Increasingly, we are asked, “should we be using Twitter and/or Facebook for our business?” Today we are going to talk only about Twitter. Obviously, not every business should be using Twitter, though for the most part, if you have or intend to have a successful web presence, the answer is yes. If you already have a Facebook page, the answer is definitely yes, you should be using Twitter too.

One of the first responses we get when discussing Twitter with our clients is that they don’t know what Twitter is, or they don’t know very many people who actually use Twitter. That doesn’t mean there aren’t prospective “followers” and customers-to-be out there using Twitter, and in numbers that will likely surprise you. Will it take some time to build a followers list of any size? Yes. But, like the miners of the gold rush days, savvy Twitter users have learned that it pays to pan for those flecks of gold in those streams.

Before you start, it is important to remember this. First and foremost: DO NOT use Twitter only for pushing your products or services. Your tweets should add value to the conversations, needs, and lives of your followers and potential (those whom receive retweets, among others) followers.  If all you do is promote your products or services, you will only realize a small part of what Twitter can do for you.

Each tweet can be no more than 140 characters. You don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time writing them, but you should pay careful attention to what you write. As with anything, there can be unintended consequences if you write in haste or a poor state of mind. While forms of shorthand work for kids and others that live nearly exclusively in the texting world, I strongly believe, for business purposes, that you practice writing succinctly (admittedly, hard for me to do at times) so your message is clear. I am not saying to use abbreviations at all, just keep them, well, short.

One of the reasons I believe Twitter should be an integral part of any business’s online strategy, is that Twitter is viral. Tweet something worth retweeting (similar to email forwarding), and all of a sudden you have some potential new followers, as some of your followers retweet to their followers. Oh, and Google indexes “tweets,” so your well-written tweets can be found when people do a Google search for keywords you may have tweeted. Also, if any of your followers display their Twitter stream on their Facebook page, your tweets will show for all of their Facebook friends to see. Think branding, branding, branding. Are you feeling it?

So, how can Twitter help your business? In no particular order, consider the following.

• Customer Service
• Branding, branding, branding
• Answer common questions (even though the answers are on your website) about your products or services
• Build transparency and trust
• Announcements of specials or events
• Reward loyalty – send a coupon code that your followers can redeem in your store.
• Build credability – share tips and useful links to your website and other websites
• Your Twitter conversations add value to your brand, product, or service
• Adding a Voice to your business – people like to know there are actual people with whom to communicate

Are you struggling to keep fresh content on your website’s home page? Displaying your Tweets on your home page can help you with that!

So, how do you start? Create a pesonal Twitter account and follow some of the social media experts so you know what is going on in social media. After you gotten your feet wet with your personal Twitter account, jump in and create a Twitter account for your business, and tweet, tweet.

By the way, you may reach us on Twitter @webwisedesign. We would love to hear from you, and of course, we appreciate any followers at www.twitter.com/webwisedesign.

Need more convincing? Here are a couple of resources with a lot of good information for you. The first from Lisa Barone who does a really great job of listing ways to market and build your business. The second is from Twitter itself, and will help you get started. 80 Ways To Use Twitter As A SMB Owner and Twitter 101 for Business – A Special Guide

As always, we are happy to answer your questions. Leave a comment, or give us a call at 1-800-281-9993.

Really good Search Engine Optimization is a complex process. That said, effective SEO can be as simple as one, two, three….and four. Do four reasonably simple things, and you can see your rankings in Google Search Page Results, aka SERPS, improve considerably.

So you want your web pages to get found well, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money or time to make that happen? Well, look no further.

If you have a webmaster, provide him or her with a title for each of your pages. The “title” should use keywords  describing the content on the page (that is, keywords that potential visitors would search for hoping to find what you offer). Also provide your webmaster with a good headline (that is similar to, and contains the same keywords as the title) for each page. And of course you need some text describing what you offer. Obviously, that text should contain the same keywords near the start of the first paragraph. Your webmaster should be able to take it from there.

If you maintain your own website, then you should pay attention to this list.

1. Title tag
2. <meta> description tag
3. Page header <h1> tag
4. Well-written text

For those of you who don’t know what those four items are, I’ll describe them.

1. The <title> tag defines the title of the document.

The title element does the following:
Defines a title in the browser toolbar (displayed at the very top of your browser)
Provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites
Displays a title for the page in search-engine result

2. The <meta> description tag provides a description of the HTML document (your web page). The <meta> description will not be displayed on the page, but Google will display (most of the time) the information in search results, and just as, if not more, importantly uses it as one of the “signals” in determining how highly your page will rank.

3. The header <h1> tag contains the “headline” for the page (also used as a Google “signal”)

4. The first sentence of the first paragraph should contain the same keywords. (also used as a Google “signal”)

As I said, basic SEO is as simple as one, two, three….and four. Do remember to do them for each of your pages. Of course there is much more you could, and should, do. If your webmaster isn’t doing those basic four things for you, tell him you would like to pay him or her for doing so, as it does take some time to do it right. In this case a little time and or money spent will reward you with higher search rankings.

1. Use Google AdWords

We always suggest to our new clients that they use Google AdWords to jump-start the new web presence. (It is also a good marketing tool for a redesigned website or doing a new product launch, among other things.)

An inexpensive Google AdWords campaign gets your name, along with a description you control, at or near the top of search results pages and can keep it there while your individual pages get indexed and, if they are created properly with good content, starting earning their way up the organic listing rankings in Google.

2. Use Twitter

We announce all new websites we launch for our clients. Those “tweets” show up in Google very quickly. In fact, it happens sometimes in seconds and always in a very few minutes. The URL in that tweet gets indexed as well. There is no waiting for Google to “discover” your website from a link on another website or from your sitemap.xml (ask your webmaster if you have a sitemap.xml). In the example, I did the search about 70 minutes after using Twitter to annouce the launch.

Even though we tweet about our client websites, we highly recommend that they, and others, use Twitter to get news of their website, not only to those in the Twitter universe, but to Google as well. It only takes a quick tweet and delivers a lot of benefit.

Summary: Google AdWords and Twitter, Two quick ways to jump-start your new website in Google search engine results pages.