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

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

Small businesses have gained online advantage with their small size flexibility giving them the confidence to stand out for their brand and engage with their audience. It’s key to online success for all business sizes that the “social” element of social media and twitter is really appreciated. Both the smaller, and large businesses which do well in social media are those who embrace with open arms the opportunities it gives.

Small businesses are doing well because:
- They are taking advantage of their size and “knowing their customer”
- They often have just one person tweeting for the firm and no chain of command to define the social media approach.
- They socialise and build real business relationships on Twitter and other social media platforms, in the way that traditionally they would offline at places like the Chamber of Commerce. And – it is much cheaper to do so!

Larger businesses shouldn’t be afraid to get involved on Twitter and other social platforms. As an organisation you can learn from listening to what is already happening in your area of expertise by using Twitter Search to check out content, tone and discussions, as well as googling to find out if competitors are using social media, and how.

Twitter and other socialmedia platforms can work well because business does work on trusted connections, and the online medium of Twitter is just the new extension of that. Businesses will do best when they work within the context of their own environments and answer the unspoken questions (Is it safe for my business, won’t it take too much time, what if it goes wrong, what if an employee talks about us or our work…) honestly and up front before taking action online.

At the same time, if you’re not involved you’re missing a great opportunity, and if you don’t test the waters, you’ll never know if it works for your business. When you do dip a toe in the water, you’ve got all those experiences built from networking offline in the “real world” in the corporate environment. Use the right people, who are interested in social media and your subject, and you’re off and running and born to tweet!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Big Business: Don’t lose out to small businesses on Twitter

Call me old fashioned, but I am one of those people that value community and relationships with people. As a child of the 90’s, I’ve learned to adapt to our technological age where we can keep up-to-date with people without ever seeing them in person. While this is not my preferred method of contact, the last couple of years I have seen myself rely more and more on online interaction than face-to-face. Recently though, I’ve been frustrated with the alienation of social networking sites to the point of taking some extreme measures, especially regarding Twitter.

I originally signed up for Twitter as a way to keep in touch with those interested in my history blog and network with those who have blogs similar to mine. As more and more of my friends on Twitter found me, I found myself following and being followed by people I knew in real life. While this wasn’t bad at first, I soon found myself “unfollowed” by those I was following. People I knew in real life wouldn’t follow me. Then, of course, people who knew nothing about me or my blog began to follow me out of the blue. This might be a provocative statement, but I believe this is due to the fact that Twitter is becoming more of a popularity contest than a real way to connect with people. No big surprise there. Anyone on Twitter can relate to the obsession of getting more followers. While this may be “cool” to have 10,000 followers and only follow about 300, it is an immediate turn off when viewing someone’s profile. Obviously, someone like that doesn’t, or even can’t, interact with over 10,000 followers.

I soon found this game of following and unfollowing pretty exhausting and disheartening. It wasn’t creating any sort of networking or connections with people I wanted. So I decided to take actions that could be called pretty extreme:

The first thing I did was block those who did not seem interested in me or my blog at all. It is pretty obvious which tweeters were just following me to see if I would follow them back. I don’t want to be reduced to a statistic on their profile.

I unfollowed those who did not follow me back. If they are not interested in following me back, then fine. I allowed a few exceptions for those I really wanted to follow, of course. Overall, though, I’ve found many bigger name organizations and tweeters are more than happy to follow me in exchange.

I’m pickier about who I allow to follow me on Twitter. If someone is genuinely interested in me or my blog, then I have no problem letting them follow me or reciprocate by following them back.
My Twitter updates consist of many different things, from my blog updates to interesting links. It’s good a variety for all types of people, but I want my connections to actually mean something.

I realize that Twitter should really be about more than who follows who but this obsession with getting followers seems to be the trend right now. I see it my social circles, both online and offline. It might be a little childish to take some of the measures I have, but I desire something more out of Twitter. Here are a few suggestions I have to make your Twitter experience better:

• Be extremely picky about who you let follow you. Don’t just let people follow you just for the sake of doing so.
• Make sure that people who follow you and who you follow seem genuinely interested in interacting with you.
• Go through your followers and following list periodically. See if there are any tweeters you want to stop following or keep from following you. Make sure that you are still interested in those you follow.
• Make a sincere effort to interact with those you follow. Getting connected with others is what Twitter is all about, right?

What about you? How have you made your Twitter experience more meaningful?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



My Extreme Makeover: Twitter Edition

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

One reason alone is why I’m on twitter. To make money. I don’t mean to give Lara the willies. But it’s true. I also post stuff about my kids. I also have made great friends from twitter. I’ve also learned a ton about the world. Still, at the end of the day, twitter is about earning customers for me. Or, should I say, helping people. It’s working. I’m doing enough business to support my family of 4, just from Twitter.

