Using Twitter

[The Anti Hype]

Someone introduced me to a new Twitter Wordpress plugin today - I posted about it at Guru-Fodder - and as I see great potential in using this plugin for generating traffic I'd like some opinions on Twitter.

I've been dabbling for a while but haven't really seen the value - lots of followers and following - but do people really click through the links? There seems too many - just feeding the dog - type posts to cut through for me.

Someone please tell me what I've missed

[The Anti Hype]

Valid point - I guess it depends on the attitude and objectives of the recipient of messages.

Really pleased with the comments here - very positive where I'd been seeing too many "chatty" twits - I can now see some real benefits and opportunities

[The Anti Hype]

Hi Jerry - really useful - thanks

[Mark Ramskill]

Funnily enough, last week I wrote a short best practice 'how to' for twitter that may be useful.....

Are you twittering?

To keep yourself up to date with the usual suspects (Seth Godin, Mashable, Techcrunch, DoshDosh etc), and with your own internal 'web discoveries', in real-time, I recommend making use of Twitter, Pownce and their associated applications.


Why?

- Cuts down on email clutter and gets information in front of your eyes with more immediacy (using desktop functionality)
- Keeps a useful individual archive that can be accessed easily, online, anywhere
- Shows you as a keen follower/adopter of the latest tools and apps, to your peers and audience
- Helps you to engage more quickly and interact more freely
- Good for search purposes, for people searching on your name on Google etc

I'm waffling, but you get the idea...


Here's the steps I recommend:

1 - Sign up with twitter at http://twitter.com (I suggest using your name as your twitter account name)

I'd recommend twitter as your main tool for following others.

Next, you need to find some worthy people (use the twitter search). Click 'follow', once you're on their pages, to follow their 'tweets' / twitter posts.

Here's some suggestions:

- Problogger: http://twitter.com/problogger
- Mashable: http://twitter.com/mashable
- Seth Godin: http://twitter.com/SethGodin
- Scobleizer: http://twitter.com/Scobleizer
- Jowjang: http://twitter.com/jowyang (senior social analyst at Forrester)
- Engadget: http://twitter.com/engadget
- Kevin Rose, Digg founder: http://twitter.com/kevinrose
- Andy Beard: http://twitter.com/AndyBeard
- Maki, DoshDosh: http://twitter.com/doshdosh
- Rohit Bhargava: http://twitter.com/rohitbhargava (social marketing guru - see http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/)
- John Chow: http://twitter.com/JohnChowDotCom

and of course, me:

- http://twitter.com/ramskill (new account, which i'm now updating daily)

You'll find most of your peers have a twitter account.


2 - Sign up with Pownce at http://www.pownce.com

Repeat step 1

There's no point following the same people in Pownce as you're following in twitter (this will only cause post repetition, when you use desktop apps to follow both twitter and Pownce together), but you may find that some some people are on twitter and others are only on Pownce.

The main reason for using Pownce is to increase your general visibility to others.


3 - Download twhirl desktop client from http://www.twhirl.org

twhirl makes it really easy to follow both twitter and Pownce. Works kind of like an instant messenger, whereby as soon as anyone you are following posts, their post appears in your desktop client and also flashes up in a small bubble on your screen, for quick and easy reading. If their post includes a link (Mashable for example links through to their main articles) it is added in as a tinyurl.

In your twhirl settings add both your twitter and Pownce accounts. You can then post a message within twhirl and it will appear on both sites.

I suggest using twhirl almost like a live bookmarking and 'brainfart' service.


4 - Don't forget to tell others that you have a twitter and Pownce account!

Post it on your blog, your Facebook page, email your friends/collegues etc and get people to follow you. Don't forget to list your twitter and Pownce accounts on any other social sites you use (most of them have functionality to show links to your other accounts).


That's it. You're set....

If you want to post to other sites, such as Facebook, tumblr, LinkedIn, Jaiku etc (i'm on most of them), simply set yourself up with an account at http://www.hellotxt.com which allows you to post once, and spit out to multiple sites at the same time.

