Marketers were quick to catch on to the possibilities presented by YouTube.  They began to create “viral videos”, clips that were intended to draw interest and spark widespread distribution.  YouTube’s embed feature allows anyone to place videos on his blog or website, so by creating funny or informative videos, marketers could spread their message far and wide.

Any online marketer can harness the power of YouTube to promote his products, services and website.  Here are some types of videos that tend to do well:

* Popular commercials - If you have a television commercial that has brought you lots of business, putting it on YouTube can get you more mileage out of it.  And best of all, you don’t have to pay for airtime.

* How-to videos – While some Internet users just want to be entertained, many of them come online looking for information.  How-to videos allow them to see how something is done rather than just reading about it.  Businesses capitalize on this by producing videos about how to do things that relate to their products or services.

* Video from special events - If you’ve held or participated in a conference, seminar or other special event, posting a video of it on YouTube could get you lots of traffic.  So don’t forget to take your video camera along!

* Funny videos - Lots of Internet users visit YouTube when they need a good laugh.  If you can whip up a funny video that features your products or services, there’s a good chance that it could be highly rated and go viral.

A frequent mistake of YouTube marketers is just uploading their video and hoping for the best.  Here are some simple steps you can take to increase your video’s chances of success.

* Take care to put your video in the right category, and make full use of tags. Add tags that describe your business and products, as well as the video’s subject matter.  This will help users find your video more easily.

* Write a good description that contains keywords that one might use to find your video. Also, be sure to include your site’s URL in the description.

* Be sure to allow embedding, comments and ratings. Allowing others to embed your video will give it more exposure.  Making it possible for them to comment will generate discussion, which is also good for your video’s success.  And allowing ratings could put you higher in YouTube’s search rankings if people like your video.

YouTube is an invaluable marketing tool.  It gives businesses the opportunity to use the popularity of online video to their advantage.  Anyone can create a video with Windows Movie Maker and upload it to YouTube, so why not give it a try if you haven’t already?

Here are just a few no-no’s that business owners all too commonly make when using Twitter. Are you committing any of them? Take the time to make sure by reading on.

One big mistake that people make when using Twitter for business reasons (or who think they are using it for business purposes) is getting caught up in the “commotion” there. It’s important to do some talking at Twitter because that is a form of networking in and of itself which is vital to business professionals. However, the talking you do should be succinct, to the point, friendly but professional.

As a marketer, your objective at Twitter is not to make new best friends or get dates; it should be to establish relationships that will lead to others desiring to do business with you. Now don’t misunderstand this. You don’t want to be manipulative. The objective is to keep the talk laid back and not beat people over the head with pleas or demands that they visit your websites.

Another big mistake that marketers make when using Twitter is posting tweets that are irrelevant or drive people away from them. You can be funny, playful, personal, or serious, but what you type in for your message has got to have meaning and substance and be one that will attract others instead of turning them away. It’s also ok to state your opinions on things, but be grown up about it and never type mean, obnoxious tweets or messages are prone to start too much controversy. For the most part, Twitter is a very friendly and open-minded community, but do realize that not everyone will agree with you on certain issues so if you find you are very opinionated on certain hot button subjects, it might be best to avoid those particular matters. As they say, you catch many more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Yet another error people make when using Twitter in business is that they include their website links in too many of their messages. Yes, in order to use social networking sites effectively for business you have to include links to your business, but don’t do it so much that it becomes annoying or seems manipulative. One or two link backs per day is plenty; any more than that will more thank likely be considered overkill.

A related big mistake that people make with Twitter is posting way too many tweets per day. Not only does this take too much time away from their business, but once again they seem heavy handed or self-centered to the community. Five to ten new Twitters per day is plenty. Once again, make sure that you really have something to Twitter about, not just some words to throw up because you want to hear or in this case, see, yourself talk.

Finally, some marketers give up on Twitter too soon because they aren’t seeing the results they’d hoped for quick enough. Remember, persistence is what pays off with networking, and networking on the Internet is no different. Twitter away for a while before you start expecting steady or big results.

Twitter allows users to post messages via their website or from the user’s cell phone.  Demand for an easier way to post online was great and out of that demand, several applications were born.  Some were based on desktop applications, while others resided in the browser’s sidebar.  And some, like Twitterbar, were altogether different.

