Twitter Manual
Get more from your Twitter account with this guide:
Set Up A Twitter Account
The first step in getting started with Twitter is setting up a user account. Twitter, the 140-character short message method of communication, gives you the ability to network with and talks to hundreds of thousands of other people online. Twitter started out slowly but in recent months has grown madly. Now, it is one of the most used social marketing tools online, not to mention social media device. If you do not have a Twitter account, there has never been a better time to sign up for one. There are some things you need to know to sign up.
Step By Step Set Up
The first thing you need to do to set up a Twitter account is to visit Twitter.com. The website is often busy, and can be bogged down. If you find an error page, simply refresh the browser. Twitter’s “fail whale” picture often pops up when the site is being overloaded with visitors. Once at the website, here is what you need to do to set up your account.
· Click on the link that says, “Join for free” which is located right at the homepage.
· Choose your screen name. There are many conventions on what type of name you should select. If you do not mind people online knowing who you really are, use your real name here. You may want to use the name you are known by online. This does not have to be a difficult process.
· Upload a picture. Twitter does not require you to have a photo uploaded to use it, but you will find people more willing to talk with you if you do have a photo. The reason for this is simple. Those with a photo are real people for sure.
· If you are unsure if you want to have a lot of people following you, which means they will be able to read your messages, you can protect your messages by clicking on the box that says, “protect my messages.”
· You may be asked to provide an email address, just for the sake of identification. It is not shared.
Once you have taken these steps, your Twitter account is set up. With this done, you can start to explore the website and get to know those who are online. You will be impressed with just how easy it is to start enjoying all that Twitter has to offer.
Twitter Apps: Yes Or No?
When you first begin to use Twitter, you will be able to log into the website, sign up for the account and start posting your brief updates right from the site. What you may not realise is that you can keep doing this in the same way, or use one of the many applications, more commonly known as apps, instead. Twitter offers a variety of products to enable you to Tweet anywhere.
There are also many third party products out there, most of which are also free services to use. Apps can make Twitter more accessible, more enjoyable or even easier to use. One of the options you have is to add a Twitter widget to your blog or to your website. This is a fairly simple tool to use and it can be used at MySpace.com, Blogger, Facebook, TypePad and others. It allows you to link your blog to your Twitter account. Anytime that you place an updated message on Twitter, it is displayed at your blog or website, too. This is a great way to keep everyone involved.
Another option you have is called Twhirl. It works on Widows and Mac OSX software. It allows you to connect to multiple accounts from Twitter, Iaconi.ca, Friendfeed and Seesmic at the same time. It will send you a notification for any new messages and it helps you by shortening URLS as you need to. When you sign up for this service, you can also post images to TwitPic, which is one of the most commonly used ways to send pictures back and forth using your Twitter account. This desktop client is very user friendly and often is highly recommended by its users.
Are you considering using a few Twitter apps? If you are not sure if you should use them, consider the following:
· Check out the company that is producing them. You will want to ensure that they are reputable, especially in instances of third party applications.
· Find out what is downloaded to your computer. You do not want adware or spyware to be downloaded at the same time.
· Be cautious about costs. Many programs give you the flexibility you want without costing you anything at all.
Twitter apps make it a lot more enjoyable to use. You may want to consider a few of these if you are someone who wants to be even more connected than you already are!
10 Ways to Use Twitter
Are you looking for a few ways to use Twitter to your advantage? The following are some of the ways in which others are using this social media website, with its 140 character maximum display. What will you update about your status? It may depend on how you plan to use Twitter.
1. Use Twitter to find friends, family and those who you look up to. Celebrities, pop icons, politicians or even news personalities are all online, easily accessible to anyone who has a Twitter account.
2. Use Twitter to stay up to date on the news. A variety of news organisations use Twitter as a way of displaying the latest and most “breaking” news stories they have. It is fast and simple.
3. Use Twitter to hire people. You can get to know them and their services easily. More so, it is very easy to find people to handle those freelance jobs you need just as hiring someone to design a logo for your business or someone to write content for your blog.
4. Use Twitter to meet new people, locally or internationally. It is a worldwide service to connect you to just about anyone you want to be connected with.
5. Use Twitter as a way of networking, to building up the followers you have so that you can always have someone to chat with or even promote.
6. Use Twitter as a way of socialising when you are sitting at home, working your work at home businesses and feeling lonely doing so. Of course, you may find that you can easily use Twitter too much and fill up your day with Tweets instead of work.
7. Use Twitter as a way to alert the public of upcoming events, promotions or discounts you may be having. You may find it very easy to use Twitter to promote specials within the online community or even on the larger scale.
8. Use Twitter as a way of learning something new. If you have a programming question, for example, you can easily throw it out there and most often, there will be an easy to reach answer within your grasp.
9. Use Twitter as a tool to manage your thoughts and ideas. If you have a new idea, bounce it off your followers.
10. Use Twitter to be yourself even when you have an unpopular opinion. Twitter can be used for many more reasons too. You are unlimited here.
