SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves setting up your website so that search engines can rank your website as highly as possible on search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your website's ranking, the more easily your potential customers will be able to find your store.

There are different SEO approaches. 

• Off Page SEO. Includes the following. 

• Backlinks, ie links from external websites that send potential customers to your website. However, remember that back links are ranked differently based on their quality as perceived by search engines. Set aside resources (time and otherwise) for developing high quality backlinks. Ideally, set backlink SEO goals for time periods and work towards getting them. 

• Seek after backlinks from sites that search engines consider relevant. If you sell cars, do not seek after links from kitchen gardening websites. One alternative is to request backlinks from your ecommerce store's product manufacturers.
• Request that backlinks use relevant keywords like 'XYZ, 12-speed blender' rather than 'click here'

• Use content marketing. Create compelling content (in written, infographic, spoken, video or other format) that truly adds value to your target market. Content marketing works simply because the content is so good that it will get shared. Engaging with well established bloggers or vloggers is an example of how you can generate high quality relevant backlinks. (See a sample letter of how to contact these influencers). NB. Although content is still the sine qua non for success, content is most effective (re engagement) when accompanied by infographics, ie some form of visual representation of written words.

• Welcome backlinks from social media (Facebook, Twitter, the average blog and so on) but their positive impact on search engine ranking is usually marginal. This is because they are 'nofollow' links. FYI, you can verify whether backlinks are higher quality 'follow' or 'nofollow' links by entering 'Control U' or 'Command U' to review the code of a webpage. A good 'follow' backlink looks like this <a href="https://www.yoursite.com">The ABC site</a>. However, 'nofollow' backlinks have an additional piece of code <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.yoursite.com">The ABC site</a>
• Know that backlinks from pages with numerous other links are generally less valuable than those from pages with fewer links

• Avoid paid backlinks. Search engines can identify websites whose only purpose is to provide backlinks over quality content. Consequently, search engines can penalize or even delist sites that rely on such low quality backlinks.

• Guest posts on well established, relevant websites. You make on external websites or blogs. Guest posts also help in generating high quality backlinks.
• Press releases. 

• On Page SEO. Includes the following. It is easier for new store owners to focus on this approach before off page SEO.

• Product title. See how to create the product title automatically in MS Excel for CSV product file uploads to Shopify

• URL (aka 'handle' in Shopify). See how to create the product page URL automatically in MS Excel for CSV product file uploads to Shopify 

• Product description 

• Meta description. FYI a meta description is different to the product description. It is usually unseen in the coding of the page. You may even use the description as a mini advertisement that potential leads will see on the SERP.  See how to create the meta description automatically in MS Excel for CSV product file uploads to Shopify. Example

• Order  [page title] today from [brand]. Free shipping and insurance on all our [brand] [product line] products. Order today and get a free [bonus - usually an add-on product]
• Always include the following elements within the product description.

• level 1 header, ie the largest header available. 

• vendor's name. This should already be in the title.
• SKU

• Alt image tag. Use the product title for this. To enter this detail automatically, you may either create formula in Excel for the CSV product upload file or use an app in Shopify like 'Alt Text' or 'SEO Image Optimizer by Booster apps'

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• Long Tail keywords. These are highly detailed and specific keywords. They are best for targeting leads who are already very far into your sales funnel, most likely with buying intent. The details include as many of the following as character limits will allow and the relative importance of each element (*** very important, ** moderately important, * least important). For instance, character length for product titles and meta descriptions are 55 and 160 respectively. Needless to say, if you are paying for Google traffic, it is best to use long tail keywords. Besides it is less competitive and cheaper to do so.

• brand name / make ***. Examples: Canon

• key product-specific feature **.  Examples: color; size

• special name of the product (line)***. Examples: Corolla
• version **

• Stock Keeping Unit number / SKU ***. Ensure this code is the standard manufacturer code that your potential leads may be able to find and look for

• generic product type *. Example: 'hat'; 'bag' 

• Broad keywords. Refer to keywords that are best suited to potential leads that are yet not very far into your sales funnel. Such people may search merely out of curiosity and for general information.

When you have completed SEO preparations, create a free account on Google Webmaster Tools ( http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml ). Then register the website to get Google to start crawling your site sooner than later.

