I started out in the real estate profession and always loved the concept of building equity from property value. This is likely why I became interested in Twitter and influence of Tweet value. Not to mention the financial industry booms and busts totally shattered my real estate business model.

With a passion for building equity I set out to target the Twitter industry and create online empires. Quickly I discovered that how many followers you have on Twitter did not matter as much as how much influence you had over those following you on Twitter. Leading me to build niche Twitter empires focused on content engagement for specific subject matters. A business model that involves creating numerous niche Twitter profiles.

To simplify things how much influence you can create through Tweets is what determines the value of how much credibility you build. Then it became crystal clear to me that niche Twitter profiles would be the next big Internet rush. The need to be able to engage followers and influence buying decisions is likely why everyone is on Twitter or at least considering joining the social media network.

Say you market and promote products, goods, or services it would be smart to have a niche Twitter profile that Tweets about those products, goods, and services. I have a Twitter profile that talks about building website traffic on Twitter my handle is @TrafficOpps. I love video games so I created a niche Twitter profile where my handle is @PCVideoGamer. The point here is to target and attract Twitter followers interested in unique subject matters.

Are search engines taking interest in niche Twitter profiles? With the help of my team we even created a niche Twitter profile that is focused on urban luxury and the Twitter handle is @UrbanLuxury.

If you do a key word search on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Ask for “Urban Luxury” you will find @UrbanLuxury in the top 5% indexed over millions of websites.

Twitter is the universe and the greatest place on earth to deliver a message to the most amounts of people in the fastest amount of time. Building niche Twitter empires are the next generation for Web 3.0!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Building Niche Twitter Empires – The Next Internet Rush

Before you go changing anything around on your twitter profile to make it more professional you must decide what the purpose of the account is.

Is your purpose to connect with friends and family?
Is your purpose to share important updates to customers of your store or online business?
Is your purpose to attract potential clients and to give them an understanding of why they should choose your product or service?

If your purpose is only to connect with friends and family then you don’t really need to have a professional presence in my opinion.

But if your purpose is business related then the following steps will help you create a professional presence on twitter.

Sometimes people will have a personal and a business-related purpose for using twitter. In those cases I recommend having a personal twitter account and a separate business related account on twitter.

1. Get a custom background

To create a professional presence on twitter you want to have your own unique background. The default background is used by millions of people and you want to set yourself apart.

There are many websites that will help you create a customized background for your twitter account. And the best part is that most of them are free.

To create a custom background for my twitter account I used Twitbacks.com.

2. Use a picture of yourself

Twitter allows you to have a small avatar picture associated with your account and I recommend using a personal photograph for this.

It doesn’t have to be a professional headshot where your hair and makeup is perfect; it just needs to be a picture of you.

This allows your followers to connect your tweets and messages with a real person. This personal touch adds credence to what you say.

3. Your phone number

I like to post my phone number on my twitter account for all of my followers to see. When followers see a phone number listed with a twitter account it gives them confidence that if they had a problem or question there is someone they could call.

I know some of you will be uncomfortable doing this and it’s completely understandable.

But if you run a small business or work in any line of sales then you really need to have your phone number listed on your twitter account.

To my knowledge twitter does not allow you to actually list the phone number as part of your account. But you can have it be part of your background.

In the example below you can see my phone number is on the far left side:

4. List your email address

You will also want to list your e-mail address on your twitter account. Just as with phone numbers, you can’t actually list your e-mail on your account but you can include it as part of your background.

I know some of you will be concerned about posting your e-mail and receiving spam.

To deal with this I created a second e-mail address that I used specifically for my business. And this is the e-mail address that I post on my twitter account.

Luckily Gmail has a very good spam filter and so I actually get very few spam messages in my inbox each week.

5. Be professional in your tweets

People follow you for a reason. Whether it’s to hear about new products your store is offering or updates about the cause you represent, people are listening to what you say.

And the minute you deviate from that you will lose followers.

