For those of you that know me, know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE twitter!  I have become a Twitter Junkie over the past year.  I have found that Twitter has really helped my business grow & it shows no signs of slowing down.  Twitter has allowed me to connect with people within the same industry as myself.  As well as connect with prospects looking for my Web & Graphic Design services.  Twitter is an amazing tool that can help you grow your business – if you are willing to take the time and learn the ropes.

When I wrote my first post on ‘How to get Twitter Followers‘, I was just getting my feet wet & was clueless to the power this social media marketing platform had.  Today, I am happy to report that I now have 1699 followers & averaging 7 new followers per day.

Since starting my Twitter Challenge, my website stats have almost tripled.  As a result, my business has increased greatly.  I have landed many new clients (and developed some amazing networking relationships) over the past few weeks & I am one happy camper!!  If you have any questions about how to grow your twitter community, CONTACT ME!!!

I ran across this article the other day:  HOW TO BECOME A TWITTER NINJA IN LESS THAN 30 MINUTES A DAY & was intrigued.  This article claims that he is adding 73 new followers per day & is re-tweeted 260 times per day & is spending less than thirty minutes a day on Twitter.  WOW…I am impressed!

I am going to take this recipe (and tweak it a tiny bit) for Twitter Success & implement it into my business.  Below are the ingredients:

Sign Up (these are free)

1. TwitterCounter
2. RetweetRank
3. HootSuite
4. Buffer
5. Google Reader

Your daily routine…Monday through Friday.

1. 6:00 AM:  Post links to you current blog post using Buffer’s “Post Now” function.
2. 6:01 AM:  Schedule another promotional tweet (of the same post) for 11:20 a.m. using HootSuite.
3. 6:02 AM:  Scan your “streams” (i.e., columns) in HootSuite for messages, mentions, and interesting tweets that might have been posted overnight.  Reply or retweet as appropriate.
4. 6:10 AM:  Create tweets with links to interesting news and blog posts. Once I have completed the previous task, I begin reading the days news and blog posts.  I am looking for articles to share with my followers.  I use Google Reader for this.  Only scan & look for headlines that catch your interest.  If so, read and then schedule a tweet about the article.  I like to use Buffer for this.
5. REPEAT TOMORROW!

Scheduling Note:  to the right is a screenshot of my Buffer schedule.  You can set it for times that work best for you.  I try to send 10 articles daily.

There you have it!  Who wants to jump in and take this challenge with me?  Leave a comment below & be sure to include your twitter username so I can follow you.  Together, we can grow our businesses!

Follow me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/bekdavis

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The people whom you follow on Twitter are people who share a common interest with you and your business. If you don’t figure out some way to organize all of your followers and the people whom you follow, you will have chaos.

At this point, you should create lists that help you to organize your followers into logical categories. Setting up Twitter lists is easy and very straightforward.

1. Go to your Twitter profile
2. Select the “Lists” button
3. Select “New List” from the drop-down menu
4. Enter the name of the new list. You should choose a name that you will remember easily
5. Before you actually create the list, you need to decide whether you want to make it public. Your public lists will appear on your profile and other people will be able to subscribe to those lists. It is your choice whether to share your lists with other people
6. Select the “Create List” button and you will see your new list on the main screen of your Twitter feed in the right column
7. Now that you have a new list in Twitter, you can start adding whichever followers you wish. Begin by selecting the Twitter handle for whichever follower you wish to add to your list and then select “Lists” on the profile of that particular follower

There are several different lists that you can use that will really benefit you and your business and which will help you to make the most out of Twitter, an amazing social media tool.

