Starting to Get Twitter’s ROI

So I took the plunge on Twitter to better understand its ROI… Started following people I have been follwing via online marketing sites, newsletters, feeds, forums, etc. for years via Twitter last night.

Twitter was playing a bigger part in conversations with clients, so I thought it was time to jump into the birdbath rather than watch from the side. [Cringing at my metaphor but not enough to remove it. ;-)] As with most things the practice is more enlightening than the theory…

Been following Twitter’s growth as part of my siysphean efforts to stay on top of the ever-evolving world of online marketing for years. But I hadn’t done much more than set up an account and follow a couple of copywriters I admire. Until last night…

Interesting!

Simply following a large group of SEO and online marketing “gurus” has generated a lot of followers for @southerncontent. Generated a lot of followers and got me a lot more energised about the potential value of Twitter for building community around a brand.

I remain a underwelmed about the insight into the minuate of people’s lives. It’s gonna require discipline to ignore all the help people’s tweets about useful resources though. And I can see how quickly a compelling message can spread in a way that countless articles and webinars on Twitter never really captured.

Still stand by my earlier view that Twitter doesn’t fit into everyone’s online marketing mix. But I can see a definite ROI on Twitter activity for those sites/businesses for whom it does fit.

Follow me www.twitter.com/southerncontent. I’ll try to share as many of the internet marketing goodies I find as possible.

Twitter Just Went Mainstream in NZ

Your turn, Twitter. You know a website, Web application or Web service has gone mainstream when it appears on TV current affairs shows.

Tweeting on Twitter just became mainstream or early mainstream. No idea what that means? You’ll learn.

Twitter is particularly big in the UK. Lily Allen just started tweeting. Stephen Fry is tweeting to the point that people following him think he may be addicted. Jonathan Ross is constantly referring to it on his resurrected BBC Radio2 show… Econsultancy.com is currently running an experiment with a Twitter feed on their homepage…

But it is a worldwide phenomenon with NZ a little behind the times.

From Early Adopters & Online Marketing “Gurus” to Early Evening Viewers

It’s the talk of online marketing circles, after being in the mix but not overly prominent for a couple of years. Many businesses are tweeting. And even crusty corporates have got in on it, presumably persuaded by their online marketing advisers.

But you know it has really gone mainstream when TV news catches on and profiles a site. So it was very interesting to see one of NZ’s two 7.00pm current affairs shows on the main networks allocating 6 or 7 minutes to Twitter tomorrow night.

Honeymooning on Mainstream Media

Facebook, the last social media phenomenon du jour, got the positive introduction a couple of years back. Now it’s more likely to get coverage related to privacy and copyright concerns.

Twitter, founded in March 2006,  is still in the “cool new thing”/”honeymoon” mainstream media phase despite the fact that it informed guesses put the number of users at 3.5-4.5 million users as long as last September.

Should you be Tweeting?

Short answer: not necessarily.

Not every business needs to be on Twitter. Offering regular insights into what is going on might not be a good fit for your business. And there is absolutely no point if your target market is likely to think a tweet is something that occurs in close proximity to the bird feeder hanging from the old oak at the bottom of the garden.

If your market is Web savvy, young, addicted/connected to their mobile phones… And if offering regular insight into what you do will build brand awareness/loyalty. If your brand is closely associated with a particular person… Consider it. It’s good enough for Richard Branson, Nasa, Jet Blue & Barack Obama; to name just a few celebs, politicians and brands tweeting…

Golden rule: as with all journal-type social media initiatives, do it regularly or not at all.

Update: after writing this yesterday I checked out RadioNZ… first topic on interview I listened to with US correspondent: Twitter and mundanities US senators were sharing via their Twitter accounts…

But, as I say, “early mainstream”: interviewer embarassed herself, while touting the fact that her show has a Twitter account, repeatedly saying Tweets were up to 140 words (rather than 140 characters) before her correspondent corrected her.

