#1: Change the Default Logo

After creating your small business Twitter account, change the default logo to one that represents your style and helps to brand your small business. Twitter is not a ‘join it and they will come’ small business marketing tool.

If you are hoping to reap the rewards and added blog traffic that Twitter can offer, then you have to be willing to put in the time to build trustworthy relationships with potential customers. To that end, when it comes to any business on Twitter, people want to feel like they are engaging with real human beings.

The profile picture is the first thing that new followers will look at. You need to create a logo that quickly gains follower interest if you want them to carry on further and check out your small business blog. By all means, if you use a personal picture make sure it does not portray you as an axe murderer.

#2: Show Up

As noted in the intro above, there can be a steep learning curve when it comes to using Twitter to drive traffic to your small business blog. According to a recent article in Adweek:

Only 17 percent of Twitter users updated their accounts in December — an all-time low. An earlier study by the Nielsen Co. revealed 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next.

When business owners don’t get any @ replies, identify any new customers, or gain new traffic to their small business blog they feel like they are wasting their time and are gone for good.

Using Twitter properly as a tool to drive blog traffic requires a long term outlook, persistence, and a consistent effort every day.

#3: Complete the Bio Profile

Similar to a mini ‘About’ page, Twitter gives you 160 characters in your profile so you can write a brief Bio to describe who you are and further specify your business. Make sure the link to your small business blog appears somewhere in this section. Or, even better, include your blog as the one html link you are allowed to have.

I am amazed at how many small businesses skip the Bio step. The results of not taking the time to fill out the profile section will give your business a look similar to the one below. Ask yourself, would you visit the small business blog of the ‘iamabusiness’ profile?

If you are not getting targeted traffic for your small business blog from your Twitter Bio, try spicing it up with something similar to SmileMakers INC. When I read the profile for SmileMakers INC I don’t have any questions as to what business they are in.

#4: Brand Your Small Business Twitter background

The available Twitter background space is like getting free real estate where you can create an online billboard. When properly used, the background can help to build your small businesses image and highlight your brand. If you struggle with design work then use one of the many online background creation tools that are available, such as, TwitterImage, TwitBacks, and TwitrBackgrounds.

Although ProBlogger is not a ‘brick & mortar’ small business, Darren has an easily identifiable Twitter background that helps to pique interest in what he is about and can drive casual follower traffic to his blog.

#5: Social proof matters

When it comes to getting traffic for your small business blog on Twitter, the ugly truth is, social proof absolutely matters!

The number of followers you have, the number of people you are following, and the number of Tweets you have sent out will all be a determining factor in the minds of potential customers.

You don’t need to wait until your small business account has as many followers as ProBlogger, Chris Brogan, or even John Jantsch. Although, it certainly helps to have a few hundred followers and to be following a few hundred (see: #2 show up above) before you promote your small business blog on Twitter.

#6: Be Sincere

If you are sincere in your interactions on Twitter, after the initial frustration and dip of feeling like you’re in an echo chamber, you will slowly gain a following that you’ll be able to direct to your small business blog.

When you interact and engage on Twitter in a sincere manner, and follow Jeff Pulver’s 95% giving & 5% taking rule, potential customers will slowly begin to trust you and this will gradually open them up to visiting your small business blog.

#7: Use Twitter Search

Twitter Search is a valuable tool for any small business owner who wants to increase traffic to a website or blog. Searching for relevant keyword terms related to your business niche, and finding traffic for your blog, is made much easier with this tool.

However, when using Twitter Search the key is to provide valuable and helpful information in your @ replies and to not press people with spam.

For a bit of a real life example, the other day on Twitter I was looking for some input on web hosting companies. The amount of spam I got back in my Twitter stream was unreal. The reply below stands out in particular as an example of ‘How not to drive traffic to your small business or blog’ when using Twitter Search.

I know you are going to be absolutely shocked! But when you click on the link included in @forsgren’s Tweet you find out that he actually OWNS the company and website that the link directs to.

