Confused by the latest link warnings that Google has been sending out? As we covered before, it’s all been pretty confusing. That’s why Google has posted more information meant to calm some worries, though it’s still likely that even after this, some are going to panic.

The “Old” Link Warnings: Entire Site Impacted

Google’s post starts with some history, explaining just as we’ve done how earlier this year, it began sending out link warnings:

Let’s talk about the original link messages that we’ve been sending out for months. When we see unnatural links pointing to a site, there are different ways we can respond. In many severe cases, we reduce our trust in the entire site. For example, that can happen when we believe a site has been engaging in a pretty widespread pattern of link spam over a long period of time.
If your site is notified for these unnatural links, we recommend removing as many of the spammy or low-quality links as you possibly can and then submitting a reconsideration request for your site.

Sometimes, Links Ignored

As you can see, if you got one of these messages in the past, it was a sign that your entire site might be distrusted. But Google’s post went on to say:

In a few situations, we have heard about directories or blog networks that won’t take links down. If a website tries to charge you to put links up and to take links down, feel free to let us know about that, either in your reconsideration request or by mentioning it on our webmaster forum or in a separate spam report. We have taken action on several such sites, because they often turn out to be doing link spamming themselves.

This is a slightly new twist to concerns some have had that if they can’t get links removed, what can they do? Google’s saying that in some cases, it might decide a directory or link network is spam, so it will block those sites — and in turn, those links should no longer count as harmful to the sites they point at.
I’ve covered this before, in terms of negative SEO. There are those who received notices from being in link networks, then assumed that this meant anyone could link to anyone from these networks as a means of harming them. That only works assuming that the networks were allowed to continue passing harmful link credit.

The New Warnings

Now on to the new warnings:

In less severe cases, we sometimes target specific spammy or artificial links created as part of a link scheme and distrust only those links, rather than taking action on a site’s overall ranking. The new messages make it clear that we are taking “targeted action on the unnatural links instead of your site as a whole.”
The new messages also lack the yellow exclamation mark that other messages have, which tries to convey that we’re addressing a situation that is not as severe as the previous “we are losing trust in your entire site” messages.

To be clear, there were some people who recently got these “new” warnings that looked exactly the same as the old ones. The concern these raised prompted Google to make the changes above, as we covered previously, along with examples of how to tell what’s more severe due to a yellow warning symbol like this:

New Warnings May Ignore Links, Not Harm Entire Site

As for those who get one of the new warnings, apparently they mean that Google’s not penalizing your site. Rather, it’s going to “take action” against the link pointing at your site, meaning it won’t trust it. Google goes on to explain this more:

These new messages are worth your attention.Fundamentally, it means we’re distrusting some links to your site. We often take this action when we see a site that is mostly good but might be might have some spammy or artificial links pointing to it (widgetbait, paid links, blog spam, guestbook spam, excessive article directory submissions, excessive link exchanges, other types of linkspam, etc.).
So while the site’s overall rankings might not drop directly, likewise the site might not be able to rank for some phrases.
I wouldn’t classify these messages as purely advisory or something to be ignored, or only for innocent sites.

You Won’t Rank For Some Terms But Don’t Panic?

I think Google sees the explanation above as reassuring, since it says that the site overall won’t drop in rankings. But saying the site may drop for some rankings, combined with advice that anyone who gets one of these new notices should take action, is still going to cause concern.
That’s why the next part of Google’s post immediately after the paragraph above isn’t at all calming:

On the other hand, I don’t want site owners to panic. We do use this message some of the time for innocent sites where people are pointing hacked anchor text to their site to try to make them rank for queries like [buy viagra].

Here’s a thought. If you don’t want sites to panic, then send those “innocent sites” messages that clearly explain they are innocent and don’t have to worry about taking any action. Otherwise, there’s no way for them to know they really are innocent. It’s like giving a driver something that looks like a ticket with no indication that it’s just an advisory they can ignore.

Examples Of Those Who Did Panic & Didn’t Need To

The post goes on with examples of things to avoid, such as widget links and paid links. Then a third example says this:

In some cases we’re ignoring links to a site where the site itself didn’t violate our guidelines. A good example of that is reputation management. We had two groups write in; one was a large news website, while the other was a not-for-profit publisher. Both had gotten the new link message.
In one case, it appeared that a “reputation management” firm was using spammy links to try to push up positive articles on the news site, and we were ignoring those links to the news site.
In the other case, someone was trying to manipulate the search results for a person’s name by buying links on a well-known paid text link ad network. Likewise, we were just ignoring those specific links, and the not-for-profit publisher didn’t need to take any action.

In summary, both sites got one of these new messages that Google has said shouldn’t be ignored. At the same time, the publishers — clearly concerned enough about them to write in — were apparently told they could ignore these messages, because the links themselves were ignored. Bottom line: a lot of time wasted by all parties.

If You Get A Message, Investigate, Says Google

What to do if you got one of these new warnings? The latest advice from Google:

We recently launched the ability to download backlinks to your site sorted by date. If you get this new link message, you may want to check your most recent links to spot anything unusual going on. If you discover that someone in your company has been doing widgetbait, paid links, or serious linkspam, it’s worth cleaning that up and submitting a reconsideration request.
We’re also looking at some ways to provide more concrete examples to make these messages more actionable and to help narrow down where to look when you get one.

Google also said less than 20,000 domains have received these messages and going forward, only about 10 sites per day can expect to receive them. It also offered some final reassurance:

If you get one of these new messages, it’s not a cause for panic, but neither should you completely ignore it. The message says that the current incident isn’t affecting our opinion of the entire website, but it is affecting our opinion of some links to the website, and the site might not rank as well for some phrases as a result.

Google Needs Better Messages

I just don’t see how any of these new messages aren’t going to cause panic by those who get them. Saying a site might not rank well for some terms is self-evidently a panic-inducing statement. Worse, it induces panic when, in some cases, the site doesn’t need to actually do anything at all.
Last time I wrote about this, I said Google should just stop sending warnings until it could clear things up better. Nothing in today’s post has changed that view. This entire situation just seems to go from bad to worse.

6 Simple Ways to Grow Your Audience Using Social Traffic

July 23 by Ryan Sammy

You created a brilliant piece of content. It became popular and you received thousands of visits to your site. But how many of those users took action? How do you plan on staying in contact with them?

Your content should be optimized to convert social traffic into long-term audience members. Collecting and building your audience can help reduce the costs of your content marketingcampaign.  Already having an engaged audience base can make it much easier to get a campaign off the ground through social media marketing or email blasts.

Think of it in terms of an e-commerce email list. Users sign up because they are interested in your products. When you have a new product, you use your email list to share that product with your customers in hopes some of them will convert or share the new product with someone who might be interested. You will see a much higher conversion rate using your email list because the audience has already shown interest, likes your products, and likes your brand.

