As you probably have heard around the coffee shop, Twitter is now being blamed for causing America to go mindless. Buy hey, come on, how can Twitter be responsible for the pre-Twitter status quo?

Blame is easy because Twitter is a newbie on the street corner of interactive Web 2.0 sites. One simply logs onto Twitter and it’s free expression as long as it’s 140 characters or less.

Now realistically it is not fair, though admittedly very convenient, to blame America’s total lack of attention and focus on Twitter. It’s not Twitter’s fault this is an election year.

Twitter is simply software that just sits there until one enters their 140 characters or less, regardless of who is running for President.

But it’s all worth it in the end because the Twitter community has a steady stream of new members; many of whom just might become your Followers. Followers are a type of fan and you are the Followed. So to speak or rather twitter.

The truth is, like many Web 2.0 unwritten “givens” if one Follows you, you should respectfully Follow them back.

Whether you actually do Follow or not is not really the point, it’s Web 2.0 courtesy to respond in kind. Be nice or leave.

Of course one should morally Follow back out of courtesy so that more folks don’t jump off the Golden Gate Bridge; imagine the trauma of Twitter rejection.

But just because one Follows, doesn’t actually mean one follows, in Twitter terms of course.

There’s no getting around it. How truly embarrassing when one goes back over the archives!

Some poor soul thinks they are carrying on some sort of dialogue with you and it’s clear you are taking off wherever you wish totally ignoring them and everything else: my gosh, what must they all be thinking? Or rather, twittering?

Are they somehow subliminally twittering with me? One eventually starts to wonder: what is really going down here?

But whatever you do, don’t lose control because you committed a downright ugly Twitter indiscretion. You know, something you are afraid might pop up on you-know-who’s Google search.

But if you do sin, one of the Twitter strategies for covering up your indiscretion is simply moving on. Or in other words, bury it in the archives.

Twittering away with goofy and silly nonsense does wonders for burying the Twitter where you called your boss an infected scab. And worse.

But no worries, in the end Twitter is all so stylishly superficial anyway. If there is any Twitter style that has emerged, it is the cutesy superficial style.

That is probably because every California valley girl twitters night and day but of course that’s how they talk as well as Twitter.

If you like Search, Twitter has a good search function but with billions of Twitters it’s like getting 10,000 hits on a search.

And since so many Twitters are twatter, it’s sort of like ‘what’s the point?’ One can only assume some sort of alternative self therapy involved with these Twitter search freaks…

Which seems strange since the original idea was for your friends to know what you are thinking and doing every minute of the day.

It seems even stranger if you are married, but remember you too were once young and for some reason were once interested in those sorts of things.

Besides, how important can your thoughts while doing laundry really be?

The answer is not really important at all and that best describes the real strength of Twitter; it’s artificial and not very important at all.

It’s contrived except for those that already think in Twitter. So for those folks relatively speaking, they are twittering but really not in Twitter terms of course.

If it sounds too complex it’s really not. Twittering requires only superficial usage of scattered parts of the brain and very quickly you will notice numerous Twitterers that do not express any sort of thought whatsoever.

They have a hope that someday a miracle will happen.

It’s sort of like “hi, I’m here trying to think, not much yet in terms of results but will keep on trying and keep you posted or rather twittered should I actually think something.”

That’s because recent research showed some 87% of we Twitterers have less than a two second attention span.

Call it parsing or call it scatterbrained but the reality is a society hooked on Twitter and Sudoku is a society with way too much free time on its hands. And that spells big trouble.

But on the upside, even though we really aren’t important, we can impress other unimportant people that we are in fact important because we Twitter.

In global terms, we should be thankful. Twitter is showing us a very important and revealing aspect of our humanity: a mind is not necessary for self expression. Or, as we say out here in California, “No es necessario!”

So go ahead, feel free to exercise your mindless self expression. Go ahead, Twitter me, I dare ya!

Jack Deal twitters under the avatar jackddeal as well as own JD Deal Local Search Marketing, Salinas and Santa Cruz, California 831-457-8806. Related articles, twitters, quotes, ideas, strategies, tactics and tips can be found at http://www.jddeal.com/blog/humor

Technorati Tags: Destroying, Twitter

Social networking is an addicting activity. Many individuals want to share their lives online and Twitter is one of the sites that allow quick and easy communication with friends and love ones.

Before you can use Twitter, you must have your own profile page. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking website. If you want to publish updates or short messages, you can easily do it through Twitter. The updates are called ‘tweets’. The messages are text-based with a length of 140 characters. You can even use your mobile device to send the updates. Your updates are sent to your friends who also subscribe to Twitter and vice versa.

Do you know the Twitter question? Well, the concept of this social network website revolves around that simple question. What are you doing? This is the question asked by Twitter to its millions of users all over the world. Last year (2008), Twitter ranked third among the most loved and most used social network website after MySpace and Facebook. According to compete.com, Twitter has already around 6 million users as of February 2009 and it is still increasing. Monthly visits to the site totaled to 55 million per month.

The simplicity of Twitter makes it extremely popular among individuals of different age ranges. Users are free to choose how they can receive the tweets – through RSS, SMS, mobile web, etc. The applications like Twitterific and Tweetie are also great. Through APIs, you can easily make updates to your profile page without visiting the actual website of Twitter.

Various individuals use Twitter – from professionals to celebrities, and even political figures. Did you know that President Obama used Twitter for his campaigns? Well, aside from the President, celebrities like Stephen Fry, Shaquille O’Neal, and Britney Spears are also using the site. Large companies use the site to promote their product information and updates like IBM, Whole Foods Market, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. O2, a UK phone network, is currently using Twitter for answering queries and for customer service.

If you want to get substantial information, use Twitter now. Michael Arrington, a TechCrunch expert, suggested that the site can be developed to provide real-time data by turning it to a search engine. However, Twitter wants to remain simple because it is their philosophy. Their team of experts is studying the various requests from their users because there is still room for huge improvement. For now, the site is en effective social network tool that keeps people connected.

Answer the Twitter question now and set up your very own profile page. Once you have your page, you can now keep in touch with friends, classmates, and lost relatives. Wherever you are, you can receive the updates from your friends so you will know what they are doing; and your friends will also know what you’re doing.

If you want to stay connected, use Twitter; visit their online site now and create your profile page. If you’ve used MySpace and Facebook before, you will also love Twitter.

Social networking is an addicting activity. Many individuals want to share their lives online and Twitter is one of the sites that allow quick and easy communication with friends and love ones.

Before you can use Twitter, you must have your own profile page. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking website. If you want to publish updates or short messages, you can easily do it through Twitter. The updates are called ‘tweets’. The messages are text-based with a length of 140 characters. You can even use your mobile device to send the updates. Your updates are sent to your friends who also subscribe to Twitter and vice versa.

Do you know the Twitter question? Well, the concept of this social network website revolves around that simple question. What are you doing? This is the question asked by Twitter to its millions of users all over the world. Last year (2008), Twitter ranked third among the most loved and most used social network website after MySpace and Facebook. According to compete.com, Twitter has already around 6 million users as of February 2009 and it is still increasing. Monthly visits to the site totaled to 55 million per month.

