Twitter Hints: How to get more followers and retweets
Tools to help take your social media investment to the next level
With more and more companies using social media for lead generation and to boost brand awareness, tools and research are emerging that are geared at helping improve your methods and measure your effectiveness. While these tools don’t guarantee success, they can provide valuable insight and data as you begin to refine your strategic social media plan.
Not convinced that entering the world of social media is right for your business? Read our blog entitled, How Can Twitter and Facebook Help My Business? to learn more.
Boosting your number of followers
Social media sites like Twitter let you stay connected to your followers forever. Twitter helps you drive traffic to your website and build relationships with prospective customers. Whether you’ve already starting tweeting or are still putting your social media plan into action, you may want to visit search.twitter.com. Here you can enter your keywords to see if people in your industry are on Twitter and how active your industry is on the site.
Here are some steps you can take to help increase your followers and the sharing of your information through retweets:
• Add a bio to your profile and include a link to your website
• Use keywords for your industry in your tweets to boost your Google ranking since Google includes Twitter in its search engine results
• Share content from your blog (the foundation of your social media content creation and delivery) to help make your Twitter account stand out
• Sharing deeper, more thoughtful content that’s aligned with the needs and interests of your target audience has been shown to increase your reach by up to 75%
• Help convert followers to leads by including links to key landing pages in your tweets
• Tweet links to important company information like podcasts, videos, photos, presentations, eBooks and news releases
Since measurement is always a key part of any marketing initiative, you may also want to visit twitter.grader.com where you can get a percentile score based on the marketing effectiveness of your account(s). This score will tell you the number of times your account is listed on Twitter lists and the number of times you’re mentioned on other accounts.
Five ways to get retweeted
Research by Twitter expert, Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book, has uncovered five tips for posting tweets that get noticed. In the world of Twitter, getting noticed translates into the coveted retweet. Retweets tell you that what you’re talking about is of interest to your audience (or followers) and let you reach a larger segment of the Twittersphere than you would on your own.
1. The time of day and day of the week you post matters: Tweet in afternoons and evenings (between 3 PM and midnight to be exact), and on weekends to increase your chances of being retweeted. As well, the largest number of retweets occur on Friday.
2. Your choice of words matters: Zarrella’s research found the word “you” is retweeted the most. “The word ‘you’, while very common, seems to occur especially often in retweets, indicating that if you’re talking to ‘me’, I am more likely to retweet it,” states Zarrella. In fact, Zarrella has come up with both a generic list of the 20 most retweetable words and phrases and a tool (still very much beta) that tells you the most retweetable words about your specific topic. This tool analyses up to 1,500 tweets and 1,500 retweets per word, and each word is recalculated after 24 hours to keep up to date with current trends on Twitter.
He also found that the words retweeted the least are: game, going, haha, lol, but, watching, work, home, night and bed. According to Zarrella, “The lesson learned here is that if you’re trying to get more retweets, don’t just engage in idle chit-chat or tweet about mundane activities.”
3. Including a link matters: Zarrella also found that out of a random sample of tweets, only 19 percent included a link. When compared with a sample of retweets, this number goes up to 57 percent that included a link. The logical conclusion: a link may increase the chances that your tweet will be shared with others.
4. Use bit.ly for URL shortening: According to Zarrella’s research, the most retweetable URL shortener is bit.ly. This is followed by ow.ly. These URL shorteners are newer and contain fewer characters, which is probably why they’re more successful, according to Zarrella. The older, longer and least retweetable URL shorteners are tinyurl.com and twitpic.com.
5. Don’t overdo it: Although you might think that the more you tweet a link, the more attention you’ll get from your followers, but Zarrella says, “New data I’ve been working on seems to indicate that the more frequently you Tweet links, the fewer clicks you’ll get.” He suggests keeping your tweets to no more than one each hour to increase your chances of a retweet.
Good luck!
Jennifer Muzzin
Content Director
Robson Communications Inc.
1-877-472-3425
Robson’s Hosted Exchange Email: Delivering Secure & Affordable Business Email
Business email is now the dominant form of inter- and intra-corporate communications in virtually every industry – and from message delivery, file sharing, contact management, resource scheduling and as the hub of collaborative projects, Microsoft Exchange is the solution of choice the world over.
A significant portion of the messages exchanged include sensitive financial data and intellectual property. In fact, as many as three-quarters of the tens of millions of emails exchanged every day include intellectual property such as business models, product designs, customer and employee data, supplier agreements and pricing strategies. This has created a growing concern around the need for secured email services.
