The Twitter Marketing Ebook is my favorite twitter product under $20. It’s concise but covers a lot of unspoken rules. There are 15 chapters totaling 66 pages. Rather than give a brief overview of each chapter, I thought it would be best to focus on the 6 chapters that really stood out.

Personalizing your twitter account

This section is so useful. Many individuals and companies are using twitter to extend their personal brand and to engage with their potential clients. Most are nervous and are either too casual or too professional. In this chapter, Marko provides clear recommendations while referring to many external sites and tools to help the new user.

Starting to tweet

At the end of this chapter, Marko gives three tasks for readers to do:

• Be interesting
• Think of your tweets as article headlines
• Don’t sell

The chapter is centered around these three tenets. He also provides commandments and a code of conduct. I really appreciated this as he talked about a lot of the basic ideas that I haven’t seen recommended in other twitter products. They include:

• Restrain yourself from tweeting too much about a broad range of personal topics,
• Do not start following anyone without building your Twitter stream first

Building relationships and influence

This is the chapter that really impressed me. He gave tips on how to appear real and more authentic. This may seem like a basic concept but it’s something that most users struggle with. It’s difficult showing your personality in a limited number of characters.

The tips focus on being useful, treating everyone equally and providing value. These values have worked well for me and many of my new friends that found me via my twitter profile.

Increasing the number of your followers

This section is somewhat basic and heavily focuses on two main areas:

• Following people first
• Finding followers with tweetdeck.

Many Twitip readers may already know the material in this chapter. That’s cool. There’s still more than $20 of value in the other chapters.

I do believe that the information in the next chapter, following vs followers, should have been included in this one. This is just a minor grievance – the information is just as awesome as the previous chapter.

Self promotion on twitter

This is the chapter I would love to accidentally send to many twitter users. So many people, including friends, get this wrong and don’t know that they are doing it. Marko discusses concepts such as:

• Automated direct messages
• Duplicate tweets
• Affiliate links

These sections are small and don’t really cover the broader issues regarding each concept. However this chapter will prevent many users from making basic mistakes.

Going viral on twitter

This section is solely focused on how to get more retweets. I believe that retweets should be organic and didn’t think I’d get much out of this chapter. I was wrong. Marko spoke about:

• Optimizing your tweets
• Tracking the retweets
• Tips to encourage retweets

I knew most of the information provided but it was still extremely useful.

How does this differ from the previous version?

The main differences I saw was the introduction of sections on twitter lists and the official retweet feature. These are very small additions and didn’t really explain the implications they had on marketing. However, they would be really useful to those new to twitter as most information products I’ve bought haven’t been updated since publication.

If you have bought the previous version, you should have been sent an email with the new version.

Why I trust Marko

I deal with a lot of bloggers both with my guest posts and paid work. Marko Saric is one of my favorite to work with. He is extremely professional, knowledgeable and a trustworthy guy. That’s why I contacted him prior to writing this review to create a special offer.

Get $5 Off

Marko was awesome enough to provide a discount code so that Twitip readers could get $5 off. This means that it costs $14.95. All you have to do is click over to the sales page for the Twitter Marketing ebook and use the discount code twitip, in the shopping cart.

We don’t get a commission for this discounted offer, so you can be sure we are recommending it because its quality.

Over to you:

Have you read this ebook? Are there any questions you’d like to ask before being? I’ll try to answer as many as possible and will ask Marko to pop in to check.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Review of The Twitter Marketing Ebook

I primarily use the web interface. I leave tweetdeck on when I’m busy but I’ll use the web to really dive into conversations. I follow over 1000 and,  despite being really picky with my return follows, started to find my friends where getting drowned out. I needed help but didn’t want to spend hours manually going through my list. This is where The Twit Cleaner literally saved my twitter stream.

What is the twit cleaner?

The Twit Cleaner is an app by @sidawson that is designed to help clean out your twitter account.

According to the FAQ,

“it gets your following list, then analyses the profiles & tweets of every single one of those people, looking for certain patterns of behaviour (people not talking, being over repetitive, posting the same links repeatedly, etc).”

I’ve run this a couple of times and, frankly, its awesome.

Note: The account @twitcleaner isn’t associated with this – you have to make sure to @reply thetwitcleaner.

How does it work?

The whole process is really simple.

First, you have to click the button to request your report. Note that there is a box which, if left checked, will send out a tweet telling your friends about The Twit Cleaner. You are under no obligation to tweet anything.

You will then get shown a pop up asking if the application has your permission to access your account. This is safe. I have many friends that develop apps and they only need the information to give you the information you need.

You will shortly get sent a DM linking to your report. There is an example report on the about page. Yours will look different and some of the names have changed. Thats cool. That picture was designed to help you understand it better.

The report will contain a list of potentially dodgy accounts. Now – just because someone is on a list, doesn’t mean that they are dodgy. I will explain this further, but it just means that they fall into a certain category of behaviors.