So before you post a tweet ask yourself, “Why are people following me? And is this new tweet something they want to hear about?”

If the answer is no or if you’re not sure then do not post the new tweet.

6. Tweet regularly but don’t overdo it

I will usually tweet something in the morning and then sometimes in the evening. 1 to 3 tweets today is optimal.

You want to your followers to see something from you each day but you don’t want to overdo it.
The last thing you want is for one of your followers to see that the last 20 tweets are all from you. When this happens to me I immediately unfollow the person.

7. Only follow people that you’re interested in

A popular way to get followers is to follow a whole bunch of people and hope that many of them follow you back. This results in you having 3,000 followers and you are following 3,000 people yourself.

When people see this it looks less professional. They know there is no way you can be listening to what all 3000 people are tweeting about.

On the other hand it is much more impressive if you follow just a few people and yet have hundreds of followers yourself. When people see this they are more likely to follow you in my opinion here.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Ways To Create A Professional Twitter Presence

TwitterLogos boasts “the largest collection” but also allows graphic designers to submit their work to be featured on the site and get free advertising. There are many that I’ve seen before elsewhere, but many more that I haven’t. Check out this one, which would be great for anyone in the medical field.

Just a note: There are some in there that I noticed, especially those from Flickr, that are marked “All rights reserved.” So be careful… but most of them seem to be alright for use.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



More Free Twitter Icons and Badges

I know, it sounds strange in theory. But think about it like this: you spend a lot of time building a network on Twitter, engaging with your followers, and creating powerful partnerships, but what would happen if this single asset went belly up? You don’t put all of your cash into a single stock, so why should you invest all of your social capital in a single service?

Don’t get me wrong, I like Twitter, but I want to be prepared in the event that something kills my favorite social tool. I’ve never invested this much time in any other platform, nor have I met so many great people all over the world. Twitter excels at connecting people and helping them share ideas, but it can’t be the only way to connect, especially if your business or personal brand depends on it.

Diversify

Since we’re going to be treating Twitter as an investment, it is time to start talking about diversifying your capital (social in this instance). The type of friends and associates I have on Twitter generally fall into on of several categories:

• Real life friend
• Business partners
• Hobbyist
• Someone I support or admire
• Blog readers, customers, and supporters
• People I’d like to know more about

I usually group them as such within Twitter using TweetDeck, but there are other places I’d like to interact with these groups too, so I start diverting them to other sites or properties of mine. Some I’ll send to Facebook, some I’ll send to a business platform, like LinkedIn, and some I’ll send to my newsletter opt-in. Others, I’ll simply follow where I can.

For instance, obviously you probably already connect with your friends on Facebook, but consider meeting up with fellow hobbyists there as well. As a Triathlete, I take part in many bulletin boards and forums, where I’ll often find others to connect with on Twitter. However, I don’t stop there. Over time, I’ll connect with them on Facebook and if all goes well, ask them to check out my Triathlon Training Blog. The goal is to move from an asset that I don’t own, to one that I do. In the event that the forums close down or Twitter disappears for a while, I can still connect with them on Facebook or on my blog.

If the relationship is one of a business nature, I’ll make sure to connect with them on LinkedIn and either ask for or offer a recommendation. The power of LinkedIn lies in its ability to connect powerful businesses with powerful business minds, but for some reason many people don’t find the time to hang out over there. I think that is a mistake. The networking within that community is intense and making sure to invest some capital in that site will do wonders for your portfolio.

As a way to stay in contact with your fans, supporters, and readers, consider creating a Facebook Fan Page or at a minimum, making sure they know about your email list. Send blog readers to follow you on Twitter and Twitter readers to follow you on your blog. You should be constantly redirecting people to as many parts of your web portfolio as possible. This is the only way to ensure that the hard work you’ve done on Twitter won’t disappear in the future.

