Twitter Is Like A Cocktail Party

alt="Twitter Is Like A Cocktail Party" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0208-4-500x235_c.jpg" />

 

href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">class="border" alt="Social Media Icons" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1010-4.jpg" width="750" />

If there is one thing that grabs my attention, it’s statistics. Thanks to creative designers and 21^st century technology those statistics are often compiled into pretty infographics. The nice people over at Touch Agency created an informative infographic on Twitter that has some remarkable stats (feel free to check out the href="http://www.touchagency.com/free-twitter-infographic/" target="_blank">infographic here).

• 200,000,000 registered Twitter accounts
• 450,000 new Twitter accounts are created every day
• 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special offers/deals
• There are 18,000 search queries every second which is around 1.6 billion searches every day
• 88 of the 100 Fortune Global Companies post daily news and updates
• As many as 52% of users update their status every day
• 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to others

Bottom line: Twitter has grown into a very powerful marketing medium and it’s only getting stronger. So the next question is how do you capitalize on this medium and the uber-social culture in which we live? Here’s the secret…Twitter is like a cocktail party.

Allow me to explain.

Meeting People/Followers

Just like at a party, you are able to meet new people on Twitter (it’s just called “followers”). There are three different “types” of people to follow:

People you know: If you were at a cocktail party with your friends you probably wouldn’t ignore them so why ignore them on Twitter? Ask friends and colleagues for their Twitter handle and start conversing with them through this medium as well as in person.

People you wished you knew: These are the people that everyone knows about, “the popular crowd/celebrities/industry front runners”. You could gain great insight from them at a party and the same is true about Twitter. But not only will you gain great insight on whatever interests you share, you can also learn from them on their technique. How often are the sharing information? How do they share? How do they interact with their followers? How often do they promote themselves verse just sharing their personality (funny jokes, situations, thoughts, etc.)?

People you don’t know yet, but could become great friends with. At the party, you could use small talk to meet new people and discover similar interests. In Twitter terms, you can find others with similar interests by using hash tags. For example, if you are a photographer, search #photographer and scour the results for interesting tweets. You can also use mutual friends. On Twitter, people with similar interests also tend to follow the same people. If you find a great Twitter user, look through their following for more potential contacts.

Converse

Not many relationships are sustainable without communication, both digitally and in person.

Produce Content: When you are talking to someone in person you are more than likely to share a new topic of conversation. For example, you may something like, “Did you see that touchdown in the football game last night!” or “Have you read that article on the effects of BPA in water bottles?” href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/10-surefire-ways-to-market-your-products-on-twitter/">Do the same thing on twitter, converse with your friends based on your mutual interests. Share comments and/or links to videos, articles, and websites.

Interact: A mention (@) on twitter is synonymous with Hey! If someone starts a conversation with you, respond.

Share Stories: How many of you have retold a joke or story that you heard from a friend? On Twitter this is the “href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">retweet” button. It’s like you’re telling your twitter followers, “Hey, my friend John just said…”

Repeat

Continue to make new friendships and develop the ones you have in the same way. Before you know it you will have a solid only group of friends that you learn from, grow with, and love.

A few last tips

1. Be yourself (nobody likes a phony or spammer)
2. Have fun

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – Which is Right for Me?

alt="Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – Which is Right for Me?" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

Social media is everywhere. Consumers can go from their home computer, to their mobile phone, to their tablet, to their office laptop without missing a social beat. What started out as an easy way for people to connect with one another has turned into one of the most influential communication mediums ever known. Not embracing social media could prove very detrimental to businesses’ marketing efforts.

But, like most people, you’re probably wondering where do I begin? Do I join ever social network I learn about? Do I have to upload videos to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and Twitter every single day? Each social network has both pros and cons (just like any other marketing medium) that need to be weighed against your goals.

Here are some brief highlights of four of the top social media networks (if you want to learn more about some of the other popular networks, CMO.com publishes a href="http://www.cmo.com/social-media/2011-cmos-guide-social-landscape" target="_blank">Social Landscape Chart each year outlining the major networks and their best uses).

