Getting Started

The first step can sometimes be the hardest. Getting an actual profile on Twitter is not difficult. As you can see below, all you need to get started is a name and an email address. That’s not too hard is it?

Once you’ve gotten past the initial fear of just signing up, picking your username is next. This is the name that people will use when tweeting with you. So it’s important to make it memorable and associated with your brand. So shy away from the ’90s AIM screen name (i.e. @StFrmInsurWeHo7). I know it might be difficult with so many Twitter users out there now (Demeter’s had to be @demeterinteract) but do the best you can. You can always change this in the future, but you’ll lose SEO rankings that you’ll build with your Twitter account. So it’s preferable to keep the same name you started with.

Filling out your profile is the final step to getting started. This is a very crucial step. Your profile is where you tell the world about yourself. Your avatar image is a good place for branding. It’s what the majority of people who tweet with you will see. Custom backgrounds are nice, but with so many third party tools out there, your avatar is the best place for visual branding. Always have a website listed. Users will be inquisitive and click on your link to find out more about you. Don’t leave this out. Your bio is your 3 second pitch. Who are you? Boil your company down to one or two sentences. People will use this bio as a quick way to filter whether or not it’s worth following you. Don’t give them a reason not to follow you.

Listen

Listening is often the most overlooked aspect of Twitter, and social media in general. Many people start a Twitter account and start to blast out tweets left and right. No! I, along with many others, have used the cocktail party analogy in the past when describing Twitter. When you walk into a cocktail party, there is already a stream of conversation happening. It doesn’t make sense to walk into the room and start shouting, “Look at me! I’m wearing a blue blazer!” It’s off putting and people aren’t going to flock to you for conversation. What you do is listen, find like minded people, and join their conversation when appropriate. After which, it’s acceptable for you to guide the conversation.

So instead of tweeting links to your website and asking people to follow you on Facebook, use Twitter’ search function to find out what people are talking about in your industry and with your competitors. From there, you’ll also find specific hashtags people are using, which will further help you understand the current conversation.

Relax and Be Yourself

I’ve found that many new Twitter users get really uptight about what they should be posting. Many think they’re not interesting. This fear can be paralyzing and prevents too many people from actually using Twitter. My advice is to just relax, and be yourself. You have customers already right? Why do they like you? Let that come out in your tweets. Your personality will eventually come out. One thing I like to tell people is, it’s ok to “mess up” in the beginning. I’d rather you break some Twitter etiquette or tweet something banal than nothing at all. (Plus, you won’t have thousands of followers to harp on your mistake.) Twitter doesn’t have to be stressful.

Be Consistent

The fourth step is what will really help build your Twitter following and relationships. Be consistent with your tweeting. I know tweeting can be somewhat time consuming, (Here are some tools that I recommend to make your life easier) but you don’t have to tweet every 15 minutes to be effective. Just make sure you’re tweeting on a daily basis and responding as quickly as possible to @ mentions. Going days between tweets and responses will kill momentum and enthusiasm to tweet with you. People won’t follow a Twitter account that tweets every four days. Get into a routine, figure out what works for you, and follow that everyday. It’s just like working out. Start slow, find your rythme, and keep at it.

Twitter is a fabulous tool for small business, if they’d just make the time to use it! So follow these 4 easy steps to getting started on Twitter and your Twitter experience will start off on the right foot. Please feel free to tweet with me @jessebouman or @demeterinteract for more advice.

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Happy Friday everyone. I hope you had a stellar and productive week. This week’s highlight was purchasing a company Apple TV. Fancy pants! Here are your top links from this week, enjoy!

Social Media Gets Serious

Web 2.0 is Dead. All Hail the Age of Mobile

What Gaming Can Teach Us About Social Apps

Is it a Tech Bubble?

Rock Bands’ Hottest Tour Stop: Ad Agencies

The Big Doubt Over Facebook

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1. Headline

The headline is the most important piece of your content. It’s what will draw users in to actually read your content. Approximately 80% of an audience will read the headline, and only 20% of those readers will read a story. The article headline is very important and if people aren’t compelled to read past the headline, the content is likely not great either.

Always write the headline first. It’s a promise to the reader of what’s to come. If you write the promise first, your writing will reflect this promise and be sharp. If you write the title after you’ve written the article, you’re just filling in the blank with a marginal summary. Read your title. Does it make you want to read the article or does it make you think you already know what the article is about? Your headline should be useful to the reader and provide a sense of urgency.

2. Keep is Simple

Everyone likes to think that they’re smart. Using big words (“50 cent words” as a college professor once described them to me) is a way to let the world know we’re educated and smart. Well stop it. You’re not writing a master’s thesis for a tenured professor, you’re writing content for your company. Effective copy is written in clear, concise, simple words that get your point across. Keep your copy conversational. Don’t overlook bullet points either. They’re a very simple method to highlight main points.

3. Focus on Your Audience

I wrote a post over a month ago called, “Make Your Content Better By Following the Hero’s Journey”. The main point being that you need to focus on your customer and make them the hero of your story. That means understanding your audience and focusing on them. Knowing their questions and desires will help you create effective copy that will connect you with them.

Writing is an on-going battle. Even the most seasoned writers will tell you that it doesn’t get much easier. But copywriting is essential and if you start by following these three steps, I guarantee you’ll create stronger, more meaningful content in the long-term.

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Here’s the top links from this week.

Digital Mad Men: Razorfish Co-founder Jeffery Dachis

Social Media Advertising Is Set to Explode. Who Will Control It?

What Your Klout Score Really Means

The Science of Social Attention

The New Science of Online Persuasion

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I always wanted to say, “Over and out” with my buddies growing up. But, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. But Voxer lets me play out my childhood dreams with their app. It connects you to your Facebook friends so you can chat either through the traditional audio walkie talkie or via text. I’ve only used it a handful of times since my friends don’t enjoy it as much as me. They largely view it as a novel app. That could be the case for them, but I still see some value.