Threats to email security can include viruses, spam, phishing and hacking, to name just a few, but for many SMBs, the cost of ownership for Microsoft Exchange’s secure messaging platform is simply too high. Yet, Ferrik Research reports that, “Worldwide, spam will cost us all $130 billion; in the US alone, $42 billion. That’s a 30% increase over our 2007 estimates, which themselves were a 100% increase over our 2005 figures.” These statistics underscore the need for email security, as well as the power of Hosted Exchange Email to deliver the email messaging and collaboration solution SMBs want and need for a low monthly fee.
A Hosted Exchange Email solution lets SMBs capitalize on the platform’s perimeter and network security, spam management, reporting and other foundation-level efficiencies. Foundation-level efficiencies include advanced monitoring, OS provisioning, application lifecycle management and configuration management – tasks that can be highly cost prohibitive for SMBs, but that are all in a day’s work for a hosting company like Robson Communications.
Here are six key areas of security that Robson’s Hosted Exchange Email solution delivers:
1. Physical Security: Our three datacenters (two in Vancouver, BC; one in Toronto, ON), which host the Exchange email of our customers, are physically separated from our corporate offices and physical access to them is strictly controlled and limited to only those staff members who require access. This secures our overall infrastructure, including the servers that host our clients’ email, from unauthorized access.
2. Network Security: Fault-tolerant, brand name firewalls are used to protect our network. Each firewall is configured to block unauthorized traffic from entering the network, while a policy of redundancy and fault tolerance ensures all backup systems are instantly up and running in the event any one firewall fails. Our system also runs intrusion detection and prevention software that works in conjunction with the firewalls to monitor traffic flowing into the network. Suspicious traffic is isolated and our network management and security team are notified of any potential danger.
3. Server Security: Our NOC engineers and technical staff take a proactive approach to the ongoing security of our servers and are very well-versed in the proper configuration of each server – maximizing performance without compromising security. Consistent patching of Windows and Exchange Server software ensures the latest updates and fixes are installed.
4. Client Security: Data sent between the Exchange servers and the mail client used to access emails is secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The secure connection protects email as it travels between the mail client and the Exchange server, regardless of whether you’re in your office, at an offsite location or using a wireless or public Internet connection.
5. Antivirus & Anti Spam: Comprehensive virus protection and spam filtering at the network perimeter is provided by the Exchange Server 2007 Edge Transport server role, before dangerous emails can affect the network or reach your inbox. This is deployed with Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server to deliver a highly robust antivirus and anti spam solution.
6. Backup & Recovery: Daily backups are performed to ensure you’ll always have your email, even in the unlikely event of a catastrophic failure of the Exchange environment. Multiple backups let you easily recover from PC failures, comply with government regulations or retrieve inadvertently deleted messages.
At Robson Communications, our Hosted Exchange clients save an average of $15,750 annually (based on five mailboxes) – that’s $15,750 you can use to GROW your business!
Our plans start at just $8.99/mo! Sign up now and get the FIRST MONTH FREE (use Promo Code EXCHANGE2010). You can even enjoy unlimited storage and bandwidth when you sign up for our Hosted Exchanged Unlimited plan, starting at $12.99/mo. That’s anywhere from 56 percent to 70 percent less than an in-house system!
All Hosted Exchange Email plans are backed by our 30-day Money Back Guarantee, have no set-up fees and include our 100 percent network uptime guarantee.
Sign up today for your Hosted Exchange Email account with Robson Communications or contact us to learn more.
Kindest regards,
Jennifer Muzzin
Content Director
Robson Communications Inc.
1-877-472-3425
Hosted Exchange Email: The Access You Need, When You Need It
As the most popular business messaging platform, Microsoft Exchange delivers essential email, calendaring, collaboration and mobility solutions to businesses worldwide. A dynamic set of collaboration features like shared calendars and task lists minimize the time needed to align schedules and plan collaborative projects, while advanced mobility features let virtual teams work together and achieve tremendous levels of productivity.
Mobile devices like the RIM BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile are becoming more and more intertwined with the day-to-day operations of many businesses, creating an important advantage for companies that can access solutions like Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync . Key features that make ActiveSync such a powerful tool for virtual teams include:
• Seamless, integrated access to all your Exchange data (inbox, sent items, calendar, contacts and tasks) that is synchronized wirelessly and two-way.
• Synchronized deleting, creating and moving of email to your Outlook account.
• Ability to view attachments from the mobile device.
• Secure and encrypted communications.
• Ability to manage mobile devices using Outlook Web Access without additional software or licensing, including the ability to remotely wipe a lost or stolen device.