If you didn’t have that email list, you would have to start from scratch with every new product, hoping someone will come along, discover it, and share it. Think of your content as the product.Every time you create a new piece of content are you starting from scratch, hoping someone will come by and discover it? Yes, you can pay to get that initial boost, but what if you could get that boost organically? You can, by building an audience using your social traffic.

You want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to get a social user to take an action on your site. Whether it be an email sign up, following your social profiles, or clicking through to another piece of content, below are 6 ways to turn visitors into long-term followers.

1. Email Sign Up

A great way to build a following is to use your blog  for collecting email addresses. There are various ways of collecting user email, from pop ups asking them to sign up for your email list, to small bars that appear below your content as you scroll, to calls-to-action at the end of the content.

Be upfront about what your intentions are with their email address, and don’t abuse trust they have bestowed upon you by sending them a high volume of emails. At the bottom of our blog posts, we list exactly what someone can expect when they sign up for our newsletter…

Make sure you test different formats and locations. You want to make sure your method of getting a user’s attention isn’t obtrusive and annoying. If you are using a pop up, consider setting a timer to have it activate only after the user has been on the site for 30 seconds, or once they have scrolled to the end of the article. This tells you they are interested enough in your content to stick around on your site, and more likely to welcome a pop up offering them a way to receive more of your content.

Email collection tools:

• Optiskin – multiple options for display
• WP Super Popup – only pop ups

2. Social Profiles Call-to-Action

Converting visitors into social media followers allows you to keep your brand in the forefront of their mind, share new content with them, and get real-time feedback. Below are some ideas for how to format and use call-to-actions on your site to grow your social media following.

Below Blog Posts

Simply write a call-to-action sentence below your article asking people to follow you for more interesting posts. Here’s an example of the type of call-to-action

Site Footer or Sidebars

Display visual social buttons in the footer or the right column of your blog. Use contrasting colors and design to make these buttons stand out. And don’t be shy, tell users what action to take with a simple, direct call-to-action.

Pop Ups

Use a pop up call-to-action plugin that asks the user to sign up for your newsletter, subscribe to your RSS feed, or follow you on social media. This can sometimes be annoying but it makes the conversion the main focus. Again it might be better to have it set on a timer so it only appears if the user has been on the site for a little while.

You can also use these to give a choice of actions, like this pop up on the Shoemoney site that gives an alternative to giving your email address:

3. Related Posts Widgets

The biggest obstacles to overcome with social media traffic is the low time on site and high bounce rates. Social users are coming to look at that one piece of content, then click back and look at more links on their favorite social site. The longer they are on the site, your chances ofconverting a visitor into a follower increases.  Once someone has read through to the end of your content, you have an opportunity to get them to click through to another piece of related content.

source: Mashable.com

I have found the best converting related sections use images that entice the user to click. A visually appealing thumbnail will make a user want to continue clicking and reading. This method does so well it’s become an ad model for companies like Outbrain and Nrelate.

Related Post Plugins:

• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
• Related Posts Thumbnail

4. Referrer-Based Call-to-Action

This is an old trick, but still a good one. Similar to how one would create content for a specific social community, tools like WP Greet Box helps you create referrer specific calls-to-action.

Your normal call-to-action is a box that asks users to share and sign up for your email list. What if you were able to target users based on the site they came from?

You have the power to craft and target your CTA based on the referring site. This ability can increase your chances at getting that conversion.

If the user was from Facebook, you may have a better chance of getting them to like your page versus following you on Twitter. If the user came from StumbleUpon, it might be worth more to have them like the page on StumbleUpon verse sharing it on Twitter.

5. Badges, Awards and Comments

Following in the footsteps of platforms like Foursquare that encourage user interaction through a point system and badges, sites have started to use a similar reward system in their comments section.

For example, Huffington Post rewards users based on their shares and comments. They even provided a “follow” function so you can stay up to date with your favorite commenter. This increases the number of shares each piece of content receives, the number of comments, and it increases the chance of a discussion in thread. Overall, it increases the number of users visiting your site and engaging.

Source: HuffingtonPost.com

Having users constantly coming back to check on comments or to respond to other comments, increases the  chance of the user eventually converting to a follower. A system like this takes money and time to develop, but an plug in like IntenseDebate can you get you started.

If you don’t have large amount of comments coming in, create more content that asks a question or creates a discussion.  You can help start and fuel the discussion just by getting involved.  Respond to users who comment and they will be more inclined to comment again. Leaving a commenter hanging means they probably won’t comment the next time.

6. Ad Remarketing

So you have tried it all, and your site visitor still slipped through your fingers.  You can either wait for that user to return on their own through an organic share or you can use paid media to remarket to that user.

Google Adwords Remarketing has been around for a little over two years. It basically gives the site owner the ability to tag a user, then add them to a target database then show those users specific ads on any site they visit using the Google Ad network. You can even tag users based on what sections of your site they exited from.

If you’re not actively using it as part of your strategy, you can setup Google Adwords to collect users’ IDs as they visit your content. You can set various parameters on when to collect from the user (such as length of visit) and which database to add them to. Once you have an established database of social users that showed interest in your content, you can create related visual ads and try to draw the user back. They even allow you to set a time limit for the ads. For example, if the someone doesn’t come back after 30 days, it will remove them from the database.

Example of a Remarketing Campaign

Let’s say I created a visual comparison guide on organic manufacturers showing their different certifications, offerings, etc. You visited the page where I was hosting my guide after seeing the link on Reddit, thought it was cool but lost track of it because you didn’t subscribe, like, share it, etc.

Now, I will clip part of the graphic and use it as a display ad. You decide to do some research on organic foods. Since my content is related, and you are in my database, a snippet of my visual guide appears reminding you of it. While you are on related sites, you will continually be reminded of my guide. Hopefully you will click through and use my content to help you make your decision.

This is when you can use a plugin like WP Greet Box to tell the user they have been here before, and maybe they should consider subscribing to your site or following you on social media to keep seeing related content.

Conclusion

A majority of these methods have been around the web for a while. But surprisingly, I’ve seen many blogs still not implementing any system for audience building.

Once you’ve grown your social following, keep these tips in mind to ensure your fans continue visiting your site and sharing your content:

• Treat your social profiles like an email list; users trust you enough to follow your updates so don’t abuse it.
• If you are looking to drive traffic, share it once and give it time. Data has shown users will click through to your content if you tweet less frequently.
• If you’re looking for followers, share a lot of great content every couple of hours.

So, now you have started to grow your followers but how do you maintain that growth and how do you use social media communities to expand your audience even more? Stay tuned for part 2 of this series where I will show you various ways to achieve those goals.

What are you favorite tactics for getting visitors to take further action on your site? Let us know in the comments below. 

