I bet you can't go one day without hearing about the Internet's latest media, Twitter. Everybody from the mainstream media to celebrities to your family has at least heard of Twitter. Twitter has been used for everything from a critical communications link to the outside world. As an Internet Marketer the profit making opportunity presented by those millions upon millions of worldwide users happily tweeting away should make your mouth water so much that your literally sitting in a pool of your own drool!
Guess what? You are not the only one with that idea and thousands of would be Twitter marketers are trying to grab their share of the gold rush before the claim pinches out. Most will fail. Twitter users are becoming more sophisticated and lest tolerant of blatant marketing efforts. Let's make sure you are not a statistic. In this article we will provide you with the secret key to required properly mine Twitter for fame and fortune.
Twitter's enormous popularity, like all social media, is built on implicit trust. As an example of that implicit trust mechanism, Twitter only allows you to DM (Twitter shorthand for direct message) those that follow you. The (truly) brilliant minds at Twitter assumed that if a person trusts you enough to follow you, that they trust you enough to accept a direct message.
So you probably think that what I am saying is that to truly succeed with Twitter as a marketing tool you must have thousands, or even better, millions of followers. How does that make my message any different from the hundreds of other Twitter gurus who recommend that you go out and buy an expensive tool, usually from their affiliate link, and mass follow complete strangers, hoping they follow you back and Twitter doesn't ban your account? Well, don't get me wrong, having your own legion of loyal followers is definitely an asset, but many Twitter marketers do not have that luxury when they are first beginning to utilize the Twitter system for marketing.
The true secret to utilizing Twitter as a marketing tool is to embrace the viral nature of the Twitter itself. You might only have 100 followers, but if each of those followers has 100 followers, now you have the basis of a campaign. But wait, what about the trust issue? You need to find a way of reaching the followers of your followers (or website and / or blog visitors). You need a bridge to get over the trust chasm that divides you from the hordes of faithful minions that follow your followers.
The best Twitter strategy to build that bridge and complete the chain of trust is to get your website visitors to retweet (RT in Twitter shorthand) your message to their followers. For example, provide a form on your website or blog that encourages your visitors to tweet your message. This is where your creativity needs to come into play. Craft a compelling Tweet with a subtle, but effective, call to action and then promise your visitor (and deliver) a free report or discount coupon after they complete the act of retweeting your message. For example, a very popular method currently is to conduct Twitter contests. In exchange for an entry into your contest, your website visitor agrees to retweet your message. One company just completed a contest in which they gave away one Macbook a day for ten days. During the span of the contest, this company's retweets trended higher than Michael Jackson's death!
It is such a simple concept that it is very common for even the most experienced Internet marketer to forget; viral marketing is successful marketing. Your website or blog visitors trust you. The Twitter followers of your visitor trust them. By encouraging your visitors to retweet your message to their followers, there is now an implied trust in you and your messag; the trust chasm has been bridged!
Viral marketing with Twitter also has a nice side effect. If your visitor's followers are intrigued by your message, they will voluntarily follow you - no prodding or coercion required! Thus not only are you fully exploiting the very viral nature of Twitter, but you are also building up your ever important followers list, readily available for future efforts!
Self-promotion on Twitter is dead. Promoting your own message is the easiest way to lose followers and potentially get clobbered by the dreaded Twitter ban hammer. Don't let others lead you to believe that Twitter itself is dead. Twitter profits are still there for the taking, however now is the time to get creative and rethink your Twitter marketing strategy to fully exploit the very viral nature of the Twitter that makes the service so popular to begin with!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Twitter For Business - How to Sell Your Products and Services on Twitter
Many companies don't know how to sell their products on Twitter. Other companies don't even try since the Twitter experience just doesn't make sense to them. But, it is not difficult to use Twitter to sell your products and services.
Selling on Twitter is similar to online dating. How does online dating work?
You post your profile and search out the profiles of the men or women you want to date.
You select the people who look or sound attractive, and email a message. But, that message is not "let's hook up tonight." It is a friendly message, and an introduction that may get you a response.
The same is true on Twitter. Twitter is a social meeting place. You can't just set up a profile and start sending tweets (what the messages are called on Twitter) to "hook up and buy my stuff." Yes, you need to show some restraint.
Here Is My Best Practices For Selling On Twitter
Step 1. Set up a blog
When you are planning to date, at some point your date is going to want to see where you live. It's your home. It reflects on who you are as a person. You don't take a date to your office--your cube is not that impressive.
Your blog is your online home. People who are interested in you on Twitter will want to see your blog, and not your company website. A website is a place of business. Twitter is social. A blog is social.
On Twitter, you invite followers into your online home or blog and then if things go well, they can buy from you at your blog or at your website.
Step 2. Show up
You have to show up. Simply, that means you have to make a profile on Twitter. Use your name or part of your name with your company name. The name is important. Don't use a stupid name that means nothing or is too clever. A personal name is better than a business name. Twitter is social (yeah, I'm repeating myself).
