Speakers: Stowe Boyd, Laura Fitton, Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shy”?), Lucretia Pruitt, Erin Kotecki Vest
Lucretia is @geekmommy and moderating. Laura is @ pistachio, Tony Hseih is @zappos, Tony is @stoweboyd, Erin @queenofspain

Erin got on Twitter “by accident.” Got into conversations w/people and found followers and followed them back.

Stowe is a fan of social tools. Twitter has recharged the way he sees and feels about blogging.

Laura isn’t interested in being famous, it’s more about relationships. Pulled good feeds into her life to surround herself w/successful people. Likes the onlilne/offline connections. Now she’s a twitter consultant, “as dumb as that sounds.” “Microsharing” is a phrase she’s coined. “Work streaming” is Tony’s preferred coin.

Tony learned about it at SXSW. Used it to find parties there. Connected w/local and San Fran friends.
Kept his away friends close. Now he has 400+ employees on the tool and has twitter classes there as well. No one is forced to do it.

Q. Tony, how did you first start using twitter as a CSR tool?
A. Weren’t originally looking for customers, but they found us. Then someone suggested to give away a pair of shoes to a Twitterer and it snowballed from there.

Q. Erin: Went from mommyblogger to political blogger. How did Twitter help?
A. Twitter did help. Did some election coverage before, but Tw took it to a new level. DMC was very good about giving credit, RMC completely opposite. When she complained on Tw w/in 10 min. she got a call back.

Pet peeve: people who only tweet their blog posts. You can’t just throw up links expecting people to click. You must build trust.

Erin no longer reads her RSS, uses Tw instead. Stowe, too. Stowe uses Snacker (snackr?) for Mac.

Laura says despite her # of followers, she is not influential. When she does have something retweeted it’s b/c it’s an important topic. (TX food banks out of food, for example.) However, if she didn’t have so many followers she wouldn’t be so influential. It’s the “what makes a rectangle bigger, height or weight?”

Q. Why does Tw continue to rule w/new upstarts? (Plurk, identi.ca.)
A. Tony: Tw is convenient, simple, and everyone is there. He admits to Tw while driving! (Bad boy.) Laura: network keeps people there, as well as 3rd party apps. The fact that there’s so many mobile users bodes well for the future of Tw. “There is no right way to use Tw.” “Tw is an ecosystem, not a business.”

Some differing opinions on how to follow people. Some follow everyone (except spammers) so that they can receive dm; others can handle the feed. (Perhaps TweetDeck is the solution?)

I received this question via my Twitter account today:

@the_rich_brooks I have created a website but have no idea where to start with web marketing. I have a blog and yahoo group.
– @livestrongcjm

Thanks for the question, Chad. Through your Twitter page I found your Vigor of Life Web site. I have some general and some specific advice.

General

At flyte we practice Holistic Web Marketing, an integrated approach to online marketing that includes search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging, social media optimization and more. In other words, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. I’ve seen too many people spend a lot of money on search engine optimization, but their Web site isn’t set up to convert that traffic to business. Here’s an article I wrote on holistic Web marketing.

Specific

1. Improve your search engine visibility. Your home page title tag is currently "Vigor of Life." That’s great if someone is searching for your business name, but how about the greater amount of people who are searching for your products or services but have never heard of you? A better title might be, "Personal Fitness Training: Your Exercise and Diet Coach." I say might because I haven’t done a keyword analysis, so I don’t know which keywords might drive the best quality traffic to your site.

   Title tags are just one piece of the puzzle; you’ll also need keyword rich headers, body copy and intra-site links. To further improve your search engine visibility you’ll need to get more incoming links.

2. Start an email newsletter. I’m guessing a lot of your prospects might take some time to make a buying decision. During that period they may forget about you. Stay front of mind with a monthly opt-in ezine. To overcome inertia, use some email bait, like a free article for subscribers: "10 Ways to Increase Your Vitality and Stay Healthy."
3. Improve your blog. I’m not a big fan of Blogger, but if it works for you, keep it. However, the way it’s floating in an iframe is a little confusing. You could also benefit from adding categories and tags. If you haven’t yet, take a look at my free article (with email subscription–see how important that email bait is?) The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make.
4. Improve your Web site to increase conversions. Get rid of those GoDaddy notices by upgrading your hosting account. The first 9 or so links on your site are for GoDaddy, not you!

   Be clearer on what you’re offering. "We change lives!" could be the slogan of a personal coach, a headhunter or a pet adoption agency.

   I’m glad you have a call-to-action on the home page, but there should also be one at the bottom of every page on the site, and it should be more specific, i.e., "Get your free training consultation today."

   Use testimonials with real names (whenever possible) to prove your value to visitors.

There’s a bunch more things you can be doing, but hopefully this quick list is helpful.

If you have any Web marketing questions, including search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging or social media, you can leave a comment below or tweet me.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business