What Is Twitterbar?

Twitterbar is a very simple browser extension.  It installs quickly and easily.  At first glance, it looks like it hasn’t added anything to your browser window.  But if you look to the right of the address bar, you’ll see a tiny gray icon.

So why is there an icon next to the address bar?  Because that’s where you type in your post.  That’s right, you simply type your post in where you would normally type a Web address, click the icon or type -post and hit enter, and your post is sent to Twitter.  It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

There’s no need to worry about going over Twitter’s character limit when using Twitterbar.  All you need to do is hover your mouse over the Twitterbar icon, and the number of characters left will appear in the address bar.

Another neat feature of Twitterbar is the ability to automatically post the URL you’re currently visiting.  To do this, just leave the URL in the address bar and click the gray icon.  “Currently browsing” will be added before the URL, and it will be posted instantly.  The URL will be shortened if necessary, just like it would be if you posted on Twitter’s website or from your cell phone.

As simple as Twitterbar is, it includes several customization options.  You can hide the icon next to the address bar if you like.  You can change the “currently browsing” text that’s automatically added before URL tweets to anything you like.  And you can set it to automatically open the Twitter website in a new tab after you’ve posted.

Twitterbar is available for Firefox and Flock browsers.  Unfortunately, it’s no longer under development by the original developer, so versions for other browsers may or may not be created.  But for Firefox and Flock users, this extension can make posting to Twitter even quicker and easier than it already is.

Here are just a few no-no’s that business owners all too commonly make when using Twitter. Are you committing any of them? Take the time to make sure by reading on.

One big mistake that people make when using Twitter for business reasons (or who think they are using it for business purposes) is getting caught up in the “commotion” there. It’s important to do some talking at Twitter because that is a form of networking in and of itself which is vital to business professionals. However, the talking you do should be succinct, to the point, friendly but professional.

As a marketer, your objective at Twitter is not to make new best friends or get dates; it should be to establish relationships that will lead to others desiring to do business with you. Now don’t misunderstand this. You don’t want to be manipulative. The objective is to keep the talk laid back and not beat people over the head with pleas or demands that they visit your websites.

Another big mistake that marketers make when using Twitter is posting tweets that are irrelevant or drive people away from them.  You can be funny, playful, personal, or serious, but what you type in for your message has got to have meaning and substance and be one that will attract others instead of turning them away.  It’s also ok to state your opinions on things, but be grown up about it and never type mean, obnoxious tweets or messages are prone to start too much controversy. For the most part, Twitter is a very friendly and open-minded community, but do realize that not everyone will agree with you on certain issues so if you find you are very opinionated on certain hot button subjects (Hummm….like politics? ), it might be best to avoid those particular matters.  As they say, you catch many more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Yet another error people make when using Twitter in business is that they include their website links in too many of their messages. Yes, in order to use social networking sites effectively for business you have to include links to your business, but don’t do it so much that it becomes annoying or seems manipulative. One or two link backs per day is plenty; any more than that will more than likely be considered overkill.

A related big mistake that people make with Twitter is posting way too many tweets per day. Not only does this take too much time away from their business, but once again they seem heavy handed or self-centered to the community. Five to ten new Twitters per day is plenty. Once again, make sure that you really have something to Twitter about, not just some words to throw up because you want to hear or in this case, see, yourself talk.

Finally, some marketers give up on Twitter too soon because they aren’t seeing the results they’d hoped for quick enough.  Remember, persistence is what pays off with networking, and networking on the Internet is no different. Twitter away for a while before you start expecting steady or big results.

Your cell phone can be a powerful Twitter tool. There are many ways you can use it to benefit not only you, but your followers as well. With your cell phone you can continue to contact your friends and followers and they can tweet you as well. Your cell phone is a communication highway and with Twitter added it becomes a networking wonder.

There are many tools you can use to twitter from your cell phone. Depending on the type of phone you have, you can go mobile in a number of ways. Tools like Jott, Hahlo, Mobile Twitter, Thin Cloud Twitter, Twitter to Go, Twitter SMS, Twitter IM, and Twoble are all available for various cell phones and plans to help you tweet tweet away.

