I know the feeling. It’s late, you’ve been on Twitter for hours (why didn’t they warn me it’s addictive?!!) and you’re about to nod off. Just one last tweet to sign off, you think. Before your fingers hit the keyboard to say “Good night”, think again about the importance of that last tweet.

The great thing about Twitter is it’s global 24/7 character. We can interact with people from all walks of life, across the world, throughout the day. Our Twitter feed doesn’t stop when we shut down our computers and go to bed. It remains a hive of activity as your followers in other time zones (or the insomniacs among us) continue to tweet. While you’re sleeping, many others will be checking out your profile to see if you’re worth a follow. With this in mind, it’s worthwhile to save a link to an interesting article (it could be your own) for your last tweet. Save the best for last… as they say. If you haven’t saved anything, run through your tweet stream and re-tweet anything that takes your fancy. If you find it interesting, chances are, your potential followers will find it interesting too and will hit the ‘Follow’ button in a flash, and re-tweet.

By the morning, your last tweet may have gone viral and you would’ve added loads of new followers. Something like this probably wouldn’t happen if you’d simply tweeted “Good night”!

Read about other Twitter tips:

• Prime Twitter real estate
• The perfect profile picture
• Optimise, not maximise your tweets

In the wonderful world of WordPress, thousands of plugins are available which have a myriad of functions. There are plugins which do some serious behind-the-scenes work while others simply add an appealing touch to blogs. When I visit other blogs, I always make it a point to check out which (visible) plugins are being used and if there’s one which may be handy for me. That’s how I made my latest (and biggest) discovery – an absolutely brilliant plugin – but more on that later.

I currently use 16 plugins on my Velvet Escape blog and 10 on Velvet Connect. I’m always careful about adding new plugins as they may make a blog pretty heavy and hence slow down the page load speed so I try to keep the number of plugins used to around 15 (though less is better). There are some plugins though which are indispensable as they add enormous value to blogs, either behind-the-scenes or aesthetically. I’ve listed below eight of my favourite plugins which I cannot do without:

1. Add to Any This plugin inserts a small bar under each post which allows readers to email, bookmark or share the post on a variety of social media platforms.

2. All in One SEO Pack Another must-have plugin that does great behind-the-scenes work. It optimises blog posts for SEO purposes by, among others, automatically creating meta tags. It’s perfect for blogger newbies as you only need to install it and it does the rest.

3. Google XML Sitemaps This plugin automatically generates an XML sitemap, hence making it easier for search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to index your blog. Anything that makes it easier for search engines to find my posts and index them gets a thumbs up from me!

4. Ultimate Google Analytics enables Google’s famed analytics on your blog. It’s a great plugin that tracks traffic, external links, email links, links to downloads, etc…

5. WP Spam Free This was one of the first plugins that I installed. It helps to eliminate spam on blogs, both in the comment fields and the contact form. So far, it’s blocked almost 6,000 comment spam on my blogs!

6. StatPress Reloaded Ok, you might be wondering why I use two analytics plugins. The answer is simple, I’m just hooked on this plugin! This plugin’s biggest draw is that it provides real-time stats. It also features a graph which provides an insightful illustration of my traffic stats with just one glance. Oh, and there’s the Spy feature which shows who’s just visited my blog and it also tracks traffic generated through Google Images searches (and the search terms).

7. Broken Link Checker It’s quite annoying for readers when links stop working – they may get so annoyed and never return! This plugin continuously scans all links on my blog and checks if any link is broken. Any broken link is immediately highlighted on my Dashboard, prompting an action.

8. Ahhh… I’ve saved the best for last! I discovered this plugin a month ago and I’m totally blown away by its features and the enormous value it adds to my blog. It’s called Apture and I highly recommend it. What does it do? Gosh, where do I start? It allows you to easily search for relevant content (be it a map, an article, an image, a video, etc… on Google Maps, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, etc..) and either link to it or embed it in your blog post. You can also upload and embed your own content such as pdf’s, Powerpoint presentations, Word documents or Excel worksheets. I can’t stop raving about this plugin and I recommend you check it out. There are so many features, many of which are still unknown to me, but an article on Problogger provides a detailed description of this brilliant plugin!

Many people, including myself, start their blogs as a hobby. Blogs provide us with a platform to share our experiences or dreams or an outlet to express our creative spirit. We work hard to produce original content, we’re continuously fiddling with the technical aspects or with the layout and we’re on social media channels marketing our articles every day.

Soon this hobby turns into a full-time job; not exactly a source of serious income but one that provides a high degree of contentment. Many of us then begin to wonder if this blogging hobby could actually be turned into a business. Is it possible? We’ve heard so many stories of bloggers earning a decent income each month so it must be. So, how do I turn my blog into a business? Before that question can be answered, a critical mind-set switch has to be made: we have to start to treat our blog as a business.

The most important step in turning your blog into a business is to think of it as a company, with its own brand and product suite. This switch in mind-set may seem logical but if it isn’t made, the lack of business focus may result in missed opportunities. One method of facilitating this mind-set switch is to ponder on the following questions:

• Objective: What is the objective of my blog? Do I want it to generate direct income for me (for instance, through advertisements, affiliate programmes, selling merchandise)? Or as a platform to showcase my skills and talents? Or to establish myself as an expert in my field and generate business leads? Or elements of all three?
• Goals: How do I want to further develop my blog? Grow my audience? Expand its functions? Increase its page rank?
• Brand: What do people like about my blog? What differentiates my blog from others? What does my blog say about me? Does it sufficiently reflect my perceptions/expectations?
• Product: Which products and/or services can I/do I want to offer?

