But it’s something comedians have been doing for years – writing short, pithy punch lines. Ask Comedian Michael Ian Black who recently decided to add advertisements to his tweets. Black wrote in his blog “As of today, I’ve written 2,655 tweets. That’s a lot of free material, all of it contributing to the entertainment of the 1.5 million people who follow me, as well as the multibillion dollar capitalization of Twitter itself.”

Yes, comedians have the art of writing short down. But so do poets. Talk about imbuing thought-provoking meaning with as few as characters as possible! I don’t know if anyone does it as well as E. E. Cummings.

Whether comedian or poet, writing short is a good skill to have, especially if you have a Twitter account (and who doesn’t?) which caps posts at 140 characters. I once had a mentor who told me the best writing uses the most effective language with the fewest words possible. A good goal whether character restricted or not.

The trick is getting your message across in 140 characters or less without sounding like a monkey with a computer. They say even a monkey with a keyboard can eventually spew out Shakespeare, but I think he might lose his audience first.

Michael Pollan provides a great example of writing meaningful but short content with this 7-word manifesto: eat food, mostly plants, not too much.

Those 7 words say a lot.

That’s what we’re looking to do with Twitter. Say what you need to say in as few as words as possible. The trick is to find ways to let people get to know who you are, what you have to offer, and have a little fun in the process. Writing with only 140 characters can be a limiting handicap.

Or not…getting rid of the necessary words and characters can also be freeing!

I gathered some of my favorite Writing Killer Twitter Content tips, added some of my own, and came up with this list. Here’s Tips on Writing Short in the Twitterverse:

• Choose Your Words Wisely. You want to pick the right words that evoke the right amount of meaning with as few as characters as possible. A thesaurus can help with this. For example, if you have a choice between two words, “lighthearted” and “fun,” go with the latter!
• Get Verbal. Select verbs that are more emotive to get your message across. An example would be to use a word like “leap” instead of “jump.” They’re both energetic verbs with equal characters, but “leap” implies more emotion.
• Lolly, lolly, lolly leave your adverbs here. Dustin Wax suggested on Lifehack that one way to shorten characters is to leave adverbs to a minimum. Adverbs use up important real estate and your content will be perfectly fine without it. Well, there’s an example of an adverb right there. I didn’t need to say “perfectly and fine” to get my point across. Don’t use two words when you can use one.
• KISS. Have you heard the saying, Keep it Simple, Stupid? That notion works here too. One way of doing that is to do what Dom Sagolla recommends in his book 140 Characters, keep your tweets focused on one thought. Hey puts it this way, we need to learn to “say more with less.”
• Writing is in the rewriting. The folks at ReadWriteWeb ask an interesting question. Maybe we should all learn to read and write in Mandarin where each character is actually a word. That’s a great idea, but in the meantime try this tip. Write exactly what you want to say, then begin the process of rewriting; paring it down while keeping an eye on that character count.
• Know the lingo. Twitterville has it’s own grammar. Use it. I promise there will be no school marms tapping your hands with rulers. And if there are, you can ignore them. Some examples of Twitterville Grammar is leaving out unnecessary words such as “that” and “which.” People understand what you’re trying to say without them.
• It’s not about you. Leave out personal pronouns. You can just say, “Going to BlogHer Food!”
• It’s all about you. Lisa Barone reminds us in her post How to Write Better Tweets to be sure to keep Twitter posts personal so people will want to read them.
• Don’t beat around the bush. Tweeting is not the time to be cryptic. Say what you want to say, but leave out the “I think” explanatory phrases. Of course you think it, otherwise you wouldn’t be tweeting it.
• The Link-anizer. If you’ve got more to say than 140 characters allows, write a provocative intro and then link to the rest of it. There are oodles of link shorteners out there – Tinyurl, Hootsuite, Bit.ly, etc. Pick your favorite and use it!
• Alternate Universe. Mark Fulton explained in a recent post on TwiTips that “Twitter accepts more than just normal characters.” Most keyboards allow you to create symbols with special “alt” characters. Fulton recommends the tool TwitterKeys to have all these symbols at your fingertips. Thanks, Mark! We ♥ you!
• Size Matters. Copyblogger suggests using small words. They say “…simple words work better than big ones. Write ‘get’ instead of ‘procure.’ Write ‘use’ rather than ‘utilize.’ Use the longer words only if your meaning is so precise there is no simpler word to use.”
• Be Creative. Mark Twain once said, “I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.” Twains words ring true today. English is a living language and Twitter is just the place to have some fun with your word choices.

