Twitter

Here is my article which was first published on Social Media Examiner:

According to the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Twitter is one of the social media tools most businesses want to learn more about.

If your business is not yet on Twitter, this article is for you. Creating a Twitter profile is quick and easy to do; however, you want to make sure you take the right steps when setting up your Twitter accounts.

This is the first of a two-part series of tips for creating Twitter profiles to both facilitate engagement with your Twitter audience and build a strong brand online.

#1: Set Up Your Twitter Account

You should always try to secure Twitter accounts for your real name and your company name to ensure no-one else grabs them. And businesses should also consider getting Twitter names for any major brands they own. This choice of Twitter names raises some other questions when setting up your Twitter account.

Should you consider having multiple accounts? Twitter can be time-consuming. This is why it’s easier to have one main account. But if you have different conversations with different audiences, it makes sense to have different Twitter accounts. Two common reasons for having multiple Twitter accounts are to:

• Separate professional and personal tweets
• Tweet in different languages

Should you use a company account or a personal account? Or both? It depends on your company, how you intend to tweet and whom you want to interact with on Twitter. Watch this video to hear how Ann Handley tweets under @marketingprofs. And this one in which Scott Monty talks about how Ford uses Twitter.

Ann Handley tweets under the Twitter name @MarketingProfs for www.MarketingProfs.com and openly associates her name to the Marketing Profs Twitter profile.

#2: Choose Your Twitter Name.

Here are some guidelines to help you choose your Twitter name:

• Your Twitter name is limited to a maximum of 15 characters.
• Although Twitter names are not case-sensitive, Twitter will save the name exactly as you enter it when you create your Twitter profile. So although you can create your profile with “JohnSmith” and be listed as @JohnSmith, your Twitter fans will be able to find you by using @johnsmith.
• Avoid names with numbers, uncommon abbreviations and names that are difficult to remember. Keep mobile users in mind and avoid underscores, which require extra steps to type in on mobile phones.

Are you still wondering which Twitter name to choose? Look for a name easy to relate to who you are and what you represent.

Use your real name or company name? Most people open up more to the Twitter names they recognize as a real person’s name or a company name they trust. If you’re using Twitter for brand management, you will probably want to use your website name (without the “.com”). You can also use a pen name you use regularly.

Doreen Iannuzzi at Diversity Media Services combines both her name and the abbreviation of her company name.

Seesmic.com uses their name for their Twitter handle.

Keywords. A Twitter name with a keyword may work well for you if you make it obvious who you are. But for most people, a keyword Twitter name is also associated with spammers and those who push unwanted sales pitches.

Gabriella Sannino uses keywords to target her primary audience.

#3: Upload Your Picture

It’s important to change the default picture to show others you are a real person and not a spambot and you can get a little creative to show your personality.

As Denise Wakeman points out, you may want to use the same picture on all of your social media profiles. This creates stronger online branding as people will notice the same photo on different social media platforms.

Dan Waldschmidt’s photo matches the “outrageous vision” mentioned in his bio.

#4: Use Your Best Link

You only have one active link on your Twitter profile. And before choosing this link, you need to give some thought to your overall online web marketing strategy. Why are you online? Where do you want to lead your Twitter followers? For most people, the link you have on your Twitter profile will go to your website or blog. This link can easily be changed.

You should also give some thought to the exact page your Twitter visitors will land on when they click the link on your Twitter profile.

• You can create a specific page for your Twitter followers. A good way to do this on your blog is to create a list of people you recommend others to follow on Twitter.
• You can link to a social media profile such as OneForty like @AmyPorterfield.
• If you’re a blogger, linking to your blog is a good option.

#5: Write an Interesting Twitter Bio

It’s important to tell your Twitter followers who you are and what you’ll be tweeting about. Unfortunately you only have 160 characters to do this in your Twitter bio. It’s usually best to write short sentences to engage the people who read your bio. But you should also weave in a few important keywords relevant to the people you want to meet on Twitter. Keywords will help the right people find you.

