Go Daddy

Sunday 19 December 2010

When you let your light shine through, yougive other people permission to do the same.�?? Marianne Williamson

When you let your light shine through, yougive other people permission to do the same.�?? Marianne Williamson

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young. ~~ Oscar Wilde

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young. ~~ Oscar Wilde

In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. -Margaret Thatcher

In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. -Margaret Thatcher

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal. Emerson

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal. Emerson

A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it. Frank Howard Clark

A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it. Frank Howard Clark

To distinguish the real from the unreal, one must experience them both. - S. Gorn&apos

To distinguish the real from the unreal, one must experience them both. - S. Gorn&apos

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" Robert Schiller

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" Robert Schiller

The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something

The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something

Power doesn't have to show off. It is self confident, self assuring, self starting...when you have it, you know it." Ralph Ellison

Power doesn't have to show off. It is self confident, self assuring, self starting...when you have it, you know it." Ralph Ellison

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could..." Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could..." Emerson

We were so poor my daddy unplugged the clocks when we went to bed. - Chris Rock

We were so poor my daddy unplugged the clocks when we went to bed. - Chris Rock

Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news; the good news is that you are not a hypochondriac...

Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news; the good news is that you are not a hypochondriac...

Life is a long lesson in humility. -James M. Barrie

Life is a long lesson in humility. -James M. Barrie

"You cannot be totally committed sometimes."

"You cannot be totally committed sometimes."

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." ~ Yoda

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." ~ Yoda

A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. - William Hazlitt

A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. - William Hazlitt

A magician was driving down the road..then he turned into a drive way...

A magician was driving down the road..then he turned into a drive way...

The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.~ Buddha

The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.~ Buddha

One that would have the fruit must climb the tree. -Thomas Fuller

One that would have the fruit must climb the tree. -Thomas Fuller

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Emerson

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Emerson

"The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun." -- R.B. Fuller

"The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun." -- R.B. Fuller

26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets

Almost anyone these days can throw together 140 characters and call it a tweet. But to use Twitter for maximum business impact there are many tried and true content sources ready to be used.

In this post I’ll introduce practical ways to use good content for your tweets, everything from A to Z.
#1: Answers

Think about the questions your customers and prospects asked you this past week. Or maybe there are the repeat questions you’ve already answered on the FAQ page of your website.

To get started, create a list of questions, and answer them in your tweets one by one—paying particular attention to the most relevant at this time. For example, focus on seasonal questions, current rates and discounts, promotions and sales or commonly asked how-to’s in your business and industry. Save the list and add to it as you go along. What you don’t use this week may make even more sense a few weeks from now.
#2: Behind the Scenes

Anne Handley refers to this type of content sharing as the “insider’s view of your company,” where you have the opportunity to share updates about the projects and work you’re currently involved in. You can also use behind the scenes as an opportunity to welcome a new client or feature any other newsy development. Give readers or followers an inside look at your company.
#3: Case Studies

Dust off those case studies and offer them via your tweets for immediate download. Another option is to repurpose the material by pulling out 140-character messages that will wow your Twitter followers.
#4: Daily Deals

Use tweets to announce a daily deal you’re offering or one you’ve signed on with Groupon (or another daily deal site) by pushing out a message to gain optimal attention (e.g., “Today $6 general admission ticket to Museum of Science and Nature—up to a $12 value.”)
#5: Events

When you’re hosting or attending an event, you can send out a tweet to let followers know about it. Perhaps your company has a booth, so you might send out multiple tweets during the event to let know conference attendees where they can find you.
#6: Factoid

These types of tweets are the one-liner statistics that impact your industry or are current events and newsworthy for a variety of reasons. They demonstrate your company’s commitments and interests, and add personality to your business.
#7: Guide

Customers may be new to Twitter, blogs and social networking sites. You can use your tweets as a way to educate them about the process and integrate your blog posts with your Twitter messages. Tweets themselves can be teaching tools about social media marketing.
#8: Hashtags

Hashtags consist of using the # symbol followed by subject words; e.g., #followfriday. They help organize information and make tweets more searchable. They’re commonly used at conferences and live events. You can search hashtags to see what people are talking about. It’s also useful to do an advanced search on Twitter using hashtags as one of the search operators.

#9: Interviews

Twitter messages don’t need to be confined to single 140-character messages. An interesting way to use tweets is in conversations via Twitter interviews. Cindy King’s informative post offers 7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews.
#10: Joint Venture

Good Twitter content consists of certain netiquette—giving credit where credit is due by retweeting, or by using other mechanisms such as the word “via”— indicating that you came across the information somewhere else and are now writing about it, too. Twitter is naturally viral and as long as you “pay it forward” and think of Twitter as a joint venture, your tweets will become an important component of your social media strategy where you won’t simply be pushing out messages, you’ll be conversing with others and building your social network.
#11: Keywords

Web content (and print content for that matter) has always been about the use of keywords. Twitter is no exception. Good Twitter content makes use of relevant words and messages. Make a list of keywords that best describe your business and industry. Use these words as you compose your 140-character posts. Think quality over quantity. Make every character and tweet count!
#12: Live Events

Tweeting about live events fits Twitter like a glove. The immediacy of getting out messages about start times is particularly useful in the business world, especially when you’re at an in-person conference or hosting a live webinar. Sending out follow-up tweets about an event is also a great way for webinar hosts to answer questions that may not have been fully addressed during the event.
#13: Meme

In a recent post, 5 Ways to Get the Support of Social Media Influencers, Sam Rosen discusses the importance of memetic content. He writes, “No Fear is a meme. The Red Bull Flugtag is a meme. It’s something that people can identify with, make their own and share with others.” Think of the possibilities of short memetic-type tweets. If you have a tagline that speaks to people and gets your company and brand noticed, you can further expand its reach by including it in a series of tweets.

The point being that tweets can have a theme to them. You can extract messages from larger bodies of work and group them together in an ongoing series.
#14: News

Twitter has been instrumental in helping break important stories about local and global events. As Greg Sandoval writes on CNET news, “One-quarter of all Twitter posts include a link to another piece of content, such as a news story or video. Twitter has 190 million unique monthly visitors, so that’s a lot of content zooming across the platform.”

Want to announce important company and industry news? There’s great potential for getting the message out there on such a large platform and you can do it very simply and cost-effectively by pressing the “Tweet” button.
#15: Opinion

Using opinions in tweets is a good way to make it possible for your customers and followers to get to know more about you and your company. Opinion tweets can be seen as brief editorials. For example, if your product is environmentally friendly, you can create green-oriented posts that reflect issues beyond your product. It’s important to convey the image you want to be known for.
#16: Photos

As the saying goes, "Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words," or in this case, sometimes a picture is worth 140 characters!

Let’s face it, there are times when a photo is more effective. One industry that uses photos a lot is real estate. How nice it would be for people looking at homes not only to hear about an open house happening in their neighborhood but also to see a photo of the property?