I hope these tips help you be expansive in your Twitter thoughts while at the same time minimal in Twitter characters!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Writing Killer Content in 140 Characters or Less

To add to that my twitter account eventually got banned and I had to start all over again. Before I get into the rest of the concepts in this post, I want to recommend that you read Malcom Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.

Quality trumps Quantity: The idea that 150 followers is all you need probably sounds crazy to people, especially if you are just starting out. In an interview I conducted with Scott Stratten (this year’s keynote speaker for Blogworld), he mentioned that he tweeted over 10,000 times before he shared any of his own content. 75% of those were not even retweets, but @replies. He was engaged in real conversations with real people. So I decided to experiment with the concept for a month. The byproduct was incredible. The traffic I got from twitter increased exponentially. To top it off I met a bunch of new, really interesting people. Before long I found them on my blog commenting and sharing my posts with their followers.

The Rule of 150: In The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell talks about a concept called Dunbar’s number, named for anthropologist Robin Dunbar. After studying numerous groups the number 150 kept coming up over and over again. The conclusion that Robin Dunbar came to was that the maximum number of social relationships a person can effectively manage is 150. Gladwell went on to say that 150 people is what you need to make an idea spread. What’s even more interesting to is that after you get past 150 something happens that makes it harder for an idea to spread. Hopefully you see where I’m going with this concept. I want to share one concrete example from my own twitter presence. On my @skooloflife account I have 2000 followers. I get an average of 10 tweets per post. On my @blogcastfm account (the one for the podcast I host), I have about 500 followers and most interviews I get close to 20 tweets. There’s no way you are realistically going to engage with effectively with thousands of followers unless you absolutely have no life. Think about the power of 150 people who love you and everything you do when compared to the thousands of people where you are just trying to stand out from the noise.

Creating Your 150
Creating your 150 is actually quite easy and if you follow the steps below you’ll have discovered your 150 in no time. I’ve written my process out below of how I do this using tweetdeck.

• Track Mentions: The major thing you should be tracking is mentions of your twitter name. Anytime somebody mentions your name, it’s an opportunity to start a conversation and acquire a new high quality follower.
• Track Retweets: You should also pay close attention to the people who are retweeting the posts you have written. It’s obvious that they like your content, otherwise they wouldn’t be sharing it.
• Create a List: I have a list called my inner circle. Anytime somebody mentions me or retweets me, I make a point to to add them to that list. If they are a spammer, they get blocked.
• Engage with the People on that List: Simply creating the list is not going to be enough. Once you have created your inner circle list, you need to start engaging with them.
  • Daily Conversations: I talk to the people on my inner circle list almost daily. I don’t talk to all 150 of them every single day. But I talk to at least a few of them and that’s all that you really need to do to start getting true value out of twitter.
  • Retweet their Stuff: I make a point to promote the stuff of the people in my inner circle, especially if they are newer than I am to the blogosphere. It’s much easier to form relationships with people who are at your same level or slightly below. People have a tendency to only try to form relationships with people who are more established. Don’t discredit the value of your peer group because they won’t be small forever.

Where to Start When You Are at Zero: If you are starting at zero, some of the above might seem more challenging, but it’s not. Just start with bloggers who you have been reading. This is why it’s important to read more than just the a-list blogs. Find people you think are interesting and just reach out to them. They’ll be happy to hear from you. That will be the start of creating your 150.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Why 150 Followers Is All You Really Need

Or,”It’s impossible to track conversations on Twitter.”

Both can be valid points, however, it all depends on how you use the service. For those just starting out on Twitter, having conversations is essential for your business and to develop your personal brand. The conversation aspect that Twitter brings allows you to show others what you are about. Are you real and not a bot? Are you transparent? Are you just trying to sell me a product?

Since other users on Twitter are most likely not familiar with who you are, these are the types of questions that are going to be running through their heads. They want to feel you out, but social media is all about “wanting” to trust people. The conversation aspect of Twitter allows you to build that trust and relationship with another person. However, the best part of a Twitter conversation is bringing that conversation offline. Now, you may be wondering if this is actually possible. You might worry that someone who doesn’t know you in real life would never want to talk to you offline.  You would be surprised, it happens very often.

