough when it comes to taking on the sheer power house of Twitter. Naturally, 10 million followers’ trumps a ‘mere’ 5.9 million any day of the week, and you don’t have to have your own production company to get them; but some talent, and an incredible marketing and business brain, helps a lot.

Of course, Twitter isn’t the only online platform giving rise to the ‘overnight’ music phenomena. YouTube, and the 500 million views of a certain music video, jumped Justin Bieber into the public consciousness, and into number 3, with his breakthrough hit “Baby”.

Also, young Mr. Bieber is vying with Lady Gaga for the top spot on Twitter, with his 9.7 million followers. It looks like the race for number one is on.

What about some of the other players in the social media arena?

Well, it looks like the lady takes the prize here, too. Even with 36 million fans on social media giant, Facebook, Eminem may as well be ’8 mile’ behind as he has to settle for second place; I’m sure she could ‘just dance’ after hearing that.

However, the last laugh may be the privilege of Oprah after all. Despite not being top of the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Celebrities, she has a nice, healthy, and not too shabby $290 million worth of earnings for last year to comfort her. Poor old Lady Gaga, and little Justin, only made $90 million and $53 million respectively; though I’m sure they would take that, wouldn’t you?

While it seems that traditional media is still bringing in the money, the popularity behind the stars seems to be, in a large part, based on other newer and more widely available media sources. It also seems that many of these media companies are commanding the big bucks to go with the tag of ‘the power behind the popularity’ i.e. LinkedIn, which won’t be as familiar to you if you aren’t involved in the online business side of things, has been valued at $4.25 billion. Not bad for a relatively unknown company, is it?

Are we all floating on the top of another dot com bubble? It’s hard to say, at the moment. There are plenty of differences to the boom and bust time of the late ’90′s, and lessons have been learnt, but have enough been learnt to make sure the opportunities offered this time around aren’t wasted?

Can social media sites really make money for their users? Let’s just say that not all of the stars are as well known as the ones mentioned above; and that’s something that they’re more than happy about.

It’s always nice to be liked, it gives us a feeling of being accepted, or that we’re doing things that keep other people happy; but what does it mean for you if you have a brand that’s ‘liked’ online?

Now, more than ever, companies have a golden opportunity to interact with their customers, to find out what those customers either like, or dislike, and whether this interaction can help to create new customers from the many people that will now see them as a wholly likeable company, on one of the biggest social networking sites around, Facebook.

If you are looking to enhance your friendly persona, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by Facebook promotion, then you’re going to want to take a note of the ten tips below.

1. About Time You Listen  - This is as close to being able to listen into other people’s conversations about you as you’ll be able to get.

Take note of the things that people don’t like about your product, as much as you do about the things they do like, and get involved in these conversations, if possible. If people know that you care enough to get involved, and they see that you’re making changes based on what they’re saying, then you’re going to find yourself creating a better customer feeling about your products.

2. Engage with your Audience – Remember, you’re taking part in a social site, so be sociable. That doesn’t, of course, mean that you have to act in a way that’s going to bring your companies image into disrepute, on the contrary, by talking to, and listening to your customers you’re going to start to build a rapport, and this is going to help you to get genuine feedback about your products.

There are some very large and successful companies that are doing this already, if it works for them, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work for you; in fact, if your company gets a reputation as being approachable then it will help with customer loyalty.

3. Being Genuine – Share things with people that will give them more of an insight about you and your company. That doesn’t mean that you should be ‘airing your dirty laundry in public’ but, if you have some interesting story about something that led to a new innovation in your product, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t share it with people.

4. Must answer negative comments – People have found that the internet is a good place for them to vent their frustrations and, due to the very nature of the internet; this negativity about your company can be made known to other potential customers very quickly.

You now have a fantastic opportunity to address those frustrations. Be quick to get your point across, and don’t be afraid to say if you’ve made a mistake, in fact, showing that your company has a human side, and can apologies, when appropriate, can give a lot of positivity to your Facebook marketing.