Josh Catone describes five ways to share images on Twitter:

1. Twitter image sharing services
2. SMS or email
3. Brightkite or FriendFeed
4. Skitch
5. Encoded Tweets.

#17: Quotes

Business tweets can also be inspirational. They can motivate and influence thinking by using some of your favorite quotes.

* There are websites that categorize famous quotes by topic, and by Googling “quotes,” you’ll find thousands of sites to choose from.
* You can also use a quote from a book or magazine article you’ve been reading.

When planning your tweet, leave extra room for characters so you can be sure to give credit to the source.
#18: Real-time

To keep up with the flurry of information on a given topic, you may find it helpful to use a variety of tools to manage the influx of tweets. For example, on TweetDeck you can have a number of columns open to follow groups of people, see direct messages sent to you via Twitter, and organize by topic. That way you can stay ahead of the game and compose the most real-time tweets possible.
#19: Share Links

Many blogs and online news services offer integration with your Twitter account so you can share the link of the article with your followers as you read it. This is one of my favorite uses of Twitter. On the occasions when you come across a link you’d like to share and there isn’t a Twitter share widget already integrated for you on the web page, you can copy and paste the URL into a number of URL shorteners such as bit.ly or tinyurl, and add a few words about why you’re tweeting out the link.
#20: Tips

Got a product-related tip? A useful tidbit of information you’d like to share with your customers and followers? People are often looking for quick and easy solutions to manage their time and be more productive. Why not share some of your useful tips with them?
#21: Updates and Announcements

Updates and announcements from your business can be categorized as good to know, better to know and need to know. The Red Cross, for example, uses Twitter to broadcast important messages about emergencies and relief efforts.
#22: Value

When in doubt about what to microblog, think about what will add value to your audience today. What makes you the go-to company or service provider for your customers? Value tweets will remind them of why you’re an invaluable resource.
#23: White Papers

Ah, white papers. A list of content ideas for Twitter would not be complete without mention of white papers. Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner’s founder, is the author of Writing White Papers. White papers provide value to your readers and linking to them is an excellent cost-effective promotion tool. Why not get the word out on a frequent basis about your white paper offerings? Twitter makes it possible.
#24: Christmas Gift Ideas

If you’re a B2C business, you can use Twitter to give customers ideas about Christmas gifts and keep your products before their eyes through the holiday shopping season. With Twitter, you can continue to promote your products up to the last minute that they can be shipped in time to guarantee Christmas delivery.
#25: YouTube

Twitter can be used to link to a YouTube video. Videos are especially viral and people love them. For example, here’s a great YouTube video by Mari Smith on Twitter Hashtags.

You could tweet, “Checkout video on Twitter hashtags, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHitI26MmE”. (As discussed above, you can save on character real estate by using a URL shortener.)
#26: Zippy Writing Style

Twitter messages need to make the best possible use of 140 characters. This is where writing style comes into play. Good tweet content is not only useful in terms of all the types covered up to now. What makes a good tweet stand out is how the message is delivered. In other words, tweet lively and entertaining messages.

Saturday 18 December 2010

Optimism is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to success.

Optimism is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to success.

�The hardest leadership trait is to know when to PUSH hard and when to EASE off.�

�The hardest leadership trait is to know when to PUSH hard and when to EASE off.�

If a "fatal" error is made when I send an E-mail, does that mean I killed somebody?

If a "fatal" error is made when I send an E-mail, does that mean I killed somebody?

"Always be a little kinder than necessary" ~JM Barrie

"Always be a little kinder than necessary" ~JM Barrie

Ron Dart~ The objective of false prophets and teachers of whatever stripe is...the influence and control of the minds of men.

Ron Dart~ The objective of false prophets and teachers of whatever stripe is...the influence and control of the minds of men.

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily

If Idiots could Fly this Place would be an Airport

If Idiots could Fly this Place would be an Airport

There is nothing stronger than gentleness.

There is nothing stronger than gentleness.

The doctor was very honest. On the death certificate where it said "Cause of Death" he signed his name.

The doctor was very honest. On the death certificate where it said "Cause of Death" he signed his name.

By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.Mark Twain

By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.Mark Twain

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. -don Miguel Ruiz

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. -don Miguel Ruiz

The world is full of people who want to live forever but don't know how to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The world is full of people who want to live forever but don't know how to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.

He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.

Edward Young~ Procrastination is the thief of time.

Edward Young~ Procrastination is the thief of time.

Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.

Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.

Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.

Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.

When we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach. -French Proverb

When we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach. -French Proverb

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.Salvador Dali

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.Salvador Dali

"No one gossips about other people's virtues." ~ Bertrand Russell

"No one gossips about other people's virtues." ~ Bertrand Russell

Graham Greene~ It is impossible to go through life without trust That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all oneself.

Graham Greene~ It is impossible to go through life without trust That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all oneself.

Friday 17 December 2010

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong..." Emerson

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong..." Emerson

It was the last wish of the Icelandic economy that its ashes be scattered over Europe

It was the last wish of the Icelandic economy that its ashes be scattered over Europe

A crowded elevator always smells different to a midget.

A crowded elevator always smells different to a midget.

"Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife." ~Groucho Marx

"Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife." ~Groucho Marx

Three things are needed for a good life, Money , Money & Also Money ...

Three things are needed for a good life, Money , Money & Also Money ...

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. - Emerson

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. - Emerson

Don't ever give up on what you can't go a day without thinking about. ~Joe Schroeder

Don't ever give up on what you can't go a day without thinking about. ~Joe Schroeder

Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it

Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it

To be successful, the first thing to do is to fall in love with your work. -Sister Mary Lauretta

To be successful, the first thing to do is to fall in love with your work. -Sister Mary Lauretta

Thursday 16 December 2010

Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way ~ Lester Pearson

Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way ~ Lester Pearson

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Ghandi

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Ghandi

Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die. -Tim Steeves

Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die. -Tim Steeves

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent. -Euripides

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent. -Euripides

Do you mix up the earning phase with the learning phase?

Do you mix up the earning phase with the learning phase?

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new~ Pema Chodron

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new~ Pema Chodron

Dinozzo quote: You know, repeated trauma to the head can cause brain damage.

Dinozzo quote: You know, repeated trauma to the head can cause brain damage.

What is the main reason Santa is so jolly? He knows where all the bad girls live

What is the main reason Santa is so jolly? He knows where all the bad girls live

Words do two major things They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness. -Jim Rohn

Words do two major things They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness. -Jim Rohn

Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?

Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?

He who does not tire, tires adversity

He who does not tire, tires adversity

Monday 22 November 2010

TwitterFox (firefox add on)

TwitterFox (firefox add on)

50 Greatest Twitter Tips & Twitter Secrets by Mili Ponce

Twitter is a micro-blogging service and it is very hot now. It allows users to send at most 140 characters to their followers. Twitter opens a new way to connect with other party in the community. It’s so successful because it’s simple and easy to create your own community.

