In our last article “Twitter Strategies: 7 Day Waiting Period on Direct Messages” we described 3 methods to curb or eliminate DM spam.  The following list are four more ways to eliminate DM spam on Twitter like the example below:

4 Ways Twitter Could Eliminate DM Spam

• Crowdsourcing Court: Twitter users vote on the guideline of penalties awaiting a company or individual who is found guilty of spamming the Twitter network. Base it on Dell’s Ideastorm crowdsourcing site
• Eliminate Links: disallow the use of links in any DM messages with the hope that spammers will no longer see the benefit of using a DM
• Less than 140: cut the number of characters in half for a DM making it a 70 character messaging channel thus challenging a spammer’s ability to create spam
• DM Limit: create a limit for the number of DMs allowed each Twitterer per month. Once you reach your limit, you have to wait until the next month to send a direct message

I am happy to announce that my deansguide article "5 Blog Writing Tips to Engage Online Readers", the basis for my Active Rain article below, was published (through blogburst) by ComputerShopper.com.If you are unfamiliar with Blogburst.com, and you have been blogging for at least 6 months from your own hosted blog, then you should apply for membership to Blogburst.

Below is the Active Rain article based on my deansguide article.

The #1 excuse people use not to adopt blogging? "Articles take too long to write!" Well that excuse is garbage because bloggers understand the way online readers consume content. You can too if you read the rest of the story.

Stop wasting your time writing 1,000 word articles. Forget about writing perfect elongated book chapter size posts that showcase your expertise. The following are 5 tips to help you understand how to write a succinct article, write text that stands out to the human and 'bot reader, and the importance of images and video embedded within your content.

5 Tips to Engage Online Readers

1. F Shape Theory: Jakob Nielsen, Time magazine’s King of Usability, formulated a theory describing online reading habits. Online readers, according to Nielsen, read the title first, then scan down the left side bar looking for keywords important to them. If the reader finds a keyword they scan left to right into the body of the text. If the reader does not find a keyword they scan down the left side bar and leave. The F Shape Theory

2. Bold: Utilize the Bold feature to help text stand out, pull the human readers eye to keywords and subheadings, and more readable for Google ‘bots

3. Bullets and Numbers: Online readers love bullet and numbered lists. Use these list articles as often as possible

4. Images: Pictures attract the eye and help hold the reader’s interest. Utilizing screenshots is a very effective method of teaching your readers when producing any how-to articles. Example below:

5. Video: This adds a higher level of engagement for the reader. Youtube.com is also a very prominent social network that can drive traffic to your site. Warning: videos should be succinct like written content. Any video over 3 minutes is usually too long unless it is a training vehicle for your audience. Example of lawyer Gary Gwilliam’s compelling video about his fight to conquer alcoholism and addiction:

Holy smokes Scott this is the lamest attempt to persuade me to do anything-  let alone what I already do in my business. Did you even look at my bio my friend? Do I really “Rock”?  Wow what an offer how can I refuse?– deansguide

The worst aspect of Twitter, the microblogging sensation with multiple benefits, is their implementation of a Direct Message feature. Known as a “DM”, this feature has morphed into the biggest spam tool and channel on the social network. Affiliate marketers, Multi Level Marketers, hard sell rip off artists, and anyone with a scam can (and WILL) deliver their messages.

The problem of DM spam is so previlant that the majority of savvy Twitter users do not monitor this channel more than once a week. What can Twitter do about this problem?

3 Twitter Ideas To Curb DM Spam

• 7 days: require a 7 day waiting period before a DM can be sent when a follow-follower relationship has been established
• Opt In-Out: create a opt in-out option where Twitterers can either choose to receive DMs or turn the DM channel off
• Penalties: automatically penalize Twitter spammers who violate “content regulations” created to stem the tide of unwanted hard sell sales pitches and phishing activities

The #1 excuse people use not to adopt blogging? "Articles take too long to write!" Well that excuse is garbage because bloggers understand the way online readers consume content. You can too if you read the rest of the story.

Stop wasting your time writing 1,000 word articles. Forget about writing perfect elongated book chapter size posts that showcase your expertise. The following are 5 tips to help you understand how to write a succinct article, write text that stands out to the human and 'bot reader, and the importance of images and video embedded within your content.

