5 Steps to Ranking #1 on Twitter for a Keyword

Twitter is HOT, HOT, HOT! It is now a powerful and popular online marketing tool that everyone should be taking advantage of. We are going to be doing a two part series on twitter and the first part will cover details regarding optimizing your profile for SEO. It has been noted that twitter is ranking abnormally well in the search engines and if you use your company’s name or your personal name it can rank easily for those, but that falls under online brand management, which is a topic for another day.

Top 5 Twitter Search Engine Optimization Tips

The tips below are meant to help you optimize your profile for searches done directly on twitter. No matter what your target keyword phrase is following these tips below will help you show up at the top of the results for that phrase.

1. Your Username

When you sign up to twitter make sure your username include your keyword phrase or at least one or two of the words. If you Search for “Diet” on twitter and look at all the top results you will notice every username, which is on the far left includes the word “Diet”. FreshDiet holds the number one spot for this reason combined with the other reasons below.

2. Your Name

If you click on the Twitter Profile for FreshDiet you will notice their name is “Fresh Diet”. So be sure to include your keyword in your name, which can be adjusted in your settings when you log in. If you go back and look at the search results for “Diet” you will see your name appear to the right of your username.

3. Bio

You bio is another adjustable setting on your profile. Your keyword should be included in here as well. Don’t stuff this full of keywords though, it should be informative and natural looking, but also include your keywords. Remember everything needs to be done in moderation and user-friendliness is key. If your profile is super spammy no ones going to stay around to follow the link to your website.

4. Account Activity

If you want to make the most of your twitter account you should be active. Being active and posting useful content will get you followers and should also help you rank better in the results. Most of the accounts that show up when you search for “Diet” are active, especially the top 3. So post a few tweets a day and keep it up!

5. Number of Followers

This is probably the most important factor for ranking high. If you once again look at the search results for “Diet” it is clear the top results have the highest number of followers and as your scroll down the number of followers will get smaller for the corresponding profiles. Getting followers is the hardest part so Subscribe to Our Blog and we will teach you more about how to get followers in future posts!

For now just optimize your profiles and get them ready for promotion!

via 5 Steps to Ranking #1 on Twitter for a Keyword

Twitter Changes Prioritize Search, Trends And Featured Users

San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. has added a more powerful and prominent search function to its popular free micro-blogging service, along with new features for tracking the service’s most-discussed trends and users, in an expansion of a limited test begun last month. On Friday Twitter began rolling out the new features, contained in a redesigned area prominently featured at the top of the company’s Web site, to its users in an as-yet-unannounced upgrade.

Expanded Search Bar Added To Twitter Redesign

Twitter has rapidly grown to become the third-largest online social networking service, trailing only Facebook and MySpace, according to figures released by Web traffic analysis company Compete. By some measures Twitter has seen traffic increases of nearly 1000 percent over the past year, with most users first signing up to use the service in 2008 according to a recent survey from research company HubSpot.

Twitter has increasingly gained a more mainstream user base which some believe could lead Twitter to begin challenging Internet giant and search leader Google on some fronts. The Friday addition of new features including a more powerful search function only strengthen such assertions.

Users of Twitter write short 140-or-fewer-character messages that other users of the service can read if they have made a connection with one another, leaving a sizable amount of Twitter information untapped to users who have not been able to make use of the service’s previously limited and difficult to find search feature, a shortcoming the Friday changes sought to address.

Replacing the small text link that had been at the bottom of the Twitter Web site, the changes that were made public Friday placed a new search text-entry box in a position at the top right of the site, capable of searching not just for other Twitter users with names that match the search query, but for all discussion on Twitter about search terms.

Featured User List Among Twitter Overhaul Additions

Over the previous weeks Twitter had reduced the size of its logo atop the site, a move that made room for the new search box and a drop-down “Trends” feature that analyzes what Twitter users are writing about most frequently and displays a list of the ten most popular topics.

A new feature showing off certain featured Twitter users has also been added in the redesigned homepage layout, highlighting a selection of popular Twitter users who have a wide following on the service.

Details on how a Twitter user gained a listing on the new featured user list had not yet been made available, however among those listed Friday were Twitter users with 10,000 or more fellow Twitter “followers.”

Twitter users featured in the new layout appeared to have been chosen by the company, and were accompanied by short biographies.

The new Twitter search feature was derived in part from technology developed by Summarize, a start-up the microblogging service purchased last year. The new search features were available at search.twitter.com for Twitter users not yet seeing the search box at the top of the site’s homepage.

In order to make space for the new features on the top of the page Twitter repositioned links to several functions, including the profile and settings options, which have been moved to an area below where the user’s name was displayed on the Twitter site.

