Twitip

If you’ve always dreamed of being published, but just didn’t have the time to finish a novel/novella/short story, Twitter may be your big chance at fame, fortune, and a spot on Oprah. Okay, okay, only fame. And only a little.

For writers who like a challenge, there are a number of Twitter-based ezines that publish short (and I do mean short) stories. Some call them “Twisters,” others micro- or nano-fiction, and others simply “one heck of a challenge.” You’ve only got 140 characters to tell a complete story that leaves your readers nodding their heads with a sense of fulfillment.

If this sounds like your cup of java, there are several venues where you can submit your tales for consideration. Some even pay big bucks (up to $1.50), so what are you waiting for? (more…)

by Corbett Barr of Free Pursuits – Follow him @freepursuits

Many people use brute force techniques to grow their twitter followers only to be disappointed by the quality of relationships they form. I’ll show you how to grow a community of followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer using simple tools and techniques.

If your goal for using Twitter is simply to acquire as many followers as possible, there are plenty of common techniques you can use to accomplish your goal. For most people though, the quality of relationships made on Twitter is much more important than the quantity.

Maybe you’re trying to attract people to your blog, or sell a product, or find some freelancing work or just meet some new like-minded friends. Whatever the case, you can use the techniques here to build a high-quality Twitter following.
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Isn’t branding for companies or products? Why would anyone want a personal brand anyway?

Nowadays people prefer to connect with other people rather than with a corporate brand. Whether you are a company or individual, branding is a way to make yourself memorable.

Yes, personal branding is about making yourself memorable.

Examples of Personal Brand

Donald Trump is known as a dealmaker. That is his brand. As someone who knows Mr. Trump only from television — in The Apprentice TV series — I also tend to think of “Trump” as quality and luxury.

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If you find Alisa endearing, follow her on @alisabow. If you find her incredibly endearing, read her blog Project Happily Ever After, which takes an honest look at the ups and downs of marriage, told through the eyes of a recovering divorce daydreamer.

If you’ve ever raised the hackles of the Internet trolls before, then you’ve had the “Narcissist” word hatefully tossed your way. According to the trolls, the infraction of talking about yourself too much is worse than any other.

So you must understand just how courageous this is of me to admit this deep dark narcissistic secret. It’s this: I like narcissists, especially the ones I follow on Twitter.

Not all of them mind you. I, of course, could do without the folks who feed me those boring facts of their lives – going to the bathroom, drinking a cup of coffee, eating toast, writing my blog, posting my blog, thinking about my blog, wishing other people knew about my blog …

Come to think of it, that last tweet would make me laugh, and I like to laugh. So let’s put that in the “narcissistic tweets I like to read” category.

The point is that you don’t have to be helpful every single time you tweet. You don’t have to constantly tweet tips, a cool quotes, or links to cool sites that are not your own. You really can and should talk about yourself. There is room on Twitter for self-reflection, and there are people, like me, who will embrace you for it.

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by Maddie Grant of SocialFishing… and Diary Of A Reluctant Blogger. Follow her @maddiegrant.

Twitter can be a great space for building community around your membership-based organization, whether you work for a professional society, trade association or a cause-related nonprofit.

Here’s a quick eight-step rundown of how to set up a Twitter account for your “.org”. This isn’t the only way, of course. But if you are starting from scratch, this is what we’re finding works the best.

1. Set up a main “umbrella” account for the organization – e.g. @ORGtweets or just @ORG (”ORG” being whatever your acronym is).

Why? So people can find you easily. In the description, put in a nutshell what the organization does. A mission statement in under 140 characters, for example. (Be pithy – people like that. There are lots of other places you can be boring). For the website link field of the profile, create a Twitter landing page on your website which says, “Welcome to the Twitter page for [ORG]! We’re glad you’re here. Here’s what we’re all about. Here are some of the things we tweet about. And here are our team members, should you be interested in following them too.” Then list your staff on Twitter as per #2.

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Leo Dirr is a freelance writer. Follow him @UtahNewsGuy.

When I began using Twitter a short time ago, I had no idea how much strategy could be involved in a simple tweet. You only get 140 characters, for crying out loud. How much thought could go into that, honestly?

