So many people are using Twitter now and many of their Tweets are just basically spam posts pushing their website or blog. This is not going to get them anywhere but unfollowed. The rules of Web 2.0/3.0 and social networking won’t work like that.

Spammers follow thousands of people every day, multiple times a day, they send out Tweets saying “Make $10,000 a week, go here to find out how. blah,blah, blah, my website”. So many people are doing this, and I’m guessing they are not seeing very good results. The word spamming means more than just sending unsolicited emails. Now days, spamming is classed as sending messages that have no value. Advertising your website with nothing for the person to gain definitely falls in this field.

So how do you get respect from your followers, and have them see you as an authority and an expert and not a spammer? How can you get them to start seeing you as an expert and an authority, because this is when they will more likely want to go to your website and buy whatever you are selling! This is when you will be able to control your niche market and dominate.

Here are some simple steps to follow to gain the respect and interest of your followers.

5 or more times a day, send out Tweets which come under the following categories:
a.) What you are doing?
b.) Links to interesting articles.
c.) Links to interesting or funny photos or videos.
d.) Your thoughts on a particular subject that’s in your niche.
e.) Reply to other peoples tweets and get interactive with them.
d.) RT (or re-tweet) other people’s interesting Tweets.

When you start Tweeting, forget about driving traffic to your website, that will come later. Twitter can become one of your main sources of FREE Traffic.

People don’t like to be direct marketed to in this day and age. I for one, really hate it when someone tells me to click on a link. Why should I? I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if thousands of people daily, sent you a message telling you to go to their website either. Many people in the MLM and Home business programs do this. You do NOT want to do this.

The only thing a person thinks about when you tell them to go to a link is “what’s in it for me?” But, if you’ve posted about something that makes them laugh, if you posted a link to an interesting article, if you’ve given them something for FREE that could benefit them and help them in their business, then they will be more likely to click on it.

But, I bet you are wondering… “so by posting a link to an article, photo,etc., how can this help me get traffic or monetize my site? Well, this could be a link to an article that you wrote yourself, and at the bottom of the article you could have a link to your actual website. Then when the person reads your interesting and value packed article, they will click the link at the bottom of your article and go to your site . Or, it could be someone else’s article that you saw and thought was loaded with valuable content. Now this won’t bring instant traffic to your website. But, it will help the person who clicks the link and reads start to gain more trust in you and you will gain more credibility as a professional marketer.

If you think that this may be too much work to implement, then I really think Internet marketing is NOT for you. I just say that because I know some people are looking for the magic button and are not willing to put in any work.

These Twitter marketing tips will work to build you a large and devoted list of followers. Just put in a little work and make a lot of friends and the money will follow.

Social sites like Twitter and Facebook are great free tools that you can use to drive traffic to your website or blog. You can meet and interact with all kinds of people and build good relationships with them. Then, after showing your new friends respect and building their trust, you can show them what it is you do. Maybe they’ll be interested in learning or buying from you or maybe not. It may take some time to gain their rapt and devoted attention and get them to follow all your suggestions.

Marketing tips to use when building your lists on these social sites…

1. You can go for large numbers of followers and just let the ones who aren’t interested fall off. The benefit to this is that you will be seen as more of an expert if you have a large list of friends and followers. You can also market and reach a lot more people. Just because someone rides broncs in a rodeo doesn’t mean he might not be the right person for my coaching site. He may be tired of breaking bones for a living and want to just stay home and teach others how to ride ‘em cowboy on a blog. You can never judge someone by what they are doing now. You can also be accused of being a spammer if you follow tons of people. Use good judgment on this one.

2. You also can be very picky and only follow and be followed by those who are in the same arena you are in. You will definitely have a very targeted list, but you may also have a very competitive list. You may very well be teaching your competition your closely guarded secrets. Your list will be small, but it may be much more receptive to you. Small lists can do very well if you train the people on those lists with great valuable information that they can use and succeed with. As you can see, both methods can be good and bad, your choice.

Using either method can work, but the trick is to be personal and transparent. Let your audience get to know you well. Respond to all those who Tweet or post on your Wall if they have something important to say or ask. Get to know those who are your friends or who are following you, be interested in them. Everyone is watching and if they see you as being friendly and helpful, they may refer you to their list.

Your informative content is the next most important thing. You have to be giving these people something they can use, something that will help them get where they want to go. Don’t post junk. Talk about what has helped you to succeed in your online marketing business. Give them tips that work. Send them to other good content by RTing or giving them links. Just show your list that your heart is in the right place and that you are there to help. They will listen.

When using these marketing tips, just remember that both ways work. Just be there for your list. Answer them, talk to them, and show them that you care.

Here is the way I used to grow my Twitter list to 2,000 followers in just a few months. With what I know now, I know I could do it in weeks, and without all the new bells and whistles out there. Nothing against new technology, but face it, some people have an easier time doing stuff the old fashioned way. This Twitter marketing tip is to give those people an option.

Here is what I did in 5 easy steps:

(This is assuming you have your Twitter site up and running. If not, go see my earlier Twitter Marketing Tips.)

1. 1. The first thing I did was find a few marketing “gurus” that I wanted to get Tweets from. I picked several like Frank Kern and Mike Dillard , for example. I was learning from them anyway, and wanted to see how they use Twitter . I then started following their followers, about 25 at a time from each guru . These are people who have proven that they will follow and they’re interested in the same information I was, so it makes it more likely that they will follow you back. I just went down the list and started following them. About 25% of these people will follow you back, especially if you are Tweeting several times a day about interesting and valuable information. So, if you follow 100, you can expect to get about 25 to follow you back. I set a schedule to follow 250 people every day, about 25 from each guru I was following. Believe me, they will add up fast.
2. The next thing I did was make sure I was Tweeting and doing about 25 @replies and direct replies every day. Make sure that those replies are positive, sociable, and friendly. They should also contain good valuable information that Tweets can use. If you don’t know what to Tweet , just RT or re-Tweet something that you found useful. Twitter likes to see you communicating and being social. This keeps you from being mistaken for a spammer and getting kicked out of Twitter .
3. Every day, repeat this process. Follow about 20 people from each of your “gurus” list till you have followed 250. Then go do @replies to 25 Tweets or reply to direct messages you have received. Just make sure you follow 250 and reply to 25 every day. After just 4-5 days you should be following about 1,000 and have 250-350 following you. You should also have made about 100-125 Tweets , @replies or RTs .
4. At this point, you should go to your Following list and delete anyone who is not following you back. The way to tell if they are following you is by checking if the words “Direct Message” is underneath their name. If you don’t see it, they aren’t following and you need to remove them. Just scroll down the page, deleting or removing as you go and at the bottom click on next. Repeat this till you have checked every page. From now on, just do this step every 4-5 days to keep non-followers off your following list. This will even up your following and followers list and make you look like more of an authority figure on Twitter . You can also start following more people a day now that you have built up your followers list. This is a good time to up your following to about 500-700 people a day. That will give you about 150 new followers every day. Then delete non-followers every 4-5 days. This will get you thru the 2,ooo follower Twitter obstacle.
5. Twitter has a rule that limits you to following only 2,ooo people. When you get 2,000 followers, that limit is lifted. That is why it’s so important to make sure you are sticking to the code that says, “If ya don’t follow me back, you’re out’a here.” Of course, if someone has really good Tweets , I make an exception. His followers are probably good ones to follow as well, as they are following him for his value and will be looking for others who Tweet valuable info.

As soon as you get 2,000 followers, you are able to follow at will. I would still keep the practice of following and deleting non-followers and Tweeting and sending @replies at least 25 times a day. It’s also a common courtesy to follow everyone back. Always respect the Twitter community and follow these rules. You’ll be amazed at how fast your list grows when your Twitter goes viral. Hope this Twitter marketing tip helps. Happy Tweeting .

How would you like to have all your Tweets show up on your other websites, like Facebook or your blog? It easy to do with the Twitter Badge.

The Twitter Badge is actually one of Twitter’s ways to try to get you to promote your Twitter site. Here is a Twitter Marketing Tip that explains the 7 easy steps to putting a Twitter Badge on your sites.

• 1. You can find the Twitter Badge on your Twitter site. Just go to settings, (in the top right corner). Then scroll down, (and it’s kind of hard to find,) to More Info URL. It says “Have a homepage or blog? Put the address here (You can also add Twitter to your site here.)

• 2. Click on the blue link and you are invited to put the Twitter Badge on various social networks. Just click on the one you want to have a Twitter Badge on and it will guide you thru the steps.

• 3. To put a Twitter Badge on your blog, click on Other and then click on Continue (bottom right corner). This will bring you to a page where you have 2 options. You will have a flash widget and an html widget. The html widget is good because it will just mix in with the rest of your blog text. The flash widget has a more professional look contained inside a box with a login and follow button. It also has the scroll feature, so you can scroll down and see several Tweets.

• 4. After deciding which Twitter badge you want on your blog, click Continue again. This takes you to another page where you can choose yet another older Twitter widget that just shows your latest Tweet. Decide which one you want and click Continue again.

• 5. This is the page where you can select the style and size you’d like to display on your blog. Just click on the styles and it will show examples of how they look, colors, etc. The narrow size works great on a blog. If you know some html, here is where you can go in and modify the Twitter widget to exactly the look and size you want. If you don’t know html, then leave it alone. It looks really good just as it is for most blogs. If you choose to click on the html option. You have a couple more options. You can choose Number of updates shown and create your own Title. It will show on the right exactly what it will look like. You can also put other people’s Twitter on your page by going into the html and changing the Twitter link to their Twitter user name instead of yours. Once again, just copy and paste it into your site, right where you want it.

• 6. OK, now you’re going to put it on your blog. Right click on the box of html code and click select all in the pop up box. Then click on copy.

• 7. Login to your blog admin site and under Appearance, select Widgets.Look for Text and click on the blue Add link. This opens a Text Widget at the bottom of your Current Widgets. Click Edit link and when it opens, you can click and paste the html code you copied. Click Done and Save Changes and go view your blog site. You can then go back and drag the text box up to the location in your sidebar where you want it to appear. Easy as cake, huh?

This is a great way to put additional new content on your site pages constantly with no extra work. Hope you enjoyed this Twitter Marketing Tip.