I’ve had the pleasure of having conversations with many people that started on Twitter, but we took the conversation offline. Well, alright, when I say offline, I mean off of Twitter. Since I do podcast interviews on Social Tech Zone with many well known internet personalities, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know these people not just from conversations on Twitter, but also on platforms like Skype. Talking on Twitter is a great starting point, but when you continue the conversation off Twitter, that’s where Twitter provides its ultimate value.

Wondering how it’s all possible?

Well it’s simple. When someone agrees to talk to you off of Twitter, they want to know more about you and what you represent. Twitter defines relationships and starts new friendships. Since Twitter restricts how many characters you can type, taking the conversation to a platform such as Skype is where you can pick the brain of the other person. You now have more of an opportunity to talk about your business, learn what they’re doing, and build a community around Twitter and not just a “follower” which isn’t very credible. Just because someone is following you, doesn’t mean they take the time out to actually pay attention to what you tweet.

The moment the conversation is brought off Twitter means they have taken interest in the things you have posted and want to learn more about you. They’ve gone from a follower to apart of your community as well as you becoming apart of their community. The more relationships you have with people off Twitter instead of ONLY on Twitter shows how strong of a community you have. That in itself defines the true value of a Twitter conversation. Its fine if you only have one brief exchange with someone on Twitter, but when you have frequent conversations with a person…they will be more likely to pay closer attention to your tweets the next time around.

People always wonder how some users get so many clicks on their links. It all comes down to conversations. The amount of people, they’ve reached out to and talked to in a “one on one” capacity are going to be interested in seeking out what that individual is sharing. Believe me, this technique works. I’ve been able to interview some well known people like Robert Scoble, Cali Lewis, and Chris Pirillo to name a few… and its all from interacting.

If you don’t believe me, try it out for yourself. Interact with people, especially those that you appreciate. Sooner or later they will realize that you are interacting with them often. They will reach out to you. Yes, there are some people who just ignore, but you will get that. However, there are more genuine people out there who want to talk especially if you share a common interest.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Power Of Having Twitter Conversations Off Of Twitter

When we make that social, we can see how we can create a more holistic approach which helps us to do this:

We can identify customer requirements when we run a social business by:
- Connecting with our customers and prospects online and Twitter
- Getting involved in their conversations with the focus on adding value and helping them out
- Listening to the language they use and what they like and dislike – what I have heard called the “unfettered conversation”

When we know all this through getting listening, and getting involved and being useful, it becomes much easier to anticipate customer requirements.
- We are already involved and hear what they are talking about
- We’ve got a relationship with them to be able to reach out and ask their opinions
- We can use tools like polldaddy to directly ask our twitter audience what they think, or use a link shortener to ask them using another online survey service
- We can see the response to what tweeps are interested in online, as a small tester for content that works and that we can create more of.

And as a result of all of this, we are in a much better place to satisfy our customer requirements. We are there when we hear things going wrong and are able to fix them, faster. We can use our contacts to put them in touch with the relevant people. And we have programs, products and content which we’ve taken the time to get feedback on, so we’ve built in ways to meet customer satisfaction up front.

Running a social business may not be the way you are used to working, but I think it adds a whole new level of engagement and discussion with your audience.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Marketing Benefits of Running a Social Business

CoTweet.com is a powerful Twitter-centric web application designed to help brands connect with their audience and join the conversation. Although used by some large companies such as Ford, Pepsi and Whole Foods I’ve seen little mention of the tool in the blogosphere and thought it deserved some attention.

Why use CoTweet.com?

