The ad targeting precision is unbelievable, it’s a testament to how much valuable personal and demographic data Facebook has collected. The precision of Facebook ads continues to get better and there’s still lots of room for improvement.

In this blog I am going to focus on using different parameters within the Facebook Ads interface to get an even higher level of precision than simply targeting people who like a specific topic.

The Challenge

We were approached by a client who was weary about Facebook advertising because they felt like they would be wasting money/clicks on people who wouldn’t be able to afford their product. This was a valid concern, unfortunately Facebook doesn’t yet have salary data we can use for marketing purposes, so we had to think creatively about how we would be able to find people who were:

a) Relevant

b) Able to afford the product

The Product

The product, automotive-related and is geared towards higher-income men between the ages of 30-60. A single sale of the product brings $10,000+ in revenue, therefor a higher cost per conversion is justified.

Discovering a Highly Relevant Niche of Likely Buyers

This required some intuition and creative thinking; we hypothesized that our customer is likely to drive a luxury car. Great, so we had one precise interest nailed down. We entered all the usual suspects into the Facebook Ads interface: BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc. We found that there were 11,640 married men who liked any one of the luxury car brands below. Bidding on these people is a good start, we’ve taken steps to weed out people who may just like BMW, Mercedes, etc., by selecting the age range of 30-60 and by restricting this niche to married men. But this is still no guarantee that these people own or would be able to afford one or more of these luxury cars.

The suggested bid for the above target-group: $0.58 – $1.19 CAD

Taking it to the Next Level

Let’s take a different approach to targeting married men between the ages of 30-60 who are in the upper-income bracket. Facebook Ads also allow you to target people based on their education. You can aim for people who graduated from specific universities or you can target people who hold specific degrees. For our purposes we chose to target people with degrees that were likely to earn them a high income. We chose degrees like medicine, law, engineering, etc.

The suggested bid for the above target-group: $0.41 – $0.89 CAD

This is great information, we know these men probably make a lot of money, they’re married and they fit our target age group, but it’s no guarantee that they would be interested in our automotive product (even though they’ll likely be able to afford it). What would happen if we combined the two groups and found the overlap of highly-educated married men between the ages of 30-60 who liked luxury car brands?

Finding the Sweet Spot

Let’s see what combining these to groups brought us. The following are married men between the age of 30-60, who like luxury car brands and hold a degree that’s likely to earn them a high-income. It should be noted that our client is only based in Ontario, so all of these target groups apply to people who live in Ontario, Canada. Now, the overlap:

The suggested bid for the above target-group: $0.70 – $1.49 CAD

A higher bid-price for this target group could be justified, especially given that one sale could bring in $10,000+ in revenue. A higher bid-price would result in increased frequency of the ad being shown. This is a limited target-group, but it’s still one that’s worth spending on. Granted if this group was nation-wide you would see an even greater impact on having a highly-targeted overlap of potential customers. Again, this prevents ad spend that’s wasted on people who aren’t likely to purchase the product.

Targeting Multiple Overlaps

There are infinite overlapping demographic and psychographic parameters that you can target. Perhaps men who own luxury cars would be more likely to read Road and Track rather than like the Facebook page of their favourite luxury car brand. It might also be favourable to target readers of The Economist if you want to target high-income earners. The possibilities are endless and I would encourage you to try multiple overlaps of demographic and psychographic factors and interests in your pursuit of targeting your ideal customer.

First a Bit of Background

We had an unnamed client who came to us with a largely ineffective Facebook marketing campaign. Their ads had a low CTR and they weren’t spending their budget because no one was clicking on them.

In an effort to boost their Facebook presence we designed a Facebook landing page with a before and after gallery, a video, some copy and a contact form. This was all well and good, but what about getting conversions? In our case the contact form.

We encouraged the client to have us create a Facebook advertising campaign, but instead of driving the traffic solely to their website we decided to send visitors to our freshly designed Facebook Fanpage.

For experimentation and proof of concept created two duplicate ads: one directed to the Fanpage while the other directed to the site.