Describe who are you and what do you do. Post a photo of yourself. No stupid photos. No avatars. Be real.
Your Twitter profile needs to link to your blog not your website. See step 1.
Now, check to make sure your profile fits and looks interesting. Sometimes you will find that it is too long or too short or you'll find a few typos. Fix them.
Remember this about your profile: Your mother may or may not be on Twitter. But, one day, your boss will be on Twitter.
Step 3. Make connections by adding value
One great thing about Twitter is that when you tweet one person, that message is potentially being viewed by all your followers. Everyone on Twitter is a peeping Tom or peeping Mary. In many ways, Twitter is a voyeur's paradise.
By adding value for one of your followers, you will get credit from everyone as being social and a good citizen on Twitter.
Now, to add value on Twitter you MUST do the following:
a. Post new content on your blog--regularly. Ideally, every day. This is only a hardship if you are not passionate and committed in your area of expertise.
b. Tweet about your new blog post and link it to your post. This lets your followers know you are going to add value.
c. Tweet people to help them in your area of "blog" expertise. This lets your followers know that you can help them.
d. Tweet people to help them in other areas that interest you. This lets people know you can be trusted. Everyone on Twitter knows that many people are trying to sell something on Twitter, and that is not an issue. It is an issue only if you are using Twitter just to sell. An analogy: Making friends only with people who can help you get what you want in life.
e. Tweet people just to be social, friendly and just be you. Twitter is a friendly, social meeting place.
Overall, follow a through e, and you are inviting people to come to your blog. The more you participate, the more people will be following you and the more people will be checking out your blog. Add Google analytics to your blog and you can see how many visitors you are getting daily by using Twitter.
Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.
You've made a connection. You've added value. People are visiting your blog. Now that they are in your home, where are you going to take this person?
When you tweet about a new blog entry, it is like a fortuitous meeting of a new neighbor. There's not a lot of time for conversation. So you invite them to come by for coffee or tea. And when they come by, you take them into your kitchen. It's a friendly, informal place. You don't take them into your living room.
When you tweet about a new blog post, or tweet to help someone about an issue, you link them to a specific blog post URL. Do not link into your general blog URL. That blog post is tailored to add value for your followers and/or to help one follower. A specific blog post URL is friendly.
Now, if that person likes what that post says, and trusts you, you have created a relationship using Twitter. This person is now ready to see the rest of your online home and read your other blog posts.
Having a connection turn into a relationship can happen the first time that person views your post, or it may happen after a few more visits.
Fortunately, unlike dating, you CAN rush a Twitter relationship. Keep participating, keep tweeting and keep adding value. Maybe even consider a special promotion for your Twitter followers.
Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens. (apologies to the NBA)
Your blog should be set up so every time someone visits, they know where to go for more information or to buy. Sales happen at different times, but they do happen. A sale can take place on your blog or on your website. Just make sure that if you need to take visitors to your website for more info or to sell, to have that link visible and easy to find on your blog.
Summary
Twitter is a great meeting place where you can sell your products and services. To make a sale:
Step 1. Set up a blog
Step 2. Show up
Step 3. Make connections by adding value
Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.
Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens
Selling on Twitter is similar to online dating. How does online dating work?
You post your profile and search out the profiles of the men or women you want to date.
You select the people who look or sound attractive, and email a message. But, that message is not "let's hook up tonight." It is a friendly message, and an introduction that may get you a response.
The same is true on Twitter. Twitter is a social meeting place. You can't just set up a profile and start sending tweets (what the messages are called on Twitter) to "hook up and buy my stuff." Yes, you need to show some restraint.
Here Is My Best Practices For Selling On Twitter
Step 1. Set up a blog
When you are planning to date, at some point your date is going to want to see where you live. It's your home. It reflects on who you are as a person. You don't take a date to your office--your cube is not that impressive.
Your blog is your online home. People who are interested in you on Twitter will want to see your blog, and not your company website. A website is a place of business. Twitter is social. A blog is social.
On Twitter, you invite followers into your online home or blog and then if things go well, they can buy from you at your blog or at your website.
Step 2. Show up
You have to show up. Simply, that means you have to make a profile on Twitter. Use your name or part of your name with your company name. The name is important. Don't use a stupid name that means nothing or is too clever. A personal name is better than a business name. Twitter is social (yeah, I'm repeating myself).
Describe who are you and what do you do. Post a photo of yourself. No stupid photos. No avatars. Be real.
Your Twitter profile needs to link to your blog not your website. See step 1.
Now, check to make sure your profile fits and looks interesting. Sometimes you will find that it is too long or too short or you'll find a few typos. Fix them.
Remember this about your profile: Your mother may or may not be on Twitter. But, one day, your boss will be on Twitter.
Step 3. Make connections by adding value
One great thing about Twitter is that when you tweet one person, that message is potentially being viewed by all your followers. Everyone on Twitter is a peeping Tom or peeping Mary. In many ways, Twitter is a voyeur's paradise.
