Accountability within an Organization

 

 

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How I Used Twitter to Earn 34,771 Unique Web Hits

You’re about to learn the tactics I used to write a blog post that went viral on Twitter.

And, this was a VIRAL blog post. It was sent to around 300,000 Twitter Feeds.

Want to know the best part? This all happened when I had less than 300 followers on Twitter — my profile clearly didn’t do the work.

First, let me set the record straight. Of those 300,000 Twitter Feeds, only ~ 30,000 people clicked over to my website. But, who would turn down 30,000 unique visits?

Now, here’s how I did it.

1. Talk About Twitter

Did you know that more than 40% of the most retweeted URLs are about Twitter? Just head over to Retweetist and take a look at the top 100 retweeted links.

This won’t change in the near-term because Tweeters are vain (and who could blame us? this service rocks!). And, in the long-term, it won’t change either. Just take a look at Digg. The Digg community still loves articles about Digg. Fark? They love Fark.

Tip 1: So if you want to go viral on Twitter, write about Twitter. That’s what I did and it worked.

WARNING: You need great content. Learn more about this in Tip 5.

2. Promote Other Services

When your article starts to see some traffic, make sure you slap a Delicious or Digg button on the page.

Most people have been using the “Tweet This” button, but I’m not sold on its’ usefulness. Tweets are great, but I prefer links. And, when you hit the Digg or Delicious home page, you get links AND traffic for a lifetime.

For example, when my article started receiving some traffic from Twitter, I used a Delicious button — I got to the homepage within a few hours. This resulted in more tweets, 10-20 links, and thousands of visitors.

Tip 2: Don’t limit your options to just Twitter. Pick one other service to promote heavily. If you land on the Delicious home page, don’t be afraid to switch it up to Digg… This is how you leverage success.

3. Use Copywriting Templates

There is a reason why expert Copywriters make a ton of money. Their tactics persuade people. And, these same tactics work on Tweeple.

Copywriters pack a lot of punch in their short headlines. This premium on concise writing is perfect for Twitter because we only have 140 characters. So, when you title your articles, you should use the sure-fire copywriting templates that work. Here are three examples:

• How to [Blank] on Twitter

• [3, 5, 7, or 10] Ways Twitter Helps [Blank]

• Little Known Ways to [Blank] on Twitter

If you want more examples, look at Brian Clark’s Magnetic Headlines series and add “on Twitter” to any of the templates.

Tip 3: Copywriters know how to make people act. Study and use their tactics.

4. Ask for Tweets

I started my snowball by asking people to Tweet my article — and they did. But, please don’t mistaken that for spam everyone. I asked people I had rapport with and they were happy to help.

Or, you could try another method for asking for tweets…

You could include (pls ReTweet) in your Twitter Headline. This call to action lets your opt-in followers know that you would like them to retweet your article (you may think this sounds like begging, but it is no different from a “Tweet This” button).

Tip 4: Twitter is a great community. They won’t mind helping you out if you ask.

5. Create Comprehensive Content

You have heard this before. But, when you’re writing for Twitter, the rules change. If you want people to Tweet your article, you need to create a complete resource — something people NEED to Tweet.

In my Twitter Tips article, I created a comprehensive list of resources that help people improve their Twitter game. And, please note how I divided the entire post into small sections (chapters).

Since comprehensive resources require time, sections allow your reader to divide that time up how they see fit. And, take a guess how they get back to the article? They favorite it for later reference.

Unfortunately, some people can’t create comprehensive resources. So, here are some other examples of content that works on Twitter:

• Be Contrary – It’s easy to say what other people say, but as the saying goes… “only a dead fish swims with the stream all the time.” So, if you want to be comprehensive, ensure that you say something different.

• Break News – This is a no-brainer. If you break news, your article will get credit for it. I won’t go into much detail here because this is not within all of our capabilities.

• Borrow Influence - You may remember my Gary Vaynerchuk articles. They borrowed influence from Gary Vaynerchuk and since it was good content, people tweeted it (including Gary Himself).

Tip 5: Pick one of the above types of content and create it.

Is This The Real Deal?

That is the first question I would ask too.

