Did you know that your Twitter tweets are ripe with search engine juice that you can put to use to get more marketing exposure? Of course, links you post on Twitter, including links in your bio, are automatically no-follow, meaning the search engines will follow them, but “link juice” (like Google PageRank) isn’t carried over.

That doesn’t mean the party’s over for optimizing your Twitter page though. Search engines do index Twitter tweets (through “statuses” – which look like this). So how can you help ratchet your tweets up into search engine results as well as increase your number of followers?

By including relevant keywords within your title on your status pages.

Twitter creates the title for your status pages by taking up a slew of characters for itself. You can’t change that part (such as Twitter / Sherice Jacob) but you CAN change what comes after it. There are only about 27 characters available for you to use (and you thought fitting something into 140 was tough!), but every little bit counts.

In addition to showing up in search engines, when you include keywords in the titles of your status pages, you also become more visible through Twitter’s own search interface, as well as the many search sites out there that comb through Twitter posts and tweets for certain keywords – like this:

If I were looking for twitter tips, and these tweets came up in the results, would I want to follow these people to see what else they had to share? Absolutely!

And if you click on “View Tweet” for any of these results, you’ll be taken to – surprise! The status page! Status pages are static – which means they will stay there forever unless you delete them or Twitter disappears from the face of the Earth (not likely!) – so use them to your marketing advantage and start including a few keywords in your titles and tweets.

Now that you know how to better leverage your titles and statuses, get to work and start optimizing those pages with every link you post!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Squeeze Every Last Drop of SEO Juice from Your Twitter Page

Twitter only allows 140 characters. There is an infinite amount of things you can say, but only so many ideas to pull from. It’s hard to keep people entertained with your tweets.

The best way to keep from burning out and giving up is to have a brilliant plan that will allow you to reach your goals and meet amazing people.

1. Stay Creative

Tweeting looks so easy, but we all know it’s not. There is a lot of thought that goes into each tweet. Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist (@penelopetrunk) has each tweet reviewed by an editor before she sends it out. Well that’s what she told us.

You need to find new ways to get onto other tweeters’ radars. Don’t be afraid to switch around words. Tweeting is an art and sometimes you need to stand out by being different. Don’t be afraid to disagree. Don’t do this too often, but every now and again you can spur on an exciting conversation.

It’s the routine that kills the most tweeters. All they do is link back to their blog and they wonder why they aren’t meeting cool people and having fun connecting with other tweeters.

2. Find a Brilliant Quote to Share

I love finding really cool quotes and posting them on Twitter. It’s amazing how many people will retweet a good quote.

I posted a quote from Gandhi that said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

The CEO of Zappos (@zappos) liked it and retweeted it to his billion + subscribers. I gained over 200 subscribers in one weekend. I was lucky, but any of you can get lucky too; you just have to keep tweeting stuff you believe in and people will want to follow.

3. Just Listen

When I first got on Twitter I wasn’t very active. I just read and listened to others. I began to see what I liked and what I thought would work well for me. After a little while, I jumped in and began tweeting.

I learned the value of just listening to other tweeters. Instead of just getting on there and posting my tweet and leaving, I hang around. I notice when some people are jerks or humble or fun. It’s during these ten or fifteen minutes that I become more attached to the people I’m interacting with.

You’ll burn out quickly if all you do is broadcast your stuff and you don’t listen to the other brilliant people out there. Believe me, there are some smart people using Twitter.

4. Ask a Question

You may want to know what it feels like to stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower, or if anyone has a long commute to work and how they pass the time. The questions you can ask can be crazy, fun, or serious.

I would suggest that your question stay in the theme of the tweets. People like routines and expect to receive a certain type of tweet from you. If you shake it up too much, they may not stick around.

I’ve put out plenty of questions that were never answered. Don’t sweat it. Just post it again in a few hours. If you still don’t get a response, move on and try a different question in a few days.

5. Top 5 Tweeters to Follow

Darren wrote an excellent post about creating niche lists of tweeters that you should follow. For example, “top 5 marketers on Twitter” or “top 5 most interesting people on Twitter.”

When you send out some tweet love you might get a follow from a really cool person. I know that I would love to be included in the top 5 tweeters in the business category.