By adding value for one of your followers, you will get credit from everyone as being social and a good citizen on Twitter.
Now, to add value on Twitter you MUST do the following:
a. Post new content on your blog--regularly. Ideally, every day. This is only a hardship if you are not passionate and committed in your area of expertise.
b. Tweet about your new blog post and link it to your post. This lets your followers know you are going to add value.
c. Tweet people to help them in your area of "blog" expertise. This lets your followers know that you can help them.
d. Tweet people to help them in other areas that interest you. This lets people know you can be trusted. Everyone on Twitter knows that many people are trying to sell something on Twitter, and that is not an issue. It is an issue only if you are using Twitter just to sell. An analogy: Making friends only with people who can help you get what you want in life.
e. Tweet people just to be social, friendly and just be you. Twitter is a friendly, social meeting place.
Overall, follow a through e, and you are inviting people to come to your blog. The more you participate, the more people will be following you and the more people will be checking out your blog. Add Google analytics to your blog and you can see how many visitors you are getting daily by using Twitter.
Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.
You've made a connection. You've added value. People are visiting your blog. Now that they are in your home, where are you going to take this person?
When you tweet about a new blog entry, it is like a fortuitous meeting of a new neighbor. There's not a lot of time for conversation. So you invite them to come by for coffee or tea. And when they come by, you take them into your kitchen. It's a friendly, informal place. You don't take them into your living room.
When you tweet about a new blog post, or tweet to help someone about an issue, you link them to a specific blog post URL. Do not link into your general blog URL. That blog post is tailored to add value for your followers and/or to help one follower. A specific blog post URL is friendly.
Now, if that person likes what that post says, and trusts you, you have created a relationship using Twitter. This person is now ready to see the rest of your online home and read your other blog posts.
Having a connection turn into a relationship can happen the first time that person views your post, or it may happen after a few more visits.
Fortunately, unlike dating, you CAN rush a Twitter relationship. Keep participating, keep tweeting and keep adding value. Maybe even consider a special promotion for your Twitter followers.
Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens. (apologies to the NBA)
Your blog should be set up so every time someone visits, they know where to go for more information or to buy. Sales happen at different times, but they do happen. A sale can take place on your blog or on your website. Just make sure that if you need to take visitors to your website for more info or to sell, to have that link visible and easy to find on your blog.
Summary
Twitter is a great meeting place where you can sell your products and services. To make a sale:
Step 1. Set up a blog
Step 2. Show up
Step 3. Make connections by adding value
Step 4: Build trust. Build the relationship.
Step 5. Twitter. Where the sale happens
How to Gain More Twitter Followers and Keep Them
Whenever I mention to people that Twitter is a great place to meet interesting people and to also meet potential leads and customers, they often agree with me about meeting interesting people, but think I'm kidding about meeting potential leads and customers. That is, until I explain to them what I do to meet customers on Twitter.
First of all, if you haven't done so already, you'll want to grab up your name on Twitter as well as your company's name (if you run a business). You can visit Twitter.com to create them both. In the end, you'll end up with something like twitter.com/accountnameyoupick and twitter.com/companynameyoupick.
How Twitter Works
In case you're new to Twitter or to the concept, let me explain how it works. First, you create an account, which let's you follow around other people that have accounts on Twitter. by simply browsing through the database, or going to Twitter.com/search, you can quickly find other people that have similar interest to you in any country on the face of this world. You can click on the FOLLOW button of any person you wish to follow. At that point, anytime they send a message to Twitter, the message appears in your home page (after you've logged in). You can also view anyone's page publicly without logging in yourself. You can also see the messages that pour in to that account from those that are being followed by this person. So, essentially, you could be witnessing strands of conversations going on via one person's account.
If you decide to view your own home page, you might only be seeing one side of the conversation, unless you travel over to the followee's page and view the whole conversation, since you'll be able to see the messages from those that the person is also following. You can also decide to follow the other people on the followee's page, so that you are able to view the entire conversation on your own home page in Twitter.
Twitter As A Networking Tool
In case, you are already lost, I'm about to enlighten you with an example. Twitter is like a social gathering room that continuously goes on forever. The doors never close, and the lights never go off. If you have ever attended a business card exchange, or a leads group meeting, those types of events take place on a particular date, at a particular time, and usually only last 1 or 2 hours at most.
With Twitter, the social gathering (whether conversing socially or about business) can go on forever with no time limits. Now imagine, that you've walked into the room. There are already tons of conversations going on. The key is to find a few that you can participate in, thereby making some small talk. In a real-life scenario, you'd do the same. You'd walk up to a few people, see what they're talking about, and tap into the conversations that you know something about. Eventually, the conversation may take a path towards what you do or sell, and you might have the opportunity to make a lead or a sale right there and then.