I’ve been tweeting for quite some time now, mainly for personal learning, making new friends, and observing what communities are doing. Following are 50 greatest Twitter tips and Twitter secrets to move you towards a successful experience on Twitter.

1.Pick a memorable username.
2.One tweet one story.
3.Try to follow back when people following you, you’ll get credits for your kind action.
4.No puns for optimized headline.
5.Focus on keywords for optimized headline.
6.Don’t consolidate stories.
7.Link directly to the story.
8.No subheads.
9.Don’t try to fill up 140 characters, keep it short to your point.
10.The highest form of compliment on Twitter is the retweet. Share the love, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
11.Spend some time making a custom background.
12.Don’t make your background look like some sort of advertisement, it turns people off.
13.Speak your mind, be personal and be transparent!
14.Tweet with photo with TwitPic.
15.Be interesting, boring story turns people off.
16.Be informative, now is the time to use Twitter to tell people about your business goals, your professional interests, to spread knowledge and offer customer support.
17.Be interactive.
18.Be considerate, people will feel it.
19.Find a balance, there is no exact number of how many tweets per day.
20.Be a observer, observer what communities are doing.
21.Learn from Twitter user who has most followers.
22.Upload a photo of yourself and show it in your Twitter profile, people love to know who they are chatting with.
23.Try to tweet regularly so that people know you have an active presence.
24.Try to not use Twitter as your own personal “this is what I’m doing” list.
25.Try to add value to the conversation by sharing links.
26.Mix some personal information so that people know you’re a human being and not just an online merchant pushing links.
27.Thank people when they follow you on Twitter with a direct message.
28.Start conversation with the “@” command, don’t just wait for people to talk to you.
29.Ask questions. Twitter is great for getting opinions.
30.Make sure to respond to people that ‘@’ or direct message you to show your respect.
31.Make noise beyond the Twittosphere, this is only way to build a following is for people to know you’re there.
32.Don’t worry about how many Twitter followers you have, if you become an active participant you will see your followers increase.
33.Don’t spam anyone with anything.
34.Promote your Twitter name in your email signature, business cards, websites, blogs. Don’t be afraid to mention Twitter offline either.
35.If you see that people are talking about you (good or bad) on Twitter search, then join in the conversation!
36.Don’t stalk or harass people on Twitter, if someone ignores you, just let it go. The same goes for you, if people are stalking or harassing you, you can block them on twitter.
37.Go mobile, there’re tons of Twitter apps for the iPhone and Blackberry.
38.Try to keep your Twitter “following/follower” ratio balanced.
39.Fill up your information in Twitter profile, people like to know who you are.
40.Link to a website that’s relevant, preferably your blog or Facebook page.
41.Be patient you won’t build relationships or feel the community spirit over night.
42.Get a good desktop client with TweetDeck.
43.Track your results and statistics with TwitterBurner.
44.Make objectives about what you want to achieve by using Twitter, and stick to them.
45.You don’t have to read every tweet.
46.When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
47.Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
48.If someone says you’re using Twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
49.Talk to people about their interests.
50.Enjoy and have fun with your Twitter conversation, don’t make it too serious

Sunday 3 October 2010

Featured Story How NPR Is Leveraging the Twitter Generation [STATS]

NPR has just released a fascinating set of stats about its Twitter followers, including information about how much they click through, how they get their news, how they interact with content and even how old they are.

In a survey of more than 10,000 respondents, NPR found that its Twitter (Twitter) followers are younger, more connected to the social web, and more likely to access content through digital platforms such as NPR’s website, podcasts, mobile apps and more.

NPR has more than one Twitter account; its survey found that most respondents followed between two and five NPR accounts, including topical account, show-specific accounts and on-air staff accounts.

The data on age is hardly surprising. The median age of an NPR Twitter follower is 35 — around 15 years younger than the average NPR radio listener. This lines up with data we recently found about other traditional news media; the average Facebook (Facebook) user reading and “liking” content on a news website is two decades younger than the average print newspaper subscriber.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the future of news media lies in successful integration of social media to get the attention (and click-throughs) of a younger generation — a generation whose news needs are vastly different than those of the generations that preceded it.

Of NPR’s Twitter followers, the majority (67%) still do listen to NPR on the radio. But the other ways they access NPR’s content are indicative of a growing trend:

Of survey respondents, 59% said they use NPR.org, 39% listen to NPR’s podcasts, around half use an NPR mobile app and 28% say they access NPR via Facebook. All told, 77% of NPR’s Twitter followers said they get all or most of their news online.

And Twitter followers are more likely to expect breaking news, too, likely because of the real-time nature of the medium.

What do you think of NPR’s stats? Do you use Twitter to follow and access news? What about mobile apps or podcasts — do you find those media useful when produced by a mainstream news organization? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Social Media Newsletter 30 September 2010

Introduction

In this note I want to deal with automation and outsourcing of
Twitter.Twitter really does lend itself to automation.In order to
generate a lot of traffic quickly on Twitter it is preferable to
have a number of accounts.However you will rapidly learn that managing,
updating and growing more than one account is no fun whatsoever and
is extremely time consuming.

Up to the 31st of August there were lots of extremely good products
that either automatically tweeted ( The Excellent FeedMyTweeter a
case in point) or automatically managed the following and
unfollowing process (Hummingbird2 and TweetAdder, two of many)

However from September 1st Twitter altered the rules and most of
these programs became redundant over night.Now any program needs to
be fully approved by Twitter or must operate as a person would. The
new requirement from Twitter is OAuth security encryption.

Current Options

Marketmetweet(now renamed MarketmeSuite) http://bit.ly/marketme-tweet

This excellent software can be used with unlimited accounts across
multiple computers, schedules tweets,manages twitter,has location
targetting (very useful for local business targeting)allows
facebook  and Pingfm integration.It has 2 unique features Brand
Management(every tweet you send is branded discreetly with a link
back to your website) and BlogMe ( a FREE Premium website)

TweetAdder 3.0                         http://tinyurl.com/tweetadder3

This is also excellent software and can be used with multiple
accounts and has automated following and unfollowing, automated
tweets etc, It does not run on the Twitter API but posts via the
web as though it was human.

Tweet Attacks Pro                 http://tinyurl.com/tweetattackspro

This software is interesting as it appears to be a product designed
in the Philippines( a foretaste of life to come?) It efficiently
does what the other two do at similar cost.like TweetAdder it
operates outside the Twitter API.

Review

Currently these are the best out there and I would probably lean
towards Market Me Tweet because it looks great on screen and is a
joy to use and it has the personal branding feature which in my
experience is unique.TweetAdder is the tried and trusted Pro with 5
years experience in the market.

