1. To make a connection with your customer base and potential customers
   
2. To get your brand seen by LOTS and LOTS of people
   

Twitter is great for both of these goals, but if you are tweeting without using the Magic Retweet Number, then you are missing out on getting your brand in front of LOTS and LOTS of people.

I was never big on math in school, so I promise you that I will make this super simple to figure out. Heck, you should even be able to do this without a calculator (but you may still need to take off your shoes to count on your toes).

So here is the formula:

Magic ReTweet Number = Twitter Username Characters + 6 Re-Tweet Characters 

Your goal is to keep your Tweets short enough so that others can retweet them for you. In order to to this they generally will add "RT @username: " immediately before your original tweet.

So to get your personal Magic ReTweet Number you need to not only include the number of characters in your Twitter username, but also the "RT", "@", ":" and the 2 spaces to ensure you get the ReTweet. 

Lets see it in action. My Twitter username ScottVoss is 9 characters, so 9 + 6 = 15. See, I told you it would be easy!!

Now, whenever I go to Twitter and compose a tweet, I want to make sure that I keep the number of remaining characters at or below the Magic Retweet Number.

So there you have it. The next time you are tweeting, think about this number and how it can get better exposure for your business.

To your profits,

Scott Voss, V.P. of Social Media

I have to admit that I was very excited to see the latest data from TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, which shows that local online search marketing works to get more customers into businesses.

The study (conducted in July 2009) showed that Inside the United States, 37% of ALL internet users who did a search for local businesses ended up actually going to the phsyical store location! Now, I don't know about you but those are some numbers that I can get excited about.

The data also showed something even more interesting, which you can leverage RIGHT NOW if you are not already doing so. Make sure your phone number is indexed on the search engines, because even more of these searchers ended up calling a local business after finding it through a search.

For nearly all of the types of businesses searched, typical search engines were used (such as Google, Yahoo, etc.). However, when people were looking for such things as lodging and day care centers they tended to use local search engines.

It is becoming more important that your business shows up in the local search results on the big search players. My team and I have been working on some great strategies to get businesses top local listings in Google. The results, so far, have been impressive. My suggestion, get out there and get ranked locally!!

On How to Gain Visibility for Your Local Business on Google

I think you will enjoy this quick (less than 5 minute) video that gives you a glimpse into what you should be doing to get your site ranked in Google.

The info provided is not Top Secret, but surprisingly most sites are not implementing it. You gotta' give Google what Google wants.

At the 30 second mark, Matt reveals a beyond simple strategy for a local chiropractor to get linked for an important keyword phrase.

Enjoy…

Here is your 13 Deadly Marketing Sins Report. Just Right click on the report image below and choose "Save As" or you can just double click the image to have it open in a new window.

As a special bonus for you, I am including a bonus copy of a very special issue of the Patronus Marketing Newsletter. Click Here to download your copy.

To your profits,

Scott Voss, Vice President of Social Media

If you have signed up, but are not seeing our emails there may be a couple of reasons:

• Look for an emails from us: Scott Voss (Patronus Marketing)
• Your spam filter may be blocking us. So, make sure that @patronusmarketing.com is whitelisted

We also take spam very seriously. So, to make sure that everyone who receives our emails actually want them, we follow the industry standard of a double opt-in. All that means is that before we can send these emails to you, you must confirm that you actaully requested us to send them.

You should see an email from us that requests you to confirm your request by clicking on the link in the email. If you have not had a chance to do that yet, then this is most likely why you are not seeing our messages.

To your profits,

Scott Voss, VP of Social Media

This is article is from our FREE report "13 Deadly Marketing Mistakes".

Mistake #4: "Most business owners do not have a consistent follow-up plan with their past, current and potential customers"

Let me ask you a question which may seem odd. Are your customers or customers that expressed an interest in your business in the past important to you? No doubt your customers are very important to your business. In fact, without customers it is impossible for any business to survive. They are the life blood of any organization or business.

A typical pattern I see in many business owners is they fail to realize that once they acquire a new customer, or someone has expressed an interest in their company, how important it is to strengthen that relationship. The common way you can strengthen this relationship is by simply following up with them. Following-up is equally important to both new and existing customers (and doing it right) can help you boost your bottom line very quickly.

Follow Up With Prospective Customers
Most of my clients find that it is not easy to close a sale on the very first attempt. In fact, even the statistics in direct mail marketing show that response rates increase dramatically the more direct mail pieces you send to people. More contact means more sales.

Although your customer may not buy into your sales team’s first attempt to close, this does not mean that the prospective client is not interested in buying your product or service. Could it be that they just require more time in order to make the purchasing decision? Could it be that they just require more time or just have some more questions regarding your product or service? In fact, you should contact them after your initial meeting because it will show that you are genuinely interested in serving their interests and satisfying their needs and not just wanting to gain access to their wallet.

During the follow-up process, you can take advantage of the opportunity and explain to your customers in depth how your product or service can prove to be beneficial to them. An effective follow-up strategy provides you with a second opportunity to make the sale.

Follow Up With Existing Customers
It is not uncommon for businesses to neglect follow up with the customers they already have. A colleague of mine told me about a time he was talking to a business owner and asked the simple question: “What marketing are you doing to your past and loyal customers?” The response was enlightening, “What do you mean marketing to my existing customers?” You see, most businesses do not have a system in place to market to their existing clientele.

Acquiring a new customer is definitely more difficult and expensive than retaining existing ones. Think about it. An existing customer has already said (through their actions) that they want and like your product. So when it comes to your current customers, you should definitely treat them as pure gold and put a strong emphasis on marketing to them. In fact, I would recommend you start a VIP program for your long time customers. This will show that you value their consistent business. The hard truth is, if you don’t value your existing customers and do what’s necessary to keep them, your competitors will be only too happy to relieve you of the responsibility.

By following up with your past customers, it only proves to them their business is important to you. Let me ask you another question: Do you like when people take time out of their day to recognize and appreciate you for the things you have done for them? If you are like the average person….the answer to this is “of course you do”. When following up with your customers, make sure they know you want them to be satisfied with the service they receive from you. By doing this, you not only increase your chances of retaining them, but the probability they will refer your business to others also increases as well.

Reasons prospects or customers may not buy from you:

1. They may not be ready to make a decision
   
2. They may have more pressing things on their minds
   
3. They may have more questions about your product/service
   
4. Two or three of your competitors are actively trying to sway your customer to purchase from them

By following up repeatedly, you will have a "dramatic advantage" over your competitors, since few of them will follow up more than once. When your prospects are ready to buy, which could be one week from now, or nine months from now, you will have a better chance of getting the sale if you are uppermost in their minds. You can only do that by consistently following up.