The Click Depot Blog

Archive for April, 2009

When it comes to Twitter applications, there are so many of them that many new users can become confused as to where to start.  There are a few that stand out and should be considered the top five to utilize if you are new to Twitter.  Based on findings by Compete, monthly traffic chose the top five applications by unique visitors, versus tweets and they are:

• Twitpic lets users share their pictures and it is the number one application on Twitter, with over a million unique visitors per month. 
• Next came Tweetdeck, with about a fourth of the volume of Twitpic, but impressive nonetheless.  Tweetdeck streamlines notifications and tweets. 
• Digsby got third place, which wasn’t far behind Tweetdeck, and it centralizes email, IM and social networks into one desktop program. 
• Twittercounter had over 200,000 visitors,
• Twitterfeed was next with over 149,000 visits and it automatically tweet posts on a user’s blog using RSS.

Of course, everybody that has used Twitter clients and applications has come to find their own personal favorites depending on why they use it.  There is a wide selection of Twitter application databases like Twitdom, Twitter Fan Wiki, Twapps, TwitTown and Twitstat. 

Twitterholic and TWhirl are popular and they come in at number six and seven, for those that are feeling slighted by this consensus.  Many frequent Twitter fans use these two, it’s just that the unique visitor count is lower, and they are frequented repeatedly by the ones that like them in a month.

The other thing to consider is that some think it should be based on the number of tweets and not the number of unique visitors, which makes it a different list, with Twitter.com, Tweetdeck and Twhirl coming in the top three by number of tweets.

Twitter.com was founded in March of 2006 with $55M by three entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the Facebook and MySpace phenomenon.  Since that time, it has spurned a whole number of different applications to use on Twitter and it seems that everybody has their favorites, even if it is not any of the ones we mentioned.

Some like Twitter Atlas, Squawk, Twitticious, Remember the Milk Twitter, Social Comic Book, Twapper, TwitBin, TwittyTunes, Flotzam and Twitterment.  All of these are popular and offer some neat features. 

When it comes down to listing the top five Twitter apps, it’s hard to know what criteria to use and no matter what, you risk leaving out somebody’s favorite.  It just goes to show that Twitter offers something for everybody, and the best thing to do is to find the ones you like the best to fit your own purposes.

Since Twitter has become a popular way of networking personally and for business and promotional purposes, it only stands to reason that it serves different purposes for different people, so everybody is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to the top five applications.

The only statistical thing you can do is to go by Compete’s list of unique visitors which indicates different visitors in a month versus repeat ones over and over.

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There are a number of ways to market a product or service on the internet. Without a doubt, one of the most popular is the concept of article marketing. Then again, maybe an asterisk needs to be placed next to the word “popular”. The asterisk should lead to a footnote that says “opinions will vary on this”. In other words, some folks just don’t believe article marketing works anymore. So, which sphere is correct? Does article marketing work or does it not work. Honestly, it can work quite well or it could prove to be disastrous. Ultimately, it is the method you employ that will make article marketing successful or not.

There are a number of pros and cons to article marketing. The pros include:

• The article is exposed to scores of regular readers of the article directory.

• The search engines will log the article and rank it. This will lead to a great deal of organic traffic.

• Many article directories will funnel the article through RSS feeds for greater exposure.
Of course, there are a number of cons to article directories as well. Here are a few:

•Older articles have a tendency to be forgotten and buried within the directories.

•People that are not regular readers of the directory may not come across it.

•Some individuals do not react positively to article marketing.
 

Far too often, people will assume that writing a few articles and submitting them to a directory will yield a positive result. In other words, they assume the act of merely submitting a generic article will deliver on their marketing needs. That simply is not the case. Successful article marketing relies on a more deliberate approach.

Probably the most common mistakes that undermine article marketing is poor writing. If you are using an article as a marketing vehicle, juvenile, poorly written material will not move products or services. On the contrary, such shoddy work could undermine your entire marketing plan.

Also, writing one or two articles here and there is not the basis for a successful article marketing strategy. It is critical to be consistent in your article writing so that you always have new material promoting your product or services. Once you become inconsistent, the positive results of article marketing will begin to fade away.

It is also important that the articles have something to offer. Writing an article that is filled with common information does little to stir emotions in readers. Honestly, would anyone think highly about an article promoting weight loss that simply stated that eating less was the secret to success? No, such an article would be considered banal. Such pedestrian material needs to be avoided at all cost!Remember, quality material will always deliver much better results than less than desirable material.