Changes At Twitter Come On Heels Of $35 Funding Round

While some early testers using the new search functionality have noted a marked improvement from what had been available previously, others wished that the new search feature could provide the most relevant search results, and not only the most recent ones, an area Twitter is considered likely to address as it makes searching a more prominent portion of the Twitter experience.

Many Twitter users were unlikely to notice the new changes that began rolling out Friday, as a sizable proportion of the service’s users interact with Twitter using stand-alone applications developed by various third-party companies, with names such Twhirl and TweetDeck.

After Twitter received $35 million in third round funding last month, co-founder Biz Stone said the company was well-positioned for increased growth. “We are now positioned extremely well to support the accelerating growth of our service,” Stone said, and added that Twitter was also well positioned to “begin building revenue-generating products.”

Twitter Changes Prioritize Search, Trends And Featured Users

Previously Stone has suggested that Twitter was considering a variety of methods to generate revenue. “We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them,” Stone told United Kingdom-based trade publication Marketing Magazine’s Fiona Ramsay in a February report. “We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts,” Stone added.

Some industry observers have seen paid sponsor-driven search results or featured user listings as possible methods Twitter could use as it begins to implement a revenue-generating business model.

A growing number of businesses have been using Twitter to connect to customers and to provide quick customer support, including Starbucks, Comcast and Amazon, while reputation management has increasingly been the goal of some companies with Twitter accounts, such as Web hosting firm GoDaddy and shoe-seller Zappos.

via Twitter Changes Prioritize Search, Trends And Featured Users

The Life and Times of A Twitter Link

Twitter is a fast moving world and what you say can easily be missed by your loyal followers.  But just how fast moving are your followers’ twitter streams?  Thanks to the URL shortening service bit.ly we now know the answer is just a brief five minutes.

We asked the author of @thewholeworld, who has about 2,500 followers, to run a series of three tests promoting various funny videos or articles.  What we found was surprising; nearly all traffic to those links was within five minutes of the tweet.  After that… nothing.

The three adjacent graphs show the 30 minutes following a tweet and the activity generated from the link.  What this illustrates is that while a tweet lasts forever in search.twitter.com, it only lasts for a few moments in the eyes of 99% of your followers.  If you have a follower who is not watching their twitter stream when you tweet, your message falls on def ears since you’re likely going to be off of their 1st page.

So, based on this, how effective is twitter at spreading the word and what can you do to make the most of the technology?

1. Its not mass market communication.
   If you’re tweeting with the expectation that the world is listening, you’re wrong.  Only a handful of your followers who are online right then know what you’ve just said.
2. Join the discussion.
   This proves that a simple one way broadcast can easily get overlooked by your followers.  It’s a far better strategy to join the conversation and talk with those you’re following (and likely vice versa) than to just stand up and shout.
3. Tweet, & tweet often.
   There’s an old advertising adage that goes, “you market to a parade, not a standing army.”  Nowhere is this truer than in the twitterverse.  If you’re not constantly communicating and spreading your brand, you’re missing out.  That great message you just tweeted, won’t be seen five minutes from now.
4. It’s a relationship, not just a sale.
   Twitter is all about relationships and being an active part of the community.  If you’re hoping to just jump in and tweet every now and then, you’re not building a relationship and missing the most valuable part of Twitter.  Yes, there’s money to be found and made on Twitter, but it’s not in the traditional fashion.  Before you can expect to cash in, you’ve got to build the relationship with your followers.
5. You can probably promote an amazing deal.
   If only a fraction of your audience will ever see that last tweet, you can feel relatively safe to experiment with some pretty great deals.  Let’s say you’re a hotel, try to promote a 5 minute deal to your followers for a 5 dollar room.  Anyone who calls or books in within five minutes through a unique URL would get an incredible deal.  Anyone who didn’t will wish they’d been following you or paying more attention.  The result.  You get great word of mouth, likely new consumers and build a great relationship with your followers.

The moral of the story is that twitter is like any social event you’ve ever attended.  You can’t expect the person you’ve just met to know what you told someone in a previous conversation.  So get involved, have fun and make connections with your consumers.

via The Life and Times of A Twitter Link :: Blog :: Fuel Interactive.

Gosh Napoleon Dynamite’s Guide To Social Networking

If you’re not an idiot, you’ve seen the movie. Now, with even bigger hair and sweeter dance moves, five hints on social networking from the master, Napoleon Dynamite!

1. Give, like, creative and real compliments.

“You have a sweet bike. And you’re really good at hooking up with chicks. Plus you’re like the only guy at school who has a mustache.”

Take time each day to give genuine compliments to the people around you. Having trouble thinking of things? Make an effort to take joy in small things and you’ll soon find things to compliment. The barista who remembers what coffee you like? Say more than “thanks” next time you get a dark roast. The coworker who always adds a creative edge to projects? Take a moment to recognize the added value and share how much you appreciate it! Once you make a habit of giving compliments, you’ll find they flow off your tongue without much effort at all. When you are known for recognizing value in the people around you, your network will grow.

