How To Gain Twitter Followers And Become An Industry Expert

admin    Twitter     Become, Expert, Followers, Gain, industry, Twitter

So you’ve been using Twitter, quite comfortably now, and are looking to make the jump from passive participator to influential expert. Our first two articles discussed the essential skills and techniques necessary to using Twitter as a business tool. Our final article will tackle the issue of building a formidable base of followers and gaining recognition as the industry expert that you are.

Finding ways to increase followers might be one of the most popular areas of discussion on the Web. The Internet is teaming with instructive articles, how-to videos, impressive slideshows and detailed PDFs all claiming to do one thing — dramatically increase the number of followers associated with an individual’s Twitter account. Much of the advice that is proposed in these various guides is accurate and will lead to an increase in your account’s visibility. However, your goal is not to come off as popular and trendy, but knowledgeable and valid: an expert. The followers that propel you to this level are not merely found; they are earned.

Becoming an expert on Twitter is much like becoming a trusted blog author or other form of online influencer. And it is as much about quality as it is about quantity, if not more. Let’s say, for example, Dan is a self-proclaimed expert in a particular area of the widget supply chain. He is considered to be an expert because he has an impressive list of nearly 100,000 followers on Twitter. However, many of these followers are of little or no value to Dan. It may be because they are not at all involved in the widget industry or it may be because they are not located in current areas (or potential areas) of Dan’s business. When Dan has something to say, it falls on deaf ears because most of his followers are not qualified followers.  In other words, Dan might be a bit of an Internet celebrity, but he is no expert. Getting more followers on Twitter is only half of the solution.

Let’s say Mark, on the other hand, has a more comfortable list of 20,000 followers. He too operates in the same particular area of the widget supply chain as Dan. However, Mark is a legitimate Twitter expert. The reason being is that you don’t hear it from him. Dan may have more followers, but Mark has the followers that count. Among Mark’s followers are influential figures throughout the widget industry. Mark’s Tweets are followed by the executives and managers of the industries key businesses, earning a qualified audience to engage with. Mark’s followers are also young, up and coming stars of the widget industry. Mark gains the respect of these future leaders because of the solid information he relays in his Tweets, as well as a good deal of respect due to his connections with the upper level executives. When Mark’s followers see a new Tweet they take note — because he is an expert.

The concept of an industry “expert” has changed slightly with the advent of social media, although fundamentally there is nothing new. Industry experts have always existed because people need figures of prominence, both for self comparison and for a consistent and reliable source of answers. When something goes wrong, people are reassured by the fact that there is an expert who has seen it before. Experts set an example for other members of their industry to follow. This is especially true in the face of innovation and in times of uncertainty.   

Perhaps the only difference with the experts of the Internet age is that the playing field has been leveled. Expert status is no longer limited to individuals within the largest and most well-established companies. Small business owners and entrepreneurs are now welcome on the stage. However, people today are still able to detect a fraud; if you want to be an expert, you’d better be able to back up your status with results. As an expert, a person must provide meaningful and useful information. You must also elevate yourself to a level that transcends pettiness and gossip.

So, whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the owner of a start-up firm, how do you grow your list of qualified followers? The key is to start small and to start local. Reach out and make the connections to the businesses and organizations in your industry that are located in your city. Who are your current business partners and associates? Who is your local competition? Connect with these people first. Not only will they provide you with the most valuable information and feedback, you will be able to earn qualified followers from their communities.

Now it is time to branch out. Start connecting with the leading businesses and organizations within your industry. Again, start locally in your own city and then branch out regionally and nationally. If you are operating a Twitter profile on behalf of your business rather than using a personal profile, this would be a good time to consider hiring a social media manager for your firm. The amount of time required to make the connections necessary to grow your profile can be daunting. Additionally, you want to make sure that all of the communications representing your company and brand are professional and accurate.

The final step is to branch out to support non-industry related business and activity in your city. Support your city’s sports teams and charities. This will give your company a positive perception within your community. This is also where you can start to gain non-industry related followers, or “fans.” While they might not be able to interact with your organization on a professional level, having a small pocket of fans can be a good thing for your image and your brand, so long as you keep the majority of your followers business focused.

