101 Reasons and Value Propositions for Small Businesses to Use Twitter

1. Send and receive breaking news and scoops instantaneously
2. Keep in touch with friends, customers, colleagues, family, vendors, co-workers, neighbors, employees, and associates
3. Ask for solutions to problems
4. Monitor your industry's trends, buzz, leaks, rumors, and news
5. Conduct market research on your customers
6. Monitor what your customers are talking about
7. Monitor your brands, products, and services
8. Get resolutions to issues
9. Monitor your employees and vendors
10. Keep track of events and travel destinations
11. Get answers to questions
12. Get product and service referrals
13. Ask for employee referrals
14. Use Twitter from your iPhone, Blackberry, or other mobile device
15. Conduct background checks on employees and potential partners
16. Drive traffic to your offers and products
17. Provide Twitter name as a point of contact and a way to reach you
18. Track your name, company, and products
19. Respond to misinformation and public relations issues
20. Gather competitive intelligence on your competitors
21. Vendor, supplier, contractor, and company research
22. Search for employees and staff
23. Track local news, events, and issues
24. Get introduced to key influencers and industry players
25. Poll and survey Twitter users for votes and answers
26. Invite users to subscribe to newsletters, ezines, and mailing lists
27. Gain exposure for your blogs or sites
28. Add transparency to your business
29. Answer other users' questions
30. Solve other users' problems
31. Become an authority and expert in your field
32. Share tips, resources, and strategies
33. Provide live commentary of an event or news
34. Get a better understanding of microblogging, social networking, and social media
35. Share videos, audio, and other files
36. Exchange stories and case studies
37. Share your business travel experience
38. Get hotel and restaurant recommendations for business trips
39. Provide referrals and introduce colleagues
40. Show the personal side of your business
41. Build new relationships
42. Drive traffic to your sites and blogs
43. Strengthen current relationships
44. Move prospects further down the sales pipeline
45. Use third party apps for more effective and engage interactions
46. Get feedback about your products, services, and offers
47. Track important steps and milestones of colleagues
48. View, follow, and engage in relevant discussions
49. Add new contacts to your network
50. Invite others to events and shows
51. Ask for advice and suggestions
52. Reinforce your current network of contacts
53. Redistribute content from your blog or website
54. Influence your network of followers to take action
55. Group and project communications
56. Asking for votes for social bookmarking and social news articles
57. Pitch bloggers and publishers your stories
58. Generate leads and inquiries
59. Provide customer and client support
60. Encourage and motivate staff
61. Ask for testimonials and endorsements
62. Provide product and service reviews
63. Gain a competitive advantage over competitors who aren't using Twitter
64. Your community expects you to be where they are
65. It's free to use
66. Easy to set-up and get started
67. Simple to use and implement
68. Efficient and effect communications with your network
69. Post promotions and special offers
70. The 140 character limit helps you communicate clearly and succinctly
71. Gain insight into issues and trends
72. Add exposure for your brand, company, and products
73. More than one employee can Twitter about your company
74. Meet friends of friends and expand your circle of influence
75. Offer advice and suggestions
76. You can have direct conversations with individuals
77. Track popular conversations and Twitter users
78. Shorten and share deep pages on your site with URL shortening tools
79. You control who you follow
80. Block others from following you
81. Get feedback about your sites, blogs, and publications
82. Reply to status updates and direct messages
83. Effective use of Twitter doesn't require a lot of time
84. There are millions of people on Twitter
85. Organize meet-ups and local networking events
86. Provide testimonials and endorsements
87. Augment customer service and customer relationship management (CRM)
88. Great for personal branding
89. Use with other third-party sites that interact with Twitter
90. Use as a reminder service or sync with your ToDo list
91. Use as a detail record of your daily activities for better time management
92. Customize Twitter profile to reflect your brand
93. Reduce the amount of e-mail in your inbox
94. Cut the number of feeds in your RSS reader
95. Scalable according to the size of your organization or company
96. Research solutions to problems and issues
97. Ask for reviews and opinions of your offers
98. Provide feedback to your network
99. The number of Twitter users is growing and the popularity of Twitter is trending upward
100. Track and analyze click-through rates of links in Twitter updates
101. Barack Obama used Twitter to successfully win the 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections

Add your reasons to use Twitter to this list.