The main categories are:

• Dodgy – spam phrases, @ spamming, duplicate links etc
• Absent – No updates in a month, or fewer than 10 tweets.
• Repetitive – High numbers of duplicate tweets or links
• Flooding – So high volume you can’t see anyone else
• Non-Responsive – No interaction & those that follow back < 10%

Everyone is free to use twitter in their own way. Not all of these behaviors are bad. Some people are travelling and thus aren’t on twitter for an extended period of time. Some people use the platform primarily to broadcast.

The Twit Cleaner organizes people into subcategories so you can easily choose who you want to unfollow. In my summary, I have a section saything ‘These accounts ignore you.’ Within that, users fall into 3 subcategories.

• Hardly follow anyone
• Don’t interact with anyone
• Have fewer than 10 tweets.

Each section is broken up like this. Based on the report, it is really easy to make a decision about who you want to unfollow. This process is really easy.

There are two options. You can use the data to manually unfollow people or you can let The Twit Cleaner do it for you. You are given four options:

• Only unfollow those I don’t select
• Unfollow the spammy and absent, keep the rest
• Unfollow the spammy, keep the rest
• Unfollow the absent, keep the rest.

I suggest you use whatever option feels right for you. I always choose to unfollow the users I don’t select. This is time consuming but ensures you don’t accidentally unfollow people.

Selecting someone is easy. You just have to click their avatar. Their icon will show up as shaded and that person wont be unfollowed.

How much does it cost?

Surprisingly, the report itself is free. There is a small charge if your total follow count is over 2000. The prices are:

• Up to 25,000 – $5 USD
• Up to 50,000 – $10 USD
• Otherwise – $20 USD

These are very reasonable prices considering what you get.

Mini Interview with Si Dawson

I was fascinated by this application and so, took the opportunity to ask Si a few questions about The Twit Cleaner. I hope this gives you an insight to what goes on behind the scenes of

1. This was super easy and really thorough. Why did you choose to offer it for free instead of charging?

The report is always free. I do charge a small sum if you follow more than 2000 people & want to get us to auto-unfollow for you. 90% of twitter users follow fewer than 2000 people, so for the vast majority of people, the entire process is free.

For larger lists, I figured once people saw how useful the report was & how much time it would save them, they’d be happy to pay. The charge is primarily to cover costs on larger reports. For people with massive lists (20k+) it can take literally hours on a quad processor box to do all that analysis. I did have one report that ran for three days. It’s a LOT of work.

2. How much work went into creating and maintaining the twit cleaner?

I’d say I’ve spent somewhere in the order of 1500 hours to date. Eg, last night I worked until 5am, & was up again at 9 to deal with tech support issues, minor hiccups etc. That goes on seven days a week. It’s pretty full on.

3. How does using this application improve your twitter experience?

I designed it because I tried some auto-follow tools (keyword following, that sort of thing) & quickly start to dread looking at Twitter. There was so much noise, so much junk.

The Twit Cleaner categorises everyone you’re following into common groupings – people that just post links, people that never talk to anyone. Those that are just blasting noise out, & not authentically engaging with anyone, oh, & the pure out spammers, & so on.

So, by seeing these groupings, it then becomes very easy to go “You know what? I’m actually not interested in following that kind of person.” In my case, I got rid of all the spammers, the link feeds & so on.

When I got up the next morning I looked at Twitter, & suddenly it was -interesting- again. It went from 90% noise to 90% interesting stuff. Stuff I liked, information that was interesting to me. It was always there, but I just couldn’t see it because of all the crap. My follow list dropped by about 30% but my enjoyment went up 500%!

4. Do you plan to create more apps that will help the twitter community?

I have a couple more apps in the imediate pipeline, yes.

Obviously there are some bits of the site that are still a bit average. The functionality is good on the report, for example, but the UI needs to be slicked up quite a lot. So, there’s that.

The other things is this – calling in The Twit Cleaner is kind of an emergency situation. Things have gone mad, & you need to get them back under control again. Wouldn’t it be better to not need it in the first place?

So, one app (which I already have early beta versions of, but isn’t quite ready for public rollout), is a clean followback – which follows anyone that follows you, but filters them according to the algorithms (so you’ll never follow any spammers).

Another is clean keyword searching. So, following people that use certain keywords – all very common already – but again, filtered by the algorithms. You’ll be able to choose which categories you’re interested in following or not.

Using these two give you all the power to grow your list & respond to the community, but keep it clean & high value at the same time.

I have some even more exciting stuff I’ve been testing out, but it’s too early to talk about that just yet. Suffice to say, it’ll completely revolutionise finding quality people on Twitter. I’m very excited about it.

Over to you:

Have you used any applications to clean up your twitter account? What was your experience like? Also, if you have any questions about The Twit Cleaner just leave them in the comments.

