Tip 1. Organize Your Team

You need to decide who is managing which accounts.  That way, when someone ask a question on your networks, they don’t get multiple answers back.

Tip 2. Geo-Target

Never under-estimate the power of local.  Did you know that almost all tweets are now geo-tagged even if not sent from a phone?  Use this to your advantage by searching what’s being said about your industry in your location.  A restaurant monitoring all tweets about their cafe within 20 miles has a perfect chance to send someone a “thanks for eating at my restaurant, mention this tweet code and get 10% off your next meal!”

Tip 3. Stop ignoring LinkedIn

There is a big marketing opportunity with LinkedIn.  Start LinkedIn Groups and start building a following around your brand, and post to it regularly.

Tip 4. Give Credit

RSS posting is a great way to keep information going out to your followers and fans, but what if the information is not yours? Make sure to mark “RT @ ” the person, or “So and so wrote a great post.”  People like to be mentioned, and there’s a good chance if you’re posting someone’s feed, they will post yours in return, so let them know!

Tip 5. Be Regular

It’s important to have content going out to hit all the time zones you need to interact with.  Schedule some posts up for when you’re away to keep all corners of the world engaged.  Just be sure to be ready to respond as soon as you get your computer started the next day.

What tip has helped you succeed?

The testimonials page of your website is an obvious place to add audio. When you receive a review from a customer or client, instead of posting it as text only, ask if that customer would mind making a recording of their opinion. Sound, the human voice in particular, is more powerful than writing alone. By incorporating audio, your testimonials become more personal and authentic, helping them to truly reach prospects.

Incorporating audio to the testimonials section of your website can make your customer reviews more powerful and meaningful for prospects. Don’t neglect audio as a tool that can be used online.

Ask us about our Verbal Sites and how you could get a year for free!

#1: Share valuable content in your own voice

Do your best to craft your content tweets, @replies and promotional tweets all with a seamless style that matches your personality and/or brand.

Ideally, you want people to read your tweets and feel naturally compelled to click on your links and retweet you.

You just want to add value and have no agenda or attachment to “making the sale,” yet you’re strategic and mindful about how you tweet. Then you’ll see a marked improvement in your retweet and click-through rates.

#2: Use keywords in your tweets

Keywords have been and continue to be a relevant and driving force for web content (whether we’re talking about a website, blog post, Facebook update or a tweet). Keywords are the backbone of content.

So I’d have to say hands-down, the best Twitter marketing tip for business is to make a list of keywords that best describe your business and industry. Use these words as you compose your 140-character posts.

Think quality over quantity. Make every character and tweet count!

#3: Use search features to discover what your clients want

Use the search feature in a Twitter tool like HootSuite to watch for conversations about a problem your business can solve. It will give you insight into what is on your prospects’ minds and provide an open door for you to help them.

Try providing a link to a great article or video that answers their question. This one action could lead to an ongoing dialogue that in turn may lead to a customer relationship later.

What is your favorite Twitter marketing tip?

#1: Share valuable content in your own voice

Do your best to craft your content tweets, @replies and promotional tweets all with a seamless style that matches your personality and/or brand.

Ideally, you want people to read your tweets and feel naturally compelled to click on your links and retweet you.

You just want to add value and have no agenda or attachment to “making the sale,” yet you’re strategic and mindful about how you tweet. Then you’ll see a marked improvement in your retweet and click-through rates.

#2: Use keywords in your tweets

Keywords have been and continue to be a relevant and driving force for web content (whether we’re talking about a website, blog post, Facebook update or a tweet). Keywords are the backbone of content.

So I’d have to say hands-down, the best Twitter marketing tip for business is to make a list of keywords that best describe your business and industry. Use these words as you compose your 140-character posts.

Think quality over quantity. Make every character and tweet count!

#3: Use search features to discover what your clients want

Use the search feature in a Twitter tool like HootSuite to watch for conversations about a problem your business can solve. It will give you insight into what is on your prospects’ minds and provide an open door for you to help them.

Try providing a link to a great article or video that answers their question. This one action could lead to an ongoing dialogue that in turn may lead to a customer relationship later.