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I was looking for a way to send out a Tweet with a file attached on Twitter the other day and found this great tool. It’s FREE, Whoo Hoo! This Twitter Marketing Tip will show you just how simple it is.

FileSocial is about the easiest way to share files on Twitter. You can upload any kind of files, from pictures to videos, PDFs or Power point… Whatever you want! Then just Tweet and add the url they supply. Done! So Easy!

You can use any file type, images, songs, videos, compressed files… Just sign in with your Twitter user name and password and then upload and share whatever you like! mp3, jpg, avi, doc, ppt, zip, bin…

Share your files on Twitter easily, securely and completely free. Try it right away! Hope this Twitter Marketing Tip helped.

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This Twitter Marketing Tip will tell you 10 things you do and don’t need to do on Twitter. It’s very important that you learn and follow these rules, or you may get the Twitter slap!

1. Make sure you Tweet everyday.
2. Make sure that you mix good content in with your Twitter sales links, if you use them. Quotes, jokes, etc. are good.
3. Make sure not to repeat the same exact Tweet over and over. It’s being viewed as duplicate content now.
4. Do not follow too many people at one time. 100 an hour seems fairly safe, with no more than 500 a day.
5. Do not unfollow too many people at one time, keep it to less than 100 a day.
6. Do not follow and then unfollow people in succession right away, leave a few days in between.
7. Don’t automate in any way the sending of direct messages to your followers. The welcome message seems safe as long as it’s not spam.
8. Do not spam your followers with so much junk that they block you.
9. You can use automation to help keep up with some of your tasks on Twitter, but don’t abuse it. Stick to the guidelines above.
10. You can send links to mini-sites such as a sales page or squeeze page or to your blog. It’s best to give them a valuable treat for their email address.

These Twitter Tips should help keep you out of trouble. Just keep it simple and fun. Don’t do anything you don’t want done to you. Value your followers as much or more as you value your own Twitter account. Give them valuable info and lead them off Twitter to your real stash of goodies and you’ll see your online marketing business explode.

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Twitter is a social networking tool that lets you build a list of contacts that you can interact
with in real time, but it isn’t meant to be used like an instant messenger tool. This Twitter Marketing Tip will explain some of Twitter’s SEO benefits to you.

There are several features of Twitter that a smart person will use to their advantage for
marketing on Twitter and a few of these are:

1. Your tweets are added to your main Twitter profile page for visitors to see.
2. Your tweets are indexed individually according to the content in each tweet.
3. Your Twitter page has an RSS Feed that can be added to feed readers and RSS Aggregators.
4. Your Twitter page has an RSS Feed that can be promoted like any other Web 2.0 property.
5. Your tweets are often indexed by Google in a matter of minutes.
6. Your indexed tweets and followers help build the Page Rank of your Twitter page with their inbound links.
7. The keyword phrases used in each tweet MAY lead people back to your Twitter profile which has a link to your website.
8. If you use the keywords you are targeting with that Twitter account in your bio, you are making it easier to be found by anyone using the Twitter search engine to find new contacts associated with a specific word or phrase.
9. You can import your Twitter RSS Feed into your Facebook account, your FriendFeed account and other social networking services. Each of these services has different audiences, different friends of friends, different indexing in search engines and different internal search engines, so your tweets can have a far wider reach than just your Twitter followers.
10. Each of the social networking services mentioned above gets indexed by the search engines. Some of them use the ‘nofollow’ tag which means the site doesn’t want any link juice (PageRank) passed to you. This belief may or may not be true, but that’s irrelevant because the link has traffic generation potential from all search engines and authority is built in some, if not all, of them.
11. If you use Aweber for your mailing lists, you can set broadcast messages you send to be saved as an HTML page, sent as an RSS Feed and posted to your Twitter account. (Imagine all of the different ways this information can now be accessed besides email AND the number of people that haven’t opted in for email delivery that can read your messages.)
12. There are widgets and plugins that let you import you tweets into web pages and blogs which means a steady stream of fresh content and relationship building if used correctly.
13. There are WordPress plugins that will automatically take your tweets and publish them as pages or posts on your blog.

So here is what you’ve learned:

1. Twitter is a social networking tool you can use to connect with friends, customers or prospects.
2. Twitter is loved by Google because it’s nothing but fresh content.
3. The individual tweets (posts) are 140 characters or less including spaces which forces you to think about what you say.
4. The words and phrases in your tweet is how it is indexed.
5. Your tweets and followers help build backlinks to your Twitter page.
6. Your Twitter page has an RSS Feed that can be marketed like any other Web 2.0 property.
7. Your Twitter RSS feed can be added to many social media services and Feed Readers such as Google Reader.
8. Twitter can help you in business if used correctly, BUT it can also get you in trouble if you post a tweet that isn’t well thought out.
9. Tweets are public and searchable by ANYONE, so be very aware that you are posting to the entire web and not just a single person.

Hope this tip about how to use Twitter marketing for SEO helps you to use your Twitter account more effectively.

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Are you an internet marketer? Although you may not technically be employed as one, it is one of the many hats you will and should wear when working online. Do you run a website or blog that sells a product, service, or generates income through affiliate links? If so, you must double as an internet marketer. Why? Because marketing is vital to your success. After all, you will not generate income if consumers do not know you exist.

If you are new to internet marketing, you will turn to the internet for research. You will get many great ideas, including the use of article directory back links, buying advertisements on other sites, exchanging banners with other webmasters, and search engine optimization. These are important internet marketing steps, but to maximize your results, think outside-of-the-box. When you do, you will find Twitter.

Twitter is a social networking micro-blog. Users can communicate with each other through updates, also known as Tweets. Many Twitter members highlight their daily activities, but many also use updates to generate traffic to their websites or blogs and to increase sales. Straight up advertisements are allowed, as long as they do not qualify as spam. With that said, many find the best approach to be taking the roundabout way. If your sell a product or service, drop hints and highlight what you do or what you sell. Be sure to include a link.

As nice as it is to hear that you can use Twitter for internet marketing, as a newbie, you may have a few questions. Continue reading on for answers.

Question: Why use Twitter for internet marketing?

Answer: The better question should be why not. There are over 2 million members on Twitter.com. You will not communicate will all members, but it gives you an amazing opportunity to meet and network with others. By playing your cards right, you can find your targeted market. For example, do you work as a freelance web designer? If so, your target market is those who want to make money through affiliate links or business owners who want a professional website.

Question: How much time does Twitter take?

Answer: It all depends. Like any form of internet marketing, the time and energy you put forth depends on you. With Twitter, you want to take it slow and easy. If you create too many messages directing your followers to products you sell online, your messages may be considered spam. For that reason, send a few Tweets a day. Since Tweets are 140 characters or less, this is easy. The most time consuming part of Twitter is finding and adding contacts.

Question: What can be marketed on Twitter?

Answer: Just about anything. As previously stated, it doesn’t matter whether you sell a product, a service, or if you generate income through affiliate links, you can market yourself on Twitter. You can do so by sending carefully crafted updates. @replies can be sent to members on your list or those you find on Seach.Twitter.com. Look for members that ask questions you can answer. Always provide a link to your website or blog.

Question: Won’t people turn away from advertisements?

Answer: Yes. As previously stated, you want to carefully craft your Tweet messages and @replies. Don’t just say “Come shop at my online store.” Instead, send messages stating that you updated your store, got a new product in, or ask for feedback. Always provide a link and those interested will click, but without feeling forced into doing so.

Question: How much money can I make using Twitter?

Answer: It varies. Twitter is a service that is free to use. You are not paid for using it, but there is income potential. The first step is driving traffic to your website or blog, where you sell a product, service, or have affiliate links displayed. It is, however, important to have something good to sell. No matter how much traffic your generate, poor quality products and services will not sell.

One of the best things about Twitter is that you can market without it looking like marketing. You can chat and share some great resources, but surely that’s not marketing, or is it? I know I have blogged about how to get followers on Twitter before, but this Twitter marketing tip will show you exactly how to build that list of rabid followers, who will listen to you and maybe even buy from you.

1. Choose not one, but five niches that interest you.

You are not your niche. A niche is something you have. For example, I Tweet about blogging, dogs, natural health, social media and cars. Even though I blog about social media, people like to hear about my dogs if they have pets. They like to hear about our cars if they collect classic cars, etc. They like to know a little about you so they can decide if they like you and want to follow you. So expand yourself and find some niches that you like to Tweet about.

2. Use your search button at least 5 times a day, and try to Tweet at least 15 new people every single day.

That keeps new people coming into your world. It gets you new conversations to join into. Search for something you’re interseted in and you’ll find someone you like. Repeat this as often as you can and use the @ function more than any other key on your computer. Join in, don’t broadcast.

3. Ask at least 5 questions on Twitter every day.

Your questions won’t always get answered, but it doesn’t cost you a penny to ask. When they do reply, you get valuable information about exactly what your followers want. How cool is that? Now you know what they are looking for.

4. Answer at least 5 questions on Twitter a day.

This will make you the expert. People like knowing the answer to their questions. It makes them feel better, more peaceful. Questions may be keeping them awake at night. If you can be their answer, you are valuable to them.

5. Send out a dozen entertaining or useful links every day.

These are links you found, that you like. No marketing here. Be sure to track those links as well to see which ones get viewed the most. You are building up your arsenal of good Tweets. I use bit.ly or ow.ly to get my stats.

6. Share a blog post, video or article with your followers every day.

This will get them going to your site. Make sure to post about answers to the questions they’ve been asking. You will be their hero.

I know that this sounds like a bit of work, but remember that it’s all done in 140 characters or less. If you follow all the Twitter marketing tips above, it will take less than an hour a day and you will see your list grow rapidly. You can use your list for testing, information, ideas, etc. Can you see how important Twitter is to your online success?

This is a list of my favorite Twitter tools that help me the most. I’m sharing them with you as a marketing tip to help you improve your online business. They just make it easier to market online and stay organized as well.

1. Hootsuite – I know there are lots of Twitter desktop clients out there, but Hootsuite is my favorite because of how easy it is to setup and use. It allows you to keep control of multiple Twitter profiles and keep regular track of your Tweets, profile mentions, replies, pending and direct messages – all on one screen. For me, it is the best way to keep using Twitter like a pro. A couple other good popular alternatives are Tweetdeck and Twhirl.

