Don’t sign up for any autofollow at first. Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t want to follow everyone.

Finally start slow, build a good foundation. There’s a lot more to twitter than meets the eye, and most folks never know or master the true power of twitter.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

First Steps For New Twitter Users

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, twitter autofollow, twitter secret

So what is the significance of this? That of course is still up to debate. Some people think that Twitter is on the heels of Google already and others say that Twitter is no search engine at all.

Both sides of the argument have good points. Still, there’s no denying that Twitter is a race horse with a great future, especially with this new function. Twitter is getting huge and recently turned down an offer from Facebook for $500 million. And with its business model of Q & A features and search ads, you can see why. Not to mention the fact that Facebook is trying to keep pace by adding various Twitter like functions…

Some people can’t see much value in Twitter calling it just another social media site for friends to chat with each other. What people don’t recognize is the fact that Twitter is an extremely large pool of information based on our personal lives- which is invaluable to the marketer.

Despite the increasing value that Twitter leverages, it is still a new born compared to Google and may require a decade before being able to develop the technology and accuracy of Google’s search results. Still it has all the right stuff to get there eventually. Google’s market share is safe…at least for now anyhow.

Consider that Twitter communications are a true representation of the masses’ opinions. People can log on and get answers they can trust because they have their own network of people who they’ve already established relationships with. Google gives great results, but they are impersonal and often inaccurate. With people’s online lives enveloping more and more of their time, the personal touch works wonders. Corporate media and celebrity spokespeople only go so far.

In addition to that, information gathered on Twitter is more relevant to one’s location. With the personal profiles, and the ability to send messages from mobile devices, (enter GPS technology) Twitter can leverage this value and exploit what it can do and Google can’t.

Twitter is quickly proving it is the future of search. Its power lies in the fact that it enables people to get the opinions of others in regards to relevant current information. When searching, people want real opinions as well as the facts.

For example imagine typing something into Google and seeing all of the results pop up…They are put there from the businesses and individuals who want you to believe certain things about their product or service. Well, what if in addition to that, it had thousands of third party opinions that have no vested interest in those products or services? And imagine if all those opinions are from people you know? This is the dynamic that Twitter leverages, and if it plays it’s cards right, it will be siphoning off Google clicks in a few short years.

About The Author

Maverick Money Makers is a private society that will teach you how to build a six-figure a month business on the internet. If you want to make money online, join the society before it’s too late. http://StartMaverickMoneyMakers.com

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Knocking on Google’s Door? Twitter Incorporates Search by Jeffrey J Smith

Technorati Tags: twitter search

• Be Real (don’t hide) -

It is important that you completely fill in the registration and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like “PatrickAtDell”). In the profile section, post your website. I wouldn’t recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.

With the profile bio limited to 160 characters, you want to get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don’t have much space to talk about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content located in the background image. That’s why the keywords have to be in your description.

Finally and possibly most important is that you need to upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if you are representing a company. If Twitters don’t think you are real, they are less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the worst and they won’t follow you.

• Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond) -

For a business or business person to be relevant in the Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and elicit responses. Respond to other user’s questions. Tweet not only your own relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable. Promote and/or attribute others where there’s a reason to do so. You can build a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don’t look like you are just out the get them to buy something.

The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as well as your activity. There’s a number of search tools that will help you here to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.

The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There’s a big difference between using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to “elite” status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.

• Automate (where possible) -

Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed automatically, and build ranking faster and easier. There are several automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business presence without having to hire a back room full of people:

–TweetBeep -Set up alerts for various keywords, people, different attitudes, and links.

–Summize (Twitter Search) – Search for your keywords, click a button and you have a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on what’s happening.

–Tweetlater – one of the more versatile tools related to Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct messages to people that follow you, and managing multiple Twitter Ids at the same time.

–Twitscoop – extends what Twitter Search can do with both real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in the cloud.

–Twellow – This is another research tool that extends Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people’s profiles or what they are Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search. Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the US and Canada.

–Remember the Milk (RTM) – A real unique and cutting edge use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks, things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.