The simplicity of Twitter makes it extremely popular among individuals of different age ranges. Users are free to choose how they can receive the tweets – through RSS, SMS, mobile web, etc. The applications like Twitterific and Tweetie are also great. Through APIs, you can easily make updates to your profile page without visiting the actual website of Twitter.

Various individuals use Twitter – from professionals to celebrities, and even political figures. Did you know that President Obama used Twitter for his campaigns? Well, aside from the President, celebrities like Stephen Fry, Shaquille O’Neal, and Britney Spears are also using the site. Large companies use the site to promote their product information and updates like IBM, Whole Foods Market, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. O2, a UK phone network, is currently using Twitter for answering queries and for customer service.

If you want to get substantial information, use Twitter now. Michael Arrington, a TechCrunch expert, suggested that the site can be developed to provide real-time data by turning it to a search engine. However, Twitter wants to remain simple because it is their philosophy. Their team of experts is studying the various requests from their users because there is still room for huge improvement. For now, the site is en effective social network tool that keeps people connected.

Answer the Twitter question now and set up your very own profile page. Once you have your page, you can now keep in touch with friends, classmates, and lost relatives. Wherever you are, you can receive the updates from your friends so you will know what they are doing; and your friends will also know what you’re doing.

If you want to stay connected, use Twitter; visit their online site now and create your profile page. If you’ve used MySpace and Facebook before, you will also love Twitter.

Hello! I am the founder of Wealth Hunters and all of it’s divisions. I make my living online by running various membership sites. I also am a huge believer of giving back to the community. I have been so blessed by all the wonderful people who have helped me so graciously through my struggles with my illness and the patience they have shown to me while I have failed and tried again to find my way in the online world!

This is my chance to give back! So for every membership a portion of that goes to help those on disability and veterans who can no longer find traditional employment to support their families. I do all the set up and training myself. What ever it may take to get them on the track to success. So I thank everyone who has been behind this idea as well–I could have not done it without you!

Please visit my blog (http://www.wealthhunters.info/blog) for more advice on how to break into a tough market, dos and don’ts and FREE 100% FREE products (from software, templates,scripts to eBooks) to enhance your business and anything you can imagine to pass along to your customers–these include resale rights– as a list builder, bonuses etc.!

I really hope to see you there,

Warm Regards, Lina

Technorati Tags: question, Twitter

l. Twitter is a free social networking site where you post what they call tweets, it gives you the ability to keep in touch with hundreds maybe thousands of people on a daily and sometimes hourly basis with current events and information. Twitter is also called a micro-blogging service that allows users to post short messages of text of not more than 140 characters or about 25 words and share them with your “followers”. Tweets can be posted via the web site, text messages from a cell phone or any of the various third-party applications designed to work with Twitter.

2. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search. Twitter offers many ways to post updates, from the web in the update box, from your phone, from your mobile web browser using Twitter.com. After you click the follow button on someone’s profile, you’re following them. The follow button will change to a box that says “Following” with a drop down option to remove a person if you want to. See a list of people you’re following by clicking on the following link on your profile or your home page’s sidebar.

3. All you need to use Twitter is an internet connection or a mobile phone. To get an idea of what other people are saying or doing on Twitter you can search by keyword or just check out the trending topics to what’s hot on Twitter right now. If you’ve registered your phone with Twitter, you can set up text preferences for a person as well; Twitter sends you an email when someone new follows you.

4. What does it mean to follow someone on Twitter? Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear in your Twitter home page. Twitter offers other ways to follow people too: you can get updates from certain people on your phone. When you create an account, you can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends via email. Once you’ve found your friends or business associates, follow them to start getting their updates. New messages are added to your home page as people post them, so you always get the updates in real time. When you log in, you can see what the latest updates are.

5. Everyone can view your Twitter profile as it is public by default, if you’re hesitant to have strangers read your updates, you can protect your profile by selecting approved followers and keep your updates out of search. There are spammers on Twitter and it is encouraged for you to block them, and every one on Twitter will thank you for that. It is good to know that Twitter Support keeps an eye on block reports to see who is getting in trouble on Twitter.

6. Miscellaneous Twitter trivia: Oprah is now on Twitter and it is said she is posting her own Twitters; Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitter user to have one million followers; Twitter users can gather, meet and socialize while raising money for charity; it has been said that if they hear the word ‘Twitter’ one more time they are going to go virtual postal and the same goes for Tweet, Tweetted, Twittering and Tweeter; Britney Spears and many of your favorite celebrities are active Twitter members; why is there a star at the end of updates?. The star is a way for you to mark an update as favorite.

7. As in any social setting there are certain common courtesies and Twittiquete one should keep in mind; and on Twitter it is no different, some people take the “What are you doing?” question a little too literal, and also fill the site with 20 updates a day. Learn the etiquette on Twitter and be a fun and interesting Twitterer and find out how much great information is out there and what your favorite followers are doing without being obnoxious.

8. Last but not least, Twitter is great for marketing and finding information that is useful for your personal empowerment and/or improvement, this can include building your business and the use of vision mapping to manifest the business you intend to improve and/or develop into what you want for it to be. Vision mapping is a great visualization tool to manifest your hearts desires and the tool to use for this is Vision Map Videos, it is said that if you watch your video once a day for 30 days you will see every area of your life and/or business being created the way you visualize it.

If you haven’t joined the Twitter micro-blogging world, now is the time to start, but do beware, it can be addictive.

Darlene has researched and practiced many spiritual and personal growth paths and now is presenting Vision Map Videos to further enlighten and enrich the life of others thru visual perceptions. These videos are personalized for the individual and/or business, they can be used from attracting abundance to advertising your new published book. Receive her free Inspiration For Daily Lives Newsletter. This is where you can see her most current Vision Map Video Spirited Boutique
Darlene Siddons

Technorati Tags: Mapping, Twitter, Useful, Vision

Here are 25 great Twitter Resources You Don’t Know, But Should Be Using!

1. TwitWall: Using TwitWall allows users to embed their favorite videos and widgets, upload your photos, mp3 music or podcasts. Just the kind of stuff to keep your followers following (fans cheering, or clients calling). If you can’t Tweet it in 140 characters or less, Twitwall is the resource for you.

2. TwtTrip:Where will you go next? Share your travel plans with your tweeple! Connect with others who may be travelling to the same city, or even in the same airport.

3. Bubble Tweet: Say “Hello” To Your Followers With A BubbleTweet Video! This nifty website allows you to greet followers with a short video clip that you upload. With millions of people using Twitter each day, this one is relatively unknown, with only about 633 people currently using the service.

4. Tweet3: Whether you’ve got one Twitter account or manage multiple accounts (friends, business, another language – the reasons are plentiful). You can easily click between profiles and customize colors for each account. Tweet3 is utilizing Google’s powerful charting and map APIs to bring you useful data about your Twitter accounts and URLs that you share between accounts.

5. TwTip: TwTip created a bot which fetches all new tweets and picks the best valuable tips for you. With its simple interface, users can easily find tweet tips in any subject, like Photoshop, Macintosh, health tips and recipe tips.

6. Twittrans: OK, I really couldn’t think of a good use for this Twitter resource at the time of creating this post, but this website is an actual fast human translation of your tweets directly from your twitter account by sending (Reply message) to @twitrans with the source and target languages and the message to translate. Text will be translated by freelance translators around the world, translation service 24/7 in all major languages. Wow, it doesn’t get any better than that. Now you just have to find a reason to use it!

