Since it’s launch in July of 2006, Twitter has quickly become one of the most popular microblogging platforms online. In fact, Twitter is one of my favorite social media tools and it’s finally being recognized as a powerful platform for communicating with your readers, building your brand, driving traffic to your blog, and communicating with industry leaders. At first glance, it’s easy to miss the power of Twitter. But start digging a little deeper and you’ll start to uncover the hidden gems.

Twitter is essentially a service that allows you to share bite-sized messages (or “tweets”) of up to 140 characters long. These short snapshots give insight into people’s lives – which is part of what makes it so popular.

Twitter allows you to send and receive updates directly on their website or via instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email, or through a wide-variety of third-party applications.

You get to be a “fly on the wall” and tune into interesting conversations from the likes of Robert Scoble, Seth Godin, Kevin Rose, CNN, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, and Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV.

You’ll find the environment on Twitter to be playful and engaging.

It’s a place to network, connect, and communicate. If you’re an Internet marketer, you get to hang out with other marketers. If you’re a golf player, you can connect with other golfers. If you’re a runner, you can meet other runners.

In fact, Twitter is attracting a wide variety of users, including political candidates, actors, students, bloggers, housewives, and more.

So, how do you become a Twit…

If you’re reading this I’m betting that you probably already know about a lot of the traditional marketing methods… article marketing, guest posting, press releases, affiliate programs, blog commenting, social bookmarking, video marketing, pay-per-click, etc…

This article isn’t going to talk about any of those methods. Although all of those strategies can be extremely powerful, I would like to go outside the box a little – revealing unique traffic strategies you’ve probably never heard of before. So, let’s get started…

Robert Scoble calls it “awesome”.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch named Flock one of the Web 2.0 companies he couldn’t live without.

Netscape Recommends Flock as “a web browser that combines all of the advantages of Firefox with the addition of social integration.” They also labeled Firefox as “the browser for people who like to be connected, informed and in control.”

The Web is changing. As said by Bart Decrem, founder and former CEO of Flock,”Web 2.0 is a stream of events, people and connections.” Flock is a browser that allows you to easily navigate this new user environment.

Free press is one of the best ways to spread the word about your website, your product, and your brand. However, most people don’t know where to start. Fortunately, it’s really not as hard as you might think.

There are thousands of articles being published every single day on blogs, newspapers, and magazines. Bloggers, writers, and journalists have pages to fill and all of them are actively looking for interesting topics to write about.

Many people forget that PR is about public relations. It’s not just about writing a press release. It’s about getting to know the journalists. Find out what kind of stories they’re working on and see what you can do to help them. PR is really about listening and engaging key influencer’s.

You need to connect. Connect with journalists who are writing about stories in your industry. Send them a quick note to tell them what you like about their writing. Provide them with story ideas within your industry. Provide them with value and they will have open ears whenever you want to pitch your own story.

Do you live for the StumbleUpon experience? Do you get excited to see where that next “Stumble” click will take you? If so, then this article is for you. A Quick Note Before You Dig In: Make sure you read this article all the way to the bottom. I’ve saved the best tips and tricks [...]

Image Credit: Poster Web 2.0

Social Media has been defined thousands of different ways.

Wikipedia defines social media as,

“an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.”

They go on to say that…

“Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.”

Brian Solis defines social media as:

“a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, tranforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)”

I’m going to give you my definition of what social media is and why it’s so important.

Before I get this post rolling, I’d like to confess something right up front. I’ve read a LOT of articles about link building. I’ve read endlessly about article marketing, press releases, social bookmarking, commenting, blah, blah, blah…. Aren’t you just a little bit sick of all the rehashed material. So here’s the deal. I want [...]