Posted @ 2:32 AM on September 12, 2009 by admin
Top Things You Need To Do When Starting on Twitter
Twitter has taken the social networking world by storm. With over 3 million registered active users on its network, it might overtake some of the pioneers of online social networking. You can also benefit from Twitter as a new tool for your online ventures. Actually, Twitter is more than a social networking site. It is also a micro blogging platform, a subscription tool, a social messaging service, and lots more.
You can practically use Twitter in any way you like to connect with people you know and to build a wide online network. Here are the top things you should do with Twitter especially if you’re just starting to use the service.
First, you have to determine your purpose why you will use Twitter. Having a clear objective will make your Twitting more meaningful. For example, you might want to use it to find old friends and follow what they’re doing now. You can also use Twitter as a way to communicate or share your thoughts and ideas. Most importantly, you can use Twitter to promote your blog or to make a unique brand for your website.
Second, you have to start Twitting right away. If you want to achieve your goals at Twitter, then it is best not to leave your Update Box empty for extended periods. You will notice that the more you Twit, more people will follow your updates. Lastly, you also have to search for other Twitters who share your interest and follow them. In this way you can breakin your own Twitter page to the system. Following others is also a good way to widen your network.
Posted @ 11:37 AM on Juli 20, 2009 by admin
Working Twitter in with your email is a great idea to keep a bigger network active and generate income for your business. This is especially true if your business is of the marketing kind. If so, then Twitter is a great marketing strategy that you should incorporate along with your email techniques and strategies.
To start off, you need to create a Twitter account. You should create a Twitter ID based on your given name or you can use a creative name such as the one for your business. After going through the process of filling up the registration form, carefully select a specific option: Email when someone starts following me”.
Additionally, you should also choose a second option which is “Email when I receive a new direct message”. The second thing you need to do is to tempt others with freebies – an electronic freebie is sure to be a unique gift your Twitter followers would want. If you have decided on this yet, you can insert the sales copy and the form that your followers will need to sign up in order to get the free giveaway you are offering.
For purposes of tracking, you can also put up a unique page which lets you in on how many subscribers you actually generated from such an invitation. And finally, you need to create your own Twitter bio. You are given one hundred and sixty characters which you can use to describe your business – if you make a well written one, and then you can attract more email alert requests.
Posted @ 11:30 AM on Juli 20, 2009 by admin
Twitter is a great application to use if you want your contacts to know what is up with you. Of course, this means they will need to go to the Twitter site in order to read your Tweets.
Fortunately, there is a great way for you to manage your Twitter and your own blog site as well. The way to do this is to get the code for your Twitter account and put it on your blog. This can very well be achieved if you have some knowledge of HTML and web. It can be quite technical, but it can be a lot useful once you get to understand things.
Even a Mac operating software can have a Twitter widget on it once you have the code. If you want this on your Macenabled computer, you will need to add the widget of Twitter right onto your Mac Dashboard.
Furthermore, the installation of the Twitter Updater (which is a type of required plug-in) is necessary for the integration of Wordpress. These plug-ins word well when you bank on
the Twitter badges as well, as it has an output code that syncs with the customizations you may want to make later on.
With a Twitter code, you can then have an easier time managing your efforts on the World Wide Web. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot anymore access your Twitter account on the site itself. For as long as you have your registered log-in, you can get to it right away even if you have a code.
Posted @ 8:26 AM on Juli 20, 2009 by admin
Getting into the whole Twitter thing is more than just keeping with the times. It goes beyond knowing what the younger ones are into, because it certainly does a great number of
things for your business if you have one. And because this service is a free one, who are you to pass up a great opportunity to make a bigger network for your products and services?
For your business to soar using Twitter, you first need to get as many followers to your account in order to attract a wider client base. How you can do this, you must ask. It is very simple – by being able to Tweet or send messages about interesting things, you can deliberately create curiosity about you. As soon as you pique the interests of other people, you can be sure that they will want to track you.