7. TwtPoll: Twtpoll is an easy to use survey/ poll twitter app. Type in a 140 chars question, type in multiple choice answers, and share it in social networks, or embed it into your blog or website.

8. Tweetree: Tweetree puts your Twitter stream in a tree so you can see the posts people are replying to in context. In addition, the website pulls in some of your external content including twitpic photos, YouTube videos and more, so that you can see them right in your stream without having to click through every link your friends post to Twitter.

9. My Tweet Space: There are numerous websites available that can allow you to create a personalized background on Twitter. However, if you ever wanted to completely brand your Twitter Profile but don’t know how, MyTweetSpace allows you to easily create your branded Twitter background.

10. Twilert: As if you already didn’t get enough mail in your inbox, here’s another inbox filler, but this tool can email you valuable information about you or your company. Twilert is a Twitter application that lets you receive regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service, well any keyword you like really.

11. Split Tweet: Splitweet allows Twitter users to create a list of accounts and distribute their tweets, choosing their release in one or more of their accounts. Additionally, users can also follow your following tweets from all of your managed accounts in Splitweet.

12. Twistory: Users are able to add their Twitter backlog feed to their favorite calendar application and browser through their personal Twitter diary.

13. iTweet: iTweet 2 Web has a built-in auto-refresh, search and hashtags. Full follow, block, notifications features. With this app, users can view Tweeters bio, location, and URL inline with tweets.

14. Tweet Take: Tweetake allows you to back-up your followers, people you are following, favorite tweets, and tweets in general with just one click of your mouse.

15. Twitly: Twitly allows Twitter users to separate the people they follow into groups. Example groups include “chatty”, “friends”, “co-workers”, “journalists” , “celebrities”, and more. This makes finding and reading Tweets from the people that matter most to you much easier.

16. Tweenky: Tweenky is a web-based micro-blogging (“tweet”) client that currently supports Twitter. The Tweenky main feature is the Integration with Twitter search (formerly Summarize) to allow users to find & track content as it flows through the “Twitterverse”.

17. TwiZon: A combination between Twitter and Amazon, Twitzon lists all the tweets that reference Amazon deals so you can find out what’s popular and hot right now from Twitter users.

18.Twitzu: If you are making plans to have a meet up, get together or party, you can blast the news out to your Twitter followers. Twitzu creates an event standard for Twitter. Using the site, Twitterers can create an event page for their meet up, party, get together etc. and send it out to their followers who can then RSVP with just a click.

19. Feed Tweeter: Feedtweeter is a little service that allows you to link Twitter to your other activities. Basically it’s a system that keeps track of an RSS feed and processes any new items that appear.

20. Chirrup: is comment system which uses Twitter as a data store. People send Twitter replies to you about your site. Then, Chirrup fetches all of the replies from Twitter, and sorts them by URL so you can have a comment feed for each page in your site. You can put the comments wherever you want them, and style them however you please.

21. TwitterFone: TwitterFone is free service that lets you update your Twitter feed using your voice from any mobile or cell phone. You call it, speak your tweet, and hang up. A short while later, your tweet will be posted on Twitter.

22. My Tweet Map: Enter your Twitter name and password, and see the messages from those you follow pop up on a Google Map. You can also update your status right from this application.

23. Tweet Scan: Tweet Scan is a real-time search engine for Twitter posts. Just enter the term plus a user name (optional), and the system will scan Twitter to show you the results.

24. Twitdir: TwitDir enables you to find statistics of the Top 100 followers, Top 100 followed, Top 100 favoriters and Top 100 updaters. It also works as a search engine for Twitter users, which mean you can find any user information by searching the users name.

25. TwootBall: Where Twitter Meets NFL Football . Posting on Twootball is simple, to post something regarding the New York Jets, just add #jets to your tweet, and your message will appear immediately on Twootball. I guess this would have been a great resource during the Super Bowl, for all those trash talkers! Go Steelers!

Of course, there are a lot more Twitter resources out there, some may even be your favorite, but this list of unknowns should have you dancing for joy and thanking God you are on Twitter.

And now we invite you to find out more about the Twitter social network by visiting our blog at [http://www.thefreelancesquad.com/blog] and by following us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/freelancesquad.

Technorati Tags: Resources, should, Twitter, using

In this article you will learn:

o What is Twitter?

o What is micro-blogging?

o Why is it so successful?

o How to use Twitter to double your income in minutes a day

o The really important DO’s of Twitter

o The even more important DON’Ts of Twitter.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is the world’s preeminent “micro-blogging” social networking website. It was launched in March 2006. Even though it is so new, it has skyrocketed to dominance and is considered by many to be equal in importance to Facebook!

It is a social networking platform in which people invite you to follow them. Here’s an example. Let’s say a friend of yours, Albert, invites you, Bill, to follow him on Twitter. You may accept him (by clicking on the ACCEPT button) or you may reject that offer (by clicking on the BLOCK button).

You might block:

o People you do not know

o People you do not like

o People whose culture or morals do not fit with yours (like blocking porn stars)

Even if you accept someone, you could later block that person if, for example, you realize that they just want to sell and are not on Twitter for the true social networking ideals.

In this example, let’s say that Bill accepts Albert’s invitation. Now, Albert has one Follower (or one more Follower) and Bill now is Following Albert. Bill is now in the Twitter system and can invite Carol to follow him. You get onto Twitter by invitation because you must follow someone. In this way, a community is built. Albert has his community of those he follows and those who follow him. And, it is the same for Bill, and for Carol, and for the millions who are on this platform.

Twitter Popularized The “Micro-Blog”

Emails can be as long as you wish, with attachments as huge as you wish. Blog posts can be as long as you wish. Articles are limited to a maximum of about 1,500 words. But, comments posted on Twitter are limited to 140 characters – even including spaces!

In this era of speed in which no one seems to have any time, Twitter popularized updating your friends and sending text-based Direct Messages (called DMs) using only 140 characters. Here’s one I just posted today:

“I’m sitting in my hotel room in Gold Coast Australia writing an ezine article on Twitter.”

That’s 89 characters including spaces and punctuation. I could stop there, or add more. How do I know it’s 89? Because Twitter automatically counts down for me and displays that I had 51 characters to go. So, I kept going.

“I’m sitting in my hotel room in Gold Coast Australia writing an ezine article on Twitter. Though I live in Canada, I’m here giving a speech for World Internet Summit.”

Now I am at 167 characters. But, I’m allowed only 140. Twitter’s counter (now red) shows me at -27. That means I need to eliminate at least 27 characters. I realize that the comment “Though I live in Canada” is not too important because my Twitter followers likely know that. So here is my next attempt:

“I’m sitting in my hotel room in Gold Coast Australia writing an ezine article on Twitter. I’m here giving a speech for World Internet Summit.”

That brings me down to -3. I’m almost there. So, I delete one of the spaces between my two sentences. I’m at -2. Then, I delete the entire word “sitting” and I’m done. I hit the UPDATE button and my dozens or thousands of Twitter Followers know what’s up in my life. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s free.

Why Is Twitter So Successful?