Judy Dunn creates an engaging picture in her Twitter bio.

It’s easy to want to take up the offer Mike CJ makes in his Twitter bio.

Mari Smith suggests you mention the link to your Facebook Fan Page in your Twitter bio or on your Twitter background as mentioned below. Although this will not be an active link, it should be easy to remember if you have a vanity URL, and it will help grow your Facebook activity.

After completing these five steps, there’s one final step—creating a Twitter backdrop. In the second part of this series of tips covering your Twitter profile, you’ll find out how to use your Twitter background to create a more engaging Twitter presence.

Do you have any Twitter advice to add? Do you use your personal name or your company name to tweet for your business? Please share your tips below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

5 Simple Steps to Getting Your Business on Twitter

Twitter

Here is my article which was first published on Social Media Examiner:

Twitter is a great platform and it truly rocks for person-to-person networking. But what if you want to grow your network or find more people to connect with offline? This is where Twitter events can be very useful.

Twitter events allow you to network at specific times with larger groups of people through the use of hashtags.

Twitter events can help you find people to build your own Twitter network. And as you participate in these events, you will increase your Twitter authority on the topics you discuss. You can even create your own Twitter events to drive your networking and social media marketing.

6 Types of Twitter Events

First you need to identify the groups of people you want to network with. Then you should choose the types of events where it’s easy and comfortable for you to network with these people. This is how you can slowly build up meaningful one-on-one relationships with people who matter to you and to your business.

Fortunately there are several different types of groups gathering around specific topics on Twitter at specific times.

Here are events that take place offline where people use Twitter as a communication tool to share their experience of the in-person event.

#1: Live events. You’ve probably seen Twitter hashtags used by people tweeting from conferences. People can tweet about any kind of live event. If you want to get the most out of your Twitter networking at a live event, you should do as Adam Vincenzini says and plan ahead to ensure viral Twitter coverage of live events.

#2: Tweetups. Tweetups are when you meet your Twitter connections in real life. Tweetups can be impromptu events or with slightly more organization. And they’re a great way to do some traditional offline networking.

What is a Tweetup?

#3: Large-scale offline Twitter events. Some offline events such as the Twestival fundraising event are organized on a wider scale and bring a large Twitter community together. These are also interesting places to expand your Twitter network if the community is a good fit for your business.

Twestival gets people on Twitter to meet up all over the world.

Here are some events that only take place on Twitter:

#4: Current events. Many businesses can benefit from staying current on trending topics and participating in relevant Twitter conversations. Some current events or breaking news may give you reason to create your own Twitter discussion or chat event.

#5: Twitter Interviews. You can conduct Twitter Interviews with different communication goals. You can do the interview like a journalist or, as this is on Twitter, you can conduct it more like a game show, with a short set of questions aimed at having more fun. Choose the kind of Twitter interview to use to give you the networking environment you prefer.

You can also find the Small Business Buzz chats on their blog.

#6: TweetChats. There are a number of regularly scheduled TweetChats. Small Business Buzz, or @sbbuzz on Twitter, holds chats every Tuesday to discuss small business topics. Another interesting regular TweetChat takes place on Thursdays, @lrnchat to discuss learning and social media. It’s easy to see how you can expand your Twitter network by finding TweetChats with your preferred audience.

Variety in Communication

It’s important to note that people use multiple social media platforms for communication. Conversations are not limited to Twitter. There are also interesting events to look for outside Twitter and then come back and follow the contacts you meet there on Twitter.

Facebook. Many events are shared on Facebook. Be sure to follow the people you meet on Twitter, find them on Facebook and have a look at what they share and discuss there.

LinkedIn. Be sure to check out LinkedIn events too.

Although it requires a little bit of research, it’s often easy to create strong relationships when you connect with the same people on different social media platforms. It’s interesting to note that one-on-one networking is usually easier to initiate on Twitter.

Tools for Twitter Events

Hashtags. Hashtags are key. They enable people to gather into groups on Twitter. This is how you find others interested in similar topics. You can read more about how to follow hashtags in this previous article.

