Xigaware

With only 140 characters at a time, you can make millions…

Twitter. Why is it that Twitter is only 140 characters by the way? Well, because many cell phones can only text 140 characters, that’s why! And why can cell phones only text 140 characters? Because the message piggybacks on signals already being sent by the phone and it costs the cell phone company NOTHING AT ALL to send the text message! So the phone companies are charging us or per month for something that is absolutely free for them. Smart… infuriating, but smart.

Ok, let’s get back to business. How do I capitalize on the vast popularity of Twitter and get the millions of daily Twitter users to give me their cold hard cash? How can I monetize Twitter??

You don’t!

Monetizing means to make money directly from something with affiliate links, or adwords ads etc. Take a look around on the Twitter.com site; even Twitter themselves have yet to monetize the site!

If you’re new to Twitter you need to learn some basics about how it works and what exactly is going on in the messages that you see.

First off go to www.twitter.com and sign up for an account. I highly suggest using your business or website name, or even your real name for your Twitter user name. Don’t make it something that may be offensive, hard to remember or unprofessional if you are doing this for your business.

- Yes you may have more than one Twitter account, but one is hard enough to manage, who needs more?
– Upload a small image, preferably a small photo of you or your company logo. Now you are prepared to start using Twitter!

Next you will need to know more about how it works and what it is you will be seeing in the tweets of those you follow. Most of what you will see will be garbage of two distinct types: 1) Spam 2) Random worthless updates by strangers and “goodnight” messages. (Don’t waste people’s time by posting “Goodnight Twitter”… please!!)

The information you are honestly interested in seeing will not appear in your tweet stream! The information that you do see will be every update by every person that you follow. Imagine that you follow 2000 people like I do, or what about 15,000 or 25,000… how can you possibly follow all those people?

YOU CAN’T.

You’re on Twitter to get your message across, to speak to your audience, and to respond to only those messages that are actually sent to you and are not spam, but a human that is interested in speaking to you. And, in a nutshell, twitter.com is completely USELESS for doing this!

Now if you follow me, don’t get me wrong; I’m not discounting you as a person or uninterested in what you may have to say, but I can’t possibly be that involved with the thousands of people I would like to reach on a daily basis regarding digital camera repair. Twitter is so powerful that if I could afford to have one person do Twitter full time I would probably do it.

I’m on Twitter daily, and I see pretty much every person that says something about a broken digital camera or digital camera repair. I wish I could message everyone, but when I try I think it looks like spamming. The best advice I can give is to do as much as is comfortable and make it human. You are here to build relationships, not to sell.

Ok now, in your tweet stream you will see messages with different symbols, abbreviations and crazy looking links.

- The most common symbols you will see are @… (a message sent to the person after the symbol so that it shows up in their tweet stream) and the # (a subject like #photography that is searchable)
– Some of the most common abbreviations are TT (Trending Topic: something that is mentioned in many different tweets right now), DM (Direct Message: sent only to you, nobody else can see it), RT (ReTweet: somebody else posted this first and I can ReTweet it letting others know I think it’s good) and FML… I’ll leave it to you to find out what FML stands for.
– The crazy looking links have been shortened so that they take up less space. They look odd, and yes they can take you to any site without your knowledge so you must trust the person that posts it. You only have 140 characters remember, so shortened URL’s are a must.

If you want to seriously use Twitter then you will need software like Tweetdeck from www.tweetdeck.com; it’s awesome. Twitter is completely useless for any sort of business purpose if you try and use it through Twitter.com. Myself, I never actually go to Twitter.com as there’s no need to!

Download and install Tweetdeck, configure it and get it running. You will have columns for tweets where you are mentioned (with the @ symbol before your name) and sent Direct Messages (DM). Beyond these two, you can add new columns for custom searches that are automatically updated and lets you see exactly what people are saying all over the world on Twitter at all times!!

Maybe you have a dog training business online; create a search column for ‘dog training’ and you will see every single message every person tweets with the words ‘dog’ and ‘training’ in any order of the tweet. They won’t always be about ‘dog training’, (I’ve been in training for scuba diving testing… oh the dog has to go out) but most will. Now figure out other combinations of keywords or search phrases… ‘dog training’ won’t show any search results when the person says ‘training dogs’, but the search term ‘dogs training’ will becuase they don’t have to be in order. Hopefully I am able to clarify the difference!