• Integrated monitoring and response. By going to cotweet.com/search (after signing up) you can monitor any keyword you wish in a column-based interface. What’s particularly brilliant though is that you can quickly reply to tweets and are given plenty of options including an integrated URL shortener and the ability to schedule your responses.
• Fast and sleek interface. The problem I’ve found with most desktop applications like TweetDeck is they run fairly slow and consume large amounts of resources (mainly at the fault of Adobe Air I believe). CoTweet on the other hand is surprisingly fast and has a sleek Mac-like interface. It looks good but is not overpowering either; a good balance between aesthetics and usability.
• Support for multiple accounts. Many bloggers have multiple Twitter accounts to either differentiate between business and personal or for different projects. CoTweet handles multiple accounts beautifully making it easy for solopreneurs to connect with a range of markets and larger companies to widen their Twitter presence.
• Suitable for teams. For some this’ll be the killer feature. To my knowledge CoTweet is the only Twitter tool that allows multiple users to have access to the same account and assign different tweets to those users. Very useful if you’re a larger company with multiple staff managing the Twitter account, or if you’re running your business as a partnership.
• Gives you all the information you need. Simply click on the username of a Twitterer and a sidebar slides out with every detail about that user, a button to quickly follow that user and also access to past conversations you’ve had with them.

How to use CoTweet.com Effectively

1. Understand search filters. Twitter has quite powerful search filters that most people don’t make use of. Since CoTweet uses Twitter’s API, these same filters apply. A previous guest post on TwiTip covers 7 ways to use Twitter search, so that’s a good starting point. The simplest way to make use of search filters when using CoTweet is to add the line “-from:YOURUSERNAME -RT” (without the quotes) whenever you want to track a certain phrase. This hides your own tweets from and stops re-tweeted content from showing up to prevent duplication.
2. Monitor beyond your brand. Monitoring your own brand is certainly important but will unlikely give your exposure beyond your current boundaries. Consider monitoring:
   • Hash tags. Jump into the conversation beyond specific mentions of products.
   • Names (and Twitter usernames) of industry figures. One thing I do is monitor tweets that mention @tferriss because I know people interested in Tim might be interested in my site, and this gives me a chance to connect with them.
   • Other brands. See how the conversation is flowing around your competitors. If you start seeing trends (like, dislikes etc) you can work them into your overall strategy. Twitter’s search is essentially free market research.
3. Embrace every connection. No connection is worth more or less than any other connection. Reply to and connect with as many people as humanly possible. This may not be effective time-wise, but surprisingly strong bonds can be built in less than 140 characters.
4. Track results with bit.ly. By going to the Integrations tab under Settings you can connect your bit.ly accont to CoTweet. Whenever you use CoTweet to tweet a link you’ll be able to track the number of clicks it gets via the bit.ly interface. This is great for gauging interest in content you share so you can accurately tailor your tweets to your audience.
5. Read the official documentation. There’s plenty of features built in to CoTweet and for some it may be a tad overwhelming (especially those working at larger companies who have a bad case of inertia). Luckily they realised that and there’s plenty of detailed documentation.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Use CoTweet To Join The Conversation

A subtly confusing aspect of Twitter, even for people who have been using the service for a while, is understanding the differences between replies, mentions and direct messages. These concepts are confusing because they’re different than E-mail and aren’t necessarily the same as on other social networks like Facebook. The goal of this piece is to help well-meaning people from inadvertently annoying others on Twitter, or worse, accidentally sharing private information publicly.

This piece describes replies, mentions and direct messages in terms of how they’re used from the Twitter web interface. Once you understand how things work on Twitter’s website it’s easy to map these things to use within Twitter clients like TweetDeck or TwitterBerry.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Today we’ll talk about replies:

Replies

In it’s simplest form, a reply occurs when you see something that another user has tweeted and you want to respond to it in a public way. A reply is any tweet that starts with “@” followed by a user name.

For example, if I wanted to respond to the following tweet I’d click on the reply button:

…and then the Twitter “What are you doing?” box changes to a “Reply to” box and the text is populated with “@makerstable:

I’d then fill out my reply and click the reply button to send the tweet:

@makerstable would then see this tweet appear in her Twitter feed -and- it would also appear in her list of “Tweets mentioning @makerstable”. This last point is important because “Tweets mentioning” or “mentions” for short provide a way for users to notice the tweets that are most important to them- tweets about themselves!

A reply doesn’t necessarily need to be a response to a specific tweet. It can be simply a message to a specific Twitter user. For example, if I simply wanted to ask someone on Twitter a question I could say “@BostonTweet Who makes the best burrito in Boston?” Further, the person you’re targeting with the reply doesn’t even need to be someone you follow on Twitter. You can reply to anyone and it doesn’t even need to be a response to something specific they’ve said recently.