Twitter offers these same opportunities, except, as I said, the room never closes, and the lights never go out. Most of the time, most Twitter users post their messages (or as we like to call them, "tweets") using their computer. They log into their account and enter a post at the top input box and click update to send their message to not only their own home page, but to all of the followers, that are presently following them.
However, as a Twitter user, you are not limited to just using your computer to post tweets. You can elect to use your cell phone as well, by simply texting your message using SMS. I've setup a contact on my phone called Twitter that contains the number for me to send tweets. Thus, I can be standing in line at the supermarket, and still post things that come to mind while I'm standing there.
Finding People To Connect With On Twitter
The next question I'm often asked about Twitter, is how do you find people to follow? As I already said, you can perform a search at search.twitter.com or you can have another tool that I use to bring them to you.
That tool is actually a website named tweetlater.com. TweetLater has tons of features to help you with Twitter and becoming more social on it (too many to mention in one article, but in due time, I'll go over many of its features and talk about how I use them).
In this article, I want to concentrate on Keyword Tracking. You can read more about it at: tweetlater.com/alerts.
Essentially, it acts as your Twitter conversation locator and reports back as often as you tell it to. You tell it what keywords you're interested in, and it goes out and finds conversations currently discussing those keywords. Then, periodically, it sends you a digest of those conversations, along with direct links to the actual users currently discussing it. That's your opportunity to chime in and present yourself:
"Hi @mrtwitteruser, I noticed that you were asking for others to provide you with suggestions for the best hosting on the Internet...that's what we do best and I'd love for you to take a look at our website or perhaps allow me to call you with some information..."
So, now you see how you can gain leads from Twitter, and perhaps even turn them into followers. Remember, most of the time, if you follow someone, they will follow you back. Some even have their account on auto, which allows them to automatically follow you back. I'll discuss how to do that using auto-replies and all in a future article. But how do you keep them following you around?
Keep Your Followers Coming Back For More
The answer to this question is that you must continue to provide them with interesting things to discuss. They have to see that you always have interesting things to talk about. But how do you know what is interesting to them? How do you know that others will find anything that you have to say interesting? Truth is that it takes practice to become witty and funny and sociable on Twitter. Often though, if you want to use your account for business purposes and want to be seen as a professional in every aspect of your life, you have to watch what you say...especially online, where every word you say is sometimes taken literally, can get you into trouble, and is as good as writing it in stone.
I personally like to play it safe and keep my funny comments and wittiness to a minimum. However, I did promise you that I would provide you with something that you could always depend on to provide your followers with interesting things that would make them continue following you, so here it is. The answer lies in Digg.com. But before I show you how, let me back up a bit and explain why this works.
If you remember, I mentioned that you want to find people that discuss things that are interesting to you. This means that things that interest you, also interest them. Let's take an example. If you like to discuss politics, there are tons of other people on Twitter that discuss politics. In politics, there are things always happening, being discussed, being written about, and from all kinds of different perspectives. You don't always have to agree with what others are saying, but there's nothing to stop you from opening up things for discussion.
Digg.com is the perfect place to find out just about anything that is currently being discussed by others in the field of politics and to gain insight. Enough insight that you can share various articles with others that are presently following you. And since you followed them for the same reasons or interests, chances are that they are probably following you right back. Therefore, when you break a story to them about your shared interests, they'll appreciate it and in turn, continue to follow you and maybe even turn on other followers to you. It's like a chain reaction.
Making It Easy To Be Interesting
So, you're probably thinking, "darn, are you telling me that I should keep going back to Digg every few minutes to find out what story is breaking news in my area of interest?" The answer is NO...thankfully, Digg.com offers a tool that can be added to your browser, which brings the front page breaking news to you. As you may or may not know, the way Digg works is that someone, somewhere in the world, notices an interesting blog, news item, post of some kind, video, or photo. They then post the item on Digg by logging into their account, and posting it on Digg, along with a headline, a topic category, and description.
As other Digg users notice the post, or post it themselves, the post gains popularity. The more popular the post becomes, the more closer it gets to the home page of Digg. When it finally hits the home page, the browser add-on receives the alert and shows you an 5 second popup window that shows the headliner (for those categories that you have subscribed to). Thus, Digg brings the popular headlines to you, based on your interests, which by the way, happen to be the same items of interest as those that are following you around on Twitter. Now, you have something to talk about.
Tweet Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
Only one thing remains, how do you quickly add that story to Twitter so that you can keep working on whatever it was you were working on before you saw the headline? I use another tool called TwitThat, which is located at http://twitthat.com. This tool adds a shortcut to your browser so that you can quickly click on it, it popups with predefined text that allows you to tweet many different common messages, along with your link (already compressed using tinyurl, which is another web tool that shrinks long URLs down to manageable sizes that will fit into Twitter's maximum length).
If you do decide to get yourself a Twitter account, come on over to our business page on FaceBook (link is shown below) and add your Twitter ID to our Twitter discussion on that page. All of our fans will follow you around as well, giving you more followers. And while you're there, don't forget to become a fan of our business page.
