Many Twitter users (and many Twitter plugins) use shortened links to replace the full 200 character site and page title link with something like http://bit.ly/hu7j9o – to show a link to a blog post, article, image, video etc. in order to save some of our 140 characters and spaces. The problem has been – so do spammers, traffic bots (many of them have been getting more sophisticated) that’s made it harder to determine who’s real. So, in the past, there was no way to check if the link went to a real blog post or site, or to a spam link, sales pitch, MLM or something questionable in nature – unless you clicked the link.

Why is this reveal helpful?

Now you can hover over the link, and see where it goes. Eventually, spammy traffic sites, might try to use more legit names, but at least for the moment it is very helpful. Also I can see if the link if from a site I know and like and trust – perhaps from one of my favorite bloggers. In which case, if I trust the source, but don’t have time to read the post, but know that it’s likely to be good content, I can retweet it for my followers and read it later, when I have more time. ( I try to read most of the links I retweet, but not always – there I admitted it).

It is also helpful for identifying those Spammy Twitter users or sites that mix a few real tweets & tips, but all of their links go to a spammy, traffic generation, get more twitter followers fast. MLM essentially crap link. This can be really helpful in deciding whether or not to follow someone. If I see a junk link, attached to what SEEMED like a legit tweet, I’ll click on the person’s username – and check their profile real quickly. If I see a ratio of 500 tweets, following either 10 or 999, and 3 followers and no lists – and most tweets look like junk – then I take a moment & click the down arrow & select report for spam/block – so they can’t follow me. & Twitter will investigate and delete/suspend the account more quickly. But not all bad links are the fault of the person who tweets it.

Not all bad links are on purpose

Some folks have fallen for a spam tweet and had their accounts hacked, so that they automatically send out this tweet mixed in with other tweets. Some people may have retweeted what SEEMS like (or what they thought) was a good link. The headline of the post was interesting, but they didn’t take the time to click the link & read the “post” – and not realize that the post title “Travel Activity among Seniors up this Valentine’s Day” actually takes you to a URL selling a diet pill or a twitter auto traffic building site. Don’t report these folks for spam – if the rest of their tweets look clean, and they have an average twitter following – they may just be newer to twitter – if you’re nice, you’ll let them know the link the RTed was bad, or to check & make sure they didn’t get hacked. 100 tweets, following 50, followed by 64, on 10 lists. That’s a bit more legit looking.

Let me know if I missed any other benefits of this “link reveal” feature, or some other consequence I missed.

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Related posts:

1. Web Savvy PR Tip #4 Comment Before You Link
2. Twitter Chat Tips
3. How do you tweet? How To Use Twitter – One POV

Twenty one hardy souls signed up to participate in this free project, which I’m eager to do myself. There are many other ingredients that go into making a better blog, but this month we are concentrating on content, on the actual blog posts (along with some strategy around and behind the posts).

Basic Goals:
To over one month, create a better blog – Focusing on ways to:

1. Create better quality blog posts
2. Increase the quantity of blog posts
3. Depending on which our site needs most, either increase the
   1. Diversity of blog posts or
   2. The focus of our blog posts

Basic Structure:
Those who signed up will receive and email Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the month of November 2009. Each email will have:

• The topic of the day, and Some points to think about
• An exercise
• And some resources/links to help people brainstorm, or to provide more information (most of these are not planned as must reads, as I know our time is limited, but they are there to provide more information for those who want/need it).
• For those who haven’t signed up, I’ll post a brief version of the day’s tasks, and to help get the community involved, I’ll ad some comments based on my experience doing the exercises, and ask for tips from all of us bloggers out there.