However the newbie Tweet Attacks comes with the most amazing
upsell! This upsell called Tweet Attacks AC is an amazing program
which generates new Twitter Accounts automatically and when I say
automatically I mean automatically.It has, it would appear all
angles covered. From either its own list of names or any you choose
to put forward, it spins the list to generate as many different
account names as you want.It suggests using a new proxy for every
10 accounts per day otherwise Twitter will take you down and also
suggests how you can generate an unlimited supply of unique free
email addresses that twitter needs for each new account.It even
randomises backgrounds and supplies photos.So if it's 10, 100,1000
or 10000 new accounts you want. It supplies at the touch of a
button!

I was going to talk about outsourcing but Tweet Attacks outsources
the outsourcer. You can also outsource these operations at say $20
per month (to the Philippine, where else? They are the best
cultural fit) through someone like elance.

Conclusion

Well that has blown me away! I'm so excited! Ever time I talk about
these applications and they are all genuinely good it brings back
the rush I experienced when it first dawned on me what Tweet
Attacks AC exactly could do.

I very much hope this to be a two way process and I will be happy
to post your comments or input on future communications. Please
write to me on davidhblair@btopenworld.com.

Alternatively I have a blog http://thetwittermaster.blogspot.com/
where I welcome participation by all comers

Thursday 9 September 2010

Social Media newsletter 15 September 2010

Introduction

One of the common areas of difficulty in both Twitter and Facebook
for those marketing using Social Media is communication. We must
never forget that these sites are first and foremost social media
sites designed for chatting with friends, finding new friends etc.

Communicating

It is relatively easy to recruit large numbers of followers on
Twitter and friends or fans in Facebook ; it is much more difficult
to sell to these lists.
-    You must talk to these people as a person and on a wide variety
of subjects. You will not make friends by only talking about your
niche.
-    You must provide consistent high value posts. These may be tips
but more likely need to be gifts and quality gifts at that. You
must always exceed expectations never disappoint.
-    Your generosity is designed not only to gain their trust and look
forward to your next post but also to make their friends start
following you or ask for your friendship. When you reach this point
you know you have it cracked- however it does not come without hard
work.
-    Instead of just using automatic following software use the search
function in either medium. Look for popular strings and pose a
question or make a controversial observation. You will immediately
get into conversations.
-    Post questions - these go to your whole following and someone
will respond. On Facebook always respond to any posting on your
wall or any comment on your posts. When browsing tweets if you see
questions answer them. It may take a little research but it's worth
it.

Taking steps toward Selling.

If possible never sell or post an affiliate link on either Facebook
or Twitter. That must be reserved for something really big or
urgent. Better to always send people to a FREE gift and opt in
page, and on the Thank you page suggest they may like to consider
your promotion before receiving the high value gift.
An alternative is to send them to a review site or better still a
video review site where you review the product honestly with
clickable links after opt in to the sales page.

Conclusion

Always remember you're a real person and so are they. Remember that
they are on Facebook and Twitter because they want to socialise not
to be sold goods. They will however readily accept your advice once
they have become your friend and learnt to trust you. You will then
become the expert as you are working hard on the subject while it
is an interest or hobby to them.
You may well be able to automate the process down the line but
certainly during at least a month after people have joined you they
need very careful nurturing
In this way you can quickly grow very targeted lists within your
Groups and provided they are cared for properly they prove
extremely responsive.

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Twitter Automation Post 31 August 2010

In this note I want to deal with automation and outsourcing of Twitter.
Twitter really does lend itself to automation.In order to generate a lot of traffic quickly on Twitter it is preferable to have a number of accounts.However you will rapidly learn that managing, updating and growing more than one account is no fun whatsoever and is extremely time consuming.
Up to the 31st of August there were lots of extremely good products that either automatically tweeted ( The Excellent FeedMyTweeter a case in point) or automatically managed the following and unfollowing process (Hummingbird2 and TweetAdder, two of many)
However from September 1st Twitter altered the rules and most of these programs became redundant over night.Now any program needs to be fully approved by Twitter or must operate as a person would. The new requirement from Twitter is OAuth security encryption.


Marketmetweet   (now renamed MarketmeSuite)
This excellent software can be used with unlimited accounts across multiple computers, schedules tweets,manages twitter,has location targetting (very useful for local business targeting)allows Facebook and Pingfm integration.It has 2 unique features Brand Management(every tweet you send is branded discreetly with a link back to your website) and BlogMe ( a FREE Premium website)

TweetAdder 3.0
This is also excellent software and can be used with multiple accounts and has automated following and unfollowing, automated tweets etc, It does not run on the Twitter API but posts via the web as though it was human.

Tweet Attacks Pro
This software is interesting as it appears to be a product designed in the Philippines( a foretaste of life to come?) It efficiently does what the other two do at similar cost.like TweetAdder it operates outside the Twitter API.

Currently these are the best out there and I would probably lean towards Market Me Tweet because it looks great on screen and is a joy to use and it has the personal branding feature which in my experience is unique.TweetAdder is the tried and trusted Pro with 5 years experience in the market.

However the newbie Tweet Attacks comes with the most amazing upsell! This upsell called Tweet Attacks AC is an amazing program which generates new Twitter Accounts automatically and when I say automatically I mean automatically.It has, it would appear all angles covered. From either its own list of names or any you choose to put forward, it spins the list to generate as many different account names as you want.It suggests using a new proxy for every 10 accounts per day otherwise Twitter will take you down and also suggests how you can generate an unlimited supply of unique free email addresses that twitter needs for each new account.It even randomises backgrounds and supplies photos.So if it's 10, 100,1000 or 10000 new accounts you want. It supplies at the touch of a button!

I was going to talk about outsourcing but Tweet Attacks outsources the outsourcer. You can also outsource these operations at say $20 per month (to the Philippine, where else? They are the best cultural fit) through someone like elance.

Well that has blown me away! I'm so excited! Ever time I talk about these applications and they are all genuinely good it brings back the rush I experienced when it first dawned on me what Tweet Attacks AC exactly could do.

