When people speak of social networks, a lot of the conversation these days is focused on Facebook and Twitter, but in the business world, LinkedIn is where the action is. Today, the business social networking site has started offering a "Share" button to web publishers, very similar to the one already available from Facebook. The new button allows readers to share content from sites they visit with their LinkedIn connections.
Several button sizes and options are available for publishers to choose from. Competition in the sharing area is of course very high, with many sites already offering Facebook, Digg, and Twitter buttons. It's unclear if many sites will jump in and add LinkedIn sharing links, or if those will remain confined to the business world.
Following are five steps to obtain more followers on Twitter:
Follow As Many People As Possible Some would argue with this point, however, the value of this is important. Pick people who sound interesting to follow. You will find yourself clicking on their tweets because there is bound to be something interesting to you. In turn, people feel obligated to follow you back, or, as a courtesy will follow you back. You will gain followers this way. However, if they do not follow you back, do not take it personally. Not everyone agrees with this method.
Create A Profile With Your Interests Make sure that you have included your hobbies or interests, in addition to whatever it is you are promoting, in your profile. People will follow according to interests. They can also search by category in Twitter, so if you have placed in your profile, for example, that you are an avid reader of novels, someone could type in "books" in the search category and find you. "Follow Me On Twitter"Make sure you have this application on every blog and website you own. Just Google to find a good Twitter graphic button that you may use for free. Also, you can get your own Twitter Widget from Twitter to insert on your web pages. Create Good Tweets If you Tweet good content, other tweeters will notice and may retweet your information to their followers. In turn you can get more followers this way. You can also create a tinyurl of a web page you find important and Tweet that as well. I find I will click on these tinyurls if they seem interesting to me. #Follow Fridays Believe it or not, Fridays are the days that people promote their followers on Twitter. Make sure you are on Twitter on Follow Fridays and Tweet away your followers. Also, you need to have "#FollowFridays" somewhere in your Tweet so others can find your recommendations.
I am an avid Social Networker and enjoy figuring out all the tips and tricks you can use on Facebook and Twitter. Follow my discussion about Twitter here Can Twitter Make Money? I am also a sahm-wahm of 2 kids and you can follow my journey here: http://www.momsmakingmoneyonline.info/
You now can record a video snippet and then have it displayed on your Twitter page for any new visitors or followers to see, BubbleTweet is simple and fun - that's always a good combination in my book.
It also offers a further personal touch to the already social Twitter experience - giving your followers a look into who the person behind the bio. Allowing your personality to truly come to life and shine.
It also has a lot of potential for both personal and corporate branding. Imagine being able to tell followers your latest news or information, but instead of tweeting it you can say it? Making yourself stand out in a large group of followers.
BubbleTweet uses a unique URL to host your video message on, the best way to use it is as a link from your blog, website or email signature. Once your visitors have seen the video and the bubble window closes, it then reverts to your normal Twitter URL so you control its use. I personally wish this was optionally always on however today it is not an option.
I've seen similar applications used on blogs before, but not Twitter. It is pretty ironic because Twitter was designed as a Micro Blog supporting only 140 characters by design. Regardless, this is a great widget to add to any Twitter page and is one of my twitter "must have" widgets for the hardcore user. This is a great little tool and I recommend you check it out.
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet. Do you recognize this? Definitely not the chirping of birds but it is a massive communicating conversation on the interacting social networking site called Twitter. Twitter could be called as the exact match and rival of Facebook with much more exposure for the niche market. It is a free online interface which can be very beneficial for your company as it does not only give a chance to interact with current customers but increases the chances of finding the potential customers.
This interface though places a limit of 140 characters within the messages you send out but many twitter applications have been developed which allow long hyperlinks to be reduced and posted within the character limit. All the followers you are going to have on Twitter will be able to read all your tweets so it's beneficial in the terms that much of your promoting material would be easily accessible to these followers.
Twitter could be useful for the online business in the following ways:
1) By using twitter, you could develop a high level of traffic to your site as it has the option to share the links and you can easily give links to your products within your tweets.
2) because the use of twitter at times takes a lot of time and effort, if your business is doing fairly well financially it may be a good idea to hire a social media expert or virtual assistant to do this for you. They can set up scheduled messages to go out every hour. Using the RT feature that means "retweet" lets you allows you to send someone else's tweets to your followers thus providing them with information you thought is valuable to them.
3) The search function of the Twitter lets you find potential customers for your products and services. You could easily follow any twitter profile if you think they are talking about something that is relevant to your business.
4) With twitter is relatively easy to obtain feedback from customers on any change you make in your product or service, your website or other profiles. Many large companies such as Dell Computer and many of the top airlines use twitter specifically for customer service relations.
5) There is an option of "twitter widget" which could directly link your followers to you through your website; that makes the communication with people in a more personal way.
Having understood how to use twitter, it could be very beneficial for your business. As an Internet marketer twitter should be among one of the top marketing methods within your marketing mix to attract new traffic to your website and sales pages along with developing a relationship with your current customers.
If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about Internet marketing.
Want to learn more Internet marketing techniques on how to build a successful businesses online?
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1. Get creative with your Twitter page, biography and links. Make the most of your biography to tell people about you, your interests, expertise and unique business information.
2. Get Regular with your tweets, ignoring your Twitter page for days or weeks on end won't help you build a presence.
3. Give Value tweet links to valuable info and freebies you think your followers might be interested in. Avoid bombarding people with endless links to products etc. by including tweets without links too
4. Get Linking when you write a new article or blog entry remember to update your Twitter followers. Platforms like Blogspot have the option to link your Twitter account so you can send through each blog entry with the click of a button
5. Get Economical with your letters. You only have a few characters to express yourself with so shorten your links with websites like bitly.
6. Get Time Off from updating your Twitter with autoTweeting socialoomph.com.
You can set up your account to send through tweets at set times ie. 4 hours from now, 3 days from now or at a particular date and time.
7. Get Linking with your other social accounts so your updates on one site go through to Twitter too.
8. Add Twitter widgets to your website articles and blog to encourage more followers and link your leads together.
9. Get Thinking outside the square and check out some of the unique Twitter profiles which work on a particular theme like (incredibly) short stories, quotes, advice, tips or a niche market.
10. Give to Receive Want more followers? Follow people you think will be interested in your profile. Be nice and follow people back too.
It's no secret that social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0, soon to become Web 3.0) is quickly becoming the darling of Internet aficionados and casual surfers alike. Newcomers and experienced marketers alike are creating blogs, participating in forums, and communicating online like never before.
The names MySpace and Facebook have quickly become ubiquitous in social networking, a testament to their user-friendliness and marketing sophistication. Now, another form of communication has emerged. The microblogging tool Twitter is creating buzz and achieving mainstream acceptance four years after its inception.
For those not familiar, microblogging is simply the posting of short messages (140-200 characters) to a personal blog that "followers" and other subscribers can read. Microblogging websites, most notably Twitter, have the flexibility to work on both mobile and desktop platforms. In fact, numerous Twitter "widgets" have been created to specifically enable wireless microblogging. Some people liken the activity to "group instant messaging", or even real-time brand tracking for marketers on the go.