Disclosure: The developer, Si Dawson, is a friend of mine. However I didn’t know that he created this, or that he was a coder, until after using the service.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Review of The Twit Cleaner

• Strangers were showing up in your stream
• It was taking away from the community driven aspect of the site.
• You couldn’t add commentary

Now – these concerns are valid. However, what most people missed that this is an improvement on the old system. We now have more choice. Duncan Babbage says it best in a comment on outspoken media:

I suggest that you need to see Twitter as two separate things, an underlying infrastructure and then secondly their own web interface which is just one out of many clients that can be used for the service. At an infrastructure level, they have added a new feature that didn’t exist before. It doesn’t take away at all the capacity to continue to RT as you did before.

The perceived flaws in the new system only exist if you ignore the original method of retweeting. However, it all depends on how you choose to share others’ tweets. If you go to a different comment stream on Scoblizer, Nick Halstead said identified two distinct ways people retweet:

1) Content Sharing – You want to share a link to your followers, in this case you want to be able to definitely want to add commentary.
2) Tweet Repeating – I.e. you see a tweet that is funny/interesting/whatever and you just want to repeat it to your own followers.

Most of the resentment of the idea centers around the first use – content sharing. People like to be able to share the content in the way that suits them. However, as Ev Said:

But just as Twitter didn’t have this functionality at all before, people can still work around and do whatever they want. This just gives another option.

This option gives the user the way to share content in the way that suits their audiences needs. This is especially beneficial to those with official accounts. It also gives you more choice when it comes to listening on twitter.

Content Sharing:

You can’t add anything to the conversation using the new method.

The main issue that people had with this was that it changed the microsyntax associated with content sharing. @mattimck pointed me towards a really useful post by Chris Messina about the new microsyntax for twitter. In it, he shared four methods of attribution and linked to a useful wiki.

Now – all this sounds way too technical. The link mentioned above is really useful because it gives you additional ways to attribute the author in your tweet .

With the new method, you directly retweet the content without being able to change anything. You can’t add commentary. You can’t add cute smily faces and find fun methods of transferring authority with the tweet.

You can track how people share your content without the need for third party tools.

Some of the criticism focused on how 3rd party tools already measured some of the statistics. The benefit of the new method is that its included in the metadata. I’m hoping more information is included as twitter starts expanding to allow corporate accounts.

Protects the content shared.

People often edit retweets to include fake links and even fake comments. This is spam and can be damaging to brands. People can still create this type of content but the new features offer a level of protection.

Can prevent attribution confusion

There are a number of issues with this. The main one is when people would respond to the person sharing the content. However, many people are feeling uncomfortably with ’strangers being in their stream.’ This is an understandable concern, but it is the same content that was being shared previously.

There ARE a number of problems with the new method:

• No implied trust
• No visibility if multiple people retweet that content.

You have to decide which method is best for this purpose.

Repeating

This feature excels when you simply want to repeat someone elses tweet. However, many people felt that this method is different from content sharing and should have been named something else.

The main problem seems to be around the naming.

Robert Scoble suggested that twitter should NOT have called this “retweeting.”

Instead they should have called it “sharing” or “favoriting” or “liking.” In reality this is a copy of liking features that FriendFeed has had for quite a while.

The main problem with this is that twitter already has a favorite feature.

I use this feature frequently for when I want to simply repeat someone elses content. It also has forced me to take care when adding other information to the content I share.

Listening:

The main way it has benefited me is that it cleans up my twitter stream.

It reduces the noise.

• Can choose what people to ignore retweets from
• Don’t see same tweet multiple times

I have used this extensively to clean up the noise. It means I can continue to follow the really noisy people and even add them to lists or tweetdeck groups.

However, as Lisa Barone pointed out, it also has flaws. Now that people have the choice to block retweets, it means that people lose the reach they have. It can also put people in a weird position if they don’t want to block all our your retweets.

Your thoughts?

I was initially against but the new feature but now I am really excited about it. This is a tool for making retweets easier for some. Its not going to change the entire ecosystem.

Do you agree? Has this post changed how you will be using it? Let me know in the comment section.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Retweet this post: Why The New Retweet Function Is An Improvement

“Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone always said that the best way to get real value out of Twitter was to follow a small number of people; it was never their intention for people to aim to follow more than 150-200 people”

from Why Twitter Lists Change Everything by @davetroy

Twitter has once again changed the social economy. There has been a lot of buzz around the blogosphere regarding lists. People want to know how it can improve their use of twitter and how they can help others. I hunted through the plethora of posts to find the best content regarding lists. In this post, I will ‘list’ the best quotes regarding twitter lists and show how others believe it will change the dynamics.

Before I discuss the common thoughts, here are two resources:

• Listorious
• TLISTS

Ways to create an extremely useful list

A list is more useful, and compelling, than any one person. You should list compelling people and include yourself in a list when necessary. Beyond that, there were three main tips people gave to help you create an awesome list.

Create a very specific list name:

There are many generic lists that have little use to the general public. Elaine Ellis gave a great tip when she suggested users make “the lists as specific as possible, include geography, profession, topics, demographics, etc.”