Methodology

• We targeted both ads to the same group of men over the age of 35, who lived within 50 miles of Toronto and Scarborough Ontario. This amounted to around 710,000 people.
• We set our bid price to $0.81 per click for both ads
• We set our daily budget to $7/day (for this experimental phase)
• We let the ads run for 2 weeks

Creating the Facebook Ads

Same HEADLINE, same TEXT, same PICTURE!

Ad #1 Directed to the Fanpage                Ad #2 Directed to the Website

You can see that the only difference between the two ads is that example #1 includes the Like count and #2 includes the website’s URL.

Other than that, the two ads were identical, same headline, text and picture.

The Statistics

Have a look at the Dashboard for this campaign:

Reach

You can see that Reach for ad #1 is nearly double that of ad #2. Reach is defined as “the number of individual people who saw this Sponsored Story of ad during the dates selected. This is different than impressions, which includes people seeing them multiple times.”

Frequency

We saw over a half point jump in frequency for ad #1. This is due to the increased Reach of ad #1. Frequency in these terms is defined as “the average number of times each person who saw your Sponsored Story or ad.”

Social Reach

Social Reach only applies to ad #2, so it’s no surprise that it beat out ad #1 by a landslide. Social Reach is defined as “people who saw your Sponsored Story or ad with the names of their friends who like the Page, RSVPed to your event, or used your app. If you’re not using Sponsored Stories or advertising a Page, event, or app, you won’t have social reach.”

Connections

Again, connections won’t apply to ad #2, but they were definitely nice to see given the sensitive (undisclosed) subject matter of the business we created these ads for. Connections are “the number of people who liked your Facebook Page, RSVPed to your event, or installed your app within 24 hours of seeing this Sponsored Story of ad. If you’re no promoting a Page, event, or app, you won’t see Connections data.”

Clicks

This is where our hypothesis really started to manifest. You can see that the clicks on Ad #1 were 87 compared to just 45 on ad #2 that drove to the site. In Facebook terms clicks are defined as “The number of clicks your Sponsored Story or ad has received. Clicks also include Page likes, event RSVPs, or app installs directly from the Sponsored Story or ad.

CTR (Click Through Rate)

We were pretty much dead even with only 0.001% difference. In the early stages of monitoring this experiment we saw quite a large gap in favour of the Fanpage ad, but over time these have evened out. CTR for Facebook ads is defined as “the number of clicks your Sponsored Story or ad received divided by the number of times it was shown on the site.”

Conclusion: Fanpage Ads Offer Better Value

Facebook would rather you click on an ad that directs people to another page in Facebook; that way you remain in the Facebook environment and are more likely to click on another ad.

If you have a Fanpage that offers a way for customers to contact you then go for it, try driving your Facebook ads to a Fanpage. If not, then directing people to your wall probably won’t pay off. Try creating a Fangate, show the visitor some value. Creating a Fanpage is definitely topic for an entire blog post.

For now I hope I’ve encouraged you to do your own A/B test, please feel free share your results with us!

This blog act as an overview on how you can turn your social media efforts into a lead generation tool. Part 2 of this blog will go in-depth and cover strategies for bringing in new fans and customers. For now, we’ll cover the fundamentals and make the case for why social media can be used to bring customers to your site, through the door and coming back.

As a successful social media marketing campaign matures it begins attracting new fans that turn into new business. We expect that 2012 will see more social advertising than ever before. It doesn’t take long for marketing managers to appreciate the level of ad targeting on social media, especially when you consider the fact that they’re seeing it first hand on their own Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

How to Use Social Media to its Fullest:

Get Out There

Getting out into the social world is the first step towards targeting new customers. Many companies have found success through:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Twitter
• SlideShare

This also includes using targeted ads that are placed right before the target market that your product has been designed to reach. Using interactive ads has also been shown to solicit engagement and will help to boost your CTR (click through rate) and increase your conversions e.g. liking your page, downloading a coupon, entering their email address, etc.