A lot. And once I started to figure that out, my tweets got a lot more traction. I’d like to tell you about my most successful tweet to date and the strategy behind it.

Let’s begin with the tweet itself:

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by Sean Platt – a freelance writer who blogs about creativity and passion at Collective Inkwell. Follow him @writerdad.

Twitter has no doubt altered the entire landscape of blogging. It’s accessibility, immediacy, and wide availability to anyone with a working Internet connection have made it the fastest thriving online application ever, currently growing at twice the speed of Facebook.

I myself was late to the Twitter party. Though I did have an account, I rarely used it until recently, vastly preferring the broader canvas my own blog provided. It wasn’t until I finally realized the true benefit of what Twitter offered that I fully embraced its almost limitless possibility.

What does Twitter offer above all else? Twitter allows you to show a more immediate version of yourself.

When I am drafting a post to be later published on my own site, I can take all the time I need to sand the rough edges and make my prose and personality glow. This is not true with Twitter. Whenever I am truly engaged in Twitter, I am responding to information at the speed in which it appears. I have 140 characters to make my thoughts count, and a never ending stream of information to first access and then act upon.

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This post follows up a post yesterday that explored Why Asking Questions on Twitter is a Powerful Technique.

OK – so asking questions is important – but are any questions OK on Twitter? What kind of questions work best?

Photo by Macarena C.

Here are a few tips for asking questions effectively on Twitter.

Keep Questions Relevant

The types of questions you should ask will depend upon the way you normally use Twitter. If you use it in a personal way then almost any question will work but if your use of Twitter is more focused upon exploring a topic or niche, or if you’re using it for business – you’ll want to keep your questions at least somewhat on topic.

Acknowledge Answers

Simply asking questions and ignoring the answers is something I’ve seen a number of Twitter users do as a strategy for building up follower numbers. The problem with this is that it can leave those who answer feeling a little ignored. Of course it is difficult to respond to every person who answers (last time I asked a question on Twitter I had 100 responses – it would have taken over my day to personally respond to each). A few ways of acknowledging answers that go beyond replying individually include:

• a general ‘thanks for your answers’ type tweet
• picking a few responses to retweet and highlight as key answers
• use answers publicly – for example you could pull the answers together and use them (or at least some of them) in a blog post (see below for an example of this)
• summarize findings – for example if you ask people a ‘yes or not’ question tweet the results – eg: ‘13 people said yes they’ve tweeted from the toilet and 16 said that they hadn’t’

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Photo by Macarena C.

If I had to list my top 10 ways that I’ve grown my own Twitter network – somewhere towards the top of that list I would share this simple – yet powerful tip.

Ask Questions

The act of consistently asking quality questions on Twitter can have a massive impact upon your network. Here’s 6 reasons why questions are so powerful:

1. Questions Signal to Followers that you are Interested

So many people use Twitter purely to ’shout’ at their followers. They rarely make space for people to interact. Questions send a signal to your followers (and potential followers) that you’re not just on Twitter to have a monologue – but that you’re interested in dialogue and conversation.

2. Questions Prompt Conversation

I find Twitter to be most effective when conversations evolve on it. One of the best ways to ‘get people talking’ is to ask them a question – particularly if it’s about themselves and their experience.

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Do you have a Twitter Plan? I don’t – but when Nicole Nicolay (@nik_nik) from My Tech Opinion told me about hers I asked her to write it up as a post. It won’t be for everyone but for those who like a little structure – a Twitter Plan might help. Here’s Nicole’s tutorial.

Is there rhyme to your twitter reason? Do you have a plan when it comes to your tweets, or are you a spontaneous tweeter? Believe it or not, there can be a happy medium.

If you let it, Twitter can easily steal your time and work efficiency. And as much I enjoy conversing with others in the comforts of my home office, it can be extremely distracting if you are tuned into Twitter all day long. So how do you stop diluting your work day but also take advantage of this rockin’ social media channel… especially, if it’s not in your regular job description (if it is, lucky you)? Simply put, you need a Tweet Plan. With a Tweet Plan you can pre-organize and categorize your tweets for future use… keeping you more on track during your work day. Hey, you plan your blog posts, why not your tweets?!

FOLLOWING YOUR OWN TWEET PLAN

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