Facebook

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Facebook is a destination network, in other words, consumers go on the Internet to go to Facebook and spend time on the site. The primary usage is not a means to get to other sites; in fact most users don’t want to navigate away from Facebook. The site has been developed to be an all encompassing platform (pictures, pages, chat, email, video, etc.) and a hub of all social media (you can integrate nearly every other network into your Facebook profile).

B2C businesses are thriving on Facebook by being where their target audience is already conversing and simply joining the conversation.

Twitter

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Twitter is the most popular microblogging site (messages of 140 characters or less) and, like Facebook, it is a great means of communication. You can almost liken Twitter as a text message to your target audience – any exciting news, informative article link, press release, or even a quick “hello, how’s it going,” can quickly be posted in a matter of seconds for your entire following to see.  

Whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, Twitter can provide a great platform for you to converse with your target audience. However, if there isn’t a lot happening in your industry and you don’t have the means to tweet regularly, a different network may better suit your business.

LinkedIn

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LinkedIn is the new digital rolodex and the best network for personal branding and to position yourself and your business as experts in a specific area. With the ability to both create and/or engage in groups regarding specific topics, you can provide your intellect as a resource for the other group members. Just as businesses used Rolodexes pre-Internet, businesses use their LinkedIn connections to help them with their business needs.

If you are targeting business professionals, LinkedIn is the place to be.

YouTube

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The benefits of YouTube are limited only to your creativity. CMO said it well, “Whether you seek to entertain, inform, or both, video is a powerful channel for quickly responding to customer complaints and showing your social-media savvy.” Not only is YouTube great for communicating and building brand awareness, it is also a great tool for SEO.

Any business can utilize the benefits of YouTube.

Now, there are several hundred (if not more) other social networks with many more being started regularly. If you find yourself become overwhelmed with the amount of social media possibilities, take a step back and look at the overall picture. The best question you can ask yourself is, “where is my target market?” If they are on Facebook, go there. If they are on LinkedIn, go there. If they are on a very targeted network specific to industry, go there. Don’t waste your time and energy trying to connect to your target market in networks they aren’t active in.

Still unsure what network to join or if you are on the right one(s)? Comment below and let’s talk about it!

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Track Your Twitter Influence: 6 Must Know Twitter Analytic Tools

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When using Twitter for business, the second most important tasks, next to actually being active, is measuring how you are doing. If you have spent any time researching Twitter analytics resources you are well aware there is quite a plethora to choose from.

Let’s break a few down so you can make an educated choice about what tool (or combination of tools) will work best for you.

target="_blank" href="http://www.klout.com"> Klout

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-1.jpg" alt="Klout screenshot" class='border' />

Gaining a lot of publicity, and rightfully so, Klout works great to measure your social media influence (your ability to drive action). It isn’t limited to just Twitter but rather takes all of your social media accounts into consideration. Scoring you on a scale of 1 to 100, Klout specifically measures:

• Your reach: How many people you influence
• Your amplification: How much you influence them
• Your network impact: The influence of your network

They provide really easy to read graphs that track your score. My favorite feature of Klout is the “Klout Style”. They have developed several different social media styles and, based on how you rank within their algorithm, they place you into a 4×4 matrix. This gives you a visual idea of where you are at and how to get where you want to be.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://www.klout.com">http://www.klout.com

target="_blank" href="http://www.peerindex.com/">Peer Index

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-2.jpg" alt="Peer Index screenshot" class='border' />

Peer Index is very similar to Klout, but not quite as visually appealing (in my opinion at least :)). Peer Index ranks your social presence (again, not just Twitter) using a different algorithm, so it can serve as a great complement to Klout to give you more of a complete picture of how influential you actually are.