5. Positive comments are great publicity, so respond to them, too – Not only is it good to be quick to respond to comments that could damage the reputation of your company, it’s also a great idea to say ‘thank you’ to the people who are prepared to say how good your company is.

These comments will be seen by a lot of people, and if they can see that you’re appreciative of good feedback, then that may encourage them to post their experiences of dealing with you and your company, too.

6. Using the EdgeRank Formula – If you don’t already know, EdgeRank is the way that Facebook determines what’s going to be at the top of the News Feeds. Why is that important? Well, most people are going to notice what’s at the top of the News Feed, and if that’s you and your product, you’re going to be seen by a lot of potential new customers.

This is going to give you a great advantage over any other company online as your Facebook marketing effort will put you ahead of your fan’s friends, so no competing for attention further down the line. Make sure you use this advantage by grabbing their attention further, videos, photos and short text should help to do that. Also, make sure you don’t go in with ‘obvious’ advertising; no one on a social site is looking to be advertised to.

7. Sharing stories – This was touched upon earlier, but is well worth repeating. A lot of people are interested in how people get to where they are in life, and they’re just as interested in how products were arrived at, or improved upon. Many online are looking to start or improve their own businesses, so this can be a great way to inspire people, and if your company is associated with inspiration, that can only be a good thing for you.

8. People Love Surprises! – This should be a surprise in a good way. Are you looking to make a certain number sales of a product, or sign up x number of fans, or maybe have y number of downloads of a report? In that case, why not give people a surprise incentive if you get past that goal?

If you have something that’s of value, but you can give away a certain number of for free, then tell people that you’ll do so once the goal has been reached, but limit the number to add a certain amount of scarcity to the offer.

9. Provide Value for Money – Why not give people something that they can’t get anywhere else, if they become one of your fans on Facebook?

This sort of Facebook promotion can bring you a lot of fans, and having a lot of fans means you have a lot of people that you can let know about new products, and they can spread the word. Because they’re doing so much to help your company, why not give them something really valuable, like 50% off of one of your best selling products?

10. People are here to socialize, NOT to be Sold To – How would you feel if you went out with your friends, and all they did was try to sell things to you; you’d leave, wouldn’t you?

People go online, to social networking sites, to meet up and chat, they’ve had enough of the usual commercialism for the day, so the last thing they want is your company popping up and pushing your product.

While it’s fine to sell, don’t be a sales person, give them a way that they can buy from you, and get involved in conversations in areas that concern your product, but don’t ‘push’ it on anyone – that’s how you make a sale on a site like Facebook.

So, if you want to make the most of your Facebook marketing, then think like a buyer, and decide if you’d ‘like’ your company if you saw them and how they interact with people on Facebook.

To some extent, the past few days were some of the proudest in the history of Twitter.

It was on Twitter that the death of Osama bin Laden was first confirmed reliably, even before it was announced by President Barack Obama.

An IT contractor in Pakistan was then turned into a worldwide twitter expert when he tweeted about the raid on the compound of bin Laden unknowingly.

Then it was announced by Twitter that the time that President Obama spoke was marked by 12.4 million tweets, which was a record.

But in spite of all these, the record for the most number of tweets that were sent at the same time has not been overtaken by the news of the bin Laden’s death.

What could it be? What could be so important as to be held with more significance that the greatest story of the decade? The answer: Japanese New Year’s Eve, which recorded over 6,000 tweets per second.

It looks like the best symbolism for all that is good and bad in microblogging. On the good side, it has become strong quickly, turning into a valued information service on its own and talking about the death of bin Laden even before the news was considered by TV networks.

On the bad side, it can be full of tweets that appear as if they were done by 6,000 New Year’s Eve drunks at times, which can look very degenerate.

However, Twitter has been in existence for only five years and as a whole, it may appear much like a five year old, inclined to go into tantrums, making up things and going over the same brief sentences repeatedly. You can be forgiven if you do not feel comfortable with this chaotic young service that has integrated itself into journalism.