The Ultimate Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet

 Jonha Revesencio

The Complete Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet [INFOGRAPHIC] 

27-Jun-12 09:36

The Ultimate Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet

Different social media platforms have different guidelines and sizing that’s why we always find ourselves looking for the correct sizing for our Google+ cover pic, Facebook timeline Cover size or the appropriate sizing for the branding and text in the background of your new Twitter profile.

Fortunately, the guys at Luna Metrics got our backs with a one stop shop for all for all of our social media sizing headaches – just go ahead and right-click save this bad boy into your documents and never get stuck with pouring through search results for the correct Facebook cover photo size again.

Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet – Plain Text

Prefer text for easy copy-pasting reference? Luna Metrics got ya covered too – here’s all of the sizing information written out for you to see.

Facebook Image Sizes

Cover Photo
851 x 315 pixels
Profile Picture
160 x 160 pixes
Must be uploaded sized at least 180 x 180 pixels
Distance between left boundary and profile picture
23 pixels
Distance between top boundary and profile picture
210 pixels
Profile Picture border size
5 pixels
App Preview Image
111 x 74 pixels
Distance between App preview images
8 pixels
Total length of adjustable app preview images, with gaps
349 pixels
Shared Image size on Timeline
403 x 403 pixels
Up to 960 x 720 pixels in lightbox, can be uploaded up to 2048 pixels
Status Update
63,206 characters
Link Preview
90 x 90 pixels
Both Title Tag and Meta Description can be edited by clicking on the preview text
Highlighted Post/Milestone
843 x 403 pixels
Profile Picture In Stream
50 x 50 pixels
Shared Image In Stream
398 x 298 pixels
Profile Picture on Facebook Sponsored Story Ads
32 x 32 pixels
Sponsored Story Body Copy
90 Characters
Sponsored Story Image Size
194 x 139 pixels
Album Image Preview type 1
129 x 129 pixels
Can show either 6 or 9 photos at this size
Album Image Preview type 2
398 x 264 pixels
Three 129 x 129 pixel boxes underneath
Album Image Sizing type 3
196 x 196 pixels
Two preview images
Facebook Ad Image Size
100 x 72 pixels
Facebook Ad Title Copy
25 characters
Facebook Ad Body Copy
90 characters
Shared YouTube Video Preview
130 x 73 pixels
Shared Facebook Video preview
398 x 223 pixels

Twitter Image Sizes

Profile Picture
128 x 128 pixels
Must be Brand Banner
835 x 90 pixels
Only available to select Twitter partners
Tweet Length
140 Characters
Background Sizing (Visible space between left side and content)
90% see 71 pixels
65% see 199 pixels
40% see 242 pixels
20% see 279 pixes

Google+ Image Sizes

Cover Photo
940 x 180 pixels
Can be animated using a .gif
Profile Picture
250 x 250 pixels
Profile Picture border size
5 pixels
Ribbon Photo
5 x 110 pixels each
Can be animated using .gif’s
Profile Picture In Stream
48 x 48 pixels
Shared Images
497 x 373 pixels
Up to 2048 pixels in lightbox
Post length
100,000+ characters
Cannot edit link Title Tags or Meta Descriptions

Pinterest Image Sizes

Profile Picture
49 x49 pixels
Resized from 160 x 160 pixel profile picture
Pinned Images
600 x Infinite pixels
Pin Description Length
500 Characters
Can include hyperlinks

17 Experts Weigh in on How to Do Quality Link Building in Volume

By Miguel Salcido

Google, the leading search engine in the world, has been trying to filter out many websites with trash content (I mean trash website owners, #sarcasm) from its SERPs. Many updates have come since 2011, which mostly killed websites that have spammy content and link profiles. From Panda to the recent Penguin update, Google is trying to segregate the true diamonds from the pile of marbles. And this made SEO practitioners’ and online marketers’ heads spin.
Yet, people have been coming up with new ways to rank higher in the SERPs. Link building has always been one of the most powerful SEO methods out there, and technically, it still is. But due to the recent changes, link building has been hard for every living SEO soul out there, and their old tried and true methods have been fading out, especially when it comes to doing large scale link building. Figuring out how to scale link building is very difficult, especially given all of the recent updates. Every agency and consultant has to try to figure this out at some point. I personally have gone through many iterations of scaling link building and I can tell you first hand that it is extremely difficult. I believe that is what Google wants though, to make you REALLY have to work hard to earn it!
So how to do it? I have gathered the experts and asked for their insights on link building in volume for you. I would love for you to join the party by commenting with your best tip for link building at volume too.
THE QUESTION: How do you do quality link building in large volume or how would you approach it this year, given that a lot of changes have occurred this past few months that relates to link building?

Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin is CEO of SEOmoz
“Produce amazing content and/or provide amazing things and spread the word to a link-likely community. I don’t think that practice has changed much in the past decade, though with the growth of social media and the strange, weird ways the web has grown (memes, tumblr, interactive infographics, short-form videos, etc) creativity and uniqueness can win hearts, minds and links like never before.”

James Agate

James Agate is the Founder of Skyrocket SEO
“There is little doubt that lower quality link building is certainly on the way out. There is this common misconception that there is no way to get high quality links in large volumes and whilst I accept that it isn’t as easy to get 100 decent links as it was to outsource getting 1000 article directory submissions, the point is that 10 or even 10 really decent links will more often than not trump any number of junk links.
Anyone familiar with myself and my company will know that we do a great deal of guest posting for links and brand visibility. We deliver these kinds of services on a fairly large scale by continually “chunking down” what appears to be a complex and drawn out process into a production line of much smaller and more manageable tasks. There was a time when, we had one team member completing a post from start to finish including finding opportunities, outreach, writing and so on. We then moved to sourcing freelance writers to fulfill content as this greatly improved the depth and quality of each article. We’ve now migrated to a process which is much more robust, flexible and scalable which involves each individual playing a small part in the process whether than be finding opportunities, evaluating prospects, checking the quality of the content or building the relationship with the website owner.
Let’s not forget also that developing linkworthy content on your own site and ensuring intelligent promotion of this content through outreach and social seeding for example can be one of the most potent and passive ways to generate significant volumes of links.”

Dan Petrovic

Dan Petrovic is the Director at DejanSEO
“I would completely focus on linkable content in tandem with manual outreach. The main mistake companies do is hire link building companies and don’t supply linkworthy content to go with that. Asking people to link to you and not giving them a reason is not a very good approach. All your link building efforts will amplify greatly if you back them up with great content. As far as outreach goes social media platforms and personal connections are the key.”