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CONTENT RELATED TO SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION / SEO

• CSV Product Upload: MS Excel tricks to automatically create complex SEO elements like the title and URL (aka 'handle') within minutes
• Use this great knowledge to improve Google Product Listing Ads / PLAs 
• Use this great knowledge to improve Craigslist ads

Tentpoling for Marketing Communication Strategy

Communication with your target market (or promotion) is a key aspect of the marketing mix. However, timing that communication appropriately around a significant event is often the essence of strategic communication marketing. Apply the following steps to meet your marketing objectives.

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1. Select events that are relevant to your target market. Also consider the mission statement for your business' current period. For instance, a new business may be concerned with brand awareness, new customer acquisition, customer loyalty and so on.  Keeing the mission in mind may help to select only  the most worthwhile tentpoles and insert meaninful touchpoints into the execution plan. Common examples of events include the following.

• new product launches - aimed at long term sales of a non-seasonal product 
• seasonal cultural events, like Christmas - aimed at promoting seasonal increase in sales  
• consumer events, like birthdates, subscription expiration - aimed at brand recall, loyalty, etc
• major third party events, like World Cup sporting competitions.
• the occurence of positive or negative risks, like natural disasters affecting your industry, your or a competitor's product recalls - aimed at brand recall, acquiring competition's customers, etc
• major current affairs (like new civil rights legislation, natural environmental debates, release of popular movies)
• trending social media topics (hastagged topics),
• You can even use events that are not directly related to your product as an excuse, simply to keep your brand in the minds of your customers. Essentially, you aim to piggy back off of events that create their own buzz among your customers. In this last case, you may need to consult a calendar of events like national holidays, celebrations (often based on historical events and milestones). Consider your industry and a calendar that might apply to your business' core values and focus. For instance, a culinary arts business may consult a calendar with different food days. See below how to maintain and list and highlight events and their dates.

2. Know the dates of the event and align marketing communication with your market's response timing. This is important because you are unlikely to sell Christmas decorations if you begin to advertise on Christmas day or even Christmas eve. After all, people will have usually completed decorations by then because they buy in anticipation of the event. In the image below, the green line shows the start of early prebuzz marketing communication campaign. See how to use Google Trends to estimate your target market's pre-buzz readiness. Prebuzz may take many forms that include Youtube infommercials.

See below how content, manufacturing and advertising can be scheduled around each event.

Tentpoling: marketing communication is about timing

The following table illustrates how I fill my marketing calender with events. The order in which I list tentpoles is based on the earliest date on which I must take action (usually for manufacturing the product or for inviting pre-orders as a means for planning manufacturing volumes). In other words, I do NOT use the event. In the example below, Christmas is the event. However, it appears in the August list.

August (Date calc)

1- Event & search keyword(s), date	2-Ad Type, media, timing	3-Product availability	4a-Product Type, production method, lead time	4b-Product Differentiation Special edition symbols, etc	5-Manufacture date(s)
Christmas 25 Dec	Ø B2C: pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via FB product page, Instagram, YT, 7-20 Aug, 1-4 Oct   pre-buzz (v sharp peak) via Facebook, FB product page, 13Dec to 24-Dec   post-buzz (excess stock), 26-Dec to 5-Jan       Ø WS: pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via messaged link to order form, 7-20 Aug	Ø B2C: Facebook, Instagram, 5-Oct to 26-Dec                   Ø WS: Shippers, 28-Sep to 20-Dec	Rum cake, fruit soaked, 7 weeks	Red, white, green	10-Aug to 2-Nov

1- Event

& search keyword(s), date

2-Ad

Type, media, timing

 

3-Product availability

4a-Product

Type, production method, lead time

4b-Product Differentiation

Special edition symbols, etc

5-Manufacture date(s)

Christmas 25 Dec

Ø B2C:

pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via FB product page, Instagram, YT, 7-20 Aug, 1-4 Oct

 

pre-buzz (v sharp peak) via Facebook, FB product page, 13Dec to 24-Dec

 

post-buzz (excess stock), 26-Dec to 5-Jan  

 

 

Ø WS:

pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via messaged link to order form, 7-20 Aug

 

Ø B2C:

Facebook, Instagram, 5-Oct to 26-Dec

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ø WS:

Shippers, 28-Sep to 20-Dec

 

Rum cake, fruit soaked, 7 weeks

Red, white, green

10-Aug to 2-Nov

Here are the meanings of the columns.

