I’ve found that many marketers are overlooking lesser known techniques for WordPress Content Marketing strategy.  We’ll examine three tactics in this post, and to keep it simple, I’ll narrow down desired on-site Content Marketing goals to two categories:  engagement (visitors view 3 or more pages), and lead generation for B2B.  We’ll leave ecommerce sales aside for now, and in this post look at 3 ways to use WordPress tools to increase engagement, and so lower your bounce rates.  In a future post, I’ll cover lead generation tactics using WordPress.

Above (click to enlarge) we have added several key post categories to our "Blog" menu item to elevate awareness of available content.

Remember to Add Important Categories to your WordPress Menus

Category archives are landing pages too.  Not only does Google index them, but they also provide a gateway to important content on your site, so your tactic here is to surface links to important categories in a highly visible position.  Most content marketers using WordPress do so using a sidebar widget — but there’s an easy, and more visible way to do this.  I’ll share it with you, but first… how do you know which categories are most important to your visitors?  Analytics.

Check Analytics first to see what categories visitors frequent, but since they are likely not being promoted a lot on your site, check also for what key phrases your visitors use before visiting your site — both answers are available in Analytics.  Then, your tactic is  to use the new WordPress 3.x menu system to add categories as selectable items on a pop-down menu.

Most people only think of showing links to pages, and sometimes posts — but why not promote categories of content that you know visitors are seeking on your site?  And, when you do make sure you write a keyword-rich description that appears at the top of your categories — good themes like our Thematic-MAX framework build in the ability to do this.
TIP:  You can reword the Category Title in the Link to something more compelling — then watch “in-page Analytics” to see if your click-through rate increases.

Above (click to enlarge) are some settings with a MaxRef Widget to reveal key content.

Use Sidebar Widgets to Reveal, Engage, and Reduce Bounces

Most WordPress users know about the “Recent Posts” widget that comes standard with WordPress, but what about promoting older posts that are equally important, and for which your Analytics reports show a high degree of interest?

WebFadds has produced a great Content Marketing plugin  after considering much the same questions — MaxRef Widgets (I’d also like to give thanks to Newt Barret, co-Author of “Get Content, Get Customers” who prompted some of these ideas, originally).  “MaxRef” stands for Maximum Reference to content, and the reason we added an “s” to Widget, is that you can use as many as you need in your sidebars and widget locations — we often place one in the footer area to re-engage visitors who have scrolled to the bottom of a page, and are thinking about leaving.

We’re pleased that MaxRef Widgets has a 5-Star rating with over 4,000 downloads at the WordPress plugin repository.  Our screenshot (click to enlarge) shows an example tactic to use its various settings to reveal posts about how Landing Page Optimization helps your ROI.  Of course you can use it for a different strategy, like rotating overall posts into view so visitors may engage with less recent, but equally valuable content.

Link to searches on your blog based on Analytics Key Phrases

WordPress automatically presents a dynamically updated lists based on keywords or phrases entered into its built-in search field(s).  So the next time you write a post, here are three steps to take:

• First check your Analytics for visitor patterns including what keywords/key phrases relating to your post are popular
• Do a search on your WordPress CMS for the phrase* you decide upon.  Copy the URL that results (in your browser).
• Past that into your post using relevant text.  Here are two examples:  Content Marketing  |  Landing Page Optimization

*TIP:  Research shows that Google users are frequently typing in 2-4 word phrases, rather than just a single keyword.

There are a lot of conferences, books, and blogs focusing on how to succeed in an ever  quickening online mashup of websites, social media venues, and smartphone and tablet apps.  At WebFadds, we focus on having a smart Content Strategy, then follow it with proven methods to review and revise your tactics.  Here’s an overview for you.

What is your Content Marketing Strategy?

CMS Wire has a great post in which a succinct formula for content strategy is presented.  Here’s how I would boil it down:

Specific Content, for a Specific Target Group = a desired Business Outcome Goal, because of a Specific Method of Motivation.

Let’s examine each.

