Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

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Successful Twitter strategy: Tweet less

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but according to one blogger, the key to getting more website traffic from your Twitter account is to tweet less frequently. Of course, Dan Zarrella is not just any blogger – he’s a self-proclaimed social media and viral marketing scientist. That’s a pretty cool title.

Twitter birds - eHarbor eCommerce BlogIn his blog entry, “Want More Clicks? Tweet Less,” Zarrella made the bold statement, “If you want your Tweet to get noticed and ReTweeted, you should slow down your posting rate.” Twitter is all about speed, though. It’s an instant message service. Why would a smart blogger suggest you slow down your tweeting?

According to this study, Twitter users who only tweet one link an hour have a much higher rate of getting that link retweeted than those who post two, three or 13 links an hour. The same is true for days. One link a day gets a better click-through rate and more retweets than multiple links a day.

What does all this mean? I’ll try to interpret. I think it means Twitter users can tell the difference between people sharing genuinely interesting news, ideas or offers and robots or marketers who are just trying to sell their products through Twitter. Twitter users like people who listen as well as share. That’s called a conversation, and it’s what customers expect more and more from ecommerce companies in our current marketplace.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Social Media Blog on Submit Solution on December 7, 2009. That blog entry is called, “Tweet less to gain more success.” The photo of the birds on a fence is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Sister72. Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for great discussions like this.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Twitter downtime worse than other social media

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Twitter has come a long way since 2007. It exploded in popularity in 2009, though it still has yet to reach the heights of either Facebook or MySpace in terms of monthly visitors. You can read more about this in my Submit Solution blog entry, “MySpace is 3 times as popular as Twitter.”

Not only has Twitter gone from having less than 1 million visitors a month to nearly 20 million, it has also improved its downtime. Alas, just like its number of visitors, Twitter is far worse than every other major social-media site in its total amount of downtime per year. It’s getting better, but Twitter still suffers from frequent crashes. Remember the big one earlier this year?

I read some fascinating analyses of Twitter’s downtime in two Royal Pingdom articles: “Twitter growing pains cause lots of downtime in 2007” and “Social network downtime in 2008.” Check out this chart of the major social-media sites’ downtime, in hours:

Social network downtime in 2008

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Social Media Blog on Submit Solution on November 30, 2009. That blog entry is called, “Twitter goes down 7 times more than Facebook, MySpace.” The Social Network Downtime graph is the copyright of Royal Pingdom. Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for great stories like this.

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Top SEO tactics for small businesses

Monday, November 16th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I read an article on Entrepreneur.com a while back, entitled, “Rev up the Search Engines.” It gives a helpful rundown of solid SEO principles for small businesses, which don’t have a whole lot of money to spare but need to start generating results from ecommerce.

Bicyclist soaring through the airThis article gives six tips for a small business to get the most bang for its buck, when it comes to search engine optimization. They are attributed to Steve Wiideman, a fairly renowned SEO expert. I already talked about most of these in my SEO series right here in the eHarbor Blog, back in February and March of 2009. But I think a refresher is healthy.

Here is one highlight I took from these tips:

- Search engines are getting smarter. Don’t expect Google, Bing or Yahoo to fall for the same old SEO tricks. Bloggers and other content generators used to focus on their keyword-to-content ratio, but now search engines recognize when you use the same keyword too many times in the same post. Use relevant keywords prudently. If you use keyword-stuffing tactics, don’t expect much success.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on November 23, 2009. It will be called, “Getting your business on top with SEO.” The photo of the flying biker is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Grundy Photo.

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Posted in Ecommerce, Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »

Twitter: Social media’s underdog

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Twitter is a total underdog compared to MySpace. That’s what I learned from comScore’s data on social media. Facebook is clearly the reigning champion of social media. That wasn’t much of a surprise, but the thing that really grabbed my attention is the fact that MySpace is a strong second while Twitter is barely in the running. Take a look at the graph below to see what I mean.