As a marketing tool, Twitter remains a social media option that promises a lot but has yet to deliver big time. Granted, microblogs are less time intensive and lower maintenance than regular blogs. However, can you really connect with people in your chosen niche in this manner? Several Internet Marketers have no doubt jumped on the bandwagon with visions of financial gain in their eyes. However, if they lose sight of the big picture, i.e. Twitter as a relationship-building tool, then the weight of false expectations risks sinking the fledgling site faster than its infamous "FailWhale" ever could.
Even the most successful social networking sites have fallen victim to spamming and identity theft. Not to mention a whole host of serious legal issues.
Still, microblogging's simplicity and inherent user-friendliness is attracting a huge following, and Twitter itself is drawing more attention from mainstream news organizations.
So, if you're game and willing to delve deeper into the blogosphere, why not give it try? When done right, Twitter can be a non-intrusive way to find like-minded people who have ideas to share and want to have fun while doing it.
When I first heard of Twitter, I was amazed and amused that it was spreading like wildfire in a frenzy of popularity. It's all based on a message limited to 140 characters that basically tells people what you are doing at the moment.
My first reaction was, who cares? But apparently people do, and folks are not bashful about sharing what they are up to with others. So, why not use this proclivity to visit for word of mouth advertising or for spreading the word for a worthy cause? Your posted messages, by the way, are known as Tweets.
Twitter is a social networking application that is also a mini-blogging service, which limits posts to 140 characters, even smaller than a 160 character text message.
As long as you are tweeting away telling others about what you are doing, why not tell them about your business and use this system to bring in some bling?
The first thing to do is to sign up for an account. It's free. Watch the video for a nice overview of how it works. Then sign up by entering your name or email address and password. That's all there is to it, and you can began to Twitter and Tweet by following your friends and making new ones. You'll be surprised at how fast you will start attracting followers.
Be sure to fill out your profile and post a picture of yourself. Try to make your profile compelling. If you are promoting a business or a cause, you can add a one line bio and a URL for followers to view.
If you are away from you computer and still want to Twitter, you can do it on your mobile phone; it's easy to set up. Sign in to your account. Click on Settings at the top of the page. Then click Devices where you will enter your mobile number. After verification, you will receive text message instructions on how to use the system from your mobile device by texting your Tweets to the short code 40404.
Now, here's a little advice on how to go about marketing with Twitter. First of all, don't abuse the system by indiscriminately spamming your followers. In fact, I would strongly advise against any sales message whatsoever in your Tweets. Simply offer worthwhile information. I suggest that you write a blog article, give the title, and a link to your blog or Website in your Tweet.
Some links may be overly long for the 140 character format. To truncate them and save space, try TinyURL at tinyurl dot com. Here you can type in the long form and receive a much reduced form that you can include in your Tweet. You can also put a TinyURL button on your browser. Once the button is in place, all you have to do is click it, and TinyURL will create a short URL for the currently viewed page.
Another thing you can do is put a link on your blog or Website asking people to follow you on Twitter in return for following them to create more followers.
Don't overlook the tools that come with Twitter for gathering followers. Click on Find People at the top of the page. Here you will be able to search for individuals by username, first, or lastname who are already Twitter members.
Click on Invite from Other Networks, insert your email address, and Twitter will search your contact list for current Twitter members on your list. A list of contacts is also generated of people who do not yet have a Twitter account. You can have Twitter send an email inviting them to get an account and follow you. The only problem with this is that it only applies to free email accounts such a gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.
However, you can click on Invite by Email, and a box will appear that allows you to enter a comma separated list of contacts to whom Twitter will send an email message inviting them to sign up and follow you and tells them a little bit about Twitter.
This is what the message looks like:
From: tshphd Subject: tshphd wants to keep up with you on Twitter
To find out more about Twitter, visit the link below:
Thanks, -The Twitter Team
About Twitter
Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing-right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts.
Remember too that you can sign up for RSS feeds in Twitter so that you can follow others and they can follow you, which represents an additional marketing opportunity.
Yet another way to spread the word is that you can share your Twitter Tweets on your Facebook account so that all your Facebook friends can see what you're up to as well.
Finally, go to the bottom of a Twitter page and click on API where you will find some Widgets that allow you to use Twitter even more creatively. If you want more, there are additional Widgets on the Twitter Fan Wiki. Don't forget to check out the desktop applications for Windows at the bottom of the page. You are invited to write your own widgets using API. The list is impressive and so is the array of creativity, which clearly demonstrates the enthusiasm for Twitter. Apps are available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android,WM, and Blackberry environments.
In conclusion, Tweeting is a great way to twitter away your time profitably by using this social networking phenomenon as a powerful marketing tool.
The URL for Twitter is http://www.twitter.com. The mobile version is [http://www.m.twitter.com].
Now, if you want to follow me, send me a Tweet. I'd love to hear from you; maybe we can sell each other something. But, I have to warn you that I don't do MLM. What I'm looking for is a residual income of about $20K a month that requires that I don't have to do any work.
As everyone knows, Twitter is a growing phenomenon. Having millions of users from all around the globe, it is a good idea to promote your website in such an environment.
Here are 6 tips to get more leads, sales and distributors using Twitter Marketing.
Twitter Marketing Tip #1
First of all you must have a Twitter account. This can be done easily by following the step by step instructions. At this stage it is important to fill up your profile as much as possible with all the info you can pump into it and a suitable picture (your best!).
Twitter Marketing Tip #2
Make sure you put your website link into your profile. This will give you a backlink from Twitter and people who view your profile will be able to click on your link to know more about you and what you do.
Twitter Marketing Tip #3
Follow leaders. Go ahead and search for the leaders in network marketing. Check out the people they follow. Leaders usually follow leaders. Start following 30-50 for the time being. They will tweet great content and this is a source of education and inspiration for your business. Some might follow you back. This results in other people following you since you have associated yourself with a leader.
Twitter Marketing Tip #4
Tweet in 3 blocks: morning, afternoon and at night. Each block should contain about ten tweets. 8 should be conversational whilst the other 2 would be self promotional content. You do not want to spam and promote yourself blatantly every time. Make sure you look interesting to your followers and this will result in more clicks.
Twitter Marketing Tip #5
Give value. Do not go ahead and pitch your business all over the place. It doesn't work. Instead use a good attraction marketing technique and give people value. This will in turn bring you leads which by correct conversion can become sales and distributors for your business.
Twitter Marketing Tip #6
Use a Twitter widget for your blog. A great plugin is called Tweetmeme. This will allow your visitors to tweet and retweet your content, thus making it go viral. Make sure your content contains a lot of value, that is the reason of making it go viral!
Using the Twitter marketing tips I have given you above, I get about 20 leads a day using Twitter. Remember to always be a source of value and never, ever spam...you will regret it if you do! Most importantly...have fun!
If you want to have more training...go to the resource box and check out my website!
Daniel Attard is a veteran network marketing entrepreneur and internet marketing specialist. He has built his network marketing business using both offline and online techniques and teaches his students his blueprint to success. Find out more on http://www.danielattard.com
Does your company or website have a Twitter account? If you answered no then you need to get with the times and register a free account today! Many companies and organizations throughout the world have started to take advantage of Twitter. Twitter is in fact a very simple way for you to keep your website or company followers updated with all your happenings. All you have to do is provide scheduled updates that your 'followers' can read and review.