• Since the goal of content is to engage with prospects and customers, you need to understand who your typical site visitor and end customer are. In B2B, this may be specifically defined something like this: “a mid-career purchasing professional in XYZ industry.”
• Next — you need Specific Content for those specific target group(s). Yes, I know I am showing it second here, and that’s because you have to understand your target well before you produce content. In fact, you have to also understand what motivates them (final formula item) too. In our example here, for a mid-career purchasing professional, you know that looking good (ie. for promotions) motivates them, so you need to develop content that speaks to how you solve both their industry need, and imply how that makes them look good.
• Next — what are your B.O.Gs? I have written about that in a series at Content Marketing Institute (see: this post ), so I’ll summarize here: a  B.O.G (Business Outcome Goal) are what you would like visitors to your website to do that moves them closer to becoming a customer. Examples include getting newsletter signups, white paper downloads or leads from a contact form.
• Finally, what is your M.O.M.? When we are young, often it is our Mom that inspires (try out for that group, etc.), and motivates (time to clean up your room, or else, etc.). So, ask yourself what is the M.O.M. — Method Of Motivation — to get your prospects to act and complete a desired business outcome goal? Hint: all successful advertising professionals know that people act on emotion — not simple logical facts and bullet lists. Cultivate the desired emotions in your content that compel people to act. I will write more about this as we go.

Outcome Improvement: Review and Revise your Content Strategy

How do you test and improve your strategy and tactics? Two methods: Actionable Analytics, and optimization tactics (not only SEO — add VBO, LPO, and CRO — see my article on it here: Three Tests to Optimize Your Website: VBO, LPO and CRO ).  I’ll write more about that here, and I think you will find a number of practical ideas in my article series at Content Marketing Institute.

Eweek has an interesting post about what is driving Data Analytics. In it they covered the following ten factors that go directly to why you need a smart and routine method of reviewing and tweaking site performance via Analytics review. Here are what I believe to be the top 5 — restated for clarity:

• Explosion of Devices: There are more than 1.8 billion people on the Internet with 4.6 billion mobile phones and millions of tablets.
• Movement away from SQL databses = new ways to review data
• Rise of Real time analysis of analytics data
• “Adaptive web” observes engagement patterns among like-minded individuals to understand user intent, then automatically adapts the online experience to the individual
• Social marketing is letting companies run campaigns that include social sites.

There you have it.  Focus on Content Marketing strategy.  Focus on tactics with smart review methods.  Get going.

One of the best things you can do to wring more ROI out of your website is to optimize for desired business results like sales leads.  Few clients are doing this yet.  Why?  Not in their habit path, no one understands it, or sometimes even worse — they are making faith based assumptions (“I think this is going to work”) and gambling their web results on guesswork.  WebFadds provides testing services, and to help you understand more about them and how to be successful with them — here are some strategies and tactics with visuals to help:

• Measurable Desired Business Outcome(s):  What is the desired, and measurable result that your MarCom team  wants?  For B2B, this is often leads generated via a lead form, and to track conversion rates, we need a unique “thank you” page that a prospect sees only after filling out the form.  Sometimes it’s “engagement.” Sometimes a download of an important White Paper.  We can’t improve results unless they are well defined and trackable.
• General Factors that Improve Results:
  • The clarity and strength of your value proposition:  Often, clients are unclear on the question of why choose this company and its product or service.  Another mistake is to believe that visitors will choose to surf the site and figure out their value –not true and dangerous for two reasons:  they may not take the time to do this, and even if they do they may take the time, they may form a very different concept of value about your company,  its services and products.   State the value clearly on the testing page.  You have the opportunity to help them visualize and “feel” good about your company — take it.
  • Reduce “friction”:  Anything that feels too hard or takes too long = friction.  Longer forms do not convert as well as shorter forms.
  • Reduce “anxiety”:  People worry about the credibility of a company, and what they will do with email and other personal information.
  • Increase motivation:  Promise them something like a free white paper, etc.