Twitter’s success is based on two principles important to social networking:

o Firstly, it is really easy to use and understand.

o Secondly, it takes only seconds to post or to read a micro-blog.

How You Can Double Your Income Using Twitter

You simply increase your number of Twitter Followers, build a relationship with them, then offer them something that they may well like.

Tweets (that is, messages sent to Followers on Twitter) are more eagerly read than mass-emails. So, there is a greater connection and a greater opportunity to monetize your list of Twitter Followers.

The Number One Key then is to dramatically increase your Twitter Followership.

The Steps to Increasing your Twitter Followership

Here are the steps to getting your list started…

o Open a Twitter account and post a photo as that is part of the fun of Twitter.

o Ask someone, by email or phone, to invite you or accept a Twitter invitation that arrives.

o Using Twitter’s search function, find friends of yours and invite them.

o Next, decide the type of Twitter Followers you would like to attract. Let me use an example. If you love scented candles (or wish to sell scented candles online through Twitter), then search for “candle” or “candles” or “scented candles” or “fragrance” or “relax” or whatever other key words you feel would find you the type of friend (or customer) you want.

o Each search will return to you a list of Twitter members. Read down the list and click the FOLLOW button for those whom you feel resonate with you. It’s totally your choice.

o Keep doing this and two things will happen.

o Firstly, you will be following lots of people.

o Secondly, some of them will eagerly follow you back.

o Thirdly, you will begin getting Tweets which you need to answer.

You are now beginning to have fun on Twitter. Congratulations. People will send you Tweets or DMs (Direct Messages). You need to reply. And, you need to initiate micro-blogs like the one I constructed earlier in this article.

Soon you will follow 2,000 other Twitterers. At this point, you may well have several hundred Followers. The difference is too large and Twitter will prevent you from following any more. With each day, more people will find and follow you so your ratio will improve. To follow more than 2,000 others on Twitter, you must keep your number of followers within about 10% of the number you follow. When you follow 2,000, you will need to wait till 1,800 follow you. But, there is a short-cut. Read on to the Second DO below.

Here Are the All-Important Twitter DO’s

The very first DO is: use your real name “Mary McGregor” so that others can find you. You may also use a nickname. I don’t.

The second DO has to do with speeding the process of getting more followers. Simply wait for several days after following someone and then delete them if they do not follow you back. How do you know? Just look at the list of those you follow. If you see a “DM” or “Direct Message” button, then they are following you. If it is blank, then they have not followed you. You may wish to go through that entire list and purge (or delete) anyone who has not followed you. Now, your ratio is in balance and you can go out inviting more and getting more followers.

The third DO is about keeping in touch. Each day, send a micro-blog of anything that is on your mind, a fun website you’ve found, etc.

The fourth DO is to reply to DMs sent to you.

The fifth DO (and you must wait till you have earned a relationship) is to offer something for sale, but in a conversational way. Here’s an example…

“WOW, I just found the world’s funniest video. I laughed like crazy. Check it out on my blog http://www.MyBlog.com.”

That just fits within the 140-character ceiling. If you’ve built good relationships and if the video is really funny and if the video is about scented candles in some way and if there is a compelling offer to buy scented candles on your blog website, then you will begin getting sales!

And the final DO is about publicizing your Twitter membership. Put on your business card and in your email signature and everywhere: “Follow me on Twitter.com/yourname”

And, Now For the Even More Important DON’Ts

Firstly, DON’T begin selling too soon.

Secondly, DON’T make your sell obvious. Make it conversational.

Thirdly, DON’T ignore DMs. They are what creates the social networking.

DON’T lose interest. Once you have created this network, you need to mother it to nurture it.

And, The Final Point…

Have fun. It’s easy. It’s fast. It really works.

And, you can get much more on Raymond’s proven success system in his bestselling hardcover book DOUBLE YOUR INCOME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE. Claim yours right now at http://GetMyBookForFree.com.

Technorati Tags: Making, Minutes, money, Quick, Twitter

Many companies don’t know how to sell their products on Twitter. Other companies don’t even try since the Twitter experience just doesn’t make sense to them. But, it is not difficult to use Twitter to sell your products and services.

Selling on Twitter is similar to online dating. How does online dating work?

You post your profile and search out the profiles of the men or women you want to date.

You select the people who look or sound attractive, and email a message. But, that message is not “let’s hook up tonight.” It is a friendly message, and an introduction that may get you a response.

The same is true on Twitter. Twitter is a social meeting place. You can’t just set up a profile and start sending tweets (what the messages are called on Twitter) to “hook up and buy my stuff.” Yes, you need to show some restraint.

Here Is My Best Practices For Selling On Twitter

Step 1. Set up a blog

When you are planning to date, at some point your date is going to want to see where you live. It’s your home. It reflects on who you are as a person. You don’t take a date to your office–your cube is not that impressive.

Your blog is your online home. People who are interested in you on Twitter will want to see your blog, and not your company website. A website is a place of business. Twitter is social. A blog is social.

On Twitter, you invite followers into your online home or blog and then if things go well, they can buy from you at your blog or at your website.

Step 2. Show up

You have to show up. Simply, that means you have to make a profile on Twitter. Use your name or part of your name with your company name. The name is important. Don’t use a stupid name that means nothing or is too clever. A personal name is better than a business name. Twitter is social (yeah, I’m repeating myself).

Describe who are you and what do you do. Post a photo of yourself. No stupid photos. No avatars. Be real.

Your Twitter profile needs to link to your blog not your website. See step 1.

Now, check to make sure your profile fits and looks interesting. Sometimes you will find that it is too long or too short or you’ll find a few typos. Fix them.

Remember this about your profile: Your mother may or may not be on Twitter. But, one day, your boss will be on Twitter.

Step 3. Make connections by adding value

One great thing about Twitter is that when you tweet one person, that message is potentially being viewed by all your followers. Everyone on Twitter is a peeping Tom or peeping Mary. In many ways, Twitter is a voyeur’s paradise.

By adding value for one of your followers, you will get credit from everyone as being social and a good citizen on Twitter.

Now, to add value on Twitter you MUST do the following:

a. Post new content on your blog–regularly. Ideally, every day. This is only a hardship if you are not passionate and committed in your area of expertise.

b. Tweet about your new blog post and link it to your post. This lets your followers know you are going to add value.

c. Tweet people to help them in your area of “blog” expertise. This lets your followers know that you can help them.

d. Tweet people to help them in other areas that interest you. This lets people know you can be trusted. Everyone on Twitter knows that many people are trying to sell something on Twitter, and that is not an issue. It is an issue only if you are using Twitter just to sell. An analogy: Making friends only with people who can help you get what you want in life.

e. Tweet people just to be social, friendly and just be you. Twitter is a friendly, social meeting place.

Overall, follow a through e, and you are inviting people to come to your blog. The more you participate, the more people will be following you and the more people will be checking out your blog. Add Google analytics to your blog and you can see how many visitors you are getting daily by using Twitter.

Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.

You’ve made a connection. You’ve added value. People are visiting your blog. Now that they are in your home, where are you going to take this person?

When you tweet about a new blog entry, it is like a fortuitous meeting of a new neighbor. There’s not a lot of time for conversation. So you invite them to come by for coffee or tea. And when they come by, you take them into your kitchen. It’s a friendly, informal place. You don’t take them into your living room.

