I have been using Twitter since it launched a few years ago, but have participated more actively within the past 12 months. For much of that time I have tweeted at the username @printedproof. This user name was a mirror to my printing resources website at the time. Originally, the only reason I joined Twitter was to promote my articles and make some money from affiliate programs. This all changed as soon as I begun to witness the true power of this popular social networking tool.

As many of you know, Twitter is much more than simply a place to plug your posts, market for money, or blog for business. Twitter is a networking, connecting, and interacting online powerhouse. Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK to promote your projects on Twitter, I would say it’s even required for online success. However, if you truly plan on sharing everything about your personal life as well as run your blog or business on Twitter, I recommend having multiple Twitter accounts.

Let’s go back to my personal example: @printedproof has transformed from a targeted business execution to a place for me to just, well… be me. Since taking twitter flight years ago I have built hundreds if not thousands of mini-relationships. Some of these new connections I am proud to call dear friends and have chatted with on a very personal level. Many of these relationships share interests with me but do not necessarily share interest in my business.

My printing resources website has since taken a back seat to new projects. These new projects have taken new lives of their own with individual twitter profiles. In order to dedicate and target all updates and messages to the loyal followers of those new projects, I keep these profiles separate. Sure, I share some tweets on my personal account, as do I share great things from many of my friends on twitter. But bottom line, when a new user follows my profile on twitter, they bring with them a predetermined expectation of what they will read from my tweets. These expectations are built from important facts found in my bio, link, background, and updates. It’s important to use these things I have created to give my followers the correct impression of this particular twitter account and then deliver it.

One thing to remember on twitter is that people follow profiles because they share interest with that particular person, business, brand, or website. Followers want updates that are of interest to them. As a business owner, my goal is to provide the content that my viewers and customers require.

So relax, it’s OK to run multiple twitter profiles to meet those expectations. Do not lack the “personable” with your professional accounts; just be sure to deliver the updates that you promised.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



It’s OK to Have Multiple Twitter Accounts

• Keep your tweets short and leave at least 25 characters with free space. ¿Why? In order to get RTs your tweet will need that free space to contain the RT and @username. Besides, short tweets get more RTs because they look nicer and cleaner than long ones and, above all, because lazy people don’t like to read too much, and the Internet and Twitter is plenty of lazy people .

• The content of your tweet must be interesting and eye-catching.

• Just ask on your tweet for a RT. I don’t use it but I know many people who apply this technique and works quite well for them. For example: “Looking Into the Mirror of Life – http://su.pr/193M7S – Please RT!”

• Place strategically some call-to-action buttons on your blog to make easier for your followers to share your content. If you use wordpress I recommend you to download and use the smart sharing plugin just as Mashable.com does.

• Make some RTs to your followers. Some of them will want to return you the favour. If they don’t do you can’t get upset with them. Well you can but you shouldn’t because they don’t force you to RT their tweets; it was your choice.

• You can create a group of 5 to 10 twitter buddies and share your own tweets. I don’t apply this tip because it has two potential negative effects: (1) I don’t think that your followers will be happy to see the same people’s tweets time and again; and (2), it’s quite probable that your buddies don’t have the same or similar amount of followers as you have.

• Use hashtags in an effective way. I suggest you to add just one hashtag or even two but not more. ¿Why? Because they make your tweet look dirty and, at the same time, you would seem a spammer.

• Find some twitter users in your niche. Create a new column using TweetDeck with their @username. Check the RTs they receive and follow those people who made the retweet. If you’re lucky they will follow you back. If they don’t you can try replying some of their tweets or Retweeting them. You can identify who don’t follow you back and unfollow them manually with who.unfollowed.me.

• Make sure your blog posts have great and eye-catching titles.

• Send your tweet several times over the day. You can schedule your tweets with su.pr.

• Be grateful to people for retweeting your tweets. Don’t thank all at the same time. Each follower who RT your content deserve your complete attention and your sincere gratitude.

