The questions have been asked time and again for more than a year; “Does Twitter have a business model?” and “How will Twitter monetize their business?” It appears that those questions will be answered today in part as Twitter announces “Promoted Tweets,” a new service that has been in beta and will allow advertisers ads to appear in relevant search results.

Twitter users post more than 55 million tweets everyday and many of those tweets will be leveraged by companies like Virgin America, Best Buy and Starbucks all of whom are already on board. Promoted Tweets provides an interesting new option for Internet marketers who have suffered the sting of advertsing slaps from Google in the past year.

Many savvy marketers have shifted their advertising dollars for search campaigns to Facebook in recent months and Promoted Tweets offers another option to reach a targeted audience in any niche.

This is great news for small business owners and solo-entrepreneurs who can now attract and gather followers in their niche through participation in the Promoted Tweets program, which then allows them to further leverage their advertising dollars with future tweets to those followers with no additional cost.

CNBC reported yesterday that Twitter may value post and pricing based on how much a “Promoted Tweet” is passed around — its “resonance.”

Here is an overview from CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.

We will learn more today and this may also spell the end to the wide open frontier for independent applications developers who have created more than 70 million applications as Twitter begins to focus on drawing profit from it’s platform.

Read and See More:

CNBC Does Twitter Mean Business? CNBC Reporter, Julia Boorstin

Mashable Twitter’s Ad Platform to Launch Tuesday Contributor, Ben Parr

PC World Twitter’s Promoted Tweets: What You Need To Know Contributor, Ian Paul

Advertising Age Twitter Has a Business Model: ‘Promoted Tweets’ Contributor, Michael Learmonth

I would love to read your thoughts and comments on this dynamic new option for marketing your business. Be sure to leave your comments here and share this post by Tweeting it or bookmarking the post to your favorite service.

I wish for you every blessing on your success journey!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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As I look back at 2009 and evaluate the impact social media has had on my business it is pretty amazing. I have made new friends, established new business relationships and met some of the most creative and action oriented people online. By virtue of my Internet Business Blueprint podcast, I have been able to interview Gary Vaynerchuk, Perry Belcher, Com Mirza, Rob Hannley and many other entrepreneurs.

One of the aspects I love most is how a small random act can lead to a new friendship, a business idea or the viral distribution of information. I have many personal examples of this and I want to highlight one as an example of how this occurs.

A few weeks ago I was following my weekly ritual of watching ‘Sunday Morning on CBS,” I have done this for years! One of the featured segments was on iPhone apps and I suggested to my wife that they should have included Joel Comm’s iFart. A few minutes later, there it is prominently featured. Having gotten to know Joel on a personal level this year – that was pretty cool.

So I fired off a quick tweet as illustrated in the screen shot below and just like that Joel and many of Joel’s followers who missed the story became aware of it in an instant and could now log onto the CBS website and watch a video of the segmented. Could this have happened five years ago?

The following is taken from Joel Comm’s blog post November 16, 2009 and illustrates how social media can leverage a message to the point that it takes on a life all it own.

Taken From: JoelComm.com

“Nearly one year after the release of iFart, the app continues to sell like clockwork.

I believe that iFart is also the most-referenced app in iPhone history.

It seems like every week one media outlet or another is referring to it.

A Google search for iFart now turns up 106,000 results.

Yesterday morning, I was greeted by a tweet from my friend James Holmes.

I love it when the media talks about iFart. It’s a marketer’s dream.

Sure enough, CBS did a great piece on mobile phone applications, and iFart was demonstrated in the segment!

You’ll want to go about four minutes into the video to see iFart.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Besides the obvious fun and games, here’s what is interesting about the CBS piece.

The 15-second appearance on the CBS Sunday show did more to increase sales of iFart than the four-minute piece on iFart that aired on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show back in July of this year!

Could it be that The Daily Show viewers already owned iFart? Or could it be that a bunch of college-aged slackers don’t have a dime to spend on anything?

Regardless, the CBS piece was very good and it demonstrates just how big the app business is.