There are a variety of ways that you can acquire Twitter traffic, also known as followers. The most simplistic way to increase your Twitter traffic is to place a Twitter widget on your website or blog that allows visitors to your website or blog to click a simple button to begin following you. This is the most effective way to gain Twitter traffic since the people who click on the 'follow' button have sought out your Twitter account and have followed you on their own will.
Another way to obtain Twitter traffic is to run a search on Twitter for people who are talking about specific 'keywords' that relate to your website or company. For example, if you a run a site dedicated to 'horror movies' you can run a search for 'horror movies' on Twitter and it will show you every person who has mentioned or used these terms in their Tweets. Then you can simply add these people to your Twitter. From there you have a 50/50 chance that they will add you back. This will easily increase your followers in very little time.
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It seems the buzz on Twitter's application of Twitter Lists is gaining momentum among the more prolific Tweeters. Just as the eager website owner checks his analytics several times daily to see how many people are visiting his site, so people are surely checking their Twitter dashboards to see how many other users have added them to a list.
If the lists are categorized as professionals in one realm or another, all the better for you. It means somebody has recognized you and your posts for what they are - informative and relevant to the topics and products you advertise. This begs the question, however, of how you can use Twitter lists to help optimize your business and main site through social media.
The Bare Bones of Twitter Lists
If you are new to Twitter and social media altogether, you may already know that this site allows users to "micro-blog" data and integrate information into widgets for weblogs, Facebook, MySpace, and other sites. If you are unable to constantly update a blog or website with new information on your business, you can log into Twitter via a dashboard widget or your cell phone and keep the people who follow your feed of posts appraised of sales, events, and last-minute news. The idea behind Twitter lists, for seasoned users trying to grasp this concept, is to allow people group other Tweeters into specific categories, thereby allowing the list owner (if the list is private) or anyone at all to follow a set group of people just by reading the list URL.
As a personal tool, Twitter Lists are handy in allowing power users to group accounts into specific categories. If you use the social network as a primary source of finding news, you may wish to create a list that captures the posts of various outlets like CNN, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and others. Whatever the subject, or if you want to keep all your tweeting friends and family in one place, the list function is quite handy.
Social Optimization with Twitter Lists
How can Twitter Lists benefit your business' social media optimization? Depending on the size of your company, if several employees use Twitter to promote goods and services, you can create a list of each user to provide as an overview of information for readers. While Twitter doesn't yet allow for RSS capability for their lists, a simple online search will direct you to tools and widgets that can create a syndicated feed of the accounts. A simple RSS widget module on your site or blog will display the posts.
Creating a Twitter list comprised of users relevant to your business or subject - other professionals in the field, reviewers - can also be helpful if you make the list public. Twitter users can see on their dashboard if they have been added to lists, and this may inspire them not only to follow your feed, but re-tweet your messages and expose you to a broader audience.
Take the time to explore the potential of Twitter lists as a promotion tool. The more you use them, the better it could be for your social profile.
To add one of the Flash widgets to your site, you first need to copy a widget code. Here is how to do it in 8 simple steps:
1. Sign in to Twitter 2. Go to twitter.com/badges. There you can Get a Widget for Your Site 3. Click Other. 4. Click Continue 5. Select the Flash Widget option, and click Continue
*Adobe Flash Player is required to see widgets, so if you do not have it, Internet Explorer should provide you with an "Install This Add-on" Option
6. Select widget you want to install, and click Continue. You will either see the "Set up your Twitter" widget page or use the "Customize Your Widget" page.
7. Customize Your Widget.
Interactive widget: Use the "Select a style" list to choose your preferred design for the widget and also use the Widget size list to choose a width.
If you go with the "Display-only" widget: Click "Badge color" and click the color that you like.
8. Copy the code.
Interactive widget: Click the copy link. Display-only widget: Click "Copy to Clipboard"
If you are provided with an online editor by your web host, I highly recommend that you take advantage of this feature and use it to insert your widget code. The way you do this varies on the host, but here are the basic steps: Open the page in the editor, place the cursor where you eant the widget to appear, and paste.
If you are editing your page locally, open the file in your HTML editor, place cursor where you want and paste. Remember to save the work and upload the revised file to Web host.
Adding Twitter's HTML widget to your site
IF you want to add the HTML widget to your site, here are the basic steps:
1. Sign in to Twitter account 2. Go to twitter.com/badges 3. Click other 4. Click Continue. "Which type of widget would you like?" appears 5. Select HTML Widget option, and click Continue. The "Customize and Get the Code" page appears. 6. Use the "Number of updates" list to select the size of the tweet list. 7. Use the Title text box to change the title if you do not appreciate the default "Twitter Updates" title. 8. Highlight code in text box and copy.
*Note. To make sure that your page still loads successful even if Twitter is in "Fail Whale" mode and is having a problem, cut part of the widget code that begins with the first tag and ends with the last , and paste near the bottom of the page. Right above the tag.
Hope you successfully add a Twitter widget to spice up your site.
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Twitter is constantly becoming an increasingly popular way to communicate and stay connected. It is totally free to use. Messages sent through Twitter, commonly referred to as "tweets", are always 140 characters or less. You can send them from your cell phone as an SMS or through the online service. Other users who are following you will receive all the tweets you make. Encapsulating your ideas into 140 characters is an art known as microblogging, and it is not always easy at first. You cannot cheat by using several consecutive tweets to form a longer message either.
Using Twitter as a business marketing tool can be very beneficial, but care must be taken to not send too many tweets to customers and potential clients because they can become too spam-like. The key to success is making short tweets that are interesting, grab the reader's attention, and lead them to visit your website. Boring tweets will be ignored, so make sure that your messages are packed with useful information.
Twitter widgets and links make excellent additions to your company's website. These links let your potential clients follow you on Twitter easily. That will let you stay in touch with them and continue marketing your products and services to them directly. Placing a widget on your site lets people know that your company uses Twitter actively and will help generate buzz about your business.
Marketing your B2B business with Twitter is a smart choice. Sending advertising teasers and special announcements as tweets is a great way to stay in contact with potential leads and existing customers. Remember that the goal of Twitter is to get people to your website where they can purchase your products and services.
Ray Perry is an Internet marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at MarketBlazer, a small business marketing company and authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. You can get more information about Twitter at http://www.MarketBlazer.com.
This is not "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" the popular nursery rhyme by Jane Taylor that you and I used to recite; neither is this the twittering of the Birds in the forest; but this is "The Song of the Twitters".
"Do You Twitter Yet?"
That was one of the front cover headline captions of the August 18th, 2008 edition of Fortune Magazine. So what's your response, or are you ignorant or lost on this phenomenon called Twitter?
"Thousands of people are doing that every day. According to comScore, Twitter had almost three million monthly users as of June, which is triple what it had last November. Those figures are probably low because they don't measure mobile activity, which is a large part of the Twittersphere..."- Fortune Magazine.
Twitter is a free service which combines text-messaging with blogging (micro-blogging). It allows dispensations of short messages to everyone interested in your information, online from computer or by cell-phone, through text messages (aka "SMS"); just type your message, maximum of 140 characters, and channel (update) it and your followers would get notification to the effect.
