Anyone who is in the business of on-line promotion and marketing will know just how import social community networks can be – and especially Twitter.com. Most important of all, however, is not simply the number of Tweets created, but the number of re-tweets…

A recent survey claimed that about 1.5% of all tweets are actually re-tweets and the chances are that this figure is set to increase. Many more people are becoming familiar with twitter and twitter culture and more tools are coming out for sites making it easier to re-tweet.

Soon enough, too, Twitter will incorporate the retweet feature on to Twitter.com, which means that the number of re-tweets will rise significantly.

But there is an art to Tweeting and re-tweeting that will help your business and product marketing along no end.

One of the queens of Tweeting is Shéa Bennett, who writes the blog Twittercism. She has come up with an equation re-Tweet optimisation: Twitter has a 140-character limit, so it’s vital that you consider your user name and how many characters you need to leave free. Bennett believes you should always  ensure that you leave a minimum of 12 to characters at the end of each tweet. If not, you are forcing those who want to retweet to edit your submissions so that they can give the proper credit. Because of this extra work, there are many times when they simply won’t bother retweeting you at all.

Whether you leave 15 characters at the end – or more – the key to creating successful retweets is to think about the usability for your readers. It’s a simple concept and one that you should aim to get right…

The internet has changed the way that businesses advertise. Now a survey has revealed that the majority (92%) of advertisers are using Internet advertising in their media campaigns followed by print advertising at 88%.

The LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll survey also found that half of those questioned use radio advertising (46%), TV advertising (46%) and mobile advertising (39%).

The survey showed that there has been a rise in usage of internet advertising compared to a year ago. Three-quarters of those who use Internet advertising (74%) do so more often, while 69% of those who use mobile advertising are using it more often compared to a year ago. The largest drop is with print advertising as half (49%) of those who use it are using it less often compared to a year ago while 41% are using it the same amount.

So it’s clear where business feels it should be going with advertising but at the same time the report revealed that internet users find many aspects of online advertising “very annoying”.

The majority (80%) say they find ads that expand on the page and cover the content “ frustrating” while 79% are “very frustrated” by the adverts with a close or skip button that they can’t find.

Other annoyances include Internet ads that automatically pop up, ads that open when the cursor happens to hang over them and animated ads.

A new e-marketing report has revealed the 10 most “marketing friendly” words used in the subject lines of emails. According to MailerMailer, an email list manager provider, the top 10 words most likely to get recipients to open an email are:
1. news
2. party
3. newsletter
4. free
5. night
6. sale
7. com
8. update
9. holiday
10. week

MailerMailer also claims that emails are being opened sooner than six months ago. They reckon that just over 32% of all emails are opened within the first two hours of receipt compared to 29.6% half a year earlier.
What we don’t know, however, is the breadth of this survey. Does anyone have any email marketing-friendly words they would like to add?

You might have the best and smartest website but if no-one knows where to find it then custom is likely to be very slow indeed. So to have a chance of success it’s vital that you put some effort into marketing your website business.

Here are a few tips to get the marketing ball rolling:

Online communities: Start a forum and a blog on your website. Encourage people to comment and make their own blog posts. This is an effective way to build an online community of potential customers as many will come back for the chat – and hopefully, also, for the sales.

Blog elsewhere: Go out and write blogs or articles on other websites, therefore pushing your name and your business into the wider public domain. Every little helps! It’s important to make sure that your articles are original and useful, though, otherwise they won’t be read.

Top tips: Add some expert tips and content to your site to encourage people to visit even when they do not plan to buy anything or use your business services. This could reap further rewards as it generates inbound links when your articles and blogs are mentioned on other websites and links are posted.

SEO: Even small-budget businesses will make some gains though systematically improving their natural search rankings. Of course, there is no guarantee, and you do need to be patient to see results, but by ticking off a few SEO essentials you should make some progress against competitors. At the very least, pay attention to keywords and phrases on your site.