Um… Ah… Building Links, Link Bait & Interview Podcasts

Um.. Ah… Building links can be all about demonstrating expertise in link bait on your site but… Um… But an interview I did yesterday for a podcast illustrates why you should be prepared when demonstrating expertise on other sites.

I am not a big fan of the traditional link request way of building links. The Web is all about links but they should occur organically… How do you get links then? You offer link bait and you engage with relevant websites. And, ideally, you do so in a way that builds your brand…

Do an interview with a journalist running a site offering podcasts about making money online? Of course.

Perfect: demonstrate my expertise to the site’s audience and build a link.

Lesson learnt: remember your tendency to “um” and “ah” when forming your thoughts; ask for questions first and get those thoughts half way formed before the interview. Listen and see what I mean.

Boring as it is to repeat the tired phrase, content is king in the link building realm too. Good content on your site will attract links. Good content you provide on other sites will drive traffic (assuming you think about it enough for it to be “brand enhancing”).

Mike Moran and commenters covered the request vs build links issues succinctly in a Search Engine Guide piece and resulting discussion

As I tell clients, building links is very similar to offline networking where you seek out relevant people and build a relationship. Online links represent that relationship. People will link with you if you offer them something of value to their business or site.

And the value should go beyond the value of a link — “Hi I wondered whether you would like to link to our site because we [insert tenuous association]? We’ll link to you too!” just doesn’t cut it. As Brian Clarke of Copyblogger suggested recently in an excellent post offering five value-based link building strategies:

“The days of flat out link begging are fading…”

Requesting links will work in some cases. But as Mike Moran suggested in a Search Engine Guide piece and commenters, generally, agreed an earned link is preferrable to a requested one.

Building links should be all about offering value on your site and on other people’s sites and demonstrating your expertise as you do it. But do it in a considered way and know your weaknesses… No more interviews for podcasts without some prior knowledge of questions for me!

The Often Neglected Part of Blogging… Caution!

Blogging should be about interaction not just shouting into the void from your virtual step ladder.

Which means? Which means commenting on other blogs and generally interacting with relevant parts of the blogosphere. But be careful what you say and how you say it.

Well. You might be thinking: often neglected=posting, in my case. True in many other cases too…

Get the Word Out With Comments on Other Blogs

But while I haven’t been posting much lately the never ending quest to keep on top of what works online continues and I have felt compelled to offer an opinion or two as I worked my way through my feeds.

A comment here, a bit of related experience here, a bit of unsolicited advice on a landing page in that forum… It’s all about sharing your experience with others facing the same online marketing challenges. Or sharing your take on whatever challenges you might be blogging about.

Picture a man walking briskly across London’s Hyde Park towards Speaker’s Corner*. He has a two step ladder, a resigned look on his face and a sign that reads “I know better!”

At his destination, a crowd is gathered around a man with a shiny new 6 step ladder. A buzz of heated conversation emanates from the crowd. People excitedly offer the man who stands above them opinions and words of praise.

Our hero ignores the excitement. He sets up his ladder and climbs up the two steps. He takes a deep breath and begins to talk loudly. But not loudly enough for the crowd to take notice…

Introduce Yourself to the Relevant Blogosphere Community

Checking my analytics I was pleased to see that my opinion made enough sense to prompt a few people to check out who this Hamish guy was by clicking through to my site… We might not be talking about lots of traffic but we are talking about essential engagement with a relevant online community. If you don’t venture beyond your own blog you may find blogging a lonely experience…

• People find blogs via other blogs — commenting on other blogs is a way to proactively introduce your blog to people with relevant interests.
• There is no point in demonstrating your expertise and exploring your opinions if nobody is listening — if you blog and nobody reads your blog you don’t make a noise.
• The beauty of the blogosphere is the ongoing conversation that helps build people’s understanding of the subject at hand — comment threads concentrate this learning rather than it being distributed across blogs commenting on other blogs.
• But try to contribute meaningfully rather than just giving the blogger a virtual pat on the back — the odd “well done sir/madam” comment is ok but the real value in commenting comes when you have something to add the discussion around a blog entry.