Add Value To Twitter Conversations
Every Twitter user who wants to become a fixture on the website, or that wants to have strong following, needs to ensure they are adding something useful to the mix. There are many ways to accomplish this goal. In particular, you want to become someone that people see as full of ideas, inspiration, insight or just a good friend. You want to be the person who you would most likely follow. When you become active and interact in a positive way, your followers on Twitter will become stronger and you will see a positive reaction in your goals.
Twitter is an excellent service. It provides individuals with countless bits of information, news stories, feedback or just plain unique information. One of the worst things you can do is to simple be a “yes man” adding nothing of benefit to the conversation. Here are some tips to ensure that you are adding value to the conversations you are becoming part of at Twitter.
1. Jump into a conversation that you see playing out and offer your insight on the topic, perhaps based on your experiences. What is nice about Twitter is that anyone can interact with others they are following. Therefore, if you see someone struggling with an area that you have experience in, let them know your outcome.
2. Offer an opposing viewpoint. There are many people who will post their opinions or political viewpoints on Twitter. Most people know that if they post something that is controversial they are going to get a response and sometimes that is what they are after. Posting an opposing viewpoint is absolutely appropriate to do, but do so with respect. Never insult or degrade the other person.
3. Give your readers something to read and learn. For example, if you are helping to promote organic products through your website, you may learn of a new product that could be helpful in the home. Post a link to a post and let others know about it. Giving readers something meaty, packed with information, is going to be helpful to them.
Those who are able to add value to Twitter can use it to accomplish just about any of the goals they have. Big or small, there are many ways that you can communicate in this manner on this social media website. You do not have to always offer the stellar tips and tricks, but you should add something with those Tweets.
Be Original On Twitter
One of the worst mistakes you can make as someone who is new to using Twitter is to be just like everyone else. This is sure to cause people to overlook you or to miss you simply because you are not unique. If you think of some of the people you know in the news media or in politics, usually the unique people (not necessarily in a negative way) stand out. The same is true for Twitter. Be original and you will drive more people to your website or blog using Twitter.
One of the most important rules you should have when using Twitter is to be original and yet to be yourself. There is no benefit to talking to others if you do not believe in what you are talking about. Here are some tips to help you to remain original when using this online service.
1. Do not just send messages similar to what other people are talking about. Go ahead and find something completely off the wall to talk about. This is much more likely to get people talking to you. For example, if you want to talk to a sports player (who is on Twitter), you could say that you love them. Rather, if you want them to respond to you, make a comment about a specific play or a product they are promoting.
2. Jump in to conversations as appropriate. Twitter is a social forum and anyone is invited to read what you have to say. That means that you are able to jump in and talk to others, too. Ultimately, you want to convey a message of being friendly, but you also have to offer something that is interesting.
3. Share opinions and be respectful of other’s opinions. One thing that no one wants is to be attracted, but Twitter is about engaging everyone. In other words, you can and should interact with people that have an opinion different from your own. You may find these conversations to be the best ones had.
You may feel that you do not have anything original to say on Twitter. You may be able to find something interesting to say by watching what others are saying. Surround yourself with people who share a similar lifestyle to your own. You may also want to add links to interesting news pieces or to projects that are close to your heart. It does make a difference to be unique, so do not feel that you can’t be yourself.
Do You Need More Than One Twitter Account?
Twitter is a fantastic tool for many things. You can use it to talk to your friends from work. You can use it as a tool to promote your business. You can use it as a way of making a political statement that you do not want everyone to know. In these situations, it makes sense that people do want to have more than one Twitter account. The good news is that there is no reason not to do so. You can have more than one account without charge and you can use it as you feel necessary to do.
Why More Than One?
There are several reasons why you may want to have more than one Twitter account. Here are some of them.
1. You want to keep your business separate from your friends. This is a common situation. On one hand, you want to have use of Twitter to help promote your business. This is a fantastic reason to use Twitter and therefore, you do want to separate the two accounts. It makes sense to do so.
2. You want to make a political statement but you do not want to offend friends or family. Twitter is full of political statements. There are many people who log on just to state how much a politician has screwed up! It is definitely a good thing to keep these things separate when it matters to do so.
3. You want to use Twitter to market various sections of your business. You may have several business marketing strategies and therefore need to have more than one resource to promote them. You may not want to market to parents while at the same time marketing to the singles dating crowd, should you be involved in both industries.
4. You want to keep work at work and home at home. You may not want to be known as a blogger when you just want to chat about your child. Separating the two for this reason is an easy solution.
5. You want to be more than one person. If you need a second identity, this could be the place to make it happen. Twitter allows you to say what you want to so and to who you wish to say it. Use it as you see fit to socialise or to promote your business model. You can sign up for more than one account and
use them all fittingly.
Growing Your Twitter Following
As a person who has a Twitter account, you may be noticing the numbers at the right hand side and wondering what you can do to grow the number of people who are seeing your Tweets. In order for you to grow the number of people you have following you, you will need to play an active role in Twitter. You should be concentrating on being a good friend and Internet buddy first and foremost. If your goal is to populate the web with spam, think again. As many new followers you get a day will be the number, you lose as well.
