Twitter Is Like A Cocktail Party

alt="Twitter Is Like A Cocktail Party" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0208-4-500x235_c.jpg" />

 

href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">class="border" alt="Social Media Icons" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1010-4.jpg" width="750" />

If there is one thing that grabs my attention, it’s statistics. Thanks to creative designers and 21^st century technology those statistics are often compiled into pretty infographics. The nice people over at Touch Agency created an informative infographic on Twitter that has some remarkable stats (feel free to check out the href="http://www.touchagency.com/free-twitter-infographic/" target="_blank">infographic here).

• 200,000,000 registered Twitter accounts
• 450,000 new Twitter accounts are created every day
• 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special offers/deals
• There are 18,000 search queries every second which is around 1.6 billion searches every day
• 88 of the 100 Fortune Global Companies post daily news and updates
• As many as 52% of users update their status every day
• 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to others

Bottom line: Twitter has grown into a very powerful marketing medium and it’s only getting stronger. So the next question is how do you capitalize on this medium and the uber-social culture in which we live? Here’s the secret…Twitter is like a cocktail party.

Allow me to explain.

Meeting People/Followers

Just like at a party, you are able to meet new people on Twitter (it’s just called “followers”). There are three different “types” of people to follow:

People you know: If you were at a cocktail party with your friends you probably wouldn’t ignore them so why ignore them on Twitter? Ask friends and colleagues for their Twitter handle and start conversing with them through this medium as well as in person.

People you wished you knew: These are the people that everyone knows about, “the popular crowd/celebrities/industry front runners”. You could gain great insight from them at a party and the same is true about Twitter. But not only will you gain great insight on whatever interests you share, you can also learn from them on their technique. How often are the sharing information? How do they share? How do they interact with their followers? How often do they promote themselves verse just sharing their personality (funny jokes, situations, thoughts, etc.)?

People you don’t know yet, but could become great friends with. At the party, you could use small talk to meet new people and discover similar interests. In Twitter terms, you can find others with similar interests by using hash tags. For example, if you are a photographer, search #photographer and scour the results for interesting tweets. You can also use mutual friends. On Twitter, people with similar interests also tend to follow the same people. If you find a great Twitter user, look through their following for more potential contacts.

Converse

Not many relationships are sustainable without communication, both digitally and in person.

Produce Content: When you are talking to someone in person you are more than likely to share a new topic of conversation. For example, you may something like, “Did you see that touchdown in the football game last night!” or “Have you read that article on the effects of BPA in water bottles?” href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/10-surefire-ways-to-market-your-products-on-twitter/">Do the same thing on twitter, converse with your friends based on your mutual interests. Share comments and/or links to videos, articles, and websites.

Interact: A mention (@) on twitter is synonymous with Hey! If someone starts a conversation with you, respond.

Share Stories: How many of you have retold a joke or story that you heard from a friend? On Twitter this is the “href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">retweet” button. It’s like you’re telling your twitter followers, “Hey, my friend John just said…”

Repeat

Continue to make new friendships and develop the ones you have in the same way. Before you know it you will have a solid only group of friends that you learn from, grow with, and love.

A few last tips

1. Be yourself (nobody likes a phony or spammer)
2. Have fun

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Write Headlines Like Brian Clark, Neil Patel, and Jon Morrow: 35 Headline Samples From The A-List Bloggers

alt="Write Headlines Like Brian Clark, Neil Patel, and Jon Morrow: 35 Headline Samples From The A-List Bloggers" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-2-500x507_c.jpg" />

class="alignright size-medium wp-image-642" alt="Quick Sprout Case Study Headlines" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-8-300x297.jpg" width="300" height="297" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-8-300x297.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-8-150x150.jpg 150w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-8-130x130.jpg 130w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-8.jpg 313w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

There are two things you bloggers should know: One, great bloggers write great headlines, and two, great headlines often follow sets of similar formulas.

Great headlines follow sets of rules – they are compelling, specific, intriguing, and often follow sets of proven formula.

Yes, just like maths, there are formulas that can help us to write headlines that work. It’s no coincidence that three out of four Neil’s case studies headlines on QuickSprout started with the phrase “How I…”. Headlines written based on certain sets recipes simply get more clicks and reads online. And these types of headlines will always work, because good headlines tap into psychological triggers that are programmed into the human mind.

In other words, the easiest way to write powerful headlines is to follow these recipes. As a smart blogger, you should keep a set of headline formulas, templates, or cheat sheet for your writing references. And, that’s what I’m going to offer in this article – we are going to look into five most frequent-use headline formulas and some real life examples.

List Headlines: X Ways To Get This And That Done

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger once title="7 Reasons Why List Posts Work" href="http://www.copyblogger.com/7-reasons-why-list-posts-will-always-work/" target="_blank">said this about list-headline:

Any headline that lists a number of reasons, secrets, types, or ways will work because, once again, it makes a very specific promise of what’s in store for the reader. A nice quantifiable return on attention invested goes a long way toward prompting action, and as long as you deliver with quality content, you’ll have a satisfied reader.