But, I’m certain these tactics work because they worked for my good friend Gyutae Park of Winning the Web.

And, he just wrote a similar article where he talks about how he received 35,967 hits to his website in 14 days

I Challenge You…

…to use these five tips on your next blog post. Remember, this is exactly what I did and I received more than 30,000 unique visitors.

Want More Viral Twitter Tips?

If you found this article useful, I suggest you get these articles delivered straight to your email inbox. This will ensure that you don’t miss any great tips and tactics.

Related posts:

1. Who’s On Your Twitter White List?
2. How to Attract and Influence
   People on Twitter
   (The Ultimate Twitter Resource)
3. 5 Easy Ways To Start Developing
   Your Online Reputation

 

 

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HOW TO: Manage a Facebook Group

Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in Facebook. She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com.

Facebook Pages may be taking the social network by storm, but they can take time and technical skill to set up. When you need to promote something quickly, or are looking to foster a stronger sense of community, the more traditional Facebook Group is often the way to go.

While not as fancy as Pages, Groups offer many of the same features, with a slightly more streamlined look. This makes it easy for virtually anyone to create a Group, for any number of purposes, and get them live quickly—an important benefit in the time-sensitive social media sphere.

However, the ease and speed with which a Group can be set up has created a lot of spammy or messy Groups that are slapped together in minutes and abandoned soon after. In order to break through the clutter and gain members, you need to take the time to set up a Group correctly. Here are a few tips:

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Global, Open, and Public

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In order to get the maximum reach and value out of your Group, you need to ensure that anyone who wants to can join, without you having to approve them. You also want them to be able to invite their friends, as this cuts down on the work for you and allows you to focus on building a Group people want to join and share with other people. So, when setting up your Group, make sure you create it as a “Global” Group so it is visible to all of Facebook, and that the access is set to “Open,” allowing members to invite friends. Members should also be able to post and share links and media on the Group page.

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Fill Out All Fields

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First and foremost, you absolutely must include as much information as possible—not JUST the required fields. This is what truly separates a successful, professional Group from a spammy, “I-lost-my-phone, give-me-your-numbers” Group. Don’t go overboard with lengthy text—stick to basic web-reading principles—but don’t leave anything blank. This includes the image field: think of it like a profile picture; would you really friend someone with a question mark for a head? Didn’t think so.

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Use Correct Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

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Another huge tip-off that a Group was slapped together in a few minutes and won’t provide much value to members? Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Print out your Group and proofread it to make sure it says what you want and reads the way you want it to sound.

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Include Keywords for Easier Search

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Groups are indexed by the ever-evolving Facebook search, as well as traditional search engines. So having a completely and accurately filled-out Group description not only looks good and provides valuable information to those clicking on an invite, it also increases the chance that a potential member will find your Group while searching for similar topics, organizations or events. Put on your SEO hat when coming up with a Group name and crafting a description; think of keywords people would associate with your content or purpose of the Group and popular searches around your topic of interest.

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Use With Profile or Page

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When Facebook first introduced Pages, they offered Group admins the option of automatically transitioning members into fans. As a result, many brands now have a single presence on Facebook, in the form of a Page. But in order to launch a Group, you need a “parent” Page or Profile. This will give you a base from which to invite people and provide you with a more human connection.

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Make New Friends

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Since a Group cannot exist on its own (see above), your Profile, as admin, will more than likely be tied to the initial members, as they will have to be your friends in order to invite them. Send a friend request that explains how or why you found people and want to be friends. Selling socks? Search for “funky socks” and friend people in relevant groups, with a personal message attached to the friend request that says something along the lines of “I share your love for unique footwear.”

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Segment Friend Lists

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While building your friend list (and by extension, potential member base for your Group), segment your friends into lists relevant to the Group for future marketing purposes. If you start friending random people based on a search for similar Groups, name lists after the keywords you searched for to find these people. The “funky socks” friends could go in a list called “funky” or “crazy patterns,” so you know that these people will appreciate updates on your more outlandish designs.

