I did a post not to long ago on Twitter Grader and I must say this tool blows it out of the water. twInfluence gives you information that is actually interesting such as your network reach, veloticty, acceleration, and more from your Twitter account. Over all it help you show what type of influence you have in the Twitter network.

While more and more people start to realize the power of Twitter when you get an audience, tools like this will be even more usefull. Looking at it from a sales standpoint it would be an added bonus to tell your clients you have a 1 Million plus user reach on Twitter. Having real stats like this when doing consutancy is a bonus when it comes to social media.

Here are some other cool feature that would be nice to have. Whether or not these are all possible for a third party service I don’t know but it would be cool.

Active Followers - Check the followers to see who is active, and who has not updated in months.

Link Tracking - It would be nice to see how many times a shared link appears across your network.

Spam Buster - Another idea would be a feature that checks the users of your network for common signs of spam and displays a warning about those users.

Geographic Features - A nice Google Maps mashup would be nice… Show all of your network that has their location set, on Google Maps.

If you have any ideas on features, or use of the tool leave a comment. I feel like a smmGuru Twitter tool is on the way for my readers.

We all know Digg has changed so why not look to Mixx for a new form of social news. Especially for those of you who have been exiled from planet Digg. Luckily, Mixx is panning out to be a very nice alternative with more diverse content on your customized front page. Here’s 20 resources to get you into the Mixx.

1. Mixxing In, and Why Early Adoption is Important: A Review of the Newest Social News Network - Learn why you should get on Mixx now, instead of waiting.
2. Most Popular Diggers Leave Digg for Mixx – Why Diggers are leaving their island.
3. Add Mixx to the WordPress Sociable 2.0 Plugin – How to add Mixx support to your WordPress Sociable plugin quickly.
4. Thrown In The Mixx – Why Tweed Couch is a dedicated user of Mixx.
5. 10 Things I Like Most About Mixx – 10 things to dig about Mixx.
6. Top Digg Contributor’s are Frustrated: Is Mixx the Answer? – More Digg/Mixx commentary.
7. Is Mixx Actually Becoming a Viable? – Could Mixx become a viable investment.
8. Mixxing Your Blend of the Web – Why Mixx is more inviting than Digg.
9. A Digg Clone That Might Actually Make It – Why Mixx can go long term.
10. Mixx Locations – An article on Mixx’s location features.
11. Digg users flock to Mixx – Why unfair rankings have many Digg users pissed and heading to Mixx.
12. Frustrated with Digg, head over to Mixx – Yet another article on making the switch to Mixx.
13. Tired of Digg? Then Try Mixx – Wow, not too many people seem to like big Digg.
14. What A Mixx Up: Interview With Mixx Founder Chris McGill – Brian Wallace does an interview with Mixx founder Chris McGill.
15. 12 Reasons to Join Mixx and Abandon Digg – 12 more reasons to join Mixx.
16. Getting into the Mixx – More views on Mixx.
17. Mixx: My Blend of the Web – Her thoughts of Mixx.
18. I Love Mixx, but I’m Still a Digger – Some will always be a slave to Digg.
19. It’s In The Mixx – Some more Mixx Info.
20. Why Digg Should Be Scared of Mixx – Why Mixx should be causing Digg to shake in their loafers.

That should get you started for now. Mixx looks like it could be a serious Digg contender with some work. Leave any Mixx resources you have in a comment so I can add them in later.

Ranking for keywords requires that your content is indexed in a timely manor. While some websites are indexed daily, some only get visited by Google Bot weekly or even monthly. Having your content indexed fast can mean being the site that breaks news, or missing out to another site that was indexed faster.

Have A Sitemap
Having a sitemap tool is pretty much the first and foremost thing to get done. It can seem like a pain in the ass but its actually really easy. For WordPress users there are various plugins for doing this, and most of them will even let Google, Yahoo, etc. know when you have an updated site map. Setting your sitemap to update with every new entry is a great way to get bots to your site quick. Also make sure you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools. 

Go Dynamic
Dynamic content normally comes in quantity and for that reason it performs much better when getting indexed. It’s much easier to create 20 pages of dynamic content then putting together 20 handmade pages for each piece of content. Having a dynamic website also allows you to include elements like recent news, latest comments, and other dynamic elements. The idea is to give GoogleBot something new every time.