What do I have to twit?
Anybody that has a thing to say, has something to twit about. Religious, Economic, Political, Social, Ideological and Cultural (REPSIC) activities are being twitted every second, to followers all over the world. Offline and Online marketers tweet updates on their services, products, articles, web and blog-sites. Political campaign teams and Congressmen easily tweet their followers and constituents on latest developments; news alerts are being channeled to followers by world known notable News media via Twitter.
If your activities fall between or even beyond the REPSIC activities and you want to reach out to people on it, then you must be Twittering. A webmaster or netpreneur could also place a Twitter widget on his/her blog or website to automatically update developments and activities to visitors whenever s/he tweets. You could as well use Twitter application to link Tweet's updates into your Facebook and some Social Networking sites which you are a member.
What are you 'still' doing?
If you are not Twittering by now, you are reducing an awesome information dissemination outreach and awareness, and it is like leaving enormous profitable info-spread on the table unattended to. Follow the trend whose popularity is exponentially exploding daily. It's a two way issue- you follow other people's updates of interest and others follow yours too.
To follow the trend, just go to Twitter site and sign up and start Twittering and join in "The Song of the Twitters".
Gabriel Ogundimu, is an Information Marketer and a entrepreneur who is out to learn, rub minds, share ideas and make a successful Internet home business.
Twitter is now one of the most vibrant social networking sites and has become almost as addictive as Facebook. Naturally, many people have been curious as to exactly how to use this media site to generate extra revenue. Whether you are a solo marketer or a business, it is important for you to know the Internet trends that you can ho on to in order to gather more drive traffic to your site or blog and make more sales in the process.
Twitter revolution
In a nutshell, there is a sweeping across the world with hundreds of new accounts being created every day all over the world. Users include teenagers wanting to keep tabs on their friends via another social media site, adults who want to simply get a feel of how the site works to businessmen and women wanting to use the site to redirect traffic to their websites and collect business leads. Regardless of how you use the site, it is undeniable that apart from Facebook, Twitter is the most popular social site on the Internet.
Using Twitter to make extra income
Twitter can be used to generate income if you know how to use it. Many Internet marketers have jumped on to the bandwagon and are investing a substantial amount of time of the site generating followers and following others who are in their niche of interest. This is one powerful way of using the site.
There is a great demand of techniques for generating as many followers as possible. Since the site is very viral, the more followers you have the more those followers generate even more followers for you. The key to is to use follower-generating techniques which eventually translate into conversion rates.
Generating followers is not all that complicated. One can do it manually or they can employ scripts and software. To save time, many marketers are looking for scripts and software that automatically generates Twitter followers. As of this writing, there is no definitive script that exclusively does this but there are equally powerful techniques that one can use to achieve exactly this.
Over the past few years, the term "widget" has slipped into the vernacular of us technological civilians. Essentially, a widget is just a very useful gadget, designed to do something interesting. Some are useful, like a clock widget. Some are random, like the "Magic 8 Ball" widget.
Widgets can prove quite useful. They introduce a fun yet practical personal touch that could not be had via a website with a basic template, like Wordpress, Myspace or Facebook.
Some great widgets include the Box.net widget. The box.net widget is an extremely useful widget for file sharing. Another great widget is the "Twidget". A Twidget is a customizable Twitter widget. It shows the designated amount of your latest Twitter posts or lists. You can embed the widget on your facebook, blog or general website. The Twidget, as well as other fun miscellaneous items -including Twitter icons- can be found in the "goodies" section at the bottom of your Twitter page.
"Why are widgets so popular, anyway?"
Thanks to loving, all-merciful designers, widgets make it easy for you to change up your site without having to learn code. Why unnecessarily pay someone hundreds to thousands of dollars for a designer to sit at a desk and alter your website or widget when there are hundreds, if not thousands of widgets out there for you to explore? It maybe counter-intuitive on the part of web designers, but I suggest you take advantage, while they are still free.
"I've seen widgets but I don't know how to put them on my page".
After you customize your widget (if necessary), you are asked to copy a code. This is called an "embed code". Copy the embed code and place it in the desired place one your site. For those with a Wordpress template, you have two options. You can post the code onto a "page" or you can go to the "appearance" section on the left hand side of your dashboard. After clicking "widgets" you will notice that you already have a bunch of preset widgets. If you want to use a non-standard widget, copy the embed code into the "text" widget. Make sure your text widget is placed where you want it to show on your site. If you don't like the widget, no worries. Just erase the code. Make sure to keep track of when the code begins and ends. The last thing you want to do is erase a vital part of your website or post.
"Where can I get a widget?"
If you Google "useful widgets", a few million sites come up. I've found these two URLs to be useful:
WARNING: Widgets can be addictive. If your website is gaudily plastered with dozens of useless widgets and you find yourself up until midnight looking for more, seek help.
For the uninitiated, it might seem like a widget is just a funny name for an application you don't quite understand. But these days, thanks to the increasing popularity of widgets, most of us have either installed one on our web page, or clicked on one at some else's site.
Understanding widgets is essential to maintaining a useful and interactive website. A widget is technically anything that's embedded on a web page and holds content that's not static, and which is usually brought upon by third parties.
So, some widgets you might see include those for You Tube. A site on motorcycle racing, for example, might have a You Tube widget. When you click on the You Tube widget, you will be take to You Tube and might even be provided with a page that includes a variety of motorcycle racing videos.
At some sites, you might see a widget for Wordpress, and clicking on that widget will take you to the Wordpress blog that the site maintains. The widget will always include the logo or standard graphic of the site or company.
Let's consider how a few Twitter widgets work, since Twitter widgets are on websites and blogs the world over these days.
One of the most common is the widget created by Twitter itself. This usually includes the logo Twitter bird and the words, "follow me on Twitter". When you click on the widget, you're taken to the Twitter page of that person, or company. This is an excellent way for Twitter users to increase their number of overall followers.
Another useful Twitter widget is found at TweetThisSite. This widget works a bit in reverse, with website owners putting the widget on their page. Users, who think that they wouldn't mind promoting the site a bit, simply provide their Twitter log in information and the widget automatically places a post on the user's Twitter page that says the user is checking out the site and provides a link to the site.
Using these widgets is an easy, free way to increase visibility and get more traffic to a site. There are few methods to do these things that really work, but using widgets, which are unobtrusive but effective, is one method that really does work.
Do you blog? Do you write articles? If you answered yes to either question, read on to find out about a powerful marketing combination to boost your business.
microblogging twitter
The missing key for many is Twitter. Do you know that you can have your articles at EzineArticles go directly to Twitter? AND you can have your WordPress blog posts go directly to Twitter? What does this mean to you? More exposure for you. If you have the Twitter widget on your blog, you have a full circle viral marketing system in place because your articles will then come back to your blog.
The strategy for articles and blog posts automatically showing up on Twitter is to go to Twitter and tweet about them after they appear automatically. Talk about them, explain them, do whatever you can do in the 140 characters you have for a Twitter micro-blog post.
How do you accomplish this automatic Twitter posting? It's really quite easy.
