Time and time again, my friends who have been tasked with running their company’s Twitter account have asked me to give them pointers.

“Emily, how do I get followers on Twitter? What exactly is a tweet? How often should I tweet? Why do people stop following me? Is my head going to explode?”

Since I work for a digital marketing agency, I’m supposed to have a million answers on the subject. Luckily, I DO! For the sake of this blog, though, I’m just going to tell you 10 that I adhere to with my Twitter account.

Here are my top 10 reasons I will or won’t follow someone on Twitter.

10. I won’t follow someone who tweets incessantly — unless there’s an event going on, a wildly trending topic, or a Twitter party … quality over quantity, people!

9. I will follow someone who seems to always be in the know, and thus, tweets with an above average frequency. Give me content I want and I’ll stay!

8. I won’t follow someone who has substantially less followers than people whom they follow — it screams SPAM.

7. I will follow someone who has obviously just started tweeting and has valuable information to share.

6. I won’t follow someone who uses their personal Twitter frequently for professional promotion, or vice versa. If I’m following you because you’re a digital marketing savant, I don’t want to read about your aging mother’s digestive habits (unless it’s really funny and not gross).

5. I will follow someone who tweets ironic, sarcastic, or satirical commentary about his or her professional and personal life.

4. I won’t follow someone who sends seemingly “spammy” direct messages with any frequency. For those of us who get an email every time we get a DM, this is a real turn off.

3. I will follow someone who sends special offers or sale notices via direct message.

2. I won’t follow someone who aggressively bashes a person, group, or organization. This is a personal preference that might not be shared by all. Frankly, I don’t want repeated negativity coming through my Twitter feed.

1. I will follow someone who actively engages in dialogue with people, groups, or organizations about topics that may be controversial. After all, public communication and debate can be a healthy way to resolve issues (or at least get them acknowledged).

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

Take a look at your company’s digital communication resources. This may seem like a silly question to ask, but is your company sending the same message loud and clear? Or are they sending mixed signals? As an interactive ad agency it’s our job to ensure that our clients’ communications align with their brand and speak the same language, but do our own? 

As someone new to the digital agency, I was impressed rather early on by the level of attention given to the LFI brand through our communication resources. Practicing what we preach demonstrates our belief in the processes and tools we leverage on a daily basis for our clients. I couldn’t be happier to see us utilize our own agency as a proving ground and successful case study. Let’s be clear, though: this definitely takes time and a concerted effort from our teams.

In any business it’s easy to let the needs of your clients overshadow the needs of your own company. The client comes first, right? I would argue this is true, but only to a point. In the digital space, the potential for communication gaps is compounded due to the increasing number of avenues available to communicate with the world. Staying on top of your communication strategy and ensuring it is consistently broadcasting your intended message, in the tone you want to send it, is essential to getting the return you desire.

For LFI, our website, blog, and Facebook and Twitter accounts — even our email communications — reflect our brand and stand to leave a lasting impression about who we are and what we do. Email, in particular, is often overlooked as a point of brand communication. In the digital space, all outgoing email correspondence to existing clients, potential new clients, vendors and industry colleagues has the potential to either bolster your brand or trash it quickly — and worse, leave a virtual paper trail of the communication misstep.

Every touch point your company makes is an opportunity to relay the tone of your business, from prospecting right down to the point of hire. In a whitepaper from Accolo, the importance of leaving a positive lasting impression on potential new hires is highlighted; this is true whether or not they get the job. As the saying goes, it’s a small world, so you want to ensure you’re capitalizing on every chance to make someone a fan of your organization. Poor follow-up or inconsistent communication is more likely to convert someone to a critic, rather than a fan.

Our social media presence and this blog are also key communication tools that must be maintained, tweaked and updated on a consistent basis to ensure we’re sending the right message about LFI. In an article posted on MAD Perspectives, Peggy Dau speaks to the value of consistent messaging efforts in the social space and reiterates how good social media and blog content, like a good creative campaign, can be time consuming to create, but worth the investment. It allows potential clients to get to know your company and your brand, often before you even know they're interested. At LFI, we understand the value behind consistent branding and communication with social media, and we dedicate time and resources to our clients’, as well as our own, social media properties every day.