• And finally, my best piece of advice: be a good twitter user, be social, actively engage your followers, build meaningful relationships and your retweets will skyrocket for sure.

Follow these tips and your tweets will receive more retweets than ever before.

¿Did you like this post? Please, share it with your followers. Thanks, my friends.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Get More Retweet Action on Twitter

I queried some other successful Twitter-ites to learn about their favorite Twitter Tips. Here’s some ideas to take your Twitter Page from Topsy-Turvy to Titillating!

• Tweeter, Push Thyself! Don’t have a personal trainer or an agent pushing you to meet those personal deadlines? That can make reaching a goal even more difficult. Annabel Candy wrote recently about using Twitter as a source for motivation. She tweets her goals to help hold herself accountable for daily goals. Talk about baking two loaves in one oven (my alternative phrase to the more gruesome bird and stone saying). Not only does this make her more accountable to her own goals, it also piques the interest of her Twitter followers. For example, she might tweet about her goal to write another chapter today to which her followers might lift an eyebrow and say, “Is Annabel writing a book?” Curiosity can kill more than a cat, it can also drive traffic to your site.
• Know Your Niche. Twitterista Jaden of the fabulous blog Steamy Kitchen, suggests this Twitter rule: be entertaining, useful or both! People on Twitter are busy and in order to get their attention, you have to fill a niche. Think of your Twitter account as a blog…in 140 characters. Then next ask, why would someone want to follow your Twitter “blog.” Are you like Neil deGrasse Tyson and provide useful scientific tidbits? Or are you more like Ellen DeGeneres providing folks with funny, entertaining quips throughout the day. Go for one or the other, or find your own middle ground in between.
• Sir Link-a-Lot. Grace Langlois of La Mia Vita Dolce doesn’t just post on lovely sweets, she also connects with others on Twitter. Her suggestion? Link to interesting stories. If you find something noteworthy, chances are there might be others who will too. Your blog may have a theme but you can share some of your other passions via links to other articles from aha moments, inspiring to informative articles.
• Reduce. JJ of the blog, Blah Blah Blahger shares some great advice on using tools to help manage your Twitter Account. JJ says that by using a bit.ly or ow.ly, url reducer, you can push followers to your site. With a condensed, clean web link, your message won’t get lost AND you’ll be able to track the number of click-throughs that you get!
• Be a Connector. Have you ever been at a party and been cornered by someone who does nothing but talk about themselves? Well, think of Twitter like one big party. You can be one of the dull people at the party only talking about yourself or you can be a connector. Suzanne Broughton of the OC Family Blog says “help others first on Twitter before linking to yourself.” She recommends this technique on your Twitter page: “Give twice. Take once.” For every tweet linking back to your site, retweet something of someone else’s and find some other way to spread the Twitter love.
• Clean up the Clutter. My personal Twitter tip is to be sure to clear out the clutter from time-to-time. Once or twice a year, I go through my “follow” list from beginning to end and “unfollow” those people that are not following me back. Of course, there are some people I’ll follow no matter what. You know, like Steven Colbert. I don’t really expect him to follow me back (but it sure would be cool!). And there are some organizations I follow with expecting a follow back. You have to make these decisions for yourself, but if you use my advice, be ruthless. Keeping your Twitter follow list clean is important. It helps your Twitter experience to be more of a community rather than a sycophantic one-way dialog with someone who really isn’t that into you (another party metaphor, but it’s relevant).

Following these tips can help you reach your Twitter Targets, but it can also just make Twitter a lot more fun too.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Top Tips for Your Twitter Targets

This is kind of a follow up to Thomas Baekdal’s excellent article here on Twitip “7 Secret Ways To Use Twitter Search” which you should check out as well.