When you tweet about a new blog post, or tweet to help someone about an issue, you link them to a specific blog post URL. Do not link into your general blog URL. That blog post is tailored to add value for your followers and/or to help one follower. A specific blog post URL is friendly.

Now, if that person likes what that post says, and trusts you, you have created a relationship using Twitter. This person is now ready to see the rest of your online home and read your other blog posts.

Having a connection turn into a relationship can happen the first time that person views your post, or it may happen after a few more visits.

Fortunately, unlike dating, you CAN rush a Twitter relationship. Keep participating, keep tweeting and keep adding value. Maybe even consider a special promotion for your Twitter followers.

Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens. (apologies to the NBA)

Your blog should be set up so every time someone visits, they know where to go for more information or to buy. Sales happen at different times, but they do happen. A sale can take place on your blog or on your website. Just make sure that if you need to take visitors to your website for more info or to sell, to have that link visible and easy to find on your blog.

Summary

Twitter is a great meeting place where you can sell your products and services. To make a sale:

Step 1. Set up a blog

Step 2. Show up

Step 3. Make connections by adding value

Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.

Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens

Are you using Twitter the right way?

To get a Free e-pamphlet on “Twitter for Business: 101 Questions” please visit About Twitter.

Hi! My name is Mitchell Cogert. I am an experienced marketing consultant that helps companies use Twitter to meet their business objectives. I have worked with top marketing directors for over 25 years, and I know that a sensible approach is needed to social media and Twitter. I have spent the past year testing many tactics on Twitter, and I know that almost every business can use Twitter effectively and manage it without a lot of time invested (saving you money).

If you need to find out how to use Twitter the right way, please contact me on Twitter at twit_streams or by email at mcogert@twit-streams.com

For the latest news on how to use the power of Twitter for your business, go to Twitter For Business.

Technorati Tags: business, Products, Services, Twitter

1. Twitoria – This is an application that will allow you to sort through your followers and know which ones are not active anymore. With this application, you can delete inactive users and keep your network updated.

2. Monitter – This Twitter application that tells you what Twitter users are saying about you and your business in a specific area. You will have to put in what keywords you would like to associate to your profile and the area you would like to monitor.

3. Twitter Toolbar – A simple toolbar that gives you easy access to Twitter and its tools. You can also view your stats, your friends’ updates and post yours as well. Different versions are available for both Firefox and IE.

4. StockTwits – This is one of the best Twitter applications for businesses that are into stocks. You can get into a conversation with investors and traders and even follow the market real time. You get recent news about the stock exchange and comments about your own portfolio.

5. HelloTxt – With this application you can update and check your accounts in over 35 different social networking sites including Twitter. This is a great tool for multitasking.

6. Tweepler - Having problems managing your followers? Tweepler will enable you to sort your incoming requests-to-follow. In one screen, you can view the requesting user’s statistics (followers, following, number of tweets) and the last three tweets he or she sent. This will allow you to identify if the profile is legit or just spam. It will also save you the confusion of visiting each user’s page.

7. Bubble Tweet – Say you want to introduce yourself in a short video and you want it to be one of the first things that a visitor will see. Putting your video on the website link provided in your profile may not be ubiquitous enough and of course it will eventually bump off your screen page if you put the link on a tweet. Bubble Tweet will solve that problem by posting your welcome video on a bubble shaped layer that will pop up when a visitor lands on your page. This is probably one of the best twitter apps for video.

8. Twitter Gallery – This Twitter application will allow you to jazz up your profile with different background themes that you can choose from.

9. Twitterfox – If you’re using Mozilla Firefox, this add-on will be a great way to get updates from Twitter. You can also post tweets using this application. Upon installation, a small Twitter icon will be added to the bottom right of your status bar. You have to log in with your details and start receiving tweets from there. No need to refresh or to visit the site directly. It will pop up recent tweets from followers as soon as they come in.

10. Future Tweets – This is one of the best Twitter apps for people who have uncertain schedules. Say you’re not sure if you can log in tomorrow because of a meeting. You can use Future Tweets to pre-schedule a tweet to be released at a certain time and date. You can also make recurring tweets that can be posted daily, monthly or yearly.

11. Twitter Counter – This Twitter application will give you a code for a badge displaying your Twitter account and the number of followers you have. You can post the code on your website to encourage customers to check you out on Twitter.

12. Group Tweet – This works like an email group where pre-approved users of a certain company can access updates that only they can view.

13. TwitPic – This is one of the more popular and best Twitter apps available. It works like a simple picture hosting site that can automatically post a link of the picture you uploaded into your Twitter profile. This is a great way of showing people updates of your company or a new product that you are launching.

14. twtQpon – No customer will resist a freebie. twtQpon is a Twitter application that can create unique coupons for the services or products that you are selling. You can use this application to share the coupons to those following you on Twitter.

15. Tweetbeep – If you want to be in the know about what people are saying about you, Tweetbeep is your bestfriend. It tracks down Twitter conversations that mention your name or your business. You can get the stats via email.

16. Tweetburner – This is another Twitter application used to monitor your account. It tracks your tweets and automatically shortens the links you post and keeps a log of the number of clicks that your tweets get.

17. Twitter Safe – Keep your network of followers safe by creating a backup in case something goes wrong with your list. This is a Twitter application that protects the hard work you’ve spent building relationships with your followers.

18. Splitweet – One of the best Twitter apps for people keeping both an account for business and a personal one. You can manage and update different Twitter accounts from one screen. You can also update your accounts using this application.

19. Twimailer – If you feel that the usual email that Twitter sends does not give enough information about new followers, Twimailer can change that. The notifications sent to you by Twimailer includes not only the follower-following-tweets combo, it also give you their stats and their most recent tweets. You can also follow that person back right on the notification, without having to visit the Twitter page.

20. Twitxr – Enjoy mobility with this Twitter application. You can send real time pictures from a company event or a product launching straight from your mobile phone.

21. Track This – A business that uses a lot of couriers and transfer services will definitely get a lot of help from this Twitter application. This will help you track down packages you sent through UPS, USPS, DHL and even FedEx. Updates are sent by direct message so you know exactly where your package is.

22. CoTweet – Managing your Twitter account does not have to be done by one person alone. With CoTweet, other employees from your company can contribute to the account. Each person can send tweets with their names on them. Great way to show some kind of openness and personality for your company.

23. Tweet Later – This Twitter application is a cocktail of tools that can improve your productivity. You can monitor keywords, mentions, replies, future date tweets and reply to followers.

24. HootSuite – This is one of the best Twitter apps for productivity. You can pre-date your tweets, add multiple profiles and update them across the board.

25. TwitterHawk – You can use this to effectively market your product. This application can automatically send a response to those who mention your pre-defined keywords in an area that you specify.

Find out the hottest marketing strategies and techniques free of charge at his Online Marketing Blog. Brian Horwitz is part of an elite group of Internet Entrepreneurs who teach proven ways to make money online with pay per click, SEO, Article Marketing and much more.

Technorati Tags: Applications, business, Twitter

One of the best metaphors for Twitter is that it’s a bar. Unlike Facebook where you know interact with ‘friends’, on Twitter you can engage with almost anyone. There are millions of simultaneous conversations happening on thousands of topics. It can be overwhelming. It can also be enlightening.

