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The other day, my nephew looked at my Twitter account and asked me how I got managed to get more than 1,000 followers. I told him there was no secret and that it took me over a year to acquire those followers.

Of course, there are services out there that allow Twitter users to buy Twitter followers. But buying Twitter followers is against Twitter’s TOS.

Along with that, buying Twitter followers is a bad idea. While those services add geo-targeted followers to your list, those followers will not have the value of a person who chooses to follow you.

My nephew’s tweeting for his band, so I told him he wants to find people in the area who are interested in music, preferably the style of music his band plays. As long as he tweets regularly, respectfully, and reciprocally, the ratio will be about 3 to 1 at first. That means that initially for every three people he follows, about one of them should follow him back.

The more you tweet the right way the more you’ll attract followers.  And the more attractive you become the smaller that ratio will become. It’s tempting to not only close that gap, but to avoid that gap by buying Twitter followers. Just remember, it’s black hat social media that will lead to inflated, low quality Twitter followers.

Eventually you’ll close that gap and you’ll have more Twitter followers than people you follow. Social media is not a get rich quick scheme. The main thing to remember is to tweet respectfully, regularly, and reciprocally.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Before I sat down to write my novel in progress, I determined a writer should focus on three things to be publishable: Writing a well-crafted story, writing well, and marketability. Too many self-published authors have lowered the publishing bar. There is a time and place for self-publishing; though, a writer should always remember publishing, self or traditional, is about sales, not a winning smile. Of course, a smile helps.

For that reason, I decided to go the traditional publishing route. I recommend if you plan to go that route, you follow the rules. AgentQuery gives tips and advice for querying agents. And Nathan Bransford wrote a great blog about what you should do before you start the querying process.

First, make sure you have a well-written, finished manuscript. Literary agents want to know you have a good story idea and can complete a book, and they might ask to read it (Make sure the agent is legit). Next, learn about the publishing business by reading blogs, going to conferences, asking questions, and engaging.

If you heard you need to be published before you get an agent, don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. AQ says it’s not true. Yes, publishing credits help but so does being Justin Bieber. If your book can sell, it can sell. Literary agents get paid for selling books, not previous publishing credits.

Remember, I’m not yet published, so all advice is that of authors, agents, and publishers, not my experience. So, authors, agents, and publishers, I welcome your insight.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Today, there’s a new location based app out called Banjo, which integrates Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. It tells you when your friends are near you, and it tells your friends when you are near them.

Other than for large events, such as conferences, I don’t use location based social media apps. The ability to know where we all are at any given time can take away our focus on the task at hand and/or attention toward the people we’re engaging with offline. And that task or person also deserve our attention.

Though, it is important to set aside time to make ourselves available for chance encounters. It’s important to connect off-line with those we connect with on-line. It’s important to engage. And a social media calendar, such as SquareBerry’s Social Media Planner, is one way to do that.

Using its social media calendar and other features, enables a person to let their friends and followers know when they’ll be at certain places or events. And in my opinion, a better way to engage off-line is to give people they engage with on-line the opportunity to plan accordingly, rather than to expect them to change their plans on the spur of the moment.

Though, that’s just me. Maybe you like giving people you engage with on-line the opportunity to run into you at random times. I’d love to know whether or not you use location based social media and how it’s helped you engage offline.

Stay social my friends!

Erick

This last weekend, the writer of this blog went through his Twitter list and un-followed many Tweeters he never followed or who don’t tweet consistently. Most of the profiles gave basic information, but the writer of this blog noticed a mistake a few tweeters made.

The writer of this blog wants you to know people who use Twitter should not write their bio in the third person. People want to connect with the person they think they’re connecting with, and the bio gives the first impression. It’s important to note one of the worst possible ways to give the wrong first impression is to write a Twitter bio in the third person.

The writer of this blog feels it’s important to let you know if you outsource your social media to a company like SEO Bridges, you should continue to engage, while using that company to send promotional and informative tweets. General ‘thank you for the retweet’ and other such tweets are also okay.

