Using Twitter to enhance your search-engine ranking

Guest Blogger: Leonard Olson
I recently discovered something interesting about Google and using social media.
First, a little background.
I am the village kaleidoscope maker in a small town of roughly 700 people in NW Iowa. Living in a sparsely populated area, I rely on tourism and the Internet to market my kaleidoscopes out of my studio/gallery.
Kaleidoscopes usually have “objects” (beads, etc.) which you view through a tube of mirrors. A teleidoscope is a type of kaleidoscope that has mirrors and a clear marble, which you use to look at the world around you.
A teleidoscope makes it easy to turn your rose garden into a kaleidoscope image.
Many kaleidoscope artists have used dichroic glass as some or all of their objects in a traditional kaleidoscope, but I added a twist. On Thursday January 14, 2010, I made a simple innovation and placed a piece of dichroic glass between the clear marble and the mirror tube in one of my teleidoscopes. It was amazing!
Thinking there were probably lots of other kaleidoscope artists out there doing the same thing, I did a Google search for “dichroic teleidoscopes.” No results.
So on Sunday, January 17, I put a Web page up with the words “dichroic teleidoscope” and “dichroic teleidoscopes” all over the place hoping to get listed soon on Google as not only the top choice, but the only choice. I checked every day, but nothing for four days.
On Thursday, January 21, I made a reference to dichroic teleidoscopes on Twitter and the next morning Google already showed a result!
I don’t know what will become of these efforts, but I am pleased that my Twitter posting was indexed by Google. I imagine that continuing to mention and link to my Web page on Twitter—without overdoing it and annoying my followers—will help my long-term goals. I’ve found Twitter to be a much quicker way to get noticed for a new idea.
Go to Twitter right now and type in “dichroic teleidoscope.” My tweet is in the top 5 results!

Leonard Olson is a maker of kaleidoscopes, teleidoscopes, and dichroic teleidoscopes. He's a firm believer in the power of Twitter! You can follow him on Twitter and see fabulous photos from his creations and become a fan of his on Facebook.