First of all, if you haven't done so already, you'll want to grab up your name on Twitter as well as your company's name (if you run a business). You can visit Twitter.com to create them both. In the end, you'll end up with something like twitter.com/accountnameyoupick and twitter.com/companynameyoupick.
How Twitter Works
In case you're new to Twitter or to the concept, let me explain how it works. First, you create an account, which let's you follow around other people that have accounts on Twitter. by simply browsing through the database, or going to Twitter.com/search, you can quickly find other people that have similar interest to you in any country on the face of this world. You can click on the FOLLOW button of any person you wish to follow. At that point, anytime they send a message to Twitter, the message appears in your home page (after you've logged in). You can also view anyone's page publicly without logging in yourself. You can also see the messages that pour in to that account from those that are being followed by this person. So, essentially, you could be witnessing strands of conversations going on via one person's account.
If you decide to view your own home page, you might only be seeing one side of the conversation, unless you travel over to the followee's page and view the whole conversation, since you'll be able to see the messages from those that the person is also following. You can also decide to follow the other people on the followee's page, so that you are able to view the entire conversation on your own home page in Twitter.
Twitter As A Networking Tool
In case, you are already lost, I'm about to enlighten you with an example. Twitter is like a social gathering room that continuously goes on forever. The doors never close, and the lights never go off. If you have ever attended a business card exchange, or a leads group meeting, those types of events take place on a particular date, at a particular time, and usually only last 1 or 2 hours at most.
With Twitter, the social gathering (whether conversing socially or about business) can go on forever with no time limits. Now imagine, that you've walked into the room. There are already tons of conversations going on. The key is to find a few that you can participate in, thereby making some small talk. In a real-life scenario, you'd do the same. You'd walk up to a few people, see what they're talking about, and tap into the conversations that you know something about. Eventually, the conversation may take a path towards what you do or sell, and you might have the opportunity to make a lead or a sale right there and then.
Twitter offers these same opportunities, except, as I said, the room never closes, and the lights never go out. Most of the time, most Twitter users post their messages (or as we like to call them, "tweets") using their computer. They log into their account and enter a post at the top input box and click update to send their message to not only their own home page, but to all of the followers, that are presently following them.
However, as a Twitter user, you are not limited to just using your computer to post tweets. You can elect to use your cell phone as well, by simply texting your message using SMS. I've setup a contact on my phone called Twitter that contains the number for me to send tweets. Thus, I can be standing in line at the supermarket, and still post things that come to mind while I'm standing there.
Finding People To Connect With On Twitter
The next question I'm often asked about Twitter, is how do you find people to follow? As I already said, you can perform a search at search.twitter.com or you can have another tool that I use to bring them to you.
That tool is actually a website named tweetlater.com. TweetLater has tons of features to help you with Twitter and becoming more social on it (too many to mention in one article, but in due time, I'll go over many of its features and talk about how I use them).
In this article, I want to concentrate on Keyword Tracking. You can read more about it at: tweetlater.com/alerts.
Essentially, it acts as your Twitter conversation locator and reports back as often as you tell it to. You tell it what keywords you're interested in, and it goes out and finds conversations currently discussing those keywords. Then, periodically, it sends you a digest of those conversations, along with direct links to the actual users currently discussing it. That's your opportunity to chime in and present yourself:
"Hi @mrtwitteruser, I noticed that you were asking for others to provide you with suggestions for the best hosting on the Internet...that's what we do best and I'd love for you to take a look at our website or perhaps allow me to call you with some information..."
So, now you see how you can gain leads from Twitter, and perhaps even turn them into followers. Remember, most of the time, if you follow someone, they will follow you back. Some even have their account on auto, which allows them to automatically follow you back. I'll discuss how to do that using auto-replies and all in a future article. But how do you keep them following you around?
Keep Your Followers Coming Back For More
The answer to this question is that you must continue to provide them with interesting things to discuss. They have to see that you always have interesting things to talk about. But how do you know what is interesting to them? How do you know that others will find anything that you have to say interesting? Truth is that it takes practice to become witty and funny and sociable on Twitter. Often though, if you want to use your account for business purposes and want to be seen as a professional in every aspect of your life, you have to watch what you say...especially online, where every word you say is sometimes taken literally, can get you into trouble, and is as good as writing it in stone.
I personally like to play it safe and keep my funny comments and wittiness to a minimum. However, I did promise you that I would provide you with something that you could always depend on to provide your followers with interesting things that would make them continue following you, so here it is. The answer lies in Digg.com. But before I show you how, let me back up a bit and explain why this works.
If you remember, I mentioned that you want to find people that discuss things that are interesting to you. This means that things that interest you, also interest them. Let's take an example. If you like to discuss politics, there are tons of other people on Twitter that discuss politics. In politics, there are things always happening, being discussed, being written about, and from all kinds of different perspectives. You don't always have to agree with what others are saying, but there's nothing to stop you from opening up things for discussion.
