eMarketing Trends » sem

Twitter 101: How To Get More Twitter Followers

eMarketing Trends — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:30:16 +0000

Want more people to follow you on Twitter? I was looking for tasteful Twitter strategies on how to get more people to follow me the other day, and I came across a horde of uninspiring articles offering just that: Tips on how to get more people to follow you on twitter. It was like trying to find a murder weapon in the murk of a deep dark lake, especially if miscellaneous junk had been dumped in the lake over the years.

Anywoo, I finally stumbled across this comprehensive article by SEO-INRA titled “Want me to follow you on twitter?…10 Reasons I Won’t !”

This definitely sums up some of the reasons why *I* also would not follow some Twit peeps and allows you to look at your Twitter account in retrospect and get tips on how to improve on your content and followers.

Here are some of the tips that i found interesting:

1. Gosh!, you are not using user avatar

…or your user avatar is neither a personalized photograph nor reflective of a brand.

More important than whether or not your Twitter profile background is “designed” is how you choose to present yourself in that seemingly insignificant 48×48 pixel square. If that square is empty, impersonal, or otherwise lacking any qualities that will immediately allow me to visually associate it with you, my immediate response would be “Who the F**k is that”. If I am going to build a Twitter relationship with you, I want to see you, or your brand.

2. You list no location, no website, or no bio

Clearly, Twitter is all about brevity. So how difficult is it to provide a few additional characters of information that may offer potential followers more impetus to follow you in return?

These fields take two seconds to populate; it would behoove you to take those two seconds to populate them.

3. Your “website” listed is a MySpace profile

…or, far worse, an AngelFire “page.”

If the Twitter user in question happens to be an actual teenager, or musician whose MySpace presence truly works for them, then fine. But I tend to pass over those users whose proffered web presence is, well, clearly doing it wrong.

It doesn’t take much these days to establish a web presence that seems genuine and thoughtful, and appears to intend to attract and build an online community based on the content it provides. so go on have your online presence, rather then just a profile.

4. You’re following over 1,000 users, have 20 followers, and no updates

…or, worse, one update that includes a shamefully ill-constructed mention of Jason Calacanis.

Who, aside from those running Twitter apps that automatically follow and unfollow followers, would add these Twitter users? While I may every so often and uncharacteristically give these users a chance, simply to see what sort of content, if any, they may eventually provide, the gratuitous mention of any higher-profile Twitterer or web-famous personality means little more to me than that you were properly able to spell “Calacanis” or “Kawasaki.”

5. Your profile features any variation of “Internet expert”

…or “social media expert” and you have very few and/or insubstantial updates.While I generally loathe any mention of the word “expert” in a Twitter bio, it is particularly egregious when paired with a Twitter stream of only five updates, or one with a plethora of updates that make me question your “expert” status. You’re an “expert” who is only now tweeting about a Twitter app that everyone else was tweeting about two months ago? How awesome for you! #and you want me to follow you on that? Huh! Jerk…

To read the rest of this article by SEO-INRA click here.

Newest Addition to Virtuosa

eMarketing Trends — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:47:12 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I write my first blog post as part of the Virtuosa team. Not only is it cool to be working for such a great company with such creative minds but I’ve finally landed a job doing what I love – internet marketing.

I have been working in the internet industry for about a year and half, but been in love with the internet ever since I discovered I could download half-naked pictures of my favourite female artists (it was Pink back in those days). I must admit though, the last part is a lie – I’ve never been a Pink fan.
Well since I’ve been asked to re-introduce myself to the internet world, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of 6 facts about myself:

My nickname is ‘Mango’ and for some reason people always think they can show me how creative they can be by adding their own variations: mango-fruit, mango-licious, banana, apple, litchi, ‘Buthelezi’ – the list goes on.
After 24 years on this earth, I still can’t figure out whether I dream in colour or black and white.
I have a terrible fear of spiders more than snakes or any other animal – the fact that they can crawl into your bed while you sleep just doesn’t sit right with me.
The most famous person I’ve ever met is probably Robert Mugabe – and contrary to popular belief he is not really as grumpy as he looks
I really have 10 brothers and sisters – If you think that’s a lot, my grandfather had 38 children.
The worst job I’ve ever done was being a garbage man in the UK – thanks goodness those days are over!

Well with that said I look forward to getting stuck in and adding my experience to the Virtuosa SEM department.

Plenty more to come from me, so stay tuned! Mango signing off…

Rob Stokes-Search me

eMarketing Trends — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:26:06 +0000

Rob started his presentation by quoting so many Google stats I thought he was Stafford for a moment, just kidding. An interesting stat was that 63% of search related purchases occurred offline i.e. browse online buy offline. Rob then goes into SEM which comprises organic search and PPC. 80% of users click on the organic results as opposed to PPC. An eye tracking chart reinforced this idea.

Rob went into how the Google page rank algorithm came about whereby links as opposed to purely on-site factors are important in ranking sites. He then overviewed certain elements of organic SEO as well as several SEO tools such as Google insight, Google analytics and Google webmaster tools to use to increase the effectiveness of your SEO campaign.

Some barriers to visibility are:

Flash
Frames
Dynamic URL’s
Video
Ajax

Black Hat SEO Techniques:

Google Bowling
Span in competitive names
Cloaking
Sneaky Redirects
Hidden Text
Link Spam
Faux copyright complaints
Faux duplicate content

Rob then went onto extol the virtues of link building and how it comprises 85% of organic SEO, something this blogger disagrees with. He then also highlighted the value of the no-follow link.

SEO considerations for new sites

Domain Age
Early Links
Keywords in domains and URL’s
XML Sitemap
Above All- make your site a resource.

Rob then goes onto speak about PPC and how cost per acquisition drops sharply over time with organic SEO and rise quickly over time with PPC. He also went into a summary of how PPC and some best practices to use.

Although nothing revolutionary came from this presentation, it was a good reinforcement session on the importance of organic SEO, PPC and the best practices involved in this.