Even though it’s not a social media portal per se, e-newsletters are fantastic for reminding customers to return to your business. Newsletters are social and let’s face it; the Internet is a big place, and even if a customer was satisfied with their buying experience, it’s very likely that they will forget. Not only do customers read reminders, they want them, and like them and it doesn’t hurt to offer an incentive e.g. free shipping with your next purchase!

Track Your Progress

Social media is just like any other marketing campaign, whether it’s PPC or direct mail; it has to be tracked to measure success. Otherwise, how do you know if your time and resources are being used to the best of their ability? Use the Facebook Insights tab, or embed Google Analytics tracking code on your Facebook landing page, these should give you a better idea of how well your pages are growing and creating conversions.

Be Social

To have a social media account, one has to be social! This includes more than posting product updates, sales events and basically, sticking to yourself and what you’re selling.

It’s crucial to get out into the social media world to interact with others; offering valuable insight, engaging customers and like-minded industry professionals in conversation. For the most part, customers will find your business through comments that have been posted on more popular sites, blogs and forums. This takes time but it’s also a fun way to market your product or service. So get out there and start socializing!

Many businesses hire a marketing team to help with social media because it’s an involved process and a time-consuming job, but it’s well worth the investment. You can help their social media campaign by scheduling posts for over the weekend and off days, and allowing the entire team access to blogs and Twitter. A communal effort will help work towards more posts, conversations and attracting new customers!

Google+ Business Pages are here! So how do you get one? We’ve put together a list of what you’ll need to know to get started.

First you’ll need to log in to Google+. After you’ve signed in to Google simply click on your name found in the top left hand corner:

From here visit https://plus.google.com/u/0/pages/create

Choose your category carefully. If you’re a local business or place, your Google+ page will be linked to your Google Places Account. From there you’ll be able to choose the correct listing, complete with a map and any other details you’ve entered.

How to Switch between your personal Google+ and Google+ Business Page

On the top left hand corner of your Google+ business page you’ll see a small dropdown arrow underneath the name of your page. From here you’ll be able to switch between your personal and Google+ business page.

How to Get Your Own Google+ Badge on Your Site

To get your own badge visit: https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config

Be sure to have the number string of your Google+ page handy (find this in the URL), you’ll need to paste it in the corresponding field. You’ll even be able to customize text for your Google+ button. If you’re not a coder we do not suggest you implement this button, speak to someone who is qualified and has FTP access.

Take a look at our button:

What Else You’ll Need to Know

• Searchers will be able to find brands by adding a “+” in front of a term, so to search for TechWyse, type in +TechWyse (or just click the link, we’d love to be in one of your circles). This is definitely a very cool feature of the business page and can be an excellent traffic source.
• Profile pictures can be uploaded, but you can only display 200px x 200px. It’s best to upload a picture with those dimensions or you can use the feature-rich editor to crop and manipulate the image.
• A vanity URL option is not currently available
• We couldn’t find an option to have multiple admins either. We suggest using your company’s official Google+ account to create the page.

Customization Options So Far

• Customized Profile Picture
• The option to add 5 pictures above your stream (125px x 125px)

Examples of Google+ Business Pages We Like:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104629412415657030658/posts

https://plus.google.com/111883881632877146615/posts

https://plus.google.com/118177253929143457733/posts

That’s it for now, but make sure to check back often; add our RSS feed, like us, follow us, add us to your Google+ circles!

Content extracted form a third-party website which is not SSL Certified will not be visible from October on, these changes are being implemented in order to enhance the internet security of Facebook users. To get Facebook secure has been one of the main topics raised over the past couple of months and the extra layer of security is being added after multiple hack and infection attempts.

Why migrate to OAuth 2.0 and Secure Hosting?

If your custom fanpage is not hosted on an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certified location it will be disabled this coming October (2011). For a social media marketer or developer it is must to purchase a dedicated IP and SSL Certification in order to get the page secured and to let the content be visible to the public. If you don’t want to lose out on your potential customers then it’s a must to use an SSL protocol.