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Incorporate Events

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Events and groups have a greater reach than other elements on Facebook, as they have built in “pass it on” functionality. Always include a brief intro when sending event invites and keep them as open as possible: allow guests to invite other people and post their own videos, links and photos. Try out “virtual events” as well, asking people to invite their friends to join the Group.

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Participate and Post New Content

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Keeping the Group wall, photo and video restrictions open encourages content sharing and discussion, but that only goes so far; you need to post and update yourself as well. In order to create a Group that people remain members of, particularly engaged members, you need to keep the Group’s page fresh. Pages can be automatically updated, and to compete, you need to provide interesting, valuable perspectives or information to members.

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Post Links, Photos, Videos

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Besides providing fresh content, frequent posting keeps members engaged and allows for greater interaction. Post a link to any site, or off Facebook, to ask members to join, sign up or take action in some way. You can also post photos or videos from events and tag members in them to increase their connection to the Group.

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Send Messages

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Groups have mass messaging capabilities, allowing you to quickly keep all members up to date on Group news, events and information. Select “message all members” and draft your message like any other private correspondence on Facebook; it will be delivered to members’ Facebook inboxes just like a message from anyone else. This is one advantage Groups have over Pages; Page updates are dumped into a hidden folder, whereas Group messages carry more weight. That said, they lack the formatting functionality of Page updates and can clog up inboxes quickly, so use sparingly. You may also want to utilize your segmented friend lists to deliver more targeted messaging.

As you can see, a lot of elements go into even the simplest of Facebook Groups. But the tools are all there for you; you just need to use them correctly. And as Facebook pushes users from Groups to Pages, it will be easier and easier to stand out from the crowd of “lost cell-phones” and differentiate your Group as one of the ones to stick with.

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More Facebook resources from Mashable:

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- HOW TO: Integrate Facebook With Your Blog
– HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page
– 3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand
– The Journalist’s Guide to Facebook
– HOW TO: Do Good on Facebook

Image courtesy Chris Spooner

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Reviews: Facebook

 

 

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It’s Facebook, Stupid (Not Twitter, by a Margin of 5 to 1)

Twitter has certainly been on everyone’s minds lately. The company’s traffic has declined recently, but its news coverage hasn’t. TechCrunch has written about Twitter 45 times in the last 15 days alone — including MG Siegler’s magisterial 2,500-word think-piece on Twitter’s re-tweet function .

Over the same fortnight, TechCrunch has written about only one other company so often — exactly as often in fact — and that is Google, with hundreds of products and $180 billion in market capitalization, which has in the past 15 days settled its dispute with book publishers, announced a $750M acquisition with federal anti-trust implications, and launched a major new rival to the iPhone.

By comparison, TechCrunch has only written 34 times about Facebook, often as an afterthought, in a post about Twitter.

But don’t blame TechCrunch; its Twitter articles get more traffic than posts about almost any other subject. And besides, while the distribution of overall media coverage is different from TechCrunch’s distribution, it isn’t that different. It’s the nature of news organizations to cover new companies more than old companies, and thank goodness for Redfin and all the other new companies in the world that this is so. It’s also undeniable that Twitter’s popularity among the media is in part driven by Twitter’s usefulness to the media, especially now that every journalist feels compelled to build her own personal brand.

But even if Twitter’s importance among journalists is natural and even good, entrepreneurs may not want to accord it the same importance.

It’s natural for us to focus on the bright shiny company, too. We certainly have here at Redfin, discussing all sorts of features to encourage Redfin users to share data via our site using Twitter. But we also survey our users two or three times a year, and here’s what we found last week when we asked 450 consumers what social networks they use: that they prefer Facebook by a margin of nearly 5 to 1.

So straight away, Redfin’s Lisa Taylor started working on sprucing up our local Facebook pages in Seattle, the Bay Area, Sacramento, LA, Orange County, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, DC and New York. Please join up!

And meanwhile, we wondered: could our users’ preference for Facebook be because our demographic is different? Well actually if any group of consumers could skew toward Twitter, it would be Redfin’s user-base, big-time: according to the same survey, our users are mostly male, about a third high-tech, and young but not too young (none of the teenagers who prefer Facebook are likely to be looking for a house). It’s hard to imagine a business with a meaningful cross-section of consumers that would have a different result.