I have two favorite features of Peer Index: 1) It shows your fingerprint of influence is a variety of benchmarks (8 to be exact) and 2) you can compare yourself to others giving you an idea of where you stack up to others in the industry.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://www.peerindex.com/">http://www.peerindex.com/

target="_blank" href="http://twitalyzer.com/">Twitalyzer

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-3.jpg" alt="Twitalyzer screenshot" class='border' />

Twitalyzer offers a lot of great information (impact, engagement, generosity, followers, reach, and several more), but all of the information can be a little overwhelming. If you are a friend of statistics this may be the tool for you, but if you just want someone else to do the calculating of where you stand in the Twitter world, one of the other tools will probably be best for you.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://twitalyzer.com/">http://twitalyzer.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetgrader.com/">Tweet Grader

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-4.jpg" alt="Tweet Grader screenshot" class='border' />

Unlike the previous tools, you don’t need to sign into Tweet Grader to retrieve their report on your twitter influence. However, this means it doesn’t track your history either. If you are looking for a quick report on where you stand, this is a great option. If you want something that tracks how your rankings change over time this isn’t the best option for you. The site ranks how well you are doing on an algorithm that takes followers, influence of followers, updates, engagement, and a few other elements into consideration.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetgrader.com/">http://tweetgrader.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetreach.com/">Tweet Reach

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-5.jpg" alt="Tweet Reach screenshot" class='border' />

Like Tweet Grader, there is no need to sign up for an account with Tweet Reach. It’s a very straightforward tool – type in your Twitter handle and they will populate the reach of your Tweets. The coolest part of this tool is that you are able to download a report of the results so you can track your progress.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetreach.com/">http://tweetreach.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetstats.com/">Tweet Stats

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-6.jpg" alt="Tweetstats screenshot" class='border' />

Tweet Stats has a lot of room for design improvement, but that’s not the main reason we are using it, right? Once you enter your Twitter handle it populates several graphs visually depicting your Twitter usage. This information could serve as a great compliment to another tool but doesn’t provide a lot valuable information for a standalone tool.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetstats.com/">http://tweetstats.com/

So, how do you track your Twitter influence? Make sure to leave your handle, I’d love to follow you.

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

10 Surefire Ways to Market Your Products on Twitter

alt="10 Surefire Ways to Market Your Products on Twitter" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tweeting-500x311_c.jpg" />

class="border" style="line-height: 1.5em;" alt="Twitter Marketing" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/0208-4.jpg" width="750" />

The internet paved way to another opportunity for marketers or sellers. Through the internet, I’ve seen that any marketer could make his product known and visible without spending a fortune or without breaking the bank. Some cost-effective online approaches I’ve known and tested are online advertisements, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-tools/my-quick-review-on-getresponse/">email marketing, article directories, and search engine optimization. But apart from the usual online marketing strategies, I saw that you can promote your products in a social networking site like Twitter.

Tweeting is fun and somehow addicting. Anyone could access Twitter since it is a free social site and registering for an account is easy. Once registered, you can search for friends, acquaintances or even those people who share the same interest like yours. They can become your followers and it means that it will be possible for them to receive updates or Tweets from you regularly, while you also can receive Tweets from your Twitter friends.

But since Twitter is foremost a social networking site, your followers then would expect you to post social messages rather than product advertisements. Otherwise, you will be losing followers than gaining more. So, advertising or making your product href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">known and visible in Twitter should be approached properly and cleverly.

To do this, follow the 10 Surefire Ways to Market Your Products on Twitter.

1. Make use of Search.Twitter.com to build contacts that could be your prospective clients.

id="floatright">alt="Twitter Marketing" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/0208-5.jpg" />

10 recent tweets in my Twitter account

alt="10 recent tweets in my Twitter account" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-followers-500x166_c.jpg" />

You guys already check out my Twitter account – href="http://twitter.com/WebHostingJerry">WebHostingJerry?

class="border" alt="Twitter" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2009/1105-3.jpg" width="750" />

Recent tweets at WebHostingJerry

Here are my 10 recent tweets.

• RackSpace CEO talked about cloud hosting and all the related matters in a recent CNBC blogpost – href="http://bit.ly/aWUd5" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/aWUd5
• 90 Free or Paid Websites File Hosting and Sharing Sites href="http://bit.ly/uhu00" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/uhu00
• Tips to Write Better CSS Code href="http://bit.ly/1CH4YL" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/1CH4YL
• Flickr image – Plastic life gallery (it’s a bit off topic but it’s really good) href="http://bit.ly/4bo1i4/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/4bo1i4/
• 50 Beautiful and Creative Blog Designs href="http://bit.ly/34QZTw/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/34QZTw/
• A Wired.com Farewell to GeoCities href="http://bit.ly/4sOxBz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/4sOxBz
• iPage review – my experience with iPage so far (one month) href="http://bit.ly/2egGjI/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/2egGjI/
• Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center href="http://bit.ly/2M9hTu" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/2M9hTu
• 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips href="http://bit.ly/2V9Fgh" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/2V9Fgh
• WordPress 2.8.5 released, version 2.9 coming soon! href="http://bit.ly/WSvWB" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/WSvWB