Digg.com is the perfect place to find out just about anything that is currently being discussed by others in the field of politics and to gain insight. Enough insight that you can share various articles with others that are presently following you. And since you followed them for the same reasons or interests, chances are that they are probably following you right back. Therefore, when you break a story to them about your shared interests, they'll appreciate it and in turn, continue to follow you and maybe even turn on other followers to you. It's like a chain reaction.
Making It Easy To Be Interesting
So, you're probably thinking, "darn, are you telling me that I should keep going back to Digg every few minutes to find out what story is breaking news in my area of interest?" The answer is NO...thankfully, Digg.com offers a tool that can be added to your browser, which brings the front page breaking news to you. As you may or may not know, the way Digg works is that someone, somewhere in the world, notices an interesting blog, news item, post of some kind, video, or photo. They then post the item on Digg by logging into their account, and posting it on Digg, along with a headline, a topic category, and description.
As other Digg users notice the post, or post it themselves, the post gains popularity. The more popular the post becomes, the more closer it gets to the home page of Digg. When it finally hits the home page, the browser add-on receives the alert and shows you an 5 second popup window that shows the headliner (for those categories that you have subscribed to). Thus, Digg brings the popular headlines to you, based on your interests, which by the way, happen to be the same items of interest as those that are following you around on Twitter. Now, you have something to talk about.
Tweet Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
Only one thing remains, how do you quickly add that story to Twitter so that you can keep working on whatever it was you were working on before you saw the headline? I use another tool called TwitThat, which is located at http://twitthat.com. This tool adds a shortcut to your browser so that you can quickly click on it, it popups with predefined text that allows you to tweet many different common messages, along with your link (already compressed using tinyurl, which is another web tool that shrinks long URLs down to manageable sizes that will fit into Twitter's maximum length).
If you do decide to get yourself a Twitter account, come on over to our business page on FaceBook (link is shown below) and add your Twitter ID to our Twitter discussion on that page. All of our fans will follow you around as well, giving you more followers. And while you're there, don't forget to become a fan of our business page.
How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Online Business
Today it seems like so many newscasts (radio or TV) encourage their viewers or listeners to communicate with them through Twitter. The visibility for Twitter has grown worldwide. At the end of 2008, it was estimated by Forester Research that approximately 5 million users were on Twitter. Some estimate that number has grown by another million in just the last 3 months. You may be surprised to know that Barack Obama tweets. In fact, at the end of last year, Israel's ministry of foreign affairs conducted a worldwide press conference via Twitter where they took questions from the public about the war against Hamas in Gaza. Because twitter is so spontaneous, it provides users with a means to find out about the latest industry news in a particular niche or activity within minutes of the actual event/occurrence. The purpose of this article is to discuss this new social marketing phenomena and how it can be used to promote your online and offline businesses.
Twitter is a "microblogging" service that continues to grow in popularity. Twitter posts, known as "tweets" can only be a maximum of 140 characters. Updates or Tweets are shown on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive these tweets. Getting subscribers or followers on Twitter is a goal of many who use the service. People who subscribe to your tweets, will get your whole tweet at once, instead of having to go to your website. Companies like Apple, Intel, Cisco and even the White House are all on Twitter.
In theory, if you gain more followers on Twitter, then you should be able to drive more visitors to your website and generate exposure for your businesses. This is because, if done right, Twitter can be a mechanism to send information to these potential customers and marketing your website. However, Twitter involves engaging other users. If you want to gain and keep a large percentage of your followers, don't use spam tactics. One such tactic is to simply "blast" anyone and everyone on twitter with a notification that you are following them. Many people will simply follow those that send them notification that they are being followed. However, these people that "blindly" follow others, usually don't actively engage many people. Following are some proven tips on how to grow your network on Twitter and how to use this service to gain exposure for your online business.
First you need to consider Why would people want to follow me? What can I provide them with that's of value? Considering that there's literally millions of twitter users, you need to determine what sets me apart from them? Market your strengths.
1) Build your profile
If you read through numerous expert blogs on Twitter and how to grow your network, they all start with the same/strong recommendation to provide a strong profile. Consider your profile as a breathing organism that should be continually built up. Treat your profile like your website or blog's about me page. Try to update your account with content that appears like it's written by a human. This means, include interesting comments/observations. You'll need more than a sentence or two that describes who you are and what you do. Unless you're a celebrity, you'll need a detailed and clear profile. In one of the steps below, outside promotion is discussed. Directing traffic to your profile page is an excellent way to gain followers. In fact, this strategy of continually building up your profile and regularly driving visitors to this page on Twitter is one of the most effective means to gain followers.
Since you're directing people to your Twitter profile, you should ensure your Twitter account's background, avatar and overall design are consistent with your website. Although directing traffic to your profile page is a subject for another article, a few ways include: a) using Twitter as a customer service or support tool, b) include links to your profile page on your forum, blog and other social media posts.