1. Who’s saying stuff about me outside of Twitter?
This search will show you Tweets that people write about you or your company that link out to an external page. This is useful for finding what people are writing about you, or indeed when people link to your site without using your Twitter name
[your name|company] filter:links
Live example: mailchimp filter:links

2. Free Stuff
If you’re on the hunt for freebies, create variants of this search and save them to monitor when companies or bloggers are giving away freebies or offers across Twitter. This will work best if you monitor it over time. Use the “near” search operator to try limiting this to your local area (e.g. near:Sydney).
free code|coupon + keyword
Live example: free code|coupon iphone

3. Who’s showing me love/hate?
The one is a bit sporadic in terms of how effective it is, but if you add a smiley or frown to your search, Twitter (in theory) will show tweets that mention your search term in a positive or negative light. As mentioned, results are not always accurate but this is useful to setup as a monitor if you’re running a marketing campaign and want to keep an eye on the haters …..
@yourname|your real name|company name -filter:links
Live example: ipad

4. Create customers out of thin air
[variants of questions you can answer] ? -filter:links
This one needs a bit of thought and tweaking, but it’s potentially powerful. Essentially, this search finds people asking questions that your product/service/blog post can answer. So if you’ve written a great article on how to use solar power, you might search for:
“solar power” ? -filter:links

That search should show people asking questions related to Solar power due to the ? search operator Twitter supports. Adding the -filter:links will strip links from the results, which are unlikely to be people asking questions of their followers. To further target people asking for advice, just add a “How” or similar at the front.

This creates a constant stream of users you can approach with a recommendation to check out your offering.

Live example: “solar power” ? -filter:links

5. Snipe your competitor’s customers
A variation on (3), this one will find everyone saying negative things in relation to your competitor’s Twitter account, which means it’s time to swoop in and show those neglected souls some love. Add words like “problem” “useless” “unhelpful” to really zero in on unhappy folks.

@competitoraccount
Live example: @microsoft – (switch for your competitors, I didn’t want to single anyone out!)

Bonus Link

Going outside of Twitter, this article on searching Twitter via Google has some absolutely oustanding ideas to try. Lastly, for more on Twitter’s advanced search operators, check out their guide here.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Awesome Twitter Searches

The side effect of using Twitter: It totally grows on you. At first it is fun to get to meet new people from various backgrounds and bond with them, but after some time you are more into tweeting useful content so that it pleases your followers. And it turns into a vicious circle where you seem to get trapped. The harmless past time turns to harmful addiction!

How is Twitter harmful?

Many of you would ask me the same question as they still believe that Twitter is harmless. Yes, it is harmless to an extent but after a limit it can take total control over your life. I am a blogger by hobby and I am also a college student. It is very difficult to manage the two responsibilities. And on top of it, I have to manage a very active Twitter account, which is really difficult for me. My studies and blogging have been greatly affected by excessive twitter usage. The only solution for me to get control of my time, was to get out of this Twitter addiction and I did get out of it.

When you start tweeting excessively, you lose on valuable time and this time could have been used for learning a new art or for building credibility or for having quality time with your friends and family. This is my point: If you are a Twitter user, who is using Twitter for more than six hours then you should seriously consider de-addicting yourself (actually six hours is also very high).

Now, de-addiction is a very difficult task and requires a lot of willpower. Twitter De-Addiction is a little different from other de-addiction techniques, because I am not asking you stop tweeting but I am only asking you to slow your pace.

You need to follow these steps to completely de-addict yourself from twitter:

Start Moderating

Like any addiction, you cannot just stop abruptly, you need to phase out. If your Twitter frequency is of 500 tweets a day, then you can start decreasing your frequency slowly and slowly to a frequency which keeps you active on Twitter but it does not hog on to your time.

Schedule Tweets

If you have an hour, but you still want to tweet something valuable, then scheduling tweets is a good option for you. Scheduling should be done very carefully, as the tweets will be published when you will not be online. So, the tweets should be free from any broken links or any other kind of junk. Best method to ensure that your tweets are good is by reading each and every article and making sure that it adds value to your Twitter stream. If you have any queries about scheduling tweets, you can see what people think about scheduling tweets.