What The Ping
Using ping services is a great way to let major services know that you have new content available. If you are using WordPress or like software, chances are there is a built in ping function with some options to use other ping services as well. Make sure you have the most possible places to ping as the more you hit, the better the chances are that bots will come to the site. Leave a comment if you have any ping lists.

Use Social Media
Chances are there is at least a few social media sites in your niche. Become a prominent member of the site and build a reputation making sure you have a link in your profile to your site. The more and more you build your profile, the more long tail traffic and link juice you push to your site. Also make sure to include any useful widgets that the social network may have available as it can also provide unique content on your site when GoogleBot comes by.

Add A Photo Stream
Photos are a great way to let people know who you are, and what you are about. They are also a quick and easy way to add content to your website. Implementing a Flickr plugin to show some pics in your sidebar is an extremely easy way to give people content. It takes maybe a second to snap a picture and then all you have to do it upload. The dynamic aspect ensures there is something new for GoogleBot as well.

Also keep in mind that when you are creating content you should really be working on making quality content. Something that the bots are going to like. Constantly pumping out content that is 200 words long will not do. It may also work against you making the bots think you are spamming. Just something to keep in mind.

To build up backlinks there are many different ways you can go about getting the job done. Its an important process to developing long term standings and traffic within search engines, and other websites alike. With a little time, creativity, and these tips you can build strong backlinks by the masses.

1. Donate / Sponsor
If you can through something relatively cheap like an iPod to a site running a contest, you will get a pretty good amount of exposure. Most of the time what happens is the people holding the contest announce the contest and who sponsored the winnings. Everyone who then participates or covers the contest will write something about it, and who is putting up the goods (you.) A very solid method for building backlinks, and as a bonus they will be solid links without “nofollow” attributes.

2. Do Some Interviews
Whether you are being interviewed, or you are doing the interview there is a way to get some links. If you are doing the interview, make sure to let everyone involved know when its published so they can link to it or post about it on their website. If you are the interviewee than work links into your interview. If you mention something relevant, insert a link to it. Its that easy, and most people don’t mind a little self promotion.

3. Link To Others
Most people visit the sites linking to them when they pop up in WordPress’s Admin dashboard. If you find a piece of content that works good with what your writing, link out to it. More than likely if you do it enough people will return the favor. And if you do not get the link, look at it this way: Your post is strengthened with relevant content, and you will be noticed by the other site in some way.

4. Interlink Your Posts
Don’t be afraid to go back and edit content that has performed well, to include links to your newer content. For example if you have a list on Twitter resources, you could go back and edit it to include links to some new Twitter resources you have put together. The high trafficked list will then be pushing juice to your new content along with traffic increasing your chances of people commenting, sharing, and coming back.

5. Submit More Guest Posts
Guest posting has been glorified pretty much everywhere so I don’t think I need to get to in depth with this one. Obviously you want to be writing articles for relative sites, that of course are within your niche. Start at the top with the best sites in your niche (most traffic) and work your way down until someone takes the post. Also make sure you are not inserting to many links into the post. It could hurt your image, and more importantly your chances of coming back. If you want to do another guest posting on a site, make sure your first one is top notch.

6. Run A Contest or Two
Another technique that has been covered everywhere is running a contest. This is very easy and can be done many ways with the most popular being comment contests. Just make sure whatever you are giving away has some sort of value. For newer blogs, most people are not going to give two shots about winning advertising on your blog. If you cant afford a cash prize or iPod to give away, see if you can find a site that will sponsor the contest in return for a review post or something of that nature.

There are quite a few ways to build traffic, and decent backlinks using Digg. This particular idea uses the sites Digg links to, instead of the Digg article pages to generate traffic and backlinks. And if your lucky, they won’t be no-follow backlinks.

This method does not have to be used just on Digg either. Any relevant social media news site will work. What it comes down to, is finding content that is going to become popular or has just become popular. Once you find the content, chances are there will be an option to leave a comment. Very simple, go and leave a comment on the content page and on the Digg/Social Site you found it on. The idea behind this is that the content page itself most likely does not have many links pointing to it yet. Once it becomes popular (espcially with Digg) the page will recieve tons of exposure and dozens of backlinks. That linkjuice will now be passed on to you. Propeller, Newsvine, and Shoutwire are some other great places to snipe.

Keep in mind that you should keep any and all comments relative to the content. Spam most likely won’t stick once the traffic gets jacked up becuase people are going to all over that page and notice you are simply dropping a link.

