http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2009/06/5-wordpress-twitter-plugins-to-help-readers-tweet-your-articles/

Much has been written about the Twitter phenom.  Almost to where you go….dude enough already, aaargh.  However….one of the missing components that has not had a ton of type hype is “who” is on Twitter.  It may SHOCK you.

 Let’s take a peek at some recent demographic data from Quantcast. This is from January 2009.

Age of Twitter Users

 52% of Twitter user are 35 or older (including 50+).

WOW! Is this a change from what the talking heads of traditional media would have us believe? So this would indicate that Twitter is a significant opportunity for communication with Gen X, Y, and Baby Boomers.

Over ½ of the folks using Twitter are Female with 47% being Male 

Let’s look at the rest of the data:

This graph shows 74% don’t have kids.
Another shocker for me. I would like to see some clarification on this point.  Are they saying no kids, or no kids presently living at home?  Surely the latter.

If, in fact, 74% have no children currently as dependents this would indicate a presence of a bit more discretionary resources (time and money) on their hands. Prime candidates for participation in social media and becoming part of your Tribe.

Check this out! 51% make $6oK or more per year and 27% are over 100K
Anything at all there look like a match for your target market?

Just so we are clear on the educational portion…63% went to college
and get this…17% of Twitter users went to Graduate School

Hmmm ok, as a recap, Twitter users rank high in income compared to the average, are well educated, almost equally male and female, and spread across the age ranks from 18 to 51 with more than half being over 35.

The real question is not whether you should be using Twitter as an additional marketing tool, but HOW should you use Twitter as a marketing tool.

til next time,

Live-Love-Laugh

I hear the mantra “boomers fear Social media” all the time.  While there may be a certain logic in believing this, as a marketing geek with a target market in that group I really wanted to find the real numbers.  Makes sense huh?

If a large part of my target market fears social media (interpreted as not using it) then I should only use social media in proportion to which my target audience is involved.  The remaining portion of my marketing assets would of course then go to the other areas my market hangs out.

Ok, so check this out. Let’s look briefly at some demographics. First, baby boomers are that unique generation born after the Second World War. Most generally the dates used for this group is 1946-1964.  Currently this group holds the bulk of assets in the time and money area.

Generation X. Generation X can technically be defined as the generation following the Baby Boomers. Xers were born between 1965 and 1980, depending on which source you use. The term Generation X came from a book written in 1991 by Douglas Coupland by the same name. It is a fictional book about three strangers who decide to distance themselves from society to get a better sense of who they are. They are the generation that was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, and saw this country undergo a selfish phase that they do not want to repeat.

Generation Y with the members of this generation referred to as Millennial or the Millennial Generation. Precise dates are disputed but Generation Y consists of those people born somewhere from the early 1980s to early 2000s.  I love this group of people. They are really shaking up business as we know it spurning well known and established brands for the new and exciting. Contrarians as a group.

Alright back my target market. Most people would associate the tech crazed social media with Gen X’ers and younger. According to the latest Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture, Baby Boomers are the fastest growing users of social networking sites. That group is also reading blogs more frequently as well. Meanwhile, Gen Y interest in these services has plateaued. Hmmm. All is not what it seems.

So, how cool is that?  The whole point here is really to make sure when it comes to investing assets into your marketing plan that you KNOW who your target market is and where they hang.  As a general rule, (I will go out on a limb here)….dont listen to mainstream media, do your own research.

Tomorrow we can take a peak at the demographics of Twitter.  Not to be boorish but c’mon you need to see this.  If you have been waffling on whether you should add twitter to your marketing toolbox AND you have a vested interest in the boomer generation you need to see this next article.

Live-Love-Laugh

For anyone out there in cyberspace who knows me or read much of my stuff, you know that I am a big auto racing fan.  I am passionate about it.  I grew up with it and have personally raced for many years. As I mature, (read get older), I appreciate NASCAR greatly for the marketing study it provides as well as the entertainment value for our family.

The new team suprised everyone.  A dot com computer geek quietly starts his own mid-western based team.  What the heck does that have to do with building a home based business or personal development.  Well alot as it turns out. 