A great way to attract people who may be interested in the content on your website, is to use the same keywords in your profile that you do on your website. A few examples include:
"I am interested in fitness and working out. I share weight loss tips on my website " or "I'm a professional guitar player who loves to teach music, check out 5 tips to playing guitar on my website" or "I'm a successful financial adviser who can help you reduce your debt, sign up for my free newsletter when you visit my website." These are all nice short bios that tell visitors about yourself. Note that we give them a reason to visit our website. It's also a good idea to include some useful tips on your profile. This way potential followers will more strongly consider you. Always include a hyperlink to your website (include the "http" to ensure that it's clickable)
2) Sync your website with your twitter account
This ensures new posts or articles appear as updates in your twitter account. If you're driving traffic to your twitter account, people will see your numerous posts. This helps generate long term traffic, provided your content is of interest to your visitors. Use a twitter tool called TwitterFeed, to automatically post your latest blog posts titles.
3) Post questions as tweets
Examples of questions can be seeking information or recommendations. The result may be that your network could direct you to other twitter users with whom you may converse and ultimately gain as followers. Also consider questions where you're seeking feedback on your website(s) or seeking a course of action for a given scenario. Your goal with questions is to generate a conversation and engages your Twitter followers with the responses from your followers.
4) Manually "pick" your followers.
A great way, but admittedly a bit time consuming, is to search Twitter using keywords of interest. You can simply type in any words or phrases and attempt to connect with others who share that particular interest. You will have to sift through the search results and look at various profiles along with their related Tweets. Next you can add people you think you can engage in conversation. This can be a very effective way to connect with people that would be interested in your website. This brings us back to point 1), develop a solid profile. If you build a profile with strategically placed keywords, people who are searching twitter, may land on your profile and follow you.
5) Retweet often (but not too much)
You want to optimize your exposure on twitter. In addition to the above tactics, you want to re-Tweet (sometimes called @ reply). The reason why you gain followers when people re-tweet you is that your username is exposed to people who haven't heard of you. When you do this choose the right keywords or phrases. Other Twitter users enjoy engaging and thought provoking conversations. If you tweet and re-tweet with your followers, others notice. Your keyword rich (but not overdone) tweets can get picked up in twitter searches.
6) Understand How Twitter Works
Twitter should not be another marketing tool to be over manipulated. Although some will try, Twitter should be considered as a social marketing tool useful to those who are a part of the community. Don't spam and don't over-actively promote yourself.
Your goal should be to build a network within the community by replying to other tweets (retweeting), sharing observations, news and even direct your followers to a blog post, filled with useful information, and only then use that post to get followers to take action. Trying to take people out of Twitter right away and into a sales pitch will get you labeled as a scammer.
7) Review your followers and revise your strategy if necessary
If you're using twitter to grow your online business, it's a good idea to track the number of your followers. If you are losing many more followers than you're gaining, review the content of your tweets to ensure it isn't offending or "turning away" your followers. Consider having an unbiased third party take a look at your tweets to provide you with feedback.
8) Other ways to gain a twitter audience
To build your network above and beyond your initial contact list, you'll need to look both inside and outside Twitter.
Outside of Twitter, placing a link to "Follow me on Twitter" in your email or forum signature, website, blog posts, and any other way that you communicate with people (where appropriate, of course)
Inside of Twitter, it's all about following people. You can find other users that you admire, and see who is following them; you can also see who is following your friends. In order to do this use Twitter directories to find members who have similar likes. You can do this by using the search feature to find profiles of people you want to follow - and follow all of them. In most cases, they will, in turn, follow you.
There are more great strategies to grow your online business with Twitter. In addition to Twitter, you can easily grow your business with numerous other Social Networking sites. One way to find out about these strategies and more is through a Portal Feeder membership which includes training and the most powerful set of tools, resources and support to get you started making money online in 30 days.
Twitter is a "microblogging" service that continues to grow in popularity. Twitter posts, known as "tweets" can only be a maximum of 140 characters. Updates or Tweets are shown on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive these tweets. Getting subscribers or followers on Twitter is a goal of many who use the service. People who subscribe to your tweets, will get your whole tweet at once, instead of having to go to your website. Companies like Apple, Intel, Cisco and even the White House are all on Twitter.
In theory, if you gain more followers on Twitter, then you should be able to drive more visitors to your website and generate exposure for your businesses. This is because, if done right, Twitter can be a mechanism to send information to these potential customers and marketing your website. However, Twitter involves engaging other users. If you want to gain and keep a large percentage of your followers, don't use spam tactics. One such tactic is to simply "blast" anyone and everyone on twitter with a notification that you are following them. Many people will simply follow those that send them notification that they are being followed. However, these people that "blindly" follow others, usually don't actively engage many people. Following are some proven tips on how to grow your network on Twitter and how to use this service to gain exposure for your online business.