What is your favorite Twitter tip?

Tip 1. Organize Your Team

You need to decide who is managing which accounts.  That way, when someone ask a question on your networks, they don’t get multiple answers back.

Tip 2. Geo-Target

Never under-estimate the power of local.  Did you know that almost all tweets are now geo-tagged even if not sent from a phone?  Use this to your advantage by searching what’s being said about your industry in your location.  A restaurant monitoring all tweets about their cafe within 20 miles has a perfect chance to send someone a “thanks for eating at my restaurant, mention this tweet code and get 10% off your next meal!”

Tip 3. Stop ignoring LinkedIn

There is a big marketing opportunity with LinkedIn.  Start LinkedIn Groups and start building a following around your brand, and post to it regularly.

Tip 4. Give Credit

RSS posting is a great way to keep information going out to your followers and fans, but what if the information is not yours? Make sure to mark “RT @ ” the person, or “So and so wrote a great post.”  People like to be mentioned, and there’s a good chance if you’re posting someone’s feed, they will post yours in return, so let them know!

Tip 5. Be Regular

It’s important to have content going out to hit all the time zones you need to interact with.  Schedule some posts up for when you’re away to keep all corners of the world engaged.  Just be sure to be ready to respond as soon as you get your computer started the next day.

What tip has helped you succeed?

1. My industry is not using social media

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, your peers and competitors are using social media to their advantage.  Want to connect to others in your industry across the country or around the world to grow your business?  Striving to establish your name and enhance your reputation.  All of these and more are being leveraged daily by others in your field.

2. I don’t want to know what people ate for lunch

As with most new ideas, people did share what they were having for breakfast.  That was years ago.  Today, you will find late-breaking news, thought-provoking ideas and introductions to others that might provide help to you personally and/or professionally.

3. My job is secure, LinkedIn is just for the unemployed

It is a commonly accepted fact of social media that the time to build, to polish your social media presence is before you need a new job.  Those with strong presence and profiles are already in discussions with interested employers.

We offer a FREE Social Media TRACTION University webinar every other Tuesday at 2 pm CST.  Click here to sign up for our next class!

What’s keeping you from using social media?

Whatever the case, you have a few precious moments to spotlight your brand, your products and your services. How you choose to use that time can make the difference between an average day and an outstanding one.

When you place callers on hold, there’s no better time to mention that new product or that little-known value-added service you’ve always offered. And the sky’s the limit when it comes to advertising your latest special offers! You have their attention already. Using this time truly is the best way to ensure your return on investment.

Whether you need to increase your sales, retool your company’s image or simply to maintain happy customers, the professionals at Premier Companies can create HOLD PLUS campaigns that deliver results that are – in a word – undeniable.

1. Offer a peek behind the scenes. Offering a sneak preview of new products, services, or features online can help build demand and provide critical feedback to help smooth the launch. For instance, John Doyle, founder of chocolate company John and Kira’s in Philadelphia, posts photos of new products on Flickr and invites comments from customers.

2. Harness your expertise. Chances are your company’s white paper won’t go viral. But sharing knowledge you’ve gathered through your trade can go a long way toward boosting your brand. Ford Models, for instance, became a YouTube sensation through a series of videos that featured its models giving beauty and fashion tips.

3. Demonstrate what your company does. Because multimedia is so integral to social media, getting connected allows you to express your company’s value proposition beyond words. To show just how powerful his company’s blenders were, Blendtec’s head of marketing, George Wright, created a series of videos showing the appliances churning up such diverse items as a rotisserie chicken, a Rubik’s Cube, and an iPhone. The series’ 100 million combined views helped boost Blendtec’s sales by 700 percent.

4. Put your website’s content to work. Want to draw more traffic to your website? Help spread the word by encouraging visitors to share content they enjoy. GotCast, a website that connects television casting directors with aspiring actors, draws new visitors by posting audition videos on Digg and allowing others to share video links on the site. One way to promote the sharing of your site’s content is to install a widget, such as AddThis, that automates linking to popular sites.