Don’t be afraid to give other people attention because it’s all about Twitter Karma. The more you give the more you will eventually be given back. The more people who love your style of tweeting, the more motivated you will be to connect with other tweeters.

6. Take a Break and Recharge

There will be some days when you just don’t feel like typing even a tweet. Then take a break and just let everyone else tweet their hearts out.

Stress occurs when we push too hard to accomplish something we aren’t ready for. If you don’t feel like tweeting then don’t. It’s better than sending some big sour puss of a tweet out there and everyone reading it and thinking “Man he is having a bad day.”

That’s when people decide to unfollow you.

7. People Will Unfollow You

Some people aren’t going to like your tweets. Just like every guy or girl doesn’t think you are hot stuff, there will be tweeters that just don’t like your personality.

Don’t take it personally. Your thoughts are not everybody’s cup of wisdom. Even Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) has people who stop following his tweets. He is in a position to add way more people than he loses, so his numbers keep growing anyway.

8. Be Yourself

Don’t try to be like @problogger because you’ll fall flat. I fell into this trap when I first started blogging. I tried to be like @stevepavlina. I only started succeeding when I let go of trying to be someone else and let my true personality come out.

I’ve taken a lot of great ideas from fellow tweeters, but always incorporated them into my own style.

You have to trust that your interests will excite other people. As long as you are authentic, people will catch on. I promise.

9. Copy a Leader

To step on my own advice, I’m going to tell you to copy a leader and his/her style for a day. See what happens. Are you getting more attention?

There is nothing wrong with learning form the masters of Twitter, such as @guykawasaki, and trying to incorporate their style into yours. Be very careful of taking this too far though, because in order to get people who want to follow you and stick with you, you have to be you.

10. Retweet Great Tweets

Retweeting other people’s thoughts is a great way to connect and share with your readers. I retweeted a @lizstrauss tweet and she sent me a thank you note. The more that you connect with talented people, the more likely they will be able to help you in the future.

If you’re not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish then you must ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” When you figure out the answer, avoiding burn out will be much easier.

11. Know Your Goals

When you know what you want to accomplish with Twitter it’s much easier to justify using your time and energy on it. If you have a blog, static website, or an offline business you can define your goals and start to make your dreams a reality.

I want to be the one person everyone thinks about when they think about work happiness. Twitter is just another tool that I can use to leverage my expertise.

The best part is that it’s easy to see what is working and what isn’t. If you are sending out the tweets and no one is following then you have to change strategy.

If you are only on Twitter to pass the time and only want to make friends then that’s your goal. Understanding your needs is the most important way to avoid burning out and giving up.

12. Start a 30 Day Challenge

The more compelling the story you tell, the more likely people will want to follow you. One of the best ways to get people involved in who you are and what you have to say is to challenge yourself to become a better person.

I created a “No Complaining” challenge that lasted for the whole month. I blogged and tweeted about it. Fellow tweeters gave me advice and empathy. This is when my tweeting became more personal and more compelling.

People want to know how the situation makes you feel. The Twitter society on the whole is very caring and supportive. So let them know what you are trying to accomplish and let them help you succeed.

13. Remember Twitter is Supposed to be Fun

Twitter should never feel like work and when it does then you know you need to change your habits. I’ve seen some tweeters adding new friends by the hundreds, just trying to get as many friends as possible. They burn out quickly because it stops being fun. They are more worried about how many people are following them instead of the value they are giving and receiving through Twitter.

Let your personality come out because that’s the person people want to see.

At first Twitter can be daunting and confusing, so find the right tools that fit your needs. Darren has plenty of them on this blog. I would suggest Tweetdeck to anyone who hasn’t tried it. It organizes all the tweets making the experience much more enjoyable and less overwhelming.

14. (What would be your number 14? How have you avoided burn-out or overcome it and came back better than ever?)

I’ve posted over 1,500 tweets and I feel like I’m just grasping the art of tweeting. The more that I tweet the better I get and the more fun it becomes. I felt close to burn out a few months ago, but I realigned my goals and I’m back to tweeting up a storm.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



14 Ways To Fight Twitter Burnout

I’ll be frank. I never intended to leverage my personal Twitter account as a passport to sit courtside at Carnesecca Arena or Madison Square Garden with media credentials. It just happened that way.

