They obtained a license for the full feed of all public tweets in all languages, but obviously they’ll have a focus on the tweets of Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian Twitter accounts, covering a total of 2M users. Data will be displayed via the url twitter.yandex.ru and Yandex’s blog search.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a similar deal with Microsoft earned them $30M before. The deal will offer Twitter coverage outside its main market.

Backers include venture capital firms Flybridge Capital Partners and Revel Partners, and the money will mainly be used to support growth and international expansion. In addition, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners and Charlie Kemper from Revel Partners have joined tracx’ Board of Directors.

Founded by CEO Eran Gilad in 2008, tracx main product offers a SaaS social media management platform designed to provide professional users with the tools to build, manage and monetize their social presence. 

Features include Social media channel mapping, influencer scoring and management, automated sentiment analysis, smart query engine, Proprietary language processing, Relevancy of posts, interactions and conversations, campaigns A\B testing and more.

The solution has launched with over 180 brands and agencies, including Coca Cola, Interpublic Group, DraftFCB and Microsoft. Tracx faces competition from Virtue, Shoutlet and Spredfast.

Compass Labs IQ Platform can reach 175 million plus social media users on Facebook and Twitter, and its API tool offers Precise Targeting, Optimized Execution and Actionable Insights as its main features.

To target audiences CLIQ uses natural language processing & Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to parse the vast flood of public discourse, graphs, checkins and other forms of content. Their patent-pending platform instantly extracts data about customers to determine what’s important to them, which enables to target ads even more precisely in the future. As such, campaign are continually optimized based on what’s actually working.

The company is based in San Jose, CA and was started by Google and Yahoo veteran Dilip Venkatachari in 2009. The additional funding will mainly be used for sales & marketing, and to further develop their platform.

There’s a small catch though: in addition to following American Express on Twitter (obviously) you also need to own a card or accept them as a payment method.

It’s a logical step for Twitter to open up their platform to more businesses, as they currently only count 3000 (albeit bigger) advertisers. The other social behemoth, Facebook, has been offering self-serve ads to advertisers for a while now, and according to the latest numbers their advertising revenue reached $3,154 million in 2011. Can Twitter follow?

You can sign up here if you are interested in this promotion and meet the requirements.

When you write for Facebook, your fans are expecting a personal touch.  They want to feel as if they are insiders and privy to special information.  It’s ok to make your posts informative, but they shouldn’t always be written like a press release.  At least some of your posts should talk directly to your readers.  Keep your posts professional, although it is all right to be lighthearted every once in a while. 

The tone of your Facebook posts should reflect your business or intention.  Oprah Winfrey may post about her experience of running two miles that morning, and that’s what the readers want to hear because they are interested in Oprah.  They probably do not care if the owner of their local car dealership ran that day or not. They might care that a new model of car has just come into the dealership and what the owner’s thoughts are on its features. Keep the tone and information appropriate.

When considering the content of your posts, you want to be informative and yet friendly.  You can post content announcing a new product, a product’s features, a contest or event, or other news or information that is relevant to your readers.  Invite your fans to participate on your page by asking a question or presenting a poll.  You will see a much higher response rate to your posts than if you just post announcements.  The goal is to make your fans feel positive about your company.

Post often but not too often.  People become fans of your Facebook page because they want to see posts from you, but don’t abuse that privilege.  Filling up your fan’s Facebook page with too many messages can quickly make them click “unlike.”  A good rule of thumb is to post no more than once per day, and occasionally allow even more time between posts.  The reader should be hungry for more rather than tired of seeing your posts.

Use an image or a video in your post.  The presence of a visual image rather than just text will add interest and will capture the attention of your reader.  You can easily upload these by choosing either the photo or the video options located above your status box.  Not all posts must have images, but a significant number of them should.

You can have a successful Facebook page as long as you keep the basics in mind.  Keep your posts informative, friendly and interesting.  Use graphics and video to catch your fans eye, especially when his or her Facebook page is already filled with posts from others.  Post appropriate content and consider the tone that you want to set for your business, and remember to invite fans to interact.

1. Tweet and Tweet Helpful Things

We can find thousands of idle Twitter accounts, the owners of which may have even forgotten their user IDs. There is no wonder these accounts tend to lose followers in the long run. The whole point of this social media tool is to inject useful tips and insights into the Web community. This can be done only through tweeting regularly. 

Also, you need to tweet useful stuff that your followers find invaluable. Some Twitter users tweet about their personal, day-to-day activities, which warrant little or no attention at all. People don’t want to know about what you had for breakfast or whether you are taking a limo to work.

