Have you heard of social media optimization? Test Marketing?

Social media optimization or in other words social media
that markets through using information gathered from social
communities.

A few examples of social media optimization tools and
websites include blogging/RSS feeds for blogs, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace, BEBO and incorporating
third-party applications to communities like Facebook and
Myspace. Social media optimization is similar to search
engine optimization, but differs in many ways, Mostly, the
focal point is on driving traffic from sources within Social
bookmarking sites and communities other than directing
traffic from search engines.

The number of social media websites has exploded in the last
year and each of these new social networking websites is
different, they all attract different audiences with
individual and diverse interests. More and more businesses
want to experiment with social media optimization and you
can see this in the explosion in popularity of Twitter.

Twitter, one of the newest social networking websites, it
uses micro-blogging and many people are getting actively
involved in generating publicity through this form of social
media. When you “twitter” or micro-blog, post pictures,
and/or links you are inviting others into your life to
comment and ultimately approve or reject what you are
offering. This type of immediate response is an incredible
way to gather “up to the minute” targeted information.

Why is this important might you ask?

Getting feedback about your product and services is very
important and can help immensely when branding your company.
Business reputation is very important in branding and
marketing and up to date immediate feedback is considered an
integral part of an online reputation management system.
That is why many executives are now seeing the worth of
using social bookmarking and social media optimization to
test Search Engine Reputation Management strategies. this is
incredible for organizations or individuals who need to
enhance their online presence but cannot afford to pay for
surveys and focus groups.

Using social communities can optimize your “linkability” or
give you feed back and tips on ways to make your brand more
comfortable,

Along with immediate feedback about your brand popularity it
can also help your overall business.

Companies and individuals can now successfully use services
like tweetscan or
Tweepbeep to monitor each and every time their company name
or one of their products names are mentioned on Twitter and
then choose to respond accordingly through the social media
website or through their marketing, or engineering
departments.

This has the potential for real time insight for a company
CEO, whom often lose touch, with the people who are using
the products or services their corporation provides.

Imagine, if back in the late eighties, the board of K-mart
could have been following social media sites instead of
listening to yes men in the company. Then perhaps they could
have understood how a line in a movie like Rain Man where
Dustin Hoffman says “K-mart sucks” could become the punch
line to a joke they had already become.

Smart companies that want to avoid that kind of meltdown are
learning to keep their finger on the pulse of consumers
wants and needs and if you want to succeed you’ll want to do
the same thing.

Have you been wondering “What is this Twitter? Why are
people twittering? Is twittering even a word?”

Have you heard the words
tweet us at on the news or TV? Are
you worried that if you ask someone to describe twittering
or tweeting that you will be labeled as a social misfit or
uncool? I have also made that assumption. The assumption
that just because someone is young and into twittering or
understand social media that I would be greeted with
laughter or at best a blank stare. This is a bad assumption
and once I stepped over that fear of being laughed at, I
actually got answers. And I want to share my discovery with
you.

I bet you are thinking yeah, yeah so what is Twitter,
Twittering, tweeting and all that jazz? Why do news agencies
use it and why do I see in on T.V.?

Twitter is a website that offers something called micro-
blogging. Micro-blogging (yeah, another word to learn) like
blogging, it allows people to text little updates and put
them immediately online, so that anyone can see them or by
only people in special social groups.

Tweets (the little text messages) can be submitted to
Twitter with a variety ways and devices from instant
messaging, email, cell phones or the web. Tweets are direct
text messages sent “at” a person by using the “@” symbol
before their username. This
tweet will not only communicate
with that single person but also show partial conversations
with other members of the group. Then, once you have an
account with Twitter and someone follows you, people can
direct message one another or “DM” through the Twitter
websites interface.

Twitters can friend or “follow” other Tweeple (people plus
tweeter) to receive Twits,
tweets or Twitters (it is a
personal preference what you call it). Adding or “following”
a person is similar to adding a friend on a social network
like Facebook.

Next question…why?
tweeting on Twitter attracts people
with similar likes and dislikes. It is all about letting
people know what you are up to and expressing yourself in
140 characters or less. It’s an immediate mini form of self
expression. Tweets range from single commentary on subjects
near and dear to the heart in little bursts and rants to
just describing mundane activities at any exact moment from
waking up and drinking a latte to news worthy events or even
deciding what shoes to wear.

Some tweets pin point
and use Twitter for monetary gain.
They post links to websites and blogs. Twitter allows a
business person to draw attention to blog entries, sale
coupons, happenings and events. Twitter allows a business
person to target people with similar backgrounds and buying
habits.

There are many uses for Twitter just to name a few, you can
ask for advice, heighten aware in a cause, offer help and
resources to others, promote products and/or services and
even promote breaking news. So, that is why you are hearing
Twitter everywhere, with so many uses and the fact it allow
self expression in immediate bursts…how could it be any
other way! Now, will you be tweeting soon?

I know we all like to focus on Twitter because of its
simplicity. However, it is important to use Twitter in
combination with other social networking sites. You want to
be able to connect with your Twitter friends should
something bad happen and the site go down, right? Here are
three sites that you can use in conjunction with Twitter to
market your business.