Go to your profile manager in EzineArticles and put your Twitter username and password in the space provided. Your newly approved articles will now go to Twitter as micro blog posts. Get the TwitterTools plugin for WordPress and install it. The only option you want turned off is to create a blog post from a tweet. Do have your blog posts sent to Twitter and do use the Twitter sidebar widget. Write lots of articles and blog posts, go tweet about them and watch your presence grow.
There is no faster way to become the authority in your area of expertise than to combine this powerful threesome to drive traffic to your blog and articles.
Wouldn't you like to learn more about implementing this powerful strategy in your online business?
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Online social networking can be effectively done through Twitter. You also have the added advantage of promoting your online work and being in touch with people in the world of web surrounding you. When more people follow you, there is the possibility of more people knowing what you are doing and that way they will become interested in your work around the web. The following are tips on how to get followers on Twitter.
You can make use of Twitter's tools in order to find and add your contacts which already exist. After that you can follow them up with an email making them realize why you want them to follow you. This will ultimately increase the number of twitter followers you will get. You can also add your Twitter information on your email signature. When you email somebody, they will understand that it is possible for them to follow you on Twitter. Mentioning that you are a twitter user in your blog or website also helps. You should not forget to link to your Twitter contact information.
It is an excellent way to announce through your Facebook and MySpace that you would like to be followed on Twitter. The announcement should be made every two or three weeks so that you can get the attention of people. You can add the Twitter widget to your blog or site in order to show others what you are twittering. This is done to motivate readers to go through your activities and follow you. Apart from that you can utilize Twitter directories to provide information regarding you and how to follow you.
Appearance of your page is another factor which has the potential to attract Twitter followers. You can easily improve your page with an excellent background, avatar and biography. It is equally important to remain active and interesting on the site. You can achieve this by following people regularly and giving responses to what they post. By posting matters of common interest, you can remain active always. Yet another way is to offer to guest post on the sites of big Twitter users. The offer can be made in exchange for promotion of the post on Twitter.
Another option is to write articles and promote them on Twitter. You can write a few articles and link to your profile. It is important to participate in forums and blog comments regarding Twitter for attracting followers. The more you talk about Twitter the more you are going to get attention from others. Once you get a few supporters you can request them to let their followers know where to find you. Always there would be a handful of people willing to help you. The most important point to be remembered is to get creative. When you seriously think about ways to get followers on Twitter, you will become more creative and thereby successful on the site.
Any company looking to use Twitter marketing tips need to consider these three tips of they will simply fail. Making use of the three tips which you will find below will attract far more appeal for your website and will also bring you repeat traffic to your online business.
Twitter Tip #1: Market your Twitter web link within your website. You wont produce any 'followers' if none of your visitors know you have a Twitter account. You have got to concentrate on attracting followers, or your Twitter advertising marketing plan will be totally useless.
Twitter Tip #2: Place a Twitter widget on your site. This widget will show all your Twitter updates and messages on your website so your visitors can keep up to date with what is going on. It also allows them to embed your Twitter widget on their sites that additionally generates more Twitter followers.
Twitter Tip #3: Use your Twitter account daily that means Tweet daily! If you use this sort of advertising you must make sure you Tweet your twitter account on a constant basis. However you must not over use your Twitter account, but you must make sure you use it on a regular basis. If you are not effective with your Twitter account, you will not take care of your Twitter followers.
This sort of advertising could attract a lot of subscribers back to your online business time and time again. Moreover, using Twitter it is a great way to keep your followers or any new subscribers in check with any special deals you might have running.
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There are two kinds of people these days: those who understand Twitter, and those who don't.
If you're still a doubter, keep in mind that everyone's first foray into the medium is pretty disappointing. Start following the right people, though, and it suddenly clicks into place.
You're chatting with friends, listening to pithy words of wisdom from people you admire and chuckling at the inanities of celebrities. As for news, it always breaks on Twitter first – probably why the media's obsessed with it.
Think of Twitter as an up-to-the minute information feed, and a host of uses for it suddenly manifest, not least how valuable it can be when embedded in your website. It's an ideal complement to a blog or news site, and a positive boon to fan pages.
Getting the right tweets on your site may not even be as difficult as you might expect. If you want to integrate Twitter into your online life but don't know how to, we'll show you what to do.
Twitter via widgets
We first investigated several convoluted and code-heavy ways of embedding tweets into your own pages, but many of them are overkill, especially when Twitter itself provides such elegant and easy-to-use tools. Twitter widgets can be configured using a forms-based interface and may be embedded in any site.
The code returned is good old JavaScript, so it'll go anywhere in a static HTML page or CMS template. There's lots of scope for styling and tweaking, too.
Like many of Twitter's extended features, it's hidden pretty well on the main site. Log in to www.twitter.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Once you're there, click 'Goodies', choose 'Widgets' and click 'Widgets for My Website'.
You have a few choices right off the bat. Click on the 'Profile' link and you'll see that it's set up to show tweets from your Twitter account. However, you can replace the username with any Twitter username you know.
Give it a try: enter a new username and click 'Test Settings'. The widget preview will update to show the latest tweets from any account you choose – very handy for showing the feed from a corporate account or displaying incisive celebrity tweets on a fan site.
Configure the feed
Click 'Preferences' to configure the feed. Click 'Poll for New Results' if you want the widget to periodically refresh while the user is on your page – the default behaviour is to only pull results from Twitter when the page is loaded.
You can change the number of tweets retrieved by the widget too. Alter the default of '4' to '6', for example, then hit 'Test Settings' to see the result. You'll notice that the height of the widget changes in response, unless you have 'Include Scrollbar' ticked.
Selecting 'Timed Interval' makes the widget clear the current list of tweets and replace it with a new set periodically. All of the associated settings are highly configurable. Now to dig out some specifics.
Pulling tweets directly from a single account is fine, but Twitter widgets get really powerful when you use them to focus on more specific sets of tweets. The Search and List widgets initially look identical to their Profile counterpart. However, the Search widget allows you to pull tweets from the entire feed using a single keyword.
If that keyword happens to be a hashtag, even better. It enables you to instantly configure Twitter feeds for news and events that can help drive traffic to your blog. For example, let's say you're liveblogging the Eurovision song contest. A perfect sidebar would be a twitter feed of Eurovision tweets.
Making lists
Twitter lists enable you to create bespoke Twitter feeds from a group of users. To make a list, go to www.twitter.com and look for the Lists column in the sidebar. Click 'New List' and a window will pop up prompting you for a name and a description. Fill it in, make sure the list is public and click 'Create List'.
You're taken to a page where you can now search for users and add them one at a time. Alternatively, you can add people to lists directly from your Following or Followers pages.
A tip: you don't have to be following someone to add them to your list. Now you have a list of people set up, you can create a widget that can easily be added to your website.
Uses for this? Let's say you have a list of news providers. Your widget would then be a live-updating news ticker that sits in the sidebar of your site. Or if you have a collaborative blog, you could add all the twitter feeds from contributors to the widget.
Thinking bigger, a search widget and list widget side by side could be used as a bespoke Twitter client aimed at your audience's interests.
Code wrangling
Whichever widget confi guration you finally choose, you'll have a comprehensive degree of control over the look of the widgets on your page. Click 'Dimensions' first. You're able to restrict the size of the widget to fit your page, or tick a box so that it automatically adjusts.
