Research has indicated that there is a science behind the right time you should be tweeting, posting in your blog or sending out emails to your list. Contra-Competitive Timing is key to enabling you to gain the most exposure for your efforts when there is least competition.

Let’s breakdown these areas to see what research suggest.

Twitter

• Later in the day and week are the most retweetable times – less competition
• Best times are evenings between 5-9pm EST with 5-6% retweets occurring during this period
• Content amount – don’t crowd your content. Spread it out by tweeting the same post more than once at different times of the day slightly changing the posting itself but using the same link. Twitter doesn’t like to see you reposting the same tweet. Your followers are likely to be following thousands of people and if you only post your tweet once it could get lost in the sea of tweets. By posting a modified version of the tweet spread out throughout the day, you are increasing the chances of your tweeps seeing your tweet.

Email

• People tend to read their emails more in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, but less so at night.
• Over 40% of people researched tend to open their emails more on weekends rather than during the week. In the early morning hours of between 6-7am EST.
• Nearly 9% researched click on links in emails more often on weekends.
• Experiment with emailing on weekends early in the morning when there’s less competition in the inbox and by sending your emails early in the morning it will be at the top of the inbox and likely to get read first.
• Your newest subscribers tend to be more apt to click on your links because they are keen to find out what you have to say or offer so take advantage of this.

Blogging

• Only 40% of the people researched read blogs at night with nearly 80% doing so in the mornings.
• Men tend to read blogs in the evenings and at night whilst women do so in the mornings. Knowing the gender of your audience will determine best practices here for you.
• Blog on the weekends for comments, as weekends seem to be the time when people are most active with commenting.
• Blog early in the mornings for links between 6-7am EST.
• Blog more frequently as research shows a higher number of unique views and links are reached when posting more often.

Key is to know your audience and experiment with different methods to find the right mix for your market. Remembering that Contra-Competitive Timing is key to enabling you to gain the most exposure for your efforts when there is the least competition.

It’s the place to be.  The first page, that is.

Face it, not everyone can be on the first page for their chosen keyword, but since the creation of Google Places the Big G has made it a whole lot easier.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, Google Places is a FREE business listing provided by none other than the Big G.  Depending on the industry, Google Places positions can range from 1 to 10.  SEO professionals call the top 10 Google Places listings, the “10 pack” or, the “7 pack”, with the latter being the top 7 listings in a particular industry.

The beauty of Google Places is multi-fold.   One of the major advantages, however, is that a Google Places listing can give a business a presence on the internet even if they have never had one before.  Yup, that’s right.  You don’t even need a website to have a Google Place listing, in theory, that is.

While it’s true that you technically don’t need a website to have a Google Places listing, that doesn’t mean your Google Places listing will do anything for you.  After all, just like any other organic traffic component, the best man “wins”- for the most part.

Over the past 6 or so months, there’s been a major change in the way that Google handles ranking their places listings.  Personally, I refer to it as “the great divide” or “before and after”.  Before October 28, 2010, I could utilize Google Places and rank any business for any keyword of their choice within one week.  Since October 28,  that task has become increasingly more difficult, although still do-able IF you know what you’re doing.  And, that last portion is critical.  Mess up your Google Places listing and you could have it revoked- sometimes with little chance of manual review.   And I don’t have to tell you,  this would be a very bad thing.

There’s a few key components to top Google Places positions:

1. Consistency. The address that you cite within your Google Places listing needs to be consistent over all properties on the web.  This includes directory listings or any paid advertisements that you may be utilizing.  By having consistent addresses across the web, you make it easy for Google to say, “oh yeah, this business listing on Google Places is the same as the one found at xyz.com.  We like xyz.com, therefore we like this places listing.”  Ok, perhaps it’s not as simplistic as that, but you get the idea.
2. Great on-page SEO. Remember when I said that you technically don’t need a website to have a Google Places listing?  It’s true.  You can claim your free business listing without a website, but if you don’t one,  don’t expect great exposure for your keywords.  Since October 28, Google has been merging Google Places listings with organic listings.  What does this mean for you?  It means that the best optimized site overall wins a key position in Google Places.  That’s why it’s important to have very tight on-page SEO.
3. Citations. In simplest terms, a citation is a mention of your website on a third-party site, completely separate from your business.   Superpages.com or Yellowpages.com are common sites for citations.  And, the more citations, the better.
4. Reviews. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with citations as most citation sites have some sort of user review system in place.  And just like citations,  the more reviews, the better (provided they are good reviews!)
5. Off-page SEO. There’s some controversy as to whether or not off-page SEO such as link bait and link building are effective for getting a Google Places listing ranked.   I’m of the camp that you can never have too many links and, if you get left behind in the link building realm, it’s the most difficult part of the SEO component to play catch-up with.  So backlink, away!

The evolution of Google Places listings has caused countless debates, gross speculation and dare I say it: panic attacks!   But relax.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  By finding a reputable SEO firm you’ll be able to partner up and create a winning listing that’s sure to earn you a position firmly rooted in the 7 or 10 pack.

Just remember: SEO is a marathon.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Many businesses small and large who use social media to promote their brand or service are under the false impression that the more followers they have the more influential they are and therefore in a better position to leverage their “klout” to promote a new product, event or service. This is not necessarily always the case.

What is important is to have the right followers that are a mix of people who would be interested in your brand, product or service as well as people who are influential in social media that can help get the word out for you.

Influential people in social media have not got to where they are at by re-tweeting or ‘liking’ anyone and everyone they know or giving their stamp of approval on a product or service. They will do so only if they feel the person behind the brand has something genuinely valuable to offer that their followers/friends should know about.

Trust is also a very important factor to consider before someone of influence gives their endorsement. Trust is earned over time, via interesting and useful content, frequent interaction, generosity in giving advice and help. It allows people to get to know you first and then ultimately your brand. It’s important to give back to the community and not just focus on selling.

If you’re thinking of marketing your brand through social media do your research first. Find out who the influencers are and see who their friends and followers are. Are their friends/followers people who would be interested in what you have to say or your brand? If so, follow or ‘friend’ these influencers and get to know them through commenting on their posts or updates and sharing thoughts.

There are a lot of directories out there for Twitter that will give you insight to who’s who to get you started. A great public Twitter directory is Twellow. You can search Twellow through hundreds of categories and user bios to help you find people who matter to you.

Ultimately it’s not how many friends/followers you have but how well you know them and stay connected with them that will matter to your influence.

YouTube is a great way to gain more exposure for your business, product or services. Using YouTube to it’s greatest potential is key to marketing what you want to promote so we’ve put together 5 tips to help you grow your YouTube community and help maximize exposure.

1.  Use Social Media – ask Fans what they like and what they don’t like about your previous work and also what they’d like to see in the future. This can help endear you to your Fans and build a community of loyal supporters.

2.  Use YouTube Insight Data – you can view your referral headers using the Insight tool and find out what websites are sending your videos most views. Once you know which sites and communities are referring you the most traffic, you can begin to focus your efforts and priorities there.

3.  Listen to Your YouTube Audience – read the comments that are on your videos. You will gain a lot of insight as to what your viewers like and don’t like. The Insight tool can also provide you with keywords that were most used by commenters which is great for insight and SEO.

4.  Promote Your YouTube Channel – add your YouTube channel to your signature in emails, on business cards and websites to let people know. Make use of opportunities to let your audience know about your content.

5.  Collaborate With Other YouTube partners – collaborating with other YouTube partners are a great way to increase the audience size you’ll reach. If you can get a prominent video creator to work with you on a video, they’ll likely promote it to their fan base.