Integrate

All of my social sites, at least the ones that allow me to, have a badge, icon, or link that tells people how they can find me on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. From those sites, I send people to internet property that I own. Fairly simple concept really, but it is one that people often overlook. In the past, I set up auto-DM’s to let people know how to find my blog and Facebook profile, but the anti-auto-DM lobbyists convinced me otherwise. Still, from time to time I’ll send out a Tweet to make sure that people know where to find me outside of Twitter.

Use the left side of your Twitter background to your advantage and offer links there. If you have a blog or website, consider crafting your links like this:

• myblog.com/twitter
• myblog.com/facebook
• myblog.com/youtube
• myblog.com/linkedin

What I’m getting at here is not that people are nothing more than property or an investment, but that you need to make sure your relationships are safeguarded in the event of a Twitter catastrophe. If you read my post about Why Twitter isn’t Going Anywhere, you’ll know that I don’t expect this to happen, but after last week’s DDoS attacks you can never be too sure. I’ve met more exceptional people on Twitter in the past year than I’d met in the previous 20 and if the past is any indication of the future, then I expect this trend to continue.

[image: monojussi]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Treating Twitter as an Investment

Let’s face it, Twitter is all about search. Real time search. Why else would they redesign their home page to show off their search functionality? The amount of real-time information pulsing through their service at any given minute is impressive, to say the least.

But for all that, Twitter’s built-in search is a frustratingly limited tool, providing access to a very limited amount of the data set available via the web site or their API.

Enter TweepSearch, a search application built by Damon Cortesi that allows you to search through the profile information of over 10 million unique accounts.

Here are three things you can do with TweepSearch that you can’t do with Twitter Search:

Search By Profession

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find other marketers on Twitter? Other journalists? Other social media experts? Well it turns out that you can, at least as far as people volunteer their professions in their profile.

Searching for “journalist” on Tweepsearch yields, at the time I write this, 16,099 people you could potentially follow. “Marketer” pulls in 89,061.

These are all people who have added the term “Journalist” or “Marketer” somewhere in their Twitter bio information. You’re not going to get everyone of course, but then again, you’re probably not going to follow 16,000 people, either.

Search by URL

Let’s take the “profession” trick one step further; what if you wanted to find out who, on twitter, is associated with a certain business URL.

It’s a bit of a hack because TweepSearch won’t independently search the URL field, so if someone types a URL into their “bio” field, it will also show up too. That said, it works pretty well.

Say you want to know who on Twitter is associated with the game Spymaster. A good start would be to search for people who list playspymaster.com as their profile URL. Type:

www.playspymaster.com

into TweepSearch, and you’ll see a list of 22 results. Easy enough to comb through and pluck the real ones from the list.

Search within someone’s friends

Another cool trick you can pull with TweepSearch is to search within the bios of someone’s friends only. For example, if we wanted to see how many of Robert Scoble’s friends mention Rackspace in their bio, we’d type the following into the search box:

@scobleizer rackspace only:friends

This particular search turns up 69 friends. I Guess Scoble is popular at the office

There are a number of other cool types of search you can do based on the data Damon has available through TweepSearch. If you’re interested, there’s even a handy help page to walk you through it.

Happy hunting.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Three Twitter Searches You Didn’t Think Were Possible

Twitter is now a daily part of television, radio and online news reports.  News reporters or hosts on television can be heard saying statements such as “…and on Twitter today…” or “send us a message on Twitter”.  It is becoming common place and many are jumping in the fray for good reason… when used properly, social media can be a great boon to your business.  The key words in that statement being “used properly”.

Outsourcing tasks to specialists who have the needed skills is a solution for many when it comes to launching on the various social media channels. Outsourcing works well because you hire someone to do work more efficiently than you can, giving you more time to work on your area of expertise. After all, your time is better spent directly on the revenue generating tasks so you can grow and prosper your business.