So take a moment to review your communication strategy. Ask yourself if you are being consistent and clear with the message you want to send across all avenues of communication to represent your brand. If there are snags, gaps, or possibly gaping holes, take the time to align your resources, patch the holes, and ensure that your outgoing messaging is far from mixed. Or better yet, look to see if hiring a digital marketing agency makes sense to help align your marketing communications.

(Contributed by Tiffany Hoppe, senior account manager)

Client curiosity in social media is growing every day. Businesses eager to stay ahead of the curve are getting more and more competitive due in part to an increased focus on the benefits of social media. Many of our clients see their competition integrating social media into their marketing strategies, and they want to be a part of this growing trend. However, they often don't know which channel is right for them.

My role as an account manager involves helping our clients find the answer to this question based on their marketing needs. A solid social media strategy is an excellent way for many businesses to reach their target audience but not all channels are the right fit for all brands.

The three most common channels clients want to know about when they are considering implementing a social media strategy are blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. The most frequently-asked client questions about all three of these include:

1. What do we do with each of these popular methods?
2. How do we use them effectively?
3. What do we blog or tweet about and/or what type of information should we put in front of our audience?

Using our knowledge of the social media landscape and understanding of the client's business goals, LeapFrog Interactive is able to provide a social media strategy recommendation that compliments their overall marketing strategy. Developing an effective social media strategy includes taking the client's target audience demographics, budget, and type of business/industry into consideration.

We take extensive efforts during the strategy development phase to educate clients on the differences between the various forms of social media, including how each are used and the avenues most beneficial based on their industry or product type. It is crucial to let our clients know how social media can benefit them when executed properly and how it can hurt them if it's not used and monitored correctly.

Leapfrog Interactive offers full management of the client's social media campaigns via a dedicated department of individuals who focus solely on social media. Once a client approves a strategy, our social media experts tweet, blog, and make image/content updates to our client's social channels within their corporate messaging guidelines. Social media takes full-time monitoring and must be relevant, fresh, and new all the time. We are dedicated to helping our clients accomplish these goals.

Social media success relies on an understanding not only of the social channels but also of a brand's target audience and the brand itself. Helping a client fit together all of the pieces is what we do and how we make sure our clients are social media butterflies, not social media wallflowers.

[Contributed by Emily Van Winkle]

Join Amberly Stitzel and Scott Million as they discuss the ways that Social Media Marketing can enhance Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Marketing results.

We have been tackling the topic of social media this month, and I want to take it into the realm of integration for a bit...

So just how does social media fit in the grand scheme of things? Perfectly, in fact, as it compliments the majority of the interactive marketing we are already engaged in. From PPC to SEO, online contests to brand building, social media can be used in conjunction with other efforts to boost not only brand equity online but also conversions.

Several recent marketing endeavors for our clients have included social media as a component. Social media marketing has been used to further the conversation online with the ultimate goal of singling out brand advocates and planting the seeds they need to carry our brand message to their social web. From carrying on brand conversations in blogs and forums to establishing a brand's presence in well established social networking arenas such as MySpace and Facebook, social media marketing is a natural extension of a user's current online behavior. We have chosen to use social media in conjunction with more mainstream interactive efforts because we believe it places our message exactly where it needs to be found.

To this end, we may place display advertising on a site where conversations have been very positive and numerous in an effort to further the brand advocacy we have already enjoyed. We may divert PPC media to the same blog temporarily to bolster traffic and discussion about our brand.

Bottom line: Social media is not always a singular activity or marketing endeavor. It represents one of many arrows we keep in the proverbial quiver to help our brands truly achieve online brand dominance. While social media was not coined until recently, the platform has been around for years and choosing not to take advantage of its tremendous benefits is the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand.