Article Templates Part 3 of 3 – Powerful Tips for Creating Article Templates that Slashes the Time Spent Writing Articles

This is the 3rd and final part of a 3 part series (part 1, part2) on creating article templates that reduces the time spent writing articles. The sections of an article template include:

• Title (covered in previous article)
• Author (covered in previous article)
• Summary (covered in previous article)
• Text Body
• HTML Body
• Text Resource Box
• HTML Resource Box
• Keywords
• Categories

Text Body

• 400 words minimum to 1000 words maximum
• Make a list of at least 8 sub-topics with 3 points each
• Write an introduction paragraph with at least 3 sentences describing your article. The first sentence can restate your title. The next two sentences should cover your sub-topics.
• Write one sentence for each point. You should end up with 7 paragraphs containing 3 sentences each.
• Write a conclusion paragraph with at least 3 sentences describing your article. Restate your title for the first sentence. Use the next to sentences to cover your sub-topics.
• With an average number of 14 words in a sentence you should end up with 9 paragraphs, 1 bulleted or numbered list, 27 sentences, and at least 400 words.
• Don’t use Microsoft Word or any word processors to format your articles. Use a plain text editor like NotePad to format and code your articles.
• Don’t promote your products and services in your article body
• Don’t use excessive line-breaks, hard line-breaks, or formatting characters

HTML Body

• The HTML article body shares the same attributes as the text based article body
• The two article bodies should match except for the additional HTML code
• Only use basic HTML styling and layout elements such as ordered/unordered lists, bold, italics, colors, and font types.
• Don’t place links within the first three paragraphs or above the fold
• Don’t include any links to sites you own or operate

Text Resource Box or About the Author

• Maximum 300 characters, including spaces, or 50 words
• You can use sales and advertorial copy in the author resource box. Include a clear call to action.
  Include a maximum of 2 different self serving URLs

HTML Resource Box or About the Author

• The HTML author resource box shares the same attributes as the text based author resource box
• The two author resource boxes should match except for the additional HTML code
• Maximum 500 characters, including spaces and html code, or 83 words
• Include a maximum of 2 different self serving links or URLs
• Only use basic HTML styling elements such as bold, italics, colors, and font types

Keywords

• Maximum 100 characters, including spaces, or about 16 words

Categories

• List the top three article categories that best describe your article and reaches your target audience

This is a basic guide you can use when creating your own article templates. You can create your own variations of these guidelines to comply with the submission guidelines of your targeted article directories.

The objective of article templates is to reduce the time it takes to outline, organize, structure, and layout your articles. With article templates you'll find that you're able to write more articles in less time.

There’s no limited to the number of article templates you can create.

Article Templates Part 2 of 3 – Learn How to Create Professional Article Templates Quickly and Easily

This is the 2nd part of a 3 part series (part 1) on creating article templates that reduces the time spent writing articles. Article templates have three primary benefits:

1. Article Ideas (covered in previous article)
2. Efficient Article Submission
3. Quick Article Writing

Efficient Article Submission
Articles written with article templates are much easier to post to your site and submit to article directories. They are universally formatted to make article submission more efficient.

The submission and publishing guidelines for each article directory varies. Some article directories accept HTML and links while others don’t. Some allow 200 words while others require at least 400 words.

Properly developed article templates will account for these various submission guidelines. Once a template based article has been finished, you should be able to post your article to your targeted article directories.

Quick Article Writing
Article templates provide a pre-formatted outline of articles for you to plug in sentences. This reduces the time wasted on figuring out what to write and how to organize your article.

Article Templates and Boilerplates

Article templates provide a very simple framework to add boilerplate text to your articles. Adding boilerplate text to your article templates will further speed up the article writing process.

Boilerplate text is designed to provide simple "copy and paste" versions of text which is easily edited and manipulated into your article. When you open an article template, all the boilerplate text is ready to use.

To avoid duplicate content filters, make sure that you’re not using too much boilerplate text. Boilerplate text should be used to help you start or complete sentences.

Article Template Sections

Writing an effective article that delivers results requires that all of its parts work together. Your article should build credibility in the readers’ mind and guide readers to take action.

Article templates help you write quality articles in the shortest possible time. Well crafted article templates contain several sections:

• Title
• Author
• Summary
• Text Body
• HTML Body
• Text Resource Box
• HTML Resource Box
• Keywords
• Categories

Title

• The article title should contain a maximum of 100 characters, including spaces, or about 16 words
• Start each title with your keyword phrase
• The article should be in title case and don’t use all caps
• Don’t end the title with a period, include excessive punctuation, and enclose the title in quotation marks
• Don’t include contact information in the title field

Author

• Use your real name or a pen (pseudo) name
• Don’t use your company name, web site address, or contact information

Summary or Description

• The maximum number characters including spaces shouldn’t exceed 400 characters or 66 words
• Don’t include your name, contact information, or tagline
• Alternatively, use the first couple of sentences of your article as the summary

Article Templates Part 1 of 3 – Write an Endless Number of Unique Articles in Minutes with Article Templates

Article marketing is a time tested and proven marketing strategy that builds credibility and drives inquiries. It’s been around since print newspapers and works with Web 2.0.

