Hard economic time brings less people and traffic to you making you second guessing your advertising strategies. Don’t have to spend a dime if you don’t want to but how are you still going to drive traffic? How are you going to announce your next big thing without any advertisement?
Regular readers and my colleagues know that I'm quite the Twitter junkie. It's been particularly great to use Twitter to speak in an open conversation with local businesses, get tips and news from design colleagues, get quick texts about upcoming area events, and even to send myself RSS feeds of great local shopping deals within a few minutes of being posted. I don't have a ton of followers, but that's ok - my goals for Twitter are mostly personal/professional communication, and to dialog in an interesting way with people I might not meet otherwise. Are you happy with who's following you?
So let's assume you've read the article I keep posting regarding 50 uses of Twitter for business (heck, why not browse all of our Twitter-related articles), and you've started your Twitter account. But what's this? No one will follow your tweets? What do you do? I have some suggestions about getting those elusive Twitter followers, so read on past the break to learn some simple ways you can encourage followers and gain that Twitter audience you crave!
Still not sold on facebook, twitter, linkedin, and similar web applications? The most common reason I hear from people as to why they won't try social networking is the loss of their privacy. Well, if that's all that's keeping you from connecting with friends, colleagues, and potential customers, I'm here to share some simple things you can do to participate and maintain whatever level of anonymity you choose!
Read on for ideas for guidelines you can set for yourself, and settings relevant to several of the more popular sites to keep your personal information private.
Several weeks ago I posted an article about joining Twitter. If you haven't yet, give it a try! It takes just a few minutes, and can be adapted for a variety of different business purposes. Still not convinced? New Marketing Labs President Chris Brogan has written about 50 ways you can use Twitter as part of your business.
Aren't blogs part of this "social networking" fad for younger people, simply journaling to each other online about what's going on in their lives? As a professional who has been employed in the business sector for over twenty years that is exactly what I thought social networking was all about. Boy was I wrong.
This January I had the privilege of attending the Internet Retailer Conference in Miami, Florida. Read more about how it changed my perspective on social networking, and blogs in particular, after the break.