Types of Tests

• VBO – Visitor Behavior Optimization: In VBO, we are interested in the “Why” of visitor behavior, beyond the “What” we get from Analytics. Sometimes “Where” too. One popular method here is to get a heat map of where people click on particular pages, then ask they questions that get to the “why” for the behavior.  This is good to test a design before you even implement it, because the visitors are just reacting to a JPG of the page.  Another type of VBO test you can take is an exit survey to help you answer the “Why” of visitor behavior.  Analytics answers “what” your site visitors do and don’t do, but not why — so the best thing to do is simply ask visitors questions that help you understand more about their behavior relating to your desired business outcomes.
  
  Above are some results of one kind of VBO test we did for Content Marketing Institute , and  for International Performance Group (Click to Enlarge).  It provided feedback on where people tend to click on the page (heatmap at left), and also what they remembered and believed the site to be about.
  
• LPO Landing Page Optimization:  This is probably what I will recommend for this client based on your comments.  Here we focus on improving desired business results on only one page.
  • We work with either Google Website Optimizer, or another good option Visual Website Optimizer.  Each offer certain strengths — VWO offers a WordPress CMS plugin, for example.
  • A/B Test: Here you are testing two separate page designs.  This requires a complete separate design for each page, and approximately 1000 unique visitors for a valid test (see next point).  Google has a short video example:
    
    
  • Multivariate Test: Here you only need one page, but you test different combination of persuasive elements on that page to optimize for desired business outcomes.  One popular set to test is:  Two Headlines, Two Persuasive Images, and Two Calls to action.  You would then be showing six different page element combinations to visitors, so you would need 3000 unique visitors for a valid test (see next point).  Google has a short video example:
    
    

• CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization: This one is similar to the nature of LPO in that you are interested in increasing the number of desired business outcomes, called “conversions” in analytics (when a visitor completes a lead form they “convert” from a visitor to a prospect). The main difference here is that you usually will take a series of pages into consideration — the sales “funnel” leading from your home page to a secondary page to an actual desired outcome page, for example.
  Above (click to enlarge) is a “funnel visualization” (series of pages leading to a goal) for a client that would like to have more visitors download their whitepaper.  CRO often involves looking at which pages are not functioning well to get visitors to complete a desired business outcome, and here one problem is the homepage.  They have no call to action on their home page to funnel visitors to this goal.
• Number of Visitors to get a Valid LPO Test: Think 1000 for an A/B test (500 interact with each page), and 3000 for a 3 element Multivariate Test (500 visitors interact with each of six page element combinations).  Google adwords is an excellent way to gather visitors for a test (figure .50 cents average per click, or $500 for 1000 visitors plus management fee).  CRO tests may require move visitors.  We can give you a quote on managing your PPC ad campaign.

Two Final Pieces of Optimization Test Advice:

• Always be testing — drive this tactic into your marketing culture, and you will definitely see an increase in ROI.
• Avoid the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), because at best when a C-Level Manager says “I think this will work”, you are gambling on faith instead of asking your prospects and customers directly via VBO, LPO, and CRO testing.

Read more here:  WebFadds VBO-Max Services |  Contact us today for a quote.

As of September of this year, if you insist on using flash based slideshows and presentations at your websites — 7.5 million viewers will not be able to see them. It’s November already, so make that closer to 9 million who cannot see any flash at your sites.  And that’s just iPads — add 73 million iPhone users who cannot see your flash presentations.

Fortunately there are a number of solutions for display on iPads for those with WordPress based CMS and blogs. First a quick comparison… I just bought an iPad (most fun I’ve had since the first computer I bought in 1985), and took this photo (using an Android phone of course — what a geek) of the homepage of WebFadds:

Above photo of our home page shows one slideshow in plain view at top, and another at lower left not working on the popular iPad (NextGEN Gallery plugin — removed now)

You’ll notice that the large slide show at top is indeed working — it’s not made with Flash, but the slideshow at bottom created with a popular WordPress plugin called “NextGEN Gallery” is not working because it uses Flash.  Now I know some people rave about Flash, but I have never liked it for a number of reasons including that it’s difficult to track visitor behavior in Analytics, and it requires everyone to get the latest Flash viewer, and all your prospects can’t be bothered with that.  Now, Mr. Jobs, at Apple, has wisely said no to Flash in favor of emerging HTML5 technologies that will do the same thing — and be open source.  Still another reason cited to avoid the Adobe made proprietary Flash is that it is security hole prone.  This is why Jobs said famously, that Adobe is “lazy.”