2. Twitterfeed – This amazing tool will let you publish updates from any RSS feed to your Twitter account. You can decide how frequently you want Twitterfeed to check your feed updates and how many updated articles to post to Twitter so that you dont overwhelm your twitter followers with Tweets. You can direct blog feed, photoblog feed, delicious feed, etc. all via Twitterfeed and keep updating your Twitter account automatically.

3. Twitpic – Simply put, TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. It lets people get to know you even better, as you share your world in pictures. People like looking a photos, so this a valuable addition to make your Tweets interesting. If you want to share videos, its worth taking a look at Twiddeo or Vidly too.

4. Wickett Twitter Widget – As seen on many blogs on WordPress.com, this widget displays tweets from a Twitter’s account in the sidebar of your blog. It is by far the easiest, lightest and best way to add Tweets to a WordPress blog.

5. Twitter Counter - This is a statistics tools which allows you to show off your Twitter followers count on your blog. It will also show you how rapidly your followers are increasing (or decreasing!) over the week or months. You can also add their Twitter Remote widget to your blog sidebar for more interaction. If you really want to look for the most popular twitter users, catch them on Twitterholic.

6. Twitterberry – is a popular Twitter client for Blackberry mobile phones. It helps you stay connected with your Twitter account anywhere in the world and on the move. You can access your Twitter followers, get replies and post Tweets without your computer. People with Iphone and ipod Touch will like Tweetie, Twitterific or Twitterfon. Other mobile phone users can check the official mobile version of Twitter.

7. Twitter Search Widget – This is the official Twitter widget which provides a cool custom interface to display your own profile search results in your sidebar. It’s an excellent way to show how popular you are on Twitter as hundreds of your profile mentions and replies scroll across your blog every second. There is an official profile widget also if that suits your need better. There is also an official Twitter badge for Blogger.

8. Tweetmeme Button – This nifty button has emerged as the most popular way to get your articles retweeted. Supporting various blogging platforms and websites, a Tweetmeme button is the best way to get retweeted and make your article go viral across Twitter for extra site traffic.

9. Twitbin – This is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar. This really helps you stay connected with your followers while you are busy blogging. Or you can open Twitter 100 in a tab and keep following latest tweets from 100 followers on one screen.

10. Twibbon – This tool lets you add a logo of your website or a cause you support to your Twitter profile avatar. This also enables your supporters to add the same logo to their profiles and show support for your blog or cause and is great to develop a community of supporters and get lots of publicity.

What are your most useful Twitter tools that you use on a daily basis? Please post in comments and I will add them to the article. Hope this Twitter marketing tip has been helpful. Please follow me on Twitter.

I just found these top 10 signs that you’re addicted to Twitter and had to share then with you. Unfortunately, quite a few to them are a bit true. How many of these signs or addictions can you relate to?

Top 10 Signs Youʼre Addicted to Twitter

1. Youʼre on the Twitter website and find yourself refreshing the page rather than waiting for the auto-refresh. F5 is worn out.

2. You realize you need to turn off Twitter to get any work done. Problem is, you “realized” that an hour ago, too.

3. You get overly excited when you get a new follower.

4. You find yourself typing “@” to reply to people, even if its in an email.

5. You are bored and confused whenever there is another Twitter outage.

6. You have a Twitter client set to start automatically on boot up.

7. Your blog hasnʼt been updated in awhile, but youʼve been Twittering like crazy.

8. You feel the strong need to check up on Twitter before going to bed at night. Or perhaps on your laptop IN bed.

9. First thing you do when you get home from date night with the wife is check Twitter.

10.You put your Twitter handle on your business card.

Are you a blog writer? Although many internet users operate personal blogs, others do so to generate income. If you are one of those bloggers, it is important to have an effective internet marketing campaign. In addition to the traditional approaches, such as learning search engine optimization, think outside-of-the box. One unconventional marketing approach is to use Social Media Sites.

If you don’t already know, Twitter is a social networking micro-blog. It is a user based program. Internet users create a free account, import contacts from their email account, and search for users based on location, name, and email address. Many also use online message boards to exchange information and develop a larger contact list. Messages, also known as updates and Tweets, are sent to all followers. Those individuals read and can respond. Messages are 140 characters or less and are sent via the Twitter website, some mobile web applications, RSS Feeds, instant messaging program, and Facebook.

At first glance, Twitter looks like any other social networking website, but it can be so much more. When properly used, Twitter can become an effective internet marketing tool. The first step is to create a free account and develop a list of followers. By following the updates of one member, they should return the favor. Remember, you can also use message boards to exchange information.

Once you have registered for a free account and developed a following on Twitter, you can start marketing your blog. Your first thought may be to make a big post introducing your blog. Yes, you can do this, but don’t let you first post be an advertisement. Instead, send a quick hello. Explain you are getting use to the Twitter website and thank your followers for joining you. This establishes a personal connection. You do not want your followers to feel right from the start that they are used solely for the purpose of advertising.

For your next Tweet, start working your blog into the mix. Since Twitter asks what you are doing, say “I am updating my blog. Check it out if you want,” and provide a link. This answers the Twitter question, but will also generate interest. Your followers will want to know your interests; therefore, they will click on your blog link. While there, they may buy a product you have available for sale or click on an advertisement. This is great, but first focusing on increase page views.

Another unique approach is to offer a contest on your blog. For example, does your blog share tips on how to save money. If so, giveaway a free eBook on the subject. People love free stuff. A contest should generate organic clicks on your blog, but it makes good content for Tweets. Send an update telling your followers that you just added a contest to your blog and that they should participate.

Aside from sending updates, also send replies. You will receive updates from those you follow. You can also search for Twitter messages on Search.Twitter.com. While there, look for questions that you can answer with a plug to your blog. @replies are nice, especially when responding to a specific question, as you are not sending an unsolicited advisement. Instead, you are sending advice.

As for why you should cleverly market your blog on Twitter, it has to do with communication. That is what Twitter is about, encouraging short, but meaningful conversations. Users want to feel like they made a new friend, not like they are being pursued as a consumer.

Great video that explains exactly what Twitter is in Plain English. Enjoy.

After building several accounts on Twitter, I’ve noticed a little confusion about why and how people are using Twitter. This Twitter marketing tip is to explain to you why you should create your Twitter accounts around different aspects of your personality and lifestyle.

Your goal for your Twitter account may be Internet Marketing or to build downline in your MLM, but that’s not the only thing in your life that grabs your interest is it?

Maybe you like cats, or skiing, reading self-help books, or mountain biking, watching trashy TV… or whatever.

Just ask yourself this… What do I like to do when I am not slaving over a hot laptop? Whatever you choose, no matter how seemingly mundane it may be, there will be others that can and will relate to it. Remember we are talking about tens of millions of Twitter users… and it keeps growing by the second!

But Carol, (you say) how can I possibly make money from a Twitter account that is about my volunteer work at the mission for the homeless?

Let me explain the reason or the motivation behind good Twitter accounts.

It’s really simple: To find and attract others with similar interests, so they will share your Twitter page with others they know that also have the same or similar interests. It will grow then virally.

Okay, but show me the money!

Imagine this: you are working online and you get a Tweet from a complete stranger trying to get you to join some MLM program or trying to sell you some widget.

You say no thanks and block that user forever, right?

Later on you get a Tweet from a good friend you know, like and trust and he casually mentions that he is making good money from this affiliate program he just started up and you should take a look.

Do you think you would take a look? Probably.

It’s the same with Twitter.

No matter what the niche may be – you create relationships with your followers. They start to look forward to your Tweets because you provide helpful content that interests them. They begin to feel like they know you, that you are a real person (not some infomercial pitchman). They first learn to like you and then trust you.

So you have a few thousand followers that like your posts about crocheting, and you happen to mention that now that you’re in Herbalife, you’ve lost a ton of extra pounds and you have your mortgage and car payments covered every month to boot. Don’t you think that might interest them as well? Absolutely. Not everyone of course, but every Tweet could mean a little money in your pocket.

Over time, you will build up larger and larger followings on your accounts and so each Tweet will increase in value.

So, if you tell your basket-weaving buddies that since you bought this dog training eBook your new puppy doesn’t pee all over your new carpet anymore, they will be listening. And some of them will also own troublesome puppies and be very interested.

And they will buy that eBook from your link.

Why?

I will say it again… because they know, like and trust you!

Just to wrap this up. Remember, you are a multi-dimensional personality with a wide range of things that interest you. And guess what? Your followers are too.

So when people follow you because you provide good info about body-building, realize that they have other interests as well. And they may very well be looking for some product you recommend, whether it is accounting software, a “Two and Half Men” DVD collection, Calloway Golf Clubs, a dating site, identity theft protection or California Red Wine.

Build your Twitter accounts on your interests or passions and the money will take care of itself. Hope this Twitter tip helped explain a few things about how you should use Twitter to be successful.

Now Get Busy Tweeting!

Do you sell products online?

Whether you run an online retail store or if you sell on eBay, internet marketing should be a component of your business plan. When you market your products, you increase your earnings potential.

In terms of internet marketing, there are many successful approaches. These approaches include article directories, purchasing advertisements, banner exchanges, and search engine optimization. Yes, you should implement each of these steps, but also examine unconventional approaches, such as social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter and Facebook are social networking websites. When you register for a free account, you can search for other users. You can then become a follower or a friend. This means that you will receive their messages, also known as updates or Tweets on Twitter. Many will do the same for you. Search for contacts on the Twitter and Facebook websites based on name, location, or email address. Also, exchange contact information on online communities, like internet forums.

As previously stated, Twitter and Facebook are social networking websites. All types of posts are allowed, but many expect social messages online, not advertisements. This does not mean that you cannot use these social sites as an internet marketing tool. It just means that you must take the clever approach.

How can I market on Social Sites Like Twitter and Facebook you ask???

• Ask for feedback. With an advertisement, your Tweet may say “Buy eco-friendly products at affordable prices.” Yes, this may work, but you will find some individuals who think “great, another advertisement.” So, instead ask for feedback. Provide a link and ask your followers to review the product in question. Do they think it can help the environment, is the price affordable?

• Offer promotional codes. Even if you use affiliate links to generate income, you should be provided with moneysaving promotional codes. Offer these to your members.< For example, your Tweet or post could include the message “Eco-friendly products available for sale with a money saving discount for all my Twitter and Facebook friends.” Yes, this is still an advertisement, but you are offering an incentive.