Imagine if your visitors get a “Switch to regular connection (http)” popup every time they view your fanpage, if it were me, I would cancel the request and move to another fanpage.

Another factor to consider is when using an Image or video from a third party source, e.g YouTube. YouTube now gives you an option to embed Https code so make sure to use that for hosting the videos via YouTube. Also there are wide spread reports that WordPress is not faring very well with SSL, but a few plugins for WordPress might help to cope with the shared SSL.

Secure your applications and URL

To secure your applications and URL you will need to make changes to your Facebook developers application settings. After securing your hosting go to your developer’s application page and edit the application by adding a link to the secured URL in the Secure Canvas URL and Secure Page Tab URL. Also note that both the tabs need to be updated with the https extension. See the example below:

According to Facebook now all the JS, CSS and images should be referred with https , for example <img src=”https://www.example.com/images/yourphoto.gif” />

Also the secure_callback_url and secure_page_tab_url must be a completely qualified URL starting with https:// and must point to a directory (i.e., end with a ‘/’) or a dynamic page (i.e., have a ‘?’ somewhere).

Impact on FBML Applications

The FBML application should also include an SSL protocol in order to serve the users who are browsing over a secure connection. Since the FBML developers need to understand if the users are browsing using a secure connection, it’s a must to obtain an SSL certification in order to receive traffic from these users. Read more about it from the Facebook Developers themselves. There are also few third part tools ( sslabs) to help you analyse your SSL certification and to fix errors and warnings.

If you are hosting all the applications using your server then immediately check if the server is already set up with https, if not get it done as soon as possible. If you are getting the message “Sorry! We can’t display this content while you’re viewing Facebook over a secure connection” then test your fanpage and all the third party applications associated with it right now and be ready for the new changes!

Facebook has grown tremendously over the last year and the next era of Facebook has been defined with the introduction of Timeline, new applications and tools. Music, Movies, Television, News and Books or any activities from your daily life like runs can be tracked using the new social applications that will make use of timeline.

Timeline

Facebook introduced timeline as “the story of your life – all your stories, all your apps and a new way to express who you are.” Timeline, in other words the scrapbook of your life (currently in the beta phase) lets people explore their past with a stream of information. It encourages people to post more details about your past or interesting parts of your history.

According to Zuckerburg a profile page is the heart of the Facebook experience and Timeline helps you to express the story of your life trough meaningful sections. Facebook Timeline includes various new sections like applications, ticker and a newsfeed. The news feed appears in the bottom left hand side of the page and on the top you can find a large banner image an avatar and a timeline that helps you visualize posts from different sections of time. To test the Facebook Timline in beta phase you need to make sure that your account is verified by phone once done go to the Facebook developers application and create a new application, choose an application name, choose Open Graph and Get Started. Once the changes are saved you will see a notification to enable the New Facebook Timeline in your homepage. Click on get it now and view the new timeline feature.

Timeline lets you add new kinds of social applications that run alongside the newsfeeds and ticker; this will help to create a social hub where you and your friends can listen to the same song or watch the same TV show. The main idea here is that people will be able to share what they are doing in Facebook when connected to the applications.

Take for example Spotify, the third party music application which doesn’t run inside Facebook, but when people download the desktop application it connects to Facebook where the details of their activity will be displayed in the Timeline and ticker.

Take a look at the new timeline feature

Open Graph – Ticker

Facebook also introduced Ticker the new version of Open Graph which will extend the level of sharing and connections in real time. The change is exclusively altered to fill out the new timeline feature and to improve the viral factor through a light weigh stream. Currently all we could do is like a video, update or a page but pretty soon this is going to change, Facebook has launched the Facebook Gestures which that the developers can turn any verb to a button.

Huh? Verb into a button? Let me simplify it for you, if you are listening to music or watching a movie you will see an option/button to tell your friends what you are doing. But I have a strong feeling that these will only increasing the share overload.

This change will now allow developers to create applications to share activities without annoying news feeds. The new Open Graph according to Mark Zuckerburg allows “Frictionless experiences” and “real-time serendipity.”

