Who are active Twitter users? Those that use Twitter everyday.  Turns out, they are influencing all kinds of buying decisions – therefore, they are also influencing online marketing decisions.

According to the Marketing Profs, recent studies from CoTweet and ExactTarget found that active Twitter users are much more likely to be posting blogs, writing reviews and publishing online articles than less active Twitter users.

What’s even more interesting is that 23% of online users read Tweets at least once a month, even though only half of them actually HAS a Twitter account. So you can’t say that Twitter isn’t reaching an audience beyond Twitter.

When asked about following a particular brand on Twitter, most Twitter users follow brands to stay updated about the company, whether to stay informed about future products or interested in future sales.

Another interesting finding is that men are more likely to follow a brand to interact with the company than women (29% vs. 13%).

If your company is marketing online, you don’t want to ignore those active Twitter users – they can play a significant role in your online marketing!

The question many business owners ask is “What’s the Social Media ROI (return on investment)for me?” Does social media marketing really work?

Here’s a great video made by the folks at Socialnomics.

One of the people they profile is Gary Vaynerchuk, who is famous for his Wine Library TV website. He made a tremendous leap in sales using Social Media marketing.

I’ll be covering specific businesses in future posts, but for now, marvel at these Social Media ROI numbers:

If you read my last post : Are You In Google Maps?, you’ll know the importance of getting your local business listed in the  search directories.

But what you may not know is that Google has started showing local searches for terms that aren’t local. For example if you type in the word “plumber” in Google, chances are about halfway down the page, you’ll see the top 10 Google Maps results.

Now there are still some bugs to be worked out and it seems a bit unclear on how Google is determining where you are located. The consensus is that it is determined by the IP address, which is the address of where your Internet Service Provider is located, not necessarily where YOU are located.

My guess is that things may change a bit as Google uses this more, but the implications for the local business owner is great!

Try it now for the following terms:
- locksmith
- dentist
- lawyer
- doctor
- used car
- florist
- health food
- computer repair

This doesn’t work for all terms (yet), but NOW is time to make sure you are in the top ten on Google Maps for the search term you want in your city or town.  I have a feeling it’s going to be increasingly hard to get that top 10 spot after this gets popular.

If you are a local business owner and you need some help getting listed in Google Maps, give me a call! I can help.

If you are a local business (we call them brick and mortar), are you listed in Google Maps, Yahoo and MSN?

Sometimes you may show up there, but not from your own website. You may be listed from another directory service, such as superpages or yelp. That’s not necessarily bad, but you can control what is said about your business when it’s coming from you.

Here’s a quick way to check to see if you are listed. Go to Get Listed.org.

Type in your company name and zip code. Click “Check My Listings”. You’ll then be shown a “snapshot” page which will tell you if you are listed in any of the top 4 directories and what your listing looks like.

Did you know that you can add photos, categories, videos and reviews to your listings? (Reviews are added by others, not you!)

It’s not really difficult but sometimes it’s a little time consuming and can be confusing because of the verification process.

You can choose to do it yourself or let me do it for you! I can make sure that you are using the right keywords and categories for your business.

If you are a local business, getting in the top 10 position in Google Maps (for the correct category) assures you of increased traffic.

Don’t waste this valuable resource to increase your business.