Graph showing Facebook, MySpace and Twitter visitors

Isn’t that amazing? All we seem to hear about is Twitter this and Twitter that in the blogosphere, but I think the real story is Facebook and MySpace. From all the talk, or lack thereof, about MySpace, I thought the service was practically defunct. But it has three times as many visitors as Twitter and two-thirds the number of Facebook’s visitors.

MySpace doesn’t look weak in my eyes. In fact, it looks dominant compared to Twitter.

I found the above graph in the Chicago Tribune’s Business section on a page simply entitled, “Twitter vs. Facebook vs. MySpace.” The paper offered no commentary on the graph’s startling revelations, so I’m taking the liberty of doing so here in the eHarbor Blog.

I would like to focus on three aspects of this graph: 1. Twitter’s and MySpace’s recent stagnation, 2. Facebook’s astonishing rise to the top spot, and 3. Social media’s revenue sources.

1. Both Twitter and MySpace are faltering

Both Twitter and MySpace have stagnated recently. However, MySpace was still above 60 million visitors in August, a barrier it crossed at the end of 2006 when Twitter was just starting out. Twitter, however, barely crossed over the 20-million mark after a meteoric rise in 2009, and then it started plateauing a little bit.

During the same time period in which MySpace has started dropping and Twitter has grown, Facebook has exploded in popularity, reaching 92.2 million visitors.

Facebook and MySpace seem to be performing well and have reached a much broader audience than Twitter. Perhaps over time Twitter will make up the difference, but I don’t see how that explains its disproportionate amount of attention in the media and blogosphere.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Social Media Blog on Submit Solution on November 17, 2009. That blog entry is called, “MySpace is 3 times as popular as Twitter.” The graph is the copyright of Tribune Newspapers. Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for stories about eHarbor, Inc.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Is email finished?

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

In the Wall Street Journal article, “Why Email No Longer Rules,” I found a fascinating argument against email and for social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. Email is on its way out as the primary means of sending online messages.

Email gravestone, rest in peaceFor a dozen years or so email was the freshest, easiest way to keep in touch with people over long distances without having to pay big phone bills. Now it’s old hat. Basically, the paradigm of online communication has changed and we’re all going to have to change with the times.

What do you think? Is it a good thing that email is being replaced by instant communications? I think it’s great for ecommerce. With the aid of instant messaging, tweets and wall posts, online marketers can serve their customers much better and faster than ever before.

If you would like help getting a great website design, I recommend you contact Submit Solution’s Web professionals. They are extremely effective at delivering captivating website designs that help increase your conversion rate of visitors into customers.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the new Social Media Blog on Submit Solution. That blog entry is called, “How ecommerce benefits from email’s death.” Keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for stories about eHarbor, Inc.

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Bing and Google launch social-media solutions

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Google could soon change the rules of keyword Internet marketing with the debut Have you heard? Google and Bing are adding new social-media search capabilities to their search engines in an attempt to keep up with these innovative websites. Bing already has a beta version of its new search engine designed specifically for Twitter results while Google is holding back at the moment.

Chess match in color and black and white

Google and Microsoft are caught in an escalating fight over who will dominate the search-engine market for social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook. I read about this in the PC World article, “Real-Time Search: Google and Bing Rivalry Intensifies on Facebook and Twitter.” This article refers to the Google-Bing rivalry as a chess match. Quite an apt metaphor, in my opinion, because I love all of the strategy that goes into a seemingly simple chess game.

Social media has been a thorn in the side of major search engines for a few years now. Facebook and Twitter are simply updated too often and too fast for search engines to keep up with them. It looks like that might be changing, though.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on Monday, November 2, 2009. The photo of the chess match is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of marcusrg.

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Posted in Search Engines, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Is Facebook dying?

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Is Facebook starting to die? That’s the topic of an astonishing New York Times article, entitled “Facebook Exodus.” Author Virginia Heffernan starts by pointing out:

The exodus is not evident from the site’s overall numbers. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the United States in July. But while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing – some of them ostentatiously.

Telluride, Colorado ghost town

I’ve written about Facebook several times in the eHarbor Blog, usually noting its strength and rapid growth. Along with Twitter, it is leading the social-media revolution – or fad – that could change search engines and other aspects of the Internet. This article grabbed my attention and demanded I discuss it.