So journalists and bloggers should keep talking about Twitter. But entrepreneurs shouldn’t always listen, at least not yet.

 

 

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11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger

First in a three post series this week about social media case studies.

If your blog is essentially a post-modern diary where you share your deepest, personal feelings about life in a cathartic way, this is not the post for you. However, if you blog (or want to) because you are trying to build or grow your business, read on.

For my presentation at the recent PodcampAZ, I boiled down everything I’ve learned about blogging in the 16 months since launching Convince & Convert into 11 must-dos. You, the readers of Convince & Convert, are what make this blog successful, and I am sincerely grateful for each of you who spends some of your limited time here. I hope I can give back to you (at least a little) by distilling what you’ve taught me about blogging.

I started Convince & Convert on July 1, 2008. Since then, I’ve published 225 posts. I’ve redesigned the blog once (here’s a post about that process), and re-written the social media consulting and social media speaking content numerous times.

Patience is a requirement for successful blogging. Every blog starts out with precisely the same number of readers: zero. The goal should be to gain a few readers every day, and over time you have a viable blog community. I started with 312 total visits in my first week (mostly friends and family), and it took almost 10 months to cross the 1,000 visits per week threshold. This blog now averages approximately 3,500 visits per week.

Being found in search engines is a similar, long-term process. I initially had 46 visits per week from Google searches. Now, it’s nearly 1,000 visits per week.

In addition to patience, here are the 11 must-dos to build and sustain a successful blog.

Specificity

Who is the audience for your blog? What is your blog about? What similar blogs exist? How will you measure success? All of these are blog strategy questions you should answer. I encourage you to actually write down your answers, to make them more “real”. It’s okay if you don’t know the answers before you start blogging.

The results of your early blogging will inevitably change the direction of your blog. This blog was originally devoted to all things digital marketing, with a focus on helping ad agencies improve in that area. Over time, the topical focus narrowed to primarily covering social media, and while I work mostly with agencies as a consultant, the content here isn’t necessarily agency-specific.

I made those changes based on feedback from you, and from the successes and failures of my first wave of posts. That’s why I discourage you from promoting your blog aggressively until you’ve written approximately 50 posts. You’ll end up marketing something different from what you’ll become.

Consistency

The more you blog, the easier it will be to build an audience for your blog. Seven posts a week is better than five, and five is better than two. Many bloggers write when inspired, but I don’t have the discipline for that approach. I write on a schedule, and publish here every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I’ve found through experimentation that writing on consecutive days helps with your blog traffic, as you can more easily build momentum between posts.

Also, some days you just won’t be able to write. So always have a handful of posts that are not time sensitive saved as drafts that you can publish when needed.

Variety

Remember that your blog is essentially a magazine, and there’s a reason why magazines have many different types of articles in each issue. Mix feature length blog posts (like this one) with shorter, breezier reads. Mix timely post with timeless posts. Mix text with video blog posts. Mix positive with negative. Mix personal with professional.

Also, don’t over-think your blogging. Some of the most popular posts I’ve written were those I just knocked out in a few minutes. And sadly, some of the least successful were those that I really thought about and crafted. Individual post success can be fickle, so don’t worry about it too much. Create good content, and it will find an audience.

Imagery

Include images in every blog post. I use Flickr’s Creative Commons search engine to find images for Convince & Convert. I also sometimes use affordable stock images from Shutterstock. Jason Falls’ excellent blog Social Media Explorer also uses Shutterstock. Sometimes (like with this post) the imagery isn’t a photo, but rather a presentation or a video clip.

Utility

Where possible, don’t just ramble, be helpful. I create free social media tools that hopefully help you put the ideas we talk about here into practice. You should do the same thing. Create presentations. Publish checklists. As Chris Brogan says, find a way to give your ideas handles.

Gravity

I’m a big believer in building an anchor for your blog. A signature, routine series of posts that you can go back to with regularity. Steve Woodruff used this tactic to great effect when he published his Five in the Morning series. He documented the best social media blog posts of the day. Every day. Talk about utility!