The first thing would be to get you hooked up with checking out NASCAR.  I am not an affiliate, I dont make any money at all by encouraging this.  You might though.  One of my passions is lending a hand up to those that are driven to succeed.  The truth behind nascar is  that it is some of the best marketing gunk around.  Not just the NASCAR brand but how the teams function also.  Its big money.  I know a 30 million dollar check might get you a few years with a second tier driver.  Yikes!  You can follow up on some of that stuff  at Jayski’s. (interesting story in iteself a blog just acquired by ESPN)

Ok cool. So NASCAR is a big deal with big marketing dollars, so?  How does that effect me?  Well, aside from following different teams as case studies for marketing there may be other opportunities.  If you are using article marketing to help generate leads for your internet home business in Las Vegas or you are replacing a <a href=“http://www.abundancecreationsecrets.com “>CEO income in Detroit </a> you now can leverage the marketing prowess of NASCAR. Yep.

The way you do that is to tap into article marketing.  If you are not doing asome article marketing now is a great time to start.  Ezine Articles is just one of the vendors you can use but it is an effective way to position yourself as a subject matter expert while at the same time acquiring those all important backlinks.  There is an entire course specificto article marketing coming soon but for now just knowthat you need to produce content.  Good stuff and original.  To leverage the buzz with Ezine Articles you should be posting your stuff over there to take advantage of the new traffic tht will be driven by the buzz. 

So here is the thing.  I dont know for sure if the Ezine Article race team thing is real or an elaborate April fools.  Either way I think it is brilliant.  There are some incongruencies if they are truly are a team that is wanting to eventually take the checkered flag.  But really does it matter?   I mean, I am sure tommorrow we will find out if everyone was duped or not.  If not then lets rock and roll with a new Nascar team built by a computer nerd. SWEET!  If so then lets look under the hood at how this whole buzz was created.

Cant wait.  Shoot me your opinions here or tweet me at http://www.twitter.com/tim_oneill

Personally I think its a con job. Well done Chris.

Check out this story of this internet marketer and product developed. This is an awesome example of how powerful Twitter can and how it can be leveraged to help you drum up business. This is crazy and almost unbelievable.

A few months ago, Brad Callen released a new tool called PPC Web Spy.
 
This is a really cool tool that allows you to save a ton of time in your keyword research and be able to sneak a peak at what is working for others. There is a free version and you can see it here ppc web spy

Alright, that ADD is biting me in the butt again. Back to the Twitter story. Before they released the tool publicly Brad posted a very
simple demo video showing what the tool does onto his Twitter
profile page. That allowed those who were following him to see what Brad had ben working on the last few months.
 
The video wasn’t anything special just a quick gig about what the tool did and it showed how excited Brad was about it. There was no mention of the URL of the site where you could get the tool…it really was not ready to be sold. Brad shows that at that time he had roughly 1500 twitter buds. 1500 followers.
 
So here is what happened, some of his 1,500 followers watched the video and some of them re-tweeted the message with the link to the video on there own pages (kind of like forwarding an email), that allowed there followers to go see the video, from there people started googling the name of the tool. (Exactly what I did) Then hitting his website.

This viral action continued for awhile and it continued to grow and grow creating a huge buzz on twitter and forums all over the place. Brad was able to build and opt-in list of over 55,000 people in the span of a few weeks. WOW!

Yes, that’s right, 55,000 people signed up and downloaded a free
copy of PPC Web Spy! These are 55,000 people that Brad now has the opportunity to build long term relationships with for many years to come.

That is crazy. Where else can you find and utilize a free medium to build a potential partner list of 55,000 targeted, interested people in 2 weeks? The other amazing thing about this is…. yep it is one tweet….meaning 140 characters or less.

So there you have it: One man. One Tweet, 55,000 opt-ins.

If you are interested in this stuff follow me on twitter here, I will share many many more tips like this with you as we move along.
 
=> http://www.twitter.com/tim_oneill
 
If you don’t have a Twitter account, click the link above, and then
create one. Then start “tweeting” asap.

Live-Love-Laugh

Twitter is going to be huge, the great news is that you are basically in at the beginning. That is, the over 6 million people now involved, is nothing compared to where it will be moving forward.
 
