Lost in Translation

Last week I wrote 15 tips for Twitter for business and nonprofit. It occurs to me that even before addressing how to use it, we should have a talk about what to expect and what is realistic when it comes to using Twitter.

There are a lot of people claiming they know the secrets to getting tons of followers and getting you rolling in the dough.

As with all things business: there is no secret. They are full of it. I already told you what you need to know and where to learn more if you are inclined. If they are promising secrets, see if that involves you buying something to learn the secret.

Yeah, I thought so.

And if they aren’t offering something directly for sale, they are probably making these claims in hopes of bumping their own numbers and site traffic.

So let’s talk a little about Twitter for business and nonprofit. Why use it at all? What are some ways to use it?

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New to Twitter and still not sure what to do about it? Are you staring at the screen thinking, “I don’t get it”?

Here are 15 tips to help you get more out of Twitter, especially if you are tweeting as a business or nonprofit.

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The following is an article I wrote for another publication a while back. I’d like to re-post it here to help those who follow this blog. I’ve edited it a bit to be specific to this audience.

I’ve been a professional web designer for 10 years now. In that time I’ve seen a lot of people do good things and bad things with their websites. And by bad things, I mean: waste time and money.

However, the web is still a valid place to do business and/or promote your business. It can be a nice source of income for you too. The challenge is that most people don’t know where to start. It doesn’t help that there is a lot of misinformation out there, including a lot of very old information.

No matter what you are selling, there are certain principles that apply.

So here are 12 tips and myth busters to help you on your journey as a business owner using the Internet.

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Some of you may know, I had twins a while back. Anyone who has kids can tell you that you end up on mailing lists for all things baby very quickly. I get mail from companies I have no interest in doing business with, but birth records are public so there you are.

Add to that, stores such as Destination Maternity sell your contact information to other businesses. I suspect this how Enfamil, a formula manufacturer owned by Mead Johnson & Company, LLC, got a hold of my email address.

From here, marketing hijinks ensue.

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People build a lot of mystique into search engine rankings. They like to pretend that there is a big secret to how this works. There is only one secret: search engines don’t tell us all criteria they use to rank websites. They don’t reveal all of the details involved because they don’t want people gaming the system. (And people already try using what they do tell us.) Anyone claiming to know these secrets is either a liar or has committed a felony called industrial espionage. So you’ll want to avoid those people.

However, when search engines do share information, they tell us a great deal. For that part, there is no big secret. While there are a great many technical details that can go into making a site rank better in search engines, there are a few basics you should know about as a site owner. I’ve got 3 things you should know.

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