Column 1. The event refers to the date or range of dates during which consumers recognize the event. The keyword used by the target market.

Column 2. Advertising date is based on when consumers are likely to begin thinking about and buying in anticipation for the event. This may also involve inviting customers to pre-order for the sake of establishing appropriate manufacture volumes for special editions and perhaps creating a sense of scarcity. 

   a. B2C / Direct consumers: This date is based on when interest peaked. Interest levels are based on historical Google Trends data for the keyword(s) associated with the event. Examples include: Google Trends for your target market's region over the past 5 years.

   b. Wholesale (WS). This date is earlier than the date for consumers. It gives WS customers enough advance time to order and receive shipments in time for when interest in the product peaks.

Column 3. The date from which the product is available for shipment 

   a. B2C: usually the day after advertisement

   b. WS: S/A 

Column 4. Production

   a. Product type and production lead time

   b. Themes & symbols

Column 5. The ‘manufacture date’ field is calculated as Availability date to WS customers MINUS production lead time.

 

3. Respond to your market's environment and trends. Although events that are relevant to your market are unplanned, they may be useful for marketing if they have some strong correlation with your market's response to them. This is where post-buzz tentpoling can apply. Examples include news events and social trends (like the public response from anything like oil prices to movies featuring some aspect of your product or social media events). Like other newbie marketers, you probably agonized over how you could possibly emotionally engage your market into buying your product. The solution is to ride the wave of your market's emotional response to events in the news, movies and so on, ie as the emotional response can relate to your product in the middle of the sales funnel. Learn more about the sales funnel. Emotional marketing this way is the driver behind the phenomenon in which a previously obscure style of dress suddenly flies off shelves after a major event like a celebrity wedding, an awards ceremony and even viral wardrobe malfunctions. 

4. Create buzz content, actvities and products that meet your market's touchpoints requirements. Use personal branding, lifestyle branding, relevant keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) in titles and so on, etc. See how to use Google Trends to generate timely content. When creating content around a major third event (like world cup sporting events), check with your legal team before using creating content that associates their brand with yours. If are reliant on major news events, your risk management team needs have a plan for horizon scanning for quickly generating post-buzz content for such circumstances. When possible, have a risk communication plan with script templates.

Consider the case of Kylie Cosmetics' Lip Kit product launch. It sold out within 1 minute despite no paid traffic and under 10 full time and only slightly more temporary staff members. The event used several years of Kylie's selfies for pre launch buzz. While her fame gave her an unprecendented following of hundreds of millions of fans, the brand's following paled in comparison. It was therefore sensible to closely link her personal brand to her cosmetics brand. Her Instagram started in 2011 as being very typical of any teenager. However, at some point, there was a noteworthy shift including many high quality images. Why would a teenager who is not a model need to take so many glamorous, obviously curated photos? The daily photoshoots showcased her personal brand personality exactly how it would appeal to her target. Specifically, the brand personality was one that her target would want to 'befriend'. However, it rivalled the cosmetics brand in terms of engagement for her posts. Her personal brand was therefore indispensible to any product launch. It is noteworthy that her frequent posts built feelings of trust and familiarity - a brand manager's dream. Her daily posts of the minutae of life provided the numerous touchpoints that basic products alone struggle to achieve. Another key learning point is the fact that the process of repeated touchpoints to build familiarity and trust take time and should be planned well in advance. For instance, The Kylie Lip Kit name had been trademarked in 2015, ie 2 years in advance of the launch. The pre-launch touchpoints never discussed lips. Rather, they focused on makeup tutorials for everything other than for the lips. This therefore manufactured the need for a solution for lips. She was not asking anything of her audience. Rather, for 2 years of stellar patience, these posts only provided perceived value. What she was getting in return however was that her target market was not only the trust and familiarity but also a reciprocity debt (a subtle principle of influence / persuasion). To launch product extensions, she made her personal brand appropriately relatable with strategic collaborations with family, friends and even her baby. Scarcity marketing is often beneficial to tentpole marketing. It was intentionally used for Kylie products despite the fact that, if they wanted, Coty, the part owners of the Kylie Cosmetics brand would have had sufficient marketing knowledge to schedule production volumes to better meet demand. Besides, even Kylie's likely less experienced team would have known that her milllions of loyal fans could easily have sold out her 15,000 lip kits. Even if they had not, experience over the years of having sold hundreds of thousands of lipkits would have given them sufficient experience to prevent the brand's continued trend of product stock outs. The initial product launch stock out was ideal for creating a brand story for the media that would positively shape brand perceptions as being highly desirable and something to be bought as soon as possible. Beware however, this is generally more suitable for trendy products (NOT necessarily your mainstay products).    