By the way, our next app should be BIGGER than iFart. Stay tuned…

I share this story with you to illustrate a simple point. I see so many marketers active on social sites like Twitter, Facebook and others who go out of their way attempting to force their message on the market. Sadly, they are missing the point… If you are engaged and authentic, if you seek to share what you find interesting about your market, your business, your personal interest and the interest of your social friends… your message will be heard in a natural way without you forcing it. Who knows, it may even go viral.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

The “Definitive Twitter Resource Guide” is a free e-book containing 201 Twitter Tools to empower you to more effectively manage your Twitter stream, followers and those you are following. The guide has been created by Stephen Pierce, author of “Make Real Money on The Internet,” which is said to be the most powerful money making manual for the internet. You can obtain a free copy of Stephen’s book by clicking here: Make Real Money on The Internet

The “Definitive Twitter Resource Guide” is divided by catagories and includes: applications, ad networks, analytics, badges & widgets, Twitter for buiness, follow management, file sharing, finance, media, multi-account management, printing, posting & alerts, search engines, travel, trend and others.

The guide provides a very logical layout that includes hop links for each resoure highlighted and rated in the guide. I was aware of a few of the resources featued and have used a couple such as Tweet Deck; however, the vast majority of these resources were new to me as Twitter is a rapidly evolving tool to leverage social media to become a powerful part of my overall traffic strategy.

You can instantly download your copy of 201 Free Twitter Tools here: Definitive Twitter Resource Guide

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Twitter is a phenomenon growing at an increasingly rapid pace to gain mainstream acceptance that reaches beyond the new media devotees to include traditional media outlets and corporate communications offices. This is a insightful presentation featuring Twitter co-founder Evan Williams at TED 2009.

Who is Evan Williams?

Evan Williams is the co-founder of Twitter, the micro blogging social media site that is revolutionizing real-time communication. Before Twitter, Evan was a creator of the free blog platform Blogger now owned by Google where he was employed until 2004. Evan launched Odeo a podcasting service from which Twitter was born in 2006. Enjoy this video and be sure to post your comments.

Evan Williams at TED Conference February 2009
Source: TED.com

I encourage you to create a social media plan for your home business and make Twitter along with Face Book and You Tube the central platforms of your strategy. Be sure to refer to my other post on the subject of social media and become engaged in this power niche in the new media space.

(c) Copyright 2008 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Gary Vaynerchuk Live and Unplugged!

It was a typical Sunday morning, I like to settle in with a hot cup of coffee and the Sunday newspapers and a passive monitoring of Twitter from my hand held device; suddenly everything changed in a moment of opportunity which is great for you and me. Social media guru and owner of The Wine Library Gary Vaynerchuk was stuck in an airport, no lap top with six hours to kill.

Gary sent out this simple tweet; “laptop broke (no audio can’t tape a vid) no flip left it in NJ, so cant tape, so no taping I guess I can do some interviews, any1 want me?”

I saw the power in that moment and sent Gary an immediate reply asking if he would be up for an impromptu interview and Q&A session on my podcast channel. Gary said; “let’s do it!” Thirty minutes later we were on the air with dozens of people tweeting about the call and joining the conversation with great questions for Gary, who provided tremendous value for everyone listening. There is a lesson here for anyone interested in leveraging social media to deliver a message or to reach a large group of people in a short period of time.

As you invest time in social media look for opportunities to engage at a deeper level and take action when an opportunity reveals itself.  Among the many golden nuggets shared on the podcast two come to mind and I want to share these principles with you.

1. Patience is a lost art and needed in social media: Get engaged and be consistent, the result will follow given enough time and activity.

2. Social Media = Business in 2009

Who is GaryVaynerchuk?

Gary Vaynerchuk has captured attention with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business. After primarily utilizing traditional advertising techniques to build his family’s local wine business into a national industry leader, Gary rapidly leveraged social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to promote Wine Library TV, his video blog about wine. As his viewership swelled to over 80,000 a day, doors opened to a book deal, several national TV appearances, and a flurry of speaking engagements around the world. Gary’s dual identity as both business guru and wine guy has made him the “Social Media Sommelier.”

Here is a video sampling of Gary Vee

Here is the Interview:

As always, I invite you to post your comments on Gary Vee and the social media revolution. I also would love to know what your greatest challenge has been with social media and your personal success stories. Thank you for visiting my blog.

I am here to help you succeed in building your business and creating an Internet lifestyle of your design.

P.S. To hear the other podcast interviews visit: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/AskJamesHolmes

(c) Copyright 2008-2011 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.