In this episode, Mari gives you some useful tips on how to increase your blog traffic with social media share buttons.

Social media share buttons are a great way to get your readers to share your content on their own social media profiles without leaving your website. Mari reviews the different social share buttons available today and gives her recommendations on how to use them on your blog or website.

Share your feedback, see the show notes and discover how you can be part of a future show below!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfIewk4mDI4

Here are the social share buttons Mari reviews on this video:

Share Buttons for Twitter

TweetMeme: This is a WordPress plugin which allows you to set how you want the tweets to be prepopulated for your readers.

Twitter Share Button: This is Twitter’s own button and another option to use to get your readers to tweet your content.

Mari gives you suggestions on where to use these and reminds you to add a call to action with your Twitter share buttons.

Choose one of these 3 Twitter Share buttons to make it easy for your readers to tweet your content.

Share Buttons for Facebook

Facebook Like Button: Mari recommends where to place the Facebook Like button on your blog.  She explains what you can edit and how this impacts how it’s posted on Facebook and why the Like button gives you coveted visibility on Facebook.

Facebook Share Button: Mari also reviews how this second social share button from Facebook is different from the Facebook Like button and provides social proof.

Share Button for LinkedIn

LinkedIn Share Button: Mari explains how the latest social share button works and what it can do for you.

Add one of these 3 Linkedin Share buttons to incite your readers to share your content through their LinkedIn accounts.

Share Buttons for Multiple Social Media Sites

DiggDigg Plugin: This WordPress plugin provides a collection of social buttons to display on your site. There are two different versions: a static one and a floating version which appears on the side of your blog post and scrolls down as you read the full length of the post.

Sexy Bookmarks: This favorite tool adds a row of social bookmarks at the bottom of your posts. It’s very easy to use and lets you choose from over 85 different sites to use on your blog.

Use the Sexy Bookmarks below to share this post!

Wibiya Toolbar: The Wibiya toolbar is a free tool that’s displayed at the bottom of your browser window.  It allows your readers to interact with your different social profiles without leaving your site.  Mari reviews the various options here and shares how Wibiya gives you stats to find out who’s coming to your site and how long they stay.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, make sure to tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

We want to hear from you! Which share buttons do you have on your website?  Which buttons do you use the most to share content? Please tell us in the comments below.

However, what you get when you set up a WordPress blog can be pretty basic depending on the theme you choose. To make your new blog sing and work for you, it’s a good idea to install some key plugins.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Plugins extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress blog. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of plugins you can add to your site to optimize it, customize it, add some bling, make it easy for your readers to navigate and so much more.

Which Plugins Should You Use?

When it comes to plugins, how do you choose which to add to your blog?

To come up with this list, I asked my Facebook fans for suggestions.

Popular plugins fall into a couple of categories: those that enhance your readers’ experience, and those behind the scenes that help you with blog management and optimization.

How to Install Plugins

For the sake of brevity, I picked a finite number to feature. I encourage you to post your favorites in the comments and collectively we can create a great resource of tried and tested plugins.

To install any of these plugins, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard, click on Plugins and then search by name (see figure below).

The Impressive Plugins

What follows are 24 WordPress plugins you should consider.

#1: Audio player:

A simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customize the player’s color scheme to match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags and more.

#2: Viper’s Video Quicktags

Super-easy way to add videos from YouTube and other video sharing platforms to your posts.

#3: Photo Dropper

Lets you easily find and add creative commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr. You can watch a quick tutorial here about how Photo Dropper works.

#4: Sexy bookmarks

Nice visual graphics that encourage your reader to share your posts (as seen on this site). You can select from dozens of social sites, though I recommend keeping it to 5-7 popular sites so you don’t overwhelm your readers.

Make it easy for your readers to share your content.

#5: FBLikebutton

Allows you to configure and display the Facebook Like button before and/or after each post and/or page. If you want to increase your visibility on Facebook, this is a required plugin.

#6: Tweetmeme Retweet button

It’s ubiquitous now. The TweetMeme Retweet button is the de facto standard in retweeting – used by some of the biggest websites in the world. It increases your reach across the web.

#7: Disqus comment system

A service and tool for web comments and discussions. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community. (Used on this site.)

#8: CommentLuv

In addition to Disqus, CommentLuv is a very popular commenting plugin. When installed, it visits the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieves a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or Digg submissions that they can choose from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click Submit. This has been proven to increase click-throughs and is a great tool for increasing community engagement.

Comment Luv rewards commenters with a link back to their blog.

#9: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site. This encourages readers to go deeper into your content.

Based on post titles, content, tags, and categories, YARRP creates a list of related posts.

#10 & 11: Contact Form 7 and cformsII

You want your readers to contact you about one thing or another: for support, to post questions, to request info about your services, etc. I found that the basic WordPress contact form was not flexible enough. Contact Form 7 and cformsII both have features that allow you to create and manage multiple forms on your site. Both are simple to customize and you can direct the responses to be sent to any email address for management. You can see an example of a cformsII form here.

#12: Twitter Tools

A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. Show your tweets in your sidebar and post tweets from your WordPress admin.

Twitter Tools automates the connection between your blog and your twitter account.

#13: WordPress Editorial Calendar

The Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog. It’s a great tool for planning and organizing your posts.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4BnQZsgtZc

#14: All in one SEO

This one is on just about everyone’s list. Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.

#15: SEO Scribe (monthly fee)

This tool was mentioned several times by folks on my Facebook page. It is the brainchild of Brian Clark (Copyblogger). As stated on the website, “Scribe is a search engine optimization software service that analyzes the content of web pages, blog posts, online press releases, or any other web content … then reports back and tells you how to tweak your content to get better search engine rankings and more traffic, all while maintaining quality reader-focused copy.”

#16 & 17: Widget Context and Widget Logic

Both of these plugins give you flexibility and control to choose on what pages your sidebar widgets show up. This is helpful if you create sales and landing pages on your domain and do not want sidebar content distracting the visitor.

Widget Context gives you the option to choose what pages you want a widget to be visible.

#18: WP Touch

Automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm mobile devices (used on this site).

#19: WP Mobile

Shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected; the list of mobile browsers can be customized on the settings page.

#20: WordPress Database Backup

On-demand backup of your WordPress database. You’ve got to back up your blog on a regular basis or you risk losing everything. Do it monthly at a minimum, more frequently if you post a lot. Enough said.

#21: Google Analytics

It should go without saying that you need to know what’s happening on your blog: how many visitors, page views, referral sources, exit pages.

