The absolute #1 best Twitter marketing tip I can give someone who wants to build or expand their online or offline business with Twitter is to be persistent. Persistence pays off on Twitter just as it does with blogging and other social sites. If people don’t see and hear you they will lose interest fast, just ask a movie star. Just post regularly, a few times a day. Follow as many people as you can and engage in discussions often. Respond to what other people have to say. Post about whatever interests you, because it WILL interest someone. You will attract people like yourself and those will be the people who are easiest and best to work with most times. Sometimes post what interests you even if you don’t think anyone else will find it interesting. Experiment and have fun with this.

There is no right and wrong way to use Twitter!

This isn’t sales, where we’ve had thousands of years of experience to build on. Twitter was only invented a couple years ago. Sometimes you try something on Twitter and people will react negatively, but those people are full of baloney. Don’t worry about the negative people out their, just keep following your path. Find out what works for you, and go with it. The only way to be wrong on Twitter is to be annoying and self serving.

Britney Spears has a social media director to update her social media accounts, with input from Britney herself, of course, and her assistant, her publicist, and the rest of her huge entourage. At first I thought it was crazy and wrong. The essence of Twitter is that you update it yourself, even if you’re a celebrity, and be transparent. Let people see exactly who you are. Hiring someone to use Twitter for you seemed wrong, kind of like hiring someone to go play poker for you. But, her approach seems to work for her and her fans on Twitter love it. Now other stars are jumping on the band wagon with Twitter. They realize what a great marketing medium it is. It lets your personality shine through and builds relationships/fans.

If you just keep Twittering, and participating in the conversation, you’ll find a voice that works for you. Remember, there are people out there who will bond with you. You just have to help them find you. You have to keep yourself in the Twitter arena as much as possible so they see you.

I invest time every day on Twitter. I try to talk to people one-on-one, not just broadcast. The one-on-one conversations are the ones people will remember and they’ll want to know more about you if they resonate with you and your personality. And I always try to be either entertaining or informative, or both, even when I’m just Twittering about what I had for lunch. They have to have a reason to want to come back and read more of your Tweets.

The #2 Twitter marketing tip I have is to not worry about who you follow or who is following you. The good ones who are interested in you and what you have to say will stick. The others will fade away and drop off to find what works for them, and that’s a good thing. Only certain people will be the ones you want to work and play with anyhow. It’s a natural law. Accumulating big numbers of followers is a worthwhile pursuit in that large numbers impress people. Up front this is good, because more people will stop to take a look at what you’re all about. People follow leaders. This just adds up to expose you to more people. It puts you out in a viral way. Don’t forget the important things though, in your passion to get 100,000 followers. The real value that you get from Twitter, or any social media site, comes from the personal and professional connections you make. And you make those connections one at a time!

It’s kind of like face-to-face networking. The best connections I’ve ever made at conferences and seminars aren’t at the big networking events with hundreds of people in attendance. My best friends and business deals were made by going out to a bar for a drink or having lunch with a few people I met in a hallway or even in the bathroom. But, the huge gathering of people is what exposed me to them. Think of Twitter as your way to find lots of people to sort through, to find the good ones that will enrich your life.

One thing I try not to do is ask my followers to RT (retweet) my personal Tweets. It just seems a bit needy and desperate. Same thing for starting a contest to encourage people to follow you. I want people to follow me for the right reasons. Those are the ones who will stick around for the long term and build good rapport with you.

I take a bit of a different approach to building traffic on Twitter. I look for ways to help other people. I rarely ask people to retweet my posts, but I often retweet other people’s posts or a product review when I find them useful or entertaining. That’s sharing something that has value and showing followers what your interests are. It also helps the person you retweet get some traffic and they will notice and maybe even reciprocate. And, while I often post links on Twitter, it’s the same thing, I usually post links to other people’s works, when I find them interesting or helpful. If I give people good and entertaining info, they will find me and check out what I’m doing online. There’s no need to beat my own drum.

I’ve taken to using this philosophy in almost all my efforts at promotion, marketing and life now. Just look for ways to help other people, and you’ll succeed yourself.

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I recently found this article and it made a lot of sense to me. So I thought I’d share it on my blog…

Network Marketing is being taught at more than 200 colleges including Harvard Business School. After extensive research into the network marketing industry, Harvard Business School developed three criteria that a network marketing company must have in order to make it a most desirable opportunity. And what are they???

1. The company must be at least 18 months old, as 90% of all network marketing companies that fail, do so in the first 18 months.

2. The company must have a product which is both unique and highly consumable. Being unique in this case means that you have an exclusive product that can only be purchased from your company?s distributors. Having a product that is highly consumable means repeated sales, thereby guaranteeing customer loyalty versus a one time sale and having to locate new customers.

3. It needs to be a “ground floor” opportunity. Harvard Business School suggests that in order for the opportunity to qualify as a ground floor type, the number of existing distributorships should be less than of 1% in the country where this network company exists. In the United States, this figure is equal to 1.5 million people. Harvard Business School also stated that if there were less than 500,000 people involved, you would be on the cutting edge of a great opportunity. If the company has less than 100,000 distributors, Harvard Business School considers it to be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Harvard Business School states that there are four distinct stages of growth in a network marketing company. They are:

1. Foundation – This usually lasts approximately six months. This is when a company develops its products and marketing plan.

2. Concentration – This period lasts approximately 2 to 4 years from when the distributor network is started.

3. Momentum – This period lasts from 2 to 4 years also. This is when the company experiences phenomenal growth. Both retail and distributorships explode in terms of expanding growth. It is during this period that the company virtually sweeps the nation. When a company’s sales reach 50 million, they reach what is called “critical mass” (sales go vertical right off the graph). Also, approximately 2/3 of the company’s growth of the new distributorships occur during this period of time.

For example: Let us assume you have an organization which is producing an override bonus check to you of $1000 per month. When the company reaches critical mass, distributors automatically experience a ten-fold increase in their earnings. In other words, $1000 per month becomes $10,000 per month. This is the reason for getting involved on the ground floor, so you will experience the benefits of explosive growth.

4. Stability – This period lasts for the life of the company. A network marketing company that is dedicated to the success of its distributors will experience longevity, thereby insuring that an active distributorship will realize continued earnings and growth.

Who out there doesn’t understand this and agree? I’d really like to get your comments and see what others are looking for in a home based business opportunity.

Blessings …From My Kitchen Table