Tips For Growing Your Numbers
The following are a few ways that you can grow the number of people who are following you on Twitter.
1. Communicate often. Like any other type of social media, the only way to be successful at it is to actually use it often. People remember names and faces only when they see them enough. If you want people to be able to find you are Twitter, you have to use the service often.
2. Re-Tweet. Another way to grow the number of people who are following you on Twitter is to actually ReTweet. RT, as it is commonly found on Twitter, is an easy way to communicate with others. For example, perhaps an Internet marketer is using the service to promote a live seminar. Perhaps there is a contest on a blog. Your RT of their message will help you to gain respect with them, which aids in growing your business.
3. Interact with others. Respond to others when they are talking. Interact with them by leaving a message about their update. For example, perhaps someone posts that they are having a bad day. You interact with them. This gets them to interact with you, allowing their followers to notice you. It goes without saying that one of the worst things you can do for your Twitter following is to spam them. There is no doubt that you can talk to them about anything you want on Twitter, but if you want people to continue to follow you, you do need to avoid spam. People do not want to see five links to your website every hour. Rather, they want to get to know you and what you have to offer to them. With Twitter, the key to growing your website is to have a strong relationship with those you meet.
How To Follow On Twitter
When you first sign up for Twitter, you are able to use your email accounts as a way of finding people on Twitter who you already know. This is a fantastic service because it allows you to local friends and family you probably would have a difficult time finding otherwise, unless they told you what their Twitter name is. Initially, the process of gaining followers is easy. You simply need to allow Twitter to search through your email addresses at each of your accounts. Then, choose those you wish to follow and off you go.
On the other hand, you also have the ability to follow just about anyone else on Twitter. To do so, all you need to do is to click the “follow” button that is located on their page. Here is how you can do this easily.
1. Log into your Twitter account. Click on the link at the top right of your screen that says “follow people.”
2. Provide Twitter with the screen name/email address of each of the email accounts that you would like to search through. You will need to provide your password but this information is not saved by Twitter and is protected fully.
3. A list pulls up that gives you the names of all those who have Twitter accounts. Check the boxes of those you wish to follow.
4. Now, check out who those people are following. Is a business associate following someone interesting? Once you are following them, you can visit their Twitter page and see who they are chatting with. Click on any of the names with the “@” symbol in front of them. If the person looks interesting and you wish to follow them, simply click the “follow” button under their picture of their Twitter page.
5. Build up those who you are following in this way. You can follow anyone you wish to follow, as long as their Tweets are not protected. If they are, you can send a message requesting to be allowed to view their messages.
You can also use the search function on Twitter, located at the bottom of the screen through a link, to find people you may know. It only takes a few minutes to get your group going. Remember; though… the more people you follow on Twitter, the harder it can be to keep in personal touch with them all. Still, for most, having many followers is fun!
How To Use Twitter For Self Branding
Twitter can be used for many things. One thing those businesses and gurus out there may wish to use it for is self branding. Self branding, or personal branding, is the method of creating a brand that is all your own. Companies like to use brands because they help to distinguish them from other companies. Most people could tell you the brand names of the top franchise restaurants or department stores, for example, no matter where they lived in the world. Twitter can help you to accomplish this goal for yourself.
With Twitter, you have a social media platform from which you can talk about just about anything. You can really establish yourself as someone that is sensible, experienced, unique and personable. You can also establish yourself as a business leader, an industry guru or a niche professional. People are attracted to those who are natural leaders. More so, they enjoy being connected to the people they thing are on their way up. If you can show them that you have what it takes to make it to the top, they are likely to help you to get there just by using the information you have provided.
Another way to use this social media website is to use it to draw people in to you without being so unapproachable that you lack the human quality. For example, most people would not approach top executives and interact with them on a one on one level. But, with Twitter, anyone can come together to talk and share together. This is why so many people are using Twitter who were once so unapproachable. For example, many celebrities use Twitter and actually interact with their followers. Politicians use Twitter as a way of connecting with those who they work for: the people. Even President Barak Obama used these services to connect with voters. Twitter makes anyone approachable.
Personal branding can help you to become something unique in the world. It can help you to grow your online business or to make your ideas come into reality. Because it breaks down so many of the walls that keep you away from people who would support you, people are more likely to listen and ultimately to follow you. Twitter is a simple tool, with just a 140 character per message limit, but it is also a marketing tool that is highly effective and easily in hand.
Is Twitter Beneficial To Internet Marketers?
Twitter has become your addiction. You love to log into the program and chat with your friends and family over a cup of coffee. Unlike at the office, you did not have to get dressed and plough through traffic to get to this watering hole. But, you can do many things when you are here, far more than just talking about the weather. You can also use Twitter to help you to grow your Internet marketing business. For the Internet marketer, Twitter is one of the best, potentially the largest, social media tool you can use for Internet marketing.
How To Use Twitter For Your Internet Marketing Business
Here are a few ways that Twitter can be useful to your Internet marketing business.
