If you are remotely interested in the web, you probably already hearing daily about a Web 2.0 site that has been experiencing exponential growth. Twitter- the micro-blogging site has taken the web by storm over the last couple of years and today it ranks third in its membership (right behind MySpace.com and Facebook.com). For those in the SEO and SEM industry, you are probably asking yourself how can Twitter benefit my business and clients. And while it is important to note that Twitter is a different beast than both search engines such as Google and social networking sites such as Facebook.com, there are tremendous opportunities available.
What is Twitter?
Even if you have heard about Twitter, you are probably like many people that are scratching their heads and wondering what this new technology is that has taken the world by storm. Twitter is a micro-blogging site first and foremost. A person or company creates a free account at Twitter.com and is able to create what is called a micro-blog. Unlike a regular blog site where a person can rant and rave or create posts that are thousands of words long, Twitter keeps it very short- only allowing a post of up to 140 characters.
140 characters is hardly enough to write anything meaningful you might say, but just like SMS on a mobile phone, many people are able to exchange quite a lot of meaningful (and yes utterly useless) information with this micro-blogging format.
The Social Networking Aspect of Twitter
To understand how to use Twitter for SEO and SEM, it is important to understand the social networking aspects of this technology, it is here that Twitter can accomplish things that most technologies can’t touch. While a website is generally static, sometimes being updated weekly or monthly and blogs being more dynamic being updated possibly daily, Twitter takes the cake with its micro-blogging format- being able to be updated by a user minute by minute, or at least several times per day.
There is a lot of little events that go on in life between blog posts and daily or weekly updates and this is where Twitter can really help you connect with an audience that cares or is at least interested in your life. For instance, when you sign up for a Twitter account, you can start finding friends, co-workers, family and those that share the same interests or hobbies as you. By building a network of friends that either are updated by you daily or in which you read their posts on a daily basis, you form a stronger bond with them and learn much more about their lives than could be possible with other types of technology.
For instance, by simply posting things that you are currently doing such as reading a book, listening to music, going on a trip, taking a walk, etc, you are able to convey your true personality and interests to others. Many of your social network contacts will find you absolutely fascinating, while others could be bored to death, but the connections you do make can be quite strong- stronger than connections one can make with email or a web site or blog.
Twitter and SEO
For those search engine optimizers that are for the most part looking to create links and rank higher in the SERPs, Twitter will be of little use to your business and clientele. First off, Twitter links are NoFollow, meaning no link juice will be passed along when you post links on Twitter. Secondly, any URL that is longer than 30 characters is usually shortened to fit- meaning longer URLs will be compressed so that even the keywords won’t be visible to the search engines. So for those that are looking to take advantage of link building or receiving link juice from Twitter, this technology is not worth the time and effort.
Twitter and SEM
For certain marketers Twitter can be a dream come true- the ability to build a close relationship with those interested in your products and services that cater to hobbies and interests of a specific audience. For instance, if you operate a restaurant in a city, you can easily draw plenty of business using Twitter. For instance, building an audience within your community and for people that are interested in cuisine, cooking and nightlife might be a great start. However, the important thing to note about Twitter is that it can’t be faked. Twitter is different from the typical web marketing that many of us do.
Unlike sending a well written email with the daily specials for the week or sending out a monthly magazine with free coupons and an article or two about fruits or vegetables in season, when a person Twitters on a daily basis, it’s got to be real and legitimate- otherwise people simply unsubscribe to your feed (unsubscribing, as well as subscribing to members is very easy). This means that every post can’t be spam, it can’t be about a constant soft sell. Instead, what members that have signed up to your tweets want to hear about real life- your life. It could be about shopping for food at the local farmer’s market, or about taking a wine tasting trip during the week to find new local wines. Not only will your audience see you personally as a real, approachable person, but you can build up a loyal following and a loyal customer base that would be very difficult or at least very expensive without Twitter.
Tips on Using Twitter for Your Business
It’s not easy to market using Twitter, not only does it take a lot of time to build an audience, you have to tweet messages that are interesting. This is why for many businesses, Twitter can be a waste of time, especially if you are not willing to put yourself out there and be authentic about it. One spammy message can turn your audience off. This technology is really for people that are able to connect with others or have a desire to share their life with others on a daily basis. In fact, this is why those that are most popular on Twitter tend to be celebrities, professionals with interest jobs (such as a journalist covering the President, a musician playing a musical festival or a scientist working at CERN). However, don’t be discouraged if you don’t have millions or even thousands of followers, using Twitter in the beginning can lead to a wide variety of contacts that you would never dream of making.
Since Twittering won’t help you with link building or Google for that matter, what Twitter will help you with is with live traffic to your site. For instance, if you created a video that would like to go viral, Twitter might be a great way to spread the word. If it’s good a few dozen of your close Twittering audience will watch it and pass it on to others- hopefully in the process the video will go viral. If you are a small contractor or freelancer, Twitter might help you connect with an opportunity or others that can help you further your goals and business.
So, to recap, Twitter while a new and interesting technology is not a useful technology for building links used for Google and other search engines, but can drive lots of live traffic to your site (ultimately raising your Alexa ranking in the process). And while this technology can be used to create a community, marketers looking for an easy way to spam or even soft sell their audience should be aware that unsubscribing to your feed is extremely quick, easy and effective.