Twitter tools. Many Twitter applications come and go, but they often have some great features and make Twitter networking easier and more fun. Unfortunately, there isn’t a solution to fit all of your needs in following or creating Twitter events. So it’s always worthwhile doing a little research to look for what’s useful for you. Here are some Twitter applications you may find interesting: TweetChat, Tweetvite, and TweetMyEvents.

Event tools. Sometimes you simply need an event management tool. There are a variety of online tools to help you: Eventbrite, Amiando and meetup are popular event tools. But again, you’ll need to check them out to find the one best suited to your particular needs.

Social Media Networking

Twitter is only one social media communication tool. Other social media platforms work well when combined with Twitter networking. For example, many people share photos from events on Flickr and they often share the links to their photos on Twitter. The comments on these photos are also a great resource to help you find people to follow and grow your network. You can also do the same research with YouTube videos, Posterous pages and any other social media platform your audience frequents.

In addition, Foursquare and other geo-location applications are making it easier to create events and bring people together in person. This is why more and more businesses will be including event networking in their social media marketing plans. And Twitter plays a key role in developing your network, thanks to its ease of real-time one-on-one networking.

What other events on Twitter do you use to grow your Twitter network? Have you participated in a Tweetup? If so, what was your experience? Please share them in the comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network

International Social Media

How do you use Twitter? There are different ways businesses can use this social media platform:

• Branding
• Customer outreach
• Customer support
• Long term lead generation
• General business networking
• Strategic business networking for a specific goal
• Or as a social media tool to support other social media platforms

I mainly use Twitter as a strategic networking tool to build my international business network. Like most busy professionals it took me a long time to see the value in using Twitter. And even after I started rather reluctantly it took me a full two months to really understand what Twitter could do for my business.

But when I finally got over my own mind blocks something strange happened: within a week it brought in valuable contacts for my business. As soon as the light bulb turned on in my head, I spent an afternoon developing a tweet plan for strategic networking to build my business, and it worked immediately. My email inbox was literally flooding with businesses wanting to know more about my business. What surprised me was that these email were from the types of businesses I wanted to find through Twitter.

I thought I’d just been lucky, but later I realized there was probably more to why I got this Twitter marketing exercise right the first time. You see, I have a background of over 25 years field experience in traditional international business development. This enabled me to develop strong cross-cultural people skills and international business development skills.

• The cross-cultural skills are in-depth people skills and, when you use them in international business, you also learn to maintain a strong focus on the business results you want while connecting with people who are different to you. Twitter is about connecting with a wide variety of people and it can sometimes be challenging to find the right balance to use it successfully for your business.
• The international business development skills mean I know how to operate in a business capacity in “unknown” environments, where there’s a high level of risk, where you need flexibility and where you need to cultivate feedback, listen to it and then adapt your communication to get things right.

With hindsight I believe these skills helped me to “get it right” the first time round. I have since tweaked my orignal tweet plan and integrated different tactics make Twitter work even better for my particular needs.  Twitter is now a key tool in building my international business network.

Below are a variety of links to help you use Twitter successfully for your business. Remember to follow me on Twitter @CindyKing.

How To Get Started On Twitter Resources

Here’s a series of articles to help you get the most out of Twitter.

#1: Listen to what people are saying on Twitter
8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas

#2: Set up your Twitter account
5 Simple Steps to Getting Your Business on Twitter
How to Create a Custom Twitter Background Design

#3: Find people you want to connect with on Twitter
How to Market Your Business With Twitter Lists

#4: Create a great tweet plan
8 Simple Steps To Grow A Quality Twitter Following

#5: Reach out to people on Twitter
12 Tips to Engage People on Twitter

#6: Start with networking great basics on Twitter
8 Easy Ways to Network on Twitter

#7: Find the best meeting places on Twitter
How to Use Twitter Events to Grow Your Network

#8: Take Twitter connections one step further
7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews

More Twitter Resources For You

Cross-Cultural & International People On Twitter
Are you interested in developing your cross-cultural skills for international business? Then here’s a list of people I recommend you follow because their Twitter feeds have interesting tweets.

Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews
Here’s a series of Twitter interviews with some of the people on this list.  Have a look at what I did after reading the article in step 7 above.

Now, It’s Your Turn

• What challenges do you face when using Twitter for your business?
• What Twitter tactics are you using successfully for your business?
• What successes have you had using Twitter for international marketing?

Please leave your comments below.

Tweet Plan

Are you stuck in figuring out how to use Twitter for your business? Create a tweet plan as mentioned in step 3 above and run it for a couple of months to get the feedback you need to figure out what would work best for your business. Need help in setting up your tweet plan?

Find out more about how I can help you set up your tweet plan

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Twitter Guide

Cross-Cultural Twitter Interviews

If you are interested in international business and network on Twitter then you probably follow a number of people with international profiles. Some international people on Twitter share some great insights in their Twitter feed. I ask the cross-cultural people on my Twitter interviews to share the international people they like to follow on Twitter. Here are some of their replies.

21 International People to Follow on Twitter

1. @CCTheLowdown it’s a publishing company that Tweets all sorts of interesting things – sometimes international - @deborahswallow
2. @PennOlson I like those guys take on marketing but there are many others! – @ohh_la_la
3. Try @AmiExpat for her blog – @HoeferleConsult
4. I follow and read people like @RichardBranson interesting perspectives on business and the universal great thinker @SethGodin – @dkiernan
5. Christina Geyer @AmiExpat an American, expatriate, half-Asian living in Germany, and tweeting about cross-cultural differences & German cuisine – @transdomo
6. I’d say @StephenFry because he does so much travelling – @culturematters
7. @RickCogley, an American business consultant living in Japan. @vgr an Indian innovator living in the US – @tdebaillon
8. I like your list of international people to follow on Twitter. – @DR4Ward
9. My absolute favorite @queenrania – @XCulture
10. Hmmm … @johnniemoore is someone I have followed since the first year I was on Twitter (2007). – @jackyan
11. I really enjoy tweets from @ShellTerrell @kalinagoenglish @MissShonah @familyonbikes @KirstenWinkler – @CotterHUE
12. Adrian Monck ( @amonck ) an ex journo & current prof & head of comm. at World Economic Forum in Geneva … I answered as such because Adrian is international to me… and a Canadian perspective may be international to you, for example, and others; so for those interested in Canadian perspective, I would recommend Irshad Manji ( @reformingislam), @whoweareca, and @mathewi (Canadian journalist heavily involved in social media) – @DoreenatDMS
13. @globetrotteri is a friendly and international Tweeter: Canadian writer / photographer / teacher living in Taiwan – @pocketcultures
14. @volunteerabroad b/c I would like to travel by sharing my skills and competencies whilst learning – @psitutor
15. @glcuccureddu, @GotSagaLatino, @Marilyn_Res, @PatriciaVance, @hungaryguy, @PierrePaperon, @maxbehar, @mikebutcher – @culturalrealms
16. Couldn’t resist myself to give these 3 names – @guykawasaki @wchingya and @shellykramer (Possess great networking skills) – @mintblogger
17. @dragosroua Quote: “Think happiness is a process, not a goal.” Inspired by Aristotle? He is on your int’l s.m. list. – @lyceum
18. I would follow @talk2brazil. He tweets about Brazil’s economy, BizDev, etc. Brazil is going to be huge market in the future. – @SeanJamesOliver
19. If you have interest in international educational exchange/mobility research & literature then I recommend following @IDPDRIE – @DavidComp
20. I like @HoeferleConsult because his tweets make me feel connected to Germany, where I used to live – @CateBrubaker
21. One of my favorite international business profiles on Twitter is @finikiotis – @CindyKing

Who are your favorite international people on Twitter?

• Do you have a favorite international person on Twitter?
• Where do you get the best international insights on Twitter?
• What do you like most about the international people you follow?