Thanks to St. John’s University and the progressive vision of Associate AD, Mark Fratto, your Twitter feed can now be considered a legitimate media outlet for covering college basketball, or any sport for that matter.

This is only the beginning.

Since St. John’s validated Twitter in early August, I’ve corresponded with the executive team of a reputable Division I Conference, multiple NBA team properties, and the NBA League Office.

And guess what? They all embrace our favorite microblogging platform, too. Moreover, their peers across all sports, conferences, divisions, and levels are not far behind. My situation may have been undesigned, but press row Twitter access is now open for discussion.

Here’s how you can position yourself for an opportunity:

Stop, look, and listen.
Stop running your keyboard’s mouth and stop taking shortcuts. If you created a separate email account for Twitter notifications that you ignore, stop; merge or monitor your inbox. How do you know who’s following you? Do you really comb your followers list on a regular basis? Get on TweetGrid, subscribe to relevant Twitter lists, and set up TweetBeep alerts to start listening to conversations. Mark Fratto conceived the credentialing idea, but I initiated the conversation. When St. John’s Basketball (STJ_Basketball) joined Twitter in late May of 2009, I was quick to publicly welcome them with an @reply. Who do you think started following me soon after?

Focus. On what, you ask?
Focus on building trust, relationships, and influence, not followers. Focus on being helpful, and creating practical, value-added content. Focus on one sport or one team, and own it. We can’t be all things to all people, and it doesn’t behoove us to try. You’ve probably heard this expression before: “There’s no ‘and’ in brand. The more specifically you define who you are and what you do, the better chance you’ll have of selling yourself.” This adage holds true on Twitter as well.. If you focus on giving and contributing relentlessly to your niche community, decision makers will take notice.

Go off Twitter.
As valuable as Twitter is, 140 character messages cannot replace the authority of a well-positioned, content-driven blog, vlog, or podcast. Long form media separates the desirous from the dabblers, and allows a publisher to hone and test their chops. Twitter may be nearing its fourth birthday, but to sports media brass, it might as well be four months old. Having an integrated and influential social media and search engine presence is essential to commanding a press pass. What does your blog or Google say about you? What outlets have you written for? Have you developed an offline relationship with the Media Relations/Marketing/Communications staff at your desired Tweeting destination?

Make the ask.
If your local college or professional sports team hasn’t approached you yet, it may be time to make the ask; but, only after you’ve listened intensely; established trust and productive relationships; focused on being a valuable and caring member of your Twitter community; shared helpful content and contacts; and built a well-recognized and respected, easy-to-find personal brand across various social channels. Before Twitter lists replace number of followers as the metric for influence, college and pro teams will still look at your follower counts, RTs, and directory-based influence ranks. Where do you stack up? When you’re ready for the pitch, do so privately and don’t burn a bridge if the request is denied. Most media relations departments are still trying to wrap their head around credentialing bloggers, so be patient.

What else?
I recognize that wide adoption of credentialing Tweeters will take time, but how can we, together, help the cause? Please leave additional advice below.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Tweet Your Way to Press Row

During my introductory class on the basics of Twitter, almost every client asks me, “How do I get followers?”  I try to explain that the question really should be “Who should I follow?”  While your followers ARE key to the success of your Twitter efforts, the difference between reaching out to follow those that are of interest to you and gathering followers just to increase your number of followers is important. On Twitter, as in most of life, quality is more important than quantity. Having thousands of followers, if they are only interested in broadcasting their SPAM, is really of no value to you.  And it will give you the mistaken impression that Twitter is only full of SPAMMERs.  If you focus on offering valuable information and search for those that are sharing information of interest to you, you will find the Twitterverse a useful and positive place to learn, grow your sphere of influence and find real business leads.

Keep in mind; even if you don’t have a fleet of followers, by tweeting, you are sending info out into the larger worldwide web. Searches, by you or by others, are of the entire live Twitter feed, not just of your tribe.  If you are tweeting about travel and someone is searching on a keyword you use, they will find you, whether they are a follower of yours or not.  And if they contact you, be sure to follow them – that will be a valuable connection!