 So here’s one of the things going on with Twitter right now…
 
Honest to goodness celebrities are now using Twitter and are showing up at a tremendous rate. While there are a huge number of them, one person that I’ve been watching is Lance
Armstrong. As many of you know I have roots in triathlon and personal development both, so this is no surprise that I am an Armstrong fan. Well check this out, Lance joined Twitter just a few
months ago, and he already has over 233,000
followers.
 
This summer is the Tour de France. His Twitter updates will no doubt be mentioned in the press many times during coverage of the
race… and all of a sudden Twitter will hit the
mainstream.
 
Other celebrities are also picking up the pace.
They are beginning to realize that they can control building a following, away from mainstream media and that they can also develop another revenue stream by monetizing that following in a variety of ways. Do you think we may soon have more celebrities from TV, the big screen, stage, field and track on Twitter.? If so fans will follow.
 
You can follow my thought process here I am sure. I may be wrong though. If so, I haven’t lost much. Twitter is already proving valuable so anything moving forward is just a bonus.
 
Here are a few things to note:
 
If you don’t “get” Twitter, don’t worry. Many of us didn’t at first. I started last April then bailed because I didnt research enough to see the value or how you use it. I just started agian in January. So sign up and start following a few people from a niche you have interest in. It’s free so no big deal. Read a bit about it and watch some video tutorials and find out what the buzz is all about.
 
 
Twitter is a viral tool so you definitely want to stake your claim. Like much of the internet and clearly for social media as a whole, the madness is much like the gold rush in the late 1800’s. It may be short and sweet but it certainly is as much and more profitable. So start now.
Just like the internet, marketing, or business in general Twitter has many different facets. There is not one right way to use it. Find the way that works for you and allows you to be you and be transparent to your followers and congruent to your beliefs. 
After you are on Twitter for awhile begin to look at some of the third party software programs that can be used with Twitter. It can be easier, more productive and more fun if you can engage in a couple of these pieces.
 
Of the many programs available there are two I am currently using. Tweetdeck, tweetergetter, and the search function at http://search.twitter.com - you can use that to track what people are saying about you,  your
company, or your competitors. You also can find a specific topic you may have interest in. It’s awesome,
instantaneous feedback. Ah, OK that’s three I am using, sorry.
  
I did a review of Joel Comm’s new book, Twitter Power. Check out his book. You can purchase it here.

Twitterpower.

Another awesome source of information is Marketing Merge blog a blogsite that specializes in attraction marketing. There are a few short vids that will give you the inside scoop here.
 
Finally, if you get signed up follow me too. There is a ton of info that goes into the tweets I put out just like many others. Here’s the link:         follow Tim

Have a blast and be diligent in learning this awesome social media tool.

So…are you in the tweet mode yet? You gotta be if you have been reading any online attraction marketing stuff at all. If not, I believe you are missing one of the biggest oportunites ever to explode your propect list, and better yet, develop a closer realtionship with them.

In the past few years the social media market arena has exploded. There are a ton of different ways to get millions of different people saying unique (positive I hope) things about you. Personal Branding at its greatest. But nothing like twitter has been around. This is phenomenal! Let me explain…

Twitter allows you to micro blog. You use short messages of 140 characters or less to stay in touch with your followers on a minute by minute basis. Sounds like alot of intrusion right? That’s what I thought but have just recently re-visited the idea and have been studying how to use it effectively.

Estimates vary, but there are over 6 million users on Twitter–and it is growing exponenitally. So what does this mean to you? PROFITS. How? Now you can instantly message your followers, handing them valuable tips while also giving them a glimpse into your day. You have the opportunity to provide value to them in a totally different way and at the same time you can foster a stronger more intimate realtionship. Building trust over a period of time is a key factor is developing an online presence. Here are a few ways to leverage twitter.

1) Be transparent–Be you. Talk about your life, your family, your work. Allow your readers a glimpse into your life, the good, the bad and the ugly. People want to know you. Let them see you and be able to realize the challenges and joys you have are probalby the same as theirs.

2) Retweet on a regular basis. Retweeting (or RT) is a fast, easy way to pass along something valuable you’ve found from someone else by simply clicking on an icon. This is content sharing and giving back in its purest form.

3) Tweet (write) with frequency and add value. One of the best ways to do this is to download a free desktop program called TweetDeck. This is a powerful way to keep tabs on who’s talking about you–without logging in and out all the time. I will be doing a few vids on tweetdeck coming up.