Unfortunately, many small to medium-sized businesses do not have the financial means to fully leverage the collaborative capability of group calendaring, task delegation and mobile technologies offer by Exchange. The Robson Communications Hosted Exchange solution levels the playing field by making it possible for companies of all sizes to fully leverage this enterprise-strength IT solution for a low monthly fee.
At Robson Communications, even the smallest company can benefit from this powerful business email and collaboration system. Our plans start at just $8.99/mo and when you sign up now you get the FIRST MONTH FREE (use Promo Code EXCHANGE2010). You can even enjoy UNLIMITED STORAGE AND BANDWIDTH when you sign up for our Hosted Exchanged Unlimited plan, starting at $12.99/mo.
With mobile users having anywhere, anytime access to email, calendaring, collaboration and mobility features, companies that choose the Robson Communications Hosted Exchange solution become more productive, responsive, competitive and ultimately more profitable.
Sign up for one of our Hosted Exchange plans today or contact us to learn more about this incredible business-ready solution that’s backed by our 100 percent network uptime guarantee and 30-day Money Back Guarantee.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Muzzin
Content Director
Robson Communications Inc.
1-877-472-3425
Software Patching: Another Hosted IT Value Add
The value proposition for today’s hosted IT solutions includes delivering easy-to-use services that enhance productivity, improve IT management and reduce capital outlay. Yet, if you look a little deeper, you’ll see that patching is another key benefit, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses that don’t want to pay for automated patching solutions.
All businesses – big, small and everything in between – depend on IT in one way or another. This introduces the need to patch your operating system and all the software you use to run your business. From the front-end to the back-end, this function can eat up your IT team’s time and focus. The alternative is hosted IT solutions that take care of this much-needed task at a price than won’t hurt your bottom line.
Whether you’re looking to outsource all or part of your IT needs to a reputable hosted services provider, there are three advantages to leaving the patching to them that are worth highlighting:
1. Patching is part of what your hosted services provider does. Their entire focus is on the products and services they offer. They know patch cycles and can usually manage these cycles more effectively than the average in-house IT team member.
2. Your hosted services provider is responsible for getting services updated, patched and up and running quickly for thousands of end users. While you might get frustrated with a few hours of email downtime, a hosting company stands to potentially lose a significant amount of money (and good faith) should this happen on their watch.
3. Your provider will likely have partnerships with the developers of the IT services you rely on, which translates into deeper support and stronger knowledge of patch cycles than your internal team probably possesses. The host is therefore better equipped to manage patches, deal with bad patches and effectively troubleshoot issues that arise along the way.
Are you looking to bring an email messaging and collaboration solution like Microsoft Exchange into your business and don’t want to deal with patching (not to mention the capital costs associated with a solution like this)? When you work with a hosted services provider like Robson Communications, you won’t have to. Contact us today to learn more!
Jennifer Muzzin
Content Director
Robson Communications Inc.
1-877-472-3425
Moving Your Business Email to the Cloud
Delivering the Anywhere, Anytime Access of Exchange Server at a Fraction of the Cost
If your business is struggling with limited mailbox space and dubious service levels for your email messaging system, now is the time to look to the cloud to unlock the email, calendaring, contact management and collaboration features of Microsoft Outlook at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself.
At Robson Communications, our Hosted Exchange clients save an average of $15,750 annually (based on just five mailboxes) – that’s $15,750 you can use to GROW your business!
As a trusted and local hosted services provider since 2002, Robson Communications delivers reliable, budget friendly technology solutions to businesses across Canada. Our Hosted Exchange solution levels the playing field for small to medium-sized business owners who want the features and functionality of Exchange Server without the cost and staffing burden of an on-premise system.
Get everything you could ask for in an email messaging and collaboration system:
• Email addresses with your domain
• Unlimited storage & bandwidth (Limited time offer on our Hosted Exchange UNLIMITED package)
• Unlimited email aliases
• User-friendly, web-based control panel
• Self-managed security for managing accounts, password & permissions
• Industry leading spam and virus protection
• Mobile device synchronization
• Outlook Web Access
• 24×7x365 phone & email support
• FREE & seamless migration to Robson’s Hosted Exchange!
And with our 30-Day Money Back Guarantee, no long term contracts and 100 percent network uptime guarantee, we’re confident you’ll be completely satisfied and stay with us as your business grows.
Let Robson Communications bring the power of the world’s leading corporate email messaging and collaboration system to your business. Sign up for your Hosted Exchange Email account today and receive ONE FREE MONTH when you use promo code EXCHANGE2010!
The Robson Communications Team