Uncertainty is something that features itself prominently on Twitter at present. It has been turned into a cultural phenomenon but has not seen money coming in just yet. Although its founder, Jack Dorsey, came back to Twitter at a critical time, his focus is not on the company but on his next project, Square.

His online invention has spread both real and false information at the same tempo. As was notably stated by the CEO at Mashable, Pete Cashmore, “I learned that Michael Jackson died on Twitter. I also learned that Justin Bieber died on Twitter.”

After the death of bin Laden, a quote from Martin Luther King Jr stating “he wouldn’t rejoice in the death of single enemy” was extensively retweeted but there was one problem: he never said those words. They were the fabrication of a Facebook user that quickly found their way into Twitter. Both social networks have to contend with excessive disinformation.

And where did the original tweet made before the announcement of President Obama came from? It was from the ex chief of staff of Donald Rumsfeld – a person that can normally be considered as a political rival of the US president.

However, most users of Twitter do not have any idea, nor care, who he was and the statement was not checked out.

As election looms next year, we can anticipate the power of misinformation of Twitter to be used on some campaigns. You have not seen anything yet and it would be best if you could confirm anything that you get from Twitter from another source.

Although bin Laden’s death established the presence of Twitter, it also displayed its flaws. Some twitter expert users recently talked with astonishment that their service of preference could not give them all their news requirements on Sunday night – that they still have to use a reputable news service or the TV to get it.

According to a recent CNN post a CEO who uses several accounts to tweet fanatically had this to say: “Truth be told, Twitter can’t go into depth about a story, and people want depth — the where, how, what, when and the intimate details of the WHY.”

She wrote it in a lengthy discourse of over 140 characters – and put it up on Facebook.

Let me know what you think…

Sometimes we just have to face the fact that we can’t afford to get other people to do things for us, so, if you don’t have the cash, and need an SEO expert, these tips may just be able to make an SEO expert out of you.

1 – Make sure the keywords you want to rank for are actually in the body of your article. Over using them, however, is seen as keyword stuffing, which will cause you problems.

2 – Use relevant keywords in the ALT & TITLE tags. Again, don’t over use them, and avoid using them on photos that aren’t directly about the keyword i.e. don’t use the keywords on a clipart image of a ‘tick’, etc.

3 – Headings should have ‘H1′ tags, subheadings ‘H2′ tags etc.

4 – Headings and subheading should have a primary keyword, but use it in a way that makes sense of the heading.

5 – Try to keep the number of links in the body of your content to as few as possible. Too many looks suspicious, and you don’t want people leaving your site via a link when they’re only part way through an article.

6 – Incomplete, or ‘under construction’ sites don’t tend to get ranked, and, people who do visit them are unlikely to remember to come back when the site is ‘complete’.

8 – Don’t have a page full of images and no text. Text can be optimized, and is loved by the search engines, images only have tags, and they can be over used far too quickly.

9 – When you’re ready to launch your site to the world submit it to: Google, Bing, Yahoo, ASK.com and MSN; don’t wait for them to ‘find’ you, you don’t have that much time on your hands.

10 – Submit to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us; directories like the yellow pages; and if you have some money to spend, there are some good PR sites that will get you indexed really quickly.  

11 – Don’t make your titles too long, you want the whole thing to show in the search engines.

12 – Create an XML sitemap to makes sure the search engine spiders can find their way around your site.

13 – Have a version of the sitemap that visitors can use to quickly find their way around your site.

14 – Don’t use the latest ‘loopholes’ that are always finding their way onto the IM market; at best they’re short lived, at worst they could get your site removed from the search engine databases.

15 – Robots.txt will help you stop the search engine spiders from following links away from your site, or to parts of your site that you’d rather weren’t indexed. This means they can spend more time finding the bits that matter.

16 – Keep your Meta tag descriptions short, keyword relevant, but don’t over use the keywords i.e. avoid keyword spamming or stuffing.