Directories: Another useful way of boosting your site on search engine results is by adding it to relevant and reputable directories. These could be business directories, or interest and subject-based directories. You should also try to boost traffic by linking to other similar sites. The best approach is to strike a deal with the webmaster and create a reciprocal link exchange deal.

Advertising: There is no shame in using Google Adwords. Yes, you have to pay but the cost can be low and it could be the key to kickstarting a profitable business. The benefit of this is that you are guaranteeing exposure and you can also measure how successful it is by using analytical tools.

Good, old-fashioned marketing: All too often website businesses believe that marketing takes place on-line only. But real-time business cards, leaflets, posters, van-side promotion and headed notepaper can also work wonders. Such materials are not costly and can be quick to distribute, especially if you have a few willing pals.

Without being sexist, or in any way gender biased, research has revealed are some definite differences between men and women when it comes to shopping. For e-tailers there are a few tips worth taking into account when considering the look and content of your website.

For starters, you should consider who is the main audience for your site. Once you know this then you can begin to make it attractive to that particular gender, or to both. And remember that surveys claims that women make 85% of purchase decisions among couples and families.

The task
Websites for men: Guys like to get a task done and move on to the next one. So keep sites simple and to the point.

Websites for women: Girls like to “experience” the task so they might head off at tangents within the site, just to check something out, before coming back to the original page. Good, lively info is what the girls enjoy most.

Usability
Websites for both: Something that both genders agree on is the importance of ease of use. Check out your own site and see how easy it upload or download or purchase.

Websites for men: Men prefer download speed over easy navigation.

Websites for women: Women place both easy navigation and accessibility ahead of download speed.

Purchasing experience
Websites for men: Guys want to sign in, see a product, buy it and leave. Full stop. They do not want any help and they want to go through the check asap.

Websites for women: The girls want a shopping “experience”. They will look at and weigh up all the options, taking their time to decide on a purchase. The might put up with a slower more informed check-out process but it’s not a good idea to make them hang around too long before showing your site their bank card details.

The sales
Websites for men: Men like sales items and coupons because it narrows the choices and provides an incentive to buy one particular product.

Websites for women: While girls like the sales for the opposite reason that there might be a lot more options. They like the choice and the chance to buy something for less.

Pictures
Websites for women: Girls will focus on faces and pay special attention to pictures of romantic couples.
Websites for men: Men, as in real life, focus on other parts of the body (!) and don’t give any special attention to couples.

Colours
Websites for both: Men and women agree that blue is their favoured website colour. As both genders get older they like more blue and less green.  Both men and women hate brown and orange.

Websites for men: Purple is one of the least liked colours of men.

Websites for women: As well as blue, girls like purple.

Let the battles commence!

Marketing, SEO and networking can all go to waste if the visits to your website do not translate into conversions. But many sites fall short on the simplest of design and content points. Pay attention to the detail and you could be surprised by the increase in conversion rates.

Here are 5 simple tips for optimising your website for conversions:

The three second test: Internet users have a very short attention span so your website must have instant appeal. Competition is only a click away, so don’t make potential customers search for what they want. Use great design and smart, straight-talking headers to instantly grab a customers attention.

What’s the incentive? Tell the customer immediately – and in a small amount of words – what they will gain from your business as compared to the nearest rival. Eg Bargain priced running shoes; the cheapest car deals; longer-lasting ink cartridges; designer frames for just £50.

Easy navigation: A well-planned site map and lots of obvious internal page links will help even the least savvy internet users. The second that a customer has to work hard to navigate a site is the second they will click on to a competitor’s website.

Picture perfect: A great image can boost your site’s looks and credibility. Use good product images and not generic stock images. Back up pictures with specific and clear captions. Try to illustrate as many products as possible. Customers like to see what they want to buy.

Close the sale: Don’t leave customers wondering where to go next. Make checking out an easy and obvious step. You goal is to get a sale so make this as simple as possible.