Yesterday, after I tweeted out one of the links I’ve found of interest, I received the following question back:

After verifying that Eric is asking about the stuff I microblog it occurred to me that this would make a very nice blog post topic. After all, in the ocean of information many of us are struggling to narrow things down just to the most relevant, useful, and actionable stuff.

Here are the 10 methods that I recommend (and use myself):

1. Stay focused in who you follow — This applies to the people you follow on Twitter and in your Facebook live feed, as well as the blog feeds and newsletters you’re subscribed to. “The more” is not always “the better”.
2. Utilize Twitter lists — I use them daily; and I’ve shared a good number of candidates for topical digital marketing lists here.
3. Subscribe to Paper.li newspapers — One of my personal favorites (which also a good example to use here) is a weekly Better Marketing Through Science by Jennifer Williams.
4. Read industry magazines — I have a list of some good ones (some of which are free) for digital marketers here. Most of them have both hard-copy and online versions available.
5. Interact!! — You can do all the reading and following you can, but unless you engage in conversations (through blog comments, asking questions on Facebook, and tweeting back to people on Facebook, etc) it’ll be hard for you to truly grow.

The above five help me personally (a) stay up-to-date on the news and developments in my industry, (b) always have topics to blog and microblog about, and (c) constantly expand my Rolodex of contacts. I am certain they can help you too, regardless of your niche/industry.

Have I missed the method(s) that help you? If so,  please do add through the “Comments” area below.

Wow… It seems that I’ve grown into a pretty talkative microblogger. Per #wdyjt, I’ve been on Twitter for 1,041 days, and in the course of this time I’ve already tweeted for 15,000 times:

It has been a greatly rewarding experience, and I highly recommend microblogging to everyone who loves making connections, educating yourself on an ongoing basis, as well as sharing your knowledge with others. Focused use of Twitter can yield invaluable fruit providing for a real-time monitoring of your industry news and developments, as well as a lot of great education on the subject(s) of your interest.

I thought it would be nice to commemorate my microblogging milestone by starting a Word Association game; but not exactly in the way it’s normally played. In my game let’s list the words and phrases (including negative ones, or fallacies) with which affiliate marketing associates for you.

I’ll start with my 15 words (in no particular order):

1. freedom
2. flexibility
3. get-rich-quick
4. expertise
5. performance
6. sales
7. niches
8. measurable
9. outsource
10. unmanageable workforce
11. professional secrets
12. hammock
13. laptop
14. home
15. autopilot income

Care to join me? If so, please use the “Comments” are below to add your associative words and phrases. Maybe together we’ll be able reach 15,000 associations as well.

Marketers (affiliates included) are actively using Social Media (especially Twitter), and, of course, one of the most popular “marketing methods” is the distribution of coupons and special offers through SM channels.

Guess what? It doesn’t work as well as you may be thinking!

In fact, there’s something that beats coupons and deals on Twitter, and that something is content.

I know you’re probably thinking “yeah, right!”, but a recent study by Lucent, a boutique word-of-mouth marketing agency that helps brands connect with moms, has revealed that US moms (who are known for being extremely deals-oriented) actually prefer tweets with “links to interesting articles/news” (71.3%) to tweets with “links to sales or special offers” (67.1%):

Similarly, the majority of retweets (moms RT-ing tweets from businesses) happens when the original tweet contains a link to an interesting article (76.1%) as opposed to coupon codes embedded into tweets (66.7%):

Read more in eMarketer’s Twitter Moms Care for Content over Coupons post here.

The above certainly gives Social Media marketers some interesting food for thought.

Not too long ago I have blogged about the 17 types of social media marketing channels. Since then Facebook has acquired FriendFeed [more here], which should enhance the real-time social search on Facebook, making things significantly better than they currently are on Twitter Search. Another reason behind it may be the latest trend of “friends” being replaced by “followers”. Yesterday, eMarketer.com has published some interesting Burson-Marsteller‘s research data which suggests that Twitter is, in fact, a more popular marketing tool than Facebook.

Out of all Fortune 100 companies who have Twitter, Facebook or blog presence:

• 54% are on Twitter
• 32% run their own corporate blog
• 29% have a Facebook fan page
• 20% use only one of the above social media channels

Twitter is being used for the announcement of news and customer-geared promos (i.e. broadcasting), customer service (i.e. as a two-way communication channel), and for employee recruitment. You may read more on this Burson-Marsteller’s research at eMarketer.com.

A few days ago I have blogged about the types of social media to use in marketing, and among the 17 types I’ve listed, there was microblogging. While there are services like Jaiku.com, Plurk.com, identi.ca, and other, Twitter remains to be the most popular among all.