Start out by following people you already know (friends, co-workers, clients, customers and friends) and those you know of and respect.  President Obama, Guy Kawasaki, Oprah, you choose.  Follow experts in your industry. Search the Twitter stream for people using your keywords in their tweets.  Keep an eye out as you read blog posts and check email signature footers for the Twitter icon (sometimes a single lowercase “t”, sometimes a small bird) or an @name.  Check out their profiles and see if they are sharing helpful advice and suggestions.  Keep in mind that everyone you follow need not be directly related to your business or field.  Like networking in the real world, meeting people is not only about what they can do for you but also about what you can do for them. Or sometimes, just for the fun of it – a follow-worthy post may make you think, offer insights you hadn’t considered or just make you smile.

As you search on your keywords and visit various profiles, follow the ones that are of interest.  To continue with the travel theme, say you run a hotel in Paris, France. Your search keywords might be “trip”, “Paris” etc.  As you look at the results, click on the conversations that are about your city (there will probably be all sorts of other results about Ms Hilton and possibly Paris, Texas among others).  See where you can offer advice or assistance.  Hopefully you publish an e-newsletter about your hotel with suggestions for local dining, advice for first time visitors, maybe the hours for visiting the Eiffel Tower. Introduce yourself and offer them a copy.  If you see that they will be arriving later that week, let them know if it will be chillier than usual so they can pack an extra sweater.  Offer them a coupon for a free drink in your hotel bar.  Most likely they will respond positively.  And while they may not stay in your hotel this trip, maybe they will stop by and see you, and if nothing else, they will probably follow you.  Again, this is a valuable addition to your group.

You will, upon entering the Twitterverse, probably find a large number of people that will rush to follow you. Some may be real live people but many will be on auto pilot or will be bots; programs that troll Twitter looking for people to add to their lists.  These automated services follow anyone they can find, for the express purpose of sending you SPAM of one kind or another. Tips and links to get rich quick seem most prevalent, followed closely by offers to help you find thousands of Twitter followers.   I would highly suggest vetting these followers before you consider following them back. See what they tweet and determine if they offer anything of value. See if they have a profile picture and a bio.  See if they have clothes on in their photo – and hey, maybe that will help you decide that you DO want to follow them – but my point is this, do not necessarily auto-follow back.  Especially people (or @names) that offer nothing but a repetitive stream of SPAM.  As you follow these steps, your list of followers WILL grow, and you don’t want to dilute your tweet stream with their SPAM messages.

I have seen articles about how to determine who to follow with criteria indicating a large minimum number of followers and tweets.  I tend to disagree.  First, check to see the quality of the tweets – 1500 tweets on ‘how to grow your’… anything is probably not full of value.  And just because someone has thousands of followers does not mean that those are actual people, it may just mean that they are part of a ring of auto-follows.  While a tribe of followers numbering in the hundreds of thousands of real people (like Mari Smith or other active and hugely popular Twitterers) IS a sign of their genuine value, follower numbers alone are not necessarily a good benchmark.  And I would venture to say that a real person, with just a few followers that has just joined Twitter may actually be a great connection!  Their stream is sparse enough that your tweets will be seen and hopefully appreciated.  They will have the time to respond and start conversations, to build connections and maybe even share your message via retweet!

Open and read through your Twitter feed regularly. Eventually, you will be able to check it less often but at first, it may be best to check in frequently (a few times a day). Pay attention to the people you are following, watch what they say and how.  Learn the personalities of the various people and interact accordingly. Many people mix work and personal life on Twitter so don’t be afraid to let people know who you really are – you are not just a business profile, so let your personality shine thru. If someone is commenting on an extremely complicated recipe he is preparing and you like to cook, you may want to add a suggestion.  Follow up the next day to see how it turned out!

By following these easy steps, you too can grow a large tribe of ‘true’ followers.  Soon you will need to think about follower management tools – but that is a topic for another article.  For now, enjoy and engage in the conversation!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Who to Follow, and Not to Follow, on Twitter – That is the Question

I’ll cut to the chase. Twitter isn’t a fad. It’s not going away. Let me tell you why:

They Have Industry Recognition

Industry giants can be intimidating for any new business, especially on the web. Since Twitter’s inception, we’ve seen multiple companies make offers to acquire the young service, and we’ve seen multiple companies get turned down. A lot of people were thinking, “Hey, why didn’t they take the money and run?” I know I was. But, it seems the folks at Twitter had bigger and better things on their mind.