#22, 23 & 24: Subscription

I also strongly recommend adding an email subscription widget to your blog. The top three in my opinion are Feedblitz (fee), Feedburner (free) and AWeber (fee).

Each of these subscriptions offers a variety of features from basic (Feedburner) to a complete customized newsletter-style delivery system for your blog content (Feedblitz). Technically these are not plugins. WordPress defines widget as “independent sections of content that can be placed into any widgetized area provided by your theme (commonly called sidebars).” Each of these email delivery options requires you to have an account and then you configure subscription form HTML to paste in the sidebar of your blog (it’s not hard, really).

A word of caution. When you’re building your blog, try not to go too crazy with the plugins and widgets. Think about what you want your blog to do for your business and install the plugins that support your goals. That being said, you may also want to test various plugins to find the ones that suit you best. They’re easy to install, activate and deactivate if you decide they’re not right for you.

Now it’s your turn. Do you use any of these plugins? If so, how are they working? Did I miss any of your favorites? Leave a comment in the box below.

This can be considered one of the best ways to beat a case of old-fashioned writer’s block.  You just need to know where to look and set up some channels to provide at-your-fingertips-access when you need it.

Here are nine ways to use social media to find writing inspiration.

#1: Use Twitter for Monitoring Discussions

An example of keyword tracking using advanced Twitter search queries in HootSuite.

I personally like my inspiration in short, 140-character bites, as it provides the spark to think about a topic. If you use a Twitter management tool such as HootSuite, Tweetdeck or CoTweet, you can easily monitor conversations on any given topic by simply setting up searches for particular keywords.

My personal tool of choice is HootSuite, because you can have many tabs, each with 10 columns of searches. You can use the keyword searches simply to see current conversations on that topic, or go further with advanced Twitter search queries, such as:

• Keyword filter:links for people discussing a topic with a link in their tweet so you can see a news item, article, or blog post on the topic. -filter:links removes the link so you can see people just talking about something.
• Keyword ? for people discussing a topic and asking a question – this can be a great way to generate writing ideas because you know people will be interested in your writing if you answer most-asked questions.
• Keyword for people discussing a topic that they like, or Keyword for topics that they dislike – a great way to come up with a top 10 list of things people like or don’t like about a certain subject.

#2: Use Twitter for Monitoring Industry Leaders

Another way to be inspired is to simply see what leaders/authorities in a certain niche are talking about. But first, a good question is how do you find industry experts?

• If you’re looking for experts who blog, try out the Technorati search – just switch the slide over to Blogs and search for a keyword. The results will bring you the highest authority blogs related to that topic.
• Twellow directory allows you to search by keywords found in Twitter profiles. The results are sorted by the people with the most followers, which is not always (but is usually) a sign of an expert in that niche.
• Wefollow allows you to search Twitter users by particular keywords, and you can look at the people with the most followers or those who are most influential. Surprisingly, you will find that the results vary between the two lists.
• Listorious lets you search among Twitter lists for particular topics. Check out the top 140 lists which have the most followers for collections of industry experts.

Once you have found some people who are leaders in your area, create or follow an already-created Twitter list of the top writers in your niche and keep an eye on the things they talk about. Sometimes you may find that you have a little extra to add to what they say, or maybe you disagree and have a better alternative to something they write about. This is a perfect topic to write about in your own blog or article network – just be sure you mention the person who gave you the idea.

Another way to combine the world of experts with the above-mentioned keyword/question searches is to set up a search of questions being asked of industry experts. You would be amazed by the writing topics that can be inspired by simply setting up a search for @expert ? -filter:links to find any mentions of an expert’s Twitter username including a question but excluding any results with links. This limits the number of results in which someone is asking questions about a particular website or a retweet of the expert’s articles. Considering that some people have thousands to millions of followers, imagine how many questions are just waiting to be answered.

#3: Use LinkedIn Answers

Use the simple LinkedIn search box for queries.

Speaking of questions, another great place to find out what kinds of questions are being asked in your niche or industry is within the LinkedIn Answers section. Once you’re signed into your LinkedIn account, simply use the search bar at the top right, select Answers from the dropdown and enter your keyword.

If just reading questions doesn’t inspire you, why not try answering some? Use the Advanced Search option to find keywords specifically in questions only, and check the option to look for only open questions.

Use the Advanced Search for more specific LinkedIn Answer queries.

I’ve found that answering questions on LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers and even within blog comments has a tendency to inspire a new article idea.

#4: Facebook for Monitoring Discussions

Would you like to monitor topics being discussed on Facebook the same way you do on Twitter? There’s a site for that too, although it’s not as advanced as the Twitter search queries (which means no filtering links or finding only questions). Kurrently lets you monitor up-to-the-minute status updates made from public Facebook profiles.

Search real-time Facebook status updates with Kurrently.

Although you can’t do a search for questions only, you can include question phrases in your search, such as “How do I” keyword. But even if you put the words in quotes, Kurrently will pull any status update with those words contained anywhere in it.

#5: Niche Networks

If your niche or industry is super-specific and has networks that are narrowly focused on that area, why not check out the networks that cater to that specific audience? Some ideas on niche networks include:

• Active Rain for real estate professionals.
• Dogster for dog owners.
• Ballroom Dance Channel for dancers.
• Tennisopolis for tennis fans and players.

To find more niche-specific networks, just Google your keyword and “social networks” or visit websites where you can create your own network (such as Ning) and search for networks built with their platform.

Inspiration for Writing on Popular Topics

What if you’re not necessarily looking for just any topic to write about, but the topics that are going to be most well-received by your target audience? The best way to find out the most popular subjects is simply to look at what’s popular and trending right now. Here are some ways to find some great topics that are more likely to go viral.

#6: Social Bookmarking Networks

If your aim is to get a lot of votes on Digg or similar social bookmarking networks, why not check out what has recently and historically gained a lot of votes in your niche? The Digg search box allows you to look up any topic, then sort it by the Best Match, Most Dugg or Newest results.

Search results for "social media" in the new Digg platform.

You can also use the sidebar to get results only from a certain date range (today through the last 30 days), narrow it down to items that have received 50+ to 5,000+ diggs, and sort by a particular media format – in the case of article writing, you will want to go for News. You can also use advanced search queries such as -term to remove unwanted related items from your keyword search.

If Digg doesn’t cater to your industry, you should look at social bookmarking/voting networks that are more niche-specific such as:

• Sphinn for SEO to social media themes.
• Tip’d for financial news.
• Design Bump for design and freelance articles.
• Dzone for developers’ posts.
• BizSugar for small-business topics.