Get industry news and latest hosting promotions from me on Twitter!

id="floatright">href="http://twitter.com/WebHostingJerry">style="border: 0px;" alt="Twitter" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2009/1105-13.jpg" width="139" height="145" border="0" />

How To Increase Your Twitter Following

alt="How To Increase Your Twitter Following" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-followers-500x166_c.jpg" />

class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1022" alt="Twitter Statistics" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/twitter-stats-750x529.jpg" width="750" height="529" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/twitter-stats-750x529.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/twitter-stats-300x211.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/twitter-stats.jpg 975w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

I’m going to contradict the title. The number displayed immediately after “followers” no your Twitter profile isn’t really that important.

Wait. What?

Yes, you read that right. Let me explain. A number? Irrelevant. A community? Invaluable. The community emphasis that social media is fostering makes the typical “Increase your Twitter Followers by 500% in 3 days!” type of article ineffective. Rather than talking numbers, let’s talk impact. With all of this in mind, let me re-title the article.

20 Tips and Tools to Increase Your IMPACT on Twitter

To increase impact you must cultivate community. Consumers want a conversation, for a brand to talk with them; not a brand to talk at them (remember href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-marketing/twitter-is-like-a-cocktail-party/">Twitter is like a cocktail party?). Making an impact isn’t about a step-by-step process where you have “arrived” when you reach step 10. Take time to analyze the following tips and how they can best be implemented into your current Twitter efforts.

Twitter Tips

1. Audience

There are several critical factors that you must know about your audience.

• Who: Do you know who you are trying to connect with? Are they you’re current customers? Is your Twitter account a means to provide customer support? Are you facilitating a competition via Twitter?
• Voice: Do they want witty banter? Informative? Jokes? Intellectual? How do people in your industry communicate?
• What: What do they want to know? Do they want political updates? Business tips? Are they following you to learn about the latest in photography lenses? If you aren’t providing the information they want, they’ll unfollow.
• When: Is your audience night owls or early birds? Is there a time difference? Do they tend to tweet during the day or only before and after work? If you can plan your schedule around your audience’s you’ll be much more likely to have an real-time conversation.

2. Interact

If you only take heed to my advice on one tip, make it this one. Let me reiterate: your followers don’t want to be advertised to, they want to be interacted with. Engage in conversation, retweet, thank followers for mentions, respond to direct messages; anything you can do to show you’re listening will help cultivate community. A big part of community building is gaining trust. A trusting relationship is an influential relationship.

3. Connect with industry influencers

One common technique individuals use when building a twitter list is to follow those that follow industry leaders. By associating yourself with the top names in your industry, their fans will likely become your fans.

4. Learn from industry influencers

Once you’ve connected with industry influencers, learn why they are influential in your industry. Study their technique. When do they post? Who do they @mention? What types of information do they share in their tweets? How often do they tweet? You need to bring individuality to your Twitter account, but you’ll find valuable information in learning from someone who is already in a place you want to be in.

5. Participate in Twitter events

Some of the easiest ways to connect with others with similar interests are through event hashtags and Twitter chats.

• Events: Next time you go to a conference, seminar, or luncheon, take note of the hash tag they are using to promote the event and use it! Retweet other event goers, converse with them about your favorite parts of the conference, and don’t forget to @mention the speakers.
• Twitter Chats: Savvy Twitter users have come up with the concept of a Twitter chat. They publicize a topic and time (most of them are recurring events) and Twitter users will congregate at the specified time to discuss the topic. It is a great time to connect with other serious Twitter users. Here are some great lists to find which chat works best for you: 1) href="http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3480-23-Twitter-Chats-for-Small-Businesses" target="_blank">Chats for Small Businesses 2) href="http://socialmediatoday.com/kevin-fawley/407822/20-game-changing-twitter-chats" target="_blank">Twitter for Social Media Marketers 3) href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhisaMy5TGiwcnVhejNHWnZlT3NvWFVPT3Q4NkIzQVE%23gid=0" target="_blank">Twitter Chat Schedule.