If nothing else, this past year has been a year where buzzwords evolved faster than Cro-Magnons in a Geiko commercial.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: viral, "Web 2.0"

By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: social media

Why? Because marketers began to understand that in the maturing new media landscape, there's more value in creating and sustaining relationships and conversations than in getting a video of your slightly dorky executive playing guitar maximum traction on YouTube.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: mobile marketing OR online video OR widgets

By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: cross-platform, integrated campaigns

Why? Because once we got over the cool factor of these shiny new channel toys, we realized that for now, they're pretty much only ready to augment existing channels, rather than replace them.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Digg

By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: StumbleUpon

Why? Digg started out the year strong, but towards the end of 2007, scandals regarding Digg's treatment of their most valuable asset--the community of power users--had seriously tarnished the social media site's reputation. Meanwhile, StumbleUpon brought back a sense of wonder, exploration and surprise to jaded web surfers.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Myspace

By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: Facebook

Why? Mike thinks it was Virginia Tech. I think it was massive eyestrain from annoying banner ads and exceptionally poor user experience. Either way, while Myspace still has the numbers, by the end of the year, Facebook owned the buzz. Even their missteps (**cough**Beacon**cough**) were more newsworthy than what Myspace was finally getting right.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Second Life

By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: MyBlogLog / Twitter

Why? Hmmm... spend hours and cash creating an animated virtual self, and hope you run into someone you'd want to network with while running around Second Life, or spend a half hour creating a profile and start building avatar recognition where the best and brightest minds in the blogosphere are converging and conversing? What sounds like a worthwhile use of your time, in retrospect?

So that's our recap of how the biggest buzzwords of 2007 evolved over the course of the year. What's the big picture in all this? That marketers are beginning to both adopt the new tools that the web (and Web 2.0) offer and understand how they fit in a long-term, sustainable interactive marketing and digital advertising plan.

That's a huge jump to make in only a year, and obviously, not everyone has made it. However, overall these trends are great news for those who work in marketing and advertising on the web, and the brands and companies they represent.

The more we all get on the same page in terms of strategy, goals and value, the better we can all be in effectively contributing our part of the effort.

I recently read a really nice article by Noah Elkin at iCrossing that covered his suggestions to clients who are considering moving their brand management into the social media landscape. On the whole, I agree with his suggestions, but one item really jumped out at me:

"Also, make sure your legal team is not writing any posts or deciding what's getting written and how. Yes, legal should be involved in crafting and signing off on the policy, but no, legal should not be taking a hands-on role (unless for some reason you're engaging with a legal community)..."

Let me just say, reading that was nearly a "spew coffee on the keyboard" moment for me. There are people who think they should have their legal department speaking for them in social media? Once I regained my composure, I realized that for most traditional corporate clients, that might actually, on the face of it, sound like a "safe" way to engage in social media. So in case you're a brand marketer considering moving your company into the social media space, let me just clear this up right now: unless you'd send your lawyer to represent you on a date (or even at an industry conference or social networking event), don't send them to represent you in the social media sphere. It also got me thinking about other tactics that brand marketers who aren't really familiar with social media and web 2.0 might initially (mistakenly) embrace. So with that in mind, I present to you three foolproof, ironclad ways to ruin your chances of successfully introducing your brand to social media.

1. Try to "Do it Yourself." If you're an in-house marketing specialist, and aren't currently participating in social media, such as industry forums, blogs, wikis, or podcasts, then it's likely because you're simply not comfortable with the medium--at least not yet. Again, let's put this in a context you're probably already familiar with. Let's say you have a marketing coordinator who is an amazing administrator, kicks butt at achieving objectives and completing tasks--but would rather chew a roll of tin foil than do public speaking and is allergic to meeting strangers. Is she the best person to send to conduct a seminar on your company's core competencies? Probably not. So why would you send a person who isn't truly comfortable participating in social media to represent you in that arena? In many ways, the social media landscape is very much like an offline networking or public speaking venue. Except it has the benefit of being mostly written communication--meaning you have the opportunity to pause, review and revise that communication briefly before it goes out into the general public domain. Which brings us to...