When you reply to a user, that tweet is viewable to everyone on Twitter. However, it will only appear on other users’ Twitter feeds if they are following the person that the tweet starts with. Say for example you follow @makerstable in the example above. You would see my tweet that was a reply to her in your Twitter feed. If you weren’t following @makerstable, you would not. Either way, if you viewed all of my tweets (by clicking on my username in Twitter) you’d see this tweet.

How to use replies:

Replies are a great way to engage people on Twitter. It lets people know that you’re listening to what they’re saying and not just following their updates. It’s also a great way to respond to people who aren’t following you but have asked a question that you might be able to help with. Say you own a wine shop and you sell a particular wine. You could create a Twitter search for that wine and when you noticed someone tweet “Does anyone know of a wine store in Boston that sells Cakebread?” You could reply to them and let them know that you do. Using Twitter as a lazyweb can be powerful.

How not to use replies:

It’s not really that useful to frequently reply “ha!” “lol!” or “so true!” to something someone has said. This can be annoying when a group of people with similar interests follow each other and your well intentioned tweets begin to fill up someone’s Twitter feed. Also, it’s not a good idea to reply without providing context. Twitter has a notion of threaded conversations, but it also moves pretty fast so it’s a good idea to reply with context as to which tweet you’re responding to. Instead of “lol!” say “@mnik That’s hilarious! Whenever I hear the word ‘webinar’ I cringe too.”

Important points to remember about replies:

• Replies don’t necessarily need to be responses to something specific someone has said
• Replies are public so be careful what you say
• You can reply to someone even if you’re not following them
• Limit the use of inconsequential replies. Some people don’t like it when Twitter is used as a chat room.

Question of the Day: What other nuances about about replies weren’t obvious to you when you first started using Twitter?

[Read Part 2 of this post here]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Concise Guide to Understanding Replies, Mentions and Direct Messages on Twitter – Part 1 of 2

As useful and fun as Twitter can be, it can also be both addictive and a major distraction. Many times in the past I’ve tried to write a blog post or work on some other big project and I’d lose my focus because I had Twitter open and kept getting drawn to it, wanting to tweet something, see what others were tweeting or just reply to somebody. Of course, this is a common and well documented problem with most social media sites, but I’ve found Twitter to be particularly bad, if for no other reason that it’s so simple and quick to use.

It’s now increasingly documented that multi-tasking, and just generally allowing distractions into your life is a poor way of getting things done. If you’re tweeting while trying to do your work, that work will take much longer and require more effort to do. If you don’t want to waste your time like that, try implementing these four tips when using Twitter:

Set limits

The first, and perhaps most effective measure is to set limits. That could involve having particular days on when to tweet, setting time limits or even tweet limits (how many tweets you will make per day). Rather than dipping in and out of Twitter when it calls to you, putting aside perhaps an hour a day or choosing Saturday to use it when you know you’re going to be least busy, means you can really give your tweeting the attention it deserves, and thus shut it out of your mind the rest of the time.

Identify what you want to achieve

You like Twitter. You use it regularly. Why? Why are you craving all those followers and tweeting fifty times a day? So many people use Twitter without understanding what they’re getting out of it. Are you trying to promote a product? Make new friends? Interact with interesting people? Identify what you want to get out of your Twitter experience so that you can tweet with purpose and focus. Tweeting for the sake of it is a very easy-but-bad habit to slip into.

What value are you offering?

Sorry to say it, but the vast bulk of tweets are irrelevant. Tweeting every little thought and activity you have and do is pointless (and it has indeed caused Twitter a lot of ridicule in the past). If you think a little before each tweet as to whether it has value, meaning and worth, both to yourself, your followers and the wider audience, you will make your overall Twitter experience and the time you put into it much more satisfying and meaningful.

Cut out distractions

When I originally downloaded Tweetdeck, as useful as I found it to be, it was initially also a big attention whore. Beeping every time it updated, refreshing every couple of seconds… it was so distracting, it was difficult to not be drawn away from whatever else I was doing. I’ve now tamed it to the point where I can look at it when I want to. The same goes for whatever app you use, including any email notifications you might get from Twitter. And of course if that doesn’t work, just use the golden rule – close Twitter until you’re ready to use it!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Tame The Beast: How To Use Twitter So It Doesn’t Suck Up Your Time And Attention

Do you own a small business? Are you having a hard time understanding Twitter?