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JAN
NEW YEAR'S DAY 01-JAN
    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS

US NAT'L WHIPPED CHEESE DAY 05-Jan
SCOTTISH BURNS' NIGHT 25-Jan
GERMAN APPLE DAY 11-Jan


FEB
WORLD SAMOSA DAY 29-Feb
CHINESE NEW YEAR 08-Jan
US NAT'L PIZZA DAY 09-Feb
CHRISTIAN PANCAKE DAY 09-Feb
VALENTINE'S DAY 14-Feb
US BANANA BREAD DAY 23-Feb
US NAT'L MARGARITA DAY 22-Feb

MAR
NCAA MEN'S BASKET BALL TOURNAMENT
US SPRING BREAK
US NATIONAL  EAT ICE CREAM FOR DINNER 22-Mar

APRIL
NCAA MEN'S BASKET BALL TOURNAMENT
GOLD MASTER'S TOURNAMENT
WEDDING SEASON
MOVING SEASON
BUILDING SEASON
US NATIONAL PET DAY
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER EARTH DAY 22-Apr
 GERMAN BEER DAY 23-Apr
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MAY
MOTHER'S DAY - 13-MAY
WORLD LAUGHTER DAY - 1ST SUNDAY
 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
HUMMUS DAY 13-May
AUSTRALIA NAT'L BURGER DAY 28-May

JUNE
NATIONAL ACNE AWARENESS MONTH
 FATHER'S DAY
ARBOR DAY (COSTA RICA) 15-Jun

 FATHER'S DAY
CANADA NAT'L (POTATO) CHIP DAY 27-Jun
CANADA FOOD DAY SAT OF CIVIC HOL WK'END
WIMBLEDON
TROPICAL SPRING / WET SEASON BEGINS
WORLD MILK DAY 01-Jun
INT'L SUSHI DAY 18-Jun
AUSTRALIA VANILLA COKE DAY 02-Jun

JUL
INDEPENDENCE DAY (US) -4-JUL
    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS

MLB ALL-STAR GAME
US NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH
US NATIONAL ICE CREAM DAY 3RD SUN
JACKFRUIT DAY 04-Jul
WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY 07-Jul

AUGUST
FRIENDSHIP DAY 1ST SUNDAY
 SUMMER OLYMPICS 05-Aug
MOTHER'S DAY (COSTA RICA) 15-Aug
 US TENNIS OPEN 29-Aug
WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY (US) 26-Aug
 NATIONAL DOG DAY   26-Aug
 NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 28-Aug
INT'L BEER DAY 1ST FRI

SEPT
NATIONAL ALOPECIA AWARENESS all of Sep
 LONDON FASHION WEEK
US LABOR DAY 05-Sep
INT'L BACON DAY 05-Sep
EMMY AWARDS 08-Sep
NFL SEASON KICKOFF 08-Sep
INT'L COFFEE DAY 29-Sep

OCT
WORLD HABITAT DAY 1ST MONDAY
 WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY 01-Oct
WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY 02-Oct
WORLD CHICKEN DAY 2ND THURS
WORLD EGG DAY 2ND FRI
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 10-Oct
 WORLD HANDWASHING DAY  15-Oct
 WORLD FOOD DAY 16-Oct
WORLD TRIPE DAY 24-Oct
S AFRICA NAT'L BRAAI DAY 24-Oct
MLB WORLD SERIES
HALLOWEEN
COLUMBUS DAY
WORLD CHEESEBURGER DAY 27-Oct
AFRICA FOOD & NUTRITION SECURITY 31-Oct