As usual, please share your comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

21 International People to Follow on Twitter

Events

Social media marketing has changed in the last few years.  This makes it difficult for businesses to know how to approach social media. I hear echos that businesses have now had a chance to play around with social media and are incorporating social media into the marketing strategies for real business results this year.  And we continue to hear about social media success stories every month. But it’s still difficult to find real business examples.

This is why I particularly liked this slideshare presentation by Louis Gray where he compares what blogging used to be like last year and what it’s like today.  The differences are enormous. It’s hard to believe the tactics you need today have changed in such a short period of time.

It feels like you are continually chasing the train and can never catch up. It’s hard to keep up to date.  When a social media expert writes a book it is often out of date as soon as it’s published.   So how can you learn about the new social media marketing tactics?  How do you find out what’s working and why?

The World’s Largest Online Social Media Event

This online webinar is almost like a live event

Here’s how. Join the growing band of successful companies and attend this upcoming conference.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will teach you how to harness the awesome power of social media. And it’s amazing: Consider that the “population” of users on Facebook (400 million) is greater than the population of the United States! More than 71% of businesses plan on ratcheting up their use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs in 2010 (According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report).

The summit, the world’s largest online social media conference, will give marketers and small-business owners cost-effective ways to directly contact prospects and customers without employing expensive (and often ineffective) tools such as list brokers, publications and advertising.

Superstar Instructors

Twenty-four social media gurus will reveal the secrets of their success at the Social Media Success Summit 2010. In addition to event organizer Michael Stelzner, the all-star lineup of presenters includes bestselling authors Guy Kawasaki (Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (ProBlogger), Mari Smith (Facebook Marketing), Chris Garrett (Business Blogging), Denise Wakeman (The Blog Squad), Greg Jarboe (YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (Mobile Marketing Handbook) and Lewis Howes (LinkedWorking: Generating Success on LinkedIn).

You’ll also hear from social media pros at companies such as Home Depot, Best Buy, Whole Foods, Domino’s Pizza, Edelman PR, MarketingProfs, Foursquare, Groupon and SmartBrief. They’ll tell how they use social media tactics to help their organizations beat the competition.

In sessions such as How to Use Twitter as a Marketing Weapon, Optimizing Your Facebook Page for Profits, Five Ways to Measure Social Media Marketing Success and How to Bring Customers Repeatedly to Your Local Business, you’ll learn:

• The most effective ways to market your company with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, mobile marketing and more
• How to track and measure the return on investment for social media programs
• A step-by-step method for creating a smart social media marketing plan
• How to build a loyal social media following
• How to reel more customers into your local business with social media techniques

The summit will also cover brand-new ground such as YouTube and video, social media bookmarking, mobile marketing and two hot new sites—Foursquare and Groupon—that can drive people to your local business.

By the way, the topics covered in the 2010 Summit are totally new content—there will be absolutely no repetition of last year’s event.

No Travel Hassles

You might be thinking, “Sounds good, but I don’t need the hassle of taking time off, arranging a plane flight and reserving hotel accommodations—not to mention the expense.” No worries. This is an “online conference”—you can sit back, relax and enjoy it in real time in your home or office. The event organizers have taken your hectic schedule into account by spreading the sessions over a month, so they’re convenient to attend.

If you miss a session, they’ve got you covered. You’ll get transcripts of every session and they’ll be recorded so you can replay them whenever you like. Also you won’t be learning on your own—you can ask the social media gurus questions during the live sessions and join private forums and LinkedIn groups to network with presenters and fellow attendees.

Discounted Tickets

The event kicks off on May 4 and runs until May 25. To take advantage of the 50% off special visit here. The discounted tickets are limited, so grab yours before they’re gone.

Get in tune with the marketers who are enjoying dazzling social media success. Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you move from playing basic “notes” to orchestrating strategic social media programs that’ll bring more sales and greater profitability.

Why I Recommend This Event

Yes, the links to Social Media Success Summit 2010 here are affiliate links.  I attended the event last year and it was well worth both the investment.  Part of what makes this event so good is how it’s set up.