Just be sure that you know what their interests are and if you have anything good to offer them. If you do, then you will have captured their attention and they will surely be reading your Tweets. As soon as you have them, your next task would be to urge them to get more followers for your Tweets. This can be done subtly by suggesting great promos and freebies that would require them to put other people on your tracker.
People love prizes, and when you have something great dangling in front of them, they would be more than motivated to track you. Having a Twitter account, if you know how to manage it and keep it exciting at intervals, would surely make other people take notice of you.
Posted @ 12:35 PM on Juli 19, 2009 by admin
Twitter is a simple messaging service that you’ve either heard about a lot or not at all. Either way, it’s a fun and useful tool, well worth trying if you want to reach potential and existing customers, employees or employers.
Like blogging, Twitter lets you write messages that other people can read. Unlike blogging, Twitter limits your messages to 140 characters. (The previous two sentences absorbed exactly 140 characters.) Readers can choose to receive your Twitter updates (sometimes called “tweets”) on their phones, via IM, RSS or on the Web. The brevity, combined with the variety of delivery systems, make Twitter a powerful medium. Here are five ways to harness it:
1. Share ideas. Twitter is often called “micro-blogging,” and as with regular-size blogging, some people use it primarily to share personal information, while others use it for professional reasons.
If you’re interested in the professional possibilities, ignore the Twitter prompt, “What are you doing?” because frankly, the details of your day are banal to people who don’t know you (Proof: my Twitterstream). Instead, note cool work-related things you’ve discovered — a great article, a new Web site or an intriguing idea. Whenever possible, include a link (if it’s too long, use TinyURL to shorten it with one click).
Or share your knowledge. The lexicographer Erin McKean posts neologisms; a group of venture capitalists gives tips to entrepreneurs.
2. Show respect. Another way to share ideas — and your respect for other people in your field — is to “retweet” something interesting somebody else has Twittered. Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media (for which I’m co-writing a research report on Twitter), does this frequently and to great effect. Simply start your message with “Retweeting@username” and then paste in the original message (the @ symbol is the Twitter convention for responding or referring to other users).
3. Build your brand. Zappos, the online emporium known for outstanding customer service, encourages employees to Twitter and to respond to customers who also use the service — increasing the company’s reputation as a friendly place to shop and work. Notably, the chief executive of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, Twitters frequently. Because the company cultivates an un-corporate image, he’s the rare executive who can effectively post personal updates.
4. Engage customers. Run contests, solicit feedback and thank customers for supportive messages. Jetblue does all three. (By the way, JetBlue doesn’t identify the person or people who Twitter under its account, but best practices suggest you should.)
5. Provide customer service. Wesabe, a personal finance site, has long used Twitter to respond to complaints and to let customers know when it’s fixing problems. Comcast doesn’t post, but it does use Twitter to respond to customers who have complained about the company.
How do Comcast and Wesabe know customers are grousing? Twitter’s excellent search feature lets you learn what people are saying about any term — including you, your competitors or your industry. (Oddly, this search feature is different from the relatively useless one at the top of your own Twitter home page.) You can then respond to individuals — as Comcast and Wesabe do — with the @username trick.
Signing up for a Twitter account takes about 15 seconds. If you first want more detail on how the service works, check out the Wikipedia entry or the “Twitter in Plain English” video. Still on the fence? Chris Brogan has 50 good ideas for using Twitter in business.
Finally, no matter how you use it, remember that messages posted to Twitter — even updates you send by phone or IM — reside on the Web in perpetuity, where prospective employers and customers can find them. While 140 characters may not seem like much, they are enough to look unprofessional.
Posted @ 2:18 AM on Juli 19, 2009 by admin
The most basic way of using Twitter to build traffic to your blog is to post updates on Twitter whenever you make a blog post. But there’s so much more to Twitter than that. The Twitter site has one question and one question only - What are you doing? How you answer this question is completely up to you.