Ross Hudgens

Ross Hudgens is the SEO Manager at Full Beaker, Inc.
“Link building at scale should never be done through public funnels – it’s really a recipe for algorithmic eradication. I think a lot of what occurred is basically a warning flag and not a algorithmic move forward, but it’s clearly a sign that investing in networks like this can be a highly risky proposition for your business – whether or not they are actually functionally effective for ranking your websites. I can’t give advice for how to “do things at scale”, or that would bring us full circle to the advice I suggested against – but there are several routes to doing this in a sustainable and risk free way – that’s all glistening and white as well. Most verticals have exploits you can take advantage of in terms of what’s acceptable or what can get you tons of links – I don’t have those answers for you, though, because we have somewhat moved from ‘do this everywhere’ to ‘there are still scalable, ethical solutions on case by case basis’.”

Cyrus Shepard

Cyrus Shepard is former SEO at SEOmoz and now the Director of Marketing for PlaceFull Inc.
Hopefully the lesson of the past few months gives Webmasters pause before buying tons of fast, easy and cheap links. I wouldn’t be concerned with creating links in volume, but perhaps in micro-volumne. The bigger challenge is creating linkable assets at scale – or even on a regular basis. The biggest mistake I see folks make is trying to create links without first creating something worthy of linking to. And you’re not going to hit a home run every time. But if you try 10 times, with 10 pieces of linkable content, you’ll at least hit a couple doubles and maybe even a triple. Link building, for me, is an area where ‘steady’ always wins the race over ‘volume’.”

Jon Cooper

Jon Cooper is the Owner of Point Blank SEO
“I’ll talk more about it in the future, but 2012 will be the year that I go from “fixing” to “improving” in terms of the way I build links. In the past, I’ve preached broken link building, and in general, helping webmasters whenever I could by fixing site issues (very scalable and broad because almost all sites have an issue or two that needs to be fixed). This year, I’ll be focusing more on improving others sites. Here’s what I mean: for example, everyone loves talking about content marketing. What if you helped enhance other blogger’s content? Whether it’s suggesting to add a video, image, or even an extra paragraph or two, being able to market other’s content will result in some serious links.”

Hugo Guzman

Hugo Guzman is the Sr. Manager, Online Marketing at HSN
“I’m not a fan of chasing the algorithm, so my approach to link-building has really changed that much for years. Focus on building quality “SEO friendly” content that facilitates link-building outreach, target influential sites in your brand’s business niche(s) and focus on varied yet keyword-rich anchor text. Oh, and if you’re an enterprise brand, make sure that you coordinate your efforts with parallel channels like PR, social media, etc.”

Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is the Owner of MyBlogGuest
“I’ve been link building through guest blogging for ages and I am not planning to change the strategy this year. I believe in guest blogging because your links remain free, relevant and well-deserved (thus safe). The only thing I am going to change: putting less emphasis on ‘keyword-rich’ anchor text because Google does frown upon them as the attempt to fake keyword relevance.”

Nick Leroy

Nick Leroy is SEO Consultant at FindLaw, a Thompson Reuters business
“Unlike many other link builders i’m not always concerned about building links in large quantities.  Don’t get me wrong, the infographic type ‘viral’ link bait works well but I tend to build links by hand.  I’m a big fan of broken link building, guest post blogging and reaching out to authority websites in my niche to encourage linking to my properties quality sources.  Also don’t forget that there are ways to purchase links and get away with it.  You just have to be smart about your techniques and cover your tracks.”

Zarko Zivkovic

Zarko Zivkovic is the Founder of Practical SEO
“Well, large volume can be achieved in only two ways, by using a team or creating some sort of link bait that you can pitch to people. A solo SEO consultant cannot hope of achieving large scale movement with link building alone. My suggestions, if using a team then great outreach and social media interaction, which leads to new connections, bloggers to connect with for quality content and many other opportunities. But, with a team or without, creating any sort of link bait is always the main plan. Any type of business can create something for a specific demographic that can become viral and attract links. So my first and best suggestion is great content in any form, posts, apps, design, infographics, videos, you name it. Think creative and promote, that is the best way to link building success.”

Tom Demers

Tom Demers is a co-founder and managing partner at Measured SEM, a search engine marketing firm that offers paid and organic search marketing consulting services.
“While the specific tactics have to evolve over time I think high volume link building is really always about creating useful content and finding leveraged means of distributing it – I think that still means:
Committing time and resources to identifying pain points and biases within specific “linking audience” and then creating content that speaks to those pain points and biases
Promoting that content within that niche in the most leveraged way possible (ie creating processes for scaling outreach and content placement, leveraging social networks to distribute content, etc.)
A lot of the same things people have done will work, they may just require slightly different approaches – for instance it’s generally harder to get a lot of quality links using infographics and some networks like Build My Rank got smacked down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use a modified version of those strategies to rank sites. If you were pushing out a bunch of mediocre infographics you may need to invest a bit more in coming up with more compelling concepts and creating longer/meatier/more in-depth infographics or you might need to use some of that same time, effort, and budget to create some useful widgets. And if you were pushing a bunch of posts through Build My Rank you might need to move to creating higher quality content and do guest posting the hard way – reaching out to legitimate, relevant blogs in your niche. This may be harder and more expensive but there are still ways to streamline your processes so you can do these things at scale.”

Wayne Barker

Wayne Barker is SEO Executive at Hallam Internet Ltd.
“It has been shake up city recently with all sorts of crazy stuff happening (for the better in my opinion). As (hopefully) more blog networks start to tumble you need to make sure that you getting more creative with your link building.
Scaling is always going to be tough and if you are link building on your own for your own site you are going to find it hard.
If you take a step back there are always simple ways that you can scale up for your own site – call in favours, hit up your followers on Twitter, Facebook or wherever (they are likely to have sites). Simply getting yourself known in your niche as a thought leader can have a big impact on how many links your content gets.
For those that have more budget, a team or work in agency scaling up still relies on creativity. Spend more time creating the content that you publish but have a real promotion plan attached to it – don’t just go around bookmarking it a and crossing your figures- that just isn’t going to cut it any more. Know what your niche is missing and build it, bring in thought leaders form your vertical to help you build it (who will then go on to promote it).
Whether social shares count as a ranking factor is going to be up for debate – but getting your content or widget shared always has the potential to lead to more links.
Know your niche and start thinking outside of the box!
They were simple but pertinent questions in the current climate. With the shit storm that Google is kicking up regarding paid links and over optimisation people seem to be getting worried but if you SEO tactic involves some shrewd optimisation and a focus on the users of your sites you are onto a win. When it comes to scalability of link building if you invest in creativity and spend time planning them a link building strategy can develop. Too many people have the ‘quick win’ mentality.”

