Wordpress a great blog platform - Twitter a great micro-blog platform
From what I read, people in general don't like reading a lot on a blog and is why I have been using Twitter, a micro blog, for about 8 months now. I think I was the first florist, I didn't find any when I first joined , so I took the name florist ( twitter.com/florist ) - A lot of people who posted here posted offered some great info and Jared said it best when he said, it depends how you use it. When i first heard about twitter a year ago on techcrunch, i was like... LAME. Why would I tell others what i was doing and why do I care what they are doing? BUT after I signed up I started using as a marketing tool and crowd sourcing. I've already post on the tech forum here about twitter and the best third party apps to use, just do a search if you care. We crowd sourced info and it was a success and have done competitions. When I tweet I always use key words like florist, flowers, chocolate, ashland, etc.. because it is post to my 'forever unfinished' website's front page. Having control of your customer base without them knowing is a great feeling when it comes time to advertise something.
I have had a twitter feed on my front page site for about 6 months now and the text is put into html so google's spider crawl it. I am nothing close to an SEO expert, but it won't hurt. People like seeing what's going on at the shop, join in on the competitions and it's a sweet way to crowd source info.
I predicted that twitter type mirco blogs will go niched too and not be so vast. For example, yammer.com won the techcrunch50 award and is a niche type twitter mico blog. With the poshcircle project I am working on, I will create a retail sales type micro blog.. for example it would be like twitter... customers will follow you and when you had a sale or event or w/e, you tweet about it. Customers who follow you get deals...but giving you the upper hand by controlling your customer base. poshcircle is all about a business controlling their customer base so when it comes time to market your sale, you know that 100% of your free adverting is going to your target market.
friendfeed is twitter's competition fyi. I was not the first florist there but got
http://friendfeed.com/flowers
off subject-
I am not a big fan of Facebook since the only value facebook would have with me is keeping in contact with friends/family and that's what I try to avoid really. I predict Facebook would be chipped at by niche social networks over the years, such as a sports social networks, vegetarian social networks, florist social networks, etc.. because ones passion always trumps a 'super poke' or in other words hanging out virtually with friends who don;t share your same passions. The social network I am releasing tomorrow in Southern Oregon to test,
www.poshcircle.com is a niche social network targeted towards event goers who enjoy fine food, drink, design, fashion, etc... - One day i hope to make us more unique by allowing the consumer to create the events that businesses have already Oked... there is a lot more to it, but I won't bore you. But if this happens.. I'll give you the power to know who is walking through your door next Sat at 3pm and know everything about them..giving you the upper hand on up-selling. But I have a lot of work to do first.
p.s. - I still think Twitter is Lame in general, but not for businesses. I follow a few friends who tell me what they are doing.. and think.. who cares.. and do you really think anyone cares if you just got up and made toast? - Information has to offer value... our valuable information is interesting to our target market(customers) ... my friends' target market is (someone who he thinks cares). I feel sorry for a lot of twitter people... no one really cares unless it's valuable to them.