Here are just two of the many cool ways to use any cell phone to harness the power or networking through Twitter:

If your phone has a mobile browser, you can go to www.m.twitter.com and you are good to go. While this is not the best option, it is an option and it works. This is a simple tool that allows you to view Twitter from your cell phone and allows you to tweet back and let people know what you are doing as well.

Flurry is a mobile mail client/service. You can download the Flurry client on your phone seconds after you sign-up. Flurry, which started out as a service that would let you check e-mail on your cell phone has recently added a feature that allows you to add RSS feeds and read them on your mobile phone. In case you did not know, you can set up RSS for all your favorite Twitter users. All you need to do is add RSS feeds generated by the Twitter accounts of your friends. The best part about it is that you don’t have to pay for anything – it’s free. If you want to send messages of your own from your cell phone letting people know what you’re doing, just use the SMS (texting) feature on your phone.

If you have an iPhone, try out Twitteriffic. It is a new app and is free. I use it on my iPhone even when I am online with my laptop. I love the way that it functions.

Your cell phone has so many capabilities and so does Twitter. By using the two together you have yet another way to utilize the power of social media. Of course you don’t want to drive and tweet at the same time but you can always pull over to the side of the road and tweet your ideas, thoughts, or updates away.

Well, maybe not wonderful but then again it all depends on how you look at it. With the proper plug-ins you can create an awesome social networking tool since both Twitter and WordPress are both strong contenders in the social media arena. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular Twitter plug-ins that you can use on your WordPress blog to create a social power house match made in heaven.

TwitThis is a simple way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the webpage and creates a shorter URL using the TinyURL tool. Then visitors can send the shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their friends on Twitter. Talk about word-of-mouth! The TwitThis button is a cute little button that you can add to the end of your blog posts making it readily available to your readers once they’ve finished browsing your post.

TweetMyBlog is a plug-in that will automatically announce your blog posts to your Twitter followers and include a link directly to the post. This plug-in will also include a sidebar widget that will pull in your latest tweets and link them back to your Twitter profile page. Finally the creators of this plug-in have an affiliate program that is available to every “TweetMyBlog” user.

TwitterFeed is a plug-in that allows you to simply promote your blog to your twitter followers. Much like TweetMyBlog, but not as extensive. You can customize the message that will announce your blog post to all your twitter pals. Again, a direct URL is provided in the tweet.

TwitterTools is a plug-in that creates an integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. With TwitterTools you can pull your tweets into your blog and create new tweets on blog posts and also from within WordPress.

TwitterBadge is not so much a plug-in as it is a way for you to let others know that you are a user, maybe even addict of Twitter – it’s ok we won’t tell. There are many badges from the cute little Twitter bird to the simple badge that basically says, “Hey, look at me. I Twitter too!” When people see your badge and click it, they’ll be taken to your twitter profile.

The bottom line – Twitter is the place to be online, but you may not always be able to be there as much as you would like. By using the above plug-ins you can automate your own WordPress blog and Twitter to create a beautiful traffic generator an a great way to connect with your tweeps.

The number one reason why Twitter can never replace a blog is because you can only post up to 140 characters at any one time. There is just no way to squeeze 1,000 words into such a small space. Not to mention, trying to send 7.14 tweets back to back, will not go over well with your followers. There is nothing like a person who tweets excessively. Doing so will cause you to lose followers and your goal with Twitter is to gain a friends not turn people away. You want Twitter to be tool that leads to your platform – your blog – the place where you share your story, product, or business.

Another reason why you can never replace your blog with simple tweets is because you just don’t have the same control to customize. Sure you can create a profile that says something about you but not the way you can with your blog. With a blog you can customize the whole kit and caboodle. You can add tools, plug-ins, and even more networking opportunities through your blog. You can’t do all that with Twitter.

Then we have the website name issue. You can’t attach a domain to twitter. On twitter you will always be www.twitter.com/whateveryournameis and that is it. Your username or extension is how people will recognize you on Twitter, but it’s not the same as a domain name for an entire website. In essence, Twitter owns your profile, not you. But your domain name – now that is all yours.