Frictionless Experiences

Nearly everyone would agree that Facebook applications used to be noisy and annoying and gosh, I used to spend most of my time blocking the applications which people were adding me to. After much criticism Facebook’s new Open Graph now lets users see the activities which they want in the order of significance through a “lightweight” ticker which runs into the timeline.

Unrelated updates will be prevented from showing up in your news feed until you want it to be displayed; now the power of sharing is completely given to the user. No more unwanted game updates or change in status notifications!

Real-Time Serendipity

The new applications will help you to discover what your friends are doing in real time and tell people the things you like to do: the music you like, the recipes you’ve tried, etc. Through the ticker if one of your friends is listening to the music you like, then you can listen to it at the same time. The new Open graph according to Facebook tries to find similarities between actions and activities in order to display it in the news feed section.

One of the main reasons for Facebook’s success has been gaming applications e.g. Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc. there are no more share boxes, all the activities will be pulled directly into your ticker and more information about the game will be available to your friends. As per the illustration shown by Zuckerburg you can even see the real time statuses of games played by your friends.

Conclusion

Will this affect Facebook fanpage marketing efforts? The discussion is heating up and it’s still too early to predict. But quality of updates and feedback rates will still decide the popularity of your brand in Facebook.

There was no mention about Advertising platform during the conference but for the time being there are no changes for Facebook ads. The new updates promise to provide complete control of the timeline which includes heavy emphasis on privacy as well. With all the new upgrades it’s going to be really interesting to see what other Social Networking giants are going to do to keep up with Facebook specially Google +.

Right now the best way for businesses to get on Google Plus is to create a profile for someone with high standing in the company. Take for example Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore who has been added to 175,000+ circles (at the time of writing this). He’ll be sure to use that influence to grow Mashable’s Google+ Brand Page when it goes live.

So, what do we want to see in Google+ Business Pages? Read the rest to find out!

Google has a major opportunity on their hands, even if Google+ doesn’t reach Facebook-level numbers, Google+ Business Pages are still likely to be featured heavily in search results, which means they will definitely be seen! We’ve put our heads together to give you our top 10 features Google should include in the launch of Google Business Pages.

1. One-to-One Communication Between Brand & Customer

We can already do this with Twitter through @replies and direct messages, but on Facebook there’s no easy way for a page owner to send a message to an individual. This would prove immensely valuable for customer service matters that are better handled in a private, rather than public forum.

2. A Backend Dashboard With Integrated User Analytics

Wouldn’t it be great to see something more advanced than Facebook Insights? We’d love to see integration with the existing Google Analytics Dashboard. Another key feature would be the ability to identify influencers based on their activity and social reach. Having a list of targeted influencers and being able to foster key relationships on a one-to-one level will give social media managers a new way to grow and service their communities.

3. Social Advertising Based on User Analytics

Just like Facebook allows you to advertise and attract fans, so too should Google+ allow page owners to target fans and add them to their brand circle(s). Google+ will have to be careful to not saturate their page with ads in the early phases, as it stands Google+ is free of any sponsored advertising. As people begin using Google+, AdWords integration will inevitably follow, opening yet another new frontier for advertisers.

4. Multiple Fan Circles

Imagine being able to segment your fans into separate groups and drive specific messages to them. You could have one circle for casual fans who’ve become part of your circles and another for hardcore fans who +1 and comment often. This could potentially spur community activity, if for example you wanted to be added to a brand’s elite circle and gain access to special offers, you may start engaging more. This is similar to some recent Klout promotions we’ve seen, but with a clout that’s focused around the “fan” and your brand – not just the fan and all of social media.

5. A Robust API

Whether Google+ Business Pages will coincide with the release of an API (Application Programming Interface) remains to be seen; it would certainly get the development community excited. Being able to add geo-location data and integrate other Google services like YouTube prove very promising for any brand that wants to make their Google+ Business Page stand out.