As a small business owner and social media user going on two years now, I can honestly say that initially I did not really see the point or power of Twitter at all.

However, after sticking it out passed the learning curve, picking up a couple of followers, and following really intelligent people, thanks to Twitter, I get to make connections and learn something new every day. In fact, at this point I feel like Twitter is a tool that all small business owners should use as part of their overall efforts to build a distributed social media footprint.

Nevertheless, if you are like many in the small business community who have tried Twitter without success, then you might be fond of saying, “I just don’t get it.”

For numerous small business owners (including myself at one point in time) who are new to Twitter, and social media in general, there appears to be a common misconception that as soon as you sign up customers are going to fall from the sky in droves and you will immediately be inundated with more business than you can handle.

Small Business Twitter Frustration
Amongst the business people that I discuss Twitter with there appear to be two types of discouraged small venture owners who give up on Twitter at rapid rate.

Frustrated business owner number one feels like Twitter is analogous to entering a large cocktail party or hotel lobby where she doesn’t know a single soul. Yet, conversations are happening all around her and rather than trying to ease into the discussion, she gives up without talking to anybody because the sheer numbers are overwhelming.

Disgruntled Twitter quitter number two is the complete opposite of number one. He will get on Twitter, see all of the conversations going on, and assume it is the customer “candy store.” This leads to the sending out of many spammy messages, which spew forth details about his great products and prices. He will typically stop using Twitter when to his surprise nobody follows him back and he doesn’t receive one @ reply.

Twitter Tips to Help Small Business Owners
Recently, a friend asked me to help him with that “Twitter thing” because he wants more customers for his niche jewelry business.

After our very long discussion and Twitter run through, I thought that perhaps there might be other business owners out there who are beginners on Twitter and could use some help. Here are the 20 tips that I passed on to my friend:

1. Twitter is first and foremost a place to connect, learn, and listen.
2. Define your goals if you have any (e.g. business promotion, socializing, etc).
3. If you’re confused about where to begin on Twitter, but are interested in learning, take a look at the previously done Twitip post that highlights key people for beginners to follow.
4. Twitter allows you to interact with individuals who you might not normally come into contact with. If you want to interact with a celebrity or a person with a huge following then send a simple @ message or comment on something they are doing. If you get a response you can then take it from there.
5. Don’t be offended if folks don’t follow you back. It’s not personal. (Even if it is, it doesn’t really matter.)
6. Use a photo of yourself or your business logo in you profile.
7. If you’re interested in connecting with someone you might want to try ReTweeting some of their messages before you introduce yourself.
8. It’s probably going to take a good 3 to 6 months to get a following.
9. Find out who the influencers are in your industry and see if they are on Twitter. If they are, follow them.
10. Always follow Jeff Pulver’s rule of giving 95% of the time and asking only 5% of the time.
11. Utilize a Twitter photo-sharing site like TwitPic or Yfrog to share cool photos from your typical business day, or while plying your craft, so that people get to know you. It helps to build social trust.
12. Use Twitter Search with keywords to find information and conversations that are relevant to your business. It’s also a good way to find out if anyone is talking about you or your company.
13. If you are not part of a particular conversation that concerns your area of business, but you would like to participate, approach with caution.
14. If you are sending DM’s to your followers with something related to your business, make sure to use your social capital wisely. Overwhelming folks with DM’s can result in a rapid loss of followers
15. Don’t Tweet anything that you would not want to see on the front page of a newspaper or wildly famous website.
16. Do interact and connect and don’t hesitate to @ message folks who have 10x or 100x the number of followers you have.
17. Employ sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit to find, and share amongst your followers, interesting stories from your particular area of business.
18. Create connections don’t spam. You most likely would not just walk into a crowded venue where you don’t know anyone and say, “Hi my name is Bob and I replace window screens and have great prices.” This method does not work very well on Twitter. (Should be a given but you still see it every day!)
19. Twitter is only one area online where you can begin to build a distributed social media footprint for your business. Do NOT rely solely on Twitter as your social media business promotion tool.
20. It takes a long time to build up a following and develop trust, but it only takes one Tweet to alienate every one of your followers.

