How to find Twitter followers for your pet business.

Finding Twitter followers is easy, just click to follow. But finding the right followers takes a bit of work.

Who are the right followers? They are the ones that may purchase from your website, help you get those pets adopted, engage in your service and become potential customers, current customers, media (magazines, radio, TV, newspapers, etc.) and those that you can network with to help you build your business, like other stores, bloggers, distributors and wholesalers.

So how do you find the right followers?

Twitter lists is a great way to start. On each Twitter profile you can see other Twitter followers have listed that Tweeter on a list. For pet related businesses, I've seen lists of dogs, lists of stores, media, distributors, cats and lots more. Check out those lists as a great first step in finding new followers.

For those looking for Twitter followers in your area or city, here are a few great sites to help you search on terms related to your pet business locally.

• NearbyTweets.com
• Twellowhood.com
• LocalTweeps.com

You can also do a basic search in Twitter, searching for terms related to your business and location.

Remember, screen those you are interested in following by answering these questions and you will be more successful in connecting with your pet business audience on Twitter.

1. Do they actively tweet?
2. Are they interactive tweeters?
3. Do they usually follow back those that follow them?

Good luck and happy Tweeting!

Free social media icon sets for your pet business.

If you have a website, blog or online pet business site, social media is, or should, be a very important tool in your marketing toolbox.

By integrating social media links with your website, blog or any online presence, you provide a way for current and potential customers to become a part of your 'tribe,' and create a more sticky and engaging way to communicate with those that may purchase from you.

When I look for social media images to add to my websites and blogs, I like to find images that coordinate with my brand if I can't create them myself. For example, on my Raise A Green Dog blog, I added Twitter and Facebook links that look like green grass; coordinating perfectly with my Green Dog brand.

We surfed the Internet for you to find some of the best, most unique, fun, image and brand building Twitter, Facebook and other social network icons and images to help you more fully connect with your pet business customers and prospects. Here are our top picks:

• WPMods has one of the most extensive listings of free social media icons we've ever found. We've used several of the ones we found on their site, including some Holiday icons for our Holiday newsletters.
• Mashable also has a nice list of fun, engaging and unique social media icon sets.
• SpeckyBoy has one of the most complete listings of free icon sets, beyond social media.
• W3Mag lists a couple of posts that include free social icon sets, here and here.

We're sure from these links you'll be able to find just the right social media icon sets for your blog and website!

Great promotion planning tool!

We put together a great tool that will be very helpful to every pet business in planning their promotions for 2011.

It's a Squidoo Lens and Google Calendar that outlines all the days of the year honoring dogs. You can follow the instructions on the Dog Days Squidoo Lens to add these days to your Google Calendar, and also create a widget for your blog or website that showcases these upcoming events for your readers.

Check it out, it will save you hours of time.

Happy Holidays from Pawsible Marketing!

Crafting an effective marketing message for your pet business.

Whether it be a blog post, press release, email newsletter, Facebook message, Twitter tweet or any marketing message you are crafting for your targeted audience, there are always six main points to keep in mind.

Journalists call it the '5 W's and H,' the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How to describe whatever information you are sharing. Rudyard Kipling made it easy for us to remember in his poem "The Elephant's Child."

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

By answering these questions while crafting any marketing message, you can feel secure you are covering everything your message should convey. If not, you may be missing some important, key information, making your message incomplete.

I like to add one more 'W' to the basic '5 W's' I answer as well...

Adding the answer to the 'WOW' in your marketing message will help you grab a reader's attention, and help whatever message you're conveying stand out among the sea of messages that people are overwhelmed with day in and day out. And it will give it that punch you need to draw them in...wanting more.

Make sure every one of your messages answers the '5 W's & 1 H' and my 6th 'W' and you can be sure your message is the most effective, interesting, and informative it can be.

Tools to more efficiently and effectively run your pet business.

There are a lot of tools, apps and websites that I use to help me be more productive throughout the day.

Today I thought I would share them with you in the hopes that they may help you be more effective and efficient in running your pet business.

Let's get started...

Hootsuite.com - A great Twitter tool that helps me manage three Twitter accounts, plus my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Not only does it message my social network accounts, it allows me to schedule those messages ahead of time. And I can view analytics associated with those messages as well. The free version allows a total of five total social network profiles. The Pro paid version starts with additional capabilities starts at $5.99 per month.

Twitter - For my Blackberry I have both Twhirl and UberTwitter installed to help me Tweet and keep up with Tweets. And I just recently installed Hootsuite for BB to post and schedule messages to all of my accounts.

Evernote.com - One of my favorite tools to keep track of notes, planned tweets and Facebook messages, and ideas for clients and blog posts. I can use it on my computer and on my Blackberry. It's completely searchable and a great little tool. Free too.

Pixlr.com - A great little image editing tool when I don't want to open up Photoshop, and Microsoft Picture Manager isn't enough.

Tether - When I'm on the road, or the Internet goes out, I use Tether with my Blackberry. A version is also available for the Android. Just purchase ($49.99) an app (or try 30 days free) to your computer and mobile phone, connect via usb or bluetooth and you've got connectivity to the Internet for your computer. I use it on my Netbook. Works great and the speed is just as good as cable. Great for when you're on the road.

Google Reader - I subscribe to a lot of blogs. To catch up on my blog reading I turn to Google Reader to quickly scan all available new posts from those blogs I follow. Keeps me up-to-date quickly and easily.

Google Alerts - Helps me keep track of all the news and internet buzz and info available that I watch and want to keep up-to-date with on a daily basis. I just enter a search term, set the alert and Google automatically finds and delivers articles about the subjects I care about to my inbox.

Remember The Milk - One of my favorite tools for creating and managing reminders and to do lists, beyond using Outlook.

YouSendIt - My favorite way to send very large files that my email provider can't handle. Free for up to 100MB, pay as you go for additional MB's.

SlideShare - The best way to share and provide a way to embed your presentations, pdfs and documents. Also integrated with FB and LinkedIn.

Prezi.com - My new favorite presentation tool. Love the customization, fun and interesting way it allows you to cover a subject and present it in an interesting way. Embedding and YouTube integration as well.

Skype - The only way I keep in touch with clients via video or outside of the US.

Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements - My favorite tools for editing photos, creating graphics; and for editing and creating videos.

Instant Eyedropper - If I ever want to find out the color (and the corresponding HTML number) on a web page, it's Instant Eyedropper to the rescue. Free download.

Firefox/Chrome - I use both Firefox and Chrome as my Internet browsers. Love the Firefox add ons, and Chrome extensions that you can install to really get the most out of web browsing be more productive.

Xmarks - A must for keeping my bookmarks sync'd across all the web browsers I may be using throughout the day on my two computers. You can also access them via mobile phone through their mobile website.

Fireshot - Great Firefox add-on tool for capturing web pages in image format as full pages or screen size.

flickr - My favorite site for storing images online and photo sharing. I've been using this site for over five years and have never had any issues. Also has short video capabilities. Perfect for adding photos to the side of my blogs or on Squidoo, or sharing a quick video.

Blogging - Blogger.com is my choice for a blogging platform. It's easy to use for a beginner, yet very customizable for the advanced user. I use it for all four of my blogs, including this one. I've been using it for over five years and love it.

That's a start...most all of these sites, programs, apps and tools I use everyday to save time and money!