1. Use Twitter to create a group of people who share ideas, thoughts, and sectors with you. If you are in the real estate niche, find others that are as well. This can help you to grow your knowledge and help you to connect with others to learn what they are doing, successfully.
2. Promote your blog topics or your articles. With a simple link, you can communicate with your entire following (no matter how large that is) about what is happening at your blog or the article you just posted. This can help you to draw more people in, increasing your traffic.
3. Place your Twitter feed at your website. If you want to let your website readers learn more about what you are doing on Twitter, you can have each of your Twitter updates automatically imbedded on your website.
4. Use Twitter to help promote your online product or sales directly. While you want to avoid spamming people, you definitely want to encourage people to check out what you have to offer. Make sure these types of links are used minimally.
5. Use Twitter to help create your web presence. If you are new to Internet marketing, you may need to show others that you are someone that knows that they are talking about. You can do that by just communicating and sharing knowledge online, to those who you meet and talk to. In short, the answer to the question is Twitter a good thing for Internet marketers, the answer is yes. People are able to follow and learn from you through this medium. Best of all, you can easily communicate your actions online so that others can respond to them.
Is Twitter for Business?
Twitter has become a trend in the social networks. It is ranked right up there with other websites that allow you to socialise from the Internet. This includes Facebook and MySpace. But, what about bringing Twitter into your business? If you have not noticed just yet, many businesses are using Twitter as a way of communicating with those who might be interested in them. There are many ways that Twitter can work for a business, no matter what type of business it is.
Consider Examples
Without naming names, there are some great businesses that are using Twitter and they are using it to their advantage. Imagine going shopping for a new kitchen cabinet. You arrive home frustrated about the poor service at the national home appliance store. You come online to chat with friends through Twitter and casually mention your bad experience at the store. What happens? You may think that this is the need of the story, but in fact, it is just the beginning.
Because Twitter offers a great search function, the business can hire an employee to scan through Tweets and find mentions of their company name. So, assuming you made mention of the company’s name in your Tweet, they could find that Tweet. Some of these businesses are using this as a recovery method. Your bad experience is commented on and the question “How can I make this right for you?” is asked. You get results even though you had no idea that this is what your message would accomplish.
Your Business
If you are a business owner, you may see this as quite an interesting opportunity. Now, you can respond to a person who is talking about your business in a negative light. If you were the appliance store, you could Tweet back a response and help to improve the customer’s experience. That would allow them to engage in conversation while also letting others who have read their negative comment know that your business is dedicated to fixing the problem.
As a business owner, you should have a Twitter account with your business’s name. You should be working to establish yourself on this site. You can use it to list promotions and to talk about upcoming opportunities, though spam on Twitter is never a good thing. Still, this one on one communication is sure to drive customers back to your business repeatedly, all because of that Tweet.
Twitter Account Setting Considerations
When you first sign up for Twitter you may become overwhelmed by the number of different things to do and see at the website. Before you get too overwhelmed, though, you should consider setting up your account settings. This information is mostly basic information but for someone who will be using Twitter as a way of building an Internet marketing business or a strong social media following, these details are important parts of your success. It only takes a few minutes to make a few unique changes that could make a big difference on your success. Here is a rundown of a few of the aspects of Twitter that you may not know about that could affect your ability to grow a following.
Navigate to the “Settings” link, which is located in the top, right hand corner of your home page. There, you will have the Account tab open for you, once you click on it.
· Your name: It is safe to use your real name on Twitter, especially under your Name section. It is important for those people to find you that you may know.
· Username: IS there any importance in your Twitter username? Some use their real name so that people who know them will be able to find them. Others use a name they have become known as online. It is up to you but whenever possible, be sure it relates to your business in some way (assuming you are using Twitter for business.)
· Email: Your email address does need to be seen by everyone. You may not want to allow everyone to see it.
· Your URL: This will be displayed on your Twitter homepage so it is important that you actually provide information here. This will help you to ensure that those who are able to communicate with you can do so. Let us say that you are in Internet marketing. Listing your URL here is critical to others finding you.
· One Line Bio: You have just a few details here to provide so make sure it counts. People can use these tools to search for you online or to search for people with similar interests to them.
At the bottom of the page is a box you can check if you wish to protect your messages and keep others from seeing your updates. This is an option you can choose if you would like to.
Twitter And Its Benefits
Twitter offers a number of benefits to its users. Not everyone will benefit from using Twitter, especially if those individuals do not like to chat online. Yet, for those with a bit of time and who are interested in developing a group of friends or colleagues from around the world, Twitter has plenty of benefit to offer. Take a look at a few of the benefits you may have if you use Twitter regularly, or even just every few days as you feel like it.
1. Twitter allows you to find people who share the same thoughts and opinions as you do. You may find other people to share thoughts about your kids or even about your newest business idea. You can use twitter to help you to find other people to just chat with whom you like.
2. Twitter is easy. All you really need to do is to chat but keep it short, to one-sentence statements under 140 characters at a time. Of course, you could send as many of these as you would like to, but that would defeat the point of being concise!
