Twitip

What’s the big deal about getting retweeted? If you have a ton of followers who are engaged, and you’re happy, then why should you care if they retweet your junk?

If you’re using Twitter for business reasons, you should care. And here’s why:

1. Measure Engagement

Retweets are an indication of how engaged your followers are. If they aren’t retweeting any of your posts, chances are they don’t find them that interesting.

2. Follower Attrition

Some of the folks who are singing your praises now will be gone in six months. That’s because you can’t be all things to all people all the time (and you shouldn’t being trying to). People grow, they change and have different needs as time goes on. New people who follow you because of a retweet they saw will take their place. It’s not personal, it’s just business.

3. Measure Content

Getting retweeted is partially a function of good content. Or at least good headlines.

How To Get Retweeted

1. Be Relevant - A survey conducted by Dan Zarrella found that people share content because they thought it was relevant for someone they know. In other words, try and stay relevant to topics your followers want to hear about. (more…)

With the state of the world going down the drain faster than my credit–thanks Target–we single tweeters have but one thing to look forward to–finally finding that special person who will accept us for who we are–big fat slobs.  And with so many people to choose from, especially with a click of a mouse, our online dating options are endless; there’s eHarmony, Match.com and now, twitter? (more…)

If you fancy either the rock band AFI or designing Twitter backgrounds, then you’ve probably heard about the Twitter Background Design Contest that AFI is co-running with TwitBacks. While the contest runs until the end of February, there are already a lot of awesome background designs being submitted. So, how do you make your background design stand out from the crowd to catch the band’s eye and win the most votes? Lucky for you, I have some winning tips: (more…)

I judge you by you by your @ Replies….

I do. Guilty as charged. One of my quirks when it comes to using Twitter is that I don’t automate my follows or DMs. I try to follow people whom I think would be interesting and more importantly who might be cool to interact with.

Whenever I get a new follower notification, I at least check out their Twitter page to see what they like to talk about. So I thought I’d highlight some of the things I look for when I decide who to follow… (more…)

Alright people calm down, I didn’t mean it in that way. Twitter is a great tool to network, build authentic relationships, communicate ideas, and relay powerful messages but what good will that do you if you haven’t found your twitter voice? Late at night, in my Brooklyn apartment, I stay up late for two reasons, one, because Mrs. Pinkus in 3f, my 85-year-old Russian neighbor, loves to blast Madonna’s Like a Virgin at full stereo, and two, to review the day in twitterland to see what I’ve missed (in case I failed to do so during the day). Often I’ll find twitter users trying so hard to gain followers by tweeting inside their niche, but then reveal too much information about their personal life in other tweets which backfires–worse than Tiger Woods having Elin talk to Rachel Uchitel–what was he thinking? (more…)

First off, did I ever mention that I’m one of 559 people Shaquille O’Neal is following on Twitter?

(There are 2,804,494 people following him).

Had to throw that out for my Arizona SEO friend!

Anyway…

I’ve heard quite a bit lately that…

Twitter just takes too much time…

or

I don’t ever really see much come from my Twitter efforts…

You ever thought or heard this?

Both are valid concerns, I guess.

Twitter does take time.

It can be hard to see immediate results from Twitter efforts (depending on how you define “results”).

However, I wanted to share a real-life success on how to get lots of buzz (and viral marketing – which means links and brand building) via Twitter. (more…)

Warning:

This post might sound negative, but it’s not meant to be. There’s a point to the criticism and I hope you’ll stick through it long enough to get to the end and join me in the discussion.

Scratch My Back

There’s something that’s been bothering me a lot lately, and I can’t quite figure out what it is. It has to do with Twitter, blogging, and social media. Being that this is a Twitter blog though, we’ll keep the discussion focused on Twitter. (more…)

The absolute most important thing your Tweets are going to provide is a message. Think of this “message” as you would a blog post title–it needs to tell your readers (followers) what they’re going to find if they click your link.

Since Twitter revolutionized the news-gathering and information-sharing bubbles by helping followers cut through clutter and find EXACTLY what they are looking for immediately, your Tweet titles are more important than ever. If you have any hope to get clicks, re-Tweets, or Replies, follow these guidelines: (more…)

I’ve devoured a lot of information products about twitter. Most are basic cheapies – they give you the same information you get from the help section and provide little relevant information on how to engage with the community.

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. (more…)

Commenting, replying, asking, sharing, and helping are among five tips you can use to overcome Twitter block, wrote Mark Havenner last year.

Each tip is valuable and chock-full of simple advice, such as this bit on the importance of sharing content in Twitter:

Make it a habit to simply share what you find as you find it. Link retweets are the most popular type of tweet for a reason. Most people are there to find news and websites, and if you post interesting things people will notice you more.

But Mark missed something more valuable than sharing and asking and helping. He missed quitting. A sure-fire way to overcome Twitter block is to stop using the social networking service, to take a break, to quit. (more…)