At last count, there are 50 million tweets each day.  That equates to 600 per second!   Add well over 50 million blogs with 1.6 million posts each day and it is easy to realize that the field is more than a little crowded.

So how do you make enough noise to cut through all the chatter of your competitors and reach your target audience?  Here are a few tips that transcend mediums.  Whether you use them for Facebook, Twitter, or web, they all work:

1. Quality content

Imagine you were given control of a mountain stream and it was up to you keep the water quality high enough for the villagers in the valley below.  What if you infrequently allowed impurities through?  What if sometimes someone would get sick?  It would not take long before the villagers looked for another stream.

Every Tweet, Facebook update, and blog post is the same.  Unless you consistently provide information that your target audience wants to read, then it will not be frequented.  The principle is simple: quality content consistently provided trumps flashy tactics and Get-10,000-Visitors-In-2-Weeks seminars.

Sure, there are 600 tweets each second, but a study by Pear Analytics (PDF of report) found that 40% was “pointless babble” and only 8.7% had enough “pass-along value” to be retweeted.  You can be sure that users who look to Twitter for meaningful social interaction experience frustration wading through the inane as they search for interesting information.  If you diligently manage your information stream, you will quickly develop a reputation for quality content.

Consider the Drudge Report.  As a designer, I am offended by the layout, font choice, appalling lack of colors, and deprecated coding (did I mention the terrible font?).  But Matt Drudge is a sensational Internet success regardless.  Why would millions frequent his page each day?  Love him or hate him, the reporter who broke the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal cannot be beat when it comes to interesting headlines.

That, and he provides daily what people are looking for.  Which brings us to the next point…

2. Consistency

Not only does your stream need to be pure, but it needs to be consistent.  For blogs, that means posting on certain days like clockwork.  Studies show that when an author posts on a consistent basis instead of leaning on inspiration to strike, they have a higher rate of return visitors.  Like pavlov’s dog, a reader will think, “oh, it’s Friday — let me check their website.”

This may seem like a daunting task for those of us not bearing laudable writing talent, but it is doable.  The key is to not overcommit.  Start small with one post each week.  Studies show that Wednesday at 2:00 PM (I know, right?  Someone really researched this.) is the time to send a marketing email.  Once you are able to manage one post a week, move to two: Wednesday and Friday, the next best day to write.  Then move to three.

Every market is different, so Wednesday and Friday may not be peak times for your target audience.  This is where a quality website statistics tracker earns its money.  You can experiment with days and times and it will let you know what is most popular.  Do we do this with our client’s sites?  Oh, yeah.

Writing should be daily for Twitter and Facebook.  Facebook has unwritten rules of etiquette for status updates.  If you post too often, you begin to annoy.  That line, unfortunately, is not a set variable.  I doubt anyone would update too often anyway, but keep it under 4 per day.  If you feel particularly vocal, Twitter is for you.

3. Dialog

Monologs are unhealthy.  If someone takes the time to comment, you should reciprocate.  Start a conversation with them.  At the very least, say thank you.

4. Timeliness

The world has recently been focused on the Olympics, Lost final season, Oscars, economy, etc.  Take those topics and integrate them into your posts.  If you are a musician, talk about the music of the Olympics.  If you are a travel agent, discuss getaways that are like the Lost Island (without the scary black cloud of smoke and perpetual feeling of impending doom, of course).  A little creativity goes a long way.

•••

What do you do to attract visitors?  Have you found a killer tip that has made the difference?

First, a story. I began to notice that our company’s workload would dip significantly after a busy period so I researched to figure out why. It turns out that when we were unusually busy with our client load, we would not be as active with our social interactions and marketing strategy.

It was my fault. As High Protector of the Brand and the guy responsible for turning our marketing strategy into reality, I would get distracted from our company’s needs. The cobbler’s children were going barefoot. So I implemented a 2-part plan that goes something like this:

1. Every morning I work on our presence on Facebook, Twitter, write the blog, send emails, and make phone calls. At the most, this takes an hour each day.
2. Every Friday I spend quality time with the activities that are more time consuming: our promotional designs, articles for the next week, and website updates.

If we were all honest, I am sure we all are guilty of ignoring our business at times. It is easy to do. Marketing and social networking do not reap an immediate return and the immediate need sidetracks the future.

So take a moment, grab your pad and think about these questions:

1. What did you do this week to attract business to your company? What happened? Did it work?
2. What are you going to do next week to attract business?

Is it that simple? Yes and no. Thinking and planning will not get you far, but you cannot begin without first reviewing yourself.

In the hustle and bustle of providing a service for clients, businesses do a disservice to themselves by ignoring (or, heaven forbid, never creating) their marketing plan. Don’t be one of those. Take time today to evaluate your company and you will see growth.

In a well-intentioned attempt to be hip and “down with it,” companies have signed on to accounts only to discover no one cares if their board meeting is moved from Thursday to Friday.  The resulting lack of followers discourages them from posting ever again.

Whether it is the individual who does not care to share every waking moment with strangers or the business who is too enthusiastic about the banal, in each case the problem is not Twitter but the message being shared.  Part of this is the fault of the company who created Twitter.  There is a valid criticism that on the website above the place where you write your 140 characters of pure genius they ask, “what’s happening?”  For the business aspiring to get the message out about their company, that is certainly the wrong question to ask.

But we will get to that in a moment.

Twitter is shortsightedly demonized and overlooked.  It is merely a communication medium: if you are a business, it is another medium of telling your story.  All popular communication methods must be vigorously pursued if you want to grow your business.  It does not have to make sense to you or fit in your personal lifestyle habits.  Twitter is used fanatically by millions of people across the United States and that is all that should matter.

If you do not realize the results you first envisioned, the problem is you.  Instead of thinking of what you want to say, ask yourself “what does your audience want to hear?”  Or if you want to get even more basic, first ask yourself who your audience is.  If it is the mom in her 30s with 3 kids and you are a grocery store or kid’s clothing department, she wants updates of your specials.  If your clientele is everyone in the region and you are a club, they want to know what artist is performing this weekend.

It is so simple that I wonder why businesses do not take advantage of the golden opportunity.  A great example of doing it right is the local Whole Foods (@wfmsc).  They have nearly daily updates of classes and specials and even respond to questions.  If you want to hear the lecture on “Internal cleansing and colon health” it is on Tuesday.  Sure, they only have 414 followers and some of them are spammers, but think of the rest who they are communicating to on a daily basis for free.

All of the Twitter controversy leaves me wondering what there is to lose. Free communication to people who want to be updated is a no-brainer.

The last piece of the puzzle is creating a compelling message.  For Whole Foods, it is pretty easy to figure out but the bike shop down the road might be perplexed.  Ask yourself this: what do your customers care about?  If you are a bicycle shop, they obviously care about the latest innovations and gear on the market.  If that is the case, look each day for links to share of what is happening in your world.

This is not rocket science, I realize.  But you would be surprised how many business owners cannot even see the trees much less the forest.

Twitter will only be as good as you make it. If you need help crafting your message, we are always happy to help. Shoot us an email or give us a call at (888) 716-5272.