3. Twitter is free. Unlike other types of websites where you have to pay a membership fee, Twitter does not charge anything and, even better, it is not filled with spam or multiple promotions. It is a relatively easy way to develop online relationships without actually having to pay for the ability to do so.
4. Twitter does not give you multiple problems with restrictions. Some websites do not allow some topics. Others want to limit your overall ability to chat with people you do not know, yet, but would like to. There are fewer restrictions here, and while you still need to be courteous and respectful, you do not have to be over the top in terms of following the rules.
5. Twitter can be used anywhere. You can download an application for your cell phone, use it on your laptop or log into the website at work to chat. You might be able to get away with these short messages between work tasks!
Twitter provides you with many reasons to use it. It is up to you to find a reason not to, in fact. Most people will find it is an easy communication tool that is fun and even simple to use. It does take some time at the very beginning, but chances are good you will love every minute.
Twitter and Tweetdeck
Twitter is an easily accessible tool for communication over the Internet. That is one of the reasons that so many people love it. But, there is a problem with the website overall and that is the difficulty in tracking down certain people to follow. For example, you may be following someone who has become your best Internet friend. You sign in to Twitter and want to see what they are up to. It is not easy. But, there are applications, or apps as many call them, that you can download to your computer and use as an alternative to going to the actual Twitter website.
Tweetdeck offers a variety of features that are helpful to Twitter users. First off, to give a better explanation of what Tweetdeck is, consider it a large, expansive website. When you first open it, there are various columns of followers. What is nice is that you can organise it as you would like to. It works as a personal browser to allow you to stay in touch with everyone you want to on Twitter. It also works with Facebook and other people as well. You get to see what you want to see all at one time, rather than trying to sort through the messages and updates posted on Twitter. You can do a few things with Tweetdeck that may make it a nice incentive to use.
1. Use it to Tweet on. You can use Tweetdeck for all of your Twitter messages so that you do not have to actually log into your Twitter account as well.
2. You can stay up to date with anyone on Twitter in real time.
3. You get to organise the columns however, you would like to. This allows you to create a personalised tool to use for Twitter.
4. Like an address book, you can create groups using Tweetdeck so that you can follow your friends in one area, your business associates in another and so on. It is highly user friendly.
5. You also will not miss out on important notifications with Twitter anymore. Because you stay organised, you can find anything you want, quickly.
Tweetdeck is one of the Twitter applications that are free to download and use. It only takes a few minutes to download it and then organise it. You will have it up and running in minutes. Most people find it to be a tool that makes Twitter even more simplistic.
Who To Follow On Twitter
Once you sign up for a Twitter account, you can start to work on building up the number of people who you follow. When you follow someone, the messages that they have posted on their own Twitter page, show up on your main page. In other words, you get to see what everyone else is talking about. That is one of the best things about Twitter: it is a social network that allows you to easily chat with anyone who you would like to.
Who should you be following on Twitter?
The good news is that there is no limit to the types of people you can find here. You can find people living the same lifestyle you are or interact with those who you find interesting. You can talk to people you find to be completely different from you. You can follow celebrities, and jump in when they have something useful to say. The list goes on and on. Here are a few tips, though, to help you ensure you are following the right people.
1. Follow those who share something with you. You may have kids and so do they. They may work in the same industry you do. They may be people that you know or those who seem to have similar interests in you.
2. Follow people who have something important to say about the industry you are in. For example, you may wish to follow someone who is an Internet marketing guru if that is the industry you are in.
3. Find people who you considered to be leaders, inspiration or just funny. It is always nice to hear fun things or to hear an instant inspirational quote just when you needed to hear it. There are many people on Twitter who dedicate themselves to just providing positivity in the lives of individuals they interact with.
You can overload yourself by following too many people. If you are following too many, you may not be able to interact with many of them at all. This can defeat the actual purpose of using Twitter, which is not what you want to do. Rather, invest a few extra minutes in choosing who to follow. You may find this to be a better way of growing your own following too, since most often, people that you follow will follow you back. One thing is for sure, just about every type of person is on Twitter.
Twitter Overtakes Lives: How To Avoid It
Once you get the hang of Twitter you may find yourself having a hard time stepping away. Like any other product you may find and fall in love with, Twitter is too much fun to forget about. More so, it is so easily used and beneficial when it is used, that you may not even see the reason for stepping away, just yet. Take some time to consider what Twitter can offer to you. Learn how to use it. Then, learn how to avoid letting Twitter overtake your day to day life.
Why Is It So Good?
There are many reasons that Twitter is a good thing and it has so much to offer. You will find that there are several things that make Twitter more ddictive than other types of social media sites:
· It is free. The no charge benefit really helps to make it an easy choice.
· It is so simple to use. You can download it for your cell phone or smart phone and off you go: sharing everything no matter where you are located!
· Twitter is also an easy way to stay connected. No long blog posts needed. No long winded conversations over the phone or instant messaging. You are just at the website and sharing your opinion at that point.