It’s a virtual event and you get the recordings shortly after the live event so you can listen to it when it suits you.  There are generally 2 3-hour sessions a week over several weeks.  This pace is easy to fit into a busy schedule and it gives you time to digest the training.

In between sessions you can interact with other participants in the private forum and the LinkedIn group.  In previous Success Summits put on my Mike Stelzner, this interaction has been just as useful as the webinars themselves because the instructors are there to answer your questions.  If you do join in, be sure to say hello and tell me that you read about the summit here.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Learn The Latest In Social Media Marketing

International Web Marketing

I just read Tamar Weinberg’s internet marketing advice and noticed the different internet marketing specialties she listed:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Affiliate Marketing
• Pay Per Click Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing

I agree with Tamar when she says you can’t be an expert in every one of these. Most web marketers have one area they are really good at.

This got me thinking about the specialties I use to reach international audiences for my own business.  The first thing I noticed is that I don’t use Link Building, Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Click Marketing.  And this is probably because I tend to jump right into new markets to learn everything I can about them first.

• I don’t see myself getting into link building as it’s done by most people today.  I tend to approach link building through social networking, more about that in a minute. But I do see link building changing in the future and I’ll probably be right there when it does because it will involve more meaningful networking.
• And I don’t see myself ever getting big into pay per click marketing. But having said that, I’m closely following the results others get with Facebook advertising and may use something similar in small doses in the future.
• Although I’m not really interested in the traditional affiliate marketing practices, I do a lot of networking and do use similar practices to build business networks. I can see myself joining in when this morphs into the business networking world a bit more.

After looking at the web marketing I do not specialize in, here is how I see my own international web marketing specialties.

International Social Networking

It all starts here for me.  This is how I learn what to do next, the other tactics I need to use and whether my web marketing is on target or not.  I rely on the feedback and constantly analyze results to learn more about my new international markets.

Social networking is a mindset and a way of being. It’s what you need for successful international web marketing.

Although Tamar doesn’t have social networking on her list, it is a part of good link building, affiliate marketing and social media marketing.  And I think it is essential in international web marketing and needs to be in a category all by itself.

I would definitely say this is my strongest international web marketing specialty.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing goes hand in hand with international social networking because much of the social networking starts on social media.

Social media marketing is not always a big component of international web marketing. It really depends on where you’re based and which markets you want to reach.  And you need to keep your finger on the social media pulse of the countries you’re interested in reaching, because things change rapidly.

I’m based in France and target an English speaking audience.  So I use social media extensively to develop my international business network and everyone in a similar situation should do so too.

Social media marketing works very well for me.  I’ve written before about how surprised I was when I realized my social media marketing was always 100% on target.  And I’ve come to realize this is because of the similarities between my international business skills and the cross-cultural people skills.

• My strong international business development skills make it easy for me to adapt business objectives into new environments.
• And my strong cross-cultural skills come in very handy in this social environment. I know myself well enough to navigate between the social and the business focus, skills you pick up when doing business with people from different cultures.

I would say this is my second strongest web marketing specialty.

Content Marketing

I love the results you get from content marketing.  There are organic search results of course.  But you also get lots of feedback through content marketing, and this feedback is important when you are trying to develop new markets in different countries.

And once you get feedback there’s so much more you can do to try to develop the relationships you create.  First there’s listening and paying attention to the whole conversation.  And then even if the content is static once it’s published online, you can still bounce back with more content and use different formats to see what the reactions this brings about.  It’s a game about finding out more about your audience.

I really find this fun and I’m good at it on subjects where I have enough knowledge to see the whole game.

Search Engine Optimization

Many businesses that want to develop international markets worry about the cultural differences in SEO and there are a few other search engines besides Google out there.  But the reality is that the Google algorithm does makes the vast majority of the world’s search engines tick.

So it makes sense to get great at SEO in the Google world first. And then once you’ve mastered this you can work on improving SEO results in other countries. And the truth is that if you understand your international clients, if you know the words they use when they need help online, and you have a good understanding of SEO, then you’ll know how to get good search engine results throughout most of the world.