I see Voxer as an intermediate form of communication. Making actual phone calls to friends seems really outdated (weird!). It’s been displaced with texting. I for one, send thousands of texts a month, but may only use hundreds of minutes. Almost all of those minutes are for business. Rarely do I call a friend to talk. But sometimes texting takes too long. Your conversation is too long for text, but it’s not worth making a call. Firing up Voxer to have a quick 3 round exchange makes sense to me. But why not just call you ask? Well, with a phone call, you need to be on the line for the entire call. Awkward pauses are well, awkward. But with Voxer, you can make a quick verbal comment, pause to focus on something in front of you, and then respond 30 seconds later. I definitely see a place for Voxer in daily communication.

Even though I’m enthusiastic about Voxer, it doesn’t do me much good without my friends using it. So try out Voxer. Let me know what you think. Can you see yourself using it or do you view it as a novelty?

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Content creation is time consuming and for many people, difficult. With so many new tools at our disposal in the Web 2.0 era, it seems that blogging often gets overlooked because it’s not young and sexy. Well, it’s still a very, very effective way of lead generation. Startups need to make sure they’re blogging on a regular basis and that over time, they’ll see value from their blog. Here are five steps to successful content marketing.

1. Keywords

First conduct a keyword search to find related keywords with more than 10,000 searches a month. Then run a PPC campaign to find out the CPC of each keyword to rank the value of each keyword. Find 6-10 keywords that will rank best for your product and build your blog to rank for these terms.

2. Editorial Calendar

Create a backlog of 20 posts and make sure that each of them have smart and focused headlines. Writing the headline first with the keywords in mind is helpful (If you need help with your headlines, pick up any fashion magazine). Of your 2o posts, have a ratio of 1 pillar content for every 6-9 viral pieces. Pillar content is guides, master references, basically things people would bookmark for later dates. Viral content is stuff that people would want to share via Twitter or Facebook (and now G+).

Pro Tip: Don’t write articles about current events, too many other people will be competing with you. Keep up with the trends and write about hot topics that relate to your keywords.

3. Hiring Writers

Like I said previously, creating content is a pain and it can be a pain to get clients to write content. You can hire writers to assist in content creation. The very lowest amount to pay is $20, but the range can often go up to $120 a post. Reach out to top bloggers with followings, they often won’t be able to make $100 from ads on a single blog post. The opportunity to make some money and further expose their name is enticing. If you’re putting out an ad for writers, be sure to ask for writing samples and a question they need to answer (i.e. favorite blog post). Then ask them to write a sample post, give 5 headlines to write about and ask them to include links to reference material, links to other blogs, strong heading image, well named subheads that draws users to keep reading. This will weed out ill-suited candidates.

Pro Tip: Offer a base payment and then a bonus for every 100 views above your average post. (i.e. $60 and $20/100 above 200)

4/5 Promoting Content & Metrics

Promoting your content can consist of emailing close brand ambassaders, submitting to networks like Digg, StumbleUpon, or Reddit, as well as leveraging your social media sites to build momentum. Timing is also important and the tool Timely.is is a helpful tool for this, as is Buffer. Be sure you’re measuring the effectiveness of each channel. Use Google Analytics to measure the traffic and conversions from each traffic source. Having a better understanding of your traffic will enable you to create better content and continue to grow your blog and eventually sales.

There are a lot of things startups need to succeed. A blog that provides valuable inbound leads is one of these things. Many times, start up entrepreneurs and team members are already over subscribed and their bandwidth can’t handle content creation and monitoring. This is something that my company, Demeter Interactive can help with. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any specific questions about content marketing for startups. jesse (at) demeterinteractive (dot) com

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Social Done Right is a Multiplier

Here is Why Facebook Bought Instagram

The Value of a Tweet

Inside Look at HBO’s Social TV Strategy for “Game of Thrones”

How to Fail: Mark Pincus

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The Internet Has Killed April Fools’

Machinima! Adventures of a Digital Content Company

When Facebook Runs Your Television Advertising

On Twitter, Big Brands Like Gap Struggle with Customer Service

L.A. Stories: Mike Jones and Peter Pham Talk About the Science of Tech Studios (Video)

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I’ve stayed in an AirBnB rental two times. Once in San Francisco, the other in San Diego. Both times I had really pleasant stays. Both times I saved a good chunk of money. Hotels can be fun, but they’re really expensive. The hotels I’m looking at in New York are all over $200 a night. On AirBnB, I’m looking more at the $100 a night range. Essentially AirBnB doubles my travel budget. I get to stay in a clean, friendly apartment, rather than a sterile hotel.

The people who I have stayed with on AirBnB have really made the experience…especially the second time in San Diego. There, I rented a beach house behind this couple’s home, one block from the beach. It had a bed, TV, bathroom, and mini-kitchen. Since I stayed there the entire weekend, it was nice to have the extra space. The husband, Joe, even offered to drive my friend and I to the wedding so we didn’t have to waste money on a cab. Not going to get that at a hotel.

If you’re going to travel somewhere, I recommend using AirBnB to find your accommodations. It’s going to be save you money and make you feel at home. At the very least, watch this video on AirBnB’s origins. It’ll leave you inspired and ready to conquer your big business idea.

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Gil Elbaz Wants to Gather the Data of the Universe

Mascots Are Brands’ Best Social-Media Accessories

What CRM Means In a Social Age

Psychology of Pricing Sweet Spot

As news sites mine social media for data, intriguing challenges lie ahead

What Book Publishers Should Learn from Harry Potter

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