To be sure, on a daily basis we are all trying to figure how best to utilize Twitter effectively as a small business tool. Certainly, this is not a be all end all list, so your thoughts and input on how small business can better tap into Twitter are appreciated.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



20 Must Read Beginner Twitter Tips for Small Business Owners

Now that you’ve joined the twitter bandwagon, you’re trying to figure out the best way to attract quality followers to your twittosphere. I don’t know too many folks who want a wave of spam bots following them, but sometimes that’s what we might end up with if we’re not careful with our twitter approach. What’s a twitter newbie to do when she’s new to the twitter-scene? Use the following twitter tips to create a presence that’s both clear and notable:

1. Did you create your twittosphere for a professional agenda? Identifying your niche market is the first key to attracting the audience you want on twitter. It’s also the most excellent way to develop enticing tweets to engage twitter users. If you’re on twitter for pure professional grounds, then you must offer tweets that invite potential clients. Remember, consumers (whether in virtual time or real time) want value for their purchasing dollar. As a professional twitter-tweeter, you must provide quality and relative information regarding your product (or service). And just like any bricks-and-mortar business, friendly small talk is in order. Tell twitter users about yourself — how you got started in your business, why you got started in your business, why you feel strongly about your business, who facilitates your business, and what makes your business a step ahead of the grain. Add a splay of links to your Website…but tread carefully; too much of a good thing isn’t always the best method to earn patronage. Offer links to associated information as well. There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way to achieve professional success on twitter. If every tweet contains a link, you’re probably talking at your twitter base – that’s the wrong way. If your tweets offer engaging dialogue, a random splay of links, and an answer/question-type format, you’re communicating with your twitter base - that’s the right way.

2. I joined twitter to establish friendships. If you joined twitter simply for personal reasons, then you’ve got just about free reign on how you approach your twittosphere. Common sense, however, plays a major role in how you develop and expand your personal twitter network, too. Don’t be the twitter playground bully and expect people to like you. If you come onto the twitter playing field to simply dump your negative energy, then you won’t attract quality friendships. Instead, you get what you receive: misery loves company.

Monkey-see, monkey-do… Our twitter followers often mimic our personalities (and visa vie) to some degree. For example, if you share music through Blip.fm or other twitter-aligned musical sites, you’ll find that your followers are more than likely music connoisseurs. If you like baking pies and pastries, your followers can probably offer you the latest recipe for homemade apple pie. And that is what it’s really all about; twitter — that is. Twitter is the social networking scene that allows ordinary…and sometimes extraordinary folks to strike common grounds in a mutual network of millions. Where else in the world can you go and have the opportunity to touch the mind, heart, and spirit of multi-generational cultures, creeds, and races?

3. Love…American style: I want to find true love on twitter. While twitter is a great social networking portal, I can’t say whether or not true love has blossomed on this media giant. Just like any social scene, individuals must exercise caution when attempting to develop any relationship – personal or otherwise. Unless you can confirm a potential significant other’s intent beyond a shadow of a doubt – tread carefully.  In today’s fast-paced virtual society, we get easily side-tracked by the now-moment of time. This often translates into making ourselves readily vulnerable to online predators, which have less-than-desirable intentions. Don’t offer personal information (home phone number, address, etc.) unless you absolutely trust an individual. Just because it’s twitter, doesn’t make it safer.

4. Trying to expand your group’s reach? If you’re like other hobby-loving creatures of habit, then twitter is perfect for you and the expansion of what it is you like to do. It’s also an excellent venue to expand outreach for independent causes like cancer, the Humane Society, and Eco-friendly organizations, among others. If your intention is to acquire more members and/or support of your cause, twitter gives you the perfect platform to get in contact with interested individuals. On twitter, you can post your concerns, your needs, and your goals. Learn who is researching resolutions, how you can become part of the solution, and where you can go to learn more. That works, too, if you’re offering information and resources about your group. But again, remember to keep your conversations light and friendly. Too much chatter and not enough dimensions to your communication can be a real buzz-kill.

5. I want to explore my philosophical side on twitter. Now that’s a topic I can personally get into. On twitter, there’s an explosion of diversity. From orthodox religious individuals to those seeking Zen enlightenment — spirituality and philosophy is alive and well here. Twitter is home to psychologists, spiritual mentors, personal and professional coaches, psychics, astrophysicists, astrologists, astronomers, actors, musicians, clerics, engineers, and more. The best part about the twitter climate is that every one has something to offer to the virtual hemisphere of knowledge. Teaching and learning is an everyday occurrence on twitter because it’s almost guaranteed that you will learn something new each time you login. And if you’re a real people-person, you’ll be able to share your ideas, philosophies, theories (and maybe conspiracies)…and in return, you’ll gain a wealth of retrospection, investigation, and potential answers.