Click 'Appearance' and you can change the colour scheme for the Twitter widget to fit into your pages. Use it with the Chrome browser extension Colour Pick or the Firefox plugin ColourZilla to match the colours in your scheme and site. When you've finished tweaking, click 'Finish and Grab Code'.
A form containing the configured code will appear. The code itself is pretty compact – that's because most of the hard work is done by an external JavaScript file, 'widget.js', referred to in the very first line.
Still, the variable and value pairs here are clear and self explanatory, so the widget script can be used to create further iterations without having to go back through all those menus. Width and height can be changed directly, and you can alter usernames or search terms.
Changing one widget type to another will require more coding, though, so if you want to do that, the best course of action is to return to the site and work back through the menus.
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There are three Twitter marketing tips that all websites and companies should consider. Using these three tips can gain more interest for your website and can also draw back repeat traffic to your website. These Twitter marketing tips are as follows:
Tip #1: Advertise your Twitter link on your website. If your visitors don't know you have a Twitter account then your Twitter account will fail to produce 'followers'. If you want to use Twitter for marketing purposes then you must focus on gaining flowerers or your Twitter marketing strategy will be ineffective.
Tip #2: Add a Twitter widget to your website. A Twitter widget will place all of your Twitter updates and messages on your website wherever you place the widget. This allows visitors to your website to see that your Twitter account is active. It also gives them the ability to embed your Twitter widget on their websites which also generates more followers for your Twitter account.
Tip #3: Tweet daily! When using this type of marketing you need to make sure that you Twitter (or Tweet) on a regular basis. You don't want to over use Twitter, but you do want to make sure that you are using it on a regular basis. If you fail to be active with Twitter, you will fail to maintain followers.
This type of marketing can bring followers of your website back time and time again. Additionally, it is a very effective way to introduce your followers to special events and promotions that you may be offering.
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No one wants another person to take over their account and impersonate them -- or worse. HTTP session hijacking is nowhere close to a new vulnerability, but with the introduction of the Firefox addon, Firesheep, people who have never hacked, are trying the free and easy-to-use tool. After installation, a person can connect to an open Wi-Fi network, see which users on that network are on insecure social sites, and then double-click on that user to capture their cookie and be logged in as them. Four days and nearly 400,000 downloads later, it's time to see insecure websites get serious about protecting their users' privacy and security with full end-to-end encryption.
On the second day after Firesheep was released, Firesheep was the second suggestion on Bing when you typed "fire". With Bing on the brain, I went to bing.com and tried to add S to HTTP. The below screenshot is what happens -- an invalid security certificate pops up.
After poking around on Twitter, I saw that other people had tried it as well.
When I asked Microsoft if it intended to encrypt its connection so that HTTPS worked with Bing, a spokesperson said, "The security and privacy of our customers is very important to us at Bing. We are looking at SSL and other technologies for future releases of Bing."
Windows Live, live.com, is also listed among the sites that can be sniffed and hijacked with Firesheep. Errata Security's Robert Graham blogged, "The presentation on FireSheep has the really cool graphic above, showing an elephant in the room. That's what sidejacking is: how long will providers like HotMail (MSN Live) and Yahoo continue not to provide encryption for their e-mail products. Seriously, if you still use the free versions of HotMail or Yahoo Mail, you are an idiot."
"Going forward the metric of Firesheep's success will quickly change from amount of attention it gains, to the number of sites that adopt proper security. True success will be when Firesheep no longer works at all," blogged Eric Butler one of Firesheep's creators.
Software security consultant Ian Gallagher co-authored the blog post as well as co-presented Firesheep at ToorCon. Gallagher lists some levels of failure that make it is so difficult for users to stay safe. There might be a complete absence of SSL/HTTPS, or it might be that some hosts charge for full-session SSL. "A basic expectation of privacy should not be a premium feature," he wrote. Most big sites do encrypt for the intial login, but after a user enters their username and password, the rest of the site is in HTTP and not HTTPS. "These sites fail to protect you because after you've authenticated, you're issued a cookie that identifies you throughout your browsing session, but if you think about it that's just as good as your username/password for 99% of the time," Gallagher explained. Then there are other sites that support full encryption but fail in to implement it securely.
He wrote:
You can't simply avoid visiting the sites that are being attacked here. There's an enormous amount of mixed content on the web today, such as the Facebook "Like" button, Digg's "Digg It" button, twitter widgets, and even embedded images that are hosted on Flickr or other photo sharing sites. Every time you access any web page that includes any of this content, your browser also sends any authentication cookies you have with the request to pull down the widget. TechCrunch is a great example of this, every article has lots of little widgets to share it on numerous social sites.
Even if you're proactive and think to log yourself out of a website, this rarely does anything but delete the cookies from your web browser - meaning any stolen copies of them are still going to work for accessing the website. Twitter, Amazon, Foursquare, Github, Flickr, Yahoo, Windows Live (Hotmail) and many others do not properly delete your session from their severs when you use their "Logout" features. Facebook, while having other problems, does appear to properly delete sessions on their servers when you "Logout".
I highly advise reading all of Gallagher's suggestions for how users might protect themselves as well as how website operators can fix the problem. He ends the post with these words of wisdom. "Many companies make a business, not technical, decision to not implement security due to either perceived or actual costs. It is our opinion that turning a blind eye to customer privacy and security is never good for business, and we hope the people making these decisions will begin to agree."
Dear Microsoft, you are a global software giant. I know there are some great privacy and security minded folks who work for you. Could you please hurry end-to-end encryption for Live and Bing so users will see that the security and privacy of your customers are very important to you?
A few months ago, people were starting to talk about Twitter. Now, Twitter is no secret; it's THE marketing tool everyone is talking about. If you are not using Twitter to promote your business, you are out of your mind.
If there's something that gets me more excited than Twitter is the ability to increase Twitter's potential by using tools. But let me give you a word of caution: once you try these Twitter tools, there's no way back. You'll become a Twitter genius and get more exposure for your business than you've ever thought possible. If you are OK with that, read on.
TweeFind
This tool allows you to search Twitter users and sorts the results by user rank. This is a great way to find tweets about a specific topic.
Twi.bz
As you probably know, tweets can be as long as 140 characters. This URL-shortening service is perfect to keep the URLs short and have more space to write your tweets.
Twellow
They call themselves "The Twitter Yellow Pages". Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?
Friend or Follow
This is a great tool to find out who you are following that is not following you back and who is following you that you are not following.
TwitterCounter
This tool allows you to see in a graphic how your Twitter followers increase or decrease over time. TweetStats is another cool tool that performs the same task.
Twitter for WordPress
Twitter for WordPress displays yours latest tweets in your WordPress blog.
Twitter Widget for WordPress
This widget is placed in the sidebar of your WordPress blog and shows your latest Twitter updates.
TwitBin
TwitBin is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar.
Just Tweet It
Another amazing Twitter directory. Find other Twitter users and list yourself so others can find you.
TwitterMail
This service allows you to tweet by email. Really cool.
TweetBeep
This one sends you regular emails with the latest updates of the people you are following on Twitter.
Who Should I Follow?