• Host contests and Tweet about them. A great way to generate traffic to a website, including a website where products are sold, is to offer something free. Whether it be a free sample or a contest, people love free stuff. Instead of advertising a product you have for sale, highlight a contest on your website. This will get people to your online store. To increase sales, have your contest landing page filled with products.

• Incorporate personal messages into your advertisements. As previously stated, the use of promotional codes is a great way to not only increase your sales and website traffic, but to generate interest. Instead of just staying “Save $25 with a promotional code provided by me,” incorporate a personal message. Mention you are extending the offer to your Twitter and Facebook friends because you want to help them save money. This extra personal message goes a long way.

• Mentioning the products you sell is okay to do, but be limited in your messages. Do not send 10 messages a day highlighting the products you sell. Instead, try one a day. Also, rely on the use of @replies on Twitter. You can reply to those who send you updates or use Search.Twitter.com. Only reply with a clever advertisements when the situation calls for it.

The key to using social sites as an internet marketing tool is to do so cleverly. Internet users tend to sway away from advertisements, so disguise your advertisements. Use this marketing tip and watch your sales go up.

Nowadays, there are tons of social networking websites available in the internet. If you use them, you will be able to keep in touch with your friends, find long lost relatives, and even make new friends. However, social networking isn’t just what you can get from Facebook.

This marketing tip will show you how to take advantage of Facebook as a website that you can use to market your business or your products and services. There are quite a lot of social networking websites that you can join today. However, if you really want to join one of the best sites for marketing your products or services or really generate targeted traffic for your website, then Facebook is a great choice, especially when combined with other social sites like Twitter for example.

Facebook is considered by a lot of people as the best place to go to when it comes to marketing and networking. With over 250 million active subscribers, you can see that it could definitely have some potential in increasing your sales.

The great thing about Facebook is that it will be able to provide you with tools that can be used to effectively market your products and services. However, you need to know how to effectively use the tools in order for you to really fully take advantage of the website.

These marketing tips can help you use Facebook to market your products and services for free.

1. The first tip is that you need to make an awesome profile. With a great profile, you will be able to attract more people to view it. More viewers will mean more people will be able to know about the products or service you are offering. Try to use Facebook as part of your online branding and try to include a nice photo of you. Also, include your contact information, your website address, work experience, personal interest and your education. Always remember that a complete profile is the best way to go in Facebook. Be as transparent as possible and let people get to know you.
2. When you are already a member of Facebook, try adding friends. You have to remember that Facebook is a social networking website where you will need to make friends and build relationships. The more relationships you build in Facebook, the more effective your marketing efforts will be. The great thing about Facebook is that you will be able to see the friends of your friends. By building an extensive network of friends, you will be able to boost your marketing efforts in no time at all. Just be sure not to grow your Facebook list too fast. There are limitations and if you exceed them your account can be deactivated. Know the rules.
3. You can also join groups or create your own group. In Facebook, there are different kinds of groups that you can join. You can try joining groups that have similar interests, such as yours. Or, you can try joining groups for coaches, wealth building and marketing experts, for example. By joining or creating your own group in Facebook, you will be able to make hundreds of contacts that can help you in letting your business grow.
4. You may also want to syndicate your blog using RSS. In Facebook, it is possible for you to place your blog in your profile through RSS. With this feature, you will be able to let people read your blogs and even further boost your marketing efforts. With an increased number of readers, you will get more leads which also mean more business.
5. Make sure the Facebook does not become a time sink for you. There is so much to do there that you will be tempted by the games and othe applications. You have to remember, with crystal clarity, what your focus is and why you are on Facebook. It’s shouldn’t take more than a half hour of your day. You may even want to get a viritual assistant to help will some of your Facebook duties so you can proceed with more important business.

These are just some of the things that you can do in Facebook to effectively market your website or your business. Through these marketing tips, you will see that you will be able to increase traffic and get even more traffic to your online businesses.

]]> http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/facebook-social-marketing/facebook-marketing-tips-for-success/feed/ 4 http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/twitter-social-marketing/marketing-tips-to-optimize-your-twitter-site/ http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/twitter-social-marketing/marketing-tips-to-optimize-your-twitter-site/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:02:14 +0000 Carol http://www.frommykitchentable.com/?p=385

What is the first thing you do when you click on an interesting Tweet on Twitter?

This marketing tip will share what MOST of us do. Most of us will look at the photo and read the bio first. A Twitter site with a real person’s photo and a bio will attract over 8 times as many visitors and followers as one without a bio, and that is one of the most decisive factors when deciding whether to follow or not follow a person. If you didn’t get a nice photo and fill out your bio or it’s not very descriptive, you are missing out on many potential followers.

Another important detail to remember in your Twitter bio is your location. Twitter goes worldwide, NOT JUST the States. So, NOT everyone has any idea where “Nebraska” is. Much less, this is social media and failing to be SPECIFIC, is NOT helpful to anyone who may read your info. Post your city/town, state/province & country. I tend to BLOCK SPAMMERS, PORN, those who fail to post a picture & those who fail to post SPECIFICS of their location. As your list of followers increases, the responsibility goes up to provide a connection. Just having a large number of followers is a BIG MISTAKE. You are doing them a dis-service and leaving money on the table if you fail to connect with them.

Twitter is a little more generous with your bio and gives you 160 characters to use to describe your self and who you are too. So use all of them! You’re probably wondering if having a photo, a bio and website link in your Twitter profile can actually make a huge difference in how may followers. Well, yeah, and there are lots of studies to prove just how valuable the bio is. Google it!

Writing a good bio in only 160 characters can be a bit challenging, but just keep in mind that you don’t have to give out your life story. Try to focus on some critical keywords that will really describe you to your audience. Use the keywords that you think people will use when they run a search on Twitter. Try to think about it like SEO (search engine optimization) for Twitter. Just like when you optimize a website for the search engines. When writing your Twitter bio, just try to think about what kind of followers you want to attract to you and your sites.

Here is what I recommend when you write your Twitter bio:

Be real and transparent. Let people get to know you and tell them what you do and what you like. Let them see what you look like, the real you, not some picture you grabbed online. Take some time and create the absolute best bio about yourself that you can. (Leave out the expert and guru stuff, cause they will figure that out by themselves.) Describe your interests and what you like to do for fun.Tell them what you’re good at and what you need help with. Let them know you and you’ll soon have a bunch of devoted followers.

Do not forget to think about your niche though, and what kind of targeted followers you want to attract, so select your keywords wisely. It will make it easier to monetize later.

If you haven’t taken the time to write a proper Twitter bio, go over these marketing tips again and go do it right now!

The internet is famous for sharing links. It is one of the most viral activities online. People can now share ideas and communicate instantly. We used to share via emails and bookmarking with individual posts. Now it’s just so much easier to share via Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites and send a link once that goes out to all your friends and followers. It’s a real time saver and allows you to make many more contacts a day. This marketing tip will help you decide if URL shrinkers are for you.

Some sites, like Twitter, make short URLs important due to their 140 character limit. Less keystrokes make it a time saver as well. These shortened links redirect people back to the original link which may be extremely long and prone to breaking. But, for every good point there may be a bad one as well.

There are more than a dozen link shortening services, which include TinyUrl, bit.ly, Snurl, us.gd, Diggbar and tr.im to name a few.They make it so handy to share links. It would be impossible to share links on Twitter when a URL contains over 140 characters itself.

The bad side of shortened URLs is that they slow down the Web.

It’s just another navigation process to go through to reach your site. They also mess with your SEO. Link juice can be stolen by sites that wrap the site in a frame instead of redirecting to it. Diggbar is an example of this.

The URL shortener may decide that a link is a Terms Of Service violation and just delete it. If the URL shortener accidentally erases a database, forgets to renew its domain, or just disappears, the link will break. If a top level domain changes its policy on commercial use, the link can break. If the shortener gets hacked, every link becomes a potential phishing attack. Kind of scary.

It can be hard to tell what you’re clicking on and this makes it extremely attractive to spammers and scammers. You could be clicking on something unsavory or illegal or even something malicious like a computer worm.

There are several services that will show the link, so you can get around this problem. SafeURL lets you preview a shrunken link’s destination page. LongURL lets you plug in short addresses and see where they really point. You need to be really careful and not click on ANY URL that you don’t know and trust. The results can be disastrous to you and your business. Hope this marketing tip helps.

Marketing on social networking websites, such as Facebook, is one of the hottest trends among businesses and internet marketers today. With over 62 million subscribers from all over the world, Facebook is considered to be a gold mine among internet marketers and for businesses that want to gather more potential clients.

Unlike other social networking websites, Facebook offers a unique feature that will let you efficiently market on the internet. This feature is the news feed feature. Depending on what your privacy settings is, you will be able to broadcast or announce whatever it is you want to announce through the news feed feature offered by Facebook.

Although there are some people who don’t want this feature in Facebook, this particular feature does help in letting people know what their friends are up to. From an internet marketer’s view, you will see that the news feed feature offered in Facebook will serve as a great way to promote a product or service you are offering. This will enable your network to know what you are offering as well as let your groups know.

So, here are some Tips for Marketing on Social Sites that you should remember…

Here are some tips that you should remember in order to know how to harness the news feed feature to market a particular product or service. By remembering these following tips, you will be able to let people view it and in turn, let others in their network join in.

1. The first thing that you need to do is create a profile. People in Facebook cannot add anyone in their network if the person they want to add doesn’t have a profile and vice versa. This is the first thing that you need to do. Also, you might want to complete your profile page to its fullest in order to let people viewing it take interest.
2. The next tip is by trying to host an event and post it in the news feed. This will get people in your network interested and if your event is worth the time, they will even tell other people in their network to join in the fun. This is a great way to promote a product or service.
3. Thirdly, you may want to share a funny video or picture to your network of friends in Facebook. This will help in promoting your profile page and you will have a lot of targeted visitors that will eventually view your profile page as well as the contents you posted in it, such as the products or services you offer.
4. Posting news articles is also a great way to get people’s attention in Facebook. This will generate targeted traffic. For example, if you are selling sports apparels, you might want to post the latest news in sports. This will generate targeted traffic that will most likely be interested in what you are marketing.
5. Posting comments on other people’s profile page in Facebook is also a great way to extend your network of friends and profile viewers.