1. Twitter + Utterli = Stay connected with your tweeps
when you are away from a computer.

Utterli is an utterly awesome tool in my opinion. You don’t
have to have fancy equipment to post to Twitter if you have
utterli. Utterli has a feature that allows you to record
audio posts right from your phone. This can come in really
handy if you are attending a tweetup and you want to let
your tweeps know that you are at the designated location.
Utterli also cross posts to a lot of different networks too.
The neat thing about utterli’s cross posting feature is your
friends don’t even have to join utterli for you to talk to
them. It’s nice if they do join you on utterli. This way if
Twitter is down for whatever reason, you can still get in
touch with that person.

2. Another good tool to use in conjunction with Twitter
is skype. Skype is a service that allows you to make phone
calls from your computer. You can also use skype to chat.
Skype is great when you and a tweep are holding a
conversation that requires more than 140 characters to do it
justice. Skype is also good to use if you are discussing
something private that you really don’t want the whole
Twitterverse to know about.

3. You can also use Facebook in conjunction with
Twitter. It’s important to connect with your Twitter
friends on Facebook because some people are more comfortable
with Facebook than they are with Twitter. Facebook also
allows you to build a deeper one on one connection with your
Twitter friends because they have all of those applications
and games. A whole different article could be written about
all of the different Facebook applications and how they can
help your business. That’s beyond the scope of this
article. Just be sure to invite your Twitter friends to
friend you on Facebook (hey I didn’t make it up, they did)
and you’ll have an additional way to contact them.

4. Twitter in and of itself is an excellent place to
network and grow your business. However, it is important not
to get too comfortable on any one social networking site.
You don’t want your business to sit at a standstill because
someone decided to close down your favorite social media
site.

5. Twitter automation is another great method of making
the most of your time. There are literally hundreds of sites
online that will allow you to automate many tasks regarding
Twitter. Sites for automatically sending your new followers
a friendly welcome message (Auto DM Script) or sites that
will even allow you to filter your followers based on
Keywords or topics and schedule your tweets based on a
preset time schedule. And there are even some that have a
mechanism in place that will allow you to use the same basic
tweet phrase but will insert different words or phrases into
your tweet based on ‘tags’ that you generate.

If this method of using twitter sounds enticing, you may
want to take a look at the new Tweeple Pro
Scripts membership. Each and every month you will get a
new Twitter based script to help you automate or build your
following on Twitter. And the best part about the site is
the new method of delivery and installation of these
scripts! Each month, you login to your site, check the
latest script out to see if you want to use it, and if you
do, simply click a button, fill in a text box or two and you
are ready to go. Plus, each monthly script comes with videos
to show you how to use them!

Tweeple Pro
Scripts can save you hours of time every month and still
allow you to interact with your followers while maintaining
your business.

The Twitter background: To snaz or not to snaz that is the
question. I really have no definitive answer to that
question. But it seems that if you are trying to make a name
for yourself anything will help and it can’t hurt to pimp
out your Twitter background to see if you can’t stand out
from the rest maybe even create a little controversy. If you
already are famous as heck, like Demi Moore, I guess you
don’t have to do squat to your account to attract huge
followings of Twitter faithful who will hang on your every
word.

That said I thought I would spot light a few Twitter
backgrounds and give you some background on the backgrounds
if that makes any sense at all.

Since we mentioned Demi Moore already I will just start with
her background. Of course if you are a Gen Xer you remember
Demi as the hot starlet with the husky voice from St. Elmos
Fire or perhaps her early marriage to Bruce Willis or the
too numerous to mention movies she has starred in and now
are just starting to believe she is some sort of vampire,
because frankly gravity is not doing things to her body that
it is to the rest of us. If you are younger than a Gen Xer
you just may think she is some pretty young woman you’d like
to hangout with. Whatever you think of Demi- her Twitter
following has erupted to over half of million while probably
her Twitter background is one of the most plain and
unpretentious on the site. Her back ground or the lack of it
can be seen at http://twitter.com/mrskutcher

Now to cover the other end of the spectrum I think absolute
craziest Twitter background title belongs to Mr. Michael Ian
Black in which has a depiction of him hiding behind Dr.
Pepper cans evidently naked and apparently strangling a
unicorn while Demi Moore is looking on.

This background seems to be helping him gain followers
because he also has over a quarter of a million followers,
even though he is not famous. He does claim to be a famous
comedian but his claim to fame is from an obscure show on
MTV which no one watched since MTV has stopped playing video
and started ripping off Mexican TV game shows. His Twitter
background can be seen at

http://api.twitter.com/michaelianblack

To contrast the art work of the Mr. Blacks Twitter
background I would like to leave you with the classic black
background. The sort of Ralf Lorene style background which
no one can comment on or condemn, because it is so simple
and classically black. This is the little black dress of
Twitter websites and like the dress it is perfect for every
occasion. In the Twitter world a classic black background
goes with whatever you have to say. The classic black
background goes well with political statements, just day to
day banter, celebrity gossip even if you don’t have anything
to say. Like in the case of The Mime who has not only gained
over 8,000 followers without being famous he has also gained
all of those followers without ever tweeting a single word. That’s
right since becoming a member The Mime has amassed a loyal
following thru his classic black background and his uncanny
ability to keep us spellbound by his (-) tweets. You can see The Mime on
Twitter at http://api.twitter.com/TheMime

So, you can see for yourself how a background can work or
not work for you.