Jason Acidre

Jason Acidre is a Marketing Consultant for Affilorama
“Here are a few things that we’ve been recently doing to acquire solid links in volume:

• Second wave news coverage – we find industry-related news articles from top news sources (ex. Yahoo news, TechCrunch, Mashable, Huffington Post, etc…), recreate/rewrite them (with a different approach or added angle of the story – which can be opinionated), and pitch them as guest blogs on high-traffic relevant blogs (of course, with links to your site from the author bio). This has proven to have high response and approval rate, since it’s a news item, and many bloggers are busy that some of them have no time to cover these topics. It’s also a great way to build relationships with bloggers, as you can eventually leverage this type of content contribution, and perhaps become a columnist on their blogs (which means more linking and traffic generation opportunities).
• Social link building – reach out to people who already have socially shared your site’s content (you can use Topsy.com to find people sharing your content on Twitter), because you’ll have better response rate for link acquisition on this area, knowing that these people already know your brand and the quality of the content that you provide.
• Interviews as guest posts – find and make a list of book authors and authority/popular bloggers in your industry. Reach out to them and ask if you can do an interview with them. This will help you generate lots of high quality and expert content – almost effortlessly. Use these interview articles as bait when pitching for guest blogs on your blog prospects, as your link targets will certainly want this type of content published on their site – most of the time – given the value of information it contains. If you can at least conduct 20 – 30 interviews in a month, then that can certainly help boost yourself as an authority brand in your industry (and improve the amount of high-value links you create for your site).”

Paddy Moogan

Paddy Moogan is SEO Consultant at Distilled
“Given very recent Google updates and changes, I’d try to move away totally from volume based, low quality link building which focuses on anchor text.  I’d move my focus to be on branded anchor text and natural variations whilst focusing on higher quality rather than volume.
I feel that link building strategies should be based around content marketing and becoming the best resource in your industry for content.  This will be hard work at first but will be worth it in the long term because you are building the types of links that Google wants and will not penalise.”

Danny Dover

Danny Dover is an SEO Consultant and a writer at LifeListed.com, a bucket list blog.
“The best way to do this is with partnerships (or topic neighborhoods) in combination with pages that provide value to searchers and linkers. I think the changes over the last few months mostly affect people who were ignoring the smart of advice of following white hat link building tactics for long term success.”

John Doherty

John Doherty is an SEO Consultant at Distilled
“Scale is a funny word. If you’re talking about tens of thousands of links, this is easiest done in big corporations. For example, as a big brand having your franchises link back to you from their sites. To scale with link bait though, which is not for anchor text but rather for links to improve your overall domain strength, it’s not just one piece of content. It takes a content strategy usually, with a few pieces of quality on-topic content, to really kick it out of the park and get gobs of links.”

Kieran Flanagan

Kieran Flanagan is European Online Marketing Manager at Marketo.com
“It really depends on how I view this. When working for large brands, it’s really all about content these days and putting together an inbound marketing strategy that drives links to your site. You can read more about one of the strategies I implemented for Salesforce.com in the UK over on SEOMoz (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/socialsuccess-an-inbound-marketing-case-study-for-b2b). Creating remarkable content is a sure way to attract some quality links to your site. But the problem with these tactics is it can be difficult to drive the correct anchor text for the keyword you are trying to target, so you really have to mix it up. Guest blog posts have become the de facto way to really get some anchor text love if you are trying to stay pure white had. With all the changes that are going on at the moment with Google’s updates, it’s difficult to give one strategy that can work across all sectors. You will need to really construct a link building strategy that is applicable for your market. For example, do you have a partner network you can utilize, do you do anything for charities, do you have jobs for graduates that you can cross advertise on university sites.
If I have my affiliate hat on, it’s carnage out there at the moment. I really can’t say what gray hat technique I would be confident of maintaining on my own sites. I think you hear a lot of screaming from people who are getting hit, but there are still people who are ranking sites using techniques Google may be looking to punish. I have no idea how this is going to play out, it’s really a case of analyzing as much data as you can to make informed choices. I am not sure affiliate marketing (for those who build sites targeted at organic keywords) will be the same after these updates are finished.”

8 B2B Tips for Using Social Forums

By Kane Russell
Published July 18, 2012

How should business-to-business (B2B) marketers best use question-based social forums?
For business-to-business companies in particular, LinkedIn Groups, Quora and HighTable are just three examples of forums where marketers can demonstrate their knowledge.
In this article I’ll cover how B2B marketers can best approach these sites and provide eight recommendations for generating qualified leads and driving sales.
Note: The examples used all come from actual Q&A site conversations, with names removed for privacy purposes.

Overview of Question and Answer–Based Sites

When Q&A social media sites first came out, they were intended for people to exchange ideas and gather information. Unfortunately spammers and non-experts took away from their usefulness for a while.
But a few recent factors have brought Q&A social media sites back into the fold:

• There’s a proliferation of social media profiles where contributors have an actual identity to maintain. Posting unhelpful answers can hurt a person’s social media reputation significantly now.
• It’s harder to find answers to specific questions because there are over 500 million URLs today. Internet searches can be overwhelming.
• The salesy quality of Internet search ads can turn off a B2B audience. B2B searchers seek guidance, not a sales pitch.
• Social media sites have become more specialized (and well-funded). Sites like LinkedIn, HighTable and Quora provide direct access to a specific type of audience.

As a result, B2B marketers have an opportunity to consider: a captive and specific audience looking for guidance on issues that often relate directly to the problem or issues B2B marketers are trying to solve.
Here are eight tips that, when taken together, will result in more leads and increased sales.

#1: Comment from the Perspective of a Thought Leader

Above all, marketers have to position and think about themselves on Q&A sites as the thought leader for their particular business. Approaching a Q&A forum like a used car salesman approaching a browser will alienate the target audience.
Prospects on Q&A social media sites are usually in a higher position on the sales funnel. Aggressive tactics do not resonate here. Instead, take on the voice of a thought leader, which requires the following:

• Answer questions up front: People who go to Q&A sites are looking for answers to questions, not wishy-washy stances. Answer the initial question directly and then provide supporting evidence to back up the claim.
• Provide both qualitative and quantitative supporting evidence: Obviously having data and insight about certain topics is not possible in 100% of cases. That said, opinions backed by data or hard numbers carry more weight. But providing just numbers will not impress either. There has to be an interpretation of the numbers to demonstrate a position of expertise.
• Acknowledge alternative solutions: Remember, people are not perusing Q&A sites for a sales pitch. They are seeking a well-thought-out opinion. Failure to acknowledge alternatives or other options makes for a weak point of view.
• Write clearly and concisely: Perhaps this goes without saying, but typos or run-on sentences will not wow prospects.

Neither of these answers addresses the main question directly and potential customers may dismiss this input.

In contrast, this HighTable user addresses the question up front, provides strong supporting evidence and includes anecdotal and industry perspectives.

As potential customers start seeing more of these types of answers, they’ll engage directly with the individual.