By scheduling, you easily cut on time. You can schedule tweets for the whole day in just an hour’s time and hence save a lot of time.

Follow Simple Ways to Engage

Engagement can take minutes or hours or even days. It totally depends on you. You can decrease the engagement time by replying only to all the direct messages and mentions by your followers. Do not get entangled in some random chat!

Stop Caring About Followers

Don’t care too much about your followers (That doesn’t mean that they are not important). Because that will just psyche you out. They completely understand if you don’t tweet regularly. They know you are human and you have a life and you have to earn a living to maintain it. Once you will keep this fact in mind, it will be a lot easier to de-addict yourself.

If you care a lot about them, then make an announcement about it. Let your followers know that you wouldn’t be that active.

Keep the Rest for Weekends

If you love to tweet and interact, then make it a weekend thing. You should follow the steps listed above on weekdays and once you have a day off, you can always resume to your normal tweeting style. This can kill two birds with one stone. First, less tweeting in weekdays will buy you time for your work and other important stuff and secondly, tweeting freely on weekends can satisfy your need to tweet and interact with your friends and followers.

Just Close Everything

You have tried everything that I have mentioned above and it is still not working for you. Then you have only one option. Close your internet browser or twitter apps. Even better technique would be to shut down your computer or laptop. This would give you a break from the online world and it may possibly act as a breather that you might terribly need.

What is your opinion on Twitter addiction? Have you found yourself feeling addicted yet? Have you tried to stop it?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter De-Addiction Camp in 6 Easy Steps

Why ReTweet?

Well, it totally fits the purpose of Twitter, which is to share thoughts, news, insight, rants, advice and other things that are worth sharing to people who follow you. When you retweet, you are re-sharing something that is already on Twitter to your followers, who may not have seen it.

Retweeting is meant to enhance and improve social engagement on Twitter; but it can be abused, so just use some common sense. Here are some ways to become better at it.

Note: if you have no idea whatsoever about retweeting, check this out. There are new ways to retweet and strategies, etc., but that guide is a good place to figure out what we’re all talking about.

Don’t ReTweet Junk – Check out the links first

First of all, if you retweet external links (and I know this is not going to fly with everyone) you shouldn’t be retweeting stuff you haven’t actually looked at. I made this mistake once (in the spirit of being transparent) and when I opened the link after I retweeted it, it was a post written really badly with lots of cheesy ads and it was just something I would never have passed on. You must look at the link – it could be a link to a page filled with malicious software and/or viruses – you never know. Why ruin your follower’s day by passing on B.S.?

Add something to the ReTweet

I don’t always do this either, but I try to when I can. If you retweet directly from the Twitter website, you won’t be able to add your personal message or any hashtags. But if you use a service, like HootSuite, you can add something, as well as schedule that retweet for later.

ReTweet from the Source

Many blogs, news websites and magazines have a re-tweet option built right into the site. If this is the case, retweet from the source, because it gives the original Tweep some visibility, and sometimes their re-tweet function includes their desired hashtags.

ReTweet People Who You Want to Follow You Back

If there are people who aren’t following you, but you want them to notice you and follow you back, try retweeting some of their tweets. Retweeting is a huge sign of respect. So, if you respect what they say, retweet them and see if they don’t take notice of you and become a follower.

Don’t Let ReTweeting Take Over Your Twitter Account

The last thing I’ll add for beginner Tweeps is to not get caught up in retweeting. Add your own thoughts to the mix. There are retweeting bots and other spam accounts that just retweet other people’s stuff, and while that seems okay, it’s not and you don’t want to be “that” guy. I typically detest silly etiquette rules and lots of structure in something that’s supposed to be personal and social, but on Twitter you need to try and fit in. Your experience will be a lot more fun if you can.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Not all ReTweets are Created Equal

When you think of yourself as a “brand” that you need to “market,” you’re trying to pitch, not converse. Buying and selling has its place– in the real financial market. It should not be applied to everything in life. If you want READERS it is better to frame your thinking in terms of having a point of view and a focus that is consistent enough to make people want to subscribe and talk to you.