5 Tips to Engage Online Readers

1. F Shape Theory: Jakob Nielsen, Time magazine’s King of Usability, formulated a theory describing online reading habits. Online readers, according to Nielsen, read the title first, then scan down the left side bar looking for keywords important to them. If the reader finds a keyword they scan left to right into the body of the text. If the reader does not find a keyword they scan down the left side bar and leave. The F Shape Theory

2. Bold: Utilize the Bold feature to help text stand out, pull the human readers eye to keywords and subheadings, and more readable for Google ‘bots

3. Bullets and Numbers: Online readers love bullet and numbered lists. Use these list articles as often as possible

4. Images: Pictures attract the eye and help hold the reader’s interest. Utilizing screenshots is a very effective method of teaching your readers when producing any how-to articles. Example below:

5. Video: This adds a higher level of engagement for the reader. Youtube.com is also a very prominent social network that can drive traffic to your site. Warning: videos should be succinct like written content. Any video over 3 minutes is usually too long unless it is a training vehicle for your audience. Example of lawyer Gary Gwilliam’s compelling video about his fight to conquer alcoholism and addiction:

Social media Marketing Directors often concentrate their efforts on building brand  awareness through blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and  LinkedIn. One strategy is often forgotten: becoming a fan of a prominent company or blogger’s Facebook page.

Done strategically on Facebook pages, the simple act of becoming a Facebook fan could produce great viral opportunities for your products and services.

Become a Fan of a Prominent Facebook Page:

Many blogs with massive traffic (Mashable), have Facebook fan page widgets.  These Facebook widgets, sitting in a prime area of the blog,  display pictures of each new registered fan (or logo) as well as the link to that fan’s own blog or website.

New blog readers, who come to these blogs, can simply roll their cursor over a picture, within the Facebook widget, to find the name and link back to that person or company’s blog. This becomes a pathway to  content providing instant viral marketing possibilities.

Mashable.com: Viral Marketing Dreams Are Made

See the shot below of the Mashable Facebook widget:

With over 60,000 Facebook fans and  an Alexa ranking of 483, Mashable.com is one of the most well read sites in the world according to the statistical sampling done by Alexa. Likewise, Dan Schawbel is one of the most prominent social media writers in the blogosphere today.

The Results

Our CEO of Inner Architect’s Susan Hanshaw was displayed in the Facebook fan page widget on the Mashable page for Dan Schwabel’s article. This placement helped bring an additional 40 readers to our blog the day the article was posted.

We also found on the Mashable widget friend and associate Pat Kitano principle of Domus Consulting Group and former workshop attendee Ellen Richman.

What fixes or features would you implement on Twitter if you were one of the principles? If I could fix something simple it would be to give each user control over the “blogroll” aka people you follow list that shows on the right side bar. This “following” widget shows the last 36 people or companies you have followed. What if you could choose the 36 people or companies who are displayed in this widget? This widget then becomes a true blogroll and it’s functionality becomes very important. This is what I could accomplish with this new feature:

8 Reasons to Make “Following” Widget a Functional Blogroll

• Showcase: I could provide exposure for my most influential people-companies I follow
• Best of Class: my following widget could be populated with the best providers of information
• Perception: the perception of me or my company suffers in the eyes of my followers if less than appropriate or different people are showing up in my following widget aka blogroll
• Change: provide each user the ability to change their “blogroll” daily, weekly, or monthly. This would allow me to run blogroll themes. Examples would include best of social media; social media companies, best hyper local resources, best regional information, niche information
• Hashtags: I could feature the most prominent Twitterers from hashtags
• RT: I could feature the most prominent RTers of my information as a recognition and thank you
• DM Abusers: I could feature companies or people who use the DM as a spam messaging channel; This would be a warning system for users
• Unfollowing: this could be a list of people or companies I am about to unfollow

Courtesy Little Engine That Could Wiki

In my last post, I outlined 10 Reasons why Realtors should blog. The post was well received and anointed featured status. As a follow up, I will outline 6 of the most prevalent reasons or push backs, I have heard, on why Realtors do not adopt blogging.

6 Reasons Why Realtors Do Not Adopt Blogging

• Misconception articles must be long:
  
  • A: Blog articles according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen are best very short, succinct, and written in a "short writing" style. My average post run 200-350 words. Further evidence according to Nielsen is the results of his study on reading habits. According to Nielsen, online readers “users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”
• Misconception you must write everyday:
  A: Wrong! Everyday is great but even if you write 1x per week you are ahead of most competitors. If you publish a monthly newsletter, that document alone usually will hold 2-3 articles
• Fear to write publicly:
  A: That happened to me the first few articles. But once I began to formulate a plan (you should do this first) I felt far more comfortable.
  