Those are a few things to help you grow your list of followers. But if you REALLY want to jump in quickly I recommend Joels book as well as a check to Mike Klingers site at Marketing Merge Network. Mike’s site has a bunch of really high quality free content specific to attraction marketing.

Get Joel’s New Book Here

Oh, and if you want to follow me on twitter here you go: twitter.com/tim_oneill

How do you become a total prospect magnet in your industry? Be You, stand up and be recognized. Here are 16 ways to be set apart from the massive number of competitors in your market.  These attraction marketing strategies from Ann Sieg will help make you and your opportunity or product the chosen way for people to do business.  By the way if you gagged because you see the dreaded mlm or network marketing word some where on this page, this is for you.  If you are not in the direct sales industry pay particular attention to what is being said here because these techniques are definitely not being taught many places outside of mlm, and guess what,  they will work that much better.

One of the biggest keys to doing business online is being unique.  Not blending in with everyone else.  Be a contrarian and shout your individuality from the virtual rooftops.  That is one of the secrets to getting your prospects undivided attention. 

A key point in using attraction marketing is to tap into the universal law of attraction.  Much like gravity this law works unseen, probably mis-understood, and constant whether we “believe” or not.  One of the principles of this law is a very real desire to help others first.  This translates to giving away useful, pertinent information that adds value to your prospect whether they do business with you or not.  Provide free information that can begin to show them how to build a business.

After you give away information keep there attention by specializing in teaching them.  Carve out a niche within social media marketing and become an expert in that area. Spend time and work diligently to become one of the “go to” people in that area.  Some examples are the “Ezine Queen”, become known as the twitter guy or facebook gal. The idea here is to narrow the field just a tad.  You will actually draw more people this way then you would shooting for a wider audience.  The good news…there are a ton of possibilities, micro niches, that one can make money with online from home.

Here’s a list of 16 very specific examples from Ann Siegs “The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto” that should help spark an idea or two. These are from the Ann’s landing page.
——————————————-

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

——————————————-

1.) Goal-Setting
2) Mindset
3) Time Management
4) Communication Skills
——————————————-
TRAFFIC GENERATION/ADVERTISING
——————————————-
5) Article Marketing
6) Video Sharing
7) Social Bookmarking
Blogging
——————————————
SALES AND MARKETING
——————————————
9) Market Research
10) Keyword Research
11) Copywriting
12) Phone Skills
——————————————
OTHER STUFF
——————————————
13) Tracking
14) Outsourcing
15) Contact Management
16) Split Testing

These are many of the components of  internet marketing.  Do you have to become proficient in all of these things to get started?  No way.  Pick one. Most of it you will never have to even worry about how to begin to make money.  But do pick a niche that appeals to you, anyone of them has the ability to provide more qualified prospects than you can possibly work. Keep in mind you don’t need to be an expert.  It may even preferable that you are not.  After all an ex is a “has been” and a “spurt” is a drip under pressure.  You simply need to know a tad more than others do.  That really is not as hard as it may seem at first glance.  Remember whatever your level of comfort with computers and the internet that there are a bunch of people flocking to the net RIGHT NOW that know less than you. Cool huh?

 Ok so how do you begin to climb this ladder of becoming more knowledgeable than a few others?  Simple. 

 Read a few blogs, pick out a book or two, a few magazines or ezines and read the material, absorb it, then relay that information to your prospects via blogs, twitter, facebook ect. There are many people eagerly searching for someone who will guide them.  Check out Mike Klinglers mlm network marketing training.  His content is very specific to attraction marketing and he even offers a step by step approach.

Remember there are over 15 million network marketers in the United States and an estimated 53 million worldwide. BIG number. The majority of these people have never turned a profit with there direct sales business.

If you enjoyed the ideas presented here you owe it to your self to check out Ann Siegs book.  Ann presents a very compelling 75 page special report specific to attraction marketing.  This information took 8 months to research, edit, re-edit, and re-write (a number of times)to distill into a compendium of the very best training material on attraction marketing, best of all….it’s FREE.  This free report is now released.  To secure your free copy, click on the link below and fill out your name and email info.  I will let you know as soon as it comes out.  http://timoneillbiz.marketersmanifesto.com

Until next time, Live-Love-Laugh.

tim