2. Using Social Networking primarily to talk ABOUT social networking.

This is a bit like having a telephone conversation that goes:

“Can you believe we’re using the telephone?”
“I know. I love the telephone.”
“I’d like to know how you are using the phone to enhance your conversations.”
“I have been able to call many people and discuss how we can use the telephone.”
“Are you using the telephone in business?”
“I’ve been able to pro-actively develop synergies for a win-win customer experience using the power of telephonic networking.”
“That’s great. Do you dial with your right hand or left?”

There are some contexts in which it makes sense to talk about the phone itself; for example if you work for the phone company or if the cat chewed through the phone cord and you have to explain why you are taking him to the vet.

For the most part, though, we have much better uses of the phone than talking about the phone itself.

3. The Word “Monetize.”

You don’t “monetize” your accounting skill by going to work for a firm. You don’t “monetize” your free time by taking a part time job. And you don’t “monetize” your writing talent by publishing a book. (Really, trust me on that last one.) So why don’t we drop the euphemism and say what we mean. “I’m trying to make a little money with my blog.”

4. Articles in the “4 Simple Things” Format

I believe glossy magazines may have started this one. The “list of things” article format with its easily digestible pieces of advice has been with us well before social networking came along. Even publishers like the “list of things” format for books. (I’m guilty myself. I wrote two books with “number of things” titles/subtitles.) I think it’s time we retired the format. Can we at least letter our lists or something?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



4 Simple Things I’m Sick of Seeing on Twitter

The fact is, that there are numerous fads promoted on the internet and we will never be able to stop this. What we can do however, is to work as a team to promote positive health messages that are backed up with good science. The more voices from qualified and experienced practitioners the better.

If you’re just getting started, here are 7 tips that can help you be more effective.

1. Confidentiality: Confidentiality is equally important online as it is offline. It is not ok to mention any information that can identify clients or patients in social media. It is also important not to write anything where a patient could identify themselves – it could be embarrassing for them or break client trust so important in in achieving positive health outcomes.

2. Respect: People are not stupid. Sometimes they are not as aware of their health as they should be, but it doesn’t mean it is okay to poke fun at individuals or our clients online. People will read that you think you are better than them and that you are not empathetic or respectful.

3. Share: If you find a great article, post the link for others to read; if someone else has some great information that aligns with what you are trying to achieve retweet it. If someone writes something you don’t agree with, post your apposing view and if you can, provide links to evidence. You can search terms that you are an expert in, and provide simple advice to twitterers who may benefit from what you know. Respond to mentions as much as you can.

4. Language: Don’t use jargon. Don’t use a big word where a small one will do; Don’t use three words where one will do. If you need to clarify a tweet, link to a blog post or article on your website.

5. Advice: Be aware of the advice that you provide on twitter, just as you would in individual consultations, presentations and media articles. You may benefit from including a disclaimer in your bio or on your linked website. You may also need to talk to your medical indemnity insurer to determine your rights and responsibilities when providing advice, opinions or tips online.

6. Engage: Work with those in your profession or industry to get more evidence based positive health messages out there. Follow them, retweet their posts or events and engage in conversations by replying to their posts. Social media is not competitive – it makes the pie bigger, it doesn’t eat into your piece.

7. Align: Before you get onto social media sites to promote yourself, your brand or your message, it will help to determine who your ideal follower is, and therefore aim for your posts to align with what they would like to hear. Your Twitter account may rank high in search engine results, so you want to ensure your messages align with your goals and would be appropriate for clients, workmates and potential employers to see.