17 – Don’t fill your Meta Tags with a lot of irrelevant keywords; pick the ones you need, and use no more than 15 words.

18 – Dynamic pages are difficult to ‘spider’ so they’re difficult to get listed, if at all possible, try not to use them.

19 – Check out how your site looks in a number of different browsers; what looks good in one, may not work in another; this could lead to indexing problems because it may mean there’s something wrong with the coding.

20 – Double check that there are no broken links or errors in your CSS, or HTML code.

21 – Duplicate content is bad, no matter what people may say. With all of the billions of webpages out there you may think that a few hundred pages with the same content make up a tiny percentage of the total number of pages, so why would they be worried? That would be underestimating the search engines’ drive to get rid of them; make sure you’re unique and you shouldn’t find your site being de-indexed due to duplicate content.

22 – Don’t specifically track the good search bots; let them roam free and there’s less chance of there being any indexing problem.

23 – Be careful when it comes to using online sites to submit your site, it’s too easy to overuse them, and look like you’re spamming the search engines.

24 – Online submission sites may have picked up a reputation for spamming, so sites submitted via them may not be ‘looked at’ as quickly for indexing.

25 – Don’t create pages that set out to scam, phish, send viruses, or Trojans etc. You could end up with more problems than just not being listed.

26 – Don’t try to trick the search engines into thinking they are sending people to a site about one thing, and having them go to a site about something else; they will pick up on this quite quickly, these days.

27 – Get a good mixture of both high and low PR one way links to your site. Try to make the links back to your site keyword anchor text in the body of good, relevant content.

28 – Avoid getting links from the types of sites the search engines don’t like i.e. scammers, hackers, link farms, etc. The search engines won’t give you any ‘credit’ for them, and may penalise your site because of them.

29 – SEO services can be a great thing to buy, but be careful as some companies use questionable ranking tactics; these won’t do your site any good at all.

30 – ‘Hidden’ text and link stuffing are a no-no.

31 – Your site needs to contain useful content before it will get a decent ranking, lists of affiliate links don’t rank that well, and will probably get removed from the search engine database, if they even make it there to begin with.

32 – The more useful and informative your site is, the more people will want to come back; other sites will link to you as an authority, and the search engines will come back time after time to spider your new content.

33 – Avoid questionable linking methods like having too many reciprocal links, or over using link exchanges etc.

34 – Make sure all of your links work, and try to internally link from the body of your content to other relevant pages you have on your site.

35 – This used to be very popular, but is being cracked down on by the search engines – don’t sell links to, or buy them from other sites.

If you can put at least a third of these SEO tactics into action on your site, you should start to see it rising through the ranks. Avoid questionable tactics that can get you removed from the search engines, give the people the content that they were expecting to see when they went to your site, and you’ll be doing better than most of the ‘SEO experts’ online at the moment.

The forty to fifty million dollar purchase of TweetDeck by Twitter, covered by TechCrunch this week states that service is safeguarding the brand, revenue stream and platform of Twitter aggressively. Now the question remains about further steps and the impacts of such developments to Twitter community.

While everyone is aware of the business purposes of acquiring TweetDeck, nobody is clear about the significances of combining the famous 3rd party app with Twitter. But when you look forward, if Twitter continues to acquire tools, ideas and developers, which of these features will add to its growth as popular social networking and marketing website? Below are important points which Twitter should have in mind if it likes to become as omnipresent as MS Office and not as Internet Explorer.

1. Integration of Different Social Media
The demands of juggling different social media are beyond control and situation has got much worse. Luckily TweetDeck is handling cross-client management over various social networking websites like MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, FourSquare and other services. Twitter will get them and they are competing services, and possibilities remain that the functionality with such sites will be removed. But cross-platform management of social media will make it more popular. For various social media power users, TweetDeck was an important application that acted as one-stop shop for different kinds of social media management. Hence you and other users must do a favor and retain these functions.