One of the most common mistakes made when outsourcing social media work is the belief that you do not have to be involved.  It’s called Social Media for a reason, you NEED to be social. It’s not a relationship if you are not involved. You are not having a conversation with someone if you have sent in a representative to speak on your behalf. To be social, certain actions must be done by you, not outsourced.

Does this mean you should never outsource any social media work? Certainly not. It simply means that when you do, you need to accept that your ‘contractor’ will be able to handle many aspects of this work but you still have a part to play.

With my clients, I act as a support manager; setting up a plan and custom profiles, linking Twitter and their other social media channels to work more efficiently, queuing up business tips to post on twitter and keeping the client on track with their social media plan.  Looking after this type of work means that for 15 to 20 minutes a day my clients can go on Twitter and spend their time connecting with other people. It’s the ability to have the time to connect like this that will reveal their personality and assist in building the relationships on Twitter that can lead to business growth.

It’s important to think of your time on Twitter as online networking and you need to act the same as you do at a networking event in person.  If you never speak to anyone, chances are no one will talk to you.  If you send in your representative and she does all the talking, again you are not making the connections. While you are there, it is also important to say more than one thing and not to repeat yourself over and over.

Check out some of the top twitter users, and I don’t mean Ashton or Oprah… I mean people using twitter for business and making it work – @problogger, @DeniseWakeman, @LouBortone, and @MariSmith to name a few.  Look at their timelines on Twitter… it is clear who they are and what they are all about, that is why Twitter is working for them.

No one else can be you. You can try it but the odds are not on your side.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



No One Else Can Be You

From the site:

“TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. The service analyzes your last 1000 tweets and works best on users who have posted more than 1000 updates. It also works best on accounts that are operated by a single user and use Twitter in a conversational manner, rather than simply a content distribution platform.”

This does sound very interesting, and you can see Darren’s results below:

Cognitive Content

1. Occupation & work
2. Senses
3. Present tense
4. Time
5. Upward motion
6. Media, entertainment & celebrities
7. Social processes
8. Past tense
9. Insight
10. Cognitive processes
11. Future tense
12. Tentative

Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content

1. Constructive behaviors
2. Social behavior
3. Abstract thought
4. Order

And for giggles, here are my results:

Cognitive Content

1. Present tense
2. Social processes
3. Tentative
4. Past tense
5. Self reference
6. Upward motion
7. Cognitive processes
8. Positive Feelings
9. Certainty
10. Negative emotions
11. Time

Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content

1. Social behavior
2. Abstract thought
3. Temporal References
4. Affection
5. Glory
6. Anxiety
7. Order
8. Audio sensations
9. Moral imperative

Looks like Darren’s pretty much all on the same alignment with his tweets, and I’m kind of all over the place! What do you think about your TweetPsych analysis?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



TweetPsych – Psychological Profiling via Twitter

Twitter profiles are a dime a dozen. Anyone can sign up and start tweeting. Because Twitter locks down a lot of the customization options, it’s a bit harder to stand out from the crowd. The default backgrounds you find in your settings tab are nice, but they’re default! Everyone has access to them. Why settle for the standard background when you can do so much more.

What I’ve done is create 7 free Twitter backgrounds (in .PSD format) that you’re free to download and customize to your liking. I’ve also created a short tutorial on how to add your own pictures, text and information. If you have any questions, be sure to send me a message @jasondrohn and I’ll be sure to get back to you ASAP.

Anyway, here are the downloads:

And the video tutorial:

What are your thoughts on Twitter backgrounds? Or better yet – what are your favorite ones? I’d love to hear.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Free Twitter Backgrounds to Download and Customize

Many people think custom twitter backgrounds or themes with anything other than their business network profile and personal site links are not for the tech/business folks or only for the teenie-bopper Myspace crowd. I say it couldn’t be further from the truth. Here’s 6 reasons why all Twitip readers should dispose of those generic Twitter backgrounds today! Why? Because you could start gaining more followers by connecting with your target audience and relating to your peers.