• Re-purpose existing content-

With taking care of customers, blogging, keeping up profiles on numerous social media sites, all while running a business, maintaining your online presence can quickly become overwhelming. Use tools like Twitterfeed to automatically Tweet content from an RSS feeds of your other blogs or sites, and Alterthingy, another tool that helps you aggregate and repost your content across the multiple sites, and profiles you need to maintain.

In addition, several blogs (Wordpress for example) are building Twitter widgets to be able to display your tweets (and others) on your blog, thus keeping the blog actively changing and a target for better search engine ranking and more active visits.

There are any number of other ways you can use Twitter for Business and this note really only scratches the surface of what is possible. As the popularity of Twitter grows so will the unique and inventive ways of using this innovative tool.

About The Author

Urvi Mehta is a passionate Social Media Evangelist who thrives on teaching and consulting business owners and organizations on how to use Web 2.0 and social media tools and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help create buzz and influence their branding online.

She is the co-founder of PR Easy (http://www.PREasy.com), a full service online marketing company which serves clients around the world. Urvi teaches her clients how to utilize social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to establish themselves as authorities in their industry, acquire more clients and ultimately increase profit.

Urvi holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois in Chicago and is considered by her peers as someone who “holds nothing back and gives real meat.” She has recently started a blog, http://www.UrviMehta.com where she discusses Social Media Strategies.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Social Media For Small Business – How to Use Twitter For Your Business by Urvi Mehta

Technorati Tags: twitter search

It’s so easy. Anyone can register an account. You can then click to “follow” other Tweeters and, hopefully, gain a large following, too. You can read the messages sent out, called “tweets”, by anyone you choose to follow but you can only send messages to those who follow you.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters. Go over and your message will be cut. This includes prefixes. Among the prefixes used are “@” followed by the the person’s Tweeter username when replying to someone, or “RT@” followed by the source’s username when reposting a tweet, much like reposting a blog entry with a link back to the source. You can use the services of URL shorteners such as tinyurl.com or bit.ly to transform long addresses you can then use in your tweets.

This is where you have to be very careful. The new NY Times social media editor, Jennifer Preston, sent out an RT on May 26 but she forgot to count her tweet characters carefully. As a result, her tweet was cut and the resulting address she sent out led to Ebay instead to her intended article, “10 Golden Rules on Social Media.” So count your characters before you send out your tweet.

There are so many ways you can use Twitter to market your site. You can tweet links to your articles, making sure, of course, that your readers will find them useful. Really good articles will most probably earn RTs, spreading the word further and resulting in more visitors landing on your pages. If you have a good web site with rich content, it will deserve many return visits.

You can also use Twitter to request and gather feedback about your site. If you have developed a good relationship with others in the Twitter community, you will surely get a lot of helpful inputs.

Twitter can also serve as a bulletin board of sorts where you can make announcements about upates in your site or your products and services. Since your tweets are only sent out to your followers, it is not considered spam.

One of the believers in the power of Twitter as a social media marketing tool is Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. Social media marketing is part of the internet marketing services offered by Web Dot Com along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing.

From its base in Manila, Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. serves international clients from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, and the British Virgin Islands, providing various business process outsourcing (BPO) services, including low cost advanced web site development packages. Its highly skilled programmers are experts in php, mysql, Java Script, Adobe Flash and other programming tools and languages, taking on advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, and internet marketing. Not only is it a web site developer, but Web Dot Com is also a web hosting provider with domain name registration services.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc.

Address:

2nd Floor, BT&T Center

#20 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis (C-5),

Quezon City, 1110 Philippines

E-mail: info@webdc.com.ph

Telephone numbers: (632) 634-4625; (632) 635-6104

About The Author

Web Dot Com Website Development Phils., Inc.

Address: 2nd Floor, BT&T Center

#20 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis (C-5),

Quezon City, 1110 Philippines

Phone: (632) 634-4625

Telefax No.: (632) 635-6104

In Australia (612) 800-61238

Email: info@webdc.com.ph

Website: http://www.webdc.com.ph

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Twitter is a Social Media Marketing Success but Avoid Committing the Same Error that the NY Times Did by Michelle Fernandez

Technorati Tags: twitter search

Again the question, “Why do you Twitter?”  Twitter can be very addictive.  If you aren’t careful you can end up spending hours and hours on it and wonder where the time went.  If you were just doing it for entertainment, and you had the time to spare, fine.  Twitter away.