2. Don’t let other people take up all your time or space or eat all your steak.

“Well, I have all your equipment in my locker. You should probably come get it cause I can’t fit my numchucks in there anymore.”

In order to successfully pursue your own passions, it’s vital that you set limits on how you let others use your time. When your social network is small, it’s tempting to instantly pick up the phone, answer emails, IM, text, tweet, comment, Digg, Stumble, and give a video response to every nudge, ping, poke, and beg that comes across you table. This can grow into a monster that spreads you so thin that you no longer have energy for yourself and the people you hold most dear. The monster will also eat your steak.

3. Put your connections to work for others so they get sweet stuff, too.

“Pedro offers you his protection.”

You may not know somebody with skills to save people from certain destruction, but you might know the owner of the best place in town to get tots when you’re hungry! A great networker isn’t just a resource but a channel through which the needs and talents of others connect. A good friend comes to your house and tries to help you fix your toilet. A great networker knows a trustworthy plumber who will fix your toilet and takes you out for a drink to celebrate the victory!

4. Have a totally awesome story and tell it like its just happened!

“I spent it [the summer] with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines! [I shot] Like 50 of ‘em! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that?”

If you live an interesting life, your network will grow organically out of the connections you make in your travels and conversations with new people. It’s important to strengthen those connections by including others in your story and telling it in an exciting way. One of the powerful human emotions is the one that comes through reminiscing about past adventures. Make sure you’re a part of as many adventures as possible and share those stories with the people you meet. There’s no need to brag though. Not everybody gets to spend their summers in Alaska.

5. Find out what makes others happy and help them do those things.

“Sorry I’m late. I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys.”

If you take the time to learn about the people in your network, you’ll soon find that many people have dreams that are entirely possible given a bit of your help. They might not want to ride off into the sunset on a honeymoon stallion, and you might not be able to even tame a wild and dangerous horse. But you might know a realtor who shares great deals or a landscaper who can make a magical garden. Combine your talents with knowledge of the people you care about to create a strong and delicious network.

via Gosh Napoleon Dynamite’s Guide To Social Networking

YouTube Adds Social Features to API

You can already import activities from YouTube into your activity stream on social networks like Facebook and FriendFeed, but now the video sharing site is expanding its API to give all developers access to this data.

The expanded API includes YouTube activities like favoriting, uploading, and commenting on videos, which the company hopes will lead to an ecosystem of external applications that include “the obvious social network / feed aggregator integrations, to notification apps, to novel data views.” In a blog post, the company notes that privacy settings will be preserved on external apps, so, a video uploaded that is friends-only will not find its way to the public on third-party sites.

YouTube seems a bit late to the party on this one – I seem to find out about interesting videos via a lot of other mediums, ranging from friend’s sending me something, to Facebook or Friendfeed activity streams, to simply visiting YouTube. That said, real-time push notifications when folks you subscribe to upload or favorite a video is definitely of value to millions of people, and I’m sure we’ll quickly see several applications that leverage the API to addresses this need.

via YouTube Adds Social Features to API.

5 Reasons You Should Link Out to Others From Your Website

There’s a lot of debate in the web world, particularly in the SEO & marketing departments of mid-size and larger organizations, about whether or not to link out to other websites from their own. People are scared for a number of reasons; they worry that linking out could:

• Harm their reputation
• Damage their search engine rankings
• Cost them PageRank
• Create exit portals where users will drop off

In my opinion, these concerns are largely unfounded. Linking is common practice on the web – expected and respected by users of all kinds – and therefore, extremely unlikely to harm your reputation. Even if you link to the occassional site or page that’s been taken over by a domain squatter, aspiring pornographer or entranced Twilight fan, your visitors are likely to carry a great deal of forgiveness, especially if it’s an old link.

In much the same fashion, search engines recognize that even the best websites sometimes carry a link to the nether regions of cyberspace (talk about bringing back your ’90’s lingo!). So long as you don’t carelessly provide links to malware-installing, pop-under spouting, shamwow hawking pages, you don’t need to take especially more care than you would linking to possible 404s.

As for costing PageRank – yes, it’s true. Technically, the original PR formula (described in great detail here by my grandfather, Si) dictates that any link equity spent on external pages is lost opportunity that could have been spent on internal pages. HOWEVER, I (and many other notable SEOs) have seen very compelling evidence to suggest that not only does linking out NOT harm a site’s rankings, it appears to carry some positive correlations with ranking, trust, etc. on both a page and domain-wide level. I’ll cover this more in my reasons to link out below.