Conducting a successful article marketing campaign involves connecting the various dots that constitutes an effective article marketing campaign.

• Research
• Writing
• Submission
• Promotion
• Tracking

The Article Marketing Problem

Article marketing can be a time consuming and resource intensive Internet marketing strategy. There are tools and tactics that help you reduce the amount of time and resources dedicated to article marketing.

• Article generator software reduces the time spent on research by searching the Internet for keyword specific content and organizing the information into sub-categories.
• Article submission services cuts the amount of time needed to submit articles to article directories and other sites on the Internet.
• Social bookmarking, comment posting, forum posting, and article submission software help you save time by promoting your articles and increasing back links.
• Analytics software and services saves time by tracking the effectiveness and efficiency of your article marketing campaign.

The largest time consuming activity is writing your articles. There are numerous methods and tactics that are discussed and used by article marketers to write optimized, quality, and unique articles faster.

Benefits of Article Templates

Article templates are one of these time saving methods for writing and pumping out articles. There are three primary benefits to using article templates to create articles:

1. Article Ideas
2. Efficient Article Submission
3. Quick Article Writing

Article Ideas
Finding ideas and topics to write articles about is one of the challenging tasks in creating articles. Article templates provide a reliable source of ideas to write your articles about. Think of article templates as your launching pad for your article writing.

Below is a list of some common titles on which to build your article templates.

• Top 5 Ways to…
• 3 Stages of…
• What to do when…
• What are the best…
• 7 Steps to…
• How to…
• 10 Most Common Mistakes…
• Top 7 Pitfalls of…
• Why You Should Use…
• Learn How to…
• 12 Common Pitfalls of…
• 10 Best Methods for…
• 3 Simple Tips…
• Number One Method to…
• The Best Way to…
• 5 Tips to…
• 10 Facts About…
• Top 7 Questions to…
• The Keys to…
• Why You Should Use…
• Secret Strategy for…
• Secrets to…
• 7 Elements of…

Drive Traffic with Facebook and Build Social Networking Relationships that Delivers Results

The growth of social networking has been truly astonishing. In the last few years, social networks have grown tremendously. People are now turning to social networking to meet new people and to share information.

Social networks are where people engage in conversations and build relationships. They are also a great source of opinions, scoops, advice, answers, videos, photos, audio, and referrals.

Over the years MySpace was the largest social network on the planet. But now Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the largest online social network worldwide.

If you were to ask why Facebook was so popular you would get hundreds of answers. There are many reasons why Facebook is so popular but the primary reasons for entrepreneurs and Internet marketers are:

• Targeting
• Applications

Facebook empowers Internet marketers by allowing them to engage with communities of people within a niche. Their application platform allows you to meet and engage with new friends by geography, demographics, and interests.

Targeting

Facebook contains the largest and most complete contact database on the Internet. Facebook can be considered a massive social customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

Facebook allows unprecedented targeting of your niche or market. You can further identify and filter your audience into communities or micro-niches through several search criteria. Facebook provides a wealth of options and criteria that you can use to find and focus in on your market. Some of the criteria includes:

• Geography
• Demographics
• Interests
• Education
• Careers
• Affiliations

Applications

Facebook’s platform and mass adoption is what really sets it apart from other social networks. The Facebook platform consists of applications (modules) that can be used to segment and engage with your audience.

Facebook has several applications to help you organize, group, categorize, and segment your friends.

• Friend List feature allows you to segment your contacts so that you can customize your messages.
• Groups application allows Facebook users with similar interests to join a group.
• Facebook Pages are customized pages which can be tailored to your niches.

Facebook also empowers users to find, meet, and engage with Friends. It is extremely convenient and simple to search for people with similar interests and backgrounds. The search features in Facebook are very robust. You can find any person, group, or content within any niches.

Requesting and adding Friends can occur from numerous locations within Facebook. Adding friends to your account is simple and can happen in two clicks (without any captchas).

Engaging with Friends and other members is also what separates Facebook from the pack. With Facebook you can:

• Comment on videos, photos, notes, statuses, etc.
• Send messages
• 'Poke' inactive Friends
• Send out RSVPs for events
• Post to forums & groups

With Facebook’s application based platform, the way that you can engage with others is potentially unlimited.