You can rail about the irony of Apple’s “closed garden” policy as it embraces new Open Source presentation and video technologies, but the basic fact is that you’re missing millions of potential eyes on your site if you insist on Flash galleries.

What to do?  Here are three solutions:

1. Use the Built in WordPress gallery to display your photos and portfolios when you need a simple solution. A lot of people don’t realize that WordPress has had a great little gallery built in since version 2.5.  At bottom of this post is a video to help you learn about the WordPress built in Gallery.  To show you an example, I decided to make a quick gallery here of some sites we built recently using the next solution detailed below:

   
   
   

2. Use a non-flash slide rotator like the “Easing Slider” plugin we used at above sites — it offers linking of slides to featured contents.  To see the sites in action go to:  CoffeeNutHut.com | ZSquaredMedia.com | IgnitionMSP.com
3. Consider placing your images in Flickr or Picassa Gallery — then embedding them in your site. This tactic gives you an additional “marketplace” for visibility on your

Short Video About Using WordPress Gallery…

Now you can take advantage of the new, simple — it’s drag and drop — menu system in WordPress 3.0 to reveal all types of content at your website. It’s a new CMS feature that lets you bring posts, categories, tags and more, directly to your navigation menu – great for content marketing strategy. This is important for “Visitor Behavior Optimization” (VBO) where you make adjustments to your dynamic site structure based on a review of Analytics and other testing reports (more on VBO in a future video).

Learn more about using WordPress 3.0 Menus in this 3.5 minute video…

If you find yourself squinting — watch in a larger window at Screencast.com.

Video Production & Distribution Note:  We use Jing Pro by TechSmith to produce our videos, then upload them both to the Jing Site and also to YouTube.com for a double marketing reach.  So far we like the quality that Jing delivers better than the standard compression delivered at YouTube.

What does a tag cloud say about your business blog? Quite a lot, actually.  Remember… marketing is now publishing, and publishing is sales.  And within those disciplines lie the realm of both Art and Science.

Good Publishers will always tell you there is much art in what they do. Marketers often point to the science rooted nowadays in Analytics as the guide for their tactics. Looking at both gives you a one-two punch that’s hard to beat. We’ll take a look at both here for our site plus the blogs of three colleagues we often work with as collaborators in a content marketing cabal.  You can follow this whole cabal, and other SEO/SEM gurus on a Twitter list at:  Seo-Sem-cabal

“you should no longer be relying on standard reports in Google Analytics to plumb out what is going on at your sites…”

THE ART: Symbols in a Cloud

First, let’s take a fun visual look at the tag cloud that Wordle.net generates for the blogs from Junta42.com, ContentMarketingToday.com, acSellerant.com, along with our own here at WebFadds.com. Each company is a web development and marketing firm focused on creating compelling content driven solutions. Each company develops CMS solutions on the seo-savvy WordPress platform.  The tag clouds below give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text at the blogs.

Cloud for Junta42.com, “The Content Marketing Revolution Blog“, with Joe Pulizzi:

What immediately pops here is Content, Marketers, Marketing, Social, Media, and Brand. Joe, along with Newt Barret (next cloud) wrote the book, “Get Content, Get Customers“.

Cloud for ContentMarketingToday.com, “How to turn prospects into buyers with Content Marketing,” with Newt Barrett

Here, Newt Barrett (co-author of “Get Content, Get Customers“) writes an insightful blog where the words Marketing, Content, Customers, and Click stand out.

Cloud for acSellerant.com – “Profitable Growth for IT Providers,” with Bob Leonard

Bob runs a marketing agency focused on a particular niche — IT Vendors & Providers. His cloud reveals the terms Content, Information, Prospects, Sales, People, and Clients.

Cloud for WebFadds.com – “Tactics & Strategies for Success Online,” with Scott Frangos

Scott (that’s me) is Managing Director for WebFadds.com, a firm offering SEO-smart CMS solutions built in WordPress, Social Media and Optimization services.  Here, the words, New, Marketing, Google, and Test stand out.