To be able to answer these questions, talk to other bloggers and your readers and get some feedback; do some research on brand-building, increasing traffic and ways to monetise your blog; and reflect on your skills and talents and how these can be turned into selling points.

Once you have the answers to those questions, I recommend creating a business plan. It can be as specific or as general as you wish: some scribble on a blank sheet or a bound 10-pager. I started with a few notes, then later expanded on each note. In any case, it should describe your brand and your mission, as well as contain a list of your goals (short and long term) and how you intend to achieve them. I suggest creating a ‘To Do’ list and attaching it to your list of goals. Maybe there are aspects of your blog that you would like to learn more about (e.g. traffic, SEO, ads, etc..) or new contacts you would like to make, or new marketing avenues you would like to explore. Include these in your ‘To Do’ list. Your business plan should also include a list of your products and/or services and the rates, the income you expect to earn, how you aim to earn it, and the cost associated with it.

The business plan is a great way to put your thoughts and ideas on paper in a structured manner. It also helps you to maintain your focus when you’re writing new content, building your brand, marketing your blog or chasing business leads. When opportunities arise simultaneously from different directions, or when you have the feeling that you’re not progressing, pick up your business plan and use it as a guide or as a source of inspiration.

When you switch your thinking and start to treat your blog like a little company, and you put your soul (i.e. passion and honest hard work) as well as every ounce of positive energy you can squeeze into it, doors start to open and voilá… your blog has become a business!

Problogger is an amazing resource for bloggers. There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of insightful articles. I’ve listed several relevant articles below which I hope you’ll find useful:

• From Blog to Small Business
• Make Money Blogging
• Making money from your blog: direct methods
• Making money from your blog: indirect methods
• A-Z of Professional Blogging Tools

You’ve been on Twitter for a while, your number of followers has been growing briskly, your tweets are being read and re-tweeted, you enjoy having chats with your followers and you’re on many followers’ lists. If this is the case, CONGRATULATIONS! You’re an influential Tweep. You’ve achieved this by sharing quality content and great ideas. In addition, you’re actively engaging with your followers by participating in discussions, helping with advice and/or tips and recommending other Tweeps. These aspects contribute to a higher level of influence within your Twitter community.

Influence

Influence is becoming an increasingly important measure of your presence on Twitter. It is your level of influence that stimulates a reaction from your followers: from clicking on links included in your tweets, to re-tweeting these tweets, and commenting or launching a discussion about your tweets. A high level of influence translates into a higher number of re-tweets and active discussions, as well as a strong awareness of your authority within your niche. For individuals, organisations and companies who utilise Twitter for marketing and brand-building purposes, achieving this level shows that you’re on the right track.

Measuring influence has always been tricky. The number of followers is insufficient to measure influence as it doesn’t say anything about how that person grew the follower base, if the follower base is actually ‘listening’ or how many people in the follower base are actually active. In this sense, analytics tools that use different variables provide a more concise picture. I’ve discovered various tools that do a good job at measuring influence levels. These tools’ ability to add context to a person’s influence is critical for businesses that want to leverage influencers in spreading the word about their companies or products. These are my two favourites:

Tweet Level is a tool that measures an individual’s importance on Twitter. According to TweetLevel: “Each score is rated out of 100 – in other words, the higher your score, the more important you are. There are four result metrics:

• Influence – what you say is interesting and many people listen to it. This is the primary ranking metric.
• Popularity – how many people follow you
• Engagement – you actively participate within your community
• Trust – people believe what you say

Klout is an analytics tool that measures your influence or “Klout” on Twitter. “Klout allows you to track the impact of your opinions, links and recommendations across your social graph. We collect data about the content you create, how people interact with that content and the size and composition of your network. From there, we analyze the data to find indicators of influence and then provide you with innovative tools to interact with and interpret the data.”

In the past few months, I’ve noticed a substantial increase in the presence of non-profit organisations on social media platforms like Twitter. A few days ago, a CNN Money article appeared on my Twitter feed which more or less confirmed my observations. According to this article:

The vast majority of nonprofit organizations (88%) are experimenting with social media to engage key audiences, but a significant majority (79%) are uncertain of how to demonstrate social media’s value for their organizations. Only half (51%) report active use of social media (source of the survey: Weber Shandwick’s Social Impact survey conducted with KRC Research)

I’ve noticed many non-profits making tentative steps to build a presence on social media platforms. I applaud this as I’m convinced social media is the perfect tool for non-profit organisations to mobilise and build active communities that share an interest in their cause. A case in point of how social media can be utilised to generate interest in a cause and contribute to fund-raising efforts passed by my Twitter stream today: a Tweet-a-Cause campaign organised by the Make-a-Wish Foundation in collaboration with Leap Fish. The concept is brilliant. Every re-tweet of the article would result in a $0.15 donation by Leap Fish to the Make-a-Wish Foundation to help send little Jacob to Disneyland. The chances of something like this going viral is enormous. In addition, I’m sure this campaign will generate an invaluable amount of exposure for both partners, and the cause to send little Jacob to Disneyland. This is but one of many examples of how social media is being utilised by non-profits.

For the non-profits out there who are thinking of entering the social media sphere, I’ve listed a variety of interesting articles below as a guide to inspire and assist you with your efforts.

• Make-a-Wish Foundation Taps into Social Media Sites
• Philanthropy 1.0 and the Megaphone of Social Media
• 5 Essential Tips for Promoting Your Charity Using Social Media
• 9 Favourite Social Media Tips for Non-Profits
• Social Media Engagement
• 10 Things You Must Do To Earn Your Audience’s Trust

For more tips on social media, please read A Twitter Education in Social Media for your FREE E-BOOK.