Very interesting tool that suggests Twitter users for you to follow, based on the profiles that you are currently following.
Twitter Search Feature
It used to be called Summize but now Twitter bought it. As its name reveals it, Twitter Search Feature allows you to search through the last tweets to find users that are posting a given keyword. TwitterMent is another great Twitter search engine.
Ping.fm
Although not a specific Twitter tool, Ping.fm is one of the coolest applications out there. It allows you to update your status in more than 40 social networking sites at once. You have to check this one out.
Qwitter
Qwitter is a tool that sends you an email when people stop following you. But what makes this tool amazing is the fact that they also tell you what of your tweets made them stop following you.
TweetLater
If you are like me, you want to keep your followers updated but you'd rather tweet several messages at once and choose when they should be posted. This is exactly what this tool is for.
Do you or your company have a Twitter account? If not then you must to get up to date and sign up for a free of charge account today! Lots of organizations right through the world have all began to take advantage of the amazing power of Twitter. Twitter is an easy system for you to keep your followers up to date with what is happening within your business. You simply have to give scheduled updates which your 'followers' will be able to read.
There are lots of methods with which you might get your hands on Twitter traffic, this is also acknowledged as followers. The easiest method to grow your Twitter traffic is by simply placing a special Twitter widget on your site this allows potential customers to your website to click a straightforward button to start following you on twitter. This is the easiest method to secure Twitter traffic for the reason that prospects which click on Your 'follow' me button have looked to join your Twitter account and have wanted to followed you by themselves.
An additional method to acquire Twitter traffic is to use the search option within Twitter. You can search Twitter for prospects which are chatting about particular 'keywords' which relate to your online business. Lets say, you a run a website committed to 'scary movies' you could run a search for 'scary movies' within Twitter and it will put on view every prospect which has talked about or made use of this terms within their Twitter conversation. You simply add these prospects to your Twitter account. This will provide you with a 50/50 probability that they will follow you back. This increases your followings very quickly.
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2. Go to Twitter.combadges and open the "Get a Widget for your Site" page
3. Click TypePad logo
4. Click Continue to open the "Add Twitter to your TypePad" weblog page
5. Use the "Number of updates list" to select the size of the tweet list
6. Use the "Title" text box to change the title to something other than the default ("Twitter Updates"). If you do not want a title select the "No Title" check box.
7. Click the "View the code" link
8. Highlight code and copy
9. Login to your TypePad account.
10. Click the blog you want to add your Twitter badge
11. Click Design tab
12. Click the Sidebar template.
13. Position the cursor where you want the widget to appear on your blog
14. Paste the code where you want it placed.
15. Click Save
Adding a Twitter Widget to Your Site
If you do not have either a Facebook, MySpace account, or Blog you can still give your site some support by showing off your tweets. Twitter gives you three different widgets you can add
? Interactive Flash widget.
This widget shows your username, avatar, and number of followers. It also contains a scrollable list of your last few tweets, and also enable your visitors to log in to their Twitter and interact by following you, replying to your tweet, or even marking one of your tweets as their favorite.
? Display-only Flash Widget.
This much more basic flash widget shows a shorter list of your recent tweets and a link to your Twitter profile. Tweet links work, but your web site readers cannot interact with you.
? HTML widget.
This widget displays your most recent tweets as text, and a follow me link to your Twitter profile. Tweet links (like regular links and @username links) work so your site readers are able to check the sites you recommend.
If you are a WordPress blog users there are many widgets available for you. Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki page for ideas.
So which one did you find helpful My personal favorite is the Interactive Flash widget.
Because this one is more likely to get you more followers since they have the ability to check your links and follow you by just one click. This makes it convenient for other Twitter users. Have fun growing your followers!
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Twitter has become one of the most useful business-building tools out there. It's quick and easy to use. And it's powerful. The power of Twitter lies in the ability to build relationships and create conversations with followers and the people who you follow. But it can seem overwhelming and 'just one more thing to do" So here are a few very short tips to get you in the swing.
Rule #1 Don't spend more then 15 minutes a day on Twitter!
You can have a high ROI without a lot of time on Twitter. I encourage people to use the Twitter widget in and iGoogle dashboard so that you don't drown in Twitter's site. This widget pulls your tweets in every 3 minutes so it stays up to date, but there are no other distractions. You can just dip over to see what's going on and get right back to work. It makes a nice break. You can scan what your people are chatting about, jump in if you choose, or tweet out a comment, short survey and be on your way. Spread your tweets through out the day to get the most exposure - but do not linger.
Rule #2 Do not Sell!
There are many ways to use Twitter but the number one no-no is hard sales. Nothing annoys people more than having someone constantly blasting sales pitches at them. This is not a commercial. It's a relationship building tool. Here are some things to tweet about to stay in your follower's good graces:
Share job opportunities or client needs Share useful or interesting links Share links to your blog posts, articles, events (that's OK, just don't be a used car salesman) Offer support Offer community Share an a-ha moment Share a feeling Ask a "have you ever..." question - start a conversation Ask for resources..."what's the best...?" Share a laugh Share a quote Share a vent, pet peeve, nervous tick... Do a tip of the day
Rule #3 Know who to follow
People of all sorts are going to follow you. That's part of the fun of Twitter. But to make the best use of your time, choose who you follow carefully. I know a lot of people do an automatic follow in return when someone follows you, but that didn't work for me. For some bizarre reason a lot of real estate people started following me and they really do a lot of sales tweets so I had to go back and unfollow. So be strategic. Here are a few ideas on who to follow (tip: you can search by keywords for people to follow:
People who hire freelancers People who know people who hire freelancers People who outsource to other freelancers People who share the same ideas and interests People who have to potential to collaborate on ideas People who inspire you People who you find funny, interesting,...
Rule #4 Remember: Relationships & Fun
That's really what social media is all about, creating relationships, sharing your expertise, and having some fun.
The final caution:
Do not tweet anything that you do not want a room of about 150 people to hear. I'm just saying...
Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Barbara Saunders is a designer specializing in custom publishing and the Director of the International Association of Self-Employed Communication Professionals. You can visit Barbara, access the free article archive, and find out more about the group at http://www.IASECP.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get a complimentary copy of our book "Preferred Partners Share Their Ultimate Business Tips for Self-Employed Communication Professionals". Barbara lives in Portland, Oregon with a spinning Pomeranian and two cats.
Following up from the last set of Social Media Marketing webinars where we covered the basics of Twitter and other Social Media tools and sites, I have been getting questions about using Twitter for business purposes. In response to those questions, I wanted to write out a short list of Twitter for Business best practices and some of the most popular tools that make these practices possible. This list of tools, techniques, and what is possible is changing and expanding almost daily with the explosion of Twitter usage and discussions of Twitter merging with some other site/partner. Thus I expect to stay current on using Twitter for business purposes we will need to repost more on this topic from time to time.
o Be Real (don't hide) - It is important that you completely fill in the registration and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like "PatrickAtDell"). In the profile section, post your website. I wouldn't recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.
With the profile bio limited to 160 characters, you want to get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don't have much space to talk about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content located in the background image. That's why the keywords have to be in your description.