Mark Ramskill
www.subhub.com

[Jerry Holliday]

Great stuff Mark!

Of course we should all follow each other!
http://www.twitter.com/bonafide70

Yeh i made the mistake of not using my name!

I like the way Seth Godwin is following no-one - I guess that's part of it - to have more followers than you actually follow.

[The Anti Hype]

Great reply Mark - thanks for the resources too.

[Iceman Baldy]

Mark,
Thanks for the reference to hellotxt.com. It seems like it might be a great site for multiplying the impact of a microblogging post in the same way that posting blog entries via RSS helps to spread your blog posts across multiple social networks.

[Mike Cunningham]

Info and Tips For Marketers on Using Twitter

Using Twitter, My Advice, Info and Tips

Note: This was an Email, that one of the recipients asked to publish, and sure you can just give me the Props!

This Email is primarily to my friends from the abandoned SBEmpire, but now its being made available to friends, who will respect our intentions. Those intentions are learning, discussing and sharing knowledge, news, tips, advice and anything else that improves our ability to Social Network.

I'm going to turn this conversation into a discourse on Twitter.That's where I've been making new friends in the same arena that we met in. Web2.0 Social Marketing! I've found that Twitter is an ideal way to learn and research Internet Marketing in the Social environment.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that the Twitter Internet Marketing community is great.

If you are not following them, and there is no group, you're missing the best part of Twitter and maybe of the whole Web2.0 experience. Here are 6 names that I believe should definitely be on your list of following.

• coachdeb
• donnafox
• markress
• rick_butts
• ed_dale
• shermanhu

The way I've built my list of peeps I'm following, is by looking at people I like, and following who they follow. The other thing is when you click on a person in someone else's following list, Right Click to open in a new tab. Then you can find out about that person in that tab. When you are done, Simply close it and go back to the original list tab, and look at someone else.
When I look at a person, I scan their tweets to see if they are interesting to me, especially if they have tweeted links to sites. I'll open that URL, usually a tiny, in a new tab, and see if what they tweeted was interesting to me. If a person just has tweets about their eating, drinking, dog walking, etc and not much else, I don't need to follow them. The other thing that influences me heavily is the information about their website. Not having one is a pretty good sign that this person isn't sharing, and that's the key to Twitter.

And any time you see someone with very many people they are following and very few following them, beware, they are probably not following for good reasons. But if examining a follow candidate it doesn't hurt to see who they follow. Applying the Kevin Bacon 6 step theory works. If you get to know them and they know somebody influential, eventually you too will know somebody influential. Key in all this is participating in conversations with other Twitterites in a way that makes them appreciate and desire to be your friend. Making that first, second or even third contact requires that you listen, actively to what your target is saying. There will come a point that you feel you know enough to comment in a way that applies to their subject. The comment you choose to make should be non-threatening, add to the conversation, and not necessarily require an answer. Questions are usually answered when germane to the subject, but may not be, if they are considered nosy, disruptive, or off topic. Many active Twitterers receive hundreds if not thousands of comments daily, don't be disappointed if they don't answer immediately or ever, to one particular comment. Comments scroll by quickly on such a person's home Twitter page.

I shouldn't have to say what is not a good thing to say as a first comment, You know what you consider to be intrusive, rude or pushy. Apply your own standards and think of how the other person might feel. Feelings are important, how someone feels positively about you, makes gaining their confidence and friendship easier. It may never be appropriate to try and sell a new friend your product or service, certainly not early in your acquaintance. (hidden link above) By listening to them over time, you may find they have a need, then of course as a friend offering help you are welcomed. Remember I'm talking about being in the sphere of Internet Marketers who are using Twitter to create their own Social Web2.0 presence. Many of these people are experienced professionals, with systems, groups, and subscribers of their own. Some have thousands of customers for their products and mailing lists of enormous size.