NOV
NATIONAL SKIN CARE MONTH 01-Nov, all of Nov

WORLD VEGAN DAY 01-Nov, all of Nov
GUY FAWKES' 05-Nov
US ELECTIONS 08-Nov
THAI NATIONAL CURRY DAY 1ST FRI
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR TOLERANCE 16-Nov
 WORLD PHILOSOPHY DAY   3rd THURSDAY
 GERMANY NAT'L SOUP DAY 19-Nov
WORLD HELLO DAY 21-Nov
 THANKSGIVING 25-Nov
DEUTSCHEN BUTTERBROTS (DUTCH BABIES) DAY 25-Nov
BLACK FRIDAY 26-Nov
CYBER MONDAY 28-Nov
DIWALI 30-Nov

DEC
INTERNATIONAL TEA DAY 15-Dec
 BRAZIL NAT'L MUFFIN DAY 18-Dec

CHRISTMAS 25-Dec

    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS
 NEW YEAR'S EVE   31-Dec

PERSONAL TENTPOLES (FOR EMAIL MARKETING)

• BIRTHDATES
• EXPIRATION DATES
• PAYDAY
• WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

NATIONAL TENTPOLES (FOR EMAIL MARKETING)

• FIND THE COMMEMORATIVE DAYS FOR YOUR MARKET

UNPLANNED EVENT TENTPOLES (FOR POST BUZZ TENT POLE MARKETING)

• MOVIES APPEALING TO YOUR MARKET
• RISING OR FALLING OIL PRICES
• SOCIAL EVENTS (CELEBRITY FASHION TRENDS, CELEBRITY NEWS & SO ON)
• NEWS OF SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS
• VERDICTS OF CERTAIN HIGH PROFILE COURT CASES
• OUTCOMES AND POPULAR REACTION TO MAJOR EVENTS 

CONTENT RELATED TO TENTPOLE MARKETING

• List of Commemorative Days
• List of Awareness Days
• Google Product Listing Ads / PLAs
• Craigslist advertising
• Create a Tentpole Marketing Calender Using Each Element of Your Target Customer Profile (Graduate school example)
• See how to use social media for tentpole events.
• Instagram 101. Attaching questions to Instagram stories is excellent for encouraging engagement around tentpoles.
• Fully integrate your tentpole promotion into the marketing mix. For instance, update all other marketing communication accordingly. This includes banners and slide shows on your website and social media (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and so on). Also advise all front end personnel accordingly and forms of communication like telephone greetings, mentioning the offer, email signatures and even your live chat shortcut welcome text can be.
• Other discussions on abovementioned case studies
• Kylie Cosmetics tentpole and scarcity marketing case study (above), social media marketing, etc.
• Internal links: Kylie Cosmetics case study re product launch tentpoles; tentpole calender;

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Twitter & Followerwonk for Ecommerce SEO

Twitter can be used as a promotional tool for business. If used strategically, it can gain exponential visibility. It will also allow you to connect and communicate directly with your market and business associates.

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1. Communicate with your target market.

Everything you do sends signals and is therefore a form of communication. Consequently, keep ALL activity (even your following, who you follow and so on) on your Twitter account niche-specific. Before tweeting, be clear about your target so that you keep ANY conversations relevant and therefore consistently attractive. If you are running a competition or promotion, you can tweet something like #[promotion-related keyword] will be fun, etc ... Remember to keep in touch, even when you are not trying to promote something. This may involve communicating relevant information around tent pole events.

• Tweet at the right time of day. Remember that Twitter continually loads all ongoing conversations during the day. Consequently, it can be hard for people to find your tweets unless they are unusually inclined to search as if for a needle in a hay stack.
• Go into the 'Analyze' tab.
• Enter your [Twitter account name' and 'analyse their followers'. Click 'Do it'. This will to understand the peak time when most of your audience is likely to be active. Don't fear, most people have low percentages under 10% of follower activity at their highest points. BTW, you can re-tweet the same message at your second highest activity point and say, "Hey, in case you missed my last tweet from last night, ..."

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2. Extend your reach with #hashtags

When you post messages, use hashtags. If you do not use hashtags, your messages will only reach your small number of followers. However, when you use hashtags, anyone on Twitter can access the message.

• Use keywords as hashtags for your profile and ensure that every tweet includes these relevant hashtags. These keywords may be your brand, your interest and so on.
• Use associated company names, event hashtag names and so on to show association. For instance, if you attended an event with your clients (Abusiness) and had a good time, you might post an image with a message like, "A great time you @Abusiness guys. You're #keyword rockstars. #proudxsupporter" 

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3. Raise your market share of followers

Followerwonk.com is the ideal tool for monitoring your market share of followers.