The open nature of Twitter is what makes it so compelling as a potential tool for business. However, businesses that think they can create an account and start marketing on Twitter (or: spewing sales pitches) are in for a rude awakening. Not only will that strategy fail, the Twitter community could turn on the company and create a public relations nightmare for the business.

Marketing isn’t about pushing products. It’s about understanding market needs, analyzing competition, identifying the positioning ‘sweet spot’, building awareness and credibility, developing and supporting a community of loyal customers and more. Twitter can be used for any or all of these marketing objectives. In fact, one of Twitter’s unique strengths is its ‘discovery’ capabilities.

What do you want to accomplish? What are your goals and how will you know that you’re successful or going the right direction? You can start Rule #2 before having these fully completed, but you need to have your Twitter objectives nailed down before you start tweeting.

Rule #2: Listen First

Remember how we said Twitter is like a bar? How would people react if you walked into a bar (or coffee shop or other public place for socializing) and you started shouting about whatever was on your mind? Best case they’d ignore you. More likely, you’d be thrown out – and maybe never allowed back.

The same applies on Twitter. Don’t spam. Relevance is essential. The Twitter community is judge and jury. It can be difficult to recover from a bad reputation so it’s best not to get one in the first place.

If you’re just getting started on Twitter, be sure to listen (read) for a while before you start posting or replying. There’s nothing wrong with being a voyeur. Even if you’re already on Twitter, take a step back and just listen once in a while. Do it on a fairly regular basis. Twitter is evolving quickly.

So what are you ‘listening’ for?

- What are the hot topics, most popular links from tweets, or most popular users?

- What are the types of tweets that get re-tweeted most?

- What are the users in your industry or target audience tweeting about?

Rule #3: Find Your Voice

When you were listening in the previous rule, you certainly noticed many different styles of tweets. If you didn’t, you should go back and listen harder.

While there is no right or wrong answer for what your Twitter style or voice should be, there are definitely considerations to make before you start tweeting. You need to make sure that your voice is appropriate for the objectives that you are trying to achieve and the image that you want to portray. You should document the characteristics of your chosen voice and why they are important – this is especially useful if you will have more than one person tweeting for your organization or if you plan to hire ghost writers.

So what are the characteristics that you need to consider? One way to think about the characteristics of your Twitter voice is to map out several vectors with different extremes on each end then decide where your ideal position would be on each vector. For example, do you want your Twitter stream to be fully automated or fully manual? Professional or casual? It’s unlikely that you’ll be at either extreme, but the vector will allow you to easily visualize your voice.

Rule #4: Look Alive

Creating an account on Twitter and leaving the default profile photo and background is a sure-fire way to show Twitter users that you’re not serious about Twitter or the Twitter community as a whole. There is no excuse for not investing in the small effort that it takes to create a rich profile page and profile photo.

Have a designer create something that integrates well with the Twitter profile page. The Whole Foods and Zappos examples below should give you some ideas. Look at your competitors and do something better! If you don’t have the skills in-house, there are plenty of freelance designers that can create something totally custom without spending much. Of course you’ll want to complete the profile information and include a URL – consider a specific landing page on your website.

There are several couple schools of thought on profile photos. For businesses, more and more logos are showing up. In our opinion, logos are not in the right spirit. Twitter provides a unique way for businesses to deliver a human touch. Our recommendation is to use a good quality, properly formatted photo if you can. There are many articles on the topic. Do a quick search to get more information and suggestions.

Now you’re ready to promote your presence on Twitter. Promote your Twitter user name on your website, in email signatures, direct mail pieces, business cards, etc. If you are tweeting regularly, consider displaying them on your website or blog. There are plenty of tools that make it easy.

Rule #5: Grow Your Flock

Several strategies exist to help grow your flock on Twitter. Some are a bit controversial. We’ll save those for later. Hopefully we don’t need to explain the benefits of having a lot of followers. The real question is, “Are you attracting the followers you need to get to your goals?”

Rule #4 covered the first step. Letting your existing customers and partners know how to find you on Twitter will get you some followers. The second strategy is to follow companies and individuals within your industry and/or region. Some will follow you in return. But there are other benefits.

Many tools look at the relationships between users (who’s following whom) and make recommendations based on that information. As a result, following users with certain characteristics can actually help you attract followers. Genuine engagement (Rule #6) is also key to gain followers and builds off of the users you follow. Another totally acceptable way to gain followers is to follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things related to your business, see who she follows, and follow her.

Auto-following users based on them following you or using third-party tools (some listed below) is where you start to get into a gray area. Tools are already starting to show up that look at the ratio of followers to friends for ranking and other purposes. It’s probably not a good idea to get your ratio completely out of whack. “Follow many but don’t auto-follow everyone” is probably the best approach.

Rule #6: Engage Genuinely

Look before you leap when it comes to Twitter. You are embarking on a journey. It can’t be viewed as a one-time event. You have to nurture and support your efforts. If your initial level of activity begins to wane, your followers will notice and will feel a sense of abandonment. Start with a comfortable, sustainable level of engagement. Engagement on Twitter is like the inverse of product pricing – it’s easy to drop prices and easy to increase Twitter engagement, but doing the reverse is exponentially more difficult.

To get started, use search.twitter.com or another Twitter search method to see who is talking about you, your brand or a keyword related to your industry. Read up and then engage when you have something informative to say. If you are looking for your user name you can only see your replies in Twitter if someone starts a tweet with ‘@(your twitter name)’ but sometimes people will put @yourname in the middle of their tweet. By searching “to:yourname” it will find any tweets that included your user name.

Using common sense combined with Rules 1-5, you should be in pretty good shape. The more time you spend on Twitter, the more efficient and effective you’ll get. Below are some tips gathered from various Twitter users around the web on how to optimize your Twitter time and avoid potential Twitter landmines:

- Clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter and make you more efficient.

- Understand and use direct messages (DM) (private), replies (public) and re-tweets (RT) correctly.

- You don’t have to read every tweet or reply to every DM, but don’t ignore them all either.

- Use URL shortening tools like TinyURL, tr.im and others for cleaner tweets and more characters for you.

- Comment on others’ tweets and re-tweet what others have posted to build your place in the community.

Rule #7: Track Your Results

Once you have everything in motion, you’ll want to keep an eye on things to track your progress and to determine whether it makes sense to spend more (or less) time on Twitter. You can easily go overboard with measurements. Here are our recommendations on the ‘must haves’ and the ‘nice to haves’.

In Rule #1 you set your Twitter objectives. What do you need to measure to make sure you’re headed in the right direction? These are your key performance indicators or KPIs. Once you know what your KPIs are, you’ll be able to figure out what tools you need.

For example, if your goal is to get visitors to your website and to sell a product, you’ll want to know how many visitors are coming to the site from Twitter, how many of those visitors buy your product and how your conversion rate compares to visitors from other sources. Web analytics tools from Yahoo, Google and others (see Resources below) can get this information for you. Obviously this is simplified. You’ll likely have multiple goals and more KPIs for each goal, but it’s important to understand what metrics you really need and why they are important – what do they tell you and how can you use that information? You’ll need to track your KPIs on a regular basis and use them to make adjustments to your strategy as needed.