5. Be candid. In unsure economic times, transparency goes a long way toward retaining and attracting customers. Giving readers the scoop on your company blog is an easy way to keep the lines of communication open. Giacomo Guilizzoni, the founder of San Francisco software company Balsamiq, even posts sales and profit figures to show that his company is on solid financial footing.

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

After learning how to market themselves through tweets and status updates, some small companies are taking the next step: selling directly to consumers via social-networking sites.

Merchants on Facebook and MySpace are adding e-commerce stores to their fan pages, hoping users will scan lists of for-sale items and services—such as floral bouquets, hand-crafted jewelry and spa treatments—and click a button to add them to online shopping carts. (MySpace is owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.)

The e-commerce trend, also being adopted by large companies such as Hallmark Cards Inc. and Brooks Brothers Inc., so far appears limited to Facebook and MySpace, where applications for selling directly to consumers started cropping up in 2008. Other popular social-networking sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, don’t offer a direct-sale platform.

Early adopters say they’ve so far seen only modest results, and generally not until after they’ve established a loyal-fan following.

Scott Burnett last month added an e-commerce option to the Facebook page of Guitar Syndicate Inc., a retail business he co-owns in Kansas City, Mo. Items such as guitars, harmonicas and microphones are listed for sale via an application from CoreCommerce, an e-commerce company in Franklin, Tenn. Consumers who add items to a shopping cart are then taken to the company’s website to make a payment. “It’s another doorway to find our products,” he says.

Guitar Syndicate, which was founded last year, has seen its overall online sales grow by 17% since its Facebook store was added in mid-April, according to Mr. Burnett. But he says he isn’t clear how many sales can be attributed to buyers who started their transactions on Facebook.

Mr. Burnett further notes that Guitar Syndicate has invested $5,000 since January to grow its Facebook fan base by giving away that much worth of prizes though a contest it’s promoting on the site. The company now has about 4,400 Facebook fans.

For e-commerce via social media to work, “You’ve got to spend money on advertising to make people aware that [your fan page] exists,” says Larry Chiagouris, a marketing professor at Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York.

Businesses without a significant number of Facebook or MySpace fans may have difficulty swaying buyers, he adds. A fan page that isn’t heavily trafficked could create the impression that it isn’t popular, he says. “And nobody likes to shop at places where no one else shops.”

Another potential downside is that disgruntled buyers could also quickly blast their dissatisfaction to their network of friends, adds Michael Trusov, an assistant marketing professor at Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He says a buyer’s network is right at his fingertips when he feels most annoyed with his experience with a company.

Mr. Trusov says companies “would need to make sure the customer service level is much higher” than that on a website or in a physical store.

Entrepreneurs looking to tap into the trend should also expect to pay a fee for applications that provide shopping carts. For instance, the CoreCommerce application that Mr. Burnett uses charges a fee starting at $24.99 a month, based on the number of products a company wants to list for sale. About 1,150 businesses, mostly small enterprises, are using it, says Matt DeLong, chief executive officer.

Other applications allow multiple social-media users to chip in and collectively buy items, and some let shoppers make payments to merchants without leaving the social-media sites. Many are compatible with both Facebook and MySpace. Neither site charges merchants fees for hosting the stores or a commission on sales, however Facebook recently announced it will take a 30% cut of sales of credits for certain virtual goods.

Whether consumers will embrace shopping on social-media sites remains to be seen. Facebook, approaching 500 million users, recently came under fire over its privacy policies. Some shoppers may feel uncomfortable entering their credit-card information on the site, while others may be wary of making a purchase that could be broadcast on users’ news feeds or profiles.

Houston retailer Sun & Ski Sports added an e-commerce store to its Facebook fan page in 2008 using an application from Volusion Inc., a Simi Valley, Calif., software provider. But Sun & Ski has so far only sold 50 products this way, accounting for barely 1% of the company’s overall online sales, says Scott Blair, director of e-commerce. “It’s not a major source of revenue,” he says. “It’s part of our overall strategy with social media.”

Peddling certain products or services on a social-media platform may be challenging for businesses, says Yogesh V. Joshi, an assistant professor of marketing at Robert H. Smith School of Business. “You might not want to buy toothpaste on Facebook, but you might want to buy a Coach bag,” he says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com