When it comes to the social media marketing game and trying as a business to amass the largest online community you can, there are some surprisingly simple formulas for creating and developing a mammoth following. In many ways, developing social media contacts for your company and services in cyberspace is a lot like making friends in real life. In order to make new friends in real life, you have to get out into the world to forge connections with new people and the same goes for Internet relationships. To build a tribe of clients and business contacts in social media communities, you have to actively pursue that world through making your own profile and putting yourself out there.

Twitter is a great network to get started with. People there are generally looking for ways to extend their communities so their own thoughts can be heard, so they tend to be very open to following new people. We’ve got three easy steps for building and growing your social network community of followers after you’ve set up your Twitter profile. Think of it like meeting new people at a party. So, treat your Twitter account like a community mixer.

<blockquote><strong>1.  Introduce Yourself</strong>

The way you introduce yourself to a new person on Twitter is to follow them – with the intention being to get them to follow you back. Start your core group by following your friends and people you know will follow your Tweets. Then extend your range to include people who share common interests with you and your business. To begin, find your competitors or experts in your field and follow the people who follow them.</blockquote>

<blockquote><strong>2.  Start a Conversation</strong>

You’re on Twitter, you’ve made the introductions, now it’s time to start making small talk. Tweet your thoughts, tips, ideas, current events or interests on a regular basis, but don’t be overwhelming. Keep the chatter professional and client appropriate, yet make your Tweets unique and authentic. You want to develop a rapport with your followers and the best way to do that is to be yourself.</blockquote>

<blockquote><strong>3.  Throw Your Own Party</strong>

Invite people to hang out with you by advertising your Twitter link on your website, in your email signature and in newsletters or articles. Encourage people who are already your mailing list contacts and blog readers to follow you on Twitter too.</blockquote>

Don’t be shy about approaching new folks to follow. Remember, in general, people who don’t want to meet people tend to avoid social gatherings. It’s the ones who do want to get out, make new acquaintances and forge new relationships, who go to all the events. Now get your virtual cocktail party gear on and enjoy your Tweeting!

SEO success not only means generating lots of traffic to your site, it is about developing your website to suit the needs of your end users, thereby increasing your chances for organic traffic flow to your page. Keeping track of your keyword performance, adjusting your terms and updating your site as necessary is mandatory for creating optimal pages for your users. Once you’ve optimized your site to work for your ideal consumer, your chances for reaching your goals skyrocket.

Using an analytics tool such as Google Analytics, you can get feedback on pages visited, inbound links, daily traffic, average time on site and more. Monitoring traffic and adjusting your site’s content to better serve your end user is key in creating a successful and profitable website.

One way to monitor your SEO success is to keep track of your search engine rankings. Keeping an eye on your position in search rankings, as well as that of your competitors, allows you to closely watch your campaign’s progress. Use the information on your keyword performance, position changes and trends in your placement to guide you in updating your keyword choices and further developing your site to identify and attract your ideal client base.

Bounce rates are another factor to consider in analyzing your SEO efforts. For example, if you are selling organic dog biscuits and people who come to your page through doing a search for “organic dog biscuits” quickly leave without taking any action, the search engine will take note and start sending future traffic to your competitors. Using bounce rates data on your keywords and phrases, you can figure out what your users are looking for and optimize your site to create the best experience for them once they arrive. That way they’ll stick around and take action instead of hitting their back button.

Keeping track of your SEO efforts’ performance and updating your site accordingly is a time-consuming operation but when done well, the payoffs are more than worth it.