Besides fighting off the temptation to give into lucrative acquisition offers, Twitter has had to face the looming threat that all startups face: what happens when Google decides to do what you’re doing? Yikes. This question has gotten even scarier for social startups – what happens when Facebook decides to do what you’re doing? Double yikes. But, Twitter has stood the test of time and managed to fight off the major industry players. Facebook users can update their Twitter accounts with a simple application, fan pages have a built in utility to update Twitter accounts, and Google and Bing are now showing Tweets in their search results. Win. Win. Win. Win.

There Is No Replacement

Besides fighting off internet giants like Facebook and Google, you would suspect that Twitter would also be facing heavy competition from copy cat services. After all, making a micro blogging platform isn’t that difficult, but, then again, the platform itself isn’t Twitter’s main advantage over competitors. Those trying to duplicate Twitter’s service would be faced with overcoming Twitter’s first mover advantage, their piles of funding, and their existing relationships (see paragraph above). With all of these advantages, it’s no surprise there hasn’t been much real competition from similar services. Simply put, if Twitter were Myspace, there is no Facebook.

The Mobile Web Is Here

So, maybe Twitter isn’t falling to competition any time soon. That doesn’t mean people won’t just quit using it. What’s to keep Twitter from becoming just another Second Life? The answer is mobile. There are three reasons why mobile is important to Twitter’s success:

1. Mobile is easy. Instead of using an isolated desktop application or piece of software that limits use to specific times and places, mobile presents an easier, less cumbersome way for people to use Twitter: on the go, anywhere, anytime.
2. Mobile is real. Because Twitter can be used and viewed on the go, its content is more than just tech talk floating in cyberspace. It’s real updates about things beyond the monitor: Mobile brings the value of conferences, speeches, concerts, accidents, crimes, parades, inaugurations and more to the folks who weren’t there.
3. Mobile is the direction the internet is headed. E-marketer estimates US penetration will near 100% by 2013. And, it’s not just talking and texting anymore. The mobile web is here.

Unlike Second Life, Twitter doesn’t propose an alternate reality. It proposes a simple way to better understand our current reality. Tweets ranging from “what I had for breakfast” to “Michael Jackson died” give followers world-wide a better grasp on the activities and thoughts of real people.

Twitter isn’t for everyone. Some people just aren’t interested in real-time news, objects of local interest, or the status updates of friends and family, but an increasing number of people are. With their sealed market position and a platform that makes mobile usage easy and compelling, Twitter isn’t going anywhere soon. If you’ve been waiting for the fad to fade, get ready for a long wait.

Image via xotoko on Flickr

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



3 Reasons Twitter Is Not A Fad

We all have them—”social media friends”—people who we talk to online but most likely have never met in person. We connected with them because of a common interest via Twitter, engaged in interesting conversation with them and shared a bond, but we don’t really consider them a true friend.

Truly using Twitter to its fullest potential means networking not just for casual online interaction but actually creating long lasting relationships. Real friends will shout from the rooftops to promote your brand, real friends collaborate, work together and would do anything for each other. Let’s start making these Twitter friends into your own global network of people who have a vested interest in each other’s success. Besides, what good are your friends if you don’t really know them?

But don’t be a creep!

Ew, you want to meet me in person? Is it really okay to meet people online? Yes! It’s important to realize that there is a real person behind that avatar—not just another click thru to your blog.

Make people feel like they know you.

Your Twitter brand should have both personal and professional elements to it. In order to create real relationships your Twitter friends should trust you.

• Your avatar must look like you! You want people to stop you at events because they recognize you from Twitter.
• Take the time to look at someone’s profile and website. Know more about your friends than just their handle. Read their bio, check out their website and ask about them. People want to know you care!
• Post videos of yourself and ask questions—the more interaction people have with you on Twitter, the closer people feel to you. Engage your audience!
• Help people! If you are helpful on Twitter, chances are you are helpful offline. Networking is all about giving—remember you have to give to get. Providing value on Twitter eventually creates value in real life.
• Compliment! Flattery goes a long way on Twitter. Tell someone you admire their work and think they are a leader and you are much more likely to make a real friend!
• Post Twitpics. Your personal brand should have a personality; make sure they know you are real. Take interesting pictures from your everyday life. It doesn’t have to be a picture of your children, simply try a picture from an event you are attending.

Now take networking offline!