Laura Spencer gave further advice when she recommended that if “a list is being designed for subscribers as well as the list owner, the list name should reflect the potential content of that list to other Twitter users.”

These tips are solid but not always practical. You are limited to only 25 characters so you may need to find creative ways to describe the people on your list. Some interesting examples I found were:

• @drwarwick/mytop100
• @sammutimer/outstanding-connectors
• @KulpreetSingh/smart-unique-engaging
• @SheilaS/they-make-me-smart
• @smartasshat/wouldchewtheirgum
• @ManVsDebt/weneedtoconnect-yesyou

These names are both useful as a personal reference as well as letting others know how useful the people are.

Segment the list if necessary

Ensure the list is really helpful to the reader. This means that you should segment according to what would be useful to other twitter users. Two examples of business doing this really well are Marvel and Caroline Serviced Apartments.

Promote the twitter list elsewhere

• Create badges for those listed
• Create graphics directing people to relevant twitter lists
• Link to twitter lists from your blog, especially a company one
• Promote the list in your offline advertising material
• Buy advertising spots for your list

Issues with twitter lists:

They are exclusionary by nature

As I pointed out in 8 Things to consider before using twitter lists, people may feel snubbed if they aren’t included on a public list.

Andy Beal wrote about this further at Marketing Pilgrim.

For example, what if you created a list of top technology CEOs, but didn’t include your boss. What if your lists of affiliate marketing gurus left off your friend because, well let’s face it, she’s not that good at affiliate marketing. Keep your list public at your own risk!
Twitter is already full of cliques, Lists just formalizes them and confirms your worst fears–you are indeed a nobody.

CV Harquail expanded on this further in her post at Authentic Organizations.

Being on many Twitter Lists is NOT “a barometer of cool” — it’s a measure of ease of Categorization.
Easy to categorize => Similar to others => Easy to ‘list’
Not every person you follow is similar enough to other people you follow to warrant their being placed on one of your Twitter lists.

Laura Spencer provided an example regarding multitasking tweeters

Many Twitter users tweet more than one type of information. There is no real way to segregate the marketing and PR information that a user may be tweeting from any other information that they share.

So, several people have agreed that people may be upset by not being included in many lists. There is also people feeling offended by not being grouped in a friends list. This issue really came to the spotlight when Chris Brogan said:

I realized what I’m not going to like about them: they will exclude people. Sure, on the one hand, they’re a great way to group people and information together. For instance, I might make a list for news feeds. I might make a list about travel, like hotels and airlines.
I think there are some uses that are important, but for the most part, the way I’m going to deal with my listmaking is in private, so that people don’t feel left out or less important, or whatever else they’re going to feel. Man, it stinks feeling left out

Some people have argued that this is an over reaction. There are two quotes by Robert Scoble that stood out:

• Numbers don’t matter. It’s WHAT LISTS people put you on and what they are named that really matter
• UPDATE: I had lunch yesterday with @nk who runs the team at Twitter who makes lists. He says “following” someone is just another form of lists. Since there’s 45 million people on Twitter and only about 100,000 that Chris is following, I’d guess that Chris is exclusionary.

I can see this from both sides. While the numbers don’t matter, people do feel left out. I’ve seen it happen. It shouldn’t, but it does.

People are making a list by following people but in Chris Brogans case, that requires an opt in. All someone has to do is follow and generally he will reciprocate. However people will feel left out regardless of what you do in social media. You aren’t replying to them enough. You don’t reciprocate invites on other social networks.

What do you think?

Be honest. Did you feel left out because you weren’t included on a list? I know whenever I read tweets about people making lists of their friends, I immediately check to see if I’m on it. Its an ego boost. I’ve also felt disappointed at only being on about 25 lists.

May lead to reputation management issues

Kevin Makice was one of the first to raise this issue at Blog Schmog

Web consultant Orli Yakuel discovered during Beta testing that you don’t have the ability to opt out of lists. If someone wants to label you a spammer, noisy or something you don’t want to be, you may not have the ability to reject that label. It may mean your only recourse is to communicate with the list owner in the same way you might engage someone who writes a bad review of your product. Similarly, exclusion from a high-profile list may damage your reputation.
On the other hand, lists may simply increase the social pressure to recognize strangers in a new way, beyond returning a follow.

There is also issue of gaming the system to damage reputations. Dave Troy wrote about this further

You can even put someone in a list (cool people), have them publicize that, and then change the name of that list to something less flattering (douchebags, or worse).
The issue of derogatory lists alone is one that Twitter will need to address.

However, this can also be a good thing for brands. As Sampad Swain pointed out

“When you check your “Lists Following You” tab, then you’ll see what people think about you and thats why they have added you in that list – both from personal front or professional one. “
Secondly, “the lists you create says a lot about you”.

Making lists pertaining to your professional field helps build a perception around you. This is a good thing.

What do you think?

I think there will be issues with managing your reputation, yet these already exist on twitter. I think we will just need to find new tools for monitoring and handling potentially damaging tweets.