But if you Twitter to promote you business, then beware.  You could be squandering precious time on Twitter that could better be spent working  on your business.  You need to carefully manage your “Twitter” time.

Set aside several 15 – 30 minutes each day to Twitter.  Then at the end of each period, shut the computer down or at least log out of Twitter.  Don’t leave a computer on with the monitor  displaying Twitter so you keep glancing at it periodically during the day.  If you do, guaranteed that you will be spending 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there throughout the day responding to Tweets and sending Tweets.  In the end you will have consumed a couple of hours of your day and end up wondering where the time went.  Make Twitter management a priority, for if you don’t, your business may suffer.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Twitter Is A Time Waster… Unless You Know What You Are Doing

Technorati Tags: twitter, twitter business, twitter management, twitter time

A year ago, my whole business was built around Google Adwords. I violated one of Google’s policies (still don’t know which one as they don’t communicate with you) and my account got cancelled. I vowed then that I would never become dependent on a single source of income from my Internet business.

But alas, I made the mistake again. Different area though. Took my eye off the ball. I had 27 blog sites that I built with a blogging software that manages all the accounts. I felt safe because I had used this software for over 2 years. Do you see the problem here?

Well the owner of the software took a vacation and evidently didn’t leave anyone to man the help desk. I had an access problem on Tuesday. It’s now Sunday and still no resolution. Can’t access the software, getting a re-direct error, my suspicion is a website problem.

So even though I can manage the blogs via WP-Admin, my activities have been severely curtailed.

Conclusion, here’s my Super Tip that I need to learn. I will go back and re-work my business plan. I will look at all areas of my business to find areas where my business might be vulernable to any interuption. I know this is probably dry stuff, but you need to pay attention.
It will happen to you, guaranteed.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Don’t Make This Mistake, A Super Tip I Need To Learn

As you start following everyone and their dog, you’ll soon find that about every other tweet is someone peddling something. And, oh yes, every third offer will be the latest, greatest system to quickly build your list into the thousands quickly.

Here’s the Twitter Secret no one is talking about. Don’t use any automatic following software, that’s software that when someone follows you, it automatically follows them back and shoots them a tweet thanking them for following you and probably some offer to buy something.

What am I trying to say? You need to carefully build a list of followers that are worth following and have an interest in you and your ideas, and your niche if you are building a business around a niche.

If you been Twittering for a while, you may want to set up another Twitter account and start over. Then, and I repeat, don’t use any automatic following software. Next make an interesting BIO. Include in your bio your interests and some keywords about your niche.

Then sit back and watch for a few hours. Sure enough people will start following you. See, they are searching for words that are contained in your bio. They may also be sending spam to all users. Now take the time to screen (politicians call it vetting) each follower. Look at their BIO. Do they have similar interests to you? Look at 50 of their tweets. Do you really want them following you? Remember, if you follow them back their tweets are going to start appearing in you Twitter time-line.

To conclude, take your time. Be selective on who you follow. Develop a Twitter follower list that contains people you have a rapport with. This Twitter Secret will pay dividends if you follow it.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Best Kept Twitter Secret, Learn From My biggest Twitter Mistake.

Technorati Tags: twitter autofollow, twitter automation, twitter secret

Stay tuned  to this Twitter Blueprint to keep abreast of the latest Twitter innovations.  Twitter is a rapidly changing social media platform.

If you are familiar with Twitter, you probably realize that what seems simple at first blush, has a lot more to it than answering the “what are you doing?” question.

Believe it or not, there are right ways and wrong ways to use Twitter. I’ve made most of the mistakes in my beginning usage of Twitter, the most flagrant being believing that the goal was to get tons of followers.

Come back soon to Twitter Blueprint and you will get some great suggestions on how to use Twitter.

This post via theTwitter Blueprintblog where you can stay up-to-date with the latest Twitter Blueprint innovations.

Welcome to Twitter Blueprint

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, Twitter Blueprint