Twitter can be time consuming and you need to ensure that your followers have a genuine interest in the knowledge you provide. If you would like some help setting up your Corporate twitter strategy feel free to contact Her Media.

The study shared by business weekly points out that while both men and women use Social media. The women far outpace the men.

“As a result, with the next wave of innovation likely to target women more than men, this gender gap on social networks (and increasingly in all of social media) will only widen. Naturally, male adoption of social media will grow as well. It just won’t keep pace with the expanding engagement among female users.”

Read the article  The Social Media Gender Gap

Rap Leaf Study Statistics on Google’s OpenSocial platform end users and Facebook users

Your marketing plan targeting women online needs to include social media.

Jennifer Slegg answers both questions with her blog Post ‘Why People you Follow on Twitter don’t follow you back. She brings up some very important Twitter points including personalizing your profile (Give me a visual)  with a photo and your URL and participating in active conversation.

For those who have signed up on twitter but are still “Haven’t updated yet!” Jennifer has some advice for you as well.

Stop By Jen’s Blog and learn some good Tweet Etiquette.

Log on with your Twitter ID at TweetBurner.

1.) If you do not want your stats to be ‘public’ be sure to click on the button:

2.) Add the link to your BookMarks:

Simply Drag and Drop …

3.) Create your Links

How to create a shortened URL that is tracked:

You can create your shortened URLS one of two ways.

1) For more personalized posts (my preference) visit http://tweetburner.com/ and create a URL from the website. Then create a unique twitter post and paste the URL into the post.

2) Open the page whose URL you wish to post and use the Twurl this icon in your Internet Browsers Bookmark tool bar.

The pop up window will open, enter your user ID and password and

Using the pop up will result in a very unpersonalized post (It appears spammy to me so I would not suggest using it.)

I am sending my feedback ( allow extra comments in the bookmarklet window to be included in the twurl) to tweetburner right now. You should as well.

They also offer the following services:

Twitabit and SwitchABit.

A note for Jay of Bit.Ly if you are reading this Please list some contact details on your blog.(I know I know I am always bugging everyone about being ‘real’ if you work online.)

If you test out BitLy let us know how your clicks are tracking.

Getting started is easy, simply go to Google Alerts and complete the form.

Of course like any web based tool, there are always a few tricks:

1. Don’t just track your company name, track the names of your products and services.

2. Track your name and executives names as well. If you own a blog, consider tracking the names of your main writers. This will let you know  when ever a news article or blog mentions their names.

3. Think like a search engine.

Track phrases by using “quotations” and ” -negative keywords”. For example my name is Karrine unfortunately I share this name with a video vixen who receives a lot more press then I do so I search  “Karrine -Steffans”.

Things to Google Alert:

Your name

Your business name

Your executives names

Your product names

Your competitors business names

Your competitors Executives names

Industry phrases with quotations

Yes Face book is launching a new layout and interface experience for their users and it appears that eventually we will have to accept the new design.  So I gave in and switched.

Here is the before:

And the after:

My first impression. They messed with something that worked for me and the new Tab system will mean I will have to spend more time on Facebook. Yes, it just takes a moment to  ‘open a tab’ but all those just a moments in my life add up to a large amount of time.

If I worked for FaceBook I’d say great ! more page views means more advertising revenue. As a  user it stinks.

The rumours are true when you switch all of your wall posts and updates are in ONE place.This is cumbersome when you are searching for a specific post. However the ability to adjust your privacy settings right there at the wall post is great.

There are some things I really don’t like however there are an equal number of new features I do like.

Here are some of the new features:

Tabs:

The Publisher area: Action items (things you do) I like this feature, it will save me time

Click on Write a note and the box expands:

This is interesting for those of us in Marketing:

Seems Facebook is asking users to ‘rate ads’. I know that these ads are Cost per click. But the ads CTR is going to go down the tubs as I am sure people will opt to  ‘rate’ the ads instead of clicking them. Essentially turning their ads into  ‘display ads’ as apposed to interactive. The users interaction is going to be rating the ad not interacting with the advertisers wish for them to CLICK the ad.

Really this doesn’t make sense if their ads are sold on s CPC basis they should be encouraging clicks not ratings.

According to their website; “The International Blogging and New Media Association was formed to promote and advance the blogging and new media industry through research, information, education and advocacy.”

Membership is only $25 and includes:

* Secure access to IBNMA Member Intranet with exclusive tools and resources
* Subscription to industry leading Blogger and Podcasting Magazine (current benefit)
* Monthly email newsletter
* Discount on training and certification classes
* Discount to registration to BlogWorld & New Media Expo (current benefit)
* Member to Member chat rooms and discussion groups (coming in late July)
* Discounted rates on publications and special offers at the online IBNMA store

If you are interested in blogging or social media I suggest checking it out.

Subscribe today to receive notification of; potential advertising media buys, affiliate programs targeting women and parents, networking opportunities, Her Blog radio show programming, and blogging tools.

According to Aunesty merchants should  be ready to spend 20-25% of their revenue on their affiliate program. You will need to know your numbers and your profit management. And expect 6- 12 months before you start seeing results.

Learn what an affiliate program is, how to start one, and how to run your affiliate program.

Click here to listen

This affiliate marketing  podcast is like having an affiliate coach in your back pocket. Listen to one of the internet’s top affiliate managers and learn the information you need to know before you launch your affiliate program.