Truth is, you can never go wrong with headlines consist of a list.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-643 border" alt="List Type Headlines" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-2.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-2.jpg 650w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-2-295x300.jpg 295w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" />

Here are a couple of recent list-headlines written by title="ProBlogger.net Darren Rowse" href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/author/darren/" target="_blank">Darren Rowse. Note that how these titles state clearly the reason why you should read the articles; and without doubt, they attract me to click  in and read it.

1. 9 Steps To Creating A Successful e-Course

2. 9 Benefits (and 3 Costs) Of Building Community On Your Blog

3. 7 Strategies For Growing Community On Your Blog

Other Similar Headline Samples

In case you need more samples, here are couples similar headlines extracted from other popular blogs.

4. 5 Tips to make Facebook Marketing Mobile Friendly

5. 4 ways to maximize the social media presence at your next event

6. 10 sure-fire headline formulas that work

7. 7 more sure-fire headline templates that work

8. 101 sure-fire ways to make people hate your marketing

How-To Headlines: How To Do This And That

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-644 border" alt="Neil Patel's headlines" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-1.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-1.jpg 650w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-1-300x289.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" />

I believe you see this type headlines everywhere. Why not? How-to headlines work like a charm always. If you are a frequent reader on title="Quick Sprout" href="http://www.quicksprout.com/" target="_blank">QuickSprout, you should know Neil Patel  loves using this headline method to hook his readers. For instances:

9. How To Use Rejection To Achieve Your Business Goals

10. How To Make Your Site Insanely Fast

11. How To Think Like Google

Other Similar Headline Samples

There are plenty of variations you can use on how-to headlines. Here’s a few that pop up in my mind while writing this article. With a little brainstorming session, I am sure you can come up with a lot more than these.

12. How to lose fats without exercising

13. How to make money without sacrificing your TV time

14. How to jump higher and play basketball like Michael Jordan

15. How to build a twitter account with tons of followers and make ,000/mo

16. How to make use of Pinterest for your social media success

17. How to make use of your house sofa for your six pack abs

Hey You! Headlines Focusing On Target Audiences

class=" wp-image-645 alignright border" alt="Swine Flu Posts On Huffington Post" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-4.jpg" width="300" height="300" />

Headlines that call names or focus on certain group of views are often very effective in building rapport with the target audience and hence creating awareness.

The image on your right (extracted from href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/swine-flu-what-travelers_n_192436.html" target="_blank">Huffington Post) is a very good example: This article has information about Swine Flu for travelers. Not parents, not teachers, not doctors; but only for folks who are on the road or will be travelling soon.

Other Similar Headline Samples

Here are some real life examples displayed by bloggers at Copy Blogger, Boost Blog Traffic, and Out Spoken Media.

18. Bloggers beware: Avoid these pitfalls when you start a blog

19. What you need to know as a web hosting shoppers

20. Everything a marketer needs to know can be learned from journalism

21. The woman’s guide to having it all

22. An open letter to all the bloggers cluttering the web with forgettable content

Case Study/Report Style Headlines

By clipping the phrase ‘Case Study’ (or other similar words) into your headlines, you inform your readers that your articles are thoroughly researched and consist of valuable information. title="Beth Hayden" href="http://www.copyblogger.com/author/bethhayden/" target="_blank">Beth Hayden has some perfect examples for this type of headlines on CopyBlogger.com.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-646 border" alt="Case Study Types Of Headlines" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-3.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-3.jpg 650w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-3-300x287.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" />

For examples, Hayden wrote these two headlines recently.

22. Case Study: How To Build A Vast Audience by Mastering The Art Of The Interview

23. Case Study: How Aurelien Amacker Escaped The Cubicle

However, do note that this type of headlines might backfire if it’s not handled properly – a case-study-titled article requires lots of  in-depth research and detail writings as the readers’ expectation is high. You certainly do not want to write a case study headline for your 500-words-simple-article.

Other Similar Headline Samples

24. Case study: How Jane made ,000 during dot-com booms

25. Tax report: Why the riches are getting richer

26. Case study: The truth about unlimited web hosting offers

27. Consumer report: Are you spending too much on your SEO campaign

Threat Headlines: Don’t Say That I Never Warn You

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-647 border" alt="Treat Headlines" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-7.jpg" width="750" height="432" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-7.jpg 650w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0409-7-300x172.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

What is your readers’ greatest fear? What’s keeping your readers up at night? Good salesmen leverage human’s fear to sell more; a good writer should do the same his/her headlines. A threat headline gets us to take action because it creates fear. It also implies that something we trust has misled us and may be at risk. If you are serious about writing a blog that sells, you should use more treat headlines.