SEO is important for everyone online and I spend a fair bit of time improving my skills and learning enough to follow the well-known SEO geeks and understand what they are talking about.

Email Marketing

This is my weakest skill because I don’t do enough of it myself and also because I barely read a handful of email marketing messages sent my way on a regular basis.

Instead of building an email list for all of my blog readers when I first started, I jumped in at the deep end and focused on building segmented marketing lists:

• Professionals interested in developing their cultural skills
• Businesses needing how to advice on getting international clients
• French people interested in copywriting
• French people interested in article marketing

This is not something I necessarily recommend you do, after all the funnel does start off with a wide end and then goes narrow.  But I like testing and playing around with marketing to learn more about my markets, that’s why I did things this way.

But I do follow a few people who use culturally targeted email marketing to develop international markets. I’m not sure how much this works in other cultures, but it’s definitely something I’ll probably spend some time looking into in the future.

International Web Marketing

Of course, after doing this exercise reviewing my own personal specialties, this has me thinking about international web marketing in general:

• What are the different specialties in international web marketing?
• How are the specialties in web marketing different for international marketing?
• How is international web marketing evolving and how does this impact what we do?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please start the conversation below.

More on International Web Marketing:

• What Is Your Definition Of International Web Marketing
• How Too Many Contributions Spoil International Communications
• My Own Case Study – Small Business Flexibility In An Online World
• International Article Marketing
• International Email Marketing
• International SEO For Quick Results
• Mindset Differences Between Offline Marketers And Online Marketers
• The Difference Between An eMarketer And A Geek Marketer

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Web Marketing Specialties

Twitter

Here is my article which was first published on Social Media Examiner:

Twitter is a networking haven for businesses. But is there an easy way to draw the right people to you with Twitter?

The answer is yes and there’s a great Twitter feature that can help you: Twitter lists. Twitter lists can grab the interest of people you most want to meet, help you make a great first impression and can help you with marketing segmentation.

Below I’ll show you some unique ways to use Twitter lists. But first…

How Do Twitter Lists Work?

Twitter lists creates separate lists of people. If you haven’t already used Twitter lists, watch this video to see how you can get started.

There are two interesting points to remember about Twitter lists:

• You don’t need to “follow” people on Twitter to include them in your lists.
• You can have both public and private lists.

Now here’s a look at what you can do with Twitter lists.

#1: Listen with Private Lists

Twitter lists are great to monitor and listen to different groups of people. No-one else can see your private lists, so this is a good place to start using the Twitter list feature. You can create private lists to:

• Monitor your competitors
• Carry out specific market research
• Keep track of different networks of friends and colleagues

Private Twitter lists can help you segment the fire hose of information streaming in through your Twitter feed, according to Rohit Bhargava. Segmenting people into lists also helps you more effectively listen to and monitor your market.

John Jantsch says Twitter lists make it easier to listen to what others have to say.

And monitoring people without following them makes it easy to carry out specific market research or intelligence gathering. Once you’ve finished doing your market research, you can simply delete your list without making any changes to the people you usually follow.

#2: Craft Your Brand With Public Lists

There’s not much space to brand yourself on your Twitter profile page. You do have space for a few words in the bio box and you can add in background graphics. But you can also add another dimension to your branding by carefully crafting your public Twitter lists. Here’s how.

Choose appropriate names for your lists
Spend some time finding the best name for your list. There are a few things to keep in mind when naming your Twitter lists:

• Engage the right people. You’ll get more people interested in looking at your list if the name sparks their interest.
• Remember to communicate with everyone. Don’t limit your audience. The right name could help you reach more of the people you want to connect with.
• The SEO bonus. Another reason to think about how you label your lists is for search engine optimization (SEO). Look at the screenshot below. This Twitter list is in a good position in Google search results for a competitive keyword.

The bad news is that if you change the name of your list, the URL of your Twitter list changes too and you’ll lose the people following that list. So take some time to get this right.