There are many tools you can use to add to Twitter. Twitter doesn't have to be seen only in a browser window.

One up and coming alternative is TweetDeck. This does require the installation of the Adobe Air Platform, which is free and totally unobtrusive when installed. Its new so there
aren't a lot of applications yet. One other Air application I know of is MeBone a chat client aggregator and replacement.

What might be the most popular Twitter client is Twhirl. Twhirl operates as separate Sidebar type tool on the desktop. It too is an Air Application. Advantages to using Twhirl are the ability to cross post to FriendFeed, Pownce and Jaiku.

If you are a Firefox user which you should be, (Internet Explorer has so much bad publicity, I'm not going to add to it here) the TwitterFox addon is a handy status bar tool to view recent posts and make comments.

Like everything else in the world today there is a Wikipedia article on Twitter. There you can read about the history, uses, and technology of Twitter and more.

Those are just suggestions, there are dozens of Twitter accessories/addons. A good place to learn more about Twitter is the Twitter HandBook, right now its on its way to the publisher. But you can read practically everything in it at TwitterHandBook.c om as it is being written online in an interactive way. This book is written by: Warren Whitlock & Deborah Micek .

Throughout this, I've only mentioned Coachdeb twice, but I feel a better introduction is necessary. She's the Queen of Tweets and her authorship confirms this. Here's what you'll find about her in the Twitter Handbook:

Deborah Micek is a co-founder of the international business coaching company RPM Success Group ® Inc. She and her partner John Paul are authors of the 1st book published on New Media Marketing: Secrets Of Online Persuasion. They are creators of the ONLY Web site system to put New
Media to work marketing FOR you — BLOG i360™.

JP Micek recently published this about Persuasion and Seduction:
(this is a small snippet, the Graphs and Diagrams are fantastic for you marketers)

What a New Media Marketing Hub IS and IS NOT

Before we take a look at the 5 simple steps to maximizing the profit impact of your New Media Marketing Hub, let’s get clear on what a hub is and is not.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a blog.

  A blog helps with two parts of the Tribal Seduction? Action Triad: Attraction and Connection. Conversion cannot be done efficiently on a regular blog.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a regular sales site.

  This type of site may be optimized for Conversions, but no matter how well written the copy, no matter how persuasive the videos, no matter how shocking the offer is – it will fail miserably when it comes to the Attraction and Connection of the Action Triad. (And in many cases, this type of site works against you no matter how you send people there, even from your blog.)

• A New Media Marketing Hub IS a single site that combines Attraction, Connection, and Conversion.

  By having one central destination for your Tribe, the hard pitch can fall away. Instead, with a little bit of careful planning, application of Tribal Seduction principles and an understanding of human nature — you can strategically hide “pathways” to conversion that your Tribe will discover on their own. More...

As long as the subject of What IS and What IS NOT

, Rick Butts has written about his new product,

Http://TwitterSqueeze.com

What IS Twitter Squeeze?

It is my own personal strategy for increasing your followers and leveraging social media to move prospects along a "trust curve" to increase your sales and profits.

What Twitter Squeeze is NOT.

Twitter Squeeze is not a spam technique, it does not employ software to spam Twitter, and although it can involve some automation (your choice) it is 100% kosher with the etiquitte and appropriate social ethics of all serious social media.

Is Twitter Squeeze Really New?

This is not a recycled marketing technique. Twitter Squeeze is a brand new synthesis of social networking, marketing, PR, visibility, combined with proven fundamental marketing strategies that work.

You'll be using this strategy years from now to increase your "tribe" and profits.

In addition to the 2 FREE bonus training presentations, I'll be adding additional content on advanced strategies and success stories - and new valuable resources via camtasia, audio, or written content as is appropriate to the topic.

Twitter is a Fun and Friendly Place, Tweet You later, Tweet Me Now.

Mike

http://twitter.com/mike1mb

[Croydon Social marketer]