How To Avoid It Taking Over
So, the question is, then, how can you keep Twitter from overtaking every aspect of your life? Here are some tips to help you to accomplish this goal.
1. Pace yourself. If you want to Tweet while you have a cup of coffee, do so. But, at the same time, be able to step away when that cup is empty. You may even have to limit yourself time wise.
2. You do not have to stay up to date all the time on everyone. If you have not seen someone today, drop a direct message if you feel the need to. Otherwise, remember that you only have to communicate with those who are at the website when you are.
3. Do something to talk about. One of the best ways to limit your Twitter time is to do things, like write blog posts or grow your sales, so that you have something to chat about. Twitter is great for a break in between work related tasks or the two minutes you have after you have done the dishes but before the game starts. Just pace yourself!
Twitter: Protect Messages Or Not?
One of the options on Twitter is to protect your messages. As you will see when you first sign up for an account, this option is a simple click of the mouse to set up. But, do you want to protect your messages or should you? In most cases, this is a question that is dependent on how you will use Twitter and how much information you plan to position yourself in front of. For most people, at the time of sign up at Twitter, do not necessary protect messages right off the bat. Rather, give yourself time to build up a following and then make the decision after you see just how you will use the service.
What Does Protecting Do?
When you protect your Tweets, as these 140 character messages are referred to, you simply limit who can view what you are writing. For example, those who follow you on Twitter are able to see what you are up to. They can see if what you are saying. They can see your replies to others, too. This is beneficial because it allows people to find you and talk with you. For example, suppose you are making a statement about a local news story. This is seen by others and they can let you know of similar stories near them. Soon, everyone is able to communicate easily about the topic at hand.
Why protect? There are some times when you may wish to block your Tweets from being read by other people. Here are some examples.
· You are a private person and just want to talk to those you know on Twitter. You are not interested in other people finding you that you may share an interest in.
· You want your Tweets to only be visible to a specific group of people, perhaps a group of people who you work with.
· You are having trouble with people who you do not know, or wish to not know spamming you.
You may have your own reasons for not Tweeting your messages out to the world. It is your right to do so. If you would like to meet new people and to share the information that you have with a larger group, you may want to think twice about protecting your Tweets. It may limit those who can follow you and those that could become your next customer or friend.
Twitter To Increase Traffic To Affiliate Programs
One way to use Twitter is as a tool for promoting your affiliate program. An affiliate program is a method of making money online. Individuals sign up with selected companies and promise to do the marketing for the company. They promote the product, service or the company in general to the public. To do so, they are giving a website or link to use. Anytime there is a purchase made through their link, for example, the affiliate marketer is able to earn a small commission. This automated system works over and over again, creating a strong wealth stream for the everyday Internet marketer.
Affiliate programs can be enhanced by using social media. Social media is different from traditional marketing for several reasons. The most important of those is that the prospects that come to websites to engage and learn more have already been proven to be interested. In other words, this is not a commercial to convince others to buy. People who visit the website are responding because they are already interested in the product or service. This is one of the reasons affiliate marketing is so beneficial.
How does Twitter fit into this puzzle? Twitter is a social site, where people come together to talk on a regular basis. It is not always possible to use Twitter for an affiliate program, as you should check the rules of promotion first. If able to do so, consider these ways to use Twitter to promote your affiliate program.
· Establish a blog for your affiliate program. Then, post interesting articles at your blog that engage the reader and get them interested in your product. Post a link on your Twitter account whenever you post a new message that you think your Twitter followers would be interested in.
· Fill out your Twitter profile to include a link to your website or blog.
· Find likeminded or potential customers through Twitter and interact with them. Over time, they will learn what you have to offer and see it as a benefit. You should never hard sell using Twitter, but you can interact with those who you think may be interested at some point.
Twitter is a highly effective tool for promoting yourself and your program. An affiliate marketer is an example of one person who will benefit from using Twitter regularly. This social site allows people to connect with each other in a positive way. Affiliate marketers benefit from this.
Use Twitter To Direct Traffic
Twitter is a tool used for many purposes, or just a few. It is up to you to use Twitter as it fits your personal and business needs. Many people find that Twitter is so flexible that it can be easily used for any need, large or small. It seems that one of the most important ways to use Twitter is as a tool to direct traffic to blogs, websites or retail outlets online. It does no matter what your online business is, what you are promoting, or what you are selling. Twitter is an ideal tool for traffic movement.
Twitter can be used to direct traffic to any place online, through the simplistic use of links. Because you do only have 140 characters, you will find that the need to shorten the URL is there, though many of the Twitter apps will do this for you (or you can use a separate, third party provider to create a small URL for you.) Once you know how to use that, here are some tips to help you through the process.
· Be sure to first build up a persona online and create a strong group of followers who actually know you before you bombard them with links. You want people to trust you enough to be willing to visit your websites to learn more.
· Do read the rules on sending links through Twitter. While Twitter management has no problem with allowing you to do this, it is important to note that they do not tolerate people who do nothing but spam. Spam on Twitter is anyone that has mostly links in the messages they send out.