6. Keep auto-tweeting to a minimum

By this I simply mean that you should limit your scheduled or automated tweets. It isn’t going to sabotage your impact by using Hootsuite or RSS feeds occasionally, but it should be used, at most, as a supplement to your personal tweets.

7. Good Composition

Millions upon millions of tweets are published every single day – if you want to stand out amongst the masses you have to carefully compose your tweet, not just write 140 characters on a whim.

8. Use hashtags

Hashtags can help you in two major ways 1) you can search to find others tweeting about your industry 2) others can find you based on the hashtags you use in your Tweets.

You have to be conscious of the tags you use; there is a unique craft in composing hashtags. You’ll want to use tags that are common, and trending if possible. For example, people will be more likely to find your tweet for #CEO than #BusinessTipsforCEOs.

Remember, you only have 140 characters, so composition is crucial in both the message and the hashtag. If you aren’t sure whether or not others are using the hashtag you want to use, visit href="http://www.hashtags.org" target="_blank">HashTags.org, use a search query with your hash tag of choice, and review the running ticker of uses.

9. Be positive

Nobody wants to read negative tweets day after day. Be positive, encouraging, uplifting, witty – anything really besides negative. If you make your followers feel good about your online relationship they will likely pay more attention your tweets.

10. Add badges everywhere

Help people make it easy to follow you. Anywhere your name is on the Internet, make sure it is followed by your Twitter handle: on your website, your blog, guest posts, your friends/colleagues blog, your other social media profiles, etc.

11. Synchronize

One of the best things about social media and the online world today is that it is so intertwined. Sync your networks together (one easy way to do so is to href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-save-time-in-blog-marketing-with-ifttt/">make use of IFTTT) so when you post on one it is carried through all of your profiles to every person in your network.

12. Be authentic

If you’re fake, people will be able to tell. You can keep your personal life private, but let your personality shine through. Interact with people on Twitter as if you were interacting with them at the water cooler or a cocktail party.

Helpful Twitter Tools

These tools will make your life easier as you increase your Twitter impact – and the best part is they are free!

13. href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">Tweet Deck

This app allows you to track all that’s happening on Twitter with a customizable layout. You can also schedule tweets and set up notifications to be able to effectively monitor your following.

14. href="http://twileshare.com/" target="_blank">TwileShare

Some users want tangible resources from those they follow on Twitter. This tool will allow you to directly share files on Twitter.

15. href="http://dlvr.it/" target="_blank">dlvr.it

This tool will aid in the synchronization of your online efforts.

16. href="http://bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer

I often find myself reviewing articles all at one time during the day but don’t want to overload my Twitter feed with all of the tweets all at once. This site is the perfect solution – and the icon is popping up on blogs across the blogosphere. Add it to your buffer and the retweets will be published throughout the day.

17. href="http://klout.com/" target="_blank">Klout

Klout measures your online impact – we just did an entire article on how to use it, read: href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/getting-started-with-klout/">Getting Started With Klout.

18. href="http://www.peerindex.com/" target="_blank">PeerIndex

This nearly the same as Klout, it really comes down to your personal preference as neither tool stands out above the other.

19. href="http://justtweetit.com/" target="_blank">Just Tweet It

This is a directory that will allow you to search based on interests – a great way to find influencers in your industry.

20. href="http://followerwonk.com/" target="_blank">Followerwonk

Similar to Just Tweet It but also allows you search Twitter users’ bio, location, name, and URL.

Happy Twittering!

Additional: If you want more retweets, also read Jerry’s href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/">49 data-proven ways to win more retweets.

Page 23 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How to Use Twitter for Small Business

alt="How to Use Twitter for Small Business" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/infographic-power-of-twitter-500x401_c.gif" />

If Justin Bieber can use Twitter to drive sales of his albums, surely there must be a way for small businesses to tweet their way to success. While Tweeting alone may not increase your sales figures into the millions, as part of an overall social media campaign, tweeting is vital.