A lot of people simply post about what they are up to. You’ll see a lot of posts like “Just finished eating lunch.” Or “Working on a project.” But you’ll also see a whole lot more. If you’re having trouble answering the question “what are you doing” try thinking of it in terms of “what are you interested in” or “what has you attention.” To start out with, you’ll want to post things that are related to you personally and not your blog directly.
Remember, first and foremost Twitter is a social networking utility. People have a low tolerance for blatant advertising. Here are some ideas for non-blog post related Twitter posts:
Share information. You can post links related to your niche, or just interesting things you find around the Internet.
Ask questions. You can increase your relationship with your followers by asking questions. Ask people what they ate for lunch, what they think of the latest news story or their opinion on a topic.
Share your opinion. You can post links to recent news stories, especially those related to your niche, and offer your opinion.
Post tips related to your niche. Add to the value of your twitter feed by sharing tips that aren’t on your blog. 140 characters are a great space to share a short, helpful tip.
Share links to other people’s sites and explain your view. When you do post a link to your blog, make sure to add more to your Twitter post than just the link. Explain what it’s about and tell your audience what is coming next on your blog. This way you won’t just be spamming your link all over the “Twittersphere.”
Posted @ 11:49 PM on Juli 11, 2009 by admin
1. Getting traffic to your blog posts - With a simple post to Twitter, you can have lots of readers come to your blog. Even though blog feeds do the same thing, you can often find new readers on Twitter or remind current readers to revisit your blog.
2. Connecting with your readership - When you blog, you’re speaking to your readership from a distance. You write your post, edit it and then post it. During all of these activities, you’re removed from your audience. But when you use Twitter to communicate, it becomes a conversation. You can show more of your personality to your followers and truly communicate with them on a different level. This can get them more interested in you and your blog, which will build more traffic over time.
3. Building your brand - In order to stand out amidst the large amount of blogs and Twitter accounts online, you need to develop a persona for people to connect to and identify with. You can accomplish this through your blog, but you can further your branding by using a Twitter account. You need to figure out what makes you unique in your niche and then extend these differences between you and others in you Twitter posts. Decide what your persona or approach is, and then make sure your Twitter posts reflect that.
4. Researching - With Twitter, your target market can be at your be at your fingertips. You can spy on their interests, ask them about their needs and automatically get ideas for your blog posts.
Posted @ 11:41 PM on Juli 11, 2009 by admin
You need to first be aware that rushing out and following a heap of people can make you look like a potential Twitter spammer. Build your following base slowly. As time goes on, if you are chasing quantity, then you will be able to add more at a time, but initially I would suggest you stick to 50 for a start. The reason for this is that when you follow people, they will most likely follow you back. Many people don’t do this automatically, although some do, particularly in the internet marketing space. Some people will actually go and look at your Twitter home page to decide if you are worth following or not in their eyes. This is where your profile and the settings that you took all the trouble to do will stand you in good stead.
Posted @ 12:04 PM on Juli 11, 2009 by admin
People appreciate retweets and it is a good way to get noticed by others. All you do is put RT in front of the @username. Using Tweetdeck, hover over the user’s avatar and it will put the whole thing in the posting area. Separate their tweet from your comment if you have one. I usually put two pipes, which is holding down the Shift key on the \ character. This will produce “||” which clearly shows the end of the other person’s tweet and your reply or comment.
If other people retweet your tweets, make it a habit to thank them. It’s common courtesy. Simply tweet @username Thanks for RT 
and send.
Posted @ 11:57 AM on Juli 11, 2009 by admin
You can reply to someone’s Tweet simply by putting the @symbol in front of their name. This makes the tweet stand out to them as it appears in their reply column or page instead of in the general Tweetstream. It is a very useful way of starting conversations with people in order to build relationships. Simply comment on one of their tweets. Tweetdeck has a feature when you hover over the user’s avatar to put their name and reply symbol straight into the posting area.