• Attend or organize a Tweetup. Use http://twtvite.com to send out invitations. Get a few real friends who are on Twitter together and invite all your respective Twitter friends.
• Schedule phone calls. Meet someone on Twitter who you’d like to know better? Ask to schedule a phone call. Send a DM and specify a time limit of 10 minutes. Nobody’s time will be wasted. Imagine you did this every day?
• Don’t want to pay long distance or give out your number? Invite a Twitter friend for a #VirtualCoffee meeting on Skype. Connect face to face and have a real conversation.
• Have a column on Tweetdeck specifically for people you’d like to meet in person. You can monitor people more closely this way by organizing friends into one big column, or segment them into geographic location.
• Never eat alone! Traveling? Make a conscious effort to meet people you’ve connected with on social media. Of course meet in a public place and keep things casual. Plan this in advance.
• Attend Events: Go to tweetups, networking events, conferences, keynote speeches, unconferences or anything with a hashtag on Twitter. Tag everything with a hashtag and let it be known you are looking to do some real life networking.

Take the leap!

Creating a network of global friends means going out being assertive. Don’t be shy—start approaching people. Set a goal for yourself of 5 real life connections each week. Connect with one person daily or knock them all out in a single day of the week. It’s time to start using Twitter to its potential.

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© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Turn Twitter Friends into Real Friends

TwitPic is an excellent application that further boosts Twitter’s usefulness. However, so many people use TwitPic incorrectly. Tweeters use TwitPic to tweet pictures of their children at Disney World or pictures of their grandmother at her 100th Birthday Party. C’mon! Your kids are not that cute, and your grandmother??? I don’t even want to see a picture of Halle Berry when she’s 100 years old.

Using TwitPic as if it were Flickr is similar to using your iPhone as if it were an iPod. You are missing out on all of its capabilities.

Below are 10 ways to use TwitPic to improve the quality of your life and the lives of those around you.

How to Use TwitPic

Weight Loss Pictures: Use TwitPic to chronicle your weight loss. Every Wednesday is Weigh-In Wednesday. Have someone take a picture of you and Tweet It! Sharing pictures of yourself will motivate you and your followers.

Funny Pictures: Use TwitPic to spread laughter across the Twitterverse. If you see something funny, take a picture and Tweet It! Laughter decreases stress and this will lengthen the lives of your followers and help them lose weight.

Drunk Pictures: Use TwitPic to improve your vision. You are out on the town and you have been drinking heavily. You meet someone who you find extremely attractive. Before you get into a cab with the attractive stranger, take a picture of them and Tweet It! Have your followers review the picture. There is nothing wrong with waking up to Ugly Betty, as long as you were not thinking you went home with America Ferrera.

Food Pictures: Use TwitPic to get food advice. You are on a diet and you are unsure if you should eat something. Take a picture and Tweet It! One of your followers may convince you not to eat it. They may also just give you the nutritional information so you can log it properly.

Blind Date Pictures: Use TwitPic to set up better blind dates. You are considering setting up one of your friends on a blind date. Before you take the plunge, take a picture and Tweet It! Make sure you send it to your followers that know your friend. Let the Twitterverse decide if you should continue with this “hook up.”

Cheat Day Pictures: Use Twitter for memories. You are on a diet and it is time to eat your weekly Cheat Meal. Before you devour your food, take a picture and Tweet It! The picture will serve as a positive reminder for the rest of the week. If the food really looks good, send it to @FoodPorn also.

Five-Second Rule Pictures: Use TwitPic to destroy the five-second rule. Your food just fell on the floor. You are thinking about enacting the five-second rule. Stop it. You are an adult. Instead, take a picture and Tweet It! Let the Twitterverse decide if the number of hairs and dirt particles exceed the eating threshold.

Rash Pictures: Use TwitPic for medical diagnosis. You have a rash, but you don’t have health insurance. Don’t cry. Instead, take a picture of your skin disfigurement and Tweet It! There are thousands of physicians on Twitter, including myself. If we cannot diagnose your rash, at least your picture will serve as a warning to anyone considering dating you.

Sanity Pictures: Use TwitPic to prove your sanity. You just saw Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, Notorious B.I.G., Elvis, Tupac, Santa Claus, or Pauly Shore. Take a picture and Tweet It! Now when you tell the story, your followers will not have you put in a Twitter Straight Jacket.