The Weeks are loosely themed:
Week 1: Getting Started on a Better Blog – Behind the Scenes Strategy
Week 2: Honing our Message
Week 3: Building our Inventory
Week 4: What comes Next
(Thanks to John Reddish @GetResults for helping me brainstorm the weekly titles)

Each day’s info are simply ideas, jumping off points as it were, gathered from several years of blog reading, time spent reading and absorbing information about blogging from other great bloggers, many years of writing in my work, a year of blogging, and are also informed by my 20 years of Public Relations experience. If I suggest one way/idea, feel free to make it work for you, but if you meet resistance, be sure to ask it to step aside and let you get on with playing and working; don’t let resistance move in front of you and block you from our goals.

I hope this inspires others to create better blogs this month too!

Cathy Larkin, www.WebSavvyPR.com , 484-802-7576, Find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CathyWebSavvyPR (@CathyWebSavvyPR), Find me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cathylarkin

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• We set goals to give ourselves control. My blogging story shows how. (flowingmotion.wordpress.com)

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This is a part of my how to series on Twitter.com: #WebSavvyPRTip 4: Think B4 U Link: Commenting on a post B4 you link 2 it can be a good PR strategy. http://websavvypr.com/category/pr-tips/ 4 more

Before posting the link of someone else’s good blog post to a social networking or social bookmarking site (like Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn or other such sites) – think. If it is a post that fits the interest of your audience (readers, customers, clients, friends) consider commenting on the post before you link to it. Then your audience gets to see your POV, hence expanding the reach of your brand or company. This also shows that you know what they are interested in by exposing your followers/friends to a great blog post that may be of interest to them.

Now, this strategy will have it’s detractors, and can be misused. Hence my “think before you link.”

First – be sure it is a topic you are interested in, your readers are interested in, and be sure that your comment can add something to the conversation on that blog (not just be looked at as spammy by the post’s author or that site’s readers). Feel free to comment on any blog you want, but if you are looking to expand the reach of your brand – by using this technique: by commenting, then posting the link on a social networking site in which you have built a community - choose wisely. Be thoughtful/selective about the posts to comment on and link to. Is it in your area of expertise? Will it help find new readers/clients? Will it look like you are trying to horn in on someone else’s territory. This commenng idea may sound cold, or calculating, but done right, it is a four way win/win situation: for you & your audience, and for the blogger and his or her readers.

The Pros of commenting on the right post before lining to it:

• It creates opportunities for conversation – or engaging with people – and that’s the foundation of social networking.
• It builds your brand (when you fill out the comment form on the blog – fill in your name or social media username and your website/blog URL).
• It also establishes your credibility – allowing you to share your expertise briefly, and exposes that blog’s readers to your point of view, as well as your own audience. Think share info, not show-off.
• It shares the love - the interactivity of comments are the solar power that makes this “social media electricity” work. It’s a part of what separates a static website from a dynamic blog. It’s also a way to “pay it forward” as they say. The last time I commented on a blog, I had several readers of that blog head over to my site and comment on a post there.
• It can help build a connection with another blogger, be they big-wig, newbie or just another blogger like us, or even with another person who commented on the post too.
• Many folks have said that social networking sites are killing blogs – that people comment on Twitter and Digg, and not on the blog itself. Sure it happens, but why not do both – I have seen them act synergistically or work well together to move a client’s brand forward.
• Everyone likes good comments on their blogs, it. But be sure it is a “good comment.” I suggest not writing a throw away comment like “great post” (although I enjoy getting these on my blog too, and they are fine for the new or shy person commenting early on, but that is under-utilizing the potential power of comments ). Good comments add value to the conversation; they move it forward. That is, they provide useful information that either expands on the original post, provides additional info on the idea, confirms the original post with additional info, or provides a different POV on the subject among other things. Think – would you like to see a comment like this on your own blog, might it get more people to engage here, on this blog? If so, then make it.
  
• If more folks did this, it might increase the interactivity on many blogs. If you have gotten used to the 140-160 character limits on Twitter (and Facebook/Linked in Status updates), it gives you a chance to briefly expand on an idea.