Ok, there’s a quick look at the visual poetry — the art of what is being presented at these marketing tactics blogs, in the form of a word cloud. As we move now to the science, some key questions are:

• How do the words emphasized sync up with the keywords people search on to reach those sites?
• Does analytics — the science within the art — tell us of other keywords that are valuable and so should be included more often to serve readers first, and then SEO — second?

THE SCIENCE: What’s Actionable About These Keywords?

To keep this article at a workable length, we’ll take a brief look at some Analytics science relating to the word cloud you just saw for WebFadds.com — watch here for more on related tactics and strategies.

First, I looked for the major four keywords from the WebFadds.com cloud — New, Marketing, Google, and Test — in the keywords reports for analytics.  Guess what?  Not a lot going on.  There were two visits for terms containing “Google”, for example when I had written about Google Wave, and CMS ranking in Google.  I’ll give you a conclusion about this below.  Next I moved on to the term “WordPress”, and found some actionable information — a good thing, since we are focused on WordPress as a CMS development platform.

To learn more, I went beyond the simple keyword reporting in Analytics, using a filter technique.  If you get anything from the science part of this post, it is that you should no longer be relying on standard reports in Google Analytics to plumb out what is going on at your sites. Instead take advantage of advanced filters and custom reporting features to get a good handle on the order in the chaos of your site.

Filter for a particular keyword in your cloud:

Above, I used the new Keyword Filter to go beyond what Google Analytics shows in its standard reports, and take a look at how people entered using the word “WordPress” in a search phrase. More, I wanted to learn what key phrases a visitor used turned out to cause them to visit more than one page at our site — the second part of the filter. This “data mining” provided the following result…

I see four key phrases containing the term “WordPress”, but one stands out in terms of new visits, time on site, bounce rate, and pages per visit — “wordpress installation service.”

Actionable Conclusions:

• Using “wordpress installation service” in new blog posts should help us gather more visitors seeking the WordPress installation service we offer.
• We need to use another smart filter technique in Analytics to study how visitors on this key term are converting to leads
• The major keywords in our cloud — New, Marketing, Google, and Test — are not yet yielding any trackable visitor behavior of value to WebFadds.com — probably too general.

Of course there’s much more you can review from the science end, and then apply it back to the art in your publishing. What art? Copywriting, design, and the art of engagement itself which involves new social media techniques, along with good old human social skills. The important thing is to stay focused on serving your visitors in such a way that it inspires them to help you meet your business goals.  Contact us today, and I’ll work with you to develop a successful campaign for your web business.

Wouldn’t it be good if you could get 20% – 70% more leads from your site? Many companies do. What about increases of 200% – 400%? It’s possible. I’ll tell you how. And, we’ll see if the “description” tags most of us use to craft copy for search returns are outdated, plus we’ll consider an important new Twitter service… it’s commerce time for tweeters.

Conversion Alert: Are there ways to squeeze more ROI out of your website? Definitely, and recent studies show the pay-off can be very big. I attended a webinar this week by a company specializing in squeezing more results — conversions (like when a visitor “converts” to a prospect, etc.) — out of landing pages and direct emails. So far every single company that applies a certain conversion success formula has seen increases… and some of them are huge — over 200%. To prove it to yourself, all you need is a free Google analytics account set-up properly to track goals, conversions and related ROI numbers. Then you use another free tool — the Google “Optimizer” to test for winning combinations of headlines, graphics, and calls to action. We can make this happen with a Landing Page Optimization Campaign – contact me for a quote.

Google Evolution: Have you squinted at the Google search results page lately? If you do, you’ll see a “show options” link  at top left, which when clicked reveals a sidebar of search refinements like related videos, forums, past week returns and more. Nice. But for SEO professionals and “Content Masters,” still another Google development adds a new twist on ways to succeed in search ranking, attracting visitors and inspiring conversions: “Rich Snippets.” Now Google is encouraging webmasters to mark-up content so that Google will find and return more meaningful excerpts than what is commonly delivered in search returns. Watch for plugins to facilitate this work.