[Honesty Box: We live in the Midwest and are radically cheap.]

This is the ethos you need to have starting out:

1.) Value And Honor Every Relationship Possible. Twitter is about relationships. It’s about small communities, ideas bouncing around. You’re there to help everyone possible. You’re there to be of service. Get it? You have to help people. Let’s get specific: be of maximum service to 100 people at and around your level. Get to know them. Go out of your way to help. For free. If you need to, put a spreadsheet down to remind yourself to interact with them and encourage them.

2.) Stop Broadcasting & Automating. OK, you can repeat stuff. And you should. You can use Twuffer. And you should. But if you’re gonna roll with the “Hey, here’s a widget that gives you 9,000,000 indifferent followers in 5 minutes,” you’re not giving anything good. You’re not adding value, you’re the guy at the wedding trying to hook you into MLM. You’re also marking yourself as a newbie. Use search.twitter.com to follow keywords as I mentioned in this post.

3.) Stop begging for love from the big names. I see people trying to get attention from “name brand” blogger with 25,000 followers with nothing more to give than “Hey check out my site, what do you think.” You don’t make it big by getting a @mrskutcher to notice you. You make it big by giving value to someone with 500 followers, and having him get so happy he refers his friends to you, on and off twitter. Help people first and you’ll win.

4.) Get Local, dog gone it. Probably the biggest mistake I made was to eschew the local market to chase other business. That was dumb. It’s something I’m correcting, but I’ve lost the first mover advantage in Columbus, OH. I’ve just started reaching out. What I’ve learned? Twitter provides instant rapport when you call on them. Twitter + your local area makes it even better. Had I done this a year or more ago, I would have had results much sooner.

5.) Don’t Follow So Many People. Following is a promise. To care, to watch, even if intermittently. To link, to help. I “follow” 1800 and that’s far too many. I can only watch about 300-400. I am representing that I care about people I don’t know, and that, I find deceitful. Your mileage may vary depending on how you use twitter, but following people you don’t watch isn’t my thing. I’m in it and about relationships. True fans, true friends. Not mass numbers.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 More Things You Do To Get Business On Twitter

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

As blogging went mainstream, and more newcomers started flooding the market, the earliest bloggers were given a bit of momentum forward into the online equivalent of celebrity status – they were the trend-setters.

Not all of them took advantage of this push, though, while some of the newcomers rapidly adapted to blogging and took it by storm, getting their own place high up in the heirarchy with amazing speed.

The difference between these thought leaders and the majority of bloggers is the same difference we see affecting who gets promotions at work, makes it as a ’star’ in Hollywood, or even gets nominated to run the local Rotary Club.  It’s simply this: in order to lead others, you have to be willing to get out the front and lead others. Much easier said than done, I know.  After all, the ones that sit in front at school are picked on for questions, and it may be a movie cliché but the sketch about asking for volunteers to step forward, and one person gets picked because everyone else steps back, is more true than we’d like to think.  Leadership is something we’re not only encouraged, but trained to avoid.

If you want to go professional, though – on twitter, on your blog, or in life – you have to be willing to step out in front and take the risks and responsibilities that go with it.

Let me be clear here, though.  You don’t actually have to do this.  It’s not only possible, but fairly easy, to build up a modest following by taking the lessons of the last 3 posts on board; sharing of yourself, offering solid value and building relationships.  If you’re happy there, by all means stay there.For those willing to move on further, though, this is where you distinguish yourself from the pack.

The biggest lesson to advance yourself to this next level is: You have to be fearless – or at least appear to be (it’ll come if you fake it long enough).

You still need to edit what you say, but this is where you stop editing out those things you’re only holding back because of what others might think.  Be up front about what you believe every now and then, and if you get some controversy going, great!  People that don’t think along the same lines will either argue with you (getting you more publicity as well as giving you the chance to put your reasons forward) or if they’re really opposed to your thoughts, leave.

You may be surprised that this is where I tell you that’s a good thing.

The people who leave you because of something controversial you’ve said can actually get you more followers, believe it or not.  They talk about your stand, so they can tell people how they disagree, and some people come looking for you so they can see your side of the story (or so they can pick a fight with you too).  Some of them may stay.

To become a thought leader, you want to lead people who are happy to have you lead them.  I’ve already mentioned that most people are happier being followers than leaders (to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, most people “prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.”) but the internet is big enough that you should find plenty of people who like your point of view, or at the very least admire you for having the strength of your convictions, and decide to keep watching.  That’s the nuts and bolts of how you start to get a following.

Next issue, we’ll cover one of the biggest topics in blogging, and rapidly in twitter too – turning that following into an income.  Monetisation.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Tips for Beginners: Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging Part 4 – Thought Leadership