Posting on Facebook and Twitter

One of the common areas of difficulty in both Twitter and Facebook for those marketing using Social Media is communication. We must never forget that these sites are first and foremost social media sites designed for chatting with friends, finding new friends etc.
Communicating
It is relatively easy to recruit large numbers of followers on Twitter and friends or fans in Facebook ; it is much more difficult to sell to these lists.
• You must talk to these people as a person and on a wide variety of subjects. You will not make friends by only talking about your niche.
• You must provide consistent high value posts. These may be tips but more likely need to be gifts and quality gifts at that. You must always exceed expectations never disappoint.
• Your generosity is designed not only to gain their trust and look forward to your next post but also to make their friends start following you or ask for your friendship. When you reach this point you know you have it cracked- however it does not come without hard work.
• Instead of just using automatic following software use the search function in either medium. Look for popular strings and pose a question or make a controversial observation. You will immediately get into conversations.
• Post questions – these go to your whole following and someone will respond. On Facebook always respond to any posting on your wall or any comment on your posts. When browsing tweets if you see questions answer them. It may take a little research but it’s worth it.
Taking steps toward Selling.
If possible never sell or post an affiliate link on either Facebook or Twitter. That must be reserved for something really big or urgent. Better to always send people to a FREE gift and opt in page, and on the Thankyou page suggest they may like to consider your promotion before receiving the high value gift.
An alternative is to send them to a review site or better still a video review site where you review the product honestly with clickable links after opt in to the sales page.
Conclusion
Always remember you’re a real person and so are they. Remember that they are on Facebook and Twitter because they want to socialise not to be sold goods. They will however readily accept your advice once they have become your friend and learnt to trust you. You will then become the expert as you are working hard on the subject while it is an interest or hobby to them.
You may well be able to automate the process down the line but certainly during at least a month after people have joined you they need very careful nurturing
In this way you can quickly grow very targeted lists within your Groups and provided they are cared for properly they prove extremely responsive.

Monday 28 June 2010

Facebook - a Business Approach

A major downside to Facebook is the 5000 friend limit.It is possible however to open a number of facebooks. In a business this would preferably be done using different partners or employees.You could use the Bios for the business link in order to encourage relevant invitations from other users.
Inviting Friends
As a strategy you would join up to 30 Groups per Facebook as close to your business/product/service niche as possible and avoiding duplication. You would then invite people from those Groups to be your friends.
Forming Groups
In one of your Facebooks you would create Groups specifically and narrowly targeted to your niche, product or service.You could even name a group the same as your product or service. You would then invite your other Facebooks to join your Groups and make them officers or administrators for your group.You would all then invite new friends to those Groups.
Do not let the Group membership exceed 5000 as you can only Direct mail your Group if the membership remains less than 5000.
Because the members have to accept the invitation anyone who joins your Group is highly qualified and a targeted lead.
Forming Pages
Create a Page in your name or Company name, invite the other Facebooks to join and make them administrators. Then from all Facebooks invite your Friends to join this "Fan" page. There is no limit to the numbers joining your page. It is important as this is the one area of Facebook which is recognised by Google for ranking purposes.
Marketing
By posting on the Wall, within the Groups and on the Page you can promote your products and services with links as often as you wish, remembering always to give lots of value to nurture trust within the Groups and Page.
Applications.
Two essential applications within Facebook allow you to put an opt in box on your Profile page and on your"Fan" Page.You should always continue as your main business strategy to encourage as many targeted leads as possible to join the lists within your auto responder.

Social Media & Business - Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 and operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. It's name comes from the name of books given to students at the start of the university academic year to help students to get to know each other.
In its 6 years Facebooks membership now exceeds 400 million and if it was a country would be the fourth most populous on the planet.As a site it now has more visits than Google!
Facebook Profile
It is designed in such away that the user gives his profile which contains all manner of information about him/her. Age, Gender, Location,interests, hobbies, work and anything else you can possibly think of. This profile can either be viewed by anyone/everyone, or restricted to invited friends or kept private.
Facebook Friends
The user is allowed to invite friends up to a limit of 5000 and these friends photos and profiles are also exposed and viewable.
Facebook Videos and Photographs.
The user can add photographs and videos to his albums which are also on public display.
Facebook Wall
Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see; Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions. The user can post messages to his wall which is viewable by all his friends. Its function is communication and works a bit like a blog. Friends can say they like the posts and can comment on the post.
Facebook Groups
The member can join Groups. There are many hundreds of thousands of Groups but it is possible to search through categories and a search facility for Groups in your interest area.Joining a group will have the effect of members of that Group seeking to become connected with you as a friend. Once you have joined a Group it is possible to invite your friends to join and to post on that Groups wall.
You can create a Group and invite your friends to join it. As the creator or Administrator of that Group you can control what other Group members post on that Group wall.
Facebook Page
You can also join another members page. These used to be called Fan pages until recently. You can make your own Pages and invite other members to become your fan.
Facebook applications.
There are hundreds of Facebook applications which people have written for your use and amusement. These vary in both quality and usefulness. Many are games in which you can participate and find people of common interests.

Social Media & Business - Facebook Ads

Considering that Facebook now has more visits than Google it is surprising that Facebook advertising is still considered inferior to Google advertising.I have no figures on this but the price of Facebook advertising compared to the price of Google Adwords indicates a much lesser demand.
The factors that should push you towards Facebook Advertising are

The cost - as I've said the cost per click is much less than on Google.

The traffic - not only does Facebook traffic now exceed Google, the length and therefore the quality of the view is greater.Many now use Face book Direct messaging rather than email and consequently have their Facebook as their home page.

The ability to precisely target.Google adwords have the disadvantage of displaying to all and appearing at the top of the search page where all your competitors are also advertising.This may be partly overcome by joint venturing with your competitors but in certain markets that could be illegal.
Facebook on the other hand will be displayed only to a defined audience.

Basically you can choose on Facebook what sort of person you want the ad displayed to. This can be by gender, country, locality, age, date, interest(really be detail of individuals bios) You can therefore be certain that only interested potential customers will see and therefore click on your advertisement and that conversion will be much greater.
The other massive advantage it has over Google is that it carries photographs or graphics and therefore is far more interesting and attractive.

Social Media and Business - Web presence

Businesses large or small fall into one of these categories.

No website or web presence whatsoever

Advertising themselves on a local website trade website or similar such as Yell.com

With a website, of various quality designs, advertising their company, products and services.

With a website as above but SEO (search engine optimised).

With a website or websites customer facing which would respond to product or solution searches.

with a network of web presences, sites and social media involvement driving targeted traffic to opt in pages, sites, products and solutions.

All but the last category are failing to optimise their web presence.

What has changed

Traditional Marketing has been traditionally employed at two basic levels.

Promoting or adverising the brand.

Promoting or advertising the Product or Service.

This has employed all the media available from time to time i,e, Newspaper, Bill boards, Leaflets, Yellow Pages,Direct Mail, TV, Radio and of late,internet advertising - Google Adwords, Adsense, Advertising sites, Banner advertising, Facebook Ads, etc. Of the latter group only Facebook ads allow targeted advertising and the other methods all suffer from lack of targeting.

What much of business, mainly through ignorance and sometimes intellectual resistance, have missed is that the use of almost any social media would allow them to filter the general public into interest groups where more effective targetted marketing can take place.In addition t5he Social Media market place operates in real time and it is possible to respond immediately to the market and easily conduct research and obtain immediate feedback.

Social Media & Business - The current position

The more I have learned about social media the more I have seen how underutilised it is in all sizes of business.
This can only be because the generations who run business and take decisions are generally too old to have learned the power of Social Media. In fact it is worse than that! There are 3 considerable points of resistance

- I have found tremendous resistance from people to even consider that Social Media and particularly the explosion in Facebook and Twitter is of any relevance whatsoever to them or their businesses.