2. Get Into Suggested Users List

Twitter has a feature called ‘Suggested Users’, which displays a number of profiles a new Twitter account holder may be interested to follow. If your account makes it into this list, the number of followers you get overnight will be overwhelming.

However, for getting into this list, you really need to be a valuable Twitter user. Verified celebrity accounts are automatically added to the suggested users list. Normal users also can get into it if their tweets are interesting and relevant to the topic at hand.

3. Maintain and Promote Your Twitter Profile

Look at your Twitter profile and see if you feel like following it yourself. Many Twitter profiles are so poorly maintained that people tend to get out of them quickly. Make sure your front page has only valuable posts and not just retweeted stuff or random links. Also, you can enhance the look of your profile with a custom background image. Put all the necessary information about yourself in the bio column, with link to your main website if there is one.

Moreover, make sure you promote your Twitter profile by linking to it from as many places as you can. Other ways you can promote your account include running and participating in Twitter contests, ‘tweet this’ button in your blog posts, and printing your Twitter ID on your business cards. Occasionally, you can be a guest blogger in one of the blogs out there, and get a link to your Twitter profile. Another effective way is blogging about this social media service; thousands of people are interested to know more about Twitter and follow anyone who blogs about it.

4. Encourage Retweet

Retweeting is the process of tweeting what someone else has tweeted on their account. You may notice that retweeted statuses have the ID of the original tweeter. Encourage your followers to retweet your statuses. This will display your ID on other people’s accounts, thus giving you a viral promotion.

5. Participate in Hashtag Groups

Use hashtags when you tweet about anything contemporary and interesting. For this, just put a hash character in front of the keyword, as in “#windowsphone7”. Hashtags make up internal groups in Twitter that discuss a particular topic. When you get into any hot topic, you have a great chance of increasing your follower count.

6. Tweeting Pictures

If you have any nice pictures to share, put it on Twitter. Besides TwitPic, you can tweet pictures through mobile apps like Tweetie. This is an easy and smart way to gather more followers as pictures are retweeted virally.

7. Follow Many Tweeters

You should not expect people to follow you when you follow only a few. When you find a good Twitter account, follow it impulsively. This will not only help you gather valuable information, but also gain you more followers.

8. Interact Intelligently

Twitter is a social interaction tool, and will benefit anyone if it’s used properly. You should start conversations with your followers and the people you follow. Ask and answer questions, and get into discussions with others. Make your presence known in the community, and you will be rewarded with a whole bunch of new followers.

9. Tweet Efficiently

Twitter-related services are many out there. You can tweet from mobile phones in any platform, whether it is iPhone, Symbian, or Android; you can even tweet using SMS. You can tweet from your desktop using Adobe AIR Twitter clients (eg., TweetDeck, Digsby) that help you post quickly. These apps keep you constantly connected to your profile and the people you follow. Efficient tweeting will make your Twitter account an active one that many people will be tempted to follow.

10. Track the Statistics

Today, you can easily track how many users are interested in your posts. Twitter-based services such as Qwitter and Chirpstats can tell you how many followers you have lost over time. The reason why you should track this statistics is important. This will give you an idea of why your tweets are not interesting enough for some people. This information is very important in the long run. You can get an idea of what works among your followers and what doesn’t. Once you isolate the reason why your followers quit, you can rectify it, and thus gather more followers.

Many users of Qwitter have realized that they lose followers when they post unnecessary, redundant things instead of interesting, fresh stuff. Too frequent tweets also may be a reason for people to quit your account.

Conclusion

Nowadays, Facebook is the only other social media service that gets as much attention as Twitter does. Today, the Web is not the realm of a select few, but is trampled by millions of users from all walks of life, including celebrities and politicians. Twitter has become such an instant news fetcher of key events that it’s a necessity to have an account, not a choice anymore. If you follow the tips found in this article, you can be sure to build a successful Twitter account.

1. Have a website

Having your own personal or business site has several advantages. 

• You are easy to find (by customers, fans etc.)
• Information about your offering and activities is freely available all day, every day.
• It is an exceptionally cheap way to gain exposure for yourself and your brand.

If you don’t already have a website, don’t worry. A basic template-based site can be set up with little or no technical knowledge. Providers such as Weebly, Joomla, WordPress, Google and others will give you the facility and tools to create a free sub-domain website e.g. yourname.providername.com. Should you prefer to have a top level domain (TLD) site e.g. yourname.com (recommended as it looks more professional), then your provider should be able to sell you a domain name for a reasonable annual fee. There are also third party providers that can sell you a domain name and redirect (point) it to your sub-domain address. To the public this looks exactly the same as a top level domain.