On a final thought: once you have achieved your goal of being regarded as a Twitter expert within your industry, it is imperative to keep the ball rolling. An active presence on Twitter with regular, informative Tweets is necessary to maintain a large list of qualified followers. Sure, celebrities might be able to maintain tremendous lists of followers without generating regular or even interesting content, but remember, you are not a celebrity; you are an expert.

Sem Industry Consolidation – the Trojan Horse is Deployed

admin    SEM     Consolidation, Deployed, Horse, industry, Trojan

High Position Ltd has once again come under the spotlight due to their continuing success in organic search positioning; this time the bid to purchase the company has come from a leading Scandinavian company who specialise in complete IT solutions including marketing and hosting platforms. The bid has been turned down by the High Position management team, managing director Steve Dart released the following short statement: “High Position Ltd are flattered by the attention we are receiving from major players in the market, we feel that our ongoing success in search positioning and the rapid acquisition of corporate clients has made us the envy of SEM agencies worldwide, we expect to receive further interest from the industry as we progress our comprehensive corporate client base”.

The market speculation about consolidation in the search industry is gaining momentum especially after the recent acquisitions of two other leading SEM agencies, this particular bid is of interest as it shows once again that the growing UK search marketing industry is a lucrative and enviable market. The “quoted” Scandinavian company is looking to capture a share of this market and would be following the recognised strategy of other large organisations that are now targeting this industry sector.

Of course this consolidation will be driven by the larger companies looking mainly to strengthen their overall suite of marketing services or by adding value to an existing service where it is performing poorly, what is interesting here is that there is a desire for companies to want to move into the UK market using the acquisition of an SEM company as a ‘Trojan Horse’ for the UK market. There is evidence that existing Media companies servicing US markets are looking to use the digital path to get offline advertising services into the UK market, similarly hosting companies, networking and general IT companies are all eyeing up this market space so they can target the rapidly growing UK market from within.

Additionally an established European ‘quoted’ company has much to gain in PR by announcing its introduction to a growing and valuable UK market, an appreciable rise in share price will often accompany an announcement of a serious step into this space and if the purchase is for a well known and established purveyor of digital marketing services then it is likely to push added value rapidly for their shareholders and this is definitely a driver at present.

The interesting twist on this is that whilst traditional UK advertising agencies are slow to step into the UK SEM market the overseas companies hungry for a share are not, some of these will acquirers will undoubtedly be IT based but some will be general advertising companies. It is likely that by the time UK advertising leaders truly switch on to the fact that they currently cannot provide a complete digital experience for their clients the cherries in the industry will be owned by their overseas competitors and will lament the missed opportunities they had to step in first.

Recent Thoughts On The Search Engine Industry

admin    Google     Engine, industry, Recent, Search, Thoughts

I thought it might be fun to write what I have noticed recently in the ongoing evolution of the Search Engine industry. To help set the stage – allow me to provide a little background.

 That was then…
I was very active in building websites in the mid to late 90\’s, I know, I know – that was oh so last century. I learned a great deal about how to help my clients get their websites into good positions on the search engines without using what is referred to today as Blackhat SEO. Eventually my interest in developing websites led to a position in a small dot com where I developed an application for the Automobile Insurance Industry – connecting Claim Service Representatives to a network of repair shops. Fun stuff!

Through an usual turn of events – I ended up starting a small business manufacturing surfboard shaped signs for the surf retail and specialty store markets. Maybe you have seen them for sale in stores like the Ron Jon Surf Shops or the Margaritaville Stores. When it came time to move our product list to the web, I selected an open source shopping cart and after a month of customizing the user interface – went to market. After getting our products online – it was time to focus on optimizing the site for the search engines, and make an attempt to position the sites as best as possible.

Having been \”out of the industry\” for nearly a decade, I was certain it would not be an easy challenge to spin up again and learn the tricks of the trade and all the new do\’s and don\’ts of modern day SEO. Turns out, there\’s a new bag of tricks being used, but the old fashioned, tried and true methods of generating valuable content – still apply today just like they did 10 years ago and are still rewarded when found by the search engines.

So there you have it, an unusual perspective at best. Having been out of the industry for so long, it was really fascinating to see the changes that have taken place and be in a position to compare them to the way it was when I exited the arena.