· Do use both friendly and professional information in all of your Tweets. If you only post links to your blog, people will easily become bored with it. But, if you throw in a few interesting articles off site or even a few jokes, that will help them to feel more comfortable about visiting you more often.
Perhaps one of the most important things to do for yourself on Twitter is to communicate with others and through others. If you want to really harness the power of Twitter in directing traffic, build up strong relationships and ask followers to re-tweet, or RT, your message out to their followers. This is what really creates that strong traffic increase. Of course, you should always do this back for your followers, too.
Use Twitter For Feedback
Twitter is a tool that can be used by many people for many reasons. If you are in the internet marketing industry, you may want to consider what Twitter can do for your business. One of the things that is nice about Twitter is that so many people are using it. Even those who are considered top gurus and professionals in the Internet marketing business have signed up for the service and have used it to help promote themselves as top marketing professionals. This is also a good thing because it brings together the opinions of those who matter (your likely consumers) and those who know more than you (those professional gurus.)
Feedback is obtained through Twitter in many ways. You could ask for a review of your blog, for example. It would be easy for people to click on the link you provide in a Tweet and give you a review of their thoughts and opinions. You could post a link to a blog post you are running at your website that is a poll. People are happen to offer their opinion when they are asked for it and polls make this very easy to accomplish. You could ask for feedback in your affiliate marketing program. You could request feedback on your marketing strategies. There is no limit to what you can ask for.
What is beneficial about using Twitter for feedback is that you have at your hands the experts and the consumer. You can ask the gurus questions. You can get advice from those who have been in the industry for a dozen years, if you would like to. Most of these people are happen to offer an opinion through Twitter because your followers, and theirs, can see it which means that they may be promoting themselves in return.
In addition to this, you have the potential consumer who can chime in and give you their opinion. You do not have to guess if the blog is attractive or overwhelming since your potential customer is on Twitter with you, easily available to provide their opinion. You can find out what they respond better to, for example, or ask them how they would feel about one promotion or the other.
With so many people so easily within reach on Twitter, there is no doubt that anyone can benefit from using Twitter as a tool for feedback. If you have not tried doing so yet, now may be the best time to get started.
Using Twitter For Article Promotion
One way you can use the social marketing tool Twitter is to do so as a social media marketing tool. Social media has grown by leaps and bonds in the last few years. It is a way of bringing people to your product or service because they are already interested in it, rather than having to convince them that they need what you have to offer. It is the way many businesses are marketing, from top of the line companies to even presidential campaigns. What about your articles, Twitter can help there, too.
Set Up To Market
One of the first things you should do as a Twitter user is to build your Twitter following around people who are most likely to benefit from what you have to offer. For example, you are a mother of toddlers and you have your own toddler blog. You want to get more traffic to the blog. · Set up a Twitter account that is associated with your blog. Be sure to including your blog’s website address in the profile.
· Grow your following and follow others who are also mothers, or involved in your industry. Interact with them by talking about toddlers and other topics that are fitting.
· Develop a relationship with them. They know you as a friend, not a salesperson.
· You decide to write an article or two for an article directory. You want people to learn about a promotion you are running or a product you are selling at your website.
· You publish a link in your Twitter account to those who are following you to encourage them to visit your website to learn more.
· You can also send a link to the article no matter where it is located. Your followers can easily click on the link and end up reading your article.
No matter what type of topic you are promoting, the key here is to develop a following that is going to be interested and then to engage them. Talk with them and get to know them. Follow their information by reading the links they send and commenting back to them about them. The good news is that over time, you can develop a very easy system of writing an article, publishing it and then letting your Twitter followers, or Tweeples, learn about it. You could develop a strong traffic model by doing this over and over again.
What Are Direct Messages on Twitter?
You have noticed that people have said that you should “DM” them. What does that mean? A direct message or direct mail is a short note that is sent not to the whole Twitter following but just to one person, the person that you identify to send it to. It works just like email works, only you are limited by the number of words or characters you can use and the entire thing is contained on Twitter rather than on your email lists.
Why Use Direct Messages?
There are many times when you will want to use direct messages instead of posting the information directly on Twitter’s boards. For example, let’s say that you go to Twitter.com and update on what you are doing. You send a short message out stating that you are looking for help on a blog post you are writing. Instead of having people send you “@” messages, you tell them to send you direct messages or a DM, as they are commonly called. The benefit here is that you will be easily able to share your message with whomever wishes to respond to you, but because you have them send back as direct messages, you can interact with them on a one on one basis without being in front of the crowd.
There are some situations in which you should always use a direct message:
· You are sending private information to someone that you know. It is never advisable to send private information or identification to anyone over the Internet unless you know them personally. Twitter is the same way. You should protect yourself.
· You want people to share personal information with you. Never request this information otherwise.
· You need to talk about a private topic, perhaps a business opportunity.
· You want someone to read something but do not want to allow others to do so.
· You know the person and want to say hello, personally.