2. No Fuss, No Muss

The core application of Twitter is very good and helps you known the trending topics online and also to follow your friends. But it is not efficient in organizing huge amounts of RSS feeds. Also it does not give a clear and precise time-based summary of the people who have sent them. It is also not possible to pursue a chat thread over several re-tweets and tweeters. TweetDeck is a very good in power organization already and hence it will add more value to Tweeter.

3. Different Options and Cool Features.

The most essential for any professional or power user of any service is the various options available. Every user will have his/her own preferences for design, layout, format of sending messages and to organize social media. The 3rd party app wars are all about searching the application which aligns very close with options that are appealing to user. But the ideal solution is combining those options and allowing the user to decide the applications.

So it does not mean that Twitter should repackage itself and convert its interface to TweetDeck but to combine to attractive features of both applications and add it to main Twitter application. There are various developers and tools onboard that will add more functionality and features to Twitter.
There are chances for merging with another rival UberMedia, that has robust like of apps based on Twitter but there is no surety for that. The other rivals which Twitter should watch carefully are,

HootSuite: This deals with cross-platform social media integration. There are many tracking tools available here and new addition in Twitter application community.

Klout: This application has features for tracking social media statistics with unique metrics like Network Score, True Reach etc. It is a very priceless tool for getting solid, usable data from Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is well known as a vehicle for successfully establishing a local brand. Thousands of companies have utilized Twitter to find local followers, make connections, and establish local recognition. Myriad true anecdotes support Twitter’s effectiveness as a tool for establishing local brand recognition.

Entrepreneurs may wonder whether Twitter can be used to expand local recognition to create a truly global brand. What features does Twitter boast to help businesses reach a world market? Can Twitter’s usefulness in the establishment of local brands translate into an effective global marketing strategy?

Pervasive Social Network

Without doubt, Twitter is the greatest pervasive social network utilized to date. Twitter is accessible to individuals worldwide, reaching markets that span a broad range of consumer interest, ideology, and location. Anyone possessing a mobile phone with Web service can access Twitter at any time – no laptop or desktop required. In addition, the number of Twitter subscribers grows daily at an astronomical rate. The possibilities for local businesses to interact with potential customers worldwide are limitless.

Never Fear, Communicate in Your Native Language!

Language barriers are often the greatest hindrance to businesses attempting to communicate with a global audience. Twitter provides businesses the freedom to project their messages in their native languages. Twitter supports a large number of world languages including the most common European and Asian languages. Numerous translation tools, provided free by Twitter, can be used to convert tweets from the language of the business owner to the languages of potential customers. Who knew that tweeting would become a powerful link to global communication? Twitter can help businesses that would otherwise be limited by geography or language to effectively communicate and compete in a global market.

Less Is More

When establishing a global brand, it is best to follow the caveat of “less is more.” Elaborate marketing strategies may succeed in some arenas and fail in others. Tweeting is nothing if not simple. Posting concise and informative tweets is the best strategy to follow in a world market. Potential clients will be more likely to read and re-tweet simple, short messages. Convoluted messages should be revised with a broad potential audience in mind. Simple is always the smart way to go.

A Global Brand Courier

Thus far, Twitter has been instrumental in achieving astonishing results for companies venturing into the realm of global brands. Currently, a number of globally recognized brands utilize Twitter’s features when offering promotions and new products, engaging in real-time customer service, and interacting in productive dialogue with consumers worldwide. Twitter has become an outstanding global brand courier for many businesses. Companies that strategically use Twitter for branding have experienced a marked influx of visitors to their corporate websites. Those who endeavor to create effective global marketing strategies must pursue their goals with a sense of venturesomeness. Twitter is the perfect outlet for encouraging creative branding initiative. Twitter has the advantage of possessing greater speed and interactivity than other internet conduits. Another tremendous advantage to utilizing Twitter for a world marketing campaign is that it is absolutely free! No other venue can deliver Twitter’s results at zero cost to you.

Growing your business involves dynamically increasing your brand visibility. How better to achieve that than through the largest social network on the Web? Start today by maximizing the potential of Twitter to reach your global audience.