#7: Find Out What’s Most Popular on Twitter

If your goal is to have the most tweets, you will want to check out the following sites to learn more about topics that get retweeted the most.

TweetMeme

Tweetmeme lets you see what topics are tweeted about the most on a variety of channels such as comedy, entertainment, business, technology, sports and more. You can view items most retweeted today through the last seven days and sort the items by news, images and videos.

Example search results for "social media" on Tweetmeme.

You can also do a keyword search and sort by the highest number of tweets, age of the tweets (from the last day, week, or over a week old), search within categories and filter items with 100+ or 1,000+ tweets.

Topsy

Topsy is a search engine powered by tweets. Simply enter any keyword. Like the Google search box, it will also suggest specific ideas or phrases for you to get started, or you can just enter a more basic keyword. You can search within the last hour, day, week, month or all recorded tweets for a given keyword, and see the number of times those items have been retweeted.

Topsy uses a suggested search popup similar to Google.

Although you can’t sort items by the number of retweets, what I find particularly useful on this network is the piece of information you can find when you click on the number of times the item has been retweeted.

Example search result on "social media" in Topsy.

Hover over the Twitter username for more stats and the ability to follow.

On the next screen, you can either see all of the retweets for a particular item or you can see just the retweets by influential users.

This little piece of information helps you get to know not only what’s popular throughout the mainstream Twitter community, but what topics are likely to get retweeted by the bigger players on Twitter. Hovering over a user’s name, as shown above, shows the user’s stats as well.

#8: Most Popular on Facebook

It’s Trending is a great site to find out what’s being shared the most on Facebook. Although it doesn’t have a search feature for particular topics, if your niche falls under Sports, Tech, Gaming, Entertainment or Comedy, you can see the most shared items on Facebook in those areas.

ItsTrending.com shows popular shared items on Facebook.

You can also see what’s most popular on particular featured site, so if your writing subject is social media, you can see the topics on Mashable that have been the most popular on Facebook. See our review of It’s Trending for more details.

#9 Most Popular on Authority Blogs

Are you looking to secure a guest posting gig on a major blog, or simply looking to see which posts by authority bloggers in your niche or industry are the most popular? Check out PostRank, which gives posts a ranking based on their audience engagement through comments and tweets.

PostRank displays social engagement ratings for individual blog posts.

You can do a search for Great or Best Posts to receive the top content by particular blog.

Hovering over the engagement score shows social sharing details.

By hovering over the score, you can quickly see how that particular post was shared the most (Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

Your Use of Social Media for Writing Inspiration

Do you use social media, networks and tools to get you through writer’s block or to find the topics that are going to be most popular? What other suggestions do you have for writers in any industry on finding topics to write about?

Are you a blogger? Using WordPress?  This article contains a number of powerful plugins that will take your blog to the next level.

Blogging and Social Media?

Where does blogging fit into your social media mix? Many people I encounter still haven’t taken the time to start a blog for their business.  I’ve heard many different reasons for not having a business blog—from not having enough time to insecurity about writing style.

Blogging should be one of the cores of your business. It should be right in the middle of your social media mix—the bulls-eye, the main target.

It’s important to note that your blog is the hub into which all of your social media networks feed for optimal exposure. Some people feel overwhelmed by the notion of starting and maintaining a blog, so below I discuss 11 essential WordPress plugins to get your blog off to a racing start.

Before I share this list, I want to demystify the #1 procrastination of those who haven’t started their business blog: I am NOT a writer!

Yes, it’s important to check your grammar and spelling; however, blogging is about sharing your knowledge. You have specific knowledge in your particular niche that your customers need to know. If you feel insecure about your writing style, be sure to keep your eyes on the top bloggers in your industry. As you read other blogs, learn from their style and don’t be afraid to have your own voice.

Now, on to 11 WordPress plugins that will get your blog off to a great start:

#1: SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. This plugin improves traffic from search results.  Images are great for your blog and it is so easy to shorten the actual name of the image file as you upload it. I have had 60% more traffic to my blog just by naming my image files with keywords.

#2: Platinum SEO Pack

Platinum SEO plugin is the ultimate WordPress SEO solution.  Platinum SEO plugin offers all the features of All in One SEO plugin plus more. Here are a few key features:

• Optimized Post and Page Titles for search engines
• Generates all SEO-relevant META tags automatically
• Helps you avoid duplicate content

#3: Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. Additionally, it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post with new content.

#4: Akismet

Akismet is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again.

#5: Contact Form

Contact Form is a great choice if you value simplicity and flexibility. It provides a form on your website as an easy way for your readers to contact you. It allows you to customize the form and mail settings. You can manage multiple contact forms as well.

#6: TweetMeme Retweet Button

TweetMeme Retweet Button is for website and blog publishers who want to encourage their audience to share their content on Twitter. The button shows a live count of the number of times your web page or blog post has been tweeted.

#7: Yet Another Related Post

Yet Another Related Post gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site.

#8: Sexy Bookmarks

Sexy Bookmarks, though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites.

#9: CommentLuv

CommentLuv is a plugin that gives something back to your community straight away by including a titled link for readers’ last blog post or tweet on the end of their comment. It’s a great way to encourage comments on your blog.

#10: Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker checks your posts for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. Obviously you don’t want your readers to be annoyed by clicking a link that leads nowhere.

#11: WordPress Mobile Edition

WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that shows an interface designed for visitors who come to your site on a mobile device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected and the list of mobile browsers can be customized on the settings page. More and more people are accessing the Internet via their mobile devices, so you should make sure your blog is mobile-ready.

Other Plug Ins

There are thousands upon thousands of different WordPress plugins, but keep in mind that depending on your theme, certain plugins may not work well with other plugins. It is highly recommended to install plugins one at a time to make sure there are no issues with the presentation of your blog design.

For example, the Disqus Commenting System is another great plugin, but it conflicted with my blog design and didn’t work properly. After adjusting some programming code, this plugin is now working properly on my blog. I love this threaded commenting system that allows me to interact with my readers in a more seamless manner.

For further reading, Top 10 Easy Steps to Start a Business Blog is another great resource here on Social Media Examiner to get you started in the right direction for your business blog. It is vital to know your ideal reader, your core message and your business objectives, among many other things shared in this article.

This is just the start for your WordPress blog. Keep in mind that providing excellent content is the most important factor in the success of your blog.

Which WordPress plugins are you using to help to build community, optimize search engine results and increase viral potential? Let us know in the comments.

After all, without a steady stream of traffic to your blog, there’s little opportunity to engage your audience and convert readers to raving fans.