Conclusion

Twitter is changing the way people communicate and search for information and it hasn’t even scratched the surface in terms of its potential reach and influence.

Twitter can be used for fast, effective and inexpensive research, customer support, public relations, lead generation and more – but your efforts will almost certainly backfire if you don’t follow the explicit and unspoken policies in this vibrant and rapidly growing community.

Whether you are self-employed, a small business owner, a multi-national corporation or a government agency – a high-tech company, a manufacturer or a coffee shop, Twitter provides huge opportunities and risks.

Tweamr provides the research and tools to help maximize the opportunities and minimize the risks. An expanded version of this article is available as a free download from Tweamr.com. The expanded version includes additional examples, links to tools and checklists for each rule that businesses can use to quickly and effectively implement a Twitter marketing strategy.

Aaron is a senior technology manager in the Silicon Valley and, in his free time, manages a blog on Twitter marketing, Tweamr.com.

Founded by two senior Silicon Valley technology marketing and engineering managers, Tweamr’s mission is to help organizations of any size harness the massive potential of Twitter to achieve their goals through research and by delivering information and tools.

We recognized the disruptive impact that Twitter was having on communications and we know that it will become a standard component of marketing plans for companies of any size in every industry, globally.

Technorati Tags: Essential, Marketing, Rules, Twitter

Twitter is simple to use and this is what made it so popular. Twitter is fashionable right now, so enjoy the moment. Even the creators of Twitter admit that as with MySpace and other Web 2.0 sensations, Twitter will inevitably go out of fashion some day, so hurry up and get some traffic for free now, when it is still all the rage of the season.

Twitter is simple to use, yet it is really powerful. You might need a couple of hours to get familiar with the basic functionality of Twitter and of some of the extras it has but you can harness its power, even if you don’t know it very well.

Unlike most of the other places you can get traffic for free, Twitter is a micro blogging platform, which means that there are restrictions on the number of characters in a message. Therefore, you need to be concise in your Tweets and use your space wisely. In addition to being concise, here are some more tips to help you get traffic from Twitter:

Twitter profile

Your profile and your username are the first two things your visitors will see when they go to your Twitter page. If your profile looks boring, people won’t bother to read your tweets, not to mention visit the links you post in them. You can’t write a very long bio of yours, but you can enter a few words about you – i.e. your occupation, your interests, etc. You can also include a couple of keywords in your bio.

Username

Your username is also very important. You need to pick a username that is targeted at your niche. For instance, if you are promoting your SEO services and want to drive traffic to your SEO site, you can choose something like SEOmaster, SEOguru, SEO services, etc. Your username will show in searches other users make and this is why you must pay attention to what you choose.

Your URL Or Blog in Profile

According to some statistics, 80% of tweeters don’t provide an URL in their bio! Well, maybe these people are not SEO experts/Internet marketers and they don’t need this traffic but you as a SEO expert can’t afford to miss it. So, don’t forget to include your URL in your profile!

Send the link to your profile to your friends

Your friends will be your most loyal audience, so if they don’t know about your Twitter page, make them aware of what they are missing. If you have their emails, or know their accounts on other networks, you can send a mass invite.

Search for Twitter users with similar interests

You might have millions of friends, but more followers are always welcome. That is why you can use the search functions on Twitter and find people with similar interests. Find as many as you can and invite the mall. These people might not be as loyal as your friends, coworkers, and acquaintances but still you will get hits from them as well. Some Twitter users report that about 1-2% of their followers visit their site a day, which means that if you have 1,000 followers, you might expect to get at least 10 or 20visits a day to your site. This response rate might seem low but there are ways to increase it.

Socialize on Twitter as much as you can

When you are active in Twitter, respond to the posts of your followers and visit their links, this seriously increases your chances that you will get the same in return. In a word, actively follow those that follow you.

Tweet regularly

As with all other kinds of media, if you want to keep your audience, you need to feed it regularly. Writing a short tweet takes just seconds, but it is enough in order to keep your followers happy. It goes without saying, that you should tweet about useful things, so if you don’t have something meaningful to post about you or your sites, it is quite OK to post a link to an article, a video, a blog, etc. you found on the Net and you like.

Don’t spam

You might feel that every single user on Twitter is interested in you and your blog/site but this is not exactly so. You might be tempted to make as many users as you can aware of your Twitter page and your latest tweets but you’d better refrain from doing this, unless you want to see if you can get a ban or not.

Take advantage of Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed is one more useful service you can take advantage of in order to increase your reach. Go to twitterfeed.com and configure your feeds.

Make Twitter Search love you

Twitter has a great search function and its main advantage is that it offers real-time results. Google might be fast in indexing pages but its indexing is not real-time. Users are hungry for hot news and nothing beats a real-time search. Many bloggers report that they are getting more traffic from Twitter than from Google and partially this is due to the fact that their tweets are popular and users find them with ease.

Add Twitter gadgets to your site

There are tons of Twitter gadgets and new ones are being released every day. The cool thing about Twitter gadgets is that your blog visitors can become your Twitter followers. If your Twitter followers have many followers, chances are that some of these followers will notice you and will join your network. As we already mentioned, building a large and targeted network is key to getting more Twitter traffic to your site.

These are some of the main ways in which you can get traffic from Twitter.

If you are creative and if you monitor what’s going on Twitter and what new Twitter gadgets are released, you will certainly find more ways to drive traffic from Twitter to your site.

Hi I am Atul Vhale, I am working in SEO company named Syscon Software Technology & Solution. My very first experience in this company where I learned lots of things about SEO. Now I am one of who have good knowledge and understanding of how to optimize a website. In this blog I have tried to show some extra things in SEO. My blog most relates to 2010 plan for SEO. You can contact me on webs.freshseo@gmail.com

Technorati Tags: Backlinks, Generating, Tricks, Twitter

Twitter in some way levels the playing field as everyone has just about the same options to follow when it comes to getting a popularity status. The trick is how to adapt and use these techniques to raise your profile and win the game. I’m currently on the same journey as many of you and while writing this am learning the ins and outs of the Social Networking Platform that is fast becoming the most popular social networking tool

Hot Tips for the Tweeple Generation

Tweetdeck

Easy, download Tweetdeck from tweetdeck.com. The first thing you will probably notice is that you will need to change the settings as the default is white text on a black screen. Makes it hard to read I’ve found, but each to their own. Tweetdeck is brilliant in that it displays the Tweetstream, your replies and your direct messages all on the one screen. The message columns allow for 500 tweets as a default, so scrolling down allows you to go back a fair way or search for tweets you may want to refer back to. The screen has a continuous right hand scroll, so you can set up different groups and their tweets will appear in that column. You might have a group called best friends and another for gardeners for instance. That way you don’t miss important tweets from people who are more important to you than others. At the time of writing, Tweetdeck is probably the most widely used application for Twitter and I would highly recommend it to you.

Twellow

Twellow, at twellow.com is another great way of finding people to interact with. People here are categorized into all different areas and you can search for those with similar interests to your own. The main page shows you all the categories, which then have sub categories as well. You just click on a category and the list of people in that area are displayed. You don’t have to be registered with Twellow to be displayed, but at the time of writing there were nearly two million people showing on the site, so you will have plenty to choose from. By all means though, register yourself and set up a profile so others can find you.