You can’t consent to categorization.

As Mark Trapp pointed out in Twitter Lists Make Twitter Dangerous to User

Most crucially, a person cannot consent to the categorization.

This can make defamatory lists stand out, especially when the words used stand out from a sea of others. You can block a list, and the user, but the damage may be done before people/brands have a change to respond.

Additionally, people can’t opt in to a list. This presents two problems:

• You have to wait until someone creates a list, or create it yourself. In this regard, wefellow is still superior for categorization
• People can’t be on a list, even if the creater wanted to allow opt ins. There are two ways I’ve seen people work around this.

Example 1: Huffington Post had this text on one of their posts about twitter lists.

Do you know a tweeter who’s perfect for one of these lists? Email us at twitterlists@huffingtonpost.com!

Example 2: Freelance switch sent out several tweets inviting people to be part of the i-love-freelance list.

1. If you LOVE the freelance life I’m creating a list of Freelancers so Tweet @freelancesw #ilovefreelance
2. I will favorite them all and then add them when my lists appear, so keep tweeting #ilovefreelance
3. heww, twitter list #ilovefreelance so far http://bit.ly/ilovefreelancetweet @freelancesw #ilovefreelance some cool peeps in there!

In the first case, a blog relies on the readers – the wisdom of crowds – to provide them with the names of relevant twitter users. In the second, people choose to opt in to a list. This way @freelancesw has a list of engaged, passionate community members.

Matt Rhodes gave great suggestions at the Fresh Networks blog

A possible solution is to make lists collaborative. ____ suggested giving the list creator to make some, but not all, of their lists collaborative.

I would also like to see appointing others to help manage a certain list.

What do you think?

I understand that this is still a new feature but it could be improved by giving users (paid or unpaid) additional options. In the meantime we will have to find creative ways to involve the community. I found two great solutions but I’m sure that others exist. If you find them, please share them in the comments.

A list makes makes twitter impersonal.

Kevin Makice gave some really relevant points in his post about the impact of twitter lists.

People often get an email when someone follows them, or will go through their own list. This may give them a prompt to contact you. Following a list gives little incentive to engage. It encourages pruning, as it eliminates the need to follow to keep track of them.
Also, the lists encourage users to “treat the channel as simply information broadcast.” They may not follow at all. This means that they reduce the means for private communication and the chance to take the relationship off site.

Many users found other issues that contributed to the impersonal vibe.

Amber star found it interesting that you can not tweet to a list.

For example @twitter/team does not send a tweet to the entire “team”. I am assuming that you can watch live updates filtered to this list, but more compelling would be the ability to consume and produce at this list level, so that while viewing the live stream of say @twitter/team, you could also tweet a status update, and it would automatically be sent to the @twitter/team. I have tweeted about this in the past, in what I call Twitter 2.0, where I see twitter as a hierarchy, where one can consume and produce tweets and any level within the hierarchy.

Terrence O’Brien observed that it wasn’t easy to read all the tweets.

Since each list constitutes its own page, we don’t consider this to be an easy way of reading tweets for the large number of people you’re following.

This may change once the third party apps start integrating twitter lists into their offerings.

Sampad Swain identified that there was no easy way to search lists. He recommended that

Twitter should enable some search option which makes searching “Twitter Lists” easier. On this regards, Twitter can integrate “Twitter Lists Search” in Twitter search only with two tabs in place of one tab (like Google).

What do you think?
I think that twitter lists can make it impersonal but it can also improve how you connect with other users. It depends on how you use it and how you find ways around the current limitations. What are your experiences?

There are more opportunities to game

The spammers will buy their way onto high profile lists. You get twenty lists and 500 on each one. Thus, as Dave Troy pointed out, there is a scarcity factor. “Everybody’s making collections, and there are certainly people who will pay and be paid for listings. Count on it.”

Alex Wilhelm was one of the first to identify spam arriving on twitter lists. He said that:

Twitter needs to implement a “report list as spam” feature right away. In fact, combine the two, and have a “report list and spam and block user” button.

What do you think?

I know there are many opportunities to game. I feel uncomfortably with the possibility of giving spammers ideas, but would love to hear your opinions in the comments.

People may accidentally out you

This was a concern given by Todd R Jordan.

The two examples given were related to location and sexuality. This may cause problems for those who have a separate online and offline presence. Additionally, it is possibly to accidentally invade someones privacy. I recommend that users are cautious about some methods of categorization.

It will reduce SOME of the noise on twitter

One of the things that caused a lot of buzz was how it could reduce the amount of follow fridays. Many people reported that it made them reassess how they consumed their content online.

Colin Alsheimer said that

“What stopped me from using it (twitter) as a content delivery service was the massive amounts of noise I would have to filter through to get to the content I wanted to read, when I wanted to read it.

If there’s no noise, this means that the accounts are simply set up as content pushing news feeds. Almost like an RSS feed just in a format that’s tailored to social sharing.“

He said the solution was to create noise free related lists.