Choose appropriate Twitter lists for your public profile
When creating your Twitter lists, you want to think of how lists help you:

• Connect with your Twitter followers
• Achieve your main goal for using Twitter
• Continue the story you began in your Twitter bio

As you build up a following on Twitter, your followers will be interested in your Twitter lists. The choice of Twitter lists found on your Twitter home page is important for engaging with people.

Choose the number of public lists
Remember, there’s a limited amount of space available for your Twitter lists on your home page. Although you can create a larger number of lists, only about 4 to 6 will appear on your home page depending on the character length of the names of your lists. Your audience will have to click on the “View all” link to see all of your lists if you have more than this.

So you may want to think carefully about the number of lists you want to create and the order in which you create them. Put your most relevant lists at the top.

Advertise your Twitter lists
Create Twitter widgets for specific Twitter lists and put them up on your blog or website to engage people and establish your areas of interest and expertise.

Better Marketing With Twitter Lists

Twitter’s list feature can add some extra marketing power to your Twitter strategy if you take some time to get it right. You also need to find the right way to make your lists work for you. This will depend on your goals for Twitter, your audience and how they like to connect with you.

A good Twitter list improves your visibility in your market. Here are a few more benefits:

• The people you follow in your public lists will appreciate the recognition.
• By providing a useful resource, you’ll increase your credibility in your market and attract more followers.
• As you become more popular, you’ll be listed on other people’s lists. This is another way to measure your social media influence.

What are your thoughts about Twitter lists? How are you using them? Do you regularly follow other lists? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How to Market Your Business With Twitter Lists

Book Reviews

A friend of mine, Shane Gibson sent me a digital copy of Sociable! the book he wrote together with Stephen Jagger and it’s just come out today, so I thought I’d share some thoughts in a short book review here today.

There is a quote in Sociable! that jumped out at me:

“Change happens in an instant, it just takes us a while to adjust” – Anthony Robbins

I think this is how most people feel about social media. Shane and Stephen have written a great book for businesses who are having difficulty adjusting to the change in how people want to do business today. Sociable! shows you how to approach social media and mix it with live encounters with your audience to really get the benefit out of the time you spend on social media.

And the best part is the action plan at the end of the book with detailed guidelines for businesses to implement social media marketing and social networking.

What to know more? Here’s an audio MP3 of the first chapter of Sociable! to give you a sample.

Curious about why Shane and Stephen called the book Sociable? Listen to the audio interview here where Shane shares insights into some Canadian colloquialisms.

Read more Book Reviews:

Communication

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with communication for international sales:

• A Writer’s Guide To Powerful Paragraphs By Victor C. Pellegrino
• Content Rich By Jon Wuebben
• Get Content Get Customers by Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett
• Letting Go Of The Words – Writing Web Content That Works By Janice Redish
• Stories That Sell By Casey Hibbard
• The Culturally Customized Web Site By Nitish Singh And Arun Pereira
• The Magic Of Pre-Writing By Steven Osborne
• The Secret To Writing A Successful And Outstanding Blog By Liz Strauss

Sales

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international sales:

• All of the Little Sales Books by Jeffrey Gitomer
• Asinine Advertising By Herschell Gordon Lewis
• Influencer: The Power To Change Anything by Kerry Patterson – Joseph Grenny – David Maxfield – Ron McMillian & Al Switzler

Web Marketing

Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international web marketing:

• Bit Literacy Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload By Mark Hurst
• Dotcomology The Science Of Making Money Online By Stone Evans
• How The Internet Works By Preston Gralla
• How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda
• Landing Page Optimization By Tim Ash
• Mastering Online Marketing By Mitch Meyerson
• Multichannel Marketing By Akin Arikan
• Online Competitive Intelligence By Helen P. Burwell
• ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
• Stats Faceslap By Ed Rivis
• The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy By Ed Rivis
• Website Optimization by Andrew B. King

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Book Review: Sociable! By Shane Gibson & Stephen Jagger