Above, watch video presentation by Google experts on new Rich Snippets tactics

Twitter Update: It’s commerce time on Twitter folks. You knew it had to happen. Check out Twitpay’s new RT2Buy service . So now for all those who ask just what is the ROI for twittering? You can have a direct answer in the form of revenue via your twitter followers. We have a great program — our Social Media-MAX Package – to build a focused, targeted list of followers efficiently — contact me today.

So… how are your landing pages… and now, your growing Twitter list(s) converting? Time to call an Optimizer – reach me at (360) 566-2451.

Twitter Engagement: Are you on Twitter yet?  Yes… it will pay off for your business if you use it efficiently and correctly to connect with prospects.  Below are some ideas on how to advertise using Twitter.

Remember… it’s not about followers. It’s about engagement. Many users miss the ways, besides just tweeting, to engage with their “followers”:

1. Reply directly at (@) someone. Use the at symbol then their twitter name to begin the message (hovering over their profile pic will show an auto reply icon that automatically types this in the send field). Then, they will see your message in their “@” message, via the link on the right sidebar.
2. Direct Messages: also on the right sidebar, this is your way to send a private message/tweet directly to the follower of your choice.

Emerging Twitter Ad services: Below you will find a short list of advertising services — interesting. My advice is that it is best to get your word out there naturally — organically — by engaging your prospects on twitter, and having your posts get discussed and retweated from your business blog (we can help you get business blog to twitter postings automated — contact me). After that, it will be interesting to use analytics to track and study ROI for the following services…

• URL shortening service includes paid ads: Adjix
• * Magpie sets up an Ad network for twitter: Be A Magpie
• * Twittads monetize a twitter profile: TwittAd
• * Featured Users features your Twitter profile: Featured Users

If you have a favorite service you’ve used from the four above, or another method of advertising… stop by and let us know. As always, we are interested in how traffic from ads “convert” visitors into prospects, leads, and customers.

So… how is your site converting?

Playing Ball: Innovation, change, and Social Media Marketing growth… it’s happening rapidly each week.  Last week, Twitter reported astronomic growth — up 422% in 12 months. WordPress reported 2 million business blog and CMS installations in 2008.  Wow.  Talk about “playing ball on running water.”  How do you grab a hold of this tiger and make efficient and effective use of it in Business?  I’ll give you some pointers on how to stay optimized.

CMS Thought of the Week: The *whole web* is your Content Management System.  Today, I was checking my LinkedIN homepage, and reviewed a number of blog posts — there — from friends and colleagues.  The same posts often show up in my twitter stream (shortened into 140 characters with links back to posts). And, Google lets you create a sort of “mash-up” via Google reader (for RSS feeds) where you can share your posts and those of others — see: my Google Reader Public Mashup.  Are you optimized to take advantage of these key web CMS techniques?  Contact me and we’ll work on it together.

Twitter Tips of the Week: If you’re looking for a job, check this link to an excellent Mashable article (a great web publication, using a CMS developed in WordPress) will help you learn how — on Twitter.  That’s right!  I’ve found and worked with two clients there in two weeks.  Plus… even if you’re not looking now… consider the article carefully and you’ll understand some key Twitter Social Media Marketing strategies and Tactics.

Next, look carefully at the “Five Phases of Social Media Marketing” — Social Marketing is not “free”, but it will pay off when you tie it into Analytics… and — analyze for conversions (that’s the R.O.I. secret).  One great question from the article:  “Will your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system interface with your social media tools?”  Watch for good CRM’s to start adding in Twitter functionality.

WordPress Eding Tips on Video: WordPress is a great CMS solution — we develop exclusively with it.  As you learn WordPress, and start managing the admin. area, you may like to review these short (approx. 2 min.) videos.  There are more available at WordPress.tv, but these are my “A-List” to help your work be optimized… in WordPress:

Posts:

• writing-and-publishing-a-post
• using-quick-edit-and-bulk-edit-to-manage-your-posts-in-half-the-time
• saving-and-returning-to-draft-posts-pages
• publishing-your-post-at-a-later-date

Add Categories & Tags to Your Posts (always do this — good for both SEO, and helpful site navigation):

• adding-categories-and-tags-to-your-posts

Pages:

• creating-a-post-excerpt-using-the-more-tag

Sidebar:

• adding-a-widget-to-your-sidebar

There you go.  That should help you optimize your WordPress and Social Media work.  Now… about those conversions? Have you optimized your landing pages so you can increase your conversion rates?  Contact me.

