Well, there are several reasons, but let’s take a look at one of the fundamental reasons for business marketing.
To paraphrase a widely used line from the political realm, “It’s all about the blog, stupid.”
Let me digress … I provide media replication and related multimedia services. Lately I have been to various networking events and in discussions with others I have asked, “So, have you been delving into social media?” The answer is usually something like: “Yes, I have Facebook and LinkedIn. I keep up with Facebook, and less with LinkedIn, etc.”
Then I ask, “Are you on Twitter?” The response has been a lot like, “Wow, I couldn’t keep up with that!”
Hey, there are so many better social media experts than me, and I sometimes wonder if Twitter is similar to New Years Eve in Times Square with everyone yelling but no one listening.
But unfortunately, again, from a strictly business point of view, I can tell you that Twitter is working for me. And this is how it is done: I blog extensively on my website in an effort to provide “added value” to my network of clients and contacts. Blog topics range from technical explanations on tapes and discs to marketing tips, and from IT, multimedia and web topics to writing tips. I also add some “gazing at my belly button” posts … (just to keep everyone guessing). The point is that blogging is an important factor in adding relevance to search engines.
Follow me here: When you type a search on Google, what determines the order in which the search results are listed? It turns out that there are a complex series of factors, and all of this falls within the realm of “search engine optimization,” but one of the most important factors is the amount of new content on a particular site. For example, Google’s “spider” (that black magic algorithm that constantly investigates the web, also known as a “bot”, I suppose is short for “robot”) likes to see new content every few days on a site . Therefore, more new content means a higher relevance ranking for a site.
And what is a good way to add new content? Yes, you guessed it, blogging.
Another factor of relevance is the traffic to the site. (I know, like duh, without traffic you have nothing to do) Although the “spider” monitors the traffic.
And another factor is the “link”. The “bot” actually notices how many links from other sites exist to your site.
So, putting all those factors together, you can start to see my strategy:
1) Write blogs
2) Drive traffic to blogs and the site in general with a monthly e-zine
3) Also drive traffic by including links in customer emails about: certain relevant blogs of interest, maybe something we just talked about on the phone, etc.
4) Add links to my website from my LinkedIn and Facebook pages. (Yes, these count as links to the “spider”.
5) Now go to Twitter
With Twitter, due to its IM-like environment, I can send my “followers” a link to each blog as soon as it is published. You can see how that increases both traffic and linkage.
In addition, I also “tweet” a link to each monthly ezine (I post the ezine on my website and email it to over 1,400 addresses).
Do you see how this works? It’s about the blog … (not stupid, but rather, “oh smart!”)