If you use Twitter on the web by itself there’s already a
lot of things that you can do to promote your business.
However there are several other ways that you can enhance
your Twitter experience. After reading this article, you’ll
learn of 6 ways that you can enhance your Twitter
experience.

1. Use Twitter in combination with other networking
sites

This is absolutely critical. That is why it is listed
first. You should never put all your eggs in the same
basket. What if something happens to Twitter? What if it’s
down for maintenance? What if there are just too many
tweeps on at once and you keep seeing the fail whale (that’s
what happens when you can’t load twiter)? There is a
service called tweetake,
which allows you to download your followers, favorites, tweets, dms, everything you
need to talk to your Twitter family outside of Twitter. I
suggest you download this file from tweetake daily. Another thing
you should do is invite your friends to join you on Facebook
or LinkedIn. I recommend putting your Facebook profile on
your Twitter page as your website. That way when people
follow you on Twitter, they’ll go right to your Facebook
page and follow you there too. Find an email address for
your Twitter posse so you can send emails to them. Don’t
send them commercial messages unless they sign up for your
email list. That’s considered spam. You can send them
messages that you’d send to your friends. It’s great to
email your Twitter friends information that will help them
with their business. They’ll be extremely grateful to you
for sending them wondeful information and it will seem more
personal because you sent it right to them instead of
blasting it to the whole Twitterverse!

2. Use Twitter +twitwall to market your telecalls.

Twitwall is an excellent service to use to market your
telecalls. Every Twitter user gets a twitwall. You’d use
your twitwall when you have things that are more than 140
characters to post. You can use your twitwall to promote
your telecalls very easily. You’d just post the relevant
information to the twitwall and then retweet it. Important: Be sure
to include the words please retweet in the headline when you
post information about your telecall. Even though twitwall
makes it easy for people to retweet your information, they
won’t do it unless you tell them to most of the time.

3. Twitter + Hashtag + tweetchat = PARTY!

Another great way to get people talking about you and your
business is to hold a Twitter party! Twitter parties are
very easy to set up. All you have to do is create a hashtag
for your party. Basically a hashtag acts a tracker for your
party. Once you decide on a hashtag, next pick a date and a
time. Then start telling everyone that’s in your Twitter
family about your party and ask them to retweet the
information for you. On the day of the party you can use tweetchat to follow
everything everyone is saying about the party. Tweetchat is
awesome because once you go to the website and log in, it
automatically inserts the hashtag and tells you how many
characters you have left to
tweet with. It also allows you to momentarily stop the
chat within the chat room so you can scroll back and see
what was said before you enter the room. It’s important to
both participate in and throw Twitter parties because it’s a
great way to get the word out about your business and you
can meet new people that are interested in the same things
that you are interested in.

Twitter is a great tool to use to drive traffic to your
website. These things that I’ve mentioned will only improve
the amount and quality of the traffic you get to your
website.

Interacting with people online is a wonderful way to get
started networking. Eventually you will want to meet some
of your new found friends in person so they can become your
In Real Life or (IRL) friends. People are more likely to do
business with or joint ventures with you once they have met
you in person and see that you are a real person and you act
the same way offline as you do online. Here are some tools
to help you find people in your local area to follow.

7. You can use hashtags.org to find people in your
geographical area to follow. Just type in your city or
state and you will see all of the tweeple that are located
in or talking about things related to your city or state.

8. Another service you can use to find people located
near you with is tweets.ws. Tweets.ws is very simple to use.
Just click on choose your own news topic and type in your
state. I tried using my city and state but I didn’t find
anything that way. Once you type in your state you will see
everyone who is in your state or talking about things of
interest to your state.

9. Another great tool to use to find tweeps in your
area is Twittermass. All you do with this site is to go to
the website and login with the same username and password
that you use to log in to Twitter. Once you’ve logged in
you’ll have to click on the tab that says Create. Then click
on manual follow for best results. Type in your City and
State. The website will generate a list of tweeple in your
city and state and then you can follow them.

10. Citytweets is
another wonderful tool to help you find tweeps in your local
area. Now if you live in a suburb you may need to use the
next biggest city to find people near you. It looks like
that site is still growing.

Twitter is a wonderful way to meet new people. Be sure to
follow people local to your area so you can meet them in
person. Be on the lookout for tweetups on your area.
Basically, a tweetup is a combination of the word meet-up
and Twitter or a bunch of tweeple in the same geographic
area that meet-up and network. Tweetups are great tools to
add to your arsenal of Twitter tools. Be sure to take
pictures and videos. This will prove that you were at the href="http://tweeplepro.com">tweetup. When you meet
people in person you deepen the relationships that you have
on Twitter. That’s what it’s all about after all, right?