Social bookmarking type sites are booming right now, and seem to be fluctuating in traffic as well. Each network has a different demographic no matter how much the same they all seem. Not all social networks are created equal and to have a strong social media marketing plan you need to know what type of demographic each has, and what type of content will generally perform better. All statistics gathered from Quantcast.

1. Digg
Digg is pretty much the most popular social bookmarking site. Statistics from Quantcast estimate that Digg receives about 21 million unique visitors a month. The digg audience is mostly males (63%) between the ages 23-34, with a household income between $30,000 – $100,000. I’m sure the audience has changed drastically from the time they came online. Digg like all other sites has certain content that appears more on the front-page, these include lists (top 50.. etc.), politics, Apple articles, and interesting photos.

2. Propeller
Propeller (once Netscape) is second to Digg ranking in with 1.4 million monthly unique visitors. Like Digg, Propeller also has a predominantly male audience with 54% of traffic most of whom are age 45-54. The older audience of Propeller also have deeper pockets with 55% of them making over $60,000. The front page also seems to pertain more to the older crowd with most of the news being politics, business, economy, etc.

3. StumbleUpon
A Quantcast top 5,000 website StumbleUpon brings in 1.2 million unique visitors a month from the U.S. The audience is male biased (51%) and has a relatively equal spectrum in age. 30% of traffic comes from ages 18-34, 33% from ages 35-49, and 33% from ages 50 and up. Also interesting about this age range is it’s effect on the average income. 30% of StumbleUpon users have an income of $100,000 or more. 47% of which, have no college education (no joke.)

4. Fark
Just missing out on the top three is Fark.com. Fark has grown considerably and seems to be retaining their traffic well. With over one million monthly unique visitors, its bigger than sites like Del.icio.us, Reddit, and Newsvine. They attract a middle aged audience, mostly Caucasian, and are less affluent (53% $30K-100K). Fark also has a much higher male population (72%) than most of the other sites. They have a more interesting brand of popular content focusing around “interesting, bizarre and amusing news stories, along with regular photo manipulation contests”.

5. Newsvine
Not quite reaching a million users yet, Newsvine comes in at number four. A top 10,000 site that reaches over 946K U.S. unique visitors monthly. They have a middle aged, Caucasian audience that is less affluent. The site attracts a skewed male audience (55%) and 46% of them have an income of $30,000 – $60,000. Also interesting is that Newsvine has a very large business readership. 31% of their readers are business with over 4.5K large businesses alone.

6. Reddit.com
Another top 500,000 site is Reddit. With 856.7K unique visitors a month, Reddit attracts a 57% male audience that is between the ages of 35 and 49 (35%). Within Reddit’s audience 65% have a household income of $30,000 to $100,000. Similar to Digg, Reddit favors content related to political, business, and offbeat/celebrity news.

8. Clipmarks
Raking in 493.9K unique visitors monthly, Clipmarks comes in at number seven. The top 5,000 website appeals to a male biased audience (57%) with a pretty equal division of income through all ages. The largest of the groups (28%) taking in $30K – $60K.

7. Del.icio.us
Although the olders Del.icio.us is not the most popular, ranking in with 37K unique visitors a month from the U.S. The audience is again mostly male (53%) and the largest age group is those between 35 and 49 (33%.) Use of Del.icio.us seems to be dieing off pretty quick lately and Quantcast shows that 92% of their traffic is passers-by meaning people are there for a few seconds and leaving.

9. Blinklist
Blinklist.com has seen a huge traffic plunge over the last few months and fell out of the top 10,000 sites. Down from over 560K in June of 08′, they now take in just over 131,000 unique visitors a month. A higher percentage of males (61%) make up the audience bringing in $60,000 to $100,000 on average. The site appeals to a more educated, more affluent, more male following.The typical visitor reads Salon, patronizes cduniverse.com, and visits killmyday.com

10. Shoutwire
Just making the list is Shoutwire with 20.4K unique monthly visitors. Shoutwire has a 58% male audience that is slightly younger with 63% of users between the ages 12 and 34. Even with the lower age range, the audience claims a 4 way split of almost 25% of the audience in each income bracket.

Obviously Digg is the champ here. They take in more traffic than the other nine combined meaning they should defiantly be a part of your social media marketing strategy. Digg also sees the largest amount of ad revenue and they continue to grow. This should give you a good base for what demographics apply to the top 10 sites, which should then give you a good idea how to generate content for them.