The great thing about Twitter is that you can tweet from anywhere, assuming you have an Internet connection or a mobile media device. If you have five minutes between appointments, you can shoot out a tweet to your followers about an exciting event coming up at your store. This type of on-the-fly promotion will help you stay in constant contact with your customers and build a community of followers who will tell others about the exciting things happening in your business.

href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383408,00.asp" target="_blank">PCMag offers some insight into why people love Twitter and why it is effective for businesses:

“People go to Twitter to share what they know and learn in return. Twitter users are hungry for new ideas, opportunities, information, services, and products. If your business is not part of this exchange, you’re leaving two huge opportunities untouched: growing your business and improving it.”

Five Reasons You Should Use Twitter for Your Small Biz

style="text-align: center">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/infographic-power-of-twitter.gif">class="aligncenter wp-image-1016" alt="The Power Of Twitter " src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/infographic-power-of-twitter.gif" width="600" height="480" />

Show You’re Current

It seems nearly everyone is on Twitter these days. Celebrities tweet, individuals tweet, politicians even tweet. When your business has a presence on Twitter, it shows that you understand the importance of this social media model.

Watch the Competition

Have you ever wondered why your competition is so successful? You may be able to glean an answer from their Twitter posts. Follow your competition’s Twitter feed and you’ll get tweets about events and promotions they are offering. Watch the posts that others seem to retweet the most and see what makes those posts successful.

Get the Word Out

When you want to run a quick sale or offer an event for your customers, Twitter offers a quick and easy way to let people know what is going on in your small business. Not only is tweeting short and sweet, but it is free for those who already have access to the Internet. While there are some paid models within Twitter, such as advertising options, small businesses will benefit from the simple act of having an active profile on Twitter.

Network with Others

When it comes to growing your business, finding like-minded business owners and sharing contacts and promotions can take your business to the next level. Combine promotions, hand out each other’s coupons and promote each other on sites like Twitter. How does this work exactly? Let’s say you have four businesses in your networking group who offer products that complement yours but are not the same. These businesses also have profiles n Twitter. When one of these businesses tweets something that you think might interest your followers/customers, you simply retweet it. The other businesses should do the same for you. Now, instead of only your followers seeing your post, the followers of your network partners also see your tweet.

Build an Online Community

Years ago, people connected via chat rooms on sites like AOL or various forums across the Internet. While these models are still out there, they aren’t as popular as they once were. However, those who are interested in what you have to say will follow you and you can build quite a following. Here is one example of how you could build a community via Twitter:
You write an article about how to know when grapes are ripe enough to pick. You shoot out a tweet that reads: “Are your grapes ready to eat? Find out. http://shorturl.com #WhenAreGrapesRipe #GrapeVinesForYou. Please comment.”

This will bring your followers to your website or blog where they can then comment on the article and share with one another. In addition, many will @GrapeVinesforYou, which essentially tags you in their tweet. This can get a conversation going amongst your followers about grapes. Of course, there are other social media platforms for this type of thing, but Twitter is so quick that people are more likely to tweet back quickly.

How to Tweet Effectively

class="alignright wp-image-1018" style="border: 0px" alt="Twitter" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0501-1-280x187.jpg" width="280" height="187" />

You can throw stuff out there about your business, but that doesn’t mean it will translate into sales leads. However, there are a few things you can do that will increase your chances of tweets translating into potential customers.

1. Engage with Others

The whole idea behind social media is to interact with others. If you set up a small business profile and just throw tweets at people, they aren’t likely to respond. Especially in the early days your business is on Twitter, you need to follow people you know or who have similar interests. Comment on what they are discussing and be engaged in trending topics on Twitter.

When responding to something another tweeter posts, you simply use the @ sign and their username. So, if your username is GrapeVinesForYou, then someone responding to one of your posts would write:

“@GrapeVinesForYou my grandmother always said the grapes are ready when the skin turns translucent.”