Direct messages can only be sent to those people who are following you. If you want to send a DM to someone that you do not know, you first have to request that they follow you, usually using the Twitter “@” function.
Direct messages can be abused by some people. If you are getting too many from one person and you do not like that person, you may wish to un-follow them, which will stop the messages from coming through.
What Do You Wish to Accomplish Using Twitter?
Twitter may seem like a simple tool used only to communicate with others in a passing method.Yet, it can be used in various ways. Many people have set out to use Twitter with specific goals. They want to accomplish one thing or another by posting the short, 140 character messages about what they are doing. Some of the best bloggers and Internet marketers are noticing that Twitter is actually quite capable of helping individuals to accomplish various things.
One of the reasons you may want to use Twitter is to build up your profile and become an expert in your niche. You can accomplish this through interacting with others on Twitter and offering advice and guidance to those looking to get into the niche. For example, perhaps you are a blogger who wishes to teach others to blog. You could easily use Twitter to follow people who are new to the industry and then use it as a method of showing what you know.
One of the most common advantages you can gain from using Twitter is to drive traffic to your website or blog. For example, if you have a blog promoting a product or service, and you post an updated post on some area, you may wish to post a link on Twitter to allow others to learn about the post. The same thing works for those who wish to promote a sale or promotion on their blog. Imagine if you were giving away a free vacation on your blog. A few small Tweets about this on Twitter is sure to drive increased traffic to your website or blog to learn more.
A third reason to use Twitter is to do so to build up your network within your niche. Who are other people who are in the same business as you are? What are they doing? Do they have anything to share with you? You may want to do the same thing with side by side niches. For example, you can use Twitter to help you to connect with people in debt who may be interested in your frugal blog.
There are many ways that people are using Twitter to communicate and to develop their business around. There is no limit to the number of ways it can be used either. For many businesses and personal users, Twitter is all about making that all important initial connection.
What Makes You Un-follow On Twitter?
The goal of Twitter is to interact with other people. It goes without saying that you do need to follow at least a few people so that you could interact with them. But, there comes a time when you may be hitting the un-follow link more often than you had hoped. The reasons for this are quite simple most of the time. You just do not like the person. There are two things to consider here. First, consider why you should un-follow people on Twitter. Second, determine what you should avoid doing so that people do not stop following you for those actions.
What Stops People From Following?
Most people will get on Twitter and start increasing the number of people they follow with each usage of the website. This is common because, as you will see, each time that you use Twitter you actually will see messages those you are following that are being left for others. So, what does this mean? It means that you may become interested in what they are talking about and want to join in. So, you follow them.
One of the main reasons that people stop following others is because of spam. Spam is sending unwanted, unsolicited messages, either through the Direct Mail box on Twitter or even in the links that are sent. Spammy links, which is commonly thought of as those which are sent often, are a sure fire way to get people to stop following you. For example, let’s say you are working an MLM business and are trying to use Twitter as a promotional tool. You send a link to your website. Then you chat for a bit and send another link. You are not sending it to anyone new, in most cases, but rather, you are sending the same message to mostly the same people. There is no benefit here.
In addition to this, there are likely to be a number of other reasons why people stop following you. For example, it may be that you continuously make negative comments. Some people do not follow those that do not chat with them. Therefore, if you fail to interact, this too can stop people from talking to you.
One thing is for sure. If you wish to be successful using Twitter, you need to have people following you. Consider the question; what do you hate to see people do on Twitter? That is a good indication of what you should not be doing as well.
Understanding Twitter
Twitter is an online social media website. Anyone can use Twitter, as long as they have Internet access and an email account for sign up. There are many aspects that make this site interesting and quite unique from other forms of socialisation. Twitter is much like a quick wave to a neighbour, to let them know what you are up to, but instead of being person to person contact, it is done online. Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds, due to the number of news organisations, online gurus and celebrities that have taken to it.
How It Works
Twitter works in a very simple way. Individuals sign up for Twitter by selecting a screen name, much like signing up for any other service. There is no cost to using or signing up for the account. Once online, you have the ability to send a Tweet to those who are following you. A Tweet is a short, 140 character long message about what you are doing, thinking, or anything else you would like to communicate.
You only have 140 characters. This can be a good thing, since it makes you condense anything you might have to say into the most concise sentence. This has helped many people because now, they can interact without all the formalities of “hello, how are you” or detailed messages. Rather, you just have about one sentence to communicate your thought. It definitely makes for some interesting conversations, and fun abbreviations, too.
In order for Twitter to work, you have to have people following you. Those who follow you are able to see any of the items that you type into your page. You too can follow others using the software. Interestingly, unless you would like to limit it, anyone can follow you, and you can follow anyone. This is a direct contrast to many other social sites where they want you to be constantly agreeing to follow someone else.
The best way to learn Twitter and to start exploring it is to sign up for an account and to start using it. It only takes a few minutes to set up and once you are set up, you can begin to find others to chat with. Many times, twitter is the perfect outlet for communication on the web. There are no formalities and you can easily chat with new people every day without having to be bogged down by the process.