When you click on a category, Twellow displays a list of people in that category and they are ordered by the number of followers they have. If you are already logged into Twitter via the web, (not Tweetdeck), you will be able to follow people directly from the screens where the profiles are displayed.

Mr Tweet

Mr Tweet at mrtweet.net is another way of gaining new followers. All you have to do is follow Mr Tweet on Twitter and your tweets will be monitored for content and then you will get a Direct Message from him. You then go to the site and login and you will get a list of suggested people. You will also get a list of people who are following you that you aren’t following so you can then follow them if you choose. It’s a really nifty little site and worth registering at.

Grader

Grader is on Twitter as @grader, but also online at twitter.grader.com/ and is a site of some interest. As you get going on Twitter, you can get ranked by Grader on a score out of 100. It is based on some secret algorithm apparently so people can’t game the system. Apart from that aspect of Grader, you can have a look at who the top Tweeple are in a particular area or even by topic using the search function.

When you use the search function, it will list the Tweeple by their score in descending order. For example, if you search for ‘gardening’ on Grader, you will get a list of all the top 100 people interested in gardening on Twitter. You can see their bio from their Twitter account and if you click on their Grader score, it will take you to their Twitter account from where you can follow them. Naturally, you must already be logged in to Twitter yourself to follow anyone.

Twitter Backgrounds

Now if you’re a bit of a Photoshop whiz, then you can do your own background, full of bells and whistles and load it up to your Twitter profile. But if you’re not, or you just want to save time, then there are some sites out there that will do them for you automatically. To find these sites, the best thing to do is to simply Google ‘twitter backgrounds and you will find quite a few sites offering this service for free. My personal favourite is Twitbacs at twitbacks.com where you can get some great backgrounds. However, that said, if you want to do your own fiddling in Photoshop, you can get some great layouts in PSD format from twitterbacks.com

SocialToo

SocialToo at socialtoo.com is a useful automated tool for Twitter. At Social Too, you can set your account up to do some autopilot things for you. First of all, you can set SocialToo up to automatically follow everyone who follows you. This can take the drudgery out of checking all your new followers and then going and adding them to your own list in order to reciprocate.

You can also set up SocialToo to send an automatic Direct Message to people who follow you. Be careful about this as there is a little bit of a backlash which largely been caused because many newbies and some old hands too, are setting up an auto Direct Message that basically said, Hello, and thanks for following me. Now go and visit my sales page at [http://.....]. I’m sure you get the picture.

I can’t think of any worse way to start a relationship with a new follower on Twitter. In any sort of business, you build relationships before you try and sell someone something and this is even more relevant in the social media space. Just be sensible in your dealings with people and treat them how you like to be treated! SocialToo will also provide you with an email every day of all your new followers and those that have unfollowed you as well.

Another function of SocialToo is that it will automatically unfollow anyone who unfollows you. Personally I don’t think this is a bad thing. If people aren’t interested in you any longer, then are you really interested in them? If you really want to keep the updates from someone, just go and follow them back when you see their name on your unfollows email each day.

TweetLater

Tweetlater at tweetlater.com is a fantastic tool to use with Twitter. It allows you to schedule tweets for various times of the day. So how can this be of use to you? Well you need to remember that the Twitter audience is constantly changing and the tweetstream occurs quite fast. The more people someone follows, the greater the number of tweets appearing and they won’t read them all, I promise you. It just isn’t possible. By using Tweetlater, you have a much greater chance of catching people’s attention throughout the day and in different time zones.

Let’s say you have written a post on your blog and you want to drive some traffic there. Rather than tweeting the link and subject once, you can do it every hour for 24 hours if you like using Tweetlater. I’m sure you can see the power of this in terms of driving traffic or getting noticed. There is a free and a professional version of Tweetlater. Start out with the free version and then if you need it, upgrade to the professional version when you are ready.

Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed at twitterfeed.com is also a very handy tool. It is far more secure to log into than the other sites I have mentioned as it uses Open ID which is a bit of a pain. However, it is worth persisting with in the absence of an alternative tool.

What Twitterfeed does is that you can set up your blog to feed directly via RSS to your Twitter account. So every time you make a blog post, it gets tweeted automatically on your behalf. You can use this in conjunction with Tweetlater with the first post coming through Twitterfeed and then subsequent ones at times you specify via Tweetlater.

SplitTweet

SplitTweet at splitweet.com is a great tool if you have a number of accounts on Twitter. Rather than switching between them from time to time in order to Tweet, you can set an account up here for free and bring all of your accounts under the one roof. Splitweet will display the Twitter feed from all your accounts at once, or you can turn individual accounts off and on. When actually tweeting, you can pick an account to tweet to, or you can do a broadcast message across all your accounts at once. Some very flash technology this and very useful for handling multiple accounts.

Twitdom

Twitdom at twitdom.com would have to be the greatest site relating to Twitter. It is a repository for all Twitter related applications and it is just absolutely amazing what there is in there. At the time of writing, Twitdom had nearly 500 Twitter related applications in its database. Quite amazing when you think about it that there has been so many third party applications written and is a pretty powerful indication as to the value of Twitter. It also indicates the confidence of the market in that Twitter will become very much the mainstream.

Friendfeed

Friendfeed at friendfeed.com is an automating tool you can use in conjunction with Twitter. Friendfeed is a bit of a hub if you like where you can set up links to all your other accounts. Friendfeed collects information from those accounts and publishes it in your Friendfeed feed.

Although Friendfeed is a topic almost in itself, I mention it here particularly because of its ability to link your Twitter and Facebook accounts among others. If you have a Facebook account and you link it and your Twitter accounts in Friendfeed, then what will happen is that all your posts in Twitter will be posted on your wall at Facebook. It means you are running two social media accounts via one and saves you time.

You’re Twitter Karma

Your Twitter Karma at dossy.org/twitter/karma/ is a really useful site for having a look at your followers and who you are following. It’s great for managing your account from a followers/following perspective. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to load a fair few times and can be unreliable, but when it is working it’s great. It shows you all you all the people you are following and all those that are following you. Underneath each avatar it tells you if you are following them and if they are following you.

You can also sort by people that you are following who aren’t following you back. This is great for management as you can decide whether or not to unfollow them. By checking the boxes, you can actually do a bulk unfollow of a heap of people at once as opposed to going to every individual Twitter account and clicking on unfollowÂ. You can also list those that might only be following you and decide if you want to follow them back. Again, this can be done in a bulk manner.

Social Media is a very fun and intoxicating adventure for me, and I’m going to be diverting my attention to my next project, which will be Internet Marketing / Social Entrepreneurism! Say that in one breathe! Well, what I’m planning to do is to launch my website, with some freebies and a paid product – that’s the Internet Marketing bit. When you buy my product I will donate a percentage of the revenue to charity – that’s the Social Enterprise bit! At the moment, I am looking around at which charity I should work with, preferably a small charity that needs a lot of help – so wish me luck!

Samir Sharma is an entrepreneur based in London, currently building his Internet Marketing Business using the Power of Social Media. Take a look at my blog for some free tips and honest opinions on various social media topics and Internet Marketing at: http://easy-internet-marketing-for-you.blogspot.com/

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