Methods change and evolve over time. When I wrote my first “how to drive traffic” post about five years ago, the list looked a lot different. There was no Twitter, no Facebook, no social sharing buttons, and no retweet button.

Yet some methods I advocated back in 2005 still work, so think of this as a refresher if you’re already employing all the social tactics for driving traffic.  You would be surprised at how many people don’t actually take the time to implement a variety of tactics. Maybe you can pick up a few new ideas or implement some old ideas you may have overlooked.

This list is in no way complete. I invite you to add your favorite tips in the comment section.

First, the tried and true:

#1: Publish as frequently as possible

The more frequently you post, the more traffic you get because the search engines are indexing your content more frequently. Of course your content has to be compelling as well, but that goes without saying, right?

#2: Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles)

Using numbers (see title of this blog post!) usually generates good traffic. Titles with “how to” also attract a lot of traffic.

#3: Send an email broadcast

Send email to your list when you have a great blog post you want to share. Ask for comments to encourage engagement and interaction.

#4: Add a link in your email signature

If you use web-based email like Gmail, add WiseStamp to your email signature so you can include links to your blog. Add your blog’s RSS feed so your recent posts are always featured in your emails. WiseStamp works with web-based email services including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and AOL.

WiseStamp adds all your links to your email signature and is simple to install and edit.

#5: Include multiple subscription options on your blog

Most blog platforms have RSS feeds built in, but don’t forget to add an email subscription option as well. Email is ubiquitous and if you only offer RSS, you lose a huge opportunity for people to get your content and become regular readers. Email subscription services include Feedburner, Feedblitz and AWeber, to name a few.

Give your readers multiple options for getting your blog updates.

#6: Try article marketing

Article marketing is a powerful way to attract traffic. Post your articles at EzineArticles.com and include a link to your blog in your author resource box. Also set up your author account to automatically send a tweet when you post new articles. That drives traffic to your article which drives traffic back to your blog.

#7: Comment on blogs in your industry

This is all about outreach and boosting your visibility on complementary blogs. Target influential blogs, read them on a regular basis and then contribute to the conversation as appropriate. When you comment, you have the option to include the URL to your blog.

#8. Do some guest posting

Writing on other people’s blogs can introduce you to a new audience and create a surge of new traffic to your blog. You can find more information and a great resource for getting guest posting gigs here.

#9: Conduct surveys and polls

People love to give their opinion. Use Polldaddy or SurveyMonkey to ask your readers what they want or get their opinion. More often than not, those who respond will help spread the word, especially if you ask and/or offer a gift in exchange.

#10: Submit your blog to directories

While it’s debatable how much traffic you’ll get by having your blog in directories, it can’t hurt to be listed. Most definitely I would recommend you add your blog to Technorati, the largest blog directory on the web, and Alltop.com, a popular directory with the best of the best organized by topic.

Now the social media tips:

#11: Make a Google profile

You can’t ignore Google. Set up your profile on Google and include links to your blogs and websites. Whenever someone does a search on your name, a link to your profile will be featured at the bottom of the first page of search results. You can include pictures, links to your blog(s), products, website, and social networks.

Build your profile on Google.com/profiles with links to your blogs.

#12: Syndicate to Twitter

Use a plug-in like Twitter Tools (WordPress) or an application like Twitterfeed.com to syndicate your new posts to your Twitter stream. Hootsuite, the Twitter management tool, also offers this function. TypePad has this option built into the platform as well.

#13: Syndicate to Facebook

Use the Facebook Notes application to pull your blog feed into your profile and/or fan page.

#14: Syndicate to LinkedIn

You can add three URLs (make sure one is your blog!) to your LinkedIn profile, as well as syndicate your content with the Blog Link application.

#15: Use Hootsuite

Use Hootsuite if you have multiple blogs to syndicate your new content to multiple platforms including your Twitter accounts, Facebook profile and fan page, LinkedIn and Ping.fm to broadcast to more sites for even greater reach.

#16: Distribute your video

Distribute your videos on all the video sharing platforms. Include a link back to your blog home page or specific blog posts that are relevant to the content in your video. TubeMogul is a free site where you can upload your video once and it will be published on up to 20 video platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, and more.

Distribute your video to many sites with Tubemogul.com

#17: Add the retweet button to your posts

Grab the plug-in or the code from Tweetmeme and make it super simple for your readers to click and share with their networks.

#18: Consider share buttons

There are many plug-ins and add-ons to add buttons to your blog that make it easy for readers to share your content on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. Find the style that suits you and add it to the footer of your blog posts. The popular plug-in used on this site is Sexy Bookmarks.

#19: Use social bookmarking

Use sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious to share your content. When you have a particularly great post, ask your readers to help you out with bookmarking. Don’t overdo it, but if you think your post deserves some additional attention, don’t be afraid to ask.

OK, your turn. Are you using any of these tips with success? I know there are at least 100 more ways to drive traffic to your blog.  Please add your tips to the list by commenting below.

Do you want to improve your Twitter listening skills? Here’s a closer look at how to monitor your brand, yourself or your competitors using Twitter (and you don’t need to be a big business!).

Why Is Twitter an Ideal Listening Tool?

Here’s why Twitter is one of the best social media platforms for listening:

• Real-time results. We’ve all heard examples of how breaking news spreads immediately on Twitter. Because of Twitter’s real-time search engine, you can get a quick pulse of public opinion.
• Wide reach. Twitter is useful to many different types and sizes of businesses.
• Direct feedback. You hear what people are saying as they say it.

With these points in mind, simply follow these guidelines to grow bionic listening ears.

#1: Decide What You Want to Monitor

Decide which information you want to monitor.  Common types include your brand names, industry keywords, customers and competitors.

A daily listening routine gives you more value over time. Spend the time you need to find the right mix and create a routine that works for you.

# 2:  Find the Best Real-Time Monitoring Tools

Real-time market information is valuable to many businesses today. Here are Nathan Hangen’s suggestions for using Twitter tools. But as professional blogger Ching Ya says, “there’s no such thing as the perfect search tool.” Have a look at Twitter monitoring tools in the decision tree below that Ching Ya put together:

Twitter Monitoring Tools. Image source: http://www.wchingya.com

A good place to start looking for the right people to monitor on Twitter is Twellow.  Also check out Twellowhood for location-based searches.

# 3: Track With URL Shorteners

Use URL shortening tools to monitor the links you share on Twitter and help you find out what’s popular with your audience.

As Jeff Bullas says, the popular URL shortener bit.ly “allows you to track how many people are clicking on the shortened link with a set of metrics that displays it in a visual format as well as textually.” This makes it easy to track your important links and monitor the interactions you have on social media.