- Moreover there is also a resistance from those Facebook and Twitter diehards to accept that these platforms should be used for commercial purposes.

- The owners of these networks have been reluctant to permit commercialisation of their platforms and still have unclear rules to discourage use by business.


By and large big business has not cottoned on to the use of Social Media in general. There are some businesses, for example, Dell computers who fully appreciate the power of Twitter and have thrown a considerable staff resource at it. Well, I here you say, "they would because they are in IT and Twitter is sort of IT because it's on the internet".

Well, Social Media is not IT - it is communication in its broadest sense and a large part of business communication is marketing and sales. The beauty of Social Media Marketing is that it can be targeted, is immediate, and best of all, it is free. It has the tremendous advantage over all other types of offline marketing in that You can actually measure its effect and know how many people it has interested or attracted.
If you are in a large business and not using Social Media Marketing techniques, I suggest you start tomorrow by appointing a Social Media expert. Your IT department and marketers cannot do it without training.
Equally you as a business leader or decision influencer must obtain some detailed Social Media education as you will need to champion its introduction into your company, just as you would with any other change program.
All traditional areas of marketing are in steep decline - newspaper advertising, TV advertising, Yellow pages etc.for two reasons, lack of public interest in this media and the growth of personal computers and 3G cell phones. In addition we all have devices such as Tivo or Pvrs designed to free us from TV advertising.

Saturday 19 June 2010

Tools to help you design a really professional background without expense

Artweet
Artweet is a simple little service so you can quickly make your twitter a little more pretty and a lot more useful. It allows you to make the most of your twitter backgournd by displaying a picture and or some messages e.g. you could have a mug shot and promote your blog url, or maybe you want to flash up a quick message and url about something new you are doing.

Twitter Background Checker
Twitter Background Checker. Does your nifty Twitter background look like poo with smaller or bigger screen resolutions? check it here.

Blondish
These are backgrounds you can modify and use for your background on your personal Twitter page. Please do not claim these as your own. If you need a custom background, you can use the contact form. I charge $10 for a custom Twitter background.

chethstudios
4 different free twitter backgrounds- PSD zipped files. which can be easily customized with no restrictions. These 4 backgrounds are designed using free textures from textureking and the Twitter Birds are from Productive dreams and SmashMag The rest credits are present on the zipped file.

ClickableNow
ClickableNow enables clickable links on Twitter background images. The ClickableNow free script or add-on must be installed to view the links. The ClickableNow website allows Twitter users to create clickable links on Twitter background images.

creativetwitterbackgrounds
Why would you want to pay good money for a custom Twitter background when you can upload one of the stock backgrounds that Twitter provides for free?

Free Twitter Designer
Free Twitter Designer is a flash app that allows you to customize your Twitter background.

flickr
A Flickr gallery of great Twitter extended backgrounds free to use

graphicshunt
have the most twitter backgrounds on the internet and keep adding more backgrounds on a daily basis.

heavengraphics
A group of free Twitter backgrounds. Each high quality twitter background image comes with a color text file so you can customize theme colors to match your new profile background. You can view a larger sample or download the zip file.

languageisavirus.com/twitter-backgrounds
1000's of unique free Twitter backgrounds. Click "Get Twitter Background" beneath any image you want to put on your Twitter.. The new page will show the image as a background and give step-by-step instructions on how to add it as your Twitter background.

mytweetspace
Choose from over 250 + Backgrounds, Enter your Name, Company, Websites, Logo, Personal Photo and more.

tdc.angeli-x
If your into manga there are lots of Free manga graphics that can be downloaded from this Japanese site.

Sweettweet
Has loads of free twitter backgrounds for you to download.

theclosetentrepreneur
Create a twitter background using powerpoint. this site allows you to download a twitter template from which following their instructions you can easily design a professional background.

Tweetstyle
Offers a number of Free twitter backgrounds for you to download

Twitter Background 0.1
Twitter Background 0.1 is a very simple add-on. You won’t even know it’s there, and after a while you’ll think this is a feature of Twitter itself.

TwitBacks
Go with TwitBacks‘s Smart Solutions which creates effective, out-of -the-box remedies for businesses facing constantly evolving technology and trends.

TwitterGallery
On Twittergallery you can find the best twitter backgrounds on the net. Simply Click the gallery post, and change your twitter background within a minute. It is that simple !

Peekr
Peekr really is just a nifty little bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser’s toolbar and click on to see a twitter user’s entire background graphic and then click again to get things back to normal

Twitlay
Twitlay provides free Twitter backgrounds. There are various categories to choose from. In fact, you can change the color and add text to the background. Select colors for your profile and preview it in real time. Save all these to your Twitter account with a single click

Twiback
It’s never been this easy — with our professionally designed, simple user interface you can change your Twitter background or profile icon automatically. On Twiback there is no need to go to twitter settings to change or refresh your twitter background or icon anymore.

Make Money With Absolutely No Investment

Make Money With Absolutely No Investment

Monday 26 April 2010

Twitter for Business - Continuing to grow

I haven't posted for a few weeks because I have had a small problem with Twitter. They decided that I had broken their rules and all my accounts were progressively closed down over a 10 day period.I managed to negotiate the reinstatement of one account on condition that I used no automatic following or un-following programs. Even though it is within the Twitter rules to open multiple un-connected accounts they have informed me that it is not possible in my case.
The only way that they could have tracked down and suspended all my accounts was through my IP address so it appears that anyone opening more than one account would be wise to use an identity cloaking device. This is also useful if you wish to access country only coded accounts. http://bit.ly/c9p1Q

Saturday 27 February 2010

How 5 Top Companies win with TWITTER by Adam Schoenfeld

Last week at Social Media Breakfast, I learned that AT&T has 15 Customer service reps and a full-time analyst dedicated to Twitter. This got me thinking about how businesses organize, scale and manage a large Twitter presence. I looked at 5 case studies for 5 different approaches:
1.) Organize by Customer Services Reps: AT&T

ATT TwitterAT&T sends ~1,000 tweets per day per rep (15 full-time customer care reps). They have 14 Twitter Accounts for service plus a handful of content specific accounts (e.g. @ATTNews, @ATTmusic, @BizSolutions). Each customer service rep has a personalized account with the rep’s photo and bio. They add new Twitter accounts for each new customer service rep. (We previously talked about how brands use Twitter for customer service)
Others Examples: Comcast, Charter
2.) Organize by Product Group/Business Unit: Microsoft

Miscrosoft_on_Twitter
Microsoft organizes and scales Twitter by product or business unit. This strategy helps Microsoft target content and messaging to the unique audiences across a broad range of product groups. You’ll see a very different approach if you follow XBox vs. Office vs. Sharepoint, matching the diverse audiences.
Other Examples: Intuit, Oracle, Cisco, Dell
3.) Organize by Store Location or Geography: Whole Foods