WordPress CMS News: A new report shows WordPress taking a leading position as one of the top four Open Source Content Management Solutions — read more here.  Version 2.8 is coming soon, and rumored to add even more flexible CMS capabilities.  If you have upgraded to 2.7.x, the upgrade to 2.8 will be easy — no expensive programmer required… just push a button.  If now… contact us, and we can upgrade you.

Are you optimized for Twittering yet? Social Media Marketing is coming fast and hard, with Twitter a major force (see below).  You will find me twittering @webfadds (and Spirit too). And, there are ways to optimize and automate — I’ll show you some here.

Not yet? Well, maybe you’re still on the fence about the “business worthiness” of Tweeting. It’s simply micro-blogging for business people and you are out there letting people get to know you before they buy. Why? People buy from people they know. It’s that simple. Add to that the ability to brand and establish authority in your niche.

And, the Twittersphere itself is offering increasingly useful tools to take your twittering to the next level…

Twitter Resources:

• Polling? You bet — check out: StrawPoll
• Productivity? It’s covered. Track Daily Goals with a social twist of accountability  | An event manager that auto-links to Google Maps, updates your Google Calendar, and auto-invites via Twitter  | Twitter for Organizations | Share files on Twitter
• Job Search? You got it… a job search engine for Twitter
• Research? Check it out… Track Trends and Events with TwitScoop | Tweetscan hunts for topics of interest and sends you an alert
• Publicity? Of course. TweeTube shares photos, YouTube videos, multiple website urls and more (from your iPhone too)
• Staying Efficiently Organized? Right. Have a good look at Easy Tweets* to promote your business and monitor your brands featuring an easy, efficient dashboard (we include coaching for this service in our Social Media MAX pack)
• In Gmail? Yup. Get an app to do Twitter from Gmail (another reason why Google is watching carefully)

Interesting Business Marketing Use of Twitter: ForkFly — a service providing discounts from hundreds of Portland, Oregon merchants. Hmmmmm. Get a following, sell access to focused followers. Earn money. Opportunity knocks.

Another Interesting, Government (hey… looks like they can be efficient sometimes) use of Twitter: If you are a Twitter user you can get northbound Canadian border wait times by sending a direct message to WSDOT – the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Is all of this useful in business? Well, what is one closed sale worth to you? Ten? I had a business meeting last week with a prospect I found on twitter, and am estimating proposals this week. Still questioning it? I agree, in business you have to focus on ROI… so do it. You can track it — Web Analytics Word is reported that Ominiture, a popular commercial Analytics provider, is integrating with Twitter.

Time to Get Going: We have a new package — Social Media-MAX Pack – here at WebFadds to help you get going. You leverage your Business Blog in a synergy with Twitter to engage prospects and leads… and learn about your niche. We coach and train you on efficiency in addition to installing and configuring your package. Contact us to start today.

It works. A week ago, I had 38 followers on Twitter. Now I have 295 (at time of writing), 344 predicted later this week, with over 1,000 predicted ( by yet another twitter service, of course) next month…

How did I do it? I’m practicing what I teach… using the synergy in our Social Media-MAX Pack is very powerful. Like a rocket. Watch me prove this @webfadds.

Is it fake? No.  Not if your intent is actually to engage colleagues and prospects in dialog about your niche focus, and business passions (with a bit of the personal side sprinked in, so people can know you too).  There are automated tools that save you time, but if you proceed ethically, (no spam) with honest intent… it’s for real.  You’ll probably see a few “fakes”… but Twitter is pretty quick to close down those accounts.

You can use our “old technology” contact form to get started… or just contact me on Twitter. And, we can chat about ways to increase conversions at your site too.

* WebFadds is an authorized reseller for Easy Tweets.  You’ll find excellent service and features (more coming… in Beta now) from the support folks there.