Robert Scoble was the among the first to raise this issue in his post about using twitter lists to replace the google reader. He gave several reasons.

• Twitter is a lot faster than RSS readers
• Twitter delivers the news faster than RSS
• Twitter doesn’t tell you the number of news item you haven’t read
• It is easier to can twitter headlines

There are also downsides to using twitter to replace RSS readers. Again, it is worth really assessing how you want to consume your content.

Another benefit is being able to separate the really active users. Blake Waddill said:

When you start making lists, will you split super active twitters into a separate group for people who rarely tweet so you can hear more of what the quiet people have to say, or will you let them be drowned out?

I’m an active tweeter, and people have told me that they are unfollowing me because I am too noise. I can see twitter lists being useful for these people.

Brands may change how they use twitter

Colin Alsheimer also said that lists will give brands the push needed to segment their twitter accounts. He said:

“We may be entering a period where major brands and online personalities start to fragment or split a single Twitter account into many focused, specialized accounts, for the purpose of getting onto as many Twitter lists as possible.”

I believe that many brands should be segmenting their accounts. Just look at the awesome job Marvel and Zappos are doing in this regard. If twitter lists provides companies with the impetus to change their social media usage, then thats brilliant. I would love to here about any examples from the corporate sector.

Your Turn.

Social media is constantly evolving. This is still new and this post only covered a fraction of the commentary that is going on around this issue. Feel free to contribute in the comments. In particular, we would be interested in:

• How you are planning to use the service
• Interesting blog posts you have found
• Some of the benefits/concerns with this new feature.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Lists In Detail or, “Yo Dawg, I Heard U Like Lists!”

Twitter recently introduced a new feature called lists to many users. This isn’t available to everyone – I’ve heard many reports of people who are unable to see anybodies lists. Basically, it allows you to organize the people you follow into several different categories. These can be made private and can be followed by others.

This is an awesome for those who are using the web interface as you can choose the groups you want to read at any time.

However, there are some considerations you need to make before embracing this feature.

1. People may be offended by not being included on a list.

Some of my friends created lists like ‘awesome friends’ and ‘top bloggers.’ They used these terms as generalist lists but some people took offense at not being included on a list.

This is very similar to the follow/unfollow situations that happened before people started to embrace groups on other clients.

So, what can you do to avoid offending?

• Have a disclaimer on your twitter landing page

• Make your list private

• Organize lists by geographic region – ie, Melbourne bloggers.

2. You can see what lists you appear on

This isn’t a bad aspect – in most cases, it helps show how people perceive you. This is especially helpful for people who don’t have a defined purpose on twitter. You may get categorized by geographic region or industry, but you may also get organized into trait specific lists. Examples are ‘helpful people’ or ‘interesting links.’

This can help you ascertain how you can be more useful on twitter.

3. You can easily get the tone of a group

You can organize people into groups like conference attendees or people who work at a company. This is more efficient than a hashtag as you can filter out the people you don’t want to hear from.

You can pick up on the overall vibe which will make it useful when reporting on it.

4. It may make it easier for companies to target you

I actually wrote about how twitter lists can help with buyer personas over at the Think Tank Media (http://thinktankmedia.com.au/blog/how-to-use-twitter-lists-in-your-business/) blog, but I can also see it as another way some companies may be able to find, and then spam you. This is important to be aware of.

5. You can easily identify what types of people users follow

Seeing the lists in the sidebar can let you know what type of people, and content, certain users follow. This can be useful when networking. You can see that you have a mutual interest and follow some of the same people and start a conversation. This can be useful if you are trying to join a community or connect with a new person.

6. You can use it as an extension of the groups function

I’m a bit slack on tweetdeck – I only have three columns. One for my mentions, DM’s and one for a group of people I talk to regularly. I always pop onto the web version to have general chats but this can become unmanagable when I’m following so many cool people.

I’m now planning to create certain lists and then dive into them at certain times of the day. This can help me assess the conversation across many fields of interest and geographic regions.

7. You can see how many lists OTHERS are on

This may be used as another method of assessing popularity. As I write this, I’m on 2 lists and Chris Brogran is on 144 – which is the way it should be. This could be a really useful method but is also open to abuse and may impact on user experience. It will be interesting to see if spammers try to manipulate this feature.

8. You are able to follow other peoples lists

I am not sure what twitters intentions were with this feature, but I really like it as it saves time. Some users can also use it to establish authority by finding the best users and creating popular lists around them.

Over to you

What do you think of this new feature? Do you think it will help you twitter experience? Let us know how you intend to use it in the comments.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Essential: 8 Things to Consider Before Using Twitter Lists

I regularly attend tweetupmellers. At first I assumed that all tweetups and get togethers have the same sense of community, but I soon learnt that there was something different. I quickly learnt that this was due to the organizers efforts to ensure people felt like they were part of a larger community.