For the record, I have absolutely no problem with him directing an @ reply to me. However, please be honest and disclose up front that you own the hosting company. In this particular case, my trust has been lost and the potential for him to gain my business is gone. Additionally, I will never look at his blog. Period.

#8: Collaborative Relationships

When attempting to get more traffic for your small business blog, find out who the thought leaders and influencers are in your industry and connect with them on Twitter. It does not always get discussed out in the open, but collaborative partnerships, particularly with people in your industry, can send a tremendous amount of targeted visitors to your blog.

As a personal example, the actress Alyssa Milano happens to be a passionate animal rights advocate. At present, I help to do the social media activities for the animal rescue organization on my tiny island, and through the magic of Twitter I was able to connect with Ms. Milano.

The animal rescue organization has (what is essentially) a small business blog, which is used to update people on stray animals who need help and any current rescues who are looking for a home. On a couple of occasions now Alyssa has been kind enough to help get our message out over Twitter. In fact, back in June she Tweeted about one particular dog that was really in dire need of some help.

Because many of her followers are also animal lovers (i.e targeted traffic), below you can see the spike in visitors that was generated to the animal welfare blog from her Tweet, which is a site that typically gets about fifty visitors per day.

#9: Useful Links & Hashtags

Once you have gained a few followers and created some collaborative relationships, you should start sharing useful links that are related to your small business. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit make it easy for you to search and discover the best of what’s on the web in your niche.

If you’re sharing good stuff and educating your followers, then their natural tendency will be to investigate your profile further and visit your small business blog.

For example, if I owned a bike shop and wanted to drive traffic to my business blog, I would begin Tweeting all of the useful links that I could find on the subject of bikes and bike riding.

When it comes to increasing follower count, resource posts always seem to get ReTweeted well. Be on the lookout for ‘Best of’ and ‘How to’ posts. When Tweeting links, if space provides, you might want to create a branded hashtag for your small business as well.

#10: Power of the Picture

Who you are and what you do on a daily basis at your small business matters to your followers. Tweeting pictures provides a contextual basis to your daily activities, which goes beyond the normal status update.

In order to gain more targeted traffic to your small business blog, I would highly recommend utilizing a Twitter photo-sharing site like TwitPic or Yfrog. These sites allow the small business owner to share cool photos from their typical business day, or while plying their craft, so that people get to know you. Photos help to build social trust and intrigue, which leads to more traffic on your small business blog. Have a look at this Tweeted photo that I just sent this past Friday and one of the responses I received.

As a final note, I have said this before, but its importance cannot be overlooked. It can take a very long time to develop a trusting follower base for your small business on Twitter but it only takes one Tweet to alienate and lose the trust of your followers.

What other suggestions would you offer to those small business owners who are looking to use Twitter to drive traffic to their small business blog?

Source: Problogger.com

Depending on the size of your Twitter account, you might know a lot about the users who are following you, or nothing at all. How can you possibly keep track of 1,000s of friends and followers all at once? A new web site, Ad.ly,  has created the perfect tool for getting full stats and demographics on who is following you on Twitter.

Checking your Twitter analytics is easy. If you haven’t already, be sure to signup to Ad.ly, it’s free and only takes a few seconds. Next, visit the analytics.ad.ly page. You can sign in through your account, or Twitter. Allow the application to connect through Twitter, then waiting a few seconds and your full stats will display.

Source: RoyalTutorial.com

The microblogging site reportedly is planning to raise $100 million based on that valuation.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Twitter is planning to raise $100 million in its second round of funding this year, which would put the company’s valuation at $1 billion, according to media reports citing sources familiar with the deal.

The reports say that the investors include T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners, who are new investors in Twitter, as well as venture-capital firms Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, who had previously invested in the microblogging Web site.

Requests for comment from Twitter were not returned.

Twitter is not publicly traded, making it difficult to put a price tag on the social networking firm. The site, which allows users to post 140-character entries called “tweets,” has yet to announce a business model or revenue strategy.

That hasn’t stopped Twitter from actively raising capital. In February, co-founder Biz Stone posted on Twitter’s official blog about “an offer we couldn’t refuse” from Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. While the post did not disclose financial details of the “very attractive offer,” it was widely reported that the firms gave approximately $35 million combined.