These are the things that you need to remember about Facebook marketing. By following these tips, you can be sure that you will be able to generate traffic in your Facebook profile page and extend your network. Through these marketing tips, you will be able to have more potential customers visiting your Facebook profile page and know about what you have to offer.

It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging for fun or business, Twitter can help boost your blog tremendously. Here are five Twitter Tips to help you out.

1.) Twitter is all about the conversation.

You can have conversations on blogs and on social media sites like Facebook, but it’s not the same kind of conversation as with Twitter. With blogs, you’re trying to speak to a crowd. You’re in command and running the blog your way and hoping that people will respond to you with questions or comments. With Facebook, you can get to know people via their profiles, but you’re mostly still just communicating one on one. Now Twitter is kind of like a gigantic party. There are thousands of conversations going on all the time and you can join one, or you can just jump in and start your own. If you start a new one, then others can decide to join in and talk to you. It’s even easy to carry on multiple conversations at the same time. It’s total conversational freedom. To make a long story short, Twitter is a social media tool meant to create community and relationships. It’s your job to build on those relationships.

2.) Twitter is a great source for blog post topics.

When you’re wondering what to write about on your blog, and you need some inspiration, just go to Twitter. You can pick up other posts and expand on them, get ideas from the conversations you’re having or watching and even discover new authors to add to your feed reader. You can even ask Twitterers what you should post about. Just ask them what questions they have about the subject you want to write about. Their questions can even give you ideas for more posts. The good thing about this is that it gives you a sense of what people are really thinking about on a topic. This helps you to get to know them on a new level and also helps you know the needs and feelings of your potential readers.You can do a Twitter search on the subject you’re interested in and find even more targeted Tweets to give you ideas.

3.) Anyone can master Twitter.

It doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a professional blogger or a tech freak. Anyone can Tweet and build relationships on Twitter. You just have to be yourself and people with similar likes will follow and interact with you. Treat them right and they might even join your list and buy something from you. Even the newest of newbies can find good information online to get them up and running in just a few minutes. It doesn’t take weeks or months for people to find you either. You are instantly live on Twitter.

4.) Twitter helps you find other people in your niche.

You’ll want to connect with as many Twitter users as possible, but there are some that are more important to connect with than others. These are the people who are active in niches that I interact in on my blog. If you want to become known in your niche and build your own profile or brand in it, then you need to be interacting with others who are also active in that niche. Add yourself as a follower to other key Twitterer users, add value to these people’s conversations, interact with them via direct messaging, RTs, etc. Building a good relationship with these people will expand your blog much faster, as some of them will link to you and leave valuable content. Having something in common always builds trust faster too.

5.) Twitter can make your blog go viral.

I constantly see breaking news come across Twitter before I see it anywhere else. If just one person on Twitter hears some important news, it can spread like a wild fire. If you get that news on your blog fast, before anyone else, everyone will be rushing to your site to read it. Twitter is faster than the news media many times, so be on the lookout for hot breaking news and be one of the first to post to your blog and Twitter about it. Then sit back and watch your list of readers grow.

I hope these Twitter marketing tips help you grow your blog.

I don’t consider my self a Twitter marketing expert, because I don’t have a million followers, or even 100,000. But I do think that for my purposes, (sharing what I know), following quality people is the key and the 40+ thousand followers I am lucky enough to be associated with are appreciated by me a lot more because of it. Sharing my Twitter marketing tips and being helpful and credible builds trust, attracts faithful followers and results in a new method of social networking. Just one Tweet may or may not make a difference, but when you add them up over time, a bigger picture starts to emerge.

Twitter Marketing tips are easy to come by. You need to watch which advise you listen to however. There is good and bad info out there and just one bad Tweet can totally ruin your credibility with your followers. This is not something you want to happen. You can use Twitter as a consumer as well as for branding yourself, marketing, customer service, real-time searching,and even direct sales. Twitter is a valuable tool and you do not want to screw it up.

There is a lot of advice on what you should do with Twitter, but based on the increasing ways people mis-behave, there seem to be many ways to fail as well.

I decided to share some Tips on Social Marketing DON’T's on Twitter

1. Don’t describe yourself in an obscure way on your profile. Make yourself transparent. Share who you really are with your followers. Be real.
2. Don’t put up a Twitter profile without a picture of YOU. People want to see who they are dealing with.
3. Don’t have a plain and uninteresting background. Make it stand out and brand you. Your Twitter page is what will impress or repulse followers when they click on your @username.
4. Don’t auto reply to followers with a link to your website or blog. Even worse… a link to a sales page. They aren’t ready yet. Let them get to know you and trust you first. Twitter is SOCIAL marketing.
5. Don’t Tweet about some great resource and then not share a link.
6. Don’t follow over 100 people an hour. Twitter will slap you hard! You can also only follow 1,000 a day. Play by the rules.
7. Don’t post about totally stupid stuff. Nobody cares if you just went to the bathroom, watered your house plant, stubbed your toe, etc. Make it interesting. Post photos, videos, great content, RT good info and then share a couple links to some product you think is outstanding. Make sure you post something that would be interesting to you.
8. Don’t schedule your posts to show up every few minutes. People will get sick of seeing you.
9. Don’t forget to watch your language if you want business people to take you seriously. Keep it clean. Kids are on Twitter too.
10. Don’t over abbreviate so much that nobody can figure out what you’re saying. Use spell check too. Your misspelled words will tell your followers that you’re either dumb or don’t care. Present yourself in the manner that you want people to see you. What is your goal with Twitter? Make it a success.

I hope these Twitter marketing DON’Ts help you to grow your list of followers. Just be yourself and let people see the real you. You will make some great connections and find some great business partners. Just be real and Tweet on.

The absolute best way to learn how to use Twitter is to just start Twittering. This marketing tip is here to give you some limits that Twitter has imposed, so you don’t screw up. You can’t really do anything wrong. If you do, (like a misspelling) just delete it via the little trash can that appears at the end of messages when you hover you cursor there. The only important thing to remember is what you say. One Tweet out of taste can get you dropped off lists fast as a hot rock.

The Limits

Twitter has a list of limits on how to add, delete, etc. They list some of them on their site, and others I have found by trial and error. :0) So when starting up a Twitter account, make sure you know and follow these limits so you don’t get shut down.

• The first restriction is the 2,000 following limit. This is the number of people you can initially follow. There isn’t any restriction on the number of people who follow you, only on who you can follow. This limit is in place to stop people from trying to spam and follow everyone they come across in Twitterland.

• The second restriction is that you can’t make more than 1,000 total updates per day, on any and all devices (web, mobile web, phone, API, etc. ) This means you can only follow, Tweet, add photos or video, etc. 1,000 times in 24 hours. After that, Twitter will shut you down for 24 hours. If you persist, your account can be deleted permanently.

• The third restriction is that you can send only 250 total direct messages per day, on any and all devices. That’s a lot of chatting, so be happy. As before, if you go over that amount, you will be shut down.

• The fourth restriction is that you can only make 150 API requests per hour. So only follow and Tweet a total of 150 times in an hour or Twitter will shut you down for an hour. Then you can follow and Tweet again. I’ve found that the amount you go over the 150 decides just how long you will be shut down. For example: If you have a automated way of adding followers and accidently forget it and add 500, you get shut down for 24 hours. So keep an careful eye on your actions.

OK, those are the limits you need to know when you are starting an account. The rules change when you reach 2,000 followers, and that’s a good thing. The number you can follow after you reach 2,000 is based on a ratio that changes as the account changes. You can now follow 10% more than follow you. So keep your followers total handy at all times. 2,000 plus 10% means you can follow 2,200 total. If you have 5,528 followers you can follow 6,080. Get the picture? Go over that amount and you get shut down for an hour.

This works to balance your follower/following ratio. Basically, you can’t follow 50,000 people if only 23 people follow you. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, Twitter has concluded that this is both fair and reasonable. It’s for your own protection.

Hope this Twitter marketing tip helps you grow your Twitter list easily and painlessly. Just keep an eye on the rules and you’ll have the most responsive list you’ll ever have and in a very short time.

If you’ve recently joined Twitter, you might be wondering if it can really help you drive traffic to your small business blog or website. If you don’t have a bunch of followers, it can seem like a daunting proposition! This Twitter marketing tip will show you that once you have followers, you can drive a ton of traffic to your blog or website using Twitter.

The first thing you need to do is add as many followers as you can. Now, please remember that Twitter does have a limit on this, and you need about 2,000 people to follow you before you’re able to follow lots more people. But, once you have a good amount of followers, it is as simple as the followers seeing a link to your blog or website and going there. People are on Twitter every hour of every single day, and you are likely to get lots of clicks from them when they want to see what you have to say there.

Now, when people land on your page, they need to be intrigued so they’ll want to read more and click on your links. This will help bring people into your sales funnel, and help get them interested in you and your blog or website. Be sure that your content is extremely relevant to the niche your Twitter account is based on. That way, you’ll be getting more targeted and focused prospects who are interested in exactly what you have to say and in buying what you are promoting.

The more followers you have on Twitter, the likelier it is that you will get tons of traffic to your blog or website. That’s why there have been several automated tools developed to help you get traffic more easily. Some of these tools will auto follow and unfollow people for you, so you don’t have to sit there all day and click people to follow. Click here to view more details or HummingBird 2 – By Far the Best Marketing Tool for Twitter!

Some tools will even post Tweets for you at predetermined times. It’s a great time saver, but please realize that Twitter seems to be cracking down on these methods a bit. You have to follow the Twitter rules at all times.

There are also products and sites that will help you generate content for your Twitter posts. There is one product that helps you set up content with Google for free, and it’s completely legal to use! You can also outsource your posts for a very reasonable cost. Using highly relevant content in this way is very hands off and can generate a lot of interest in the things you have to say on Twitter. Just be sure to keep it a mixture of great content and information, personal details about you, and just a few sales messages and you’re sure to get a lot of traffic. Keep it fun and keep it simple.

At first, it can seem slow to get the followers you need to give you lot of traffic. But then it snow balls and slowly builds momentum and starts rolling faster and faster and you’ll have thousands of followers who are all visiting your content loaded small business blog or website daily. This is a easy way to lead to some great profits for you online. Hope this Twitter marketing tip helps bring traffic your way.

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• Social Media, Blogs and Relationship Marketing (opencircle.co.za)

This Twitter Marketing Tip is actually about a couple things. Hashtags and Twitter Parties. Since they work  together well, I think they need to be addressed together.