10 Ways To Create A Community Around Your Tweetup

1. Have a twitterwall

One of the great features of the last few tweetups has been the twitter wall. It is simply a search on Twitterfall which is then projected onto a screen in the back corner of The Social. It is a huge talking point and really added to the fun of the evening.

There were some people who tweeted simply to bump someone else’s name from the top. There were also times when the whole room went silent as there was a mass update of tweets.

2. Have a game on the website

If you go to the attendance page and click attendance again, the page turns into an cute game, similar to pong, were you try and eliminate the attendance. Most people are unaware of this but it occasionally goes viral within our community.

3. Get a group photo

The group photo has quickly become a tradition. Usually, a member of the media team will bring a DSLR and get a group photo before people start to leave. This photo usually gets a lot of retweets the next day and really helps people to remember how much fun they had.

4. Create Name Tags

The name tags were a simple idea. At the last tweetup, we got name tags printed out with our name, avatar and the tweetup sponsor on it. We were able to then clip these to our outfits. They got a lot of comments.

5. The Unofficial media team

There are four of us that have unofficially become part of the media team. At first, I was confused as to how a tweetup could have a media team. I soon found out it was the term for those who brought their cameras and shared content from the night. I always bring my camera so was quickly inducted and found that people loved sharing the photos.

6. Have a flickr pool

The flickr pool is simply a group where members share their photos. There are usually just three or four people sharing their images, but between us we get a lot of photos. This gives the other attendees a central place to find the photos without hunting through individual twitpic and flickr accounts.

7. Hold a ustream sesion

For the last few tweetups, we have streamed the tweetup live. Now, this has had some technical problems, especially in terms of lighting. It is something we want to improve of. But it has been a huge success.

Those who weren’t able to come drop into the ustream session to say hi. Sometimes they talk to the others in the chatroom. They’ll tweet in comments about what they see and request that certain people sing or dance in front of the camera.

I think this is a really innovative and fun idea.

8. Ask attendees to write on the official blog

The tweetupmellers blog is updated after each Tweet Up, and usually by a different person. This allows people to show their skills and share their content. A really successful post was by Neil Creek, whose Meetheads idea was really embraced.

9. Have an interactive attendance page

The team has a created an attendance page where people can register whether they are coming or not. The app gets the data from twitter and allows people to change their status. This page is pretty popular on the day prior to the tweetup and gives people the chance to connect with those they don’t know prior to meeting in person.

10. Create groups on social networks

So far, Tweetupmellers has an group on Linked In and a facebook fan page. This is a way that the users can connect in whatever manner they choose afterward.

Your turn.

I’ve only gone a small number of local tweetups and Tweetupmellers has been my favourite. Do you have any tips for creating a community around your twitter event?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



10 Ways To Create A Community Around Your Tweetup

2 days ago, I met my friend Sam Mutimer (@sammutimer) for lunch. We talked about blogging, conferences and social media over lunch. I left with the opportunity to work with her team at Thinktank Media (@thinktankmedia) when they roll out strategies for new clients.

I was quite surprised – especially as I use twitter to hang out and connecting with awesome people when I have the time.

How I Got The Job

I don’t remember how I met Sam, but she soon encouraged me to go the the tweetup she founded called Tweetupmellers(@tweetupmellers) . She was great at getting me to talk to new people and was really encouraging.

I kept in touch with Sam, helping her out and just talking about her projects. I also focused on connecting with more people from the tweetupmellers community. Fast forward to two meetups later, and she was talking about a new project and how she might be needing additional help for it. In the past month, she has hired 3 of the twums attendees and has discovered many others through twitter.
My job is only 8 hours a month – but I will have the opportunity to earn an income while setting up my blog. I’ll be able to accept more work when she gets new clients and I’ll get some training in the business side of the industry.
This wouldn’t have been possible without twitter. Here are my five tips:

1. Go To Tweetups
I can’t stress the importance of this. I went to the tweetups with the view to hang out with fun people that I’d been talking to for months. It has since turned into one of the best ways to get people interested in your work.
I’ve observed:

• Neil creek(@neilcreek) get several clients – and a lot of buzz – due to his Meetheads concept at the tweetup.
• People talking about possible joint ventures on new projects.
• People hiring those that they’ve met at a tweetup.

2. Provide Advice For Free
I would often send DM’s to Sam with ideas for her projects. These were little things and didn’t take that much time. She would always send a DM back thanking me and would occasionally seek me out for advice.

She told me how she had done a similar thing when starting out. She worked for free and soon developed a strong reputation. I have seen this work very well for people building a portfolio. My tip would be to make sure you get testimonials. I do this by favouriting the tweets that compliment my work and by seeking LinkedIn recommendations.
I’ve done this a lot off twitter – guest posts, emails with advice and even meeting people to help with blogging projects.

3. Connect With Connectors
There are some people who love connecting people. They thrive on helping people. Sam is one of them. She has hired a number of my twitter friends including @mr_billiam and @ttam.