Any time you see a relevant message about something in your area of expertise, you can follow the person that posted the tweet (you aren’t really interested in following them, but they like it and normally will follow you back) and then send them an @ message. You SHOULD NOT try and sell anything to the person you are tweeting with your first message to them. Open a dialog with the person, let them know you are an expert in the subject manor and gently prod to see if there is anything that you may do for them… FOR FREE. Yes you can post a link to your site if you feel you must, but they will ask or figure it out if they are interested. Don’t try and push for a sale!

If you want to be a spammer and annoy people, then by all means please try to monetize Twitter! This is how!

1- Harass people with your first tweet when they follow you, by sending them an automatic DM that spams them with something to buy.

2- Spam the same tweets over and over all day and night, every day. Better yet, spam the same tweets at the same time from multiple accounts every 15 minutes 24hrs a day.

3- Post tweets that are obviously stuffed with TT’s!

4- Never talk with people who are interested in your area of expertise, use software to create every tweet for you.

5- Never give free advice, or post tweets to sites that will help people and have nothing to do with something you sell.

6- Post obscene or controversial messages about relition, politics or bodily functions. Also swear whenever possible.

7- Tweet @ every user you see with your offer and website

and so on and so forth…

I know there is information here that you can use starting today to get started on Twitter. Don’t worry about not understanding everything that’s going on or what you should do or say. Start following some people in your area of expertise and see what they do. Don’t follow celebrities unless that is your area of business; follow them once you know what you are doing and have the time to do your work plus see what Shaq is eating for lunch.

Tweet you later.

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Motive to Tweet in relation to Your BusinessTwitter marketing, if you’ve done any reading on this topic, you most likely understand that tweeting can be a valuable, cost-free or low-cost solution for marketing your online or brick and mortar business. Online marketing twitter. All too often, however, we may be left wondering what to tweet (A tweet is a short message with at most 140 characters) about our businesses. What do you think about this statement “We are under the misguided impression that we simply have nothing worthy of sharing”, is that true?.

A good tweet and new developments, a good tweet can inform your followers about new developments in your company, but it can also entertain, inform or, educate them. Background on twitter .

Both your business profile and your customer prospect levels will go up, as soon as you attain visibility. Word of mouth is what happens when people tell people about you, the word of mouth that can come from a particularly intelligent tweet or series of tweets can result in hundreds or thousands of dollars in free advertising, so continue to create intelligent tweet so potential customers can hear about your service through the grapevine.

If you provide tweets (A tweet refers to a short message, limited to 140 characters, posted by members of the renowned, free-access micro-blogging platform website known as Twitter)that appeals to your followers, you’ll gain credibility and be on your way to forming a valuable relationship. Marketing, this can be very powerful from an advertising point of view.

Mull over some of these ideas, if you’re looking for things to tweet about in reference to your business. Lots of organizations have come to the conclusion that following what is being said about them on Twitter is a fantastic way to connect with their members in real time, this is a list of 19 reasons to tweet about your business and it will help you get started right now in utilizing this amazing promotional strategy for your company:

1. Starting a new business
2. A business anniversary celebration
3. New blog post related to your business that you just published
4. Celebrating a business anniversary
5. Publishing of a hardback book or ebook
6. Book signing
7. Receiving an award
8. Make known a partnership
9. Market a specific fundraiser, service, event, contest or product that interest you
10. Give your backing to a service or product that has a holiday theme subject
11. Promote a sale or celebration sale
12. Promote a cause using your company merchandises that advertises a campaign or produces awareness around something significant
13. Make known that you’re willing to speak on every specific subjects of interest
14. On television, radio or in person promote a public appearance
15. A blog or website Launching
16. Anniversary of your website or blog
17. Announce your free unique and original information ideas
18. A presentation seminar, conference, teleseminar or workshop, sponsoring

19. Publicize a new alliance or strategic partnership

To help you jumpstart your creativity, take a look at these ideas, and there is many other reasons to tweet. You’re Twitter Business Card

The crown word in the English language, Twitter has had quite a year. Not only has it attracted worldwide attention and millions of new users, “Twitter” have been named the topmost word in the English language for 2009.

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Twitter is a popular microblogging service that helps people worldwide to stay in touch online with the latest events, information and interactive websites. Anyone can use Twitter to share quick messages. Twitter users are permitted to share links to whatever they find interesting, to promote their business or just to write something about a current activity. These messages appear on the profile page, being accessible to your followers and searchable on Twitter search.