Good luck and happy tweeting!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Twitter Tips for Health Professionals

So the big question is how could one easily browse this immense list and quickly discover, among this massive flow of data shared by my followed people, the articles, blogs, sites, videos, I want to spend time on? This is exactly what the new (free) tool Paper.li is about.

Paper.li transforms any twitter timeline into a daily online newspaper. It presents the content shared by the people you follow, in a smart and easy to scan way.

How does it work? This new tool analyzes all links shared by your friends during a given day, determines topics (politics, science, technology, etc.) using semantic text analysis tools, extracts the content (text, video, images, pdf) and rank them for probable pertinence. With all of that info the tool is then able to create a newspaper front page, enabling you to scan this content – contextualized by tweets, always displayed nearby articles – in a very way. If such quick scanning is not enough, you are also able to access a table view of all content shared in the last 24 hours by the tweeps you follow. Once created, this “newspaper” is automatically updated every 24 hours.

It is a very simple tool, a way to get what people you follow (and respect) are sharing, even if you are not connected to Twitter the entire day.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Bookmark Twitter Links From Your Stream Using Paper.li

I “favorite” several quality Tweets that I see come through my Twitter stream. Especially when I am out traveling I do this a lot.

Often I see a Tweet that I want to dig deeper into, but just don’t have the time to give it the proper attention right away.

Twitter allows you to Favorite Tweets that come through your Twitter stream. This is all fine and dandy, the only problem with Twitter Favorites is that the only option Twitter provide is to store Favorites sequential by default.

Google Reader To The Rescue

Since Twitter or 3rd party products don’t offer options at the moment to organize your Twitter Favorites we need to be a little creative.

Twitter has one option that is really great – you can subscribe to your Twitter Favorite RSS Feed.

1. Find your Twitter Favorites

You can find your Twitter Favorites two ways:

a. Type the url for your Twitter Favorites in your browser: http://twitter.com/TwtrCoach/favorites

b. Log into your Twitter account and in the right column click on Favorites

For both options there will be a RSS link in the right column that says RSS feed of Username’s favorites.

2. Click on this link and add your Twitter Favorite feed to Google Reader

Google Reader is a free RSS reader if you have not signed up for it yet.

And also if you use iPhone then search and download the free MobileRSS application.

3. Find the Subscription for your Twitter Favorite RSS feed

Open Google Reader and look for Subscriptions in left column. If you did subscribe to your Twitter Favorite RSS feed you should see a feed that says Twitter / Favorites from Username.

4. Create a Twitter Favorite folder

If you click on your new subscription Twitter / Favorites from Username you should now have a window showing you the stream of your Twitter Favorites.

Here your click on the option that says Feed settings…

Then there will come up a drop down menu, here you will look for New Folder. Then create a folder that you call Twitter Favorites.

This way your RSS feed will automatically be assigned to the new folder.

5. Tag your Favorite Tweets

The next thing you now want to do is to click on Expanded in your RSS stream window. You will now see the Tweet, how it looked like when you originally favorited it with additional options from Google Reader.

One of the options you will see below the Tweet is Add Tags. Here you can add different tags separated by commas. The tags are used to organize your Tweets. I use more then one tag. If Darren Rowse aka @Problogger tweets a blog tip then I can use tags like; problogger, blog tips.

Your tags will show in the right column under Subscriptions.

One tip here is to use unique tags – don’t use name of an existing folder.

6. Take it one step farther

When you are in the window of your RSS stream under the Tweet select the option Send to. You will then see that you have the option to send your favorite Tweet to either Delicious, Friendfeed or Posterous.

I send mine to Delicious where I can also add tags to it, and Friendfeed is set up to pick up when I do a Social Bookmark at Delicious.

And then I send it to my Posterous which is my extended Rambling blog.

Not only did I tame ‘the beast’ but my neighbors comes and ask me what I did.

What have you done to tame your ‘beast’?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Favorites – The Barking Dog