The writer of this blog is of the persuasion that if an author, speaker, business owner, or other person can afford to outsource their Twitter duties to a company like SEO Bridges, he/she can afford to pay that company to write their bio in the first person.

The writer of this blog wrote this blog in the third person to make the point that writing one’s own stuff in the third person makes that person seem disconnected.

Stay social my friends,

The writer of this blog

Today, I’m starting to blog on Fridays about my journey toward publication, beginning with my search for a literary agent. I’m not an expert, so I’m not going to offer any advice. However, I’ve done much of the research for you on how to use the online world to connect offline. So I’m going to let you know how to use the tools I’m using, starting with AgentQuery (AQ).

On the left side of AQ, you’ll see the ‘Quick Agent Search.’ AQ consists of a database of 972 agents, so you might find it easier to use their full search below that. AQ suggests finding ten agents.

AQ recommends you narrow your search down to the ten most likely agents to want to know more about your work. It doesn’t hurt to keep a list of more than ten agents, but make sure you prioritize which ones you’ll contact first.

For more advice on how to obtain an agent, read AQ’s writers’ section, get advice from writers with agents, follow the conversations I listed in this blog, and sign up for AQ’s social networking site—AgentQuery Connect. They offer forums, a calendar, a live chat room, and other ways to connect.

Along with using AgentQuery and AgentQueryConnect, I recommend you join Goodreads, post book reviews on Amazon, and check out my blog. Next week, I’ll update you on my progress, so come back and join me on my journey toward publication.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

If there are two things you like, it’s free and it’s lists. Blogs with lists of free stuff always get the most views. I try to write my blogs in list or bullet point format as much as possible, but I don’t list free resources (i.e. other sites) as much as I once did. If I list a social media or related start-up and that start-up goes under or is acquired by a larger company, I am left with a broken link. And that’s not good for SEO.

Recently, someone contacted me about trying their site and writing a review. Someone else asked me to review their book on social media marketing, which I will post within the next week or two (e-mail erick @ seobridges . com if you’d like me to review your book, site, or product).

I stopped focusing on posting lists of free resources because while it is great for my initial SEO because it attracts visitor, it is potentially bad for my overall SEO because those sites may cease to exist or the URL may change.

While I may post the occasional review of a social media or social media related site, which has been around for a while, that’s not my focus. My focus is to help you understand the principles of SEO and social media marketing. Yes, I will continue to give you tools, when it’s appropriate; but understanding those principles will prove of higher value to you over time.

What do you find most valuable about my blog?

Stay social my friends!

Erick

Hootsuite uses it, Scribd uses it, and several other sites use it to be more search bot friendly and interactive for users. Here’s a list of the most social link types, attributes, and elements in HTML5.

Article Element – This tells search bots when content is related to other content, such as with blog comments.

Cite Element – This cites sources and is a great way to give credit where credit is due.

KBD Element – Under certain circumstances, this can be used as a voice command.

Embed Element – This represents integration with non-HTML points, such as applications or other interactive content.

Link type “Author” – This can be used with link, a, or area elements and creates a hyperlink. When used with the a or area element, it indicates further information about the author of the article. When used with the link element, it indicates information about the author of a page.

Link type “Help” – This can be used with link, a, or area element and indicates that the referenced document provides help. When used with the a or area element, it indicates help for the article. Within the link element, it indicates help for the page.

Link Type “Pingback” – This may be used with the Link element and creates an external link resource to let authors of other blogs or articles know you referenced their information.

Accesskey Attribute – This generates keyboard shortcuts that activate elements.

If you’re an SEO, you should know the basics of HTML, and you should be aware of the upgrades in HTML5. If you don’t, W3 Schools is an excellent place to learn.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Over the last 48 hours, I’ve had little Internet presence. I used the time to catch up on my reading and writing, spend time with friends and family, and just refresh.  I tweeted once or twice from my iPhone, a few scheduled tweets went out, and I checked my e-mail.  But I had almost no interaction on the Internet.