Many people don’t know what Twitter hashtags are or how to use them. This is a simple explanation of how to use Twitter hashtags to simplify and enjoy your Tweeting more,how to attract new followers and maybe even how to monetize with a Twitter Party.

On your Twitter homepage you will find Trending Topics on the bottom of the right side bar. You will notice that many of the topics have the hashtag or # sign in front of them.

If you click on a #topic (like #swineflu), it will bring up a search for all the Tweets about or containing that topic that have used that hashtag. All these people will be talking about that particular subject.

It’s a way of categorizing Tweets across Twitter for like minded people who are Tweeting about the same topic. It’s a way to organize them so they can easily converse with each other and see what people are talking about on that particular topic. This is also a great way to Tweet only about what you are interested in.

There are third party applications out there like TweetDeck and TweetGrid which are free and totally safe to use. They help by letting you search for everyone who is Tweeting about a certain topic. They also let you see who is replying to all your Tweets on this topic.

So, you can quickly and easily see all the people who are talking about a particular topic, reply to them and see who is replying to you. How cool is that? All on one screen.

This leads into…

How to have a Twitter Party?

A Twitter Party is a virtual party that is a fast paced and fun way to connect and discuss a topic of choice. Most Twitter parties have an expert panelist or moderator to keep the party on topic.

A group of users or a moderator will organize a Twitter Party at a certain time to Tweet about and discuse a certain topic. They will advertize it on their blogs, websites, send out emails and then Tweet about it on Twitter all day long. Then people can go to Twitter at the pre chosen time and put in a chosen #hashtag.

You then just set TweetGrid or TweetDeck so the #hashtag is on the left column. Your own Tweets and replys should appear on the right column and  the moderator or whoever is hosting the Twitter party should be in the center. How easy is that?

Twitter Party attendees encourage each other to reach goals. They get together for fun, friends and support. Sometimes there are prizes given for the one who Tweets the most, etc.

Twitter Parties can be held for pet lovers to chat about their dogs, Autism parents to get support and answers for their children, or even Twitter users to get new ideas on how to monetize Twitter. Any subject is OK and the sky’s the limit.

Twitter Parties can also be held at a pre determined public location, like a bar or restaurant or a seminar. Twittering can be a lead into a very important person to person chat. Everyone who shows up and or Tweets can then be eligible to win a prize or gift. This is really just a new spin on the old Tupperware and Amway parties. You can have them from the privacy of your home or in a group or even out in public. Any subject is fair game and the contacts you can make and the relationships you can build are priceless.

I hope this Twitter Marketing Tip has given you some ideas for new ways to use Twitter in your business and personal life. Who do you know? Tweet ‘em.

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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Just about everyone has figured out by now that Twitter has an amazing potential to be a fantastic sales tool for their business. There are, in fact, many other benefits to Twitter besides direct sales that are just as valuable if not MORE valuable. If you build your Twitter account the right way, you should be taking advantage of each and every one of these benefits. This Twitter Marketing Tip shows the top 7 ways to use Twitter to build your network and monetize it.

1. Direct Marketing

The reason most of us are using Twitter is to get our messages out there in front of thousands of very targeted people. You can do this in several ways using Twitter. The first way is by simply putting your link in your Twitter profile and having people come to your website or blog to check you out.

Many people who visit your Twitter page will click on your link and decide to visit your website. If you are targeting people correctly, this can be a fantastic source of traffic for your website or blog. Some of these people will come back time after time, if they like what you’re saying. Many will even purchase the products you recommend.

The second way to get your sales message out on Twitter is to create Tweets with your links right in them. Please don’t be obvious and say things like, “Hey, check this out.” or “Click here now.” That will make you stick out like a spammer for sure. Instead, write a compelling headline that will attract people’s attention and entice them to click on your link because it interests them. Getting and keeping people’s attention is of utmost importance on Twitter.

2. Networking

Networking and building business relationships are the key to building any successful business. Almost every important milestone or big success in my own personal business can be attributed to knowing the right people to get things accomplished.

Twitter allows you to network with thousands of people in your chosen targeted field, people who have the skills you need. I don’t know any other way besides Twitter where you can find such a huge amount of targeted people to network with so quickly. Just be really careful that you choose the right people. Check out new contacts very carefully before making decisions. Try to build relationships so you get to know the people you may end up working with.

People ask how you can benefit from a huge list of followers. Well, you are noticed when you have a big following. Many are against having lots of followers, but how often do you talk to your mom, dad, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, etc? You can still have a relationship with people even if you don’t directly talk with them daily or weekly.

You are just opening up a line of communication. If someone wants to talk with you, they can. If you send emails out to your list, you don’t really talk to each of them either. But, you’re still building up a relationship and influencing them.

3. Joint Ventures

This is kind of like networking… but it’s networking on steroids. One of the easiest and fastest ways to make money on Twitter is to build up relationships with people in your specific niche market and then invite them to joint venture with you. Here’s a secret the guru’s don’t want you to know.

Shhhhh… It’s all about building relationships.

The gurus network constantly to make their money. They go to lots of conferences and seminars each and every month. It’s not just to speak and sell products. That’s second on their agenda. The real reason they travel constantly and show up all over the world isn’t even to brand themselves and learn new techniques. All of these reasons are important to the gurus, of course, but they’re not the most important. Want to know what it is? It’s to network! They sometimes call it “The Back Scratchers Club.” What happens when you join your list with someone elses list? It can double or triple your list and you only have to work with one person. That’s called leverage. So find people in your niche to joint venture with on Twitter and watch your business explode.

4. Branding

I personally think this is one of the biggest benefits of using Twitter. I know that for my own business it has been even more powerful than direct sales. I have always built businesses by having a good following of people who I network with and by having them send me referrals. Since starting my Twitter account, that recognition is growing exponentially.

People who I’ve never spoken with, people who weren’t referred to me by someone else, are already familiar with me because of my Twitter brand and many of them have the impression that I am an expert in my chosen field. When you have people coming to you like that, completely pre-sold on the idea of doing business with you, it’s priceless!

5. Feedback

You can ask any question you can think of and get an answer on Twitter in just seconds. I personally have thousands of people that could view my question and possibly answer me back. It’s like having Google, with real life experience, right at your beck and call. You can ask for feedback on a blog you’re working on, you can ask a question about the product you are thinking about buying or selling. I even ask questions about my dogs. People are just waiting to help you with their honest opinions.

6. Customer Service

Businesses have always been aware of the fact that their online reputation is very important. Now, with Twitter, they have to be extremely aware, and in real time.

One bad Tweet can travel very, very far with the power of a simple RT (Retweet). You need to be on your toes with what you are Tweeting about and how you are promoting or branding your business. It can really put the hurt on your Twitter brand if you make someone unhappy with less than top notch customer service.

On the other hand, if a customer takes the time to Twitter a frustration with your business, it also gives you the ability to immediately react and fix the problem (publicly) before a bad thought or idea can become associated with you or your business as well. So use Twitter to give great customer service to your customers. This pays long term dividends.

7. Media Coverage

We all know that this world we live in loves the media. TV, Internet, Videos, etc. are a way of life now. What would we do without it?

Well, Twitter covers this too.

You can post photos of your puppies, videos of your latest project or product, online training podcasts or videos that you have on your blog, just about anything you can think of. Your Tweets can alert you to the latest trends, new online products, a sale at WalMart, whatever. You can reverse this and Tweet in a video about what you want or have for sale. There is just no limit to how you can use Twitter to improve and monetize your life.

There are 100′s more Twitter benefits than these 7 I’ve just covered. People are constantly finding new ways to integrate Twitter into our lives everyday. I believe we have yet to see some of the amazing things that will come from Twitter. If you’ve found another way Twitter is benefiting you, leave a comment and share your Twitter Marketing Tip with us.

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Twitter just decided to implement a new limit – the 1000 follows a day  rule. This new rule will affect everyone who follows new people on a regular basis. It will even affect those who just follow back their big lists of followers. So I decided to share what I’ve found out in this Marketing Tip.

What’s Wrong With This New Twitter Rule?

No one knew about it or that it was coming! It seems that Twitter admin did not have the common courtesy to report this new rule/limit to their loyal followers. This new feature was not even written about on the support section of the Twitter help blog till Monday, 4/20/09. That’s when Twitter officially announced that this limit is for real.

They say they are trying to optimize the follow limit for good Twitter people who auto-follow other people. What’s wrong with this picture? Everyone thought it was a bug. Yep, me too.

So… why did Twitter do this?

One reason could be that in the past few days Twitter has experienced a very slow performance from their servers. This could be from the 1 million auto-follows from @britneyspears maybe? Or it could be from the Kutcher/CNN faceoff! Maybe it’s happening just because everyone wants to use an auto-follow tool. Now, don’t get me wrong, the auto-follow feature of these 3rd party programs is very cool, so cool that everyone wants to have them. Face it, Twitter is becoming automated, it can’t keep up.

The Twitter Fail Whale probably doesn’t like all the bots/scripts, that people are using, picking on him. So… the more people who use these new automated tools, the more often the Fail Whale shows up. So Twitter admin decided… lets slow up the show! It’s probably a very good idea in actuality, but the worst mistake Twitter made was not to inform anyone about it.

The second bad idea that Twitter had was to just implement a dump restriction without first testing if it would be effective. It doesn’t seem like there is a real Google-like algorithm to it. There seems to be no genuine reason behind it that can optimize and help the experience of those Twittering. It also seems there is nothing good in it for the real big guys on Twitter. They are miffed!

So… WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO US TWITTER?

Maybe after thousands of  support tickets and millions of negative discussions on the internet the Twitter team will deactivate this limit or at least tell us how to optimize it for our own good. We can always hope.

What do all you Twitter fans think?

Was this the best idea that a big, super company like Twitter could have come up with? Was it fair to all the people who are loyal, Tweeting fans of Twitter? The ones who, like me, try to follow all the rules and use this great social marketing site as a tool to help build their marketing network.

Who knows what Twitter will come up with next. Maybe a link or RT limit? Scary stuff Twitter fans. Hope this Twitter Marketing Tip helped. I’d like to  hear your comments.

Want to know how I did it? (Here’s my Twitter marketing tip.)