1.Identifying mutual interest in tastes and preferences. For example you may be one of the many Twitter Fail Whale fans or are interested in the TV show “Lost”. Guess what, there’s a background for that. Why wouldn’t you follow somebody with similar likes and interest? Isn’t that how we make friends in the real world? Twitter is no different.

2 .Automatic recognition. Your profile becomes a standout in a crowd full of clones. If nothing about you is unique (for example you’re not famous like 99% of the top followed Twitter users) then a standout background is just another edge over your competition.

3. Setting yourself apart. Reason 3 confirms the point that I spoke on above. The key to gaining followers on Twitter is setting yourself apart from everyone else. Don’t think Darren has that huge picture of his face on his Twitter profile because he is thinking about a second career in modeling. It stands out! Duh.

4. Credibility. A custom Twitter background brings more credibility to your Twitter profile. Considering the fact that there are many fake pages on twitter or marketers who join with the intention of spamming users and as you will see most of those pages still have the default theme and very little visual appeal. Making sure you have an attractive avatar is a plus.

5. You’re Boring This might ruffle somebody’s feathers, but maybe some of you guys are just not interesting or haven’t posted anything worth following on Twitter, but maybe you’ve designed a creative background that catches the attention or gets your sense of humor across without a Tweet or word spoken.

6. (Bonus) It’s Easy. Last but definitely not least. If you’re using Doctor Twitter its free, and with one-click applies the twitter background of your dreams. Free and easily accessible is always a definite perk!

Here are a few themes that might get your personality across and they can all be applied in one click:

Show your sense of humor with a April Fools Theme:

Who did you vote for on election day? Maybe a fellow Twitterer also has that in common:

You need your weekly Family Guy fix:

You’re not the only Toronto Maple Leafs fan I bet:

There are Hello Kitty fans of all ages:

So what is your reason for the stale Twitter background? (Lack of photoshop skills, lazy, no time?)

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



6 Reasons To Get Rid Of That Generic Twitter Background Once and for All

As the popularity of micro-blogging continues to grow, it’s going to become a tool used by advertisers and marketers. In the same way that running a corporate or business blog is different from running a personal blog, running a corporate or business twitter profile is different from running a personal twitter profile.

Secure Your Name

Your username on twitter is limited to 15 characters, if your company name is 15 characters or less, or can be reasonably abbreviated to 15 characters or less secure it as soon as possible. Avoid using hyphens or underscores if possible, they almost always cause complications down the road. Even if you aren’t planning on using it right away, secure the name, as many people have had reported twitter is less than expeditious when addressing trademark issues.

If you have a large company and are going to have multiple people representing you, decide if you will be using one account also called a role account, or using multiple accounts. If you are using multiple accounts use a naming convention like IBMJoe or DellKathy. If you are using one account for multiple people don’t hide that fact. If it makes sense sign the tweet “@marysmith thanks for the tip ~john” or “@johnsmith thanks for letting us know ~ms”.

Avatars Backgrounds and Profile Links

Most people on twitter use and prefer to see an actual picture, for a corporate profile this is less important. A role account should almost always use either the official company logo or an appropriate logo derivations. You can feature an employee in a t-shirt or baseball cap with the logo if you want to give it a personal touch as long as the logo is identifiable.

While it’s not mandatory having a custom or professional looking twitter background is a huge plus. Keeping a consistent color palette and incorporating other recognizable visual elements from your main website or blog will help contribute to the the overall impression of the brand.

Most corporate brands link their twitter profile back to the main company website or company blog. An alternative would be to create a twitter landing page. Having a contact email or a contact phone number on your twitter profile page is another way to give your profile a more professional feel.