#2: Respect Other Users

To use the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, creator of Wine Library TV and author of Crush It!, “Taking the high road is undefeated.” No amount of posturing, shameless self-promotion or insulting others will impress potential customers in a Q&A forum.
In the example below, a potential customer with a different viewpoint could respond more positively to address limitations in a way that respects (or better yet, understands) other people’s choices.

The language "shocked people use it" has too many loaded words.

This is not to say that marketers should not address other users entirely. Disagreement within a Q&A flow produces some of the best opportunity for a savvy marketer to make headway with potential customers.
The best advice is to remember the adage, “show, don’t tell.” Address disagreements using examples and data to make a point instead of going into attack mode.

Three remarks showing dissenting points of view to a comment made earlier.

#3: Join in a Conversation

Have you ever been to a social event where someone interrupts a conversation with an unrelated point, essentially derailing others’ interest in the topic of discussion? The same faux pas applies to Q&A sites.

The third comment in this post does not address the question at hand.

To take on a more conversational tone, respond directly or acknowledge what others have already stated. This works best for recently posted questions, as there are not as many comments to go through. Ideally, chime in early to a question that eventually receives a significant following.
In addition, take advantage of the functionality available on Q&A sites to stay in the loop.
For example, check the box on LinkedIn to receive an email digest of each new comment.
The LinkedIn digest feature helps you continue to be part of the conversation.

The LinkedIn user behind the first and third comments does an excellent job of responding to an initial question and then continuing the dialog.

#4: Be Consistent and Cover the Subject Matter Comprehensively

The odds are tiny that a single, brilliant answer will convince a potential buyer to call into a sales line. To increase those odds, post thoughtful answers across a number of topics related to your business.
For example, an executive at a marketing software company should target multiple forums (forums meaning multiple groups on LinkedIn, topics on Quora, etc.) that address not just software, but also digital marketing, relationship marketing, software as a service or anything else related to the business.
Part of becoming a thought leader is demonstrating knowledge across an entire industry, not just one topic that directly relates. If you can, spend some time commenting on other topics outside your business experience. This increases perception of you as a thought leader focused on assisting others.

All Q&A sites have something similar to LinkedIn's "Groups You May Like" feature, where B2B marketers can choose forums or topics related to their interest set.

#5: Take a Long-Term View

It certainly takes time to post thoughtful answers across a number of topics. And it makes little sense for marketers to try to blanket everything in one day, given their schedules.
The answer is to take a long-term perspective. What works best is to answer one or two questions per day as part of a social media routine. This way, written ideas remain fresh and innovative, and Q&A site marketing will not become a huge time distraction.
Posting one to two answers per day requires only a few minutes, and after a month, roughly 30-40 questions will have received attention. This is an excellent base upon which to build over time. As more and more potential customers see compelling answers from the same person, they will start contacting the expert directly with questions and seeking advice.
All Q&A sites recognize active and engaged users. LinkedIn, for example, highlights influencers whose ideas lead to the most active discussions. This is essentially free branding.

Notice the Top Influencers of the week.

Even more important, a long-term view best matches the spirit of Q&A sites and social media thought leadership in general. Trying to get a quick bang for the buck without spending the requisite time implies a lack of commitment or interest in a given industry.
Being a thought leader requires adjusting to changing market dynamics and helping the Q&A audience navigate those transitions.

#6: Be a Link Miner, Not a Link Farmer

The worst offenders of link farming are easily spotted. They post links with no relevance to the topic at hand, often all over a particular Q&A forum. Ultimately, this type of link farmer is the headache of the Q&A site, not marketers.
Quora, for example, has software that prompts users who do not include enough information to revisit and edit an answer.

Responsibility for blatant link-farmer spam falls on the Q&A site's administrators.

However, responsibility for other types of negative link farming falls squarely on comments’ authors. Consider the following examples:

Two examples of the link farmer approach.

In the first example, the author answers a question with just a number of links. In the second, the author throws a link into an answer that’s not particularly relevant to the topic at hand. The issue being that everyone knows the intention behind the answers, namely “go to my website.”
This call to action is very different from “I’m trying to help you with some useful information.” For a Q&A strategy to work, the second approach is mandatory.
Which brings us to the concept of a link miner. One of the best attributes of marketing via Q&A sites for B2B marketers is the ability to rapidly increase daily web visits. With increases of 2-4 times readily attainable, sharing links on a Q&A forum is a huge part of the strategy.
The trick, however, is to share those links within the context of thought leadership. Do not just throw them out there without context. Think instead like a miner, where a potential customer digging through information is pleasantly surprised by discovering a useful web link. Miners use the following tactics:

• Include a link only if relevant.
• Explain a link within a context of a greater answer.
• Remember that the underlying message behind the link is “useful information,” not “check out my site.”

In this comment, I tried to frame the context of my web link from a mining perspective rather than a farming perspective.

#7: Start Your Own Q&A Forum on LinkedIn

Given the social nature of Q&A sites, the same rule applies: interact. A great way to achieve this is to post questions to the Q&A site community or, even better, create a forum or question flow that acts as an information hub for other interested parties.
The challenge is that maintaining something like a LinkedIn Group takes time. Creating a thriving community requires marketing, engaging and prompting others. Essentially you should prepare for an event marketing type of role. If the resources are there, take the initiative, but Q&A site marketing can still produce results without this extra effort.

Creating a group—essentially event marketing—will use up significant time cycles. With sufficient time, however, the payoff can be worth the investment.

#8: Respond To and Use Direct Messaging

Direct messaging on Q&A sites has two forms: outbound (marketers reaching out) and inbound (marketers receiving correspondence). With regards to outbound, Q&A marketing becomes more of an art than a science.
Simply, if a potential customer seems to take an interest in multiple responses, take the initiative to reach out to the individual directly using the Q&A site’s direct messaging functionality.
The advantage being that an exchange on a Q&A site provides an extremely warm introduction and a reason to reach out. Use outbound tactics sparingly, however, as jumping the gun more or less equates to spamming users.

This person reached out to me with a strong context and an easy call to action.

Interestingly, this type of communication would never have worked if done via email, demonstrating the power of Q&A site direct messaging.
Inbound direct messaging, on the other hand, remains much more straightforward. When an individual reaches out, respond. The key in the inbound case is timing. People on Q&A sites want immediate answers, so respond as soon as possible (though anything less than a few hours will be acceptable).
With an established thought leadership presence, inbound direct messaging from a Q&A site will most often be a potential customer reaching out with a business proposition. That’s when the time invested up front starts to pay off.
Putting it all Together
When you use these eight recommendations together, you’ll have a strong starting point to develop a powerful B2B marketing strategy.
What do you think? Which strategies have you found to be most effective? Please voice your opinion by posting to the comments box below.

