I noticed on twitter a short while ago an official announcement from Google – that they no longer use Meta tags and keywords in a web search.  I haven’t been using them for quite a while but every now and then a client insists that I use them so I install them.

In the early days of the internet, when browsers were less sophisticated, meta tags and meta keywords played a key role in being found and placement.  As the internet got bigger over time, many people abused the keywords and meta tags, applying words that were not relevant to their website content.  Because of this abuse, meta tags started being ignored  by search engines.

Can having them on your website hurt you? Not at all, BUT it does give your competition a clue to the keywords you are using.  Some practices, and I believe this is one of them, need to be discarded. I had someone copying my keywords to the letter in an attempt to gain higher placement. It’s a sneaky but legal practice, but why help a competitor?  It’s good to stay abreast of internet development as the internet is progressing at the speed of light and to discard archaic practices.

If you didn’t think Twitter was important to business before now, think again.  Google and Bing  announced last week that they are going to include Tweets in search results.

While you may not be totally convinced as to Twitter’s worth, you cannot afford to ignore your competitors, who, if they are already tweeting, are one step ahead of you in visibility, customers and dollars.

Keep researching new ways to use Twitter – for example, if you offer two completely different types of merchandise – say, chalk and cheese – consider setting up an account for each.  Make sure you use keywords and constantly try to link back to your site with clickable links.

When Sears, Amazon, Walmart and many other large companies are using Tweets to promote their items and offer coupons, it’s more than an ‘emerging’ trend.  It’s here to stay, folks, so get on the bandwagon or be left behind.

As everything else, Twitter is a learning process.  You learn what to do, what not to do and somehow make it work for you.

I have been asked  “Do I have to follow all requests?”

No, you don’t.

• It’s YOUR tweet page.
• Check out the request, make sure it’s not just a sp*mmer.
• Make sure it’s not a competitor.
• Make sure it’s not someone nasty. (People say outrageously rude things sometimes!)

Just delete the request and go on your merry way.  Feel free to UN-follow somebody also.  If you don’t like what they are saying, just un-follow.  It’s not about the numbers, it’s about quality content that you are sharing.  It is YOUR reputation at stake, so act like a professional.

“Do I have to Tweet every day?”

No you don’t – please read my opinion  below. 

No tweet is better than a mindless tweet.  Don’t just put words together to fill the space.  Your tweets should be relevant, engaging, interesting, educational, informative and/or entertaining.  You will not create a good impression if you do two weeks worth of tweets that say absolutely nothing.  Refrain. Go have a cup of tea until the urge passes.

When you *do* have something to tweet about, make sure that links are short and click-able.  NEVER put in a plain URL. It is a total waste of time, as people will NOT copy and paste.  It MUST be easy for them to go where you want them to go.  If you don’t want to install Tweet-deck (or any other 3rd party application) on your computer go to bit.ly, an online link shorten-er and then copy and paste into your tweet.

If you have a blog you might want to take a look at the application code that allows your to publish your current tweets in your sidebar.   Definitely do a “Follow me” somewhere, but wait until you have several posts that contain worthwhile content.

Twitter works when used wisely.

Twitter is a growing trend and I am stumbling my way through it.  I’m not sure that people are really interested in what I’m doing or what I think, but oh well, might as well give it a fair shot.  Today Twitter announced ‘Twitter 101′, a guide on the value of Twittering to Business.  It’s well written and very helpful.  Get it here.

I also have learned to use TweetDeck. It’s a desktop application and the main reason I use it is because it has the ’short url’ feature built in.  When every letter and space counts, this is really nice to have. Find me on Twitter here.

There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.

Henry Kissinger

For those of you using the newer shopping cart that has the built in CUSTOMER mailing list, there is now a neat little add on that allows you to upload a csv [excel spreadsheet saved as a comma delimited csv file] with your list of emails. Currently you must add them one by one.   Emails from customers are still added automatically upon checkout, but many of you collect email addresses at convention and adding hundreds one by one is tedious to say the least.

You can Import and export your email list from, and to, a CSV file. Gives you the ability to import a CSV list from outlook to your admin mailing list. Checks and ignores duplicates.

Many have several mailing lists segmented out by category. It’s OK to have more than one but the admin mailing list is rather a nice feature and html formatting can be used.  Clients who are using this feature love it. Contact me if you would like more info and pricing about this feature. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Just one more reason to upgrade your cart….and in July some new and exciting features will be added.

• A wish list  – many customers have requested this.
• Gift Registry – good for conventions, birthdays, Christmas, whatever.
• Previously viewed. – good for comparison