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.

Well, the importance of great photos on your website got ratcheted up a notch. As I wrote in our last post, the new Search Options feature on the Google Search Engine Results Pages, aka SERPs has changed the way searchers will view results. “Sites with mages” isn’t the only feature  (actually, a search filter you may activate by clicking) that is easier to see and more likely to be seen, but it is extremely important.

Since the “Sites with images” feature  has the potential to impact many of our clients and a lot of other website owners, I believe it is worth closer look. For those of you who rely on photos to help sell your product (and if you don’t do that, you should), it is definitely time to pay more attention to photo quality. Google understands that searchers like visuals. That is why the have options for maps, videos, sites with images,wonder wheel and more. Believe me as more and more users discover the “Sites with images” feature, that will be the only way they look at search results when searching for products, real estate property, homes and anything for they may hope to see a photo with the results. It will be the first filter applied to real estate searches.

The bottom line is — you need quality photos to compete on the web. Now I know some of you are saying to yourself, yeah, yeah I’ve heard you say that before. Well, there is a reason I preach quality photos. Website visitors like photos, and they LOVE quality photos. Now, I am not telling you to go out and buy the newest, digital camera with a dozen or more megapixels. I won’t get started on the “Megapixel Myth.” I’ll just let David Pogue tell/show you about it in this short video on the Megapixel Myth.

What sets great photos apart from those seen on many websites is photo composition and lighting. Of course, having camera with a good optical lens, sensor and circuitry, not to mention knowing how to use the camera settings, all factor into shooting really great photos. It is not enough to buy a good camera. You need to learn how to use your camera, and how to shoot great photos.

Here is an example of what was displayed when I searched for “southwest wi trout stream property.” (sans quotes) Google will display photos that are on the page visitors will see if they click. Great photos will make them click.

If you don’t have, or are not willing to spend, the time to learn, then you need to hire the best professional photographer your budget allows. Before hiring them ask to see examples of photos they have taken that are similar to what you need for your website. Whether it is your time or your professional’s time it will be some of the best time you can spend. It will reap benefits in the form of more visitors to your website, more page views, and visits of longer time on your site.

The quick and real summary: Professional quality photos will help you more than ever when searchers use Google’s Search Options “Sites with images” feature.

In today’s world, we all have to be careful of any link we click on in email that we receive. If you don’t know the sender, don’t click. The risk of infecting your computer is high when clicking on unknown links.

Sometimes knowing the sender is not enough. As many of you have seen, the thieves who write these emails are smart enough to “spoof” your own email address. Unfortunately, one of the phishing attacks arriving in many mail boxes the last couple of weeks, looks (as many do) to be legitimate. It tricks many users because it uses your email address and domain name. A couple of addresses it may come from are noreply@youremaildomainname.com or operator@youremaildomain.com, or something similar.

The email “Subject” may be “For the owner of the yourusername@youremaildomain.com e-mail account” or “A new settings file for the yourusername@youremaildomain.com” or something similar. The body of the email will read something like this:

Dear user of the youremaildomainname.com mailing service!
We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (yourusername@youremaildomain.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:
http://youremaildomainname.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=xxxxxxxx…

Best regards, yourdomainnamecom Technical Support.

If you receive an email like this, and you mouseover the link and read carefully, you will see that it leads to a different server other than youremaildomain.com. If you click on it you will be redirected to a site that will likely infect your computer. Just delete the email. Do not click on the link!

If you are a WebWise Design & Marketing customer, please know that we would never send an email asking you to apply new settings by clicking on a link. No other responsible email provider would ask that of you either.

Protect your computer with good antivirus and malware software that includes anti-phishing protection.

Most importantly do not click on links without looking to see where they will lead you!

Practice safe clicking.