What follows are some key observations and occasional postulations on where I think the Internet search industry might be headed. Having gotten our background behind us… here\’s the first of three articles I intend to write.

Article 1: Googles Rendition of the Hawthorn Effect

For those that aren\’t familiar with the term \”Hawthorn Effect\” here\’s a brief definition and explanation.

The term Hawthorn Effect refers to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. Individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers rather than because of any manipulation of independent variables. 

This effect was first discovered in 1924 and named by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and work environment. Researchers conducted these experiments at the Hawthorn Plant of Western Electric in Chicago Il. and found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable.

So… how does this relate to Google in this century?

Google is watching you. Before you get excited and run to grab your bathrobe – I don\’t mean in a clandestine or illicit way – but in a user behavioral and beneficial manner. Google is working on several products and projects that will eventually reshape how the search engine will respond to your interaction. Google captures your request for information and measures the response to the data it provides to you. By measuring your response, Google obtains key data that helps them understand how to better manipulate the results that are being returned to you. There are several tools currently in place or that are in various stages of beta testing to help them determine their course of action and refine their process in their effort to produce a better user experience for you – their customer.

One such tool is the \”Web History\” utility that is now available to all users of Google Search. Using this tool, Google will collect information about the sites you visit and use it to generate a better response to your queries. Some of the key points of the utility are:

1)       The ability to view and manage your web activity – search across the full text of the pages you\’ve visited, including Google Searches, web pages, images and news stories.

2)       Get search results that are more personalized and based on the things you\’ve searched for on Google and the sites you\’ve visited.

3)       Get reports on your trends and web activity – how many searches did you conduct and at what time of the day. Which sites do you frequent the most?

You can read more about the capabilities and features of Web History here: http://www.google.com/psearch

How will Web History affect the Search Engine industry?
It will help Google provide you with results that you want to see the most, and, when combined with another tool in the beta process, will help remove items that you are not interested in seeing in your search results.

Want to try an experiment?
Break out your google goggles and let\’s get started! Begin by creating a user account with Google. Then turn Web History on for a week or so, and chase your tail looking at keywords that are specific to the ranking of your website or a site you are maintaining. Check several times a day, closing and relaunching your browser each time you check. Eventually you are going to see a message near the top of the window that the results of your search are being influenced by … you guessed it… Web History. Pay attention to where your site is ranking with Web History turned on.

Now, after a week of allowing \”Web History\” to collect some information… go to your google account and turn it off, and check your page positions on Google for the same Keywords? Did you see any difference? You betcha! Google is watching you and capturing your behavior and they are manipulating your search results to match your expectations and what they perceive is your preference based on the \”experiences\” they have collected from you. If Web History perceives that Blue Donuts  by a particular manufacturer are important to you in the majority of your searches, they will bubble to the top of the page while other Blue Donuts by different manufactures will sink lower and lower.

Is it the end of the Search Engine Optimizing Industry?
Probably not, factors that will account for the appearance of one sites links above another may not be completely limited to the users interaction and preference in the future, other traditional factors such as content and page ranking may continue to play a part in winning the position on the page ahead of some of the clients perceived preferences, in addition to other new developments currently underway.

Does it end here?
I for one don’t think so. There\’s at least two more prominent areas where Google can capture user preferences and then modify the result set to meet their expectations, and they are actively testing or running programs to do exactly that right now. I\’ll cover the second area in my next article. \”There\’s Room for 10\”.

This is my first online article and I\’d like to thank those that have taken the time to read it. I hope you will find this useful and that it might stimulate some additional discussion on the subject material covered. 