Neighbor Pictures: Use TwitPic to bond with your neighbors. You just saw your neighbor “making out” with someone who is not their spouse. Take a picture, but DON’T Tweet It! Instead, use the picture to extort money from them. If they refuse, Tweet It!

Hopefully, you now understand how to unleash the full power of TwitPic and you will save the pictures of you kissing your dog for Flickr.

These are the ways I use TwitPic. If you have better methods, leave them in the comments. I’ll steal them, claim them as my own, and use them in my next post.

Photo by Shermeee

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



10 Better Ways To Use TwitPic

It’s known that a brand for a product is like reputation for a human being. There are so many articles, books and people that talk about branding and how it is done properly. A lot of bloggers out there, who are most probably new, just do not care about their Twitter page and how it looks. Considering that you have got a proper brand and theme for your blog (or product) now you need to have a Twitter branded page that matches your current brand.

Tip#1: Background

Stop using Twitter’s default backgrounds and get yourself a customized background. There are many tutorials on the Internet on how to get yourself a decent Twitter background and if you suck in design (as in my case) I just have my logo repeated all over a solid background. If you’re looking for a top-notch twitter background, there are various providers listed on different posts of Twitip that may be what you’re looking for. Bottom line, never use Twitter’s default background.

Tip #2: Avatar

I always mention in my articles and discussions about branding, that your avatar should be unified on all of your public profiles including, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Flickr, Gravatar, MyBlogLog, FriendFeed, etc… simply, use the same avatar you’re using on the Internet for Twitter, and if you currently use more than one, just try to unify your avatar everywhere. People will reach a level where they will start recognizing you from your avatar, if you use picture1 on Twitter and picture2 on Facebook and for comments you use picture3 they will either think that 3 people share the same name, which happens, or they will have a really hard time knowing it’s you. They also may end-up not reading the comment or your update just because they don’t know it’s you.

Tip #3: Design colors

Customizing your design colors is a very easy task and an important one as well. You have options where you can customize colors in your Twitter profile; background, text, links, sidebar and sidebar border. Always try to use the colors used within your logo or theme, and make sure to use matching colors. I always use the same background color on both the background photo and design. For cases where a visitor with an unexpected screen resolution lands onto your twitter profile, the background image and the background color will look like one layer!

Tip #4: Brand your tweets

All of the previous 3 tips are design related tips, but this one which is extremely important is a contextual tip. You might be wondering how could one brand her/his tweets? And no, it’s not about Hashtags.

Branding your tweets includes the core topic of your tweets, what your tweets are mainly about, are they personal tweets? Technology tweets? Financial tweets? I think that you should be tweeting about one topic the most; otherwise people will lose trust in you. Remember; Jack of all, master of none. I’m not saying if your main focus is technology not to tweet about movies. No, I just mean to have the major share of your tweets going towards one topic instead of confusing people.

This is one part of branding tweets, the other part is the ethics of Twitter which most of you know. The ethics of twittering are many but the most common are: thanking other tweeps for retweeting your tweet, follow back people who are following you (in most cases), keep your tweets family rated (unless you’re in the adult industry), thank other tweeps if they recommended you for a #FollowFriday and do not spam your followers.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Get a Matching Twitter Brand

As I skimmed my Twitter stream, only three tweets enticed me to click through to the blog post:

All three of these tweets are brief, unusual, punchy, and they feature strong nouns: vampire, bacon beer, Krazy Glue.

Entertaining teasers seem to be in short supply on Twitter. Normally, my Twitter stream brims with two main types of teasers:

Steroidal: Boost your sales 500% in 1 week! http://hyperlink.com

Put-you-to-sleep: Read my blog post about my book tour http://hyperlink.com

We can do better than that, people!

I created a simple system I call “Twitter Teasers,” which helps me get more mileage out of my archived blog posts.

