Twitter No Show and You Advertise?

Set Up Your Company's Twitter Profile

This is the first in a serise of posts on How To Use Twitter For Business. I'm collecting a huge database of relevant articles on how social media has made conventional advertising almost obsolete.

The US Post Office says it's volume is down by roughly a third... it seems there is lot less print/ junk mail being sent, I'm of the opinion that as advertisers, we are spending less on print ads because they just aren't working; if print worked meaning put money in your cash register, you'd be doing it MORE not less

The first step for your company's Twitter profile will be selecting a user name. As is the case when you search for available Web URLs, your company name may already be taken by another user, either as a hoax account or because the person blogs about or follows the company closely.
Experts say Twitter has a good track record of giving back your trademarked name if someone has taken it, so contact Twitter if someone has taken your company name already.

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In general, the more personal a company's Twitter account appears, the better. Traditional mediums such as corporate websites, advertisements and promotions typically lack the sort of human feeling that Twitter users crave, says Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd), a social media analyst who writes the /message blog.
"It's not a forum to throw up press releases," he says. "They should be real people who are real representatives of companies. To remain personal, you need to be able identify the individual or individuals doing it."
While Eliason's Comcastcares Twitter page has a company logo, it also features his picture and a very humanizing trove of information, including ways to contact him directly, his personal and family blog, and other Comcast employees who operate on Twitter.

Frank Eliason (above) runs the @comcastcares Twitter page. Analysts (and Eliason himself) credit his willingness to give the page a personal touch as helping make it a successful place to interact with customers.

If you have a page with multiple people who share the responsibility of updating it, you should devise a way to make it clear who is "on the desk." Jetblue lists this information in the bio section of its Twitter profile. Other companies' reps put initials or some form of identification at the end of a tweet.
All Twitter profiles have a field for a URL. While it might be tempting to insert your company's homepage, this might not be a good use of the space, Fitton says. Instead, you should link to a custom page on your website that explains why you're on Twitter and what you hope to accomplish by being there.
Dell provides one of the clearest examples of this method. Most of its Twitter pages link back to dell.com/twitter, where the nature and purpose of its various Twitter pages are displayed. Dell lists some of its pages as clearly promotional in nature, while others dedicate themselves to community building and discussion around Dell products.
On your company's traditional home page, you might consider creating a widget that lists your latest tweets, to send traffic from your company site to your Twitter page.
"People say businesses need to be conversational on Twitter," Fitton says. "But my overall rule is you have to provide value."

read the rest...

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 397-9804 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.