Most importantly, keep it real on twitter. Don’t go beyond your area of expertise. Don’t lead individuals on with superficial tweets. Don’t give advice when no one has asked for it. Don’t be rude. And yes, learn how to “listen” on twitter before you respond; part of being a good communicator, means knowing what to tweet and when to tweet it.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Common Sense Twitter Tips To Keeping It Real On Twitter

As Twitter continues to define its niche, many companies are hiring individuals for the sole purpose of being the brand’s face on Twitter. For companies with a bigger grasp of the online scene, these individuals often do much more than just Tweet, but being the brand’s bird is still a crucial part of the job. Since being a professional micro-blogger is a new experience for most people starting the position, I thought it would be helpful to offer some advice based off of my experiences.

Be Colorful

There are a variety of ways a company can approach Twitter, but the one that will excite customers the most and produce industry conversations is approaching Twitter in a personable, lively, and chatty manner. Your natural instinct may be to place professionalism as the rule of thumb for all of your tweets; I know it was for me. But when it comes down to it, behind all of the corporate Twitter accounts, and all of the non-corporate, are real live people. They’re just not interested in talking to a company that feels stiff and rigid. People are eager for a new kind of company that still offers them the services and products they want, but will talk to them like people. This remains true even if your company’s product is b2b and not aimed directly at consumers. Ultimately, what matters is that all businesses are run by real people who are not interested in communicating with text on a screen – they are interested in communicating with other people. So, be colorful, liven up, be liberal with your use of @replies and spread some big smiles. It goes a long way.

Guidelines and Scenarios

This part might seem a bit somber and less happy-go-lucky-social media-lovey, but it’s important. There’s no doubting that being a colorful character is important to success on Twitter. If you want to create conversations, you have to be friendly and interesting. Because of this, you might start to feel like you’re getting paid to be a social butterfly. You are not. You’re getting paid to represent the company. It’s a very fine line between being a socially active company run by real people, and being an individual who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. When you’re the company bird, you should be afraid to speak your mind. You shouldn’t be panic stricken or quaking in your boots, but you should maintain a healthy fear of your own personality. The best way to make sure you are being true to the company is to have a good review of the company’s previous branding efforts and the image they have tried to create. Remember that you are a part of the marketing department and your actions encompass a wide range of activities from public relations to customer service. Keep the company’s goals in mind for their brand and image and use this as a guideline for checking those questionable tweets. Also, have a sit-down with your supervisors to go over possible scenarios. Make sure you are ready for common situations like: client interaction, new customer acquisitions, complaints, debates, questions on company policy (know your company’s policies like the back of your hand), and interaction with competitors (hint: be friendly). Knowing how to handle these scenarios will streamline your company’s interaction with the public, which is one of the biggest benefits of using social media for business. If you have to double check every response with someone else, then you are completely losing this benefit and arguably completely wasting the company’s investment in social media. By being properly prepared with a set of guidelines and potential scenarios, balancing your colorful character with the restrictions of being a brand representative will come much easier, and I promise you won’t end up looking like a sad ugly duckling.

Do More

Twitter is great. It provides a myriad of opportunities for individuals and brands to interact with each other. However, Twitter isn’t enough by itself. If your only responsibility at a company is Tweeting, you may consider what else you can do for the company. If you’re already in a position to take advantage of other mediums and forms of content, do so. There is a lot that goes into being a good company Twitterer, I know I’ve had my fair share of slip ups. But if you look at the top Twitter accounts, you’ll find that almost all of them create other forms of content. A brand that chooses a single medium, puts all of their eggs in that basket, and uses it as the sole means to create conversations is completely missing the mark. Marketing is a holistic engagement, and conversations occur much less frequently when they are detached from exciting and relevant content.

I hope this has been helpful to you if you’re starting a new job as a company tweeter or looking into the possibility of hiring for this position.

[Image credits: paraflyer and Ross Mayfield]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Being the Brand’s Bird: Guidelines for the Professional Twitter User