The Cons of commenting on a post before linking:

• You can be seen as a Comment SPAMMER That is – don’t comment something bland and put a link to your own site – that’s the basic definition of “Comment SPAM.”
• Your comments are “searchable” via Google & Yahoo- your comments can show up when a prospective client searches for your name/company- make them count. If you tear into a blogger with a different POV than yours, it can come back to haunt you. That client seeing your venting may decide they don’t want to work with someone like that; or by being taken out of context; or by starting a “flame war,” a series of comments back and forth that begins to remind you of the schoolyard when you were ten. Intelligent healthy debate – builds your brand integrity, peeing matches are just that.
• Think – would you like to see a comment like this on your own blog? Or is it the equivalent of the guy who comes to the party and talks so loudly about his own “stuff,” that people start avoiding him. Don’t be the blow hard.
• Read the other comments on the blog post, be sure you are not duplicating what others have said already, or if you are weighing in – reference other comments above – to show you read them, and are not a spammer.
• As your brand’s audience grows, if you ONLY comment on blogs where it is sure to drive traffic back to your site - that is a kind of link bait or comment SPAM- and can diminish the quality of your brand in your own audience’s eyes, or in that of a prospective customer, and that blogger.

So – Think before you Link, and Comment First if Appropriate:

1. Comment on appropriate blog posts in ways that expand your brand, and add value to the conversation;
2. Then post the link to your favorite social media or social networking site (How to do this effectively may be fodder for another post);
3. Don’t forget to check the blog’s comment stream later (many allow you to sign up to receive e-mail when more comments are made). Someone may be trying to engage you in further conversation – that’s when you know you’ve hit the right note. Don’t be a hit-and-run commenter.

Feel free to share your @twitter name or Twitter link when commenting on my blog. That does not equal spam for me; It helps further opportunities to connect.

By Cathy Larkin, www.WebSavvyPR.com, find me on Twitter; I am an online and traditional PR consultant, with many  years of Public Relations experience, and a social media guide. I help individuals and small businesses find the right strategies and tools for their business to help expand the reach of their brand. I can help you: create a blog or add one to your existing website; learn to use social media tools and social networking software to get the word out about what you do; and help you reach out to traditional media outlets to tell your story. 484-802-7576, See my blog sidebar for other social media sites I am on and how to contact me.

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1. How to Choose a Web Savvy Brand or Domain Name
2. Cathy Larkin’s Web Savvy PR Tip 1 – Social Branding
3. Cathy Larkin Web Savvy PR Tips Series Intro

How do you Tweet asked the bird to the beast?

When I use the social networking site Twitter, and when I counsel my clients to use sites like Twitter, I seek balance in the type of a variety of the items that I post on all of my social networking sites. I’m posting this as, “How do you use Twitter” is a frequent question from my clients.

I don’t calculate how often I take each action listed below, but I do know that they are the type of things that cause me to follow, friend or link to others as well. I also know that I tweet more often about others than about myself:

• Things that show who I am; personal tweets, often in reaction to something someone else has tweeted
• Messages that connect me with others, asking questions, answering questions, learning about who people are and what is important to them
• Helping people solve small problems – PR, social media, tech, life, & generally being supportive
• Links to interesting, amusing, useful info, tips, tools, ideas, resources etc.
• Passing along interesting links from others in my twitter stream
• Linking to other’s blog posts etc.
• Links to my own work, blog posts, articles, press releases
• Linking to or retweeting client info, posts, cool tweets. I believe in transparency; I always note when a tweet includes client info, although it can sometimes we a challenge to fit into 140 characters or less. (I always say if it is from a client, but I usually have cool clients with interesting projects, so it’s not usually problematic or Spammy – Tell me if I’m wrong.  I won’t link to a client’s item, if it won’t be useful/interesting for others in my audience).

How do you tweet?

• Have I missed an important/useful type of tweeting?
• Which of these do you do the most? honestly.
• I probably retweet others links the most.  But I try and tweet those that haven’t been retweeted a hundred times already.
• Which of the above annoys you most? Or should this post have been how not to use twitter or what not to tweet?

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