#4: Follow Hashtags

Hashtags are a simple search tool. People follow hashtags for Keywords, Events and Trending Topics.

You can simply use Twitter search on a hashtag.  You can also go to Hashtags.org for statistics.

Found a hashtag, but don’t know what it’s about?  Look it up on What The Hashtag, a user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags.

There are also many tools to help you monitor hashtags such as Monitter and Twitterfall.  Have a look at how John Haydon uses multiple hashtag searches on TweetGrid to make sure he doesn’t miss parts of the conversation relevant to him.

Be sure to watch the above video!

# 5: Monitor Trends When It’s Appropriate

Twitter is the best social media platform for real-time search. If staying current on what’s happening in the world is important to your business, you also need to stay current on the latest tools for monitoring trending topics on Twitter.

Hashtags are also used for trending topics, so the tools you use for hashtags can also help you to monitor trending topics.  In addition to the hashtag tools mentioned above, there are a few other tools to keep in mind when following trends on Twitter:

• Trendistic provides a variety of graphs to follow and compare different trends.
• Tweetmeme reveals popular retweeted content.
• Follow @twithority and @TweetingTrends for up-to-date tweets on current trends.

#6: Use Twitter Lists to Monitor People on Twitter

You might find it convenient to create your own Twitter lists and monitor people through these lists.  Remember, you can set up a private list to follow your competitors and you’ll be the only person to see this private list on your Twitter profile.

You can also set up an RSS feed to follow someone else’s Twitter list using Twitter Lists 2 RSS.

#7: Set Up a Listening Plan

A simple listening plan can involve these simple procedures:

• Check your keywords on Twitter Search.
• Sign up for RSS feeds of the search results you need.
• Sign up for email updates for your most important keyword results using tools such as SocialOomph.

You might lose the edge of real-time search but you’ll find more value in a regular routine. With clear objectives on what you need to monitor and by drilling down to find what you’re looking for, simple monitoring tools can give you great results.

#8: Build Relationships

As Olivier Blanchard says, you’re listening to people, so remember to be human. Listening is the first part of creating real relationships with people and it’s only one part of using social media for your business.  You still need to connect your Twitter listening to other social media activities to cultivate and nurture relationships in social communication.

As you proceed to connect and engage with people on Twitter, here are a few words from Olivier: “Engagement doesn’t have to be a perfectly designed and executed PR program where every bit of interaction is carefully crafted and weighed against all possible outcomes. Let it be a living, breathing, imperfect thing: Wing it a little.”

To develop your bionic ear you’ll need to interact and adapt your approach based on what you learn when listening on Twitter.  Follow these 8 steps to listen more and learn more about the people you want to connect with on Twitter.

What are you doing to develop your Twitter listening skills?  How is it working for you? Please share your comments below.

As my recent poll shows, generating incoming traffic is the number-one need that people have right now, and for good reason. Traffic translates into:

• Attention, engagement, conversation and recognition
• Spreading your message far and wide
• Prospects and subscriber opt-ins
• Customers, increased sales and leads
• Media and interviews, which lead to more attention

… and last but not least, an ego boost.

In a previous article here I mentioned the many benefits of Twitter for your business. Now here are seven key points you need to know if you want to get more targeted traffic from Twitter:

#1: Know your audience

Growing your traffic always starts with your audience if you want to do it right. Untargeted, uninterested “hits” are a waste of time and resources at worst, and at best just pure vanity.

• What does your audience want and need?
• How do they like it delivered?
• Which topics are on their minds right now?
• Are there trends that are growing in popularity?
• How do these folks speak? What words and phrases do they use?

This means that driving traffic starts with listening and observing. Get to know your target so you can most efficiently engage them.

Twitter has a tool for this. Use search.twitter.com to find what people in your niche are talking about and follow some of their conversations.

Once you get an idea of what people are interested in, join in those conversations and talk to people.

#2: Get the “right” followers

So much rubbish is thrown around about how to grow your follower count that it makes it seem that the number is all that matters. Wrong!

You need people to want to hear what you have to say. This means you do NOT want people who auto-follow because they are either:

1. Robots and not real human beings (e.g., spam software, people trying to inflate their follower count, scrapers)
2. Not actually reading your tweets and just following to allow you to DM them

The followers you most want are those who follow you because they are interested and think they will get value from your tweets. These people are most likely to find you via:

• People retweeting your stuff, either within Twitter or using a TweetMeme button
• Referrals from other Twitter users
• Your blog; for example, your articles that say “Follow me on Twitter at @chrisgarrett and tell me what you think,” or your sidebar Follow Me button
• Other people’s blogs, when you guest post or comment
• Clicking your forum signature when you participate in discussions, or your email signature

Unfortunately Twitter closed off a really nice way that people used to get targeted Twitter followers. It used to be that we could “listen in” to conversations that people we followed were having, but now you have to be following both parties. This means we can’t discover new people that way. If someone puts something before they mention your @name it can still work, and I still occasionally get followers through that.

Essentially the advice is, put your Twitter name where it will be seen and encourage people to share it!

#3: Build engagement

Talk to people.

Engage your followers. Don’t just see them as a passive list of eyeballs! Treat folks as human beings and you will do much better at this stuff. It is called social media for a reason.

• Ask questions
• Hold conversations
• Dip into others’ conversations
• Encourage feedback

#4: Get clicks

So now your followers are seeing you as an interesting person and not a robotic “feed,” which means they are more likely to take notice when you tweet out a link.

Tweet Valuable Links

Whatever you do, don’t just tweet your own stuff. That is both selfish and boring!

Get into the habit of sharing anything cool, regardless of who created it. Retweet good stuff and other people are going to be more willing to retweet yours. Tweet out fun and useful links your friends send you in email or from the news. Be known as a person who tweets good stuff.

Timing

Not everyone is online at the same time. There is a whole world outside of your timezone, plus people have a different schedule than you. You know the feeling of confusion when you land in a foreign country. Not only have you got to adjust to local time, but also people seem to have their meals at a different time of day, shops open and close at strange hours, and business meetings seem to be held randomly. Twitter is like that, you can’t just look at a time zone converter and think people will be at their desk at a certain time.

1. Tweet the same thing a few times, a few hours apart, to give your message several chances to be seen.
2. Vary the times of day you tweet and monitor response.
3. Watch for the peaks and troughs of activity in YOUR stream (not just what works for others).

I tend to aim to catch the peak times for Aussies, the EU/Brits, East Coast USA, and West Coast USA, but it is far from an exact science!