Article Submission Roundup: the Pros and Cons of Automatic, Manual, and Semi-Automatic Article Submission

Article submission is a necessary evil. Everyone wants the back links, brand recognition, and traffic that articles can deliver to an article marketing campaign. But the time and resources required for successful article submissions can be costly.

There are three article submission methods that can be implemented to submit articles to article directories:

1. Automatic Article Submission
2. Manual Article Submission
3. Semi-Automatic Article Submission

Each of these methods has their strengths and weaknesses. Marketers and entrepreneurs must weigh the pros and cons in deciding which method to choose.

Automatic Article Submission

Automatic article submission is the use of software or services to automatically submit articles to multiple article directories with one submission form.

• Articles are sometimes posted to the wrong categories.
• Automatic article submission lacks flexibility to customize articles for each directory. Some directories allow HTML and links in the article body and author resource box.
• Articles are sometimes submitted to irrelevant article directories with little website authority and traffic.
• Save significant time from submitting articles manually to each directory.
• Only a few automatic article submission services submit to the top article directories which represent almost all traffic from article directories.
• Automatic article submission costs money either on a fee or subscription basis.
• Protect against submitting duplicate articles to the same directories.
• Track and manage article submissions automatically.

Manual Article Submission

Manual article submission involves visiting each article directory, registering for an account, and submitting each article by filling out submission forms.

• Manual article submission will offer the best results, because some directories will not accept automatic article submissions.
• Consumes a lot of time and resources to manually submit to article directories.
• Have to limit and select the ‘best’ article directories for submission. There isn’t enough time to submit to all article directories.
• Articles can be customized to comply with the submission guidelines of each directory. This allows you to take full advantage of each directory’s strengths.
• Articles stand a better chance of acceptance using manual submission.
• Takes more time to manually track and manage article submissions.
• Articles are only submitted to the top article directories which drive the most traffic and provide the best back links.

Semi-Automatic Article Submission

Semi-Automatic article submission is when software is used to pre-fill the submission forms on each article directory.

• Some semi-automatic software is free while others cost money.
• Doesn’t require the same time investment like manual submissions but doesn’t compare to the speed of automatic submissions.
• Allows you to customize article submissions to the submission guidelines of the respective article directory.
• You can submit your article to a larger number of article directories than manual submissions.
• Some semi-automatic software tracks and manages article submissions.

Twitter Traffic Driving - How Internet Marketers and Affiliate Marketers Can Use Twitter to Drive Website Traffic

Twitter is a powerful Internet marketing tool to drive targeted traffic to your website. Twitter is a microblog which allows Internet marketers to send targeted messages to niche markets.

Microblogs

Microblogs enables users to efficiently send messages to followers. Microblogging involves sending short, targeted messages to your followers. These messages can be anything including:

• News and Press Releases
• Event Announcements
• Current Activities
• Reviews and Previews
• Articles
• Opinions
• Questions and Answers

Text messaging, instant messaging, and blogging are the three technologies that birthed microblogging. Not only does it allow marketers to push their message to their audience, it empowers them to engage in public and private conversations with their audience.

Microblogs also enable Internet marketers and affiliate marketers to network with and target niche markets. Internet marketers can build a network of followers in which whom they can send targeted marketing messages.

What Are You Doing?

Twitter started out as a way for users to answer the question: What are you doing? Throughout its growth it has evolved into a more robust messaging platform. Some of the features of Twitter include:

• Direct private messaging
• Saving favorite messages
• Sending status messages
• Replying to messages
• Searching for people and messages
• Profile and background customization

Twitter and most other microblogs limit you to 140 characters of text in your messages. But some microblogs also allow links, videos, images, audio, and other files in messages.

Twitter Strategy

Internet and affiliate marketers are charged with converting Twitter followers from conversation to action. It is also an excellent opportunity to build and expose your brand.

Very similar to opt-in email lists, you can build a 'list' of followers. You can then direct your followers to your website where they can:

• Subscribe to your mailing list
• Purchase your offers, products, and services
• Redirect to your affiliate offer
• Move further along the sales pipeline

Power of Headlines

Twitter updates can only have a maximum of 140 characters. The 140 character limit dictates that Internet marketers have to be creative in how the use the space.

For Internet marketers, Twitter updates should be viewed as headlines. Twitter updates, like headlines, should entice followers to take action and click a link in the message or subsequent messages.

Creating effective messages that delivers results involves:

• Providing relevant and valuable information that resonates with followers
• Personalize your messages with your own voice
• Linking to affiliate offers indirectly through your website
• Consistent and frequent updates
• Creative and unique messages
• Conversational tone and 'natural' participation
• Shortening links with short URL services