Finally and possibly most important is that you need to upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if you are representing a company. If Twitters don't think you are real, they are less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the worst and they won't follow you.
o Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond) - For a business or business person to be relevant in the Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and elicit responses. Respond to other user's questions. Tweet not only your own relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable. Promote and/or attribute others where there's a reason to do so. You can build a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don't look like you are just out the get them to buy something.
The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as well as your activity. There's a number of search tools that will help you here to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.
The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There's a big difference between using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to "elite" status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.
o Automate (where possible) - Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed automatically, and build ranking faster and easier. There are several automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business presence without having to hire a back room full of people:
--TweetBeep -Set up alerts for various keywords, people, different attitudes, and links. --Summize (Twitter Search) - Search for your keywords, click a button and you have a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on what's happening. --Tweetlater - one of the more versatile tools related to Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct messages to people that follow you, and managing multiple Twitter Ids at the same time. --Twitscoop - extends what Twitter Search can do with both real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in the cloud. --Twellow - This is another research tool that extends Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people's profiles or what they are Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search. Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the US and Canada. --Remember the Milk (RTM) - A real unique and cutting edge use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks, things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.
o Re-purpose existing content- With taking care of customers, blogging, keeping up profiles on numerous social media sites, all while running a business, maintaining your online presence can quickly become overwhelming. Use tools like Twitterfeed to automatically Tweet content from an RSS feeds of your other blogs or sites, and Alterthingy, another tool that helps you aggregate and repost your content across the multiple sites, and profiles you need to maintain.
In addition, several blogs (Wordpress for example) are building Twitter widgets to be able to display your tweets (and others) on your blog, thus keeping the blog actively changing and a target for better search engine ranking and more active visits.
There are any number of other ways you can use Twitter for Business and this note really only scratches the surface of what is possible. As the popularity of Twitter grows so will the unique and inventive ways of using this innovative tool.
About Urvi Mehta:
Urvi Mehta is a passionate Social Media Evangelist who thrives on teaching and consulting business owners and organizations on how to use Web 2.0 and social media tools and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help create buzz and influence their branding online.
She is the co-founder of PR Easy (http://www.PREasy.com), a full service online marketing company which serves clients around the world. Urvi teaches her clients how to utilize social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to establish themselves as authorities in their industry, acquire more clients and ultimately increase profit.
Urvi holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois in Chicago and is considered by her peers as someone who "holds nothing back and gives real meat." She has recently started a blog, http://www.UrviMehta.com where she discusses Social Media Strategies.
Sources like Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN to name a few have found success on Twitter, but in general corporate Twitter accounts don't seem to fair as well. It's all about a 2 way form of communication and not so much a broadcasting tool for corporations. One would miss the potential to use it like that.
That doesn't mean that you can't start a Twitter account for you organization. For example, if I opened a Twitter account using my name, you might not recognize the name, unless you were trying to make a large presence online with a huge number of followers, [not always the case]. but if I instead used the name BENJAMINS4U, you might be more inclined to follow because we all could use some Benjamins, right?
And then again it's not always the name that matters as is the content of the tweet. Tweets should be more than an endless string of sales pitches, ads, and links. Lots of personal content should also be included with a dialogue to followers.
That is all to important because this is where you make the bond with the follower. Having honest and open tweets with your followers is of the utmost importance. In this way you are sure to build loyalty and trustworthiness. This also opens the door for repeat traffic as well as word-of-mouth recommendations.
2-Learn From Others
I have learned allot about Twitter just by sitting back and observing other's tweets, as well as my personal back office's massive training regimen. Sometime people tweet with lots of humor, and follower respond well to that while others I've monitored, offer a good balance between recommending content written by others and also promoting one's own posts.
When you examine the styles of others tweets, look at their statistics also. Try a app. like TWEETSTAT. When you use this you can view how often they tweet and reply to their followers. I like Tweepi for stats. You get one hell of a chart full of statistics.
3-Desktop Clients-A Must
In my opinion, the top of the line out there has got to be. This is an Adobe AIR app for Linux, Mac, and of course, Windows. You get some awesome tools to manage your life on Twitter. You can create groups, make columns for certain subjects, create filters, and everything else you can do on basic Twitter. Just download this gem, and you'll be off and tweeting in no time.
4-Tweet And Travel
I'm not saying here to tweet while you are driving or operating any type of equipment, but if your going to personal as well as professional, you'll want this on the road with you. If your not lucky enough to have an iPhone, plug into Twitter's mobile web site. If you do have an iPhone, [I personally do not], you may want to try Tweetie. The reviews say that it is clean, easy to navigate, and is loaded with features. You can have multiple accounts, access profiles, do custom searches and view popular trends to name a few. It may even be better than TweetDeck. It's been said to offer a much cleaner interface as well as having the power of TweetDeck.
5-Tracking Your Results
There is a huge list of apps used to track your activity.Tweepi is just one of those. But, what us IM'ers need to know is, if I post a link on Twitter, how many people will click through?
If the link pointed to my website, Google Analytics' URL tagging tool could be implicated. The only problem is, it only works when I'm linking to my own website. In addition, the URL's can get pretty long, you only have 140 characters to spend.
This brings us to Tweet Burnner, which will handle most of these problems. URL shortening, click-through tracking, including sites you don't run yourself. It is also supported in TweetDeck but not in Tweetie.
6-To Follow And To Be Followed
Part of being a hit on Twitter is to reply to those who tweet you. It's not about who follows you, it's about who you follow. Another useful app is Mr. Tweet. You get a couple different kinds of info with Mr. Tweet:
people you may look into following, because they meet your criteria [people that your friends follow],
suggests tweeple from your followers list that you should be following back.
It also provide statistical information including:
how often they make updates,
number of followers,
the likelihood of them replying to you.
It's a good way to expand your network and increase the chances of your tweets getting retweeted.
7-Whenever Possible-IntegrateIf your going to use Twitter for other than personal use, you'll need to incorporate it into your strategy. This means you have to link it in some way to your other online activities. Other social networks included. There is no shortage of tools to help you do this, from sending your tweets to Facebook, Linkdin, or Wordpress to the basic Twitter widget.
TwitterFeed is one tool that caught my attention. This tool will post content from RSS feed to Twitter, and this is a good way to update your followers to new postings. But it is important to remember, that any auto-posting app can easily get you Twitter slapped if used in excess. It also make the post less personable.
8-Don't Reinvent The Wheel
It should be noted that the use of all these tools, is that it can make the whole Twitter experience less than personal. You might want to omit some of those late night drunken blackout tweets far behind, you shouldn't make them too sterile either.
Just be yourself. Don't send your primary opportunity up front. It should be on the backend. In your bio, don't link to your main objective or your biz op website, link to blog which should be your nerve center.
K.I.S.S. Most of all, have fun!
Thomas P. Lane has been a successful Master Mechanic and N.H.R.A. drag racer for over 25 years. He now spends his time and energies into cultivating entrepreneurs online by applying an honest and ethical approach to Internet marketing. His success in mentoring others to become financially independent and optimizing their lifestyles has already put him in demand in the Internet marketing circles.
For further information and to become a member of Thomas' elite group of marketers, please email at agentoffortune1@gmail.com, or call directly at 440-458-8631 in the United States.
After poking around on Twitter, I saw that other people had tried it as well.