Whole Foods TwitterWhole Foods has a massive Twitter presence with more than 200 total handles. These accounts are organized by city and store locations. Whole Foods also maintains one central account which has over 1.7M followers. Given the local nature of their business, Whole Foods can cater content specifically to local customers. I suspect we’ll see the approach as other retailers and restaurants scale on Twitter.
Other examples: Four Seasons Hotels
4.) Organize by Content Type: BuddyTV

Buddy TV TwitterAlthough BuddyTV is considerably smaller than the other case studies, they have a large and highly effective Twitter presence. BuddyTV has 18 accounts, each with a unique content focus for a single TV show. They also have one central account for general TV related updates (@BuddyTV).
5.) Put the Entire Company to Work: Best Buy

BestBuy Twelpforce TwitterWith their unique (and well publicized) Twelpforce initiative, BestBuy basically put the entire company to work on Twitter. The company is represented by 2,000+ employees. Each employee tweets for themselves, but also uses the channel to connect with customers, answer questions, and help solve problems. Best Buy even publicized the initiative with TV spots.

Adam Schoenfeld is the CEO and co-founder at 20 Decibels in Seattle. 20 Decibels is the Twitter campaign management and analytics solution that social media professionals have been asking for. Follow 20 Decibels on Twitter here.

Twitter and Big Business

By and large big business has not cottoned on to the use of Social Media in general and Twitter in particular. There are some businesses, for example, Dell computers who fully appreciate the power of Twitter and have thrown a considerable staff resource at it. Well, I here you say, "they would because they are in IT and Twitter is sort of IT because it's on the internet".

Well, Social Media and Twitter are not IT they are communications in the broadest sense and a large part of business communication is marketing and sales. The beauty of Twitter is that it can be targeted, is immediate, and best of all, it is free. You can actually measure its effect unlike advertising outside of the internet.
If you are in a large business and not using Social Media Marketing techniques including Twitter, I suggest you start tomorrow by appointing a Social Media expert. Your IT department and marketers cannot do it without training.

Monday 22 February 2010

Advertising

I saw some numbers today which indicated that total advertising on the Web now exceeded the totals from TV and Radio advertising. This has changed in a matter of a couple of years. Within internet marketing the use of advertising like google adwords have increased in many areas from 1 cent per click to often many dollars! One social media area which has doubled in size in only two years i.e. Facebook now has 400 million users. Facebook advertising is only about 20% of the advertising on Google and presents a huge opportunity for expansion,

David Blair

PS check out my website at http://thetwittermaster.com

Friday 19 February 2010

Twitter for Business

I hope you have been considering how embracing Social Media marketing across your business, is likely to produce higher levels of market penetration for your services or products. We are all too well aware that the scatter gun approach that unfortunately traditional marketing and advertising has become in the 21st century can be both too expensive and unreliable.
TV and radio advertising once extremely effective can no longer guarantee anything but a minority audience. The plethora of new channels and stations has divided and bored the audience and viewing figures are at an all time low. In addition the way we all watch TV has changed many of us planning our viewing in such a way that eliminates the need to sit through commercials.
Newspapers are taking a different position in our lives with free morning and evening papers available in our different localities, to be quickly scanned during the commute but discarded on the train or bus. The Sunday papers now the backbone of weekly review. Magazines and Journals often that full of advertising that it has become self defeating.
As never before it has become essential to hunt out potential customers. Social Media marketing in general and Twitter in particular have become essential tools in this search. Any business ignoring this important development is putting future growth at risk.

David Blair


PS. visit my site http://thetwittermaster.com

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Twitter Demystified For Business Users By Nancy C McCord

Twitter is the current top "hot property" on the Web, but its popularity and how to use it has mystified many business owners. Many people think that they want to, or should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand the platform, its use, or its place in building web exposure. This article will demystify Twitter and help you to learn how to use it in the workplace and to promote your business.

First, I have to say that I had been confused on how to use Twitter to benefit my own business until I downloaded TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows you to review and post status updates on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I consider it a "must have" application for anyone who wants to make sense of Twitter. TweetDeck allows you to sort the people you follow on Twitter into groups, allows you to limit the number of Tweets (Twitter micro posts) to be shown at any one time, and also allows you to remove all Tweets you have seen with one click. Additionally, using TweetDeck, finally a Twitter search on a topic makes sense.

Since using TweetDeck, I have had a much better Twitter experience. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page is intimidating; it consists of post after post from people who you are following, who you may not know much about, and it just seems like a huge volume of content. To get started effectively first group the people who actually have something interesting to say on TweetDeck and voila, you have a powerful tool that keeps you at the forefront of what is happening in your industry and on the Web.

So how do you get started with Twitter? Well the first thing is to start on Twitter yourself to understand what you like to read, who you like to follow, and to clearly identify what you like about Twitter. For me, it boils down to this: I like to follow people in my industry who say something of value, who provide a link to a new application or point me to an interesting new article, video, or blog site that I should review but may have never have found myself. Based on what I like, and the people who I find interesting to read, I now write my Twitter posts using this same formula to grow my own Twitter audience.

What I also like about Twitter is that the people who I follow also know how to show their true personality in their Tweets. Ye,s I do like to know what Danny Sullivan (famous search engine marketing guru) ate for lunch, but better yet is the link to the video he thought was funny. I love following Ashton Kutcher (movie star married to Demi Moore who just hit 1 million Twitter followers in April). Man, that guy is really funny and is having a ball with Twitter. His posts are great and he has just earned the status of the user with the most followers. This is why you can't hire someone to "Ghost Twitter" for you. It's about showing the real you - you can't fake that!

So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for linking and this is the real value for businesses. By using Twitter to point people to content on your website, articles you have written either on or off your website, or by linking to a service you want to highlight, you drive traffic. On top of that, Google actually indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can appear in the organic search results so make sure your bio is well thought out. Don't waste time using Twitter to point to blog posts, use TwitterFeed to post your blog posts directly onto Twitter. If you have a blog or website, you'll get new Twitter followers by posting your TwitterFeed right onto your web pages. People who may not have known your Twitter ID can simply click the bottom "follow me link" and start following you on Twitter.

What's important to be successful in using Twitter is to identify what you personally like about this new media and then deliver the same type of things that you like back to your own followers - work to provide value not drivel! So you've got to play with Twitter and learn how to use it first before you can really become successful with it for your business.

So how do you get followers? Well, I started by following everyone (who I found by doing a Twitter search) who had the last name McCord. Then I searched for web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click. Any site profile that looked good, I clicked to follow the writer. It was that easy. Many times people who you follow yourself will choose to follow you. That's how you initially build up your Twitter base. Over time you will start to identify your "Twitter voice" and refine the type of Twitter presence you want to have by changing your content style and the things that you Tweet about. As you refine your presence, you will build a following.