Twitter can be used to meet people with similar interests and visions. It is also a very effective marketing tool. In addition, this social network helps you to save time and money, being free to use. Instead of sending mobile messages and calling everybody, you can just write some lines on Twitter.

Communication on Twitter is public- anyone can see what you do and the messages you send. However, you can opt for a private profile and share your thoughts only to those who are your friends. Don’t forget to build an attractive and interesting profile page!  If you go online, you can find a template that you can use to get a customized twitter page to attract the interest of other tweeters.

What about tweets? How do they work? Well, tweets are the messages posted by you (links, news and any other information). Tweets also appear on the personal page of your followers. As more followers you have, as more you gain.

Every time someone requests to follow you, you’ll receive a notification via email. Twitter users can accept, block or ignore those who want to follow them.

Besides the standard message, you have other ways to contact your followers. You can reply to their messages, “retweet” (repeat some information previously tweeted by another user) or send directly a private message to be read only by the recipient.

Twitter is very useful because it provides access to answers given by experts, allowing people to stay connected even while traveling. Any business or product can be successfully promoted on Twitter.  Those who have their own website or blog, usually put a link to the twitter profile to attract interesting followers.  Usually they will use a decorative follow me on twitter button that is linked directly.

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Prior to discovering a product called Genesis Rocket, I had, for at least a year or more, been struggling with trying to get a grasp on Twitter. To be more specific, how to manage an account, how to grow my followers, how to interact with “my people”. I could see the potential of Twitter, I just couldn’t grasp it.

I even purchased a couple of often seen “systems”, but on analysis, I realized that there was just to much automation going on, it kind of reminded me of safe lists from yesteryear, thousands of ads, going to thousands of eyes, & nobody reading a darn thing!

Not my style…

I was actually playing around in Twitter, & clicked on a re-tweet, that led me to a blog, UpStartBogger, that in turn led me to an article on a competition about a managed Twitter account using a system called Genesis Rocket.

Intrigued I wrote a comment on the blog, & literally within minutes received this email.

Hi Bruce,
I’m just moderating comments and I noticed yours. Genesis Rocket certainly is different – because it works. Just contact me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Ashley

Wow. A real reply from an actual person! The blog owner & the creator of Genesis Rocket even!

Long story short, a few hours of research, back & forward emails, & I realized I’d found what I was looking for…a tutorial that teaches you how to grow your Twitter account from zero to thousands over a 5 day period, teaches you how to interact with your followers, then teaches you how to make a living from your Twitter account.

See how I said teaches you. This is not the usual, lame, over rated “system” that never delivers what it promised. It’s a well thought out, very “doable” guide, a Twitter system,  with a tried & tested method of creating an income from it.

Day One – Do this, & here’s how, & why.
Day Two – Do this & here’s how, & why etc.

* Have I made my fortune yet with Genesis Rocket? Not yet, (but it’s a’coming!)
* Have I learned the “must do’s” of Twitter? Yes.
* Have I grown my Twitter account? Yes, & it continues to climb.
* Did Genesis Rocket deliver on it’s promise? You bet!

At this product is a bargain. If you’re looking to finally be successful on Twitter, you absolutely should have a long hard look at Genesis Rocket.

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This articcle provided by Brave Media Internet Marketing Vancouver

Hashtags are a useful tool that help you to organize and share your tweets with others. Just like adding keywords to a Flickr photo, hashtags allow you to group tweets together with others sharing the same tag. The result being topics of interest that are easier to follow.

The use of hashtags evolved during the 2007 San Diego forest fires when #sandiegofire was used to identify updates relating to the disaster.  Recently Twitter and the hashtag #iranelection played a crucial role in disseminating information in the ongoing controversy over the disputed Iran elections. Twitter has been so critical for communication in Iran that they rescheduled maintenance to occur in the middle of the night in Iran even though this meant Twitter was be offline during peak hours in the US.

However hashtags are not all political. Companies are using hashtags as a way to promote events and product launches in context, and also as a communication tool for remote employees to stay on top of relevant information. Hashtags can also be used to share notes. For instance, conference goers can use a common tag so that all notes can be easily grouped together and reviewed by those present and absent.

Hashtag etiquette is still evolving so be sure to tag with discretion.(Click here for more information on Twitter Maketing)

How To Use Hashtags

1.) Follow @hashtags on Twitter. They will follow you back automatically, and your hashtags will be tracked.