Headlines

There are two main driving factors that affect your chances of getting a click:

1. Your reputation
2. The headline

Hopefully at this point #1 is taken care of, but #2 takes some work.

First of all, use my free download 102 Proven Headline Formulas as a starting point. There are 102 fill-in-the-blank templates which ought to give you a head start on writing a compelling caption.

If you use an interesting title and it matches your audience’s wants and needs, then you are going to get clicks.

Split test

You might not get it right the first time, so try another variation:

• Phrase it as a question
• Make it into a “How To” headline
• Use curiosity versus just the facts

A lot of this is about learning what your audience reacts to best.

#5: Measure performance

When you use a link-shortener with a built-in click-tracker such as bit.ly, you can see how well any of your links perform. This is useful for improving over time and to see which links get picked up virally.  As they say, what you measure you get more of!

With Twitter it’s not just the link clicks that YOU get, but the retweets and shares that really drive the real traffic. TweetMeme and bit.ly can give you vital reporting about how well you do, as well as your Google Analytics.

#6: Do more of what works, but test, test, test

When you find what works for you, do more of that. Keep in mind though that if you only do the same things you will either get the same results and not improve, or you will wear out that technique. Experiment, learn and mix it up.

Trends change, techniques improve, fads go out of fashion. Do not get stuck on rails, move and flow with your audience.

#7: Encourage sharing

Once you have your initial click, your job is not done!

Make sure your article has a TweetMeme button so that anyone who likes what you shared can easily share it too.

If you want to get really fancy, give people an incentive to share, such as a random prize drawing for anyone who tweets your message. Of course, the message will contain a link back to you …

Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to actually ask for retweets. Just don’t overdo it, as you will only annoy your followers. This will make them less responsive, rather than more.

Does it really work?

Here is a case study for you. For the last Social Media Success Summit in 2009, Mike Stelzner and I ran a competition on chrisg.com using all the advice mentioned here in this article.

The competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times

Using TweetMeme we can see that the competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times before it stopped tracking.

Social Media Success Summit 2009 Competition Clicks

Just the cli.gs link alone was clicked 12,753 times.

So yes, it does work.

Bottom line:

• Gather the correct audience
• Be awesome
• Share cool stuff
• Encourage other people to share it too

Does Twitter work to generate traffic for your stuff? Got any tips to share? Anything people do that annoys you? Please share—go ahead and comment below right now!

Want to make it easy for readers to share your great content with their tribes? If so, keep reading as I share six social media add-ons you can effortlessly integrate into your blog today. Your immediate result: much better engagement with your readers. And by the way, I’ve used them all—many on this very site.

An aside… The key to encouraging social activity is making it easy for people to act. The less friction there is between desire and action the more likely people will share your content or reach out to you. Fortunately these six excellent tools make encouraging activity easy—and dare I say, fun!

#1 TweetMeme—The Ultimate in Social Proof

In times past it was said that comments were the currency of bloggers. But far too often outstanding content only attracts a comment or two. What if there was a better way to determine if people like your posts (while also driving traffic to your blog)? Well now there is. Introducing TweetMeme’s Retweet Button.

TweetMeme’s button provides readers an effortless way to share your post on Twitter (and much more). Readers simply push a button and your post shows up on their Twitter feeds—driving more traffic to your page! But the real power is in the number it displays on your page. Every time anyone tweets about your article, TweetMeme tracks and displays a number on the page (whether they used the button or not).

This is one of the most powerful social barometers I have ever seen. The bigger the TweetMeme number, the more others feel compelled to read your content and share it.

You can add the TweetMeme badge anywhere on any page (blog or not). I like to display it at the top of the page. The higher the number, the more likely it broadcasts to readers, “Others think this is important, so you need to read this too!”

I really like the WordPress plugin (note that other platforms are also supported) because you can substitute your own Bit.ly account (a URL tracking service) and include your own Twitter ID in any retweets.

Here’s an added bonus. If one of your readers has a TweetMeme account (not required to use), when he or she clicks the “retweet” button, TweetMeme publishes the page to their Twitter account without leaving the page, a really powerful feature.

#2 DISQUS Comment System—The Ultimate in User Engagement

DISQUS is a VERY powerful comment system that takes over your existing blog’s comment functions and adds very powerful features. For example, with DISQUS readers can add video comments or leave comments using their Twitter or Facebook ID, and you can have multiple individuals moderate your comments.

I was a bit critical of DISQUS when I first reviewed it.  However, the service has since increased its features.

A few of my favorite capabilities include an indented comment stream (see image below) and the ability to add and display new comments without the page reloading. The experience is so user-friendly that I found people leaving a lot more comments after I installed DISQUS.

Also, if you have a free account with DISQUS, it recognizes you whenever you visit a site that uses the service. This means no need to type in your name and email, simply leave a comment.

A few pointers: As a commenter, you should register yourself with DISQUS. When you do, set up your name and website address so it will display properly when you leave a comment (under Profile | My Settings). So instead of non-identifiable ID I was assigned (like MikeS22) I can customize it to say “Michael Stelzner” and link to my site. If you do not do this, your name appears abbreviated and will not link back to your site, making it hard for folks to discover more about you based on your brilliant comments. While you’re in there, add an avatar or link to one from your Twitter account.

#3 Gravatar.com—Faces Make Comments Come to Life

Gravatar is a universal platform that displays a reader’s picture based on the email address he or she enters into a blog’s comment form. Thus, when you visit a blog and leave a comment, your email address is matched against the Gravatar database and your picture displays (see sample below). This only works if you have registered your email address with Gravatar and added a picture.

I’m pretty sure the latest versions of WordPress work automatically with Gravatar. However, if you are hosting an older WordPress blog, you’ll want to install WP-Gravatar for Gravatar support.

A few tips.  If you have multiple email accounts, set them all up under your Gravatar account to ensure your mug shot always appears, regardless of which email address you use.

#4 Sexy Bookmarks Plugin—The Easy Way to Share Great Content

There are a number of tools that allow your readers to share your post on different social networks, but none come close to Sexy Bookmarks.

This WordPress plugin allows you to display the social sites of your choosing and is visually appealing.  When a user “mouses over” an icon, it animates on the screen.  And yes, you change the “Sharing is sexy!” text.

The backend of this WordPress plugin is exceptionally sophisticated. For example, you can enter in your Bit.ly API code and the plugin will use your account to create tracing URLs.

#5 Twitter Follow Badge—The Simple Way to Grow Twitter Followers

Twitter Follow Badge creates a nifty little button that always remains on the page as users scroll through your content, making it easy for them to follow you on Twitter. You also can customize it to match the color scheme of your site and determine where you want it to live on the page.