First, I created a table in Word (Excel or any spreadsheet works, too). I assigned my assistant (my 13-year-old son) to go through my blog’s archives. He copied and pasted each post title, URL, and date published into the table. Here’s a sampling:

Next, I composed Twitter teasers – short previews of each blog post. I’ve discovered that my most-clicked teasers include one or more of the following elements:

• WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) – Reader-centered; they use the word “you”:
• Do you have a business portrait?
• Need ideas for blog posts? Try Google’s Wonder Wheel.
• Do you want to increase your blog’s readership?
• Personal – First-person, quirky, slice-of-life:
• My teen son discovered that I have the original Boston albums… on LP.
• I need your help choosing my new business portrait.
• Our favorite pizza joint used the good, old-fashioned cold call to sell us 2-for-1 pizzas on a slow night.
• Questions – Questions implicitly promise answers that deliver useful information, controversy, or entertainment.
• Want a quick, easy, free way to get quoted in multiple media outlets?
• Are 40.5% of tweets truly “pointless babble”?
• Do people frequently misspell your name?
• Strong Words – Action verbs, specific nouns, and as many details as possible packed into one tightly-written sentence:
• MySpace for Babies? If you have a child aged 0-5, does he have his own social media site?
• Important things to know if you plan to market to Gen Xers and Yers.
• Why there are no clocks in Las Vegas & other marketing ploys you can use to grow your biz.

I draft my teasers in hootsuite http://hootsuite.com, because:

• It shows me exactly how many characters I have remaining.
• It shrinks the links to my posts.
• It allows me to pre-schedule tweets.
• I limit my teasers to 122 characters (including the link), so my fellow tweeps can re-tweet them.

In the table above, you’ll notice I’ve highlighted several teasers in yellow. In HootSuite, I track the clickthroughs for each teaser, and I highlight the most popular ones so I remember to re-use them. I note the dates and times I post each teaser so I don’t overuse a particular teaser… and so I remember to re-run it in a few weeks.

Often, I split-test my teasers – I write several teasers for a single blog post, tweet them at various times of the day over the course of a week, and check my stats to see which teasers get the most clicks.

Crafting Twitter Teasers takes time, but it’s time well spent. Teasers ensure that fresh, engaging content appears daily in your Twitter updates, and it’s a great way to lure more traffic to your archived blog posts.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Get More Mileage Out of Your Blog Archives with Twitter Teasers

Twitter is a great platform bringing together millions of people for you to interact. The challenge, however, is to identify the subset of this twitterverse that is relevant for you. The value that you can derive from Twitter is a function of the quality of people that you interact with. Today, I will present a great tool – Tweepi – that makes the onerous task of finding and following quality people a cakewalk.

Tweepi presents a geekier, faster way to manage your Twitter experience. It currently has four tools and hopefully we will more in the future.

Geeky Follow: Before you can prune your friend list, you need to build your friend list. Geeky Follow enables you to follow active tweeples who share the same interests are you. Just identify popular tweeple in your domain and selectively add people that are following them. The underlying idea is simple, people following users that you idolize share similar interests as yours. For example, if you are interested in technology related tweeps, you may want to follow users following @mashable or @techcrunch.

After you enter the popular user, Tweepi will provide the list of users following the popular tweep and also provide various statistic about them, such as location, number of followers, tweets, replies, RTs, etc. Using all this information, you can then selectively follow the users that match your criteria. Ideally, you want to select tweeps who have been retweeted often and who also actively engage with others.

Flush: While Twitter encourages interaction, you may find several users following you back. Depending on your requirement, you may want to unfollow users that do not reciprocate your friendship (indicating that they do not value your opinion). Tweepi provides a simple tool to unfollow users that are not following you back. Once again, Tweepi will provide all the stats about these users to help you make an informed decision about whom to unfollow.

Geeky Reciprocate: Reciprocate does the opposite of Flush.  Reciprocate provides you a list of tweeps that are following you, but you are not following them. Again, based on the statistics that Tweepi provides, you may or may not decide to follow back your followers.

Cleanup: Over a period of time, you may find that you have lot of friends, but they are not tweeting enough (e.g., left twitter) or spamming (the biggest complaint on twitter). Cleanup provides you some help to prune down your friend list to eliminate dormant or spammy users so that you continue to have a good experience with twitter.

The best part of Tweepi is that it provides you with all the information you need to make a decision, but you are the ultimate judge. Tweepi even provides preset rules that you can use to make your search more effective, e.g., you can sort on the basis of followers to following ratio.

Overall, it is a great tool to make enrich your Twitter experience and I would strongly recommend everyone to give it a try!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Tweepi – Twitter Follow Management With Stats