6. Google Places Integration

This is a big one. Google places is not without its issues, and it’s a natural fit that Google+ Business Pages will have some overlap with Google Places – if not replace them outright. If Google chooses the latter strategy, it will end up populating Google+ Business Pages automatically; there is already some evidence that suggests this. Whichever path Google decides to take hopefully it will give brands more control over what content is a part of their page, rather than just populating everything automatically and giving users little room to control content.

7. On-Site Reviews

This follows with Google Places integration, except it would allow for an area on Google+ Business Pages where reviews can be read and written. We’ve already seen a lot of review integration into Facebook with tabs and recommendations and it’s likely that Google+ will follow suit.

8. Customized Design

Definitely not the full fledged approach of MySpace, but somewhere between a Facebook landing page and a Twitter background. If the new YouTube enhanced channels are to give any indication, we’ll see customizable backgrounds with linkable areas. A drag and drop front-end would also be a great option for brands to customize their layout and do more interesting things with their design. If Google+ could open up design capabilities to those of us who don’t know how to code, the creativity of the business pages will quickly surpass Facebook, where people still need to know code in order to create a landing page.

9. Content Managed Landing Pages

Picking up from where number 8 left off, a landing page you can design and update with a content management system would mean that page owners would be able to make changes to their landing pages on the fly. If it were an inline CMS (with front-end editing) that would be even better!

10. Contest and Coupon Integration

Running contests directly on Facebook requires third-party applications, we’d love to see Google+ create easy ways for brands to run contests and give away coupons. These promotional methods foster engagement and create long lasting bonds between brands and their loyal followers.

In Conclusion

So there you have it, these are our top 10 predictions or our wish list, if you will. Bring on Google Plus business pages, we’re ready!

Registering for Twitter is free and takes a few minutes. Setting up your profile is the first step to Twitter social personification. Basically, your profile set up creates the image others will see when you connect with them. Here are a few tips to help you look as dapper as you can in the eyes of other Tweeple.

General Tips for Profile Creation & Tweeting

1. Branded Background- You can get some ideas at free Twitter background websites or have a professional Twitter background designed
2. Upload Icon- In your profile editor you can ad a picture. Upload your logo, symbol, avatar or icon
3. Splash of Humour- In some way, add a splash of humor in your profile bio or background design. Remember Twitter is primarily about people connecting and sharing
4. Say Thank You- Anytime someone follows you, thank them through a direct message. Direct messaging is only available when someone follows you. If you are on Facebook or YouTube invite your new follower by sending them a link in your thank you reply (140 Character limit)
5. Interact- Respond to direct messages that are legit (be aware people abuse DM with spam), mentions and retweets
6. Mindshare- Capture likenesses your connections share in your conversations (tweets). Win the hearts of new connections you make
7. Event Sharing- For meaningful events share with followers by tweeting out loud
8. Useful Links- Share links that are useful to people, whether they are links to your website or links to other resources
9. Completed Profile- The main areas to complete are your background, bio, username and profile icon. Completed profiles tend to be taken more seriously on Twitter
10. Freshness- Keep updating with new information, people are waiting to hear from you

Setting up your profile is worth a bit of extra time because once you start Tweeting it’s what everybody else will see. To give you some ideas here are a few Twitter Profiles I think are well designed.

Twitter Professional Background Examples

@TechWyse Twitter Page

@EricWashburn Twitter Page

@Cheth Twitter Page

@ArtOfFreelance Twitter Page

You can see creating a Twitter background is taken seriously by some people/companies, especially for marketing and branding purposes. The way I see it is; your Twitter profile for business is basically a website design project. The Twitter background you create speaks to what you represent; it's worth investing the time and money in professional imagery.

Now that you’ve got a classy looking Twitter profile with a well branded background you can start connecting with others.

You should have a general idea on how to set up a Twitter profile business now. Hopefully a light bulb has gone on. In the next article I am going to explain an engagement strategy I like to use for Twitter business marketing.