Replies, Tracking and Automation

Using the replies tab on twitter is IMHO one of the most important things everyone on twitter should be paying attention to. Check your replies tab to see who is talking to you or asking you a question. Try to answer them in a reasonable time-frame and as honestly as possible. Sometimes twitter users will talk about your company but not to your company, to keep on top of you’ll need to monitor keywords.Knowing what people are saying about your company or your high profile executives is a key facet of life on twitter. You can use the twitter search engine summize to search for your company name, product name, or any vanity terms. You can also subscribe to those searches via RSS. Sometimes summize isn’t up to the task, I also use tweetscan and tweetbeep. Unfortunately one service never seems to get me 100% coverage for the keywords I’m interested in monitoring. I get some overlap using all three but right now IMHO it’s a necessary evil.If you are on twitter for any length of time there will time when you wan to send a tweet at a specific time but unfortunately you wont be in front of your computer. I use the combination of Twittermail and LetterMeLater. Twitter mail allows you to set up a “secret” email address that will post to your twitter account. LetterMeLater allows you to send an email at a specified day and time. using the two together you can send a pre-written tweet at a specific time to your Twittermail secret email address. The 140 character limit is still in place and you should always test it before using it, as twitter functionality can sometimes be less than perfect.

Give a Little to Get a Little

Deciding to participate on twitter is more than tweeting links to your latest blog post or press release it’s about engaging with your community or customers. If there are generic industry questions, these are a great way to build some good karma for your profile. You can use any of the automated search functions mentioned above to look for keywords or phrases that are related to your industry that you can answer in a non self serving way. For example a travel company could monitor for phrases and questions about passports and reply with the appropriate links to government or state websites. If the majority of your contributions aren’t self interested people will be a lot more tolerant and accepting when you do drop a link about yourself.

Damage Control and Knowing When to Respond

If you are monitoring your company name eventually you will encounter a negative tweet from someone else. In many cases this represents an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive by fixing a customers problem. However sometimes the best response is no response at all. Knowing when to say nothing is often more difficult part to learn. The US Air Force has a presence on twitter and in a recent interview they showed a blog assessment chart they used to decide when to respond and when not to respond, it’s worth taking a look at.

Be Professional

Twitter is a social medium and occasionally the people you follow will have conversations about sensitive topics such as politics, religion, relationships, or who was the best Star Trek Captain. Unless it’s part of your organizations mission statement and goal (ie someone like Cato Institute or PETA ), it’s best to remain out of the debate. Additionally, you should refrain from posting as many “cat tweets” about what you had for lunch as possible.

Have a Sense of Humor

Sometimes when you are monitoring your keywords you’ll come across the opportunity to show a little personality and have a slight sense of humor. As long as you can do it without insulting or hurting someones feelings, it’s OK to have a little fun every once in a while. Here’s an example of what one person tweeted

Scott Monty who runs the official Ford Twitter profile was monitoring the [ford explorer] keyword and responded:

Building an effective business profile on twitter isn’t hard, but you do have to take take it seriously. Here’s a quick wrap up to help keep you on track:

• Claim your company, product, and appropriate brand names.
• Keep the profile honest, and don’t resort to trickery with fake social media avatars.
• Build a synergy between your twitter profile page and website.
• Consider building a twitter landing page on your official website.
• Answer people who directly ask you questions.
• Monitor keywords related to your company and respond when appropriate.

• Try to be a helpful member of the community by answering other people’s questions.

• Keep it professional and avoid sensitive subjects and debates.
• Take the opportunity to have fun and show some personality every now and again.

Lastly twitter is a free form social media platform, and ultimately there isn’t a right or wrong way to use it. There are things that help you meet your business objectives and things that don’t, and you shouldn’t obsess about “breaking the rules” now and then. Oh and for the record without a doubt Captain Kirk was the best Star Trek Captain.

Michael Gray has been a regular speaker at many SEO conferences including PubCon, SMX and Search Engine Strategies. With over 10 years in internet marketing and website development, Michael is able to help companies with increasing their presence on the web. Michael’s blog can be viewed at www.wolf-howl.com and companies looking to begin viral marketing campaigns should visit viralconversations.com

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Building an Effective Business Profile on Twitter