So, yes, article marketing can still be a very successful strategy. However, the articles cannot look run of the mill or too similar to other online published works. But, if you can make you articles look unique, special, and temper them with prolific writing they will deliver significant results.

Image Courtesy Of : http://wikimanager.info/bummarketing/2008/09/getting-your-articles-read/

There are millions and millions of people that utilize mobile phones. For those who are looking to advertise a service or product, this creates a tremendous opportunity. No, this does not mean that there is a new avenue for telemarketing. Honestly, telemarketing has a tendency to work a little better when calling a landline phone since it is less invasive or disrupting. But, if you are not going to call a mobile phone, how do you expect to earn revenues from mobile marketing. There are a number of ways and they are worth exploring.

Keep in mind that mobile phones are “really” phones. They are complete multimedia systems that come with various audio and video capabilities. That means the doors are wide open for many different customer contact strategies. For example, you can text message or email mobile phones with the intention of promoting a product or service. This allows the recipient to review the message at his or her convenience which is much less jarring than answering a telemarketing call.

Of course, sending a weak email or text message to a mobile device is not going to work out all that well. Yes, there are a number of marketing services that will send out bulk messages. They may get a response here or there, but the vast majority of the messages they send will be ignored. Clearly, that is not the marketing strategy that one should employ. Instead, much more creativity and purpose must be employed in the crafting of the messages. Remember, you want to send messages that engage the recipient so that the recipient contacts you. This way, you can make a sale. This is the most important point because simply heralding a product or service serves very little purpose if the end result is not a successful sale.

One of the ways success is achieved is through combining mobile marketing with other existing marketing strategies. For example, if your marketing strategy centers on closing a sale with a representative, then your mobile messages need to embody wording that makes people want to talk to a representative. For example, if you send messages saying it is possible to dramatically reduce debt with debt counseling, those that have need of such a service will probably make such a call. Of course, the representative of the debt settlement agency will still need to close the deal, but that is fine. Perhaps the rep may simply qualify the person prior to moving the customer through the sales ladder. Regardless of the exact process, the key here is that the mobile marketing strategy is a helpful cog in the overall wheel of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing is still a relatively new phenomenon. This means that there are many options available to those looking to get started. Currently, it is not overused to the point where it is no longer effective. As such, those looking for a novel new approach to marketing would be well served exploring the options available through this strategy.

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The rise of twitter.com as a marketing technique has become increasingly popular.  The reason seems to be the networking opportunities it lends with the multiple circles of friends, and then outer contacts into far outer contacts.  Many bloggers are using Twitter to market affiliate network marketing ideas, resumes or products they have tried and companies are using it to get the word out, as well.

Brands like Starbucks, Dell and Nike are rushing into Twitter marketing even though it has a smaller user base than My Space and Facebook.  The reasons seem to involve a platform for multiple conversations and interactions across multiple platforms.

There are some tips to make marketing more effective with Twitter, such as free giveaways to extend your influence in the social network.  Being transparent is what Dell uses by letting employees engage on Twitter with customers and industry people.  It gives a face to the corporate name.  Providing value can be achieved by helping people as best you can with a mini customer service platform, to generate a positive buzz.

Listen before talking, in other words since following conversations on Twitter can be lively, you can observe what others might be saying about your product or brand and find the people who have a passion for more than just your brand.  You can interact with those that have interests that fit what you are marketing, or maybe have tried it.  Word of mouth is still some of the best advertising and that is the basis that marketing on Twitter is built on.

Of course, your context is everything, so talking about your products in context is the best promotional opportunity.  You will get tuned out if you come out with context that is inappropriate for the conversation by inputting a sell job on your product or brand when it doesn’t fit the conversation.  Sharing links, talking to people, and in general, being yourself often works best when it comes to marketing on Twitter.

Twitter is all about building relationships and networking, which may have the side effect of network marketing.  The marketing techniques that work the best on the social networks are still based on original salesmanship principles; it’s just a new way of building a relationship and trust to use it to make sales.

You can use Search.Twitter.com to see what people are saying about your brand.  This helps in marketing efforts, and can be an easy way to get customer feedback without going to look for it.  Many corporate brand sales departments are monitoring this to see how to improve their sales and address comments made about their products.

Building relationships and networks on Twitter.com is becoming an additional marketing tool that many companies are encouraging their sales staffs to engage in.  Customer service improvement and product innovations for improvements can be gained or promoted using Twitter.

When it comes to sales and marketing, “do you Twitter yet?” takes on a whole new meaning, but one you should pay attention to if you are looking for ways to market your products.

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