The final argument – that users will leave the site – ignores ample evidence that sites & pages that link out actually benefit from those links. Think about the most popular, most used service on the web – a website we all turn to dozens if not hundreds of times each month – Google. They make it part of their corporate creed to get users off the site as quickly as possible, and have benefitted from it tremendously. Likewise, a survey of major newspapers on the web found that those who link out tend to outperform those who don’t on many performance metrics. If you want more examples, check out Digg, Reddit, Yelp, Twitter & Delicious- who all link off their own sites as part of their core business and still get visitors coming back again and again. I have yet to see any proof that linking out to good sites that users will appreciate and enjoy actually hurts long term revenue.

So, with all those arguments against shot down (or at least, slightly maimed), let’s dive into the positives. These all refer to benefits you receive from raw linking without nofollow (though a can be obtained even when you link with nofollow, though certainly not to the same extent).

• #5 – Linking Out Sends Trackable Traffic
  If I link to a great site for finding local classes & teachers or this one for automotive advice or this resource for all things TV and they get even a smattering of visits, it’s very likely that the website tracking folks will notice the link, visit SEOmoz and investigate. Maybe they need SEO services or would be interested in some of our spiffy tools. Perhaps they’ll enjoy this post and link to it in the future. What I’m gettting at is that we (all of us, not just SEOmoz) have the potential to attract important, relevant, valuable eyeballs when we link.
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• #4 – It Makes Your Site a More Valuable, Scalable Resource
  No matter how great a website you build, you can never be all things to all people, nor contain all the relevant information & value a user might be seeking on your given topic. As such, it makes great sense to leverage the power of the web – the power of links – to create an easy, scalable path to making your site’s experience better and more rewarding for those who visit. If you find great links via Techmeme or Hacker News or SearchEngineLand, you’re going to mentally reward those brands with positive appreciation and memories. Use that same power on your own site and you, too, can become a reference resource in your niche.
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• #3 – Search Engines Likely Reward the Behavior Algorithmically
  Our Linkscape team has spent a lot of time looking into spam analysis and stumbled upon some pretty cool theories and applications. One in particular that stands out is the so-called reverse or “anti-trustrank” that looks at who you link to as a signal of quality vs. spamminess. While it certainly pays to consider the links you’ve earned, looking at the links you send can be an equally usable and useful signal of quality – low quality sites tend to link to a far greater share of junk, while great sites typically link to other great sites. These webs of trust & value can be algorithmically mined by engines to produce better search results. Take advantage by linking to resources your users (and the engines) will love. (BTW – just internally speaking, we really like using Linkscape’s Domain-Level mozTrust metric for stuff like this)
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• #2 – Linking Out Incentivizes Links In
  With a few notable exceptions (Wikipedia & YouTube, I’m looking in your direction), websites that earn links tend to do a good job of linking out themselves. When you link out, it creates a signal to other websites and content creators that you’re a willing participant in the web’s natural linking environment and not a closed-off community or purely self-referential, pompous know-it-all.
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• #1 – Linking Out Encourages Positive Participation & Contribution
  There are a lot of very smart, very dedicated, talented people on the web that can either contribute to making your efforts more successful or inhibit your growth. When you link out, especially in a consistent, opportunity-driven way, you build incentives for the Linkerati (bloggers, social media sophisticates, online journalists, website builders & forum participants) to engage with your site. Granted, when you’re small and just starting out, the incentive is small, but I’ve seen, via first-hand experience, the value it brings. Don’t underestimate the power of rewarding your community – it’s built some of the most amazing brands on (and off) the web.
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I think there are plenty of other good reasons to link out as well, but these are certainly top of mind for me, and typically make a very compelling argument when we work with clients who are initially opposed to the idea. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences and rationales for linking out (or not).

via SEOmoz | 5 Reasons You Should Link Out to Others From Your Website.

SMS Advertising

A pioneering entrepreneur is taking text messaging to new frontiers – and giving business a whole new way to reach customers 

In 2004, as the number of text messages sent in the U.S. climbed to 2.5 billion per month and common short codes became available to license, Zaw Thet spied his golden opportunity. That was the year he founded 4Info in Palo Alto, California, and established a natural language search engine and automatic alerts tailored to cell phones. By sending a text message to the short code “4INFO”, users can tap into discrete pipes of data feeds for sports scores, weather forecasts, the current TV lineup and more. 

Meanwhile, 4Info has made it possible for other companies to build their own search or alert services and has created new advertising opportunities in the mobile space, attracting major players such as Chevrolet. “What we have is a very targeted, contextual advertising engine in SMS,” says Thet, 26, who expects sales figures to reach seven figures. “The average [rate of] recall for consumers looking at an SMS as is much higher than it is [for ads] online or anywhere else.”