Mack Collier had an anchor at his must-read blog The Viral Garden that ranked the top 25 marketing and social media blogs by number of RSS subscribers.

The anchor here at Convince & Convert is the Twitter 20 series, where I interview social media luminaries live on Twitter, and then create a blog post of the transcript. I’ve done nearly 25 of these interviews now, and publish a new one every 2-3 weeks.

Humanity

Whether you’re solo or part of a group blogging effort, being personal and showing yourself is critical. If people want to read content created by a nameless, faceless entity they can read a newspaper. Blogging is PERSONAL. That’s the whole point.

Thus, I recommend having a prominent picture of yourself on every page. And if it’s a group blog, have thumbnail images of the author of each post.

Also, don’t completely hide your real life from view. Remember, your personal life is a lot more interesting than your professional life.

Community

I learned from Valeria Maltoni that I wasn’t fostering community on this blog as much as I should. Based on her incredible efforts to connect her readers together to form a community over at her outstanding Conversation Agent blog, I built a formula for fostering community on a blog. It’s called WFACT. W=Welcome. F=Facilitate. A=Answer every comment. C=Connect. T=Thank.

In addition to answering (nearly) every comment, I’m a big believer in acknowledging readers and contributors in other, subtle ways. That’s why I use the “Recent Readers” tool over on the right (via mybloglog). I’ve also seen success with the technique of asking readers for help in figuring out social media issues. Amber Naslund is exceptionally good at making her blog seem like a group project. It’s a best practice, to be certain.

Searchability

One of the primary benefits of blogging is that blogs do very well in search engine results. Hubspot released a study recently that showed that Web sites with a blog received 55% more traffic than those that didn’t have a blog.

You need to realize that the most important reader of your blog is Google, and that every blog post is more bait in the water for search engines to nibble upon. I’m not saying you need to write your blog for search – far from it. But, it’s certainly a good idea to include search terms in your post URLs, titles, headlines, and subheads. I don’t do this for every post, but where it makes sense I absolutely pay attention to search terms.

In fact, last April I wrote a post called Should Facebook Dominate Your Social Media Strategy? Based on including “social media strategy” in that post in a search-friendly way, I went from #55 to #17 in Google in one day for the search term “social media strategy”. Paying just a little attention to search can pay big dividends for your blog.

Extensibility

Being a good blogger doesn’t end at your blog. Mack Collier once told me that for every hour he spends on his blogs, he spends three hours reading and commenting on other blogs. Being a good commenter is a fantastic way to increase awareness for your own blog, provided you do it in an honest way, and always add to the conversation.

In addition to blog commenting, there are other ways to repackage and extend your blog content. Can you create an ebook of your best posts? For example, Dave Fleet (whom I interviewed on Twitter) has a great ebook of corporate social media policies.

Maybe you could also create an email newsletter that combines your best posts with other interesting content? Jason Falls has a great newsletter. Chris Brogan, too. And I’ve recently launched my own called Social Media Messenger. It goes out every two weeks with links to the four social media stories you simply can’t miss.

Virality

The Convince & Convert business model is that what I do on Twitter drives traffic to this blog. The blog generates speaking engagements for me. And speaking engagements yield consulting clients.

So, I unabashedly promote this blog on Twitter, and encourage you to promote your blog as well. Twitter may or may not be the right place for you. It might be Linkedin. Maybe Facebook. Maybe a vertical industry community. Experiment and find out what works for you and your readers. But realize that you can only promote yourself and your work in social media if you promote other people as well. Reciprocity is key.

Also, you cannot underestimate the importance of headlines. In almost every case, a potential reader only has the headline of your blog post to determine whether to click. Thus, to be a good blogger you must be an excellent headline writer. Michael Stelzner at Social Media Examiner is the all-time best at this, one of the reasons his excellent group blog has become very popular almost immediately. My headline rules include brevity, challenging conventional wisdom, using numbers/lists (like this one), using unexpected action words, and incorporating search engine keywords.

What’s Next?

Thanks to you, I’ve learned a lot about blogging over these last 16 months. I know I’m just scratching the surface. What have I missed? Can you please help me uncover other must-dos for serious bloggers?

 

 

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