2. Hyper-sanitize your social media communications. Social media is understandably a scary communications vehicle for traditional brand marketers, who were weened on the mantra "control the message, control the message, control the message." The informality, two-way dialogue and transparency that give social media its appeal can be the most intimidating aspects to companies who are entering the medium for the first time. It can be tempting to simply copy and paste your static, one-way brand communications into the social media world and hope for the best. Or to edit the content crafted for social media until it's indistinguishable from your one-way communications. Doing so would be similar to setting up your phone systems so that only outgoing calls were permitted. Yes, it would give you more control--it would also cost you most of the usefulness of having a phone system in the first place, namely making your company accessible.

3. Avoid social media altogether. Let me share a little story with you. I was doing a little competitive research for a client interested in SEO work, investigating their existing backlinks (links that lead to their site from other sites). I ran across a link from a hobbyist discussion forum related to their industry. It was a consumer, who stated that he was looking at their brand, among others, before making a large purchase. He wanted to get some feedback from other enthusiasts before committing to a purchase.

The entire thread was a conversation among people who passionately care about the client's industry, and covered issues like quality control, differentiating product factors, and manufacturing processes. This was a site with tens of thousands of members, and hundreds actively reading and posting at any given point in time. If we'd been monitoring social media mentions for this client, we could have given them a heads-up, and gotten some great feedback to contribute to the conversation on their behalf. What potential brand value would you place on that conversation? Among three competitors, if even one of them participated in that conversation, gave thoughtful and helpful answers, what would you consider to be the value of that conversation? Compare that to the value of ad impressions, and the real potential impact on people who are most likely to buy their products. Now bear in mind that the particular forum in question has been online since 1999. Does waiting for this whole "social web" thing to blow over and go away still seem like the best idea? Are you beginning to see the value and power of social media brand management yet?

Are there risks involved in mishandling brand management in the social media web? Absolutely--but there are also risks involved in ignoring this powerful communications medium. The best solution is to engage professionals, who are experienced and comfortable with the medium, and have them work closely with your in-house marketing staff, exactly as you do for print, radio, television and offline public relations.

I recently received an invitation to beta test the new social bookmarking app RSS feedreader, Streamy, thanks to Mashable.com (thanks, Pete!) I've been taking it for a test drive this morning, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. Do you like the sweet Ajax user interface of Ma.gnolia, but not the slightly girly design? Then you'll like Streamy.

The interface is beautifully slick and clean, and it has truly excellent usability. The "Start" page is the typical social bookmarking "most popular" list, which appears to be personalized (possibly based on your expressed interests, or possibly based on the subscriptions you've chosen). The next navigation link takes you to your subscriptions--and this is by far the slickest and most fun to use feed-reader I've seen so far.

You can browse for subscriptions by most popular, by topic, or you can enter your favorite feeds manually. Of course, when I say "manually" you might be cringing, imagining yourself dealing with some clunky form page. Au contraire, mon frere. The Ajax pop-up is clean and simple, a joy to use, pretty much (unless you subscribe to a few dozen feeds--I didn't notice a place to import your feeds from another feedreader.) After your subscriptions are all in, your subscription page lists post excerpts in date order. You've also got a sidebar that lists your subscriptions individually--so if you want to only look at one particular feed at a time, it's simple to do so.

Clicking on the title of a post excerpt opens the full post in another nifty Ajax pop-up. There's also a "launch" button if you want to launch that particular site in a new window or tab. You can comment on posts internally within Streamy, which other Streamy users who are logged in and looking at that story can read--but it doesn't appear to post those comments outside of Streamy on the originating site.

Of course, because it's a very web 2.0 site, you can join networks, groups, and add friends. Wouldn't be much of a social bookmarking site without that. You also have the obligatory profile page, chat, and IM functionality. Drag 'n Drop sharing of stories and other media is a nice interesting touch. You can even drag another user into an IM window to create an instant chat room (although the metaphorical implications of literally dragging a friend into a chat room are more than I want to contemplate at the moment. It reminds me vaguely of being dragged into a nightclub to socialize when I really wanted to get some sleep. Ah, well.) On the whole, I think Streamy is an incredibly well-made and well-thought-out application. Kudos to the gang at Streamy for building a great tool. If you can finagle an invite to join the beta, I highly recommend it.