• Resistant to take on new technology:
  A: This is often the biggest reason people do not blog. In reality like any other learned skill, if you practice you become more familiar with the blog software. This familiarity breeds confidence which in turns makes your more efficient. 
• What do I have to say that has not already been said before?
  A: Most likely nothing. BUT if you can prove you are willing to give people valuable content, many have not read what has already been written. Many people want to understand how you will react in a certain situation. Saying what has already been said is fine--you will develop your own voice
• Who will see my blog?:
  A: Possibly nobody if you do not know how to promote your blog, make it more visible, and be patient. The most important benefit of a blog is the fact it is a delivery system for your ideas and content. By delivering url-hyperlinks you can send people your information through other social networks, via email, or any number of sites like Active Rain

Jorn Barger Blog Pioneer

Courtesy Jorn Barger Wiki

As Business Director for Inner Architect, my first priority is solidifying relationships with prospective clients in our industries of choice. Before we focused on Direct Marketing driven social media marketing strategies for corporations, our first niche of focus was the employment niche.

As early as June of 2008, we began writing about how important blogging would be to job seekers in finding a new position. Throughout 2008 and through Q1 of 2009 we continued to postulate and support blogging as the near perfect method for job seekers to differentiate themselves in landing a job. Unfortunately our messages mostly fell on deaf ears–leaving us no choice but to look for other niches more willing to leverage blogging in their businesses.

Although many Realtors have adopted blogging, the vast majority (like job seekers) have ignored the benefits and failed to adopt blogging for their businesses. If you plan on staying in real estate for 5+ years, the following list of "Reasons" should make the payoff worth the effort.

In today’s world, Corporations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs have adopted blogging in a steady stream since the advent of Web 2.0. The actual number of established blogs is in debate, yet the rough estimate is that their are over 150,000,000 blogs in existence today.

The vast majority of Realtors are not  adopting blogging as a method and tool in their job search. Although this group has the need, and blogs are the nearly perfect application, the move to adoption is almost non existent. The following are 10 reasons why Realtors should blog.

10 Reasons Realtors Should Adopt Blogging

1. Publishing Platform: a blog is the writing platform to begin creating content about you
2. Control: blogging allows job seekers the opportunity to control their own information about their expertise and experience
3. Delivery: blogs are delivery systems for a job seeker’s content. The url for articles can be delivered to potential employers that currently blog
4. Networking: a blog allows Realtors to meet other bloggers; hopefully those new connections work for their targeted companies
5. New Skills: by adopting blogging, Realtors begin to learn about Web 2.0, social networks, blog software, delivering links, and how the new paradigm shift of information is being formulated everyday
6. Perception: Realtors that blog are perceived as being more savvy, as younger due to the perception that social media-blogging is a young person’s activity, and more relevant to employers because of these new skills
7. Visibility: blogging allows Realtors more visibility as a blog is “open” 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. It is a organic, living resume
8. Reputation Management: blogging provides a tool for Realtors to deliver messages that can correct or challenge erroneous information about them online
9. Due Diligence: when people perform due diligence on a Realtor, the first place they begin is with a Google search. Prospective clients are looking for information in Google (and online) that will give them a clue as to that Realtor's understanding of the internet. Equally important is the fact that prospects are also searching for any bad behavior or personal information that might signal the Realtor is unfit to become a service provider
10. Research: blogging requires research. Research requires skills in searching and finding information online which is a new skill for many job seekers. Research into specific subject matters that pertain to a job opening will increase a job seekers knowledge base on that subject

The following article first appeared on my blog deansguide. It documents the benefits of utilizing Hubspot's free measurement tools in determining your blog's effectiveness and overall condition. Hubspot also features a free online marketing report at the end of your Website Grader report. You receive two free tools at no cost. 

Handshake Wiki

One of the most intriguing networking strategies for Realtors has yet to be truly leveraged here in Northern California. The idea is simple: Realtors should seek partnerships with employment agencies and individual headhunters as their next referral niche. At the same time, employment agencies and their individual headhunters should be targeting successful relocation agents for referral opportunities

Benefits of Networking with Employment Agencies

• Lead Generation: employment agencies deal with job loss which often results in a necessary quick sale of primary property, investment property, or vacation home sales
• Partnership: Realtors who partner with employment agencies could have an added value over their competition if they are privy to jobs, the hidden job market, and can guide people to those positions
• Value Add: relocation agents could market their services with the special value add of  employment information via their employment agency partnerships. They become the go-to source of employment information for their region or niche. Ex: Silicon Valley would be a prime place for an aggressive agent to become a go-to source of employment information
• Employment Agency Associations: by networking with employment agencies the possibility of involvement into employment agency associations could accelerate the referral process
• Speaking Engagements: joining or being invited to speak at Employment Agency Associations would provide more opportunities to broadcast your business to a new audience