2.) Use hashtags to precede key words in your tweets. Be sure to check Hashtags.org to see if your topic already has an established hashtag.

3.) Track the tagged conversations that interest you. Topics can be found via the search.twitter.com feature. As well, valid hashtags are indexed at Hashtags.org, organized by tag, and available as individual RSS feeds. Which means the conversation can be accessed even without a Twitter account.

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One of the cool things about twitter is that you can build so many lasting relationships. It is a wonderful way to network with people and find like minded individuals.

The real benefit to twitter is that people check their messages pretty often, at least once a day. They are notified of new updates or other kinds of messages through e-mail or other means.

Contacting people via twitter has many advantages over contacting people via e-mail. The first is that you don’t have to worry about spam blockers. The second is that your email won’t be ignored or deleted because they just get too much e-mail. The third is that it is more friendly. They can look at your twitter account information and see a picture of you. They can learn some things about you, so you don’t look like a stranger.

You’re also much more likely to actually talk to the person. Some people hire people to check their e-mail and handle customer service or use a help desk. Here you can talk to them directly.

Networking can do wonders for you and your online or offline business, for that matter. You can build connections and really explode your business.  What can other people help you with on twitter.

So the first thing twitter can help with is to get some traffic to your websites. You can have links in your profile that go to your websites and use tweets to drive more traffic to those sites. As an example, let’s say you send out a tweet about your new blog post or perhaps about a new site design or feature.

Another thing that networking allows you to do is work out joint ventures. You can find others that have products or websites in the same niche that you do and cross promote each other.

You could choose to work on some home business projects together. You provide the product, they provide the traffic or vice-versa.  This is just one example of a joint venture. One of the great things about networking is it puts you in contact with people who then refer you to their friends.

I’ve made some wonderful connections with people who I would have probably never met if a friend hadn’t referred me to them. I find I now “meet” as many people this way as I do in the real world.

Twitter is a great way to build business realtionships but don’t let it suck all your time away! Try these tips on Simple Steps to Time Management Success if you find yourself spending all your time on Twitter!

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Paulwillshowu is now following you on Twitter. Does this name look rather fishy to you? It should. This is an actual user account on Twitter that was suspended due to strange activity, which probably means the person (or program) who set up this account was going to use it for the sole purpose of spamming the Twitter stream of flow.

Your user name on social networking site Twitter is the first impression people have of you. Even before your profile or any of your tweets are read, your name can be a big clue to who you are and what your purpose is. Many people decide to use their name such as JohnSmith as a username. Using your real name can let other people know a real human is trying to get to know them, rather than a program that is just trying to push a product on them. This isn’t always the case, of course, but your real name can be the perfect choice for your username.

A business is a little different on Twitter, but can follow the same rules. Comcast Customer Support, for instance, has ComcastCares as a username. Many businesses decide to use the business name as the sole account and the employee’s first name followed by an underscore to denote single users within that business. For instance, back to the Comcast example, you could have Jane_ComcastCares as an account for Jane.

Your user name can be a difficult thing to come up with, especially if you have a common name or don’t feel comfortable using your given name on the Internet. A simple, yet memorable, name is always best. Here are a few tips when deciding on a user name to employ for Twitter.

• Go Solo – Chose a name that can be used across many platforms. Chances are, if it isn’t being used on one, it won’t be used on other sites either. This helps people looking for you find you easily. If they know your username on Twitter, then they can find you on LinkedIn as well. It’s a simple way to add to the branding of your business.

• Personal – If you have a common name, instead of using underscores or numbers, (which makes it look like you didn’t spend much thought on your name) try using initials or different combinations of your name.

• Length – The shorter the better. Remember, you only have 140 characters. When someone wants to reply to you, your name takes up a portion of those characters. If your name is 40 characters long, you’re limiting their ability to respond. Length also makes getting the spelling correct if someone is using a mobile device. Keep it short and sweet.

• Characters – Try to avoid the use of special characters such as $, _ and %, as well a numbers. These characters are typically used by bots trying to spam the system and people tend to shy away from incoming requests. This also makes replies difficult from a mobile phone. How long does it take you to spell out @$horty_179 on your key pad? Chances are many folks won’t want to waste their time even replying to your tweets.

Spend some quality time deciding on your username. Make it personal to you so it fits your style, but also make it unique and keep others in mind. Follow these few steps and your Twitter name will be created in no time. Then all that’s left to do is to get out there and start tweeting.

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