In the 'Compare Users' tab, do a comparison with a major competitor. Several frequency outputs will appear. 

1. A Venn diagram will show different bubbles to represent your competitor and you regarding volume of followers. The size of each individual bubbles will reflect the relative volume of followers. If you share followers, the bubbles will intersect. It will be ideal for your bubble to be as large as that of your industry leader and for the bubbles to intersect (which would mean that you are reaching at least some of the leader's followers).
2. Another output that will appear is a percentage frequency table. This will provide relative percentages of the market of followers between you and your competitor. There will also be a percentage for the shared followers. Ideally, the percentages of your unique and shared followers should be as high to that of your competition as possible and the shared percentage as high as possible.

• Click the link to see the full list of your competition's followers. In fact, you can do this for up to 2 other competitors at the same time. Do comparisons with 2 key competitors at the same time to find followers that are common to both of them but not to you. Such followers are likely to be not simply fans who follow on a whim but truly interested people in some way. They may be experts in the field for instance. You want to get such followers on board with you too, especially those with the most 'social authority'. High 'social authority' followers are more influential because they are more influential simply because they have a high engagement rate. They are in an ideal position since their receptive audience spread their message far and wide. These tend to have the most followers who are attractive to you.
• 
  Follow these influencers. Remember! Twitter is a network of people who connect through discussion. In that case, engage with these people. They will hopefully begin to recognize and even follow you. To engage with them, get known by replying to their tweets and retweeting their tweets.
  
  

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• BTW, when you 'reply' to tweets (ie write a comment in response to a counterparty's original tweet), all of that counterparty's followers will see your reply tweet. This is therefore a great way to recruit your counterparty's followers. Your message should therefore focus on attracting them to follow you.
• Alternatively, if you want your followers to see the message, you must 'retweet' the original message to them.

4. Find business contacts.

You may use the 'Bio Search' tab to find potential business associates in a highly specific niche, even if those persons are not part of your immediate network. This is useful for finetuning searches by geographical location, specialization and so on. For instance, if you are seeking a supplier of product X in Nairobi, you can search for that; if you are traveling to an event in a country, you can search for influential people in your field that may add value to your venture in some way.

• In 'Bio Search' search window, type in keywords. If you are looking for a supply manager, put that entire term in quotation marks like "supply manager" so the software will keep the concept whole. Use synonyms also. For instance, "supply coordinator", "supply trader" and so on.
• In the 'More Options" section, enter synonyms also. For instance, rather than only search for "Manhattan", also include "New York", "NY", "NYC", etc.

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5. Some tweetiquette.

• As much as possible, always include multimedia (namely images or video). These elements enhance visibility and responsiveness.
• Tweet as frequently as possible at your optimal time of day to remain relevant. (See notes above about how to use followerwonk.com to establish the optimal hours for your followers). However, do not do this to the extent of appearing like spam.
• Consider sharing links for your offline colleagues. Do so without seeking their reciprocation. Do not make it feel transactional as in 'I did 1 thing for you, you should do 1 thing for me in return. However, if you do need help in the future, consider which of those people from whom you can seek retweets or other link sharing to promote your business.
• Mention people and ask others to mention you using the '@'. This transforms your name into a clickable link as opposed to regular text within your tweet. Clicking on @name links direct people to the profile page.

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6. Analyze your performance (regarding gains and losses of followers). Experiment with new kinds of tweet and retweet approaches, note the time and then check their impact.

• Go into the 'Analyze' tab.
• Enter your Twitter name as [ @name ]
• Select 'followers'
• Set the time period and then 'Do it'.
• Note the date of rises and falls in following. Then review your tweets and retweets for the same dates or time periods to get clues on the causes of the change in following. 
• For instance, rises might be due to attending an event. If so, it a good clue regarding what you can do more of to increase your following. losses in followers are sometimes due to taking a stance on a highly 'political' issue like gay rights, racial matters, electoral candidates and so on. Losses are also likely effects of spam clearings that Twitter does from time to time.

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CONTENT RELATED TO TWITTER FOR ECOMMERCE

• Associate industry keyword hashtag tweets with your mailing list segments. When you send out email campaigns, email sequences and or tentpole marketing, include corresponding tweets that extend your reach beyond those people whose email address you have.