Now that you know Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, it’s time to get familiar. Heres 89 tools, articles, and resources sorted into categories. Use these to create a powerful Twitter following, and increase the visibility of your brand.

Don’t forget to bookmark and subscribe!

Twitter 101:      
1. The Big Juicy Twitter Guide
2. Twictionary – A dictionary for Twitter.
3. TwitDir – Another Twitter directory.
4. The Twitter Blog
5. Explore Twitter

Twitter Media:

6. TweetPic
7. Twitxr
8. Twittershare
9. SnapTweet – Send Flickr photos to Twitter.  
10. Twiddeo – Twitter plus video.
11. TwitterGram – Share audio.
12. TwitSay – Give your Twitter account a voice.

Twitter Stats:

13. TweetBurner – Track what happens with the links you share.
14. Twitt(url)y – Tracks what URLs Twitter users are talking about.
15. Twitter Charts
16. Twitstat
17. TweetStats
18. TwitterBuzz – What people are linking to.
19. Twittermeter
20. Tweet Volume – Enter words or phrases and see how often they appear on Twitter.
21. Twitter Vision  
22. Twitterholic

Friends & Followers:

23. FriendFeed – Discover what your friends are sharing.
24. Twitter Karma
25. TweetWheel – Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other.
26. Who Should I Follow? – Twitter Friend Recommendations.
27. Intwition
28. CrowdStatus – Create a crowd.
29. My Tweeple
30. GroupTweet
31. Twitter 100
32. Quotably – Follow Twitter conversations.
33. TwitterLocal
34. TwitterVerse
35. Twemes – Twitter memes.
36. Tweetmeme
37. TwitterWho – Batch people search.

Spam Protection:

38. The Twitter Blacklist
39. Twitter Twerp Scan
40. Twitter Snooze

Twitter Organization:

41. Socialthing
42. Twittercal – Tweet your Google calendar.
43. Twitter Digest
44. Twitku – Read posts on Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.
45. Twitter Timer – Set an alarm for things you need to remember.
46. Twitt.icio.us – Send links from Twitter to del.icio.us.
47. Twitter Where

Twitter Tools:

48. Summize – Search Twitter in real time.
49. Twitter Search – A customized search engine for Twitter.
50. YouTwit
51. TwittEarth  
52. Twhirl – A desktop client for Twitter.
53. Snitter – Desktop client for Mac and Windows.
54. Twitterific – Desktop client for Mac.
55. gTwitter – Desktop client for Linux.
56. Witty – Desktop client for Vista.
57. Twitteroo – Desktop client for the PC.
58. TwitterPod – Desktop client for Mac.
59. Twitux – Desktop client for Gnome.
60. Twitterberry – Mobile client for Blackberry.
61. Email Twitter – Mobile client.
62. Twoble – Mobile client for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.

Twitter for Email:

63. TwitterMail
64. OutTwit

Twitter IM:

65. TwitterIM

Twitter Widgets:

66. Twitter Opera Widget
67. Twitter Widget
68. Twadget

Other Twitter Articles + Resources

69. How To Find Your Target Audience on Twitter – SmmGuru
70. Twitter Is A Tool! You Might As Well Use It – SmmGuru
71. Easy Way To Get More Twitter Followers From Your Blog – SmmGuru
72. How Does Twitter Define Spam – SmmGuru
73. 7 Tips For New Twitter Accounts – SmmGuru
74. Tweeting for Companies 101 – HorsePigCow
75. 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence – ProBlogger
76. 13 Odd Ways to Use Twitter – Social Media Trader
77. Twitter Feeds Made Simple – ClickPopMedia
78. Video: Twitter in Plain English – Common Craft
79. How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity – Marketing Vox
80. Twitter and Business: The Conclusion – Business and Blogging
81. How We Use Twitter for Journalism – ReadWriteWeb
82. 10 Things Twitter Users Should Not Do – Valley Wag
83. Twitter Hashtags and Groups – American Pai
84. 8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for Twitter – Mashable
85. 10 Ways Twitter Can Boost Your Social News Profile – ReadWriteWeb
86. Copyright and Twitter – Blog Herald
87. My Essential Twitter Tools – Web-Strategist.com
88. Twitter May Not Have to Worry About Uptime Anymore – TechCrunch
89. Why Decentralizing Twitter is so Important – Scripting.com

RSS is one of your most valuable tools as a social media marketer. Here is a list of 139 tools and articles that will let you master the craft of converting visitors to subscribers, and increasing your return traffic. Resources include feed creation, promotion, stats, conversion, plugins, validation, and more. Don’t forget to bookmark and comment if you have some to add.