To respond to a post from someone else, you do the same thing. Use the @ sign and their username. Engage in interesting conversations. Add something worthwhile without trying to promote your business. Over time, you will build up followers who are also interested in what you have to say. Don’t try to build a false audience, however. This almost never works. Enjoy the atmosphere on Twitter and let your followers build naturally from your current customers, family and friends.

2. Tweet Frequently But Don’t Drive People Crazy

Many business owners struggle with knowing how often to blast out tweets. There is a line between staying in touch and driving people crazy by tweeting too often. A good rule of thumb is to post no more than one or two tweets a day on your own wall and no more than one or two a day where you tag another user, but these should not be commercial or advertising of any sort. Only post conversational notes when responding to someone else.

If you’ve done any advertising, you’ve likely heard of the “Rule of 7”. This is simply a rule of thumb that the customer must see your product or service 7 times before she will take action. In actuality, it may be more or less than that. However, try to get the idea across 7 times in as many different ways as possible. Twitter is just one stop on the way to your 7. Start with a tweet on there about a new product that just arrived. Follow-up with post cards to your current customers. Run an ad in the paper, etc. You get the idea. Get the product in front of your current and potential customers at least 7 times.

3. Use Hashtags Correctly

Hashtags are typically a short word or phrase. They have the “#” in front of the word. Examples of hashtags:

• #comedy
• #savingmoney
• #wines
• #valentine

The hashtag lets people track a conversation on a topic. You will notice trending topics on Twitter’s homepage. If you notice a topic is trending that is related to your business, you can use the hashtag to get people’s attention. Here is an example:

A hurricane just hit part of the country and one of the trending topics of the day is #survival. You just happen to sell survival kits. When you tweet your promotion for the day, you add the hashtag “#survival” to the end of your post.

4. Use Twitter’s Marketing Tools

Twitter offers href="http://business.twitter.com/marketing-twitter" target="_blank">marketing tools for small businesses to track how effective various campaigns are. If you choose to take advantage of one of their ad campaigns, you can then target how effective the ad was. Find out who clicked on it and get details on how engaged they were with the campaign. This can help you target your advertising dollars to get the most bang for your buck.

Why You Should Tweet

According to href="http://www.slideshare.net/sbcmurphy/twitter-for-small-business-17759510" target="_blank">LocalVox, a marketing company, about 85% of people think that companies should have a social media presence. Twitter is an excellent place for small businesses to dip their proverbial toes into the water and test the temperature of social media. Tweets don’t take a lot of time to formulate or send out and with around half a billion users, the potential reach is enormous.

Infographic source: title="Infographic on Twitter" href="http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2011/06/twitter-relationships-and-branding/" target="_blank">Bruce Clay

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The Art of Twitter Following

alt="The Art of Twitter Following" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-followers-500x166_c.jpg" />

One question that all Twitter users ask at some point is “How do I get more followers?”. It is a reasonable question. You will never get the most out of Twitter if no one is following you. You will be able to follow others and interact with them, however it is a one way street if no one ever reads your own tweets.

All Twitter followers are not created equal. Whilst there are benefits to having lots of followers, you will get much more from Twitter if you aim for quality followers who actually want to hear what you say. For example, you could host a competition on your blog and ask participants to follow you on Twitter in order to enter, however afterwards it is unlikely that these people will interact with you or share your tweets. After all, they only followed you because they had to.

Let’s look at how you can get quality followers through Twitter.

1. Forget About Following Others In Order For Them To Follow You

The main way that people in the past gamed Twitter (if you can call it that) was to follow others in order for them to follow you. Hundreds of thousands of people did this automatically through services and applications such as title="TweetAdder" href="http://www.tweetadder.com">TweetAdder. The premise was simple. All you had to do was follow hundreds of people per day. Many would follow back and you would simply unfollow those who did not. This allowed some users to build up thousands of followers in a relatively short space of time.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1772 border" alt="TweetAdder" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tweetadder.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tweetadder.png 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tweetadder-300x211.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

Twitter has effectively shut down all products that automated the process of following and unfollowing people. Due to being taken to court by Twitter, TweetAdder is a completely different product to what it was previously. Before you could simply load the application up and leave it running, however now the application simply helps you find people to follow. You then need to follow people yourself manually.