1. Create a Twitter account.
2. Personalize and Brand your profile. You want to stand out from others to get maximum results.
3. Give incentive for people to follow you. Give new followers a free gift or some valued information for following you.
4. Build a targeted list of followers . The more followers you have the better results you’ll get.
5. Implement Tweet/post strategy. It’s not just about spamming your list. You need to follow a specific strategy.
6. Use plugins to automate your twitter marketing. You need to maximize your time and using plugins will allow you to be time efficient.
7. Manage Twitter following/followers. Use automation tools to follow people and  un-follow people who don’t follow you back.

Here is one of the tools I used to figure it all out. You can read about it or watch the videos. Watch right over their shoulder and see exactly how it’s done. This Twitter marketing tip really works.

CLICK  HERE
Result… Twitter success .

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard of Twitter . It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be to be used by almost everyone today. It’s on the news, on the radio and on the minds of thousands of people everywhere, every single day. It is invaluable as a marketing tool.

There are many different types of people on Twitter . But, most of these people are on Twitter for a single reason. They want people to know about them. They want to connect with people. Lots of people.

Did you know that there are Twitter Rules for marketing and business success in what you do. I am a marketer and have been for many years. In the last few years my business has been expanding by leaps and bounds, because of social media and the internet. But, there are rules that all marketers must follow if they are going to have success in the marketplace, especially online.

Here are the 7 Simple Rules to Success on Twitter:

1) The Rule of Visibility on Twitter.

You absolutely MUST be visible on Twitter if you are going to get your message out to the masses. You must spend time on Twitter and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “Twitter Blueprint” and then work that blueprint every day. How many hours a day are you going to be seen on Twitter ? How many people are you going to follow this week? How many times are you going to Tweet this week? How many direct replies will you make? All of these things make you “visible” on Twitter . Be seen and be heard. Be there on a daily basis.

2) The Rule of a Powerful Twitter Profile.

Why would people want to get to know you on Twitter ? One of the first things they will check out is your Twitter profile. What does it say, or better yet, what does it do? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them smile? Does it make them think?  Does it make them see that you have value for their life and perhaps can help change it?
Powerful Twitter profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile, but on what your profile DOES. Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are a person they really need to get to know? Put yourself out there and tell the world why they need you as a friend, and get them to take some action towards YOU.

3) The Rule of Twittering.

You MUST use Twitter to market or to share your message. Many people regard Twitter as a communication utility much like an email. It is not! Twitter is a method for you to build – MESSAGE BY MESSAGE – FOLLOW BY FOLLOW – PHOTO BY PHOTO – VIDEO BY VIDEO – your brand on Twitter . Every time something happens with you, Twitter about it. Don’t just look at Twitter, get your messages out there and be seen. Answer the messages on Twitter. Thank people for sharing their Tweet with you. This will show up on their Twitter and even more people will see you. This will set you apart from most people on Twitter. Twitter is basically a billboard of what you and your friends are doing on Twitter. So use it often and use it wisely. Don’t forget that everyone is watching what you say.

4) The Rule of Twitter Networking.

You are part of a Twitter and you have access to that huge network of people to become their friend and business partner. You can live anywhere and have access to this huge audience. There are literally thousands of people on Twitter that you could potentially meet and then get to know and connect with. You can find local Twitterers as well. You will find that Twitter is a gold mine of people to connect with and  build trust with. This may lead to business down the road. So go Twitter now!

5) The Rule of Twitter Direct Messages.

This can be an overlooked and rarely talked about Twitter tool. Direct messages are part of your “Twitter System.” Go to Direct Messages in your sidebar. This is a list of people who are thinking about you, talking about you, including you and connecting  with you. This is a goldmine of people that have proven that they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Twitter experience. Pay attention to your Twitter messages. Thank them for their thoughts and let them know you appreciate it. Reply back to them whenever possible. The Direct Messages are gold and can be a prospecting vault of valuable leads. Make sure you stay connected to them.

6) The Rule of Twitter Pictures and Videos.

Sharing photos and videos on Twitter is HOT. People love photos and videos. The Tweets with photos and videos are the most looked at and watched Tweets on Twitter. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will they be seen, but they will also be Re-Tweeted many times. This means that you can pick out Tweets you like and share them with others. Now isn’t that cool? It is called exposure! It allows you to post a photo or video that you like and then it sends it out for all of Twitter to see. It shares the image that you want and allows everyone to see a glimpse into your personal life. It helps people see you as a real person and not just a website, so share some of your personal life on Twitter . Find interesting photos and videos of others and send them out as well. People love to look at pictures and watch videos. Use this to your advantage.It will build exposure for you.

7) The Rule of Twitter Search.

When you do a Twitter search, it is going to bring you a list of people who have a lot in common with you. Just go to search.Twitter.com and type in what you are searching for. You’ll find a lot of other Twitterers who are Tweeting about what interests you. You can build a list in your own area of expertise and then you can send Twitter direct messages to them. Make sure they are  messages of value and interest. Show them that you are an expert in this field. This gives you huge exposure. Whatever you do, like posting a message, uploading a video or photo, writing and publishing an article, or just commenting on another person’s message on the Twitter, it will show up on Twitter. Be seen, and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on Twitter .

You need to establish relationships and build a community to market to. But, if you are going to market on Twitter , then you need to at least get a blueprint of how and when to do it. The 7 Simple Rules to Success on Twitter hopefully gave you some tips and ideas in your social media marketing. Please let me know what you think and what  ideas you have.

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Here is a Twitter marketing tip. There are several ways to communicate on Twitter .

Which way you decide to use depends a lot on the type of message that you want to send.

It can be wide open for the whole world to see, or it can be a private Tweet for the recipients eyes only.

The most important thing on  Twitter is to be yourself and have fun. You will attract people who you like and have things in common with by just being you.

Here is a basic list of the ways to Tweet.

1. Basic Twitter is just like shouting to a friend on the street. You just type your message in the “What are you doing? ” space. But, be careful, cause the whole world can hear/see what you say. Choose your words carefully when you Twitter , so you don’t have to eat them. It’s important to use Spell Check too. You do have the option to delete your Tweet if you really screw it up.
2. @Replies are Twitter messages that you send back to someone who has Tweeted you. Or, when someone replies to a message you sent to them. It’s kind of like sending a text message from your cell phone. Of course all of your Twitter followers can see this type of message, so once again you need to be careful what you say. This is a great way to start a conversation or join in one. You can enter @ followed by the persons username to send a message to anyone. It helps you get their attention. These messages will also be stored in the @Replies section on your Twitter page so you can reference them later.
3. Direct messages are sent in two ways on Twitter . The first way is to just type the letter “d” followed by a space and then the persons username. You do not use the @ in this kind of  Twitter message.  The other way to send a direct Tweet is by replying to a Tweet in your Direct Messages section on your Twitter page.  You can only send direct messages to your Twitter followers and no one can see these messages but you and the one you’re Tweeting to.

Now that you know how to send messages with Twitter you need to get started building your list of followers. Twitter is rapidly becoming one of the best and cheapest marketing tools available online. Oh, and its a whole lot of fun too. Now get out there and start Twittering!

If you’re using Twitter and Facebook as a part of your marketing online plan, you might just want to know about the setting on Twitter that will automatically change your status on Facebook. It simply inserts your latest tweet. You won’t have to post on Facebook so often.

If you tweet what you’re doing every five minutes, this might annoy your Facebook friends. They probably won’t want to see your daily life on their Facebook wall, but if you Tweet conscientiously and your Tweets have value and good information your Facebook friends can use for their online marketing, it will be a good thing.

So here are the four easy steps to add Twitter to Facebook. Go to Twitter and if  you haven’t signed up yet, CLICK HERE

1. Go to Twitter and login.
2. Click on Settings (at the top of the page).
3. Fill out info and go about half way down to the “More Info URL” and look below it for the blue text in parentheses – “You can also add Twitter to your site here” and just click on the blue text link.
4. Then choose the site (like Facebook) where you want to add your Twitter updates and just follow the instructions there.They’ll walk you right through.

Hope this has helped. Please leave a comment below and let me know what questions you might have.

Blessings From My Kitchen Table.

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With all the job insecurity today, the internet is the hottest place to earn cash. If you’re planning to start an online business, then you need to know that although the internet can potentially generate a lot of cash for you, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to achieve success overnight. You still need to work hard, even when marketing online. Here is a great marketing tip for you.

If you want to become successful with a new online business, you need to market it on the internet. You need to remember that if you have a new website or blog, no one knows about it and if someone does knows it exists, they could care less. You have to market your products by marketing yourself and your blog or website. That’s how it works online.

It is also very important to remember that marketing on the internet is different from marketing a brick and mortar business.  Even the most experienced marketers in the real world can have hard time marketing online. It is a newer kind of marketing and it requires different strategies to make things sell.

There are free ways to market online. However, these free ways can be a real pain, and hard to learn. Unless you are a really good writer, it is often very hard to get people’s attention. If you are just a beginner in the world of internet marketing, then you might want to try out Facebook. Here, marketing is free, easy, effective, and is lot’s of fun.

Facebook is basically a social networking site, where each member builds their own network of friends. Here, people can communicate and have lots of fun with the different applications available. With millions of active subscribers and still continuing to grow, you will surely see that Facebook is a place to market your products or services.

You don’t have to worry about traffic on Facebook, as the amount of people logging in and out each day assure you of lots of clients. All you need to do is get them to your site.

After becoming a member at Facebook and completing your profile, you need to start building your own network of friends. When you build rapport and credibility with the people you meet, they will naturally be drawn to you. If you give them value and keep them interested, they will start seeing you as a leader in your niche of expertise.

The next step is to start using Facebook to market your products or services. Facebook is a great place to sell digital products or just about anything that comes to mind. You can start out small and if you keep your niche tight, you can build your store of products that people will come back for time and again.

Many people on Facebook form groups to help promote themselves as leaders. That leads to seminars and webinars that can build a substantial business. Just one weekly webinar can bring you in a very nice income.

Facebook Ads is is another way to earn money here. Facebook Ads are basically a pay per click advertising tool offered by Facebook to its members, and is used within the Facebook website. The great thing about Facebook Ads is that it will let you decide your target clients according to interests, age, gender and other general information. You will also be the one to decide the daily budget for the advertising.