2. Create and write a blog

A focused, interesting and frequently updated blog is a great way to share news, opinions ,etc. with customers, supporters and fans as well as get your message out to the world at large. Your website provider should give you the facility to easily create a blog (or even several blogs) as part of your site.

3. Have a fan page on Facebook

Your fan page should be used in tandem with your website rather than instead of it. If used correctly a fan page can drive substantial internet traffic back to your website.

4. Have a Twitter account

Use it wisely though, Twitter can be a terrible time waster and productivity destroyer if used incorrectly. Tweeting every mundane detail of your day may be a nice distraction from your work and real life and may even gain you some followers, especially those with voyeuristic tendencies. It is unlikely, however, to gain you valuable and profitable contacts. As with Facebook, Twitter should be used mainly to complement your website and as part of your overall strategy.

5. Set up your blog to update your Facebook page and Twitter account

The simplest way to do this is with a Facebook application called NetworkedBlogs. Once installed and set up correctly this application will publish the title, first few words and a link back to any new blog post that you write on both Facebook and Twitter. You will not need to log into either as this is an automated process. Anyone clicking on the item for more information will be automatically redirected to your website, thus creating instant traffic.

6. Respond quickly and politely to comments on your blog, whether posted directly on your website or on Facebook & Twitter

The greatest benefits from having an online presence come when you engage and share ideas with other users. Your blog can position you as an expert in your field. Being open to criticism and freely communicating with others will build trust and a loyal following.

Used correctly together the elements described above (website with blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter account) are a simple yet powerful way to build a following and gain exposure online.

Statistically a person is more likely to click on a link posted on a Facebook page than on a banner ad. If you have a lot of friends on Facebook, this could be quite beneficial. Also, links posted on Facebook pages get a better response than e-mail campaigns. In this age of spam, people spend more time deleting e-mails than actually reading them. Even Twitter gets a better response rate than some banner ads or e-mail campaigns. So why shouldn’t you use those statistics to your company’s benefit? 

A lot of companies are already engaging people on social networking sites. Some of them may be your competitors. By you not utilizing the same resources, you are actually giving your competitors an advantage by allowing them to use a cheap form of marketing and promotion that you yourself are not using. Many companies start their own discussion groups and build a following. That following is what some in internet marketing circles may refer to as a community of value.

The concept of building a community of value has to do with having a centralized location where people can discuss your company’s service or products. They may also be there to discuss some topics having to do with your industry. You may then use that as a forum to announce your upcoming product releases or information regarding your services. The idea is to pull in your target demographic to which you prefer to market to.

Let’s say you are a night club or tavern owner. You can start a Myspace music page. On that music page you can post songs from some of the local bands that may play at your establishment. You can also post your entertainment or events calendar. Then you can search for people in the local area, even by zip code, and send out friend requests to them. At your establishment, list your page so that your customers can be added as one of your friends. Now you have an online community to advertise and market to.

That’s just an example of one industry that can benefit from using social networking sites. Another example could be a fitness club. It could have a Facebook or Myspace page that can include blogs on health and fitness tips. Other people in the local area can stumble onto the page and become interested in signing up for a membership after engaging in some of the online discussions. The blogs could be about anything having to do with fitness. They could also be about healthy eating, weight loss, tips on avoiding injury during exercise or health related issues.

Another great advantage of using social networking sites is the fact that it is very user friendly. In the old days, in order to have an internet presence, you would have to hire a web developer to create a site for you. A lot of businesses are using a profile page on a social networking site as a means of establishing an internet presence. They update it themselves and are able to do it at their own convenience. Let’s also not forget that it’s free. Having a website developed for your business could be quite costly. However, if your company already has a website, you may use your social networking pages to complement it and drive traffic to it. So it will help your business whether you have your own website or not.

You can also use YouTube as a means of promoting your business. YouTube allows you to have friends, just like the other social networking sites, and allows people to subscribe to your videos. If they subscribe, they will be notified whenever you release a new video. You can do your own commercials or promotional videos and post them on your YouTube page. You may then take the embed code and post it on any of your other social networking profile pages. The best approach would be to try to use all of these sites in conjunction with one another.

Customizability is a nice feature to consider as well. Twitter allows you to use any background image you want. You could use the same background image you use for your Twitter page that you would for your Myspace or YouTube pages. It could also be the same one you use for your website. This would give all of your pages a consistent look and create the impression that they are all just an extension of your main website or each other.

Business opportunities may even come your way that may not have otherwise, had you not had an internet presence. So the potential is there for social networking sites to be used as business networking sites. The point is that social networking sites aren’t just for socializing anymore. They could also be used for business reasons.