But Join the Blogosphere Conversation with a Little Care

Be sure to join the conversation at the blogs that gather crowds in your part of the blogosphere as well as referencing them in your own posts.

But exercise caution: Being a bit of a word guy, I know the difference between “there” and “their”. Well, duh… Thing is I have a habit of typing the later when I mean the former when typing at speed. So here I was rushing to share my recent experience with evaluating security logos^ and their impact on conversion on a recent Get Elastic blog and my regular typo demon strikes…

Who is going to hire a Web content specialist that doesn’t know the difference between “there” and “their”? Be careful out there!

Bottom line:
If you are blogging, you should be spending some of your blogging time commenting on relevant blogs, joining the conversation and demonstrating your expertise. But make sure you read your comments twice before submitting them.

* Stretching for a location people will recognize and failing to find a US or more local example.
^ Now there’s an idea for a blog…

New & Noteworthy in Internet Marketing

Some comment-worthy stuff in the inbox & reader this morning:

• Cuil is the new Google challenger: the original search engine commentator, Danny Sullivan assesses the strength of the challenge in detail. Lots of buzz about this but no time to assess it today. The three column approach to displaying results is interesting, as is the use of images in results. Three column shoulds should help sites and searchers with more chance to win clicks. I’ll revisit this when the buzz dies down.
• Sound advice on writing with keywords from Karon Thackston of Marketing Words Copywriting Blog. Describing what you are not is a particularly good technique to remember — although I’ve often found people object to even the smell use of the word “cheap” adds to their copy. For me, the best guide is whether your copy sounds clunky as you read it aloud. If it does, you are overdoing the keyword repetition.
• I challenge you to read, social media expert, Chris Brogran’s 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice without being better informed about social media considerations. For me, the first one is always who is going to do the socialising and how much time do they have. No point even starting if you can’t sustain a target momentum*.

I kinda like Cuil’s three column results page but many are saying the results that fill the columns don’t match hyped relevance levels.
* Hmmm… not sure I am sustaining my target momentum with this blog. Very much a case of “do as I say not as I do.”

NZ Search & Social Media Stats

For the last eight years my work focus has been the US online market. Whether I was living in Melbourne, Auckland or Wanaka, the work ended up in an email inbox somewhere in the US.

Now, establishing my own consulting business and working with local clients, my work focus has shifted to spend more time studying local web usage. It’s interesting to be spending a little more time looking at my local web neighbourhood. The Web may be global but its usage varies across time zones and country borders.

Google Dominates NZ Search with  89% Market Share

And there’s definitely a “900 pound gorilla” in the New Zealand search space: combining Google.co.nz and .com shares gives  the non-resident gorilla 89.19% of NZ searches, with MSN’s Live beating Yahoo!  for the search scraps with 4.30% versus 2.23% (source: Hitwise, Search Volume 24 Weeks ending May 31, 2008).

Google can’t boast that kind of dominance in the US where its share is more like 58%.

NZ Social Network Picture is A little Different To US Picture

My latest Hitwise newsletter offers insight into New Zealanders’ use of social networks.  Seems Facebook and Bebo are almost equally popular with 39.87% & 39.15% of social network use and Myspace (still dominant in the US) lagging behind with 7.81%.

Big movers in the US market — photo sharing site, Flickr (101% growth from May ‘07 - May ‘08 to rank 3rd behind MySpace and Yahoo in unique visitors), people search network Reunion.com (77% growth for 5th spot), social bookmarking site Digg.com (90% growth for 11th) and business social networking site LinkedIn (138% growth for 20th) — don’t feature in NZ stats.

My impression [should really take a look] is that Bebo is definitely for a younger demographic — witnessed it causing sibling friction between an 11 year old boy and his 8 year old sister with one laptop to share recently, for instance.

So it seems like Facebook is the place to look if you’re a NZ business thinking about doing something about “this social media thing everyone is talking about.”