If you are an affiliate marketer, you want to talk about what you are promoting and, as was stated earlier, you only have 140 characters to say what you really want to say. That is not as effective as a blog post or blog series that can send the message more effectively. That’s juust one more reason Twitter can never replace a blog.

Don’t try to replace your own blog or website with twittering. Instead, learn to use Twitter as an effective tool that makes people want to learn more about you. Your blog is where you get down to the nitty-gritty and allow people to become more knowledgeable about your life, your product, service or whatever it is you are promoting.

We already know when blogs are optimized correctly they are great for bringing in traffic and generating sales. That is why you need to hook up with Twitter. While Twitter is not a full fledge blog, it is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to instantly let people know what it is that you are doing.

You can set up your blog with a simple feed that will help you optimize and create the results you want to get from both your blog and Twitter. Considering the many ways that you can feed your blog to Twitter, you can talk to people all over the world in a way that you never could before.

There is a simple little tool called Twitter Feed that you can set up on your blog. This tool will integrate Twitter and your blog allowing you to create an automation tool that will give your blog even more legs and bring in traffic. All without any extra steps needed by you once the initial installation is complete.

Setting up your Twitter Feed is not a long or hard process. You can literally do it in 5 minutes or less. Here are the simple steps to getting started.

•    If you do not have a Twitter account, you need to set one up. This will allow you to broadcast your blog RSS feed.

•    Once have set up your twitter account, go to the Twitter Feed site and login using an OpenID.

•    Once your account is all set up you can then integrate your blog with your twitter profile by adding your blog’s RSS feed. You can do this for as many blogs as you like.

•    Be sure to set up the time intervals in a way that doesn’t post too many at once and get you banned from Twitter for spamming.

•    Once you are done whenever you post to the blogs you have in your Twitter Feed, the URL and post announcement will go out to all your Twitter buds.

Twitter Feed is a great tool, but try not to abuse it or your followers. Your readers and followers want to read your content and using Twitter Feed will help you get it out. Just be sure to feed it in the right way.

The question posed by Twitter, “What are you doing?” has become almost as popular as AOL’s “You’ve got mail.” So much so that it has even caught the eye of offline news mediums such as USA Today, CNN, and ABC. This helps to make the application popular all on its own. Those who think Twitter is just a place for computer or Internet geeks can rest assured it’s nothing of the sort.

For many, Twitter is a way to interact with like-minded individuals. Whether one is a stay at home mom who craves adult conversation, an at home worker who misses the water cooler chit-chat from past jobs, or the business owner who wants to reach more of their target market, this form of social media fills a need. It makes it easier for people to connect with others in a way they might not have previously been able to.

The fact Twitter is easily accessible and even simpler to navigate makes it a favorite as well. Anyone can create a twitter account of their own with nothing more than a user name and a password. Once that’s done, it’s easy to customize your profile and begin following other tweeps, as those who use Twitter affectionately call one another. To follow what another person is doing, just visit their page and click the follow button. You’ve now been added as a follower and when you login to your account you will see their messages on your screen.

Want to use Twitter even when you’re not at home or don’t have access to your computer? No problem. Inside your account you can choose whether to have messages sent via cell phone or instant messenger programs as well. Just browse to your settings and choose the devices tab and in a few steps you’re good to go. This feature makes it possible to tweet on the go. This is perfect for those who travel frequently or while out and about come across something interesting or amusing that they’d like to share with their followers.

Twitter’s arrival has also lead to the creation of different platforms and applications to make it appealing to just about everyone. Popular applications include, Twitter Fox, Twhirl, TweetDeck, and TweetMyBlog. Twitter Fox and Twhirl give users who are prefer the instant messaging look and feel a way to use Twitter in somewhat the same manner. Twitter Fox is an extension for the Firefox browser and Twhirl is a desktop application.

TweetMyBlog is a way to automatically post updates from a user’s blog to Twitter. In order to use it all one needs is a Twitter account and an RSS feed from their blog. It will automatically posts a tweet using your account when your blog is updated.

Tweet Deck is another desktop application that allows for more organization of updates. Instead of posting all a users tweets one right after another, it allows the user to organize tweets into separate columns within the application. For those who have customers and friends on Twitter this is a great feature.