When I came back online, I discovered the Internet went on without me.  Seriously, my short hiatus didn’t effect my online presence negatively.  The SEO Bridges Facebook fan page gained fans, I gained Twitter followers on my personal Twitter account and the SEO Bridges Twitter account, people read my blog and perused my site, and so on and so forth.

Even though it was just a couple of days and it wasn’t that much growth, it was growth.  It was growth I experienced because I left a positive impression.  At least, I hope and assume I experienced that growth because I left a positive impression.  I am not saying this to boast. I am saying that when you tweet, comment, or otherwise engage online, you leave people with an impression.

I encourage you to set some but not all of your social media presence on auto, so you can engage offline and online or across various channels at the same time. I encourage you to engage in such a way that you leave a positive impression. I encourage you to consider the impression you leave.  And I encourage you to disengage every once in a while.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

When determining whether or not you should create a Twitter account, consider not all tweets are created equally. The value of your tweets is determined by your Social Media Radii (SMR).

Factors to determine your SMR:

1. The type of business your operate (If you’re a restaurant, people in your area have greater value than those outside).

2. People’s demand for your product or service.

3. The number of people who follow you.

4. How well and often your followers use Twitter (If a person follows you, but hasn’t used Twitter in months, it is unlikely they will see your tweets).

5. Your followers’ location(s) in proximity to you (See number 1).

6. Your followers’ potential to buy your product, come to your event, or otherwise engage with you in a way that is profitable to you.

7. Your followers’ potential to retweet or otherwise inform others about you, your business, and your product and/or service.

8. How well you integrate your twitter account with your other social media accounts.

The best way to determine your SMR is to use a social media monitoring service like Postrank or Sysomos. I also listed some free tools to help you get started.

Klout Trendsmap Mentionmapp Hootsuite

Your social media radii determines the value of your tweets and all your social media efforts. So, when determining whether or not to put up a Twitter account, how often to tweet, and what to tweet consider the above eight factors. Can you think of any other factors to include in considering Social Media Radii?

Stay social my friends,

Erick

I posted the question on the SEO Bridges fan page, “Which social bookmarking site do you use?”  Below are stats of the top four social bookmarking sites in the U.S. to help you decide if any of them might work for your purposes.

Tumblr:

17% of people who use Tumblr are ages 13-17, 37% are 18-34, 30% are 35-49, and 15% are 50 or older.

15.76% (the highest concentration) of people who use Tumblr come from Facebook and 14.44% go to Facebook.

41.37% of people who use Tumblr immediately come from search engine or social media sites and 39.75% immediately go to search engines or social media sites.

Reddit:

8% of people who use Reddit are ages 13-17, 35% are 18-34, 32% are 35-49, and 25% are 50 or older.

11.13% (The highest concentration) of people who use Reddit come from Imgur.com amd 12.36% go to Imgur.com (Less than 5% come from or go to Facebook).

35.54% of people who use Reddit come from search engines or social media sites and 35.04% go to search engines or social media sites.

Stumbleupon:

9% of people who use Stumbleupon are ages 13-17, 30% are 18-34, 32% are 35-49, and 28% are 50 or older.

10% of people who use Stumbleupon come from Facebook and 9.63% go to Facebook (The highest concentration).

37.64% of all people who use Stumbleupon go to search engines or social media sites and 37.35% go to search engines or social media sites.

Digg:

11% of all people who use Digg are ages 13-17, 39% are 18-34, 30% are 35-49, and 19% are 50 or older.

10.98% come from Google and 8.78% go to Google (the highest concentration).

40.73% of all people who use Digg come from search engines or social media sites and 37.57% go to search engines or social media sites.

If you’d like to check out these or other stats, you can find them on Alexa.com and Quantcast.com.

Stay social my friends,

Erick