Admit it. On the news, in the office, in your favourite program… you have heard that your workmates are using Twitter, that famous chefs, singers and tv presenters have been tweeting?  Has the world gone crazy? Many answers come to my mind here.

Put in simple words, Twitter is the way of letting the world know what you are up to (or what your business is up to). It is a free social networking and micro-blogging service but if you are new to tweeting here is the very basic information you need to start familiarising with Twitter:

- Tweets: Messages (known as tweets) which you can post in your Twitter account. At the same time, you will have access to millions of tweets posted by other users which might interest you or your business.
- Twitter followers: Other Twitter users who have decided to follow your tweets (because your messages are original, because they know you/your company, because company/user x follows you, etc.)

Remember: the more interesting and original your tweets are, the higher the chances of increasing the number of followers. If you tweet for business, having a Twitter account and keeping it up-to-date can be key to move your business forward but it is also important to choose carefully who you are going to follow.

Attracting quality followers will add value to your Twitter account as well as to the social network you are starting to expand. Let´s try the following formula:

If company/user x is being followed by company/user xx then their tweets/messages have got to be interesting and it is worth checking out their products. For this reason I, company/user w, I want to follow company/user x too.

Does the above formula sound too complicated? Then simply keep in mind that Twitter is the current version of a very old way of advertising: word of mouth (but online!). If your product is good, if your message is original, say it loud!… but if you want to increase the number of followers ask yourself the following questions:  why should people be interested in what you have got to say? How are you adding value to other companies/users?

If you are thinking business, Twitter may or may not be the best service for you but the best way to find out is trying it out yourself. Do you want to explore its possibilities? You can start now: create an account and start tweeting today.

As an SEO company, we are often asked about blogs. Everybody knows that they should really be keeping one but the commitment can be a bit daunting.

We passionately believe that keeping a blog is well worth the hard work and can become fun and rewarding. There are plenty of SEO benefits to blogging too, not least the speed with which Google caches new posts.

Have a look at our brand new, free, downloadable guide to blogging, complete with some simple SEO tips that will ensure you get the most from your own blog.

Happy blogging!

This was my article about blogging in the Brighton & Hove Argus last week (we are a Brighton SEO, after all). Sorry if it’s a bit simple for the more technologically-minded out there.

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There’s a saying that you hear increasingly in the world of website optimisation: “content is king”.

A rough translation from geekspeak to English is: “if you want people to come and visit your website, there should be something interesting for them to see when they arrive.” The more often your site is updated with interesting content, the more people will come back.

Traditionally, this has presented a problem for many business owners. Even if you have a website, you can’t necessarily update the pages, either because you don’t know how or don’t have the necessary access.

Nowadays, with the availability of free blogging software, there really are no excuses.

A blog (abbreviated from “weblog”) is like an online diary where you can post text, images, videos or music for the world to see.

This may bring to mind images of Trekkies hunched feverishly hunched over their keyboards debating the twists and turns of the Starfleet, but this is increasingly distant from the truth. Keeping a blog is now the easiest way to ensure that your website is interesting and fresh.

Here are some simple tips:

Think about what you are trying to achieve. If you are keeping a blog for your business, goals could include showing more of your company’s personality to potential customers, demonstrating your awareness of current events by responding to developments in your industry, offering your customers a forum for debate or sparking debate of your own.

Whatever your goals, update your blog regularly. It is very easy to start blogging and then forget about it. This has the opposite of the desired effect – while the blog is there partly to keep your site fresh and keep people coming back, it will quickly look dated if your last entry is more than a couple of weeks old.

Be consistent. As well as posting regularly, make sure that the voice in your blog is identifiable. Try and avoid just posting press releases without any comment or analysis.

Read other people’s blogs. Comment on other people’s blogs. Whatever business you are in, there are blogs out there dedicated to it. There is a real sense of community among bloggers.

To make the most of a business blog, you should host it on your own site. This is because you want to have the blog closely associated with you and your work. If you write an interesting or useful blog, it will also drive more traffic to your site, which usually means more business.

Happy blogging!