Real-time: Google users can now see updates from sites such as Twitter and Facebook immediately on the Google search engine

 

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• New music download price-checker threatens to unseat pricey iTunes

Google real-time: The screen continually updates with new information, without the need to refresh. Users also have the option to pause the scrolling action

Twitter Marketing is cool, it’s hot, but is it effective? For example, list building has been a primary activity for online marketers for years, but now newbies are getting confused. How does Twitter marketing help in list building? Can your followers be considered a list? If so, how effective is a Twitter list compared to an e-mail list?

Before web 2.0, there was only one kind of list. An e-mail list. Home marketers spent all their time trying to build their list, then market to that list with e-mail blasts and auto-responders. But now web 2.0 has changed the whole concept of list building. In addition to an e-mail list, we can reach out to friends on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype, Myspace, and a plethora of other social sites.

So, are your followers, friends, subscribers etc. all part of your list? Personally, I think so. But they all have different value, and should all be treated differently. For example, when a prospect receives an e-mail they have to act on it. They either read it, delete it, or mark it as spam. But a tweet doesn’t require any action at all. As a matter of fact, most tweets go completely unnoticed. So how do Tweets compare to e-mails?

Case Study.

Last week I did a simple test. I promoted a webinar with only two methods, Twitter and an e-mail blast. I sent the blast to 9,167 people. I advertised the same event to 21,745 Twitter followers in 4 different accounts. Here are the results:

E-mail blast: Sent to 9,167 recipients, out of which 467 bounced, leaving a total of 8,700. It’s impossible to say how many of those actually got into peoples inboxes, as e-mail is such an imperfect science, but I do know that 155 people clicked on the link, a conversion of 1.8%, or 18 respondents out of a thousand.

Twitter marketing: 21,745 followers received the Tweet. There are no bounces in Twitter, the delivery is 100%. And I had the added benefit of my post being re-tweeted by five other people, giving my promotion a boost. I don’t know how many followers they had, or how many clicks they got, because they used the same link. 151 people clicked on the link delivered through Twitter. So if we ignore the re-tweets, that’s a conversion of .7 percent. or 7 respondents per thousand.

So… if this one, non-scientific, test turns out to be accurate moving forward, it appears that an e-mail list is about 2.5 times as powerful as a Twitter list. Or, viewed another way, you have to have 2.5 times as many Twitter followers to get the same results as an e-mail blast.

So here’s the kicker: which is easier to get, 1,000 e-mail opt-ins or 2,500 Twitter followers? I think the answer is obvious. Twitter followers are a lot easier to get. So am I going to throw out my e-mail list? Of course not. And I still make offers to all my Twitter followers that invite them to opt-in to my e-mail list. But if they never opt in, the list is valuable by itself.

The bottom line is simple: responsible marketers should use all possible means of spreading their message, and take advantage of free services, like Twitter, that allow us instant access to people all around the world.



By: Dave Sherwin

OK…I’m hooked on twitter.  I likely did what a lot of you have done:  I signed up with twitter some months back…looked at it…and said..”Now what am I supposed to do with it?”   And walked away.

But, then I sat in on a webinar, talking about social networking.   About having 100,000 followers on twitter, and how  twitter is used to ‘introduce’ your business, send helpful tips, and then move followers to wherever you  want them to go.

So, I went back to twitter, found TweetAdder, and the proverbial lightbulb went off.  After 1 week, I now have 1700 followers, and have set up a second account, specifically for local ‘Tweeters’

TweetAdder automates almost everything you would want to do with twitter.  As I am writing this article, TweetAdder has added 100 followers to my account, and is automatically placing my tweets that I set up last night.

There is a growing number of twitter programs that will do everything you could ever want on twiiter:    But TweetAdder is the only one that I have found that will do all of that…automatically.

For example, there are programs to find people for you to follow.  But they will only LIST those people; you have to go through and ‘follow’ them yourself.  TweetAdder allows you to look for people to follow by tweets, their bio, location (zip code, city,state), or even following the followers of specific members.  You choose how many you want to follow, click the mouse, and TweetAdder not only finds the people, but it automatically SIGNS YOU UP  as a follower.  You can set it and walk away.

You can use it to automate your tweets.  Prepare your messages all at once, make about 20 of them.  Load them into the ‘Tweet” submitter, and minimize the program.  Now, automatically, every 40-60 minutes, depending on the setting that YOU set, your ‘tweets’ go out.

TweetAdder  keeps track of your ‘Follows’, and your ‘Followers.  Your ‘Unfollows’ are also automated.  Select how many you want to unfollow, and TweetAdder takes care of it. Direct Messages can also be sent…to whatever class of followers you wish….’New followers first’, ‘Random followers’, etc.  

You can set everything up at once; getting new follows, following new follows, unfollowing, DMs, Tweets, and going to the ‘Automation’ page, and click…TweetAdder runs in the background.

There are various programs that will do all of these services, and most of them are free.  TweetAdder is $55 for one account;  up to five accounts can be handled for an additional $19.  Why would you want extra accounts?  I have a general account, which is centered on businesses and internet marketing;  I have just started a second account, which will be centered on local tweeters, based on zip code.  The affiliate program is great;  50%.  Sell 2, and your program is free.

Download the FREE trial today.  You get a fully functional program….no time limit…no CC needed…you’re limited to 250 followers.  This is a great program



By: Jim Farnsworth