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.