If you believe in the process of following people in order for them to follow you back is worthwhile, you will find services such as TweetAdder useful. The problem is with following people in order to increase your own number of followers is that it does not add quality followers to your account. Most of the people who will follow you back will not interact with you in any way. Therefore, your higher follower count will not actually increase your interactivity from others on Twitter. This is why I do not believe it is a good long-term strategy for acquiring followers.

2. Interact with Influential Twitter Users

I strongly recommend following people that you want to follow. Follow people that interest you, follow people that are funny, follow people that break news within your niche. If you ever want the people you follow to follow you back, interact with them. Reply to their tweets and share their tweets with with your own followers. If you interact with someone regularly, they will get to know you better and may decide to follow you back.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1773 border" alt="Interact with Influential Twitter Users" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-interact.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-interact.png 441w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/twitter-interact-300x150.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 441px) 100vw, 441px" />

You will now be in a position where someone influential follows you and if they know you well, they might repay the kindness you have shown them and retweet your content. This strategy obviously works better when you follow people who have something in common with you. It is unlikely that a movie star is going to retweet one of your blog posts about your business, however those within your niche will. It therefore pays to

3. Be Yourself

I remember title="Joe Rogan" href="http://www.joerogan.net">Joe Rogan once talked about how no one can hide who they are on Twitter. He spoke in depth about how many celebrities were coming off as idiots, petty or bitter. I believe this 100%. You cannot hide who you are.

So my advice to all of you is to be yourself. Do not try and be something you are not on Twitter. Just be yourself and let your personality shine through.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1774 border" alt="Be Yourself" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/be-yourself.png" width="750" />

A big part of showcasing your personality is customising your profile. This is not a step you should skip. On Twitter, those who do not complete their profile come across as spam accounts and as a result will find it difficult to convince others to follow them. Therefore, make the point of describing yourself in your profile, adding an avatar and perhaps even adding a custom background. Your profile page is where people view information about you so it should reflect who you are and what you do.

4. Share Great Content with Others

Twitter is one of the most popular places on the internet that people share content. By sharing good content regularly you will show others that you are someone worth following. I recommend getting into the routine of sharing good content with others on Twitter regularly by sharing good articles you like with your followers. You should retweet good content from other Twitter users too.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1775 border" alt="Share Great Content with Others" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/share-great-content.png" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/share-great-content.png 537w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/share-great-content-300x205.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 537px) 100vw, 537px" />

5. Promote Your Twitter Account

One of the best ways to get Twitter followers is to promote your Twitter account outside of Twitter itself. Make sure you link to your Twitter account on your websites and on any other social media accounts you use online.

class="size-full wp-image-1776 border alignright" alt="Promote Your Twitter Account" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/connect-with-us.png" width="328" height="116" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/connect-with-us.png 328w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/connect-with-us-300x106.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 328px) 100vw, 328px" />

How much many followers you get from outside of Twitter largely depends on your presence online. The more well-known you are online, the more Twitter followers you will gain as a result of your reputation. There are top bloggers out there who are not even active on Twitter, yet they have thousands of followers on Twitter because people want to listen to what they say.

You do not have to own your own website in order to gain followers in this way. Many journalists and freelance bloggers have grown their Twitter following by simply linking to their Twitter account at the bottom of their articles. You could always write a few articles for some high traffic websites in order to raise your own profile. A good article on a high traffic blog could see you get hundreds of new followers over the space of just a few days.

I have only spoke about what I consider to be the most important points to consider when following others. There are lots of other techniques that Twitter users use to gain followers. For example, Twitter directories such as title="Twellow" href="http://www.twellow.com/">Twellow and title="WeFollow" href="http://wefollow.com/">WeFollow are very popular. I find this kind of thing gives the same results as competitions and following others in order to get a follow back. Your focus should always be on getting quality followers who are actually interested in what you have to say. It is counter-productive to spend so much time gaining followers when they are only looking to inflate their own Twitter presence.

What do you think is the best way to acquire Twitter followers? I’d love to hear your opinion on this issue so please take the time to leave a comment if you can.

Thanks,
Kevin

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