If you are a businessperson, you are always looking for ways you can promote your business, creating a stable clientele and therefore maximizing your profits. Apart from conventional methods of marketing, the internet is today the new and exciting frontier of marketing and networking. Internet marketing is now considered a major means of advertising and promoting your business. The advent of social media websites has been at the forefront of this drive.

Having said that, time management is a key aspect when using social networking websites. You will need to balance the time you spend on promoting your business and actually running the business. The fruits of your effort when implementing may take time to be realized and more so if you have minimal experience. Overall, the effectiveness of these tools depends on your knowledge of how to manipulate and utilize these powerful marketing tools. If done well, the benefits can be gratifying. However, the results of internet marketing can be very fruitful if the proper procedures are used; and among today’s most popular social networking sites, they do not come any bigger than Twitter and Facebook. So let us briefly look at each.

Twitter

Twitter allows you to build a social network of followers: a potential gold mine for businesses. In Twitter terms, followers are the people with whom you share common interests. They are technically your fans. With Twitter, and more so if you have a business-oriented objective, you can also follow other people who you consider potential clients. To attract a large following, you need to first create an attractive profile, which should preferably include your photograph.

Twitter has an advantage over other social websites in the sense that it is flexible and customizable. You may change the appearance of your Twitter page by including links, graphics and even changing the colour theme. It is advisable that you use a colour theme that is similar to your company website’s colour theme. Twitter allows you to change your Twitter Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address and this gives you the chance to include keywords related to your business. Including your company’s biography on your Twitter page may also increase the chances of numerous hits to your website but this largely depends on how you use your keywords. Within no time, major search engines may pick your website or Twitter page, as long as you used your keywords wisely.

Facebook

Having a Facebook page starts with you creating your personal profile. However, you should ensure that you separate your personal Facebook profile and your business page for the purposes of maintaining business integrity and personal privacy. Although Facebook is not as flexible as Twitter, it is still among the most powerful social media websites. It allows you to create a Facebook page for your business. Make your page as attractive as possible and at the same time devoid of unnecessary in-your-face sales-like links. This is because numerous links will give the impression that you are only interested in promoting your business rather than giving valuable information.

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Andrew Plimmer is CEO of Suncoast Internet, SEO Sunshine Coast, web design and web development specialists. For more information on Internet Marketing go to =>
http://www.suncoastinternet.com.au/

There are an increasing number of non-profit organizations using Twitter For Charity by establishing a presence on Twitter to make communications easier with other non-profits and potential donors. For organizations and businesses, Twitter provides a convenient way to reach a targeted and wider audience in a way that would otherwise not be possible with a brick and mortar establishment on the street.

Non-profits are flocking to Twitter because it represents a cost effective way to raise money for non-profit causes. By using Twitter For Charity, non-profit organizations can take advantage of some of the tools that are currently used for fund-raising. One of the best known tools out there is Twollars.

Using Twollars on Twitter for Charity

Twollars is a Twitter-based currency that was recently released during the early months of 2009. Unlike regular currency, Twollars does not contain any value behind them and if you want to donate Twollars to a charity of your choice you simply create a tweet that says something like 5Twollars@usaafrica to fund relief for Africa. Although you have not actually given any currency with value, what you are saying is that you think the charity is worthwhile and others should donate as well.

How Twollars Works

Any Twitter user that wants to use Twollars receives a starting balance of 50 Twollars. When a Twitter user uses Twollars to donate to charity, the number of Twollars that are donated are matched by hard currency that is donated by a business once the Twollar balance threshold is reached.

Every time a user sends Twollars to a charity the server that operates Twollars searches the Twitter network for tweets and text that match the description. The server will then download all of the tweets that it has located and then tallies a balance. The balance is based on the tweets the user has given and received that are related to the description.

This is a format that has been created to prevent fraud with Twollars because the user’s transaction history is completely visible by others. Furthermore, there exists a program where every Twitter users starts off with 50 Twollars, and this program is called “scarcity”. The rule regarding Twollars is that Twitter users can give Twollars to other users but they cannot convert them into cash unless they are a non-profit organization. This also prevents Twitter users from tweeting hundred of thousands of Twollars. As you can see, Twitter For Charity is well organized so that it serves its purpose which is giving to charity.

Other Ways to Obtain Twollars

There are alternative methods of acquiring Twollars by logging onto websites that give away Twollars as an incentive for their visitors. Twollars are also available for purchase from non-profit organization. Twollars does not charge for any of the transactions and the Twollars that are donated are deposited into the PayPal account of the selected non-profit organization.

Users predict that Twollars represents next generation currency for the micropayments economy and non-profit organizations that are using Twitter For Charity will benefit from the concept as well.

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Martin Sejas is the author and main writer of Twitter Tips Central, a blog dedicated to providing the latest and best Twitter tips to improve user productivity and efficiency on Twitter.
http://www.twittertipscentral.com/