16 Creative Ways to Use Twitter for Business

By Charlene Kingston
Published July 10, 2012

Is your Twitter activity feeling stale?
The good news is that you can easily revitalize your Twitter experience!
Here are 16 ways to bring new life and renewed business purpose to your Twitter efforts.

#1: Organize whom you follow with lists

There are many people you need to follow on Twitter for business reasons such as customers, suppliers, neighboring businesses, peers and competitors. As the number of people you follow grows, so does the noise. It gets harder to hear the important messages among all of the others.
So how can you make sure you don’t miss anything important? Use Twitter lists.
Twitter lists are its most powerful and least-used feature. Lists allow you to group the important people you follow so they don’t get lost in the noise of everyone else.
You can create separate lists for:

• Customers
• People in your industry
• Social media teachers
• People in professional organizations

You can create Twitter lists to organize the people you follow so you can focus on the most important people and conversations.

By creating and using Twitter lists, you can focus on tweets from groups of people and decide when you want to see them, so tweets from important people don’t get lost.
You can create up to 20 different Twitter lists with up to 500 accounts in each list. You can monitor each list separately using Twitter.com or Twitter tools like HootSuite.
Tip: You don’t have to put everyone into a list.

#2: Create a conversation list

Whom you follow determines your daily experience of Twitter. If you follow people who inspire you, people who say intelligent things and challenge you to think differently, Twitter becomes a joy.
One smart way to focus on the people who inspire you (without ignoring everyone else) is to create a private conversation list.
Include in this list:

• People who inspire you in business
• People who inspire you personally
• People who are fun to talk with

A conversation list helps you save time by pulling together the most important people and conversations into a single list.

Jump into the list when you are looking for inspiration or encouragement during your workday.
You can make your conversation list public or private. By creating a private list, you are the only person who knows who is on your list and when you make changes to the list. However, everything you say to people on this list is still public, so watch your words.

#3: Update your profile picture

Your Twitter profile picture appears next to every tweet you send. It’s an opportunity to associate an image with your business in the minds of everyone who follows you.
The challenge is that your Twitter profile picture is very small and square. For most businesses, your logo or personal headshot isn’t the right size or shape to represent you well.

At full size, this company may have a beautiful logo. However, it’s too small to be effective on Twitter.

If your profile picture is your logo:

• Make sure your logo fits into the square size. Cropped-off logos look unprofessional and give the impression that your business doesn’t care about the details.
• Make sure your logo is readable. If your logo contains words that cannot be read, you are wasting the space. Create an image without the words that captures the essence of your logo.
• Consider switching to a headshot. People connect with faces, not logos. If you are the driving force of your business, why not use your face to make your business seem more human and approachable?

This is an example of what not to do with your Twitter profile picture because you cannot easily see the person’s face.

If your profile picture is a photograph:

• Focus on your face. People don’t want to see you standing on the beach and they don’t care what clothes you are wearing.
• No animals or kids. Even if your business is directly related to pets or children, you should be the focus of your photograph. You want to make a human connection with potential customers.

While a professional photograph is ideal, you can have a friend use a camera to take a great shot of your face. Make sure you are photographed against a plain background, and don’t forget to smile. Take 20 or more shots so you can choose one that really captures you.
If you don’t have the skills to change your logo or crop your photo to the right shape, ask a friend or hire a graphic designer for an hour. The small investment will pay huge dividends in having a professional presence on Twitter.

#4: Change your visual branding

Twitter allows you to customize the look and colors of your Twitter profile page. This gives you an opportunity to provide additional information about your business to everyone who checks out your profile.
You can create a custom graphic and use it for your Twitter background.
Here are some great examples of Twitter backgrounds and instructions for how to create your own.

Here is an example of a custom Twitter background that highlights important company information and provides additional details.

After you create the image file, you upload it to your profile. While you are there, you can adjust the background and link colors so they coordinate with your new background image. You will need the hex codes for the colors in your image if you want the background and links to match.

#5: Rewrite your Twitter bio

Your Twitter profile bio tells your business story in the length of a text message. That’s a lot of information crammed into just a few words.
The best Twitter profiles include these components:

• Tell people what you do
• Explain how you help people
• Show a little personality

A good Twitter bio explains what you do and shows your personality at the same time.

Look at your business Twitter profile with fresh eyes. Then rewrite it so it tells potential customers how you can help them and what benefit they can get from connecting with you. And don’t forget to share a little of your passion!
Mark your calendar to review and update your Twitter bio again in 6 months, because even the best bio gets stale over time.

#6: Create a Twitter landing page

Are you frustrated by only having 160 characters for your Twitter bio? Then consider creating a special Twitter landing page.
Most people use their Twitter profile web link to drop people off at their website front door or their blog. But you can create a special Twitter landing page and use that page as your Twitter profile web address.

A Twitter landing page gives you more space to talk about your business and about your Twitter use.

A Twitter landing page is a special page on your website designed to introduce people from Twitter to your business. It’s like having a greeter there to help people get the scoop on your business and how you use Twitter.
Your Twitter landing page could include:

• A personal message from you
• Details about your business products and services
• How to become a customer
• What you tweet about
• The people behind your Twitter account

Even though you have more space, keep your Twitter landing page short and to-the-point to make a great impression on your visitors.

#7: Rethink your follow strategy

Many Twitter accounts are not run by real people. They are automated programs called bots. And some of them are spammers.
There are bots that provide useful information. However, most bots are spewing out tweets from other people and other sources that are not on target for your Twitter business goals. They clog up your Twitter stream and don’t provide any business value.
You may not have known you were following a bot. Bots gain an audience by following many people and taking advantage of people who automatically follow back.
In general, it’s better not to follow automatically everyone who follows you if you want to avoid having your Twitter stream fill up with garbage.

Bots usually have low numbers they follow with high numbers following them back like this account.

So how can you spot a bot or spammer or someone whom you should not follow back?
Here are a few suggestions:

• Don’t follow people with an egg picture. If they haven’t bothered to upload a real profile picture, chances are they are not going to say anything worth hearing.
• Check their numbers. An account that follows many people but has only a few followers is probably a spammer.
• Review their tweets. Are they all retweets or quotes? Did they send the exact tweet to many users over a very short time? It’s probably a bot.
• They say it’s a bot in their bio. Yes, some bots will tell you they are bots in their bio.
• No favorite tweets or lists. A bot or spammer doesn’t mark tweets as favorites or create lists.

#8: Listen carefully and follow

Social media is all about conversations, and conversations mean that you talk and listen.
On Twitter, you can listen by:

• Reading tweets. This is the best way to find out what is on the minds of your Twitter community.
• Look for replies and mentions. Every time you check Twitter throughout the day, you should first check for direct messages and mentions. Mentions are public messages that include your Twitter handle and direct messages are private messages sent directly to you.
• Search for your business name. Sometimes, people talk about your business without using your Twitter username. You should regularly check Twitter for people who mention your business name by creating a search and saving it.