So if you’re trying to start an online marketing business on a tight budget, I highly recommend using Facebook as one of your options. You can learn a lot here without it costing a bundle. Just be yourself and be honest and if nothing else, you’ll have a great list of friends.

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Have you set your keywords up on Twitter alert? If you use social marketing to grow your list, you need to.

If you don’t, you’ll never know when your next possible client is Tweeting about the very problem you can help him solve. You might miss a media contact who wants to interview you about your personal expertise! Some newbie might be looking for information you want to share.

Make sure to set up a wide variety of your own business keywords and phrases, and then go follow and respond to people appropriately.

For branding and seeing where you may want to comment, also set up some alerts for your name and your own domain name(s). Make sure to include any common misspellings or variations.

There are several good sites to set up Twitter alerts :

• One is at http://tweetlater.com.  they provide a bunch of great  Twitter tools, besides the alerts.  @dewaldp provides some wonderful customer service there.

• Another one is at  http://tweetbeep.com . They just came back online this week after some server challenges.  @mdjensen (Michael Jensen) is it’s creator.

• A relatively new one I just found is http://twilert.com made by @danleach.

Hope this helps and have a Twitterific day!

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Five Ways You Can Build Your Reputation With Social Networking
By Bob Jenkins

Are you using social networks to build your reputation online? Whether you already are or you are just getting started with sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Ning, building your online reputation is your biggest responsibility.

Here are five ways to make sure you do it right.

#1: Be Proud Of Being You

The first thing is, you have to be yourself. You have to be who you are. Because although you can get away with being fake for a little while, as soon as one person realizes that you’re not who you say you are, your reputation is destroyed almost instantly because of the power of social networking.

So be yourself. And don’t be afraid of being yourself. Realize that you have some gifts and some knowledge that people need to know about, and those that want to learn from you are going to gravitate towards you. Those that don’t think you’re worth listening to are basically going to ignore you. And it’s at their peril, so don’t worry about them.

#2: Transparency – Never Hide From Your Audience

The second thing about your reputation is you should try to be transparent at all times. This means you keep everything real with your audience.

For example, over the last year, I used social media to show you my move from Maryland to North Carolina, including drama with the movers, picking the house, and getting it set up. I also pulled back the curtain to show what it takes to run a product launch.

When I did my last product launch, I was Twittering every day what I was doing to get ready for this site. Most of the gurus out there would keep everything under lock and key, and I was being very clear, saying, “This is what I’m doing to get ready for this launch.” It actually helped me have a better launch, even though I told everybody exactly what I was going to be doing.

They didn’t think that they had some surprise or whatever like most people teach; they just were excited to be part of it and part of the story. So be transparent. Let people know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and they’re going to learn how to trust you.

#3: Be Positive For Positive Results

The third way to build your reputation is to be positive.

There are folks out there who generally can do a good job of being negative. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that to be a very long-term profitable strategy.

It may get you some attention at first and spark some controversy, but that’s not the way to go. Be looking forward to the optimistic of your industry, of your business and what the results are going to be.

It would be easy for you to go onto Twitter or onto Facebook and talk about how you’re having a bad day or this product sucks or this week sucks or this relationship sucks. But you’re not really there for a support network, per se.

You’ll find some of that. If you have something bad happen in your life, sharing it with your followers will be very therapeutic for you and you will get a lot of support back. But when you’re just blasting negative things out, you’re going to get negative things in return, usually.

So try to be positive as much as possible and look for the opportunities that are out there and look at them from that positive perspective.

#4: Build Your Reputation And They Will Come

The fourth thing you must do is to be patient. This is because, initially, your reputation is going to be built only by yourself and the first initial people who get to know you. But as time goes on and you get more followers and you build a larger network of friends and peers, your reputation will solidify to allow your business to grow.

Once it hits a tipping point, your reputation and business accelerates at a very quick pace.

So be patient and let it happen. Don’t try this stuff out for a week and then come back to me next week and say, “Well, it didn’t really work. I didn’t really get any results yet.” You’ve got to let social networking play out over a few weeks and then a couple months and so on. A year from now your business is going to be tremendously different compared to where it is right now.

#5: Contribute To The Conversation � Every Day!

The fifth thing about your reputation is you need to be someone that people look to as a contributor, not as a leech, not as a mooch, as a contributor.

You have to be willing to be involved in the conversation, and you have to be willing to give as much or even more than what you’re going to get in return. The people who do that are growing so fast it makes my head spin.

I feel that I’m a pretty giving person but I see some other folks out there that just keep on giving, giving, giving and they just build up a huge following and that social capital is a real asset to your business. So you need to make sure that you’re contributing as much as possible to the conversation.

I don’t mean that as just go around randomly and try to help people. Within your specific task, your specific industry, the things you know well, you need to be at the forefront of letting people know how to do what you know how to do without charging them money at first.

They’ll come and find your site and your products and they’ll pay you for that as time goes on and their needs grow. With social networking you need to be building your reputation up first.

If somebody has a question, you should be one of the first people who answers and you need to answer without reservation not just, “Oh, I answered that in my eBook; go buy it”. They’re going to find your eBook if you just talk to them and give them solutions to the problem they are struggling with at that moment.

Give people your input, your encouragement for them to get better at what they are trying to do.

Any little quick free advice you can give, give it.

Actively Build Your Reputation With Social Networking And Reap The Rewards

You’ve got to be in this for the reason of having fun and really building that relationship. Dollars will come, there’s no doubt about that. But first, connect with people and really help them out. Understand that they’ll become loyal followers of what you do and see you for who you are.

Follow these 5 steps to building your reputation online and you’ll not only beat your competition, you’ll have more fun doing it!

Bob Jenkins teaches business owners how to use internet marketing strategies effectively to attract more customers and get more sales without spending a fortune on advertising. Get more free social networking lessons at www.DiscoverSocialNetworking.com.

Recently I have been asked by a lot of friends, customers and colleagues if I Twitter .

Yep!!! I do.

At first I was slow to start and it took me a while to figure out what the big deal was, but every day I am finding new reasons to Twitter . In fact it has become my most productive social media form.

Need some money?

Twitter about a new product you like. (Make sure you’re an affiliate first.)

Want to grow a list?

Make lots of Tweets that have value and invoke interest. This is important , do not market constantly on Twitter . That list will wither up and die. You need to listen to Tweets and respond to them. Become friends with those who touch you in some way, because beautiful relationships can be formed this way. When people know and trust you, they will follow you and do what you do. Treat your Peeps like they are your family, with love and respect.

I want to share the way I Twitter with my readers, so here is my step-by-step method and checklist to quickly help you be successful on twitter. Whether you  are new to Twitter , or you’ve been around awhile, this stuff  is important.

What is twitter?

Twitter can be a fun way to keep in touch with your family and friends or to find new friends and business associates. So twitter is kind of like a personal blog, only with shorter and more frequent posts. It’s a "microblog," a communication tool you can access and use on the web. It can also integrate with text messages on your mobile phone.

When I see someone new following me, I want to know more about them. So I check out their Twitter profile, I read their bio, and click on their website. Sometimes I get a follower that is new to twitter and who doesn’t know how to set up their profile information. Some of these people are following lots of other folks, but not many follow them back.

One problem is Twitter’s instructions for setting up a new account. It’s missing something important, setting up your profile information. This needs to be done before following anyone, before your first Tweet. Your profile needs to include your photo, bio and your website.

I usually advise people to use their real name and photo. (I’ve been using Carolz_place a long time, so decided to keep it, as lots of people know me on Social Sites that way.) To make your name more readable, capitalize your user name, as in DenisFoley. (If you already have a twitter account, you can fix the capitalization in your account settings. As long as you only change the capitalization and don’t add or delete characters, you won’t hurt anything.) If your twitter ID is your company name or product name, you might want to use that.

Here is the checklist you need to follow.

Even if you have a Twitter account, double check each step to make sure you’ve done it completely, as they are all important.

✔ Step 1. Create an account at http://twitter.com using these guidelines.

• On the signup page, capitalize your first and last name, as in DenisFoley.
• Skip the next invitation page, which is… are your friends on Twitter? You’ll do it later in step 4.
• Skip the next page, the home page. You’ll update your status in step 3.

✔ Step 2. Set up your information for people to see.

• Click on the Settings link at the top of your twitter page.
• Fix the first text field (Name) so it is First name, space, Last name (with capitals).
• Set your time zone, URL, bio, and location. (Make sure your bio is interesting and attracts attention.)
• Click on the Devices tab if you want updates to come to your mobile phone. Enter your phone number.    (You can do this later if you want.)
• Click on the Picture tab, and upload your photo. (If you have one saved on your computer, click browse.)
• Click on the Design tab, and select a theme you like. (You can change this anytime, and we might learn how to do that in another post.)

✔ Step 3. Create your first status update.

• Click on the Home link at the top of the twitter page. It asks, “What are you doing?”
• Update your status so your future followers will know you are real. You can type anything; perhaps “Signed up for twitter. Setting up account.”
• Enter one or more updates.

✔ Step 4. Find your friends and new people to follow.

• Click on the Find People link at the top of the Twitter page.
• Then click on each of the tabs to find your friends by their name or email address, your address book, etc.
• Another tool for finding people you know or want to follow is http://search.twitter.com . Try typing their name or nickname, their website, or something you know them by.
• Now go looking for other interesting people. Read their profiles and check out their website before deciding to follow them. Then click follow, and send them a tweet that lets them know who you are or why you’re following them. Look for some who are "gurus" in the area you’re interested in. You’ll learn a lot from them.

✔ Step 5. Start engaging followers in meaningful conversation.

• Ask for advice. Ask questions. Ask how they’re doing.
• Offer tips and advice when you see someone asking for it.
• Be open in your conversation. Go with the flow. Don’t agree with everyone, dare to be different, be a leader.
• Talk with people, not at them.

OK, now your Twitter profile should be up and running and people will be able to get to know you quickly. Have fun with Twitter! And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, cause I’ll follow you back. Please let me know if this information helped you by leaving a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter @UserName. Thanks for stopping by.

Just got a twitter from Joel Comm. If you go to http://www.mytwittersurvey.com/ and fill out a quick survey for him, he will give you a FREE pdf. on “Twitter Secrets – How Short Messages Can Make a Big Difference to Your Business. ” The price is right and the info is great if you are trying to figure out Twitter.

Enjoy,

Carol