The main benefit of this little widget is folks can easily follow you on Twitter.

#6 Meebo Me—Adding Live Chat to Your Page

Ever been to a website that said, “Click here to speak to a live agent”? How would you like something like that for your blog (or any web page for that matter)? You can with Meebo Me, a simple embedded chat system you can place on any page (or all pages) of your site.

This free service allows anyone to chat with you immediately. What’s cool about this is it integrates into all your other chat accounts. So now you can have them all in one interface AND still answer live questions from your readers.

This chat capability is very powerful and should also be used on your product landing pages.

So what do you think? Do you use any of these tools with success? Do you have others to share? I’d like to hear from you. Just type in your message below.

I recently sat down with Dan Zarrella. Dan is a social media and viral marketing scientist. He’s also the author of the brand-new book coming out called The Social Media Marketing Book by O’Reilly.

What’s really unique about Dan is that he makes science practical for the social media world. He takes a deep look at what’s going on with social media activity and he extracts knowledge or nuggets that are really amazing and very helpful for marketers.

Dan has contributed to major websites like Mashable, Copyblogger and ProBlogger. He has also developed a number of tools for Twitter, including TweetBacks, which is a great tool that actually helps bloggers display tweets related to a blog post on their website. He also works at HubSpot as an inbound marketing manager.

Mike: Dan, tell us a little bit about your background. How did you become so interested in things like Twitter?

Dan: By trade, I’m a programmer. My first real job was as a webmaster and I built a bunch of tools for the company I was working for at the time.

Then I moved into search engine optimization (SEO). My interest in social media in general started as an offshoot of SEO, generating content. Writing content with the keywords in it is pretty easy. Anybody can do that.

The hard part of SEO, of course, is getting links to your stuff. You can buy links, you can exchange links and you can do shady things like that, but eventually Google is going to catch you. It takes a lot of time and a lot of investment and it’s not really worth it anyway.

The only acceptable way to get links is by writing link-worthy content and using social media to promote it and getting other people to link to you. So I started playing with Digg and working on getting things on the front page of Digg because you can get a lot of links that way.

Then Twitter kind of blew up and I started getting into that initially, to be completely honest, just as a way to help my stories do better on Digg. But then once I got into it and realized the power behind it, especially with retweeting, which is one of my absolute favorite phenomena ever, I started focusing on Twitter.

What I think is so unique about Twitter, again, specifically retweets, is that people have been sharing content or sharing ideas for thousands of years. In fact, most of our culture is based on that concept. The chair you’re probably sitting in right now wouldn’t exist if somebody didn’t have the idea to build a chair and then tell somebody else about it, and then the idea caught on.

So retweeting specifically, I think, is a godsend if you’re interested in figuring out what types of content are contagious.

Mike: I want to get into retweets a lot, actually. But first of all, tell me what a social and viral marketing scientist is. What does that mean?

Dan: The best way for me to explain is if you think about the people who give a lot of social media advice or many of the gurus ‘in the space,’ a lot of them are doing what comedian Stephen Colbert refers to as “truthiness.” It’s advice that sounds good or sounds warming inside. I call it soft-focus sort of rainbows and unicorns stuff. It’s stuff that sounds right and it makes you feel good inside, like, “Be transparent and be honest and be nice and be helpful.” Those are good ideas. There’s nothing wrong with those.

But what I’m interested in, and being a programmer at heart, is learning more about what actually causes things to go viral or what actually causes people to take certain actions. Rather than just, “This sounds right,” I want to know what’s actually correct and what’s actually true.

Mike: You just want the data to prove that these things are accurate.

Dan: Yes, the hard data just to prove or disprove in some cases what actually happens and what’s actually good advice and what are really good best practices.

Mike: Where do you get your data as a scientist?

Dan: A lot of different places. The Twitter API is amazing. I have several systems built that capture every retweet that happens. Or I can write scripts very quickly that will draw whatever type of data I’m looking for from Twitter.

Then, of course, there are all the other APIs of the social web applications. Digg has an API that’s wonderful to use. Also, at HubSpot we have developed a number of grader tools. Twitter Grader is the one that’s probably the most well-known. Now that I work here, that allows me to dig into a database of over 5 million accounts and analyze all sorts of fun data there too.

Mike: For folks who don’t know what Twitter Grader is, it’s a great little tool. You can put in your Twitter ID and it will rank you up against other people in the Twitter universe by giving you a score from 0 to 100. I think it’s really very cool. It also helps set you apart by physical location.

How do people find Twitter Grader, Dan?

Dan: The main URL is www.TwitterGrader.com. From there, we also have www.WebsiteGrader.com, which gives you tips on how to optimize your website for SEO.

I actually didn’t build the tool. It was built before I got here.

I think one of the  useful things about any kind of measuring or grading tool is that people love to compare themselves to other people. There’s a Twitter Grader badge and you can tweet about it. Of course, when you get a grade and it’s good or bad, you want to tell people about it. You want to say, “Look, this is what I am.” It definitely spreads word of mouth. There has been a bunch of blogger coverage [of Twitter Grader], and it definitely spread because people wanted other people to know how they stacked up.

We also have www.FacebookGrader.com and www.PressReleaseGrader.com and things like that.

Mike: Let’s talk a little bit about retweeting because I know this is something you’re very passionate about.

I know you’ve done a lot of research. First of all, talk to us about the findings. What makes folks retweet? What are the main characteristics of messages that tend to go viral?

Dan: One of the first things is that a lot of tweets—I think it’s something like 20%; I have the exact numbers on my site—have links in them. That’s just random all tweets, not just retweets. Retweets have more of a tendency to have links in them. So, clearly, if a tweet has a link in it, it’s much more likely to get retweeted.

Another one that is kind of a no-brainer, but is really, really powerful is if you ask people to retweet a tweet for you. If you say, “Yada, yada, yada,” with a link and then you say, “Please retweet,” you’ll get a lot more tweets than if you didn’t.

Mike: What’s the psychology behind that?

Dan: I think there are two things. There’s a call to action there. With any sort of marketing, you always want to tell people exactly what to do and what action you want them to take. I think that’s probably the thing that’s most powerful.

The other thing is that people who are going to see something that says, “Please retweet,” are following you, which means they like you for whatever reason. So if you’re asking for a favor, it’s not really a big deal. Most Twitter clients have a one-click kind of retweet thing and so they’ll do that for you.

Mike: So far, we’ve talked about how retweets often have links and often have a request to retweet it. What are some of the other characteristics?

Dan: More recently, I’ve done research into the linguistics of retweets. Actually, some of my findings here were sort of surprising.