First you need to consider Why would people want to follow me? What can I provide them with that's of value? Considering that there's literally millions of twitter users, you need to determine what sets me apart from them? Market your strengths.
1) Build your profile
If you read through numerous expert blogs on Twitter and how to grow your network, they all start with the same/strong recommendation to provide a strong profile. Consider your profile as a breathing organism that should be continually built up. Treat your profile like your website or blog's about me page. Try to update your account with content that appears like it's written by a human. This means, include interesting comments/observations. You'll need more than a sentence or two that describes who you are and what you do. Unless you're a celebrity, you'll need a detailed and clear profile. In one of the steps below, outside promotion is discussed. Directing traffic to your profile page is an excellent way to gain followers. In fact, this strategy of continually building up your profile and regularly driving visitors to this page on Twitter is one of the most effective means to gain followers.
Since you're directing people to your Twitter profile, you should ensure your Twitter account's background, avatar and overall design are consistent with your website. Although directing traffic to your profile page is a subject for another article, a few ways include: a) using Twitter as a customer service or support tool, b) include links to your profile page on your forum, blog and other social media posts.
A great way to attract people who may be interested in the content on your website, is to use the same keywords in your profile that you do on your website. A few examples include:
"I am interested in fitness and working out. I share weight loss tips on my website " or "I'm a professional guitar player who loves to teach music, check out 5 tips to playing guitar on my website" or "I'm a successful financial adviser who can help you reduce your debt, sign up for my free newsletter when you visit my website." These are all nice short bios that tell visitors about yourself. Note that we give them a reason to visit our website. It's also a good idea to include some useful tips on your profile. This way potential followers will more strongly consider you. Always include a hyperlink to your website (include the "http" to ensure that it's clickable)
2) Sync your website with your twitter account
This ensures new posts or articles appear as updates in your twitter account. If you're driving traffic to your twitter account, people will see your numerous posts. This helps generate long term traffic, provided your content is of interest to your visitors. Use a twitter tool called TwitterFeed, to automatically post your latest blog posts titles.
3) Post questions as tweets
Examples of questions can be seeking information or recommendations. The result may be that your network could direct you to other twitter users with whom you may converse and ultimately gain as followers. Also consider questions where you're seeking feedback on your website(s) or seeking a course of action for a given scenario. Your goal with questions is to generate a conversation and engages your Twitter followers with the responses from your followers.
4) Manually "pick" your followers.
A great way, but admittedly a bit time consuming, is to search Twitter using keywords of interest. You can simply type in any words or phrases and attempt to connect with others who share that particular interest. You will have to sift through the search results and look at various profiles along with their related Tweets. Next you can add people you think you can engage in conversation. This can be a very effective way to connect with people that would be interested in your website. This brings us back to point 1), develop a solid profile. If you build a profile with strategically placed keywords, people who are searching twitter, may land on your profile and follow you.
5) Retweet often (but not too much)
You want to optimize your exposure on twitter. In addition to the above tactics, you want to re-Tweet (sometimes called @ reply). The reason why you gain followers when people re-tweet you is that your username is exposed to people who haven't heard of you. When you do this choose the right keywords or phrases. Other Twitter users enjoy engaging and thought provoking conversations. If you tweet and re-tweet with your followers, others notice. Your keyword rich (but not overdone) tweets can get picked up in twitter searches.
6) Understand How Twitter Works
Twitter should not be another marketing tool to be over manipulated. Although some will try, Twitter should be considered as a social marketing tool useful to those who are a part of the community. Don't spam and don't over-actively promote yourself.
Your goal should be to build a network within the community by replying to other tweets (retweeting), sharing observations, news and even direct your followers to a blog post, filled with useful information, and only then use that post to get followers to take action. Trying to take people out of Twitter right away and into a sales pitch will get you labeled as a scammer.
7) Review your followers and revise your strategy if necessary
If you're using twitter to grow your online business, it's a good idea to track the number of your followers. If you are losing many more followers than you're gaining, review the content of your tweets to ensure it isn't offending or "turning away" your followers. Consider having an unbiased third party take a look at your tweets to provide you with feedback.
8) Other ways to gain a twitter audience
To build your network above and beyond your initial contact list, you'll need to look both inside and outside Twitter.
Outside of Twitter, placing a link to "Follow me on Twitter" in your email or forum signature, website, blog posts, and any other way that you communicate with people (where appropriate, of course)
Inside of Twitter, it's all about following people. You can find other users that you admire, and see who is following them; you can also see who is following your friends. In order to do this use Twitter directories to find members who have similar likes. You can do this by using the search feature to find profiles of people you want to follow - and follow all of them. In most cases, they will, in turn, follow you.
There are more great strategies to grow your online business with Twitter. In addition to Twitter, you can easily grow your business with numerous other Social Networking sites. One way to find out about these strategies and more is through a Portal Feeder membership which includes training and the most powerful set of tools, resources and support to get you started making money online in 30 days.
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