 

In the introduction to Twitter for business you might recall seeing an illustration. It is intended to show an overview of the basics to marketing your business on Twitter. This article will address the question “How do I engage Twitter?”

Twitter Engagement Technique #1- Twitter’s Search Engine

Find Questions you would like to Answer

Once you are logged into your account you have full control of a very simple user interface. The idea is to make connections with people that share common ground with you. e.g. regional, city, municipality, industry sector & product name, problems, known pain points, etc. To find people on Twitter that might be interested in you I like using Twitter search…

 

The minute you login Twitter search is right at the top

Strike up & Reply to Conversations with the People you Meet

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

 

At the top navigation menu you’ll find the messages link. Once clicked, all messaging history is presented and a text box to talk with any follower.

How to Check Replies and Mentions

 

The Power of Twitter Search is like Fine Wine

In my personal Twitter profile above I am enjoying conversation with WolfBlass Wineries (my favorite wine) and a friend I met through Twitter. First let me tell you, this new found Twitter friend is a talented artist that lives in Florida. We met on Twitter, made a great connection; so he flew up to Orillia, CA for the long weekend party with friends and family. I am guilty of introducing my new friend to WolfBlass wines, which I adore and so does he now. Following the conversations on Twitter WolfBlass asked Greg (our new found Twitter friend) and I for our home addresses so they could send us a little treat. I will update this article when I receive the gift.

How to Market Your Business Effectively on Twitter

There is a good reason why almost 50% of the businesses in the world chose Twitter for marketing in 2010. In 2009, only 3% of global business thought of Twitter as a marketing instrument (thinking it’s only for kids). Twitter has fewer rules than other social networks like Facebook or YouTube. On Twitter it’s easier to interact with others, form relationships, friendships and less of a time vampire than Facebook. You’ll notice people compare Facebook to Twitter frequently. It’s because they are the two favourite social networks in the world as chosen by business marketers. Facebook has a larger population than Twitter. Consequently, some marketers think Facebook is the best network to market your business with. To each their own! My choice is Twitter for business marketing, hands down. It’s faster, great for business, less CPU intense, easier to use, poke free, annoying chat free and just plain old #Kewl (no offence to my friends on Facebook).

Twitter Isn’t Just for Kids, it’s Also for Business

For those business owners that still don’t understand social media I am going to try and help you discover how Twitter can work for your business, organization or group. This guide is not intended to be referenced by individuals that use Twitter for personal reasons. It’s dedicated to all business owners that are still saying “Twitter is for kids.” Please, let your guard down while I give you some ideas that could possibly change the way you do business. It’s going to take me a few articles, but I guarantee you will gain some new found wisdom because it’s taken us 4 years to learn what I am about to share with you.

Guide to Twitter Marketing for Your Business Topics

• Twitter for business marketing index page
• How to use Twitter for your business, organization , municipality, counsel or non-profit group
• What are followers and how do I get them?
• Posting interesting tweets instead of junk nobody cares for
• The art of getting retweeted and what it means
• Regular tweets & cool interactions vs. no conversation
• How and why to say thank you
• Using Twitter's simple search to crack nuts

It’s really up to you whether social media is included in your marketing arsenal. Social networking is no longer a fad, it’s reality and it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. If you think you are missing out, there’s only one way to find out… jump aboard the Twitter tree and start Tweeting. It’s the number one choice for online business marketing and communication.

Hopefully this guide helps your business entity connect to more people that want to learn more about your message, product, or service.

How to Use Twitter for your Business, Municipality or Organization

I remind you, Twitter is a favourite for global businesses now because it is simple to use with (almost) no restrictions other than the 140 character limit. If something you say on Twitter is distasteful you’ll have the Twitter nation to answer to. Rarely does Twitter management get involved with what people on Twitter talk about. The question that must overshadow the fence sitters is…

“How does it work and how can I use Twitter to connect with customers, prospects or audience?”

In the next few articles I will offer some social media pointers from years of learning what to do and not to do. It will focus on how businesses, municipalities and other organizations can leverage Twitter as a valuable communication tool.