Even our children are drawing pictures of the Twitter bird. Well, at least mine does (you may see her today’s little drawing on the left)…

So, how can you use Twitter to enhance your marketing and sales? Yesterday Forbes.com has published an article on how businesses can use (and are already using) Twitter. Forbes has put together a list of 21 things to use microblogging for. Most of these are directly related to marketing and sales. Here’s the list:

1. Coupon Campaigns
2. To-Go Sales Channel
3. Viral Marketing
4. “Conversational” Marketing
5. Artful Customer Service
6. Focus Groups
7. Direct Sales
8. Poaching Customers
9. News Feeds
10. Customer Expectation Management
11. Targeted Content
12. Mobile Marketing
13. Corralling Eyeballs
14. Call for Change
15. Vendor Selection
16. Conflict Resolution
17. Internal Communication
18. Employee Recruitment
19. “Tweet-Ups”
20. Research
21. Raising Capital

Great observations. The full article may be found here: Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips.

There is a number of social media channels/types that a company — be it an online-based, or a brick-and-mortar one — can successfully use in their marketing. I could count the following seventeen:

1. Blogging
2. Content aggregation
3. Crowdsourcing
4. Forums
5. Livecasting
6. Microblogging
7. Photosharing
8. Podcasting
9. Presentation sharing
10. Reviews & opinion sites
11. Social bookmarking
12. Social networking
13. Social news
14. Video sharing
15. Virtual worlds
16. Widgets
17. Wikis

Today two excellent lists have been tweeted about by a friend and fellow online marketer, Jim Kukral. They are full of examples of how various businesses are using social media in their marketing. Here are the links to them:

• A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples
• 300+ Cases & Examples of Social Media Marketing

In addition to the above two lists, you may also want to review the following ones:

• 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action
• 110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business

Both merchants and affiliates — however savvy or new to the world of social media marketing you may be — have something to learn from the five above-quoted articles, papers and websites. I have certainly found more than a dozen of good ideas to borrow.

A couple of days ago Rodney @Rumford, author of “Twitter As A Business Tool – Building Your Business 140 Characters At A Time”, has published an excellent piece on the marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter. I blogged about microblogging as a marketing, affiliate program management, and personal brand management tool not too long ago (see my To Microblog Or Not To Microblog post), and his article really hit home for me.

Rumford lists 7 marketing mistakes that people consistently make on Twitter. These are:

1. Inconsistent or no visual branding
2. Not listening for brand mentions and relevant conversations
3. Failing to interact
4. Using Twitter as a push marketing channel
5. Not selecting correct metrics
6. Not clearly identifying your brand’s Twitterers
7. Not determining your strategy

These mistakes are also commonly repeated in other online marketing channels, and I would encourage you to look through Rumford’s article at iMediaConnection.com and make your own conclusions.

First of all, what is microblogging?

About.com defines it as follows:

Microblogging refers to the posting of very short updates about oneself. It is in contrast to long-form blogging, where there are usually at least a few hundred words. Instead of posting a message on their regular blog, people who microblog use Web services designed to make microblogging very easy.

Webopedia.com is being a bit more specific:

Microblog — a type of blog that lets users publish short text updates. Bloggers can usually use a number of service for the updates including instant messaging, e-mail, or Twitter. The posts are called microposts, while the act of using these services to update your blog is called microblogging.  Social networking sites, like Facebook, also use a microblogging feature in profiles. On Facebook this is called “Status Updates”.

So, is microblogging really worth it for affiliate program managers (and/or other types of online marketers)?

I haven’t been using Twitter for too long (less than half a year of active use), but I am already seeing great benefits. With the help of my more personal @eprussakov account I have a capability of (i) staying on top of the most current news in the industries that interest me, (ii) connecting with other online marketers (some of the connections I’ve made are quite amazing), and (iii) sharing what’s important to me with those who decided to follow microposts about me, my life, and my professional interests.

Additionally, I also have an @AMNavigator Twitter account that I use to “tweet about the latest and the coolest stuff about the affiliate programs we manage.” I started this separate account just 36 days ago — see my blog post and video about it — and that account already has over 150 followers, and microblogging through it is already yielding fruit. I’ve been able to make connections with some of the coupon affiliates that I haven’t known about before starting the separate account for AM Navigator. Twitter is being actively used by couponers, and other types of affiliates are also starting to use it more frequently. If you have an affiliate program, a product, or a brand to promote, the question posed in the title of this post should not even be a question! Definitely microblog!!

Just as it is with anything new and exciting, it is certainly easy to get swamped in microblogging. It is fun, and it’s addictive. So, as with everything, remember to prioritize, and you’ll do well.