Much emphasis is placed on proper on-site optimization when discussing search engine optimization. While on-site optimization is important in ensuring that your company site maximizes the indexing and ranking that occurs when a search engine spider crawls your pages, a well-rounded and complete SEO plan should also include off-site efforts to increase page rank and relevance for your corporate site.

The simplest and most obvious of these efforts is to submit online press releases, or media releases, through outlets such as pr.com, prweb.com and prnewswire.com. A well-written and genuinely newsworthy media release can increase your relevance when it includes inbound links to your site. While most of these online outlets have a free service available, using the paid submittal service will ensure better positioning and can result in your release being picked up by other news organizations and aggregators, increasing the SEO value.

Another effective offsite activity is social media marketing. Getting involved in online conversations through blogs, social networking platforms, and discussion forums is a great way to not only create buzz for your organization, it can also increase your page ranks when appropriate inbound links are used.

However, it's important to make sure that the person tasked with your offsite public relations and social media marketing is well-versed in both your brand and online etiquette. Even a CEO can make serious missteps that negatively reflect on your company. A perfect example would be the recent scandal involving Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who was discovered anonymously posting derogatory comments about a competitor in online forums and blogs.

When it comes to offline SEO activity, what you say, when you say it and where you say it are all of critical importance.

Imagine a marketing world where your message is screened by a panel of judges who impact the visibility of your brand. Follow that by a voting process where the consumer determines whether or not your message is kicked out of the competition. Sound like a far-fetched marketer's nightmare? In reality, it's just everyday interactive marketing!

Whether you like it or not, your online brand is in a contest. It is part of a judging and voting process that controls the visibility and longevity of your message. Search engines place a great many well-conceived rules and regulations around your message, and then judge your site to determine how well or poorly you did.

Beyond that, search engines respond to the voting public. With each search conducted, the search engines count the votes. Sites that receive the highest vote tallies (i.e. clicks) are granted higher scores in the competition for that search term. Over time those sites with relatively fewer votes are "kicked off" the top five, then off the first page, and so on.

So how do you ensure your site is the Kelly Clarkson of internet marketing?

Build it right. This isn't hard and the rules are established. Find an interactive agency with the credentials and experience you can trust to build your website in a manner the "judges" will like. (And don't try tricks - the search engines are smarter than you!)

Stay relevant. If you abandon your website once it's built, consumers will do exactly the same. Everything from content to imagery to site features and tools need constant updating, indexing, and growth. Search engines reward activity and so do users.

Get talked about. We may root for the underdog and empathize with the wallflower, but in online marketing, it's the brand socialites who get all the votes. If you haven't yet gotten serious about getting talked about...now' the time. Coordinated, measured, and consistent activity in blogs, podcasts, video sites, and social media communities will start and sustain excitement about your brand that turns into votes.

And remember, the most savvy American Idol contestants don't let the judging and voting scare them. They make an impact, mold opinion, and drive their own result. With a little hard work and the right partner, your online brand can do the same.

Getting talked about has long been the purview of the Hollywood set and the politicians of both red and blue persuasions. When was the last evening out with friends that didn't have some mention of a movie, television show or star? Or some reference to politics or a politician? Getting talked about is how these "industries" build brand value.If nobody is talking about a movie star, you'll likely see them showing up in B-movies pretty soon. The same is true of your brand.The internet has become a social medium. It's where people go to socialize, show off pictures of their children, brag about their favorite sports team, talk politics, and share the latest gossip about movie stars or local celebrities closer to home. Just as in the real world, these online"neighbors" share their opinions of your brand, product, or service. When someone asks "has anyone ever tried ____", invariably someone in their blog or forum has an experience or an opinion about that product or service. When an online user has a great experience with something new, they talk about it, recommend it, and want others to have a similarly positive experience. Just like gathering around the water cooler,  whoever has the newest cell phone or cutest outfit is happy to share information on where to shop, what to ask for, how much to pay, and what pitfalls to avoid. If your brand isn't yet an Internet Socialite, don't worry, it's never too late to get started.  But remember, the talking never stops. If your brand isn't getting talked about, someone else's is.