When you see the search results page, click the gear icon to save the search.

You should follow everyone who talks to you on Twitter. So as you find people talking about your business or talking directly to you, follow them.

#9: Publicize your Twitter account

Make it easy for people to find your business on Twitter by adding your Twitter username to all of your business materials.

Make it easy for people to follow your business on Twitter by posting a Twitter Follow button on your website or blog.

For example, you should give your Twitter username in these locations:

• Your website (with a link)
• Your email signature (with a link)
• Your email newsletter (with a link)
• Your business cards
• Signs posted in your business
• Paperwork you give customers (receipts, invoices, statements, etc.)
• Menus and product information sheets

#10: Make sure you are following your customers

Twitter is a great place to talk with your customers. However, this means that you have to connect with them.
It’s impossible for you to know which of your customers are on Twitter. For that reason, it’s important for you to advertise your Twitter account to your customers. This way, your customers can find you.
How can you tell who is your customer on Twitter? Here are a few tips:

• They talk to you. Some customers may start a conversation with you using your Twitter handle. You should follow everyone who talks to your business.
• They mention your business. You should set up a saved search on Twitter so you can find people talking about your business. Always reply to people who mention your business and follow them.

You can also search for your customers using their email address from your address book.

#11: Stop following people who don’t tweet

In general, don’t worry about trying to control who follows you. But it’s a good idea to prune out the followers who have stopped using Twitter.
A great free tool for finding people who haven’t tweeted for a while is unTweeps. After you authorize the app, it allows you to create a list of your followers based on how long since their last tweet. You can use the free account three times each month.

The unTweeps screen allows you to create a list of people you follow based on the number of days since their last tweet.

Start with people who haven’t tweeted for 6 months (or even 9 months) and review the list. You can mark individual accounts to unfollow.
Tip: If you have a large number of people who are no longer tweeting, don’t unfollow them all at the same time. This action can signal Twitter to suspend your account for aggressive and spammer-like behavior.

#12: Put Twitter to work solving your business challenges

Sometimes, the best way to improve your experience with a tool is to ask more from it. If you’ve been casually using Twitter and allowing the results to unfold, maybe it’s time to give Twitter a real job.
It takes some time using Twitter before you’ll be ready to put it to work on your business goals. But after you understand Twitter and have built a community, it’s time to take your Twitter use to the next level.
Twitter can help you meet your business goals. Think about a challenge you face in your business today. How could Twitter help you solve that problem?
For example:

• Offer a Twitter-only special. If your restaurant or store is a ghost town on Tuesday nights, why not promote a Tuesday night event on Twitter? Offer a special deal (free dessert or a special discount) for everyone who knows the secret code you tweet out Tuesday at 5 pm.
• Reward people who retweet you. Is your blog a little lonely? Twitter is a great tool to drive traffic to your blog. Set up a contest or a reward for people who retweet your messages about your blog posts. You might give away an ebook, a seat at an upcoming webinar, a free 30-minute consultation or a product discount. Explain the terms of the offer in a blog post or on a special website page and link to that page in your tweet so people understand your offer.
• Organize a tweetup at your business. Have you been chatting with local people whom you have not met in real life? Or has it been a long time since they have visited your business? Why not organize an informal tweetup? Set a date and time, offer refreshments and give people something fun to do or learn and they will come.

NASA has started using tweetups to reward key followers in its social media community.

The best way to make Twitter work for your business is to try something new. Learn from what happens and try it again with improvements.

#13: Add photos to your tweets

People love pictures. And this year, social media has really expanded to give people more of what they want.
Statistics show that people are more likely to read your stuff online if you include pictures. This means that just by adding photos to your tweets, you can greatly increase the amount of attention they get.

Adding a photo to your tweet increases the number of people who will interact with your message.

The best part is that your photos don’t have to be professional-quality to be effective on Twitter. You can use your smartphone camera to snap a picture, and then use the Twitter mobile app for your phone to tweet and upload your picture.

Every mobile Twitter app makes it easy to attach a photograph to a tweet from your smartphone.

#14: Bookmark tweets you want to keep

Did you know that every tweet has its own web address?
You can save important tweets using the Favorites feature. However, many businesses use the Favorites as part of their Twitter strategy, and so they need another way to save tweets.
To get to the web address of any tweet:

• Display the tweet on your screen.
  

  The Expand command displays more tweet options.
• Click Expand. Twitter provides more tweet options.
  

  The Details command displays the tweet in its own web page.
• Click Details. Twitter displays the tweet on its own page using its unique web address.
  

  An example of a tweet displayed on its own page using its unique web address.
• Bookmark the tweet using your browser or bookmarking tool.

You can bookmark important tweets using your browser’s bookmarking tool or a web-based bookmarking service like Delicious. Now you have a way to keep track of important tweets so you can use them in the future.

#15: Review (and renew) your tweet topics

When most businesses start using Twitter, they experiment for a while. As a result, they often tweet about random topics, or don’t tweet very often because they don’t know what to say.
After mastering the basics of Twitter’s message types and building out your online community, it’s time to get serious about your conversation topics. Or to use marketing terms, it’s time to develop a content strategy.
Every business has a core group of topics around its products and services. These are things that you know because of your business, and things that your customers and online community want to learn from you. Often, you educate your customers about these topics.
Many businesses struggle to find these topics because they take their knowledge for granted. With a little effort, you can start to see your business knowledge through the eyes of your customers and figure out the topics that really spark interest in your community.
These are the topics you should focus on with Twitter and social media in general. In fact, if you have a blog, these should be your blog categories.
Brainstorm a list of 5 to 7 conversation topics, and then create a list of 10 or more specific things within each category. These will help you organize your Twitter conversation and will spark ideas when you can’t think of anything to say.
Pay special attention to tweets that are retweeted, get replies or are marked as favorites. Those tweets hit a nerve, and you should talk more about those topics.
Note: The best Twitter topics for your business are things that provide practical solutions to problems your potential customers face every day.

#16: Expand the Twitter conversation to your blog

When you have a great conversation going on Twitter, or you find a topic that people respond to on Twitter, why not expand the conversation to the people who read your blog?
Twitter now makes it easy for you to embed a tweet into a blog post so it looks like a tweet and has the same interactive features it has on Twitter. In other words, you can write a blog post around a tweet and your blog visitors can interact with you on Twitter through your blog.

An example of a tweet conversation-starter posted in a blog.

Your Turn
What do you think? How have you made Twitter more relevant and more vital to your daily business operations? What strategies and tactics have you used? Share your insights and experiences in the comments box below.