You should definitely check out the New York Times article because it tells five stories about individuals who left Facebook for a variety of reasons. They are all quite compelling. One felt his privacy was violated by Facebook, and another felt she was wasting too much time on the website.

The feelings of privacy violation are completely understandable, and perhaps even unavoidable. Facebook is a social network so its information is not meant to be completely private. Perhaps people’s concerns are just the result of their own carelessness in posting too much information or not studying the rules to keep it hidden. Or maybe it’s a combination of shifting, hidden or hard-to-understand rules, as well as people’s decisions not to read the fine print.

The last paragraph in the New York Times article sums it all up nicely:

Is Facebook doomed to someday become an online ghost town, run by zombie users who never update their pages and packs of marketers picking at the corpses of social circles they once hoped to exploit? Sad, if so. Though maybe fated, like the demise of a college clique.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the new Social Media Blog on Submit Solution when it is published. The new Submit Solution redesign is almost ready, and it will get most of our Internet marketing blog entries from now on, while the eHarbor Blog will mostly be about eHarbor, Inc.

The photo of the ghost town near Telluride, Colo. is from Flickr, and it is courtesy of Rob Lee.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Social media can’t replace blogs

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I read a provocative post from the Blog Bloke a while ago that I’d like to comment on. The post is entitled, “8 Twitter tips to promote your blog.” In it, the author responds to the argument that Twitter and other social media are replacing blogs and that we should drive traffic to Twitter instead of to our blogs and ecommerce websites.

History of blogs

He points out the many flaws with that idea in his blog entry. I would like to focus on two of them.

The first point I would like to focus on is, as the Blog Bloke puts it, “If you are a marketer trying to make money you will want your Twitter followers to visit your blog and click on your ads.”

To quote Lex Luthor, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Companies can post links to deals and special offers on their Twitter accounts, but those links always go to one of their corporate websites or landing pages. Nothing is bought or sold on Twitter, itself. Social media is an excellent part of Internet marketing, but it is not a replacement for the many other tools, such as paid search, SEO and blogging.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the new Social Media Blog on Submit Solution when it is published. The new Submit Solution redesign is almost ready, and it will get most of our Internet marketing blog entries from now on, while the eHarbor Blog will mostly be about eHarbor, Inc.

The comic of the history of blogging is from Flickr, and it is courtesy of stefan2904.

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Posted in Ecommerce, Social Media | No Comments »

Twitter tutors tweeters

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Have you heard all about how useful Twitter is in building your business, but you have no idea how to get started “tweeting”? You’re not alone, and Twitter is trying to help you learn the ropes with a new Twitter user guide.

Squirrel reachingI found out about this new guide in a Houston Business Journal article, entitled “Twitter launches business guide, search widget.” Apparently Twitter noticed many people and businesses would open Twitter accounts, post for a while and then abandon them because they either weren’t seeing results or they didn’t know what they’re supposed to do to with them. This new guide should hopefully reverse that trend.

If you go to Twitter’s guide you’ll find information on how to get started, new vocabulary terms, best practices and case studies on companies that have successfully used Twitter to increase their revenue.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the new Social Media Blog on Submit Solution when it is published. The new design of Submit Solution is almost ready, and it will get most of our Internet marketing blog entries from now on, while the eHarbor Blog will mostly be about eHarbor, Inc.-related topics.

The photo of the squirrel reaching is from Flickr, and it is courtesy of snappybex.

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Done right, SEO and PPC deliver tasty results

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

The unattainable goal for many search campaigns is the ever-elusive melding of PPC and SEO tactics for bigger and better top-line results. Theoretically, the two should go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwichThat’s how Herndon Hasty starts his superb Search Engine Watch article, “Of PPC and PBJ: Combining PPC and SEO Effectively, Part 1.” His comparisons of search engine optimization to peanut butter and pay-per-click advertising to jelly are apt, and they work well through the article.

We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will soon be launched. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one. You can find the rest of this blog entry there when it comes out. Stay tuned!

The photo of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jacky_oh_yeah.

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