Gaver Powers
www.SurfboardSigns.com
www.AuthenticEndlessSummer.com

Present Day Film industry

admin    Google's Nexus One     Film, industry, Present

The major business centers of film making are concentrated in the United States, India, Hong Kong and Nigeria. 1).UNITEDSTATES The United States has the oldest film industry(and largest in terms of revenue), and Los Angeles, California is the primary nexus of the U.S. film industry. However, four of the major film studios are owned by East Coast companies. Only The Walt Disney Company and owner of Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, and the Pixar Animation Studios is actually headquartered in Southern California. The same can be said for Sony Pictures which is headquartered in Culver City, California, although the corporate side of Sony Pictures is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. 2).INDIA The Indian film industry is multi-lingual and the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced. The industry is supported mainly by a vast film-going Indian public, and Indian films have been gaining increasing popularity in the rest of the world—notably in countries with large numbers of expatriate Indians. One third of the Indian film industry is mostly concentrated in Mumbai (Bombay), and is commonly referred to as “Bollywood” as an amalgamation of Bombay and Hollywood. The remaining majority portion is spread across west and south India (in Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speaking areas). However, there are several smaller centers of Indian film industries in regional languages (apart from Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam) centered in the states those languages are spoken. Indian films are made filled with action, romance, comedy, dance and an increasing number of special effectsIndia is the world’s largest producer of films, producing close to a thousand films annually.[1][9] About 600 of the total films produced are in Telugu and Hindi, approximately 300 each, while the remaining are in other languages.[9] However, Hindi films account for about half of the total revenue generated by cinema in India.[9] The provision of 100% foreign direct investment has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign enterprises such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros.[10] Prominent Indian enterprises such as Zee, UTV and Adlabs also participated in producing and distributing films. deals4now.com 3).HONG KONG Hong Kong is a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including the worldwide diaspora) and East Asia in general. For decades it was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Indian and Hollywood) and the second largest exporter of films.[citation needed] Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. 4).NIGERIA Nigeria was ushered into modern film making by a film known as Living in Bondage, which featured Kenneth Okonwo, Kanayo. O. Kanayo, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Francis Agu, Ngozi Nwosu, Nnena Nwabueze, etc. This movie, which hit the market in 1992, marked a turning point in the Nigerian movie industry and heralded the trend in modern-day movie making in Nigeria. Watch the movies and get the fun of them and relax yourself from your work. One of the site about film industry in India at <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.freecouponsbuzz.com”>www.freecouponsbuzz.com</a>

The major business centers of film making are concentrated in the United States, India, Hong Kong and Nigeria.

1).UNITEDSTATES

The United States has the oldest film industry(and largest in terms of revenue), and Los Angeles, California is the primary nexus of the U.S. film industry. However, four of the major film studios are owned by East Coast companies. Only The Walt Disney Company and owner of Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, and the Pixar Animation Studios is actually headquartered in Southern California. The same can be said for Sony Pictures which is headquartered in Culver City, California, although the corporate side of Sony Pictures is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

2).INDIA

The Indian film industry is multi-lingual and the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced. The industry is supported mainly by a vast film-going Indian public, and Indian films have been gaining increasing popularity in the rest of the world—notably in countries with large numbers of expatriate Indians. One third of the Indian film industry is mostly concentrated in Mumbai (Bombay), and is commonly referred to as “Bollywood” as an amalgamation of Bombay and Hollywood. The remaining majority portion is spread across west and south India (in Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speaking areas). However, there are several smaller centers of Indian film industries in regional languages (apart from Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam) centered in the states those languages are spoken. Indian films are made filled with action, romance, comedy, dance and an increasing number of special effectsIndia is the world’s largest producer of films, producing close to a thousand films annually.[1][9] About 600 of the total films produced are in Telugu and Hindi, approximately 300 each, while the remaining are in other languages.[9] However, Hindi films account for about half of the total revenue generated by cinema in India.[9] The provision of 100% foreign direct investment has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign enterprises such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros.[10] Prominent Indian enterprises such as Zee, UTV and Adlabs also participated in producing and distributing films. deals4now.com

3).HONG KONG

Hong Kong is a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including the worldwide diaspora) and East Asia in general. For decades it was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Indian and Hollywood) and the second largest exporter of films.[citation needed] Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage.

4).NIGERIA

Nigeria was ushered into modern film making by a film known as Living in Bondage, which featured Kenneth Okonwo, Kanayo. O. Kanayo, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Francis Agu, Ngozi Nwosu, Nnena Nwabueze, etc. This movie, which hit the market in 1992, marked a turning point in the Nigerian movie industry and heralded the trend in modern-day movie making in Nigeria.

Watch the movies and get the fun of them and relax yourself from your work. One of the site about film industry in India at <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.freecouponsbuzz.com”>www.freecouponsbuzz.com</a>