Creating RSS Feeds   
1. RSS Tutorial from mnot.net
2. RSS Tutorial from SiteArticles.com
3. RSS Utilities: A Tutorial
4. RSS Tutorial from W3 Schools
5. RSS Tutorial – Introduction and Overview
6. Creating RSS Files for Your Website
7. Creating a Custom RSS Feed with PHP and MySQL
8. How to Create RSS Feeds with Dreamweaver
9. How to Create an RSS 2.0 Feed
10. How to Create an RSS Feed with Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer
11. How to Create an RSS Feed from any Web Page
12. Set Up a Simple Syndication Feed Using RSS
13. Making an RSS Feed
14. Make RSS Feeds
15. Create RSS

RSS Tools

16. FeedBurner
17. Fedafi WordPress plugin
18. Feed Cycle
19. URL Fan
20. Ebay 2 RSS
21. FeedMagick
22. Feedverter
23. Flickr Widget
24. RSS ZeitGeist
25. RSS Calendar
26. Tag Cloud
27. Diodia
28. Headline Toolbar
29. RSS Feeds Toolbar
30. Feed Scout
31. My RSS Toolbar
32. Feed Roll Pro
33. Feed Digest
34. Blog Bomb
35. Feed Icons
36. Add This
37. Create custom icons
38. Podcast icons
39. RSS Button Maker
40. RSS Icon Gallery
41. Feed Button
42. Custom Button Maker

Ping Services

43. Ping-O-Matic
44. Pinger from Blog Flux
45. Pingoat

RSS Feed Software

46. Feed Editor
47. MyRSSCreator
48. RSS Content Builder
49. Feed for All
50. Feeder

RSS Feed Readers

51. FeedLounge
52. FeedShow
53. Rojo
54. Blog Bridge
55. News Monster
56. PixelNews
57. GreatNews
58. Particls
59. Anothr
60. FeedDemon
61. NewsLife
62. Straw
63. RSS Owl
64. Netvibes
65. FeedReader
66. Bloglines
67. NewsGator
68. My Yahoo
69. Active Web Reader
70. SurfPack
71. Awasu
72. Pageflakes
73. Daily Rotation
74. RSS Bandit
75. NewzCrawler
76. Juice
77. Snarfer
78. Omea
79. Shrook

RSS Monetizing

80. Feedvertising
81. FeedBurner
82. Pheedo
83. Orange Feed

RSS Forums

84. Digital Point
85. Webmaster World
86. NewsGator
87. Lockergnome
88. RSS Bandit

Mobile RSS Readers

89. mReader
90. NewsGator Go
91. Egress
92. LiteFeeds
93. Mobilerss.net
94. FreeRange
95. Quick News

RSS Feed Conversion

96. Feed Maker
97. Apexoft
98. Atom2RSS
99. NewsAloud
100. RSS2PDF
101. Google2RSS
102. RSS2HTML
103. RSSgenr8
104. Magpie RSS
105. FeedYes
106. Feed43
107. RSS to JavaScript
108. RSS News JavaScript Ticker
109. Feed Sweep
110. Widgetbox

RSS Email Tools

111. News Gator Email Edition
112. R-Mail
113. RSS2Email
114. FeedBlitz
115. PopHeadlines
116. RssFwd

RSS Validation Services

117. Walidator
118. Redland RSS Validator
119. Feed Validator
120. RSS Validator

Various Articles

121. Introduction to RSS
122. What is RSS? RSS Explained
123. RSS Specifications
124. RSS 2.0 Specification
125. History of RSS
126. 35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today
127. Making Headlines with RSS
128. The Evolution of RSS
129. 8 Easy Ways to Monetize Your RSS Feed
130. RSS – Taking it to the People

Firefox RSS Extensions

131. Sage
132. Thunderbird
133. RSS Ticker
134. Wizz
135. Blog Rovr
136. InfoRSS
137. Beatnik
138. NewsFox
139. Feed Sidebar

Having focus is very important to a successful social media campaign. There is a lot of advice floating around and its easy to take the wrong advice and up wasting a lot of time, and possibly money. Social media is not a shortcut to success like most people want it be, its a marketing tools that requires attention and a plan. Here are seven tips to keep your social media strategy focused:

1. What Are Your Assets - Before you get started know that this type of marketing requires time, knowledge, and ability to really work. It’s not a one-time bang it out deal that you can zip through. If these aspects are a problem you can always go the route of a consultant. Obviously this most likely won’t be free but you need a constant presence in social media to survive and that’s the main plus when using a consultant.