This also worked for a local web designer, @richardhuf. I was asked by a friend, @frankinoz, if I knew anyone who could do wordpress PSD’s. I didn’t know anyone so just pumped out a tweet asking for recommendations. Richard responded and has helped Frank for reveral projects. Based on this, I referred him to Sam. I’m still waiting to hear if anything came out of the referral.

You can accomplish so much by just focusing on people who love connecting and helping them out. Sam has since hooked me up with several leading business authors to interview and review their products.

4. Make It Known That You Are Looking For Work
I didn’t actively seek employment but I often talked about how I wanted to get a job at the end of the year. This was a major goal of me and many of my twitter friends had been helping me out and encouraging me to develop new skills.
As a result, I’ve had several offers to exchange skills and the eventual job offer from Sam. All of this before I was even prepared to re-enter the workforce.

5. Offer To Help
I do this often and its led to a lot of opportunities. Most people will reciprocate when they can.
I offered to review @sarahprout’s Twitter Success Blueprint (published on Twitip). As a result, I found a new friend and mentor. @Braqueen offered to exchange blogging advice for a mini makeover. I sent feedback to @howtomakemyblog and now have a guest posting opportunity.

This can help people see your skills and ascertain whether they want to work for you. You don’t even have to do it for free – you can do it at a reduced price.

Have you had success on twitter?
I have been hearing many more stories of people finding work on twitter. I’d love to hear about your success in the comments.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Methods I Used To Get A Job Through Twitter

In this post Jade Craven (@jadecraven) reviews Twitter Success Blueprint.

Before I interacted with Sarah on twitter, I was so jealous of her networking skills. She seemed to instinctively know what would connect with her twitter followers. She was doing awesome promotions, like selling follow Friday space on her forehead.

I was so excited when I heard she was writing Twitter Success Blueprint. She understands this space and has the knowledge to help individuals, and small business, avoid costly mistakes and attract clients.

The Twitter Success Blueprint consists of eight chapters and a bonus section.

The content:

The first two chapters cover the information you typically see in information products.

• THE TRUTH ABOUT TWITTER - The KEY to using social media for business
• BRANDING FOR SUCCESS - How to set up your Twitter page for business

She provided an awesome outline for understanding how twitter works for your business

• Tweets build curiosity
• You Build Relationships
• Traffic flows to your website.

I can testify to this statement – but it has further benefit. Traffic will follow from your followers relationships as well. A key example is this review. Sarah, Darren Rowse and I all belong to a Melbourne twitter group called Tweetupmellers. Prior to the tweetup, I recommended that Darren publish a review of Sarahs ebook, and offered to do it. Obviously, this was accepted.

This shows how far you can reach on twitter. One of the key ways to draw traffic to your website is through other peoples relationships. I have a core group of followers who I ask questions when I want specific information, such as sales page advice and new product releases. Targeting these people, the influencers, can get your content in front of a LOT more people. Twitter Success Blueprint will teach you how to do that.

The next two chapters contained some advanced tactics and really demonstrated how the Twitter Success Blueprint could be really useful for small business owners.

• FOLLOW FRENZY- How to build a massive list of targeted followers
• TWITTER FOR CORPORATE USE – How to leverage social media

In these chapters, she talks about the strategies she used to gain a lot of targeted followers.

However it is the chapter on corporate use that I can see having the most benefit. She gives tips on how corporations can engage their audience by being authentic and contributing back to the community. Many people on twitter are very wary of being sold too, so these chapters are a must read for success.

I have a couple of friends on twitter who are so overwhelmed. There is a fine line between promoting yourself and breaking the unspoken rules of twitter. That’s why the following two chapters were so useful:

• TWEET SUCCESS – How to create tweets that attract attention
• TWITTER ETIQUETTE – The social media rules of engagement

These two chapters will be really useful for the new users. I learned a lot from both chapters and I’ve been using twitter for a year!

Twitter etiquette is so important, because many users are quite ruthless with their unfollows. The success chapter focuses on writing tweets that your followers respond to. This includes adding personality, integrating twitter with other media and providing calls to action. I LOVED this chapter as it really focused on being tips on how to be useful and really connect with your community.

These tips were expanded on in the final two chapters:

• CONNECTION STRATEGIES – Unique ways to engage your followers
• MONETIZING YOUR TWEETS – Making money with Twitter

The section I found the most useful was how to make money with twitter. She discusses affiliate marketing, using twitter during a product launch and converting followers into leads.

These chapters are vital for anyone trying to make money from this service.

10 pages of bonus content

The bonus content wont be for every reader. It consists of:2 case studies as well as a Q&A with some members of her twitter community. I found it really fascinating, even if when couldn’t apply tips to my own situation.

Would I recommend it?

Definitely. I see so many businesses and individuals that are new to twitter and are accidentally alienating their followers by making very common faux pas. They are leaving money on the table when they could invest in their education and develop a strong twitter brand.

At $22, Twitter Success Blueprint is a bargain. There are many products out there that cost more but contain way less information.

Here’s to your twitter success.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Review of Twitter Success Blueprint