Here’s what Jon Morrow has to say when it comes to writing good treat headlines.

The key is to be specific. You want the reader to think, “How on earth did they guess that I’m afraid of that? Are they psychic?” Like many headline hacks, your power to use it will grow in proportion to how well you know your audience.

Now, let’s look at some samples, shall we?

More Similar Headline Samples

28. 15 warning signs that your business sucks

29. SEO scams – 12 warning signs that you hired the wrong SEO

30. Can we really trust bought email lists

31. Suicide, shame, and the painful truth about accomplishing your goals

32. 9 great lies of online sales and marketing

33. The biggest lie in email marketing (why most email is junk mail)

34. The shocking secrets about budget hosting (must read)

35. Alert: The new social media marketing scam to avoid

Bottom Line: What’s Next?

Okay, so now you have five surefire formulas and 35 headline samples for reference. Ready to write some kick-ass headlines? Here’s what I want you to do, in your next blogpost, use one of the headline formulas stated above and post the link in the comment box below. I might not read everything you write. But if it comes with great headlines, I promise that I will glance thru and add your headlines as samples #36 and so on.

Credits: This article uses multiple references from various A-list blogs, including title="Copy Blogger" href="http://www.copyblogger.com/blog/" target="_blank">Copy Blogger, title="Pro Blogger" href="http://www.problogger.net/blog" target="_blank">Pro Blogger, title="Social Media Examiner" href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner, title="Boost Blog Traffic" href="http://boostblogtraffic.com/" target="_blank">Boost Blog Traffic, title="Out Spoken Media" href="http://outspokenmedia.com/" target="_blank">Out Spoken Media, title="Quick Sprout" href="http://www.quicksprout.com/" target="_blank">Quick Sprout,  title="Distilled Blog" href="http://www.distilled.net/blog/" target="_blank">Distilled Blog, and title="Hub Spot" href="http://blog.hubspot.com/" target="_blank">HubSpot Blog. Thanks a lot for all the great work – I wouldn’t have learn so many about persuasive writings without you guys.

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How to Write Web Copy like a Pro

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class="border" alt="Web Copy Writing Skills" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2012/0322-1.jpg" width="750" />

You have amazing business skills, you’re offering a fabulous product, you can negotiate your way into or out of anything, yet customers aren’t exactly knocking down your door.

Most of the time, you’ll find the problem is staring you in the face: it’s your website – more specifically, your web copy. This component of your business can be easily overlooked; after all, client meetings, networking and developing your products and services is what’s going to bring in the profit, right?

Well, no. None of that matters if you don’t have stimulating, professional and attention-grabbing copy, because this is the first part of your business that most prospective clients see. It represents you, your brand and your product, and it can make or break a prospective buyer’s interpretation of what you’re offering.

Perhaps this is resonating with you. If so, your first reaction might be to lament the unaffordable prices of professional copywriters (and wonder whether you should have taken those creative writing evening classes after all).

The good news is that you don’t need to hire a copywriter if you don’t want to, and you don’t need to become a professional writer yourself. Usually, all it takes is a few tweaks to turn dull, lifeless copy into words that represent you and your business in a way that fills you with pride.

Keep it simple

You don’t have a lot of time to spend writing your business’ web copy, and your readers won’t have a lot of time to read it. Help yourself, and them, but using simple formats that are quick to write, easy to scan, but still provide valuable information for your audience. Time-tested favorites include numbered lists (“5 Ways to Turn ‘No’ into ‘Yes’”), bullet points, how-to articles (“How to Change the World in One Easy Step”) and compilation posts (“5 Blogs every Business-Owner Should Read”).

Quality, not Quantity

Your web copy doesn’t have to be pages long. In fact, this is a bad idea, as only a fraction of people visiting your website will take the time to read it. Your challenge is to only include what is absolutely necessary and say it in as few words as possible. Condensing your web copy into clear, concise and expressive writing will show potential clients that you know what your business is about, and that you respect their time.

Solve a problem

Every business solves a problem or meets an unmet need. If you’re a dog groomer, you’re solving the problem of hairy, foul-smelling pooches. If you’re a gluten-free raw foods chef, you’re meeting an unmet need among people with certain dietary preferences or restrictions for being able to eat out once in a while.

Sometimes, it might seem obvious to you what problem you’re solving – after all, it’s your business – but this isn’t necessarily true for your readers. You need to spell it out for them. Even if it feels like you’re treating them like two-year-olds, explain exactly what you do, why you do it, and how. They won’t mind – in fact, they’ll thank you for it.

Envision your ideal audience

Finding the demographic that will desire and use your product or service is the first step in any marketing plan. Once you have this information, use it for your copy. To gauge what kind of tone, content and style your ideal readership might enjoy and expect, find other websites and publications that target a similar audience. Even if their subject matter is different than yours, it will give you a starting point from which you can develop a style that is more appropriate to your target audience.

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