2. Define You Audience - Know what demographic you want to hit before you try to hit. Creating a presence in your niche is more important than marketing to everyone you can. Always put your target demographic first, then worry about the stragglers. There’s no point in wasting your time and energy in an audience that will never convert to business. Most services have search functions, use them! It’s incredibly easy to penetrate your niche with all of the advanced search features you can find around the web.

3. Target Niche Specific Social Media Sites - Major social media sites can bring a lot of visitors. I would say that a good starting point would be 2-3 niche networks, and all the big players like Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, etc. Keep in mind that you want to constructively build profiles on these networks. You can branch out to the thousands of social networks but if you only have a picture and a link in your profile you won’t get far. If you like a girl and you never call her what do you expect to happen? See where the focus comes into play? Focus on your key networks and develop a stronger following.

4. You Got Your Niche, Now Target Your Content - Quality will always pay off in the end. Social media users are not looking for content that’s forced on them but instead something they can use, or content that’s easily shared. Even if you have to pay someone to develop content or widgets for you, its worth it. The amount of traffic and buzz that a major response in social media brings is massive. Create your content geared specifically to your audience and try not to stray to far from your niche. People are there for information on your niche, so give it to them.

5. Do You Have A Conversion Plan - Once you get to the point of masses of traffic, you need to start leveraging it. This all depends on your goals but the first and most basic is converting new users to RSS subscribers. Chances are you have some sort of RSS going for your content so make sure to push it on all of your new visitors. Also think about how you can convert large amounts of traffic into product sales, affiliate sales, leads, and content shares to develop backlinks. The possibilities for conversions is endless, once you have an audience you will learn how to shape and mold content that can bring desired results.

6. Stay Hyped - Once you start to achive your sucess and become a part of the community, you have to work extra hard. Stopping after getting a little success is putting water on the fire. Visit your targeted sites daily and stay active. Vote for others, submit content, add friends, leave comments, etc. When people notice you are submitting and voting for only your content, they have an obvious tendency to dislike you. Use your dam noggin, social media users are another bread and most of them are smart enough to tell a spammer from a member of the community. Keep pushing out content and making yourself known.

7. Learn, Rinse, Repeat - After you have substantial information you can start to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. Get rid of time wasters and try to put a value on each traffic source. Its much easier to see whats working when you have a criteria. This is why it’s important to have a structured goal. Continue to do what works and tweak your proccess for effciantacy. The nice thing about social media is that as your audience grows, the workload becomes much easier. Your following will do much of your marketing and promotion for you through blog posts and other sharing outlets if you can develop the right content for the job. Also remember to keep tabs on what your community is saying about you. Take advice from your readers, and learn to deal with haters because they are an inevitable waste product of success. No matter how well you do and how much people like you, there are always a handful of unhappy people that envy you. I personally like to take it as a compliment when people go out of their way to try and undermine me. Remember: If they’re hatin’, your doin something right.

Now that you can see how focusing in instead of shooting blind can mean the difference between a failed social media campaign and a successful one. Its about staying in it and developing experience. I have had my share of failures but I have learned more from those than anything else. Create a dynamite plan to outline your site, and you can take a lot of work out of being successful.

As we know, Twitter can be used to brand yourself or your company with some great success. The key however is to make sure you are prominent in your target audience. Obviously you can spread as wide across the network as you want but make sure to hit your target audience hard.

This is actually quite easy, possibly easier than you thought if you didn’t know about their advanced search engine: http://search.twitter.com/advanced. Using this tool alone you can easily plant a seed in your target audience. Let’s say you are a shoe store working your way into social media. This search could help you find people interested in shoes who also blog, comment, share content, etc. What that means, is that possible customer then has the tendency to spread the word and really do your marketing for you. Or you could go even deeper and do a search for local users. Real Estate anyone? Why not use Twitter’s search to help you draw from people in your area looking for what you provide?

Simple, quick, to the point… you can see there are some dam useful features on Twitter when it comes to branding. The ability to go local is huge and can help you dominate in your niche. Establishing a strong social media presence can increase your business in many ways.