I assumed that with most kinds of viral content outside of Twitter, the message had to be simple and people had to get it in order to retweet it. So I ran the Flesch-Kincaid, which is a standard test of readability, against random tweets and retweets, and I found that retweets, surprisingly, have a slightly higher grade level required to read them, which means they’re more intelligent or they’re more complex.

Mike: What does that mean for a marketer, just out of curiosity? How does that translate?

Dan: It means you shouldn’t be afraid to not dumb down your content.

Another thing I found, and I think this might have to do with that readability, is I looked at word uniqueness. I took every word in my database of millions of tweets and millions of retweets and I looked at how many other times those words occurred in that data set.

It turns out that retweets, the words used in them, tend to be a lot more unique and novel.

Mike: Do you have any examples off the top of your head?

Dan: Novelty is huge in all type of viral marketing. That’s one thing that’s pretty important.

Another thing I looked at is the actual breakdown of parts of speech in tweets versus retweets. Retweets tend to be very noun-heavy and speak in the third person.

What I think that has to do with is one of the most retweetable phrases is actually “new blog post.” What that comes from is in WordPress and a bunch of other publishing platforms, there are features where you can automatically publish or automatically tweet the newest content. So if you’re doing a WordPress blog and you write the blog about whatever and then the system automatically tweets it for you, typically it will start the tweet with the prefix “new blog post.” Then that gets retweeted a ton.

What that means is that a lot of retweets are actually headlines. Headlines, if you think of some newspaper headlines, tend to be very noun-heavy.

Mike: So “new” is obviously one of those keywords there. “Blog post” implies some valuable content that they’re going to be clicking on. And the link, of course, is going to be present because that’s going to be pointed to the blog post and then maybe asking for the retweet.

Do you also think some of the tools that are now on blogs like TweetMeme are going to help increase the retweets?

Dan: Absolutely. To compare this to some other data that I’ve looked at, when a tweet gets tweeted, the more it’s retweeted, the more likely it is to be retweeted, which means that even if you’re not asking for a retweet by saying, “Please retweet,” merely having “RT” or “retweet” in something is sort of an implicit call to action. Just bringing up the idea of retweets and reminding people that that’s something they can do will lead to more retweets.

TweetMeme has a little button where you can see the number of times it has been tweeted. Then it says ‘Retweet.’ So just reminding people, even if it’s subtly or implicitly, that retweeting is something they can do is a great way to get them to do that.

Mike: Talk to me a little bit about the usage patterns of people on Twitter. I know you’ve done a little work on this. From a marketer’s perspective, what time of the day should we be tweeting our best content? When are people most likely to be viewing tweets? What other kind of time or usage patterns can you share with us?

Dan: I’ve graphed both the volume of tweeting and the velocity of tweets overall and then the volume of retweets. They both fall into very similar patterns.

Twitter is a worldwide tool, but it’s very, very prevalent in English-speaking countries, so clearly the U.S. leads in Twitter usage right now. Specifically, the coasts lead it.

East Coast time starting from say 11 am until 5 or 6 pm are the peak hours on the East Coast for tweeting and retweeting. It varies up and down in between that. At 11:00 am, I think people on the West Coast are starting to get into work or waking up.

My best tweets are the things that I want to get retweeted. I’ll do, later on in the day, maybe one or two because the West Coast is up at the same time and the East Coast hasn’t really gotten into being ready to go home or anything.

Remember that people use Twitter differently. I’m on Twitter 24 hours a day, but I’m a huge geek. Other people use Twitter when they get home or before they go to bed, or they’ll use it early in the morning or they’ll use it at work all day. If you have a bunch of followers, they may be using Twitter at completely different times. There’s the morning crew or the afternoon crew or the night crew.

So if I have some piece of content that I think is really, really good and I really want everybody to see it, I’ll retweet it a couple of times at different times because people’s tweet streams move so fast that it’s easy to miss things.

If you do it a few times, don’t go crazy with that because you will annoy people if you’re tweeting the same thing over and over again. But if you throw a few different things in between, I think that’s perfectly okay.

Mike: Talk to me about days of the week. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Dan: Yes, I think, like everything else on the web as far as business kinds of things go, Monday through Thursday are probably the best, with Tuesday and Wednesday being THE best.

Especially the stuff I’m tweeting about. I’m a marketer, but I also publish marketing content, so I’m marketing to marketers. Clearly, they’re all during business hours during the week.

It’s the same thing with email open rates and things. Monday, people have a lot of stuff because they’re catching up from the weekend. They’re at work, but that might not be the best time to catch them. And then on Friday, they’re thinking about the weekend and they’re just ready to go home. A lot of people even leave early on Fridays. So Tuesday and Wednesday and sometimes early in the day on Thursday are the best times.

Mike: What are some of the new projects that you’re working on that you can tell us about?

Dan: The book is the one that’s holding my life right now. I’m writing a very introductory sort of PowerPoint as a book for O’Reilly publishers called The Social Media Marketing Book.

The idea with that is if you’re new to the web but you’re an old-school marketer or if you’re new to marketing but you’ve been on the web for a little while, like on Facebook or whatever, this book will introduce you to the concepts of social media marketing.

It’s not really meant for the super-advanced users. It’s meant for people who want to know, “What can I do on Facebook for marketing?” or “What can I do on Twitter or on forums?” and that kind of stuff.

That should be out at the end of the year, hopefully before Thanksgiving. I think it will be really good.

Mike: Where can folks go if they want to learn some more about you, Dan?

Dan: You mentioned my website, www.DanZarrella.com. I also blog for HubSpot which is http://blog.hubspot.com/

The thing that I probably update most often is my Twitter account, so @DanZarrella is where people can get a hold of me and talk with me.

Mike: Excellent. Do you have any closing words of wisdom or any last thoughts on social media marketing or anything in general that you would want to share with marketers?

Dan: Yes, I think that with the web in general and with social media marketing in particular, we don’t have to just rely on what sounds right anymore.

If you are making a decision and it’s important to you, you should actually be looking at data. If somebody is giving you advice and it sounds right but you’re thinking, “I don’t know if I believe that,” ask them where the data is coming from. If they don’t have an answer, try to figure it out and get your own answers through the data. It’s easy to do now and everybody should be doing it.

Mike: Excellent advice. Dan, thank you very much for taking some time out of your day to talk to us.

Dan: Absolutely. Thank you very much.

Listen to the rest of this interview (below) and learn how to set up Twitter account descriptions, whether your personal name or business name is better, how to create automated direct messages, how to use social media analytics and more.