In July, Stone told Fortune that the company would reveal its money-making plans sometime this year. He has previously said publicly that Twitter does not need to generate revenue any time soon, since it has not yet exhausted the more than $50 million it has raised from venture capitalists.

Though Twitter has not revealed its business model, co-founder Stone announced earlier this week that the company would not raise money through advertising in 2009 as some experts had anticipated. At the 140: Twitter Conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Stone said it would be “awhile” before Twitter displays ads on its Web site.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Twitter had raised more than $50 billion from venture capitalists. It is more than $50 million.

Source: money.cnn.com

Who thought that NASA spacecraft the Phoenix Mars lander would be so adept at social networking and Web 2.0?

The popular website Twitter, a Web microblogging service has been sending pithy news “tweets” to the cellphones and computers of interested “followers” from the NASA spacecraft.  As of today the users following this tweet profile is 35,411.  If you are interested in following this Twitter feed yourself you can check it out at: http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix.

Of course, the messages are not coming from Mars.  The messages are coming from Veronica McGregor, the news services manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  What she has been doing is forwarding questions to the science team and then posting the answers.  Writing the answers in first person to save space with the tweets (since they are of limited length).

Ms. McGregor is amazed at how many people are actually on Twitter following her page.  She thinks it is great though because it is a good medium for spreading information about NASA to the younger generations.  In the past this information has been spread through podcasts, YouTube videos, blogging, and Facebook.  Now with Twitter this information can be sent up to the minute to thousands of people via their computer and cellphones.

See below for some examples of tweets just before the landing.

Atmospheric entry has started. time to get REALLY nervous. Now I’m in the “seven minutes of terror.”

Peak heating will hit in 40 seconds. The heat and energy generated during atmospheric entry would be enough to power 280,000 homes.

parachute must open next. my signal still getting to Earth which is AWESOME!

parachute opening is scariest part for the team.

parachute is open!!!!!

come on rocketssssss!!!!!

I’ve landed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers! Tears!! I’m here!

For those of you who have not hear of Twitter before here is a short explanation of what it is.  Twitter is a privately funded startup company that was started as a side project in March 2006 in the neighborhood of San Francisco, CA.  Twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works on multiple networks and devices.  It is used to update people on friends day-to-day activities, world news, and even for businesses.  So now that you know what it is you may be thinking to yourself how is it really useful for business? Below are a few ways I have found it to be helpful for my blog.

1. Create an account.  Use the search feature of Twitter to see what your competitors are doing and read and learn from them.
2. Add a picture of your company/logo or yourself.  People like to see who you are and that way they can relate to you a bit more easily.
3. Talk to other people on Twitter. Even if it doesn’t help your business it shows you are human and are interested.
4. Point out interesting topics on your space and don’t just put things about yourself.
5. Share links to interesting places / websites / blogs.
6. Be careful about always promoting your own stuff.  Your fans will like it but not everyone else will.
7. Talk about things that are not business related as well.
8. Try to answer questions like “What has your attention?” instead of “What are you doing?”
9. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link. (this point is in bold because its very important for marketing your blog on Twitter)
10. Ask questions.  Twitter is great for getting opinions.
11. Tweet about other people’s stuff.  This doesn’t directly help your business but show you care about others.
12. When you DO talk about your stuff make sure it is useful.
13. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (I know sometimes I do this but try to stay away from it some of the time if you can)
14. You don’t have to read every tweet.
15. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
16. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (like my blog readers)
17. Remember that Twitter doesnt’ replace direct email marketing.
18. Twitter works well as an opinion poll.
19. Have favorites.  When you are new to Twitter you may not have noticed but there are little star icon next to each tweet.  Watch what new followers favor and build off of that.
20. Avoid spammer stats.  Its not good to see that you have 3 followers and follow 150 people.  If you do this it shows that you haven’t revealed anything about yourself and in turn makes it so that people are unlikely to follow you in return.