Another cool Twitter use is that you can reply to any of your followers by simply putting an @ in front of their Twitter ID. For example to send something to my attention use @mccordweb at the very front of your Twitter posting and click enter. Just remember that this post is seen by all followers on my site and on your Twitter site. If you need a more private exchange, go to the direct message link on the Twitter.com site and select a follower by Twitter ID name and send your message from there. This note will be private. If you are using TweetDeck you can click on a follower's Twitter ID icon and then select to send a direct message or @reply to them. TweetDeck will automatically insert the correct syntax for you in the Tweet.

For many businesses the ability for users to communicate with top management using Twitter is an invaluable resource. This one-to-one exchange allows a company principal to keep tabs on customer viewpoints, concerns, and interests. As a Twitter reply or direct mail does not use email and does not require a response, this is a great way to tap into social networking to test new ideas and to ask for user feedback. For example, if you have a new software product ask your Twitter followers for feedback on a specific feature, or provide a link to your beta version for their testing.

How you use Twitter is all about your personal business needs. The best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to use Twitter a bit yourself first to understand the medium and to find out what you like to read best using Twitter. Then, create your own Twitter network sharing information that you find interesting and have some fun.

Currently I am following 204 people and 183 people are following me on Twitter. Personally I find Twitter great fun and a very cool way to find out first what's happening in the world before you see it on TV, read it on the Web, or see it in the newspaper. That's the real power of Twitter; you share, you find out, and you know, all by a person-to-person exchange of information.

For those of you clicking in from my e-newsletter the rest of the content on Twitter applications and uses follows.

Below are some of the Twitter applications that I like and use regularly for my business.

Twuffer - I love this one, it is a Twitter post scheduler. Some people feel that Twuffer defeats the immediacy of Twitter posts or Tweets, but I like it as I will schedule Tweets on days that I am not blogging to keep my followers advised of things I find important. It is easy to use, allows you to Tweet ahead, and lets you select a posting schedule by day and time. If you are pushing content on a service or product this is an excellent tool to use. Set your Tweets up one week or one month at a time and feed your content to readers in addition to your regular Tweets. Make sure to use http://www.TinyUrl.com to change any long URLs you point to in the Tweet to a Twitter-friendly short version to save space.

Twitter Feed - This is another one of my top favorites. TwitterFeed allows me to show my blog posts from "The Web Authority" directly onto Twitter. It also allows me to post my Tweets back on my blog (by installing a widget) in my blog template - very cool cross interaction! I pick up many Twitter followers with this technique. Readers come to visit my blog and then choose to follow me on Twitter.

Twitter Grader - This one is a vanity application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users. Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter user based on followers, number of updates, and posting frequency.

TweetBeep - With this application, you can manage your online Twitter reputation. Alerts will be emailed to you whenever a Twitter user Tweets about your business, name, or domain. You select the alert criteria and what to watch for using TweetBeep. This is great for a business that is concerned about branding and online identity. PR professionals should make sure to use this tool to watch for comments about their clients.

Twitoria - Clean up your Twitter followers by finding out which people never use Twitter or post infrequently so you can delete them right from the Twitoria interface.

Qwitter - If you want to know when someone stops following you, sign up for this service. Actually, this can be an excellent tool to find out what a reader hated that you posted about and caused them to "chop" you, so you can fine tune your message. If you get a flood of drops after a Tweet, it allows you to learn that people don't like a certain type of Tweet - instant feedback at an anonymous level!

One big thing about Twitter that I have not even mentioned yet but is actually one of Twitter's best features is the ability to text-in Tweets from your mobile phone. Although you can't easily link to great content typically on the fly like this, the ability to connect with others without being tethered to a computer is an opportunity to show the "real you". Maybe your followers do want to know what you are eating for lunch or about a seminar you just attended, just be kind and don't vomit out Twitter spam using your Blackberry on meaningless drivel.

You can easily set up the ability to receive text messages from your Twitter account to your cell or Blackberry, but be careful as you may be inundated if you have a large following. I would recommend receiving Twitter updates via text message to your cell only from a small group. For example if you have a project team, set up a Twitter account for each member to allow them to post just to this small unique circle of team members. The value to track and interact with each other at anytime and anywhere using Twitter by computer or by cell phone adds real value for work groups and teams - particularly team managers. Twitter even allows you to make this type of group private.

Another feature of Twitter is the ability to add hashtags in front of keywords in your Tweets to help with sorting to allow others to find your important content. For example if you wanted to Tweet about a recent earthquake in LA you would use #laearthquake in the front of your Tweet. By using hashtags you enable Twitter to return your information for topic searches on newsworthy Tweets. You can visit Hashtags.org for more information on the current hot hashtags that are in use for today so you can follow, add to the topic, or create your own. For example in Twitter World, Fridays are the day you post with #followfriday and enter in the Twitter IDs you want to recommend to others. You would be amazed at the cool new people you can follow and interact with from recommendations of the people you follow.

In conclusion, Twitter is one of the hottest new mediums to arrive on the Internet scene since Facebook. Although it is not exactly "new", Twitter has just recently become very high profile. If you are in business, Twitter definitely warrants your attention. Not only is it a very smart new tool to use in your marketing arsenal, but I think that the more you use it you will grow to love it and find it fun to use. The ways that you can use Twitter are endless: for teams, for family members, for business networking, to stay at the forefront of news, to promote yourself and your services, and to just have fun connecting with others online. Just remember you can't really make sense of Twitter for business without using TweetDeck or another similar aggregating and sorting application. Thanks for reading, see you on Twitter, you can reach me at @mccordweb or visit me at www.Twitter.com/mccordweb.

Nancy McCord is an expert in the field of search engine marketing and Web visibility. She is the owner of McCord Web Services LLC based in the Washington DC area. Her firm provides web content writing, blog writing services, webmaster services, web design, and Internet marketing services. You can find out more about the services that she provides at http://www.McCordWeb.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_C_McCord

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Twitter for Business

I hope you sat back last night and considered my question of how it could be of use in your business. Imagine if you had a product which would cure a poor golf swing - a video or book or something?
You can search on twitter and instantly find the people who are discussing a bad golf swing, which would enable you in real time to approach them with the solution. What this means is that out of the millions out there you have identified a small number of people who need your product now! Now how useful it that!
try and apply the same thinking to your product or service.

David Blair

PS take a look at my website http://thetwittermaster.com

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Twitter for Business

I thought I'd start a new blog because I have recently seen too many negative posts on various Blogs and Forums. Just because nobody over 35 really understands what Twitter is for, or even ever will believe that people love it doesn't mean it can't be effectively used for business. If you examine what the under 25's use it for you will start to understand why it could be useful in your business.
It is the instant realtime nature of Tweets that makes it important. There is no faster way of communicating news right around the planet. If you log into Twitter, the tweets you are looking at are likely to be less than a minute old.You should now sit back and ask yourself whty would that be useful in my business?