Are You a Professional?

I'm probably not going to make any friends with this blog post, but I think it is something that needs to be talked about. Are you trying to start a business online? Perhaps you have a product to sell on eBay or another online marketplace and need to write descriptions that entice the lookers to buy. Or, maybe you want get into Internet marketing by providing a service to other online entrepreneurs. Well, I have a question.

Here's the question. Can you spell? Can you write using at least halfway decent grammar? If you want to look professional, you need to act professional and write in a professional manner. In a face-to-face business, potential customers judge you by what you wear and how you speak. In an online business, they initially only see what you write. The first contact with you might be a blog post you wrote, a sales letter they've found on an emailing, a free newsletter you sent out, or even Twitter. You won't appear professional if there are spelling errors, run-on sentences, no paragraph breaks, or other obvious grammatical errors. "Why do I need to look professional?" you might ask. Because 'professional' usually equates to traits like 'competent', 'trustworthy', and 'knowledgeable' for most people.

A program based or web based spelling checker is a first step. Always spell check before sending out anything. But a spelling checker is not enough. You need to proofread what you wrote after correcting any spelling mistakes caught by the spelling checker. Case in point, I was reading a blog post today where the writer used the word incite, when she really meant insight. The spelling checker knows they are both valid words, but with two very different meanings. Just this week I noticed two different people on Twitter who had a typographical error in their blog link that they put in their 'Bio'. Also, learn the correct usage of commonly misused words that sound alike, such as 'there', 'their', and 'they're' as well as 'to', 'two', and 'too'. If your blog posting software or other writing tool doesn't have a good spelling checker, write in Word or another good word processor and then cut and paste into your blog or other media. Then you'll also get the benefit of some grammer checking that the more robust writing platforms provide while spell checking.

Finally, use capitals and lower case as appropriate. That all lower case thing is so last century. And please don't use smileys or acronyms if you want to appear professional.

So, there, I've said it. I'll get down off the soapbox now. Oh, by the way, my grammar is not what my college writing professor would want to see on a thesis. I use a more conversational style, which, while still professional, comes across as 'friendly'. Comments are always welcome.

Getting Targeted Twitter Followers

Do you Twitter. If you have any kind of business, you need to market it on twitter.com. There are many and varied ways to market on Twitter, but we'll start with the first one.

First you need to get targeted followers to your Twitter tweets. There are a number of ways to do that, but here's how I do it. My way isn't the faster or easiest, but it may be the most effective. Here it is:

1. Begin by locating several other Twitter members who have similar business' to yours. If you eBay, then find sellers on Twitter who you respect or you know are active in marketing their ebay business. If you do something else, find people in that genre on Twitter. All you need is one to start.
2. Go to that Twitter member's page by clicking on their Twitter ID.
3. Click on their 'Followers' link in the upper right of the page.
4. Now this is the most important part. Mouse-over each ID in the list one-by-one to see each person's Bio. Look at the bio to see if that person is involved in your area of interest. If you ebay, do you see the word 'eBay' in their bio? If so, click to follow them. If your genre is selling jewelry, look for people who may be interested in jewelry, etc. For instance, I sell many things for children (clothing, toys, books, CDs,...), so if I see someone who appears from their bio to be a mom of small children, I click on them too, even though the word 'ebay' doesn't appear in the bio.
5. The other thing to watch for while going through the list of followers are Twitterers who you know and respect in your genre. Make a note of their Twitter ID and repeat this process with their list of followers.
   
6. You have just followed these people. Most will soon follow you.

There are other ways to find targeted followers, but this is perhaps the only way to create a list of super-targeted followers for your future marketing related tweets.

Watch for my next blog on this subject for tips on using Twitter to get your message to your followers. Hope this helps.

Ken

Buyer's Guide To eBay Feedback

I couldn't wait to share this with you. If you sell on eBay you should check out my friend Marlene's blog for her letter to buyers about how to rate a seller from whom they've just purchased.

In the Savvy Seller, she lays it all out for the buyer so they understand the different DSR ratings. After reading her letter, the buyer will know that a 3 doesn't mean 'Good'. And that a seller is failing if their average rating is 4. There's no way I could improve on her "Holiday Note to Buyers", so just go read it.

Ken