• Follow the influential people: The first step is to find influential people on Twitter who are a part of your niche. You should organize them into a list so that you are always kept current regarding the discussions that they are having with other people.
• Allow the influential people to follow you: If you want people in your niche to pay attention to you, find out if they have a Twitter account, create a list of people in that niche and add them to your list. After you have put them on your list, let them know. It is a wonderful way to begin a relationship.
• Understand who is following you: A wonderful way to learn about your Twitter followers is by engaging in discussions with them. It is critical that you really listen to them and not just converse on a superficial level. You will learn a great deal about them from your discussions. Through your engagement with them, you will start to gather more and more topics for the content that you share with other people online. You will gain insight into what they want to read about, whether their interests are in products and/or services. A good way to build up your list is by either exporting the Emails that you receive to your address book (if your list is not very long) or using a service to help you export and manage your list of followers.
• Keep up with the technology: Technology is changing so rapidly nowadays that you need to constantly learn about new offerings. The more you know, the more you will be positioning yourself as a savvy subject matter expert.
• Monitor the blogs that you choose to participate in: When it comes to the generation of content, blogging is an extremely powerful way to go. You should try to be the first person to comment so that you get the most attention for you and your business and the most online exposure. People will remember you if you consistently start discussions on interesting and educational topics. You should follow your favorite bloggers on Twitter, which will practically guarantee that you are among the first to learn new information. Bloggers very often choose Twitter as their first social media channel to post updated information.
• Pay close attention to your competition: If you want to learn and grow in your business, a smart way to do that is to watch what your competition is doing with Twitter. If you watch your strongest competitors, you will easily be able to understand what works and what doesn’t work.
• Create papers for your niche: In Twitter, you are able to post updates in a newspaper-like format. The content of those papers is drawn from your own tweets, #hashtags and Twitter lists. You are able to make a list of the sources that you like best and then create papers for the benefit of all of your Twitter followers so that you can showcase the best material from your followers’ updates. People will really love that.

A really great way to put a good list together is to examine the lists that the other experts in your niche put together. If you see that the experts have put a list of reputable people on their list, it is the right list for you to have. The following are good websites for finding lists that have been created by other people:

• TwitterCounter Top 100 Twitter Lists: This tracks statistics of Twitter users. You simply type in your Twitter address and your statistics will pop up
• TweepML: This allows you to maintain and share your lists with your Twitter followers
• TweetFind: This is a Twitter directory that contains Twitter lists. It is a smooth way to bring businesses and clients together
• Listorious: This is a 3rd-party website that manages an organized directory of Twitter lists. It allows you to search through the lists by category so that you can find the most popular lists
• Listatlas: This simplifies Twitter lists by ranking them based on the number of followers that are contained within any given list.

Organizing your Twitter lists

You are able to access all of the Twitter lists that you have put together and are following from your Twitter homepage. The management tools on Twitter can assist you with viewing all of your lists at the same time. For example, HootSuite and Tweetdeck, enable you to create columns for each one of your lists.

Conclusion

Now that you understand the concepts of how to create Twitter lists, it is up to you to start using it in the most effective way for you and your business. There is no limit on what you can do when it comes to Twitter lists. Your lists will grow over time and you will find yourself asking what you ever did before you used that tool for your business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Cohn

Follow me on Twitter to start making the most of Twitter Lists for your Business!  Twitter Profile

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Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

I must admit, I am fairly new to Twitter.  I just recently started Tweeting due to curiosity.  I did not understand that all the buzz was about.  So, I make it a point to start figuring this Tweeting / Twitter concept out.

Currently, I am trying to determine how to get more “Followers”. What do find that works best for you?  What steps do you take to build your Twitter Follower list?

• Do you advertise your twitter account?
• Do you treat your twitter profile like a free standing website?
• How often do you tweet?
• etc…

We welcome your ideas to share with our guests and clients via this website and our Twitter Profile.

Leave a comment below to share your tips! How do you get Twitter Followers?

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Create a profile – An interesting profile with the right amount of information is essential if you want people to visit your profile and stay there. You only have seven seconds to impress a customer. When you have a profile with your personal and business information and a pleasing photograph, you get people to take notice of you.

Find people – You can use Twitter natural search to find people who are interested in products related to your business. You must search everyday and keep on adding more people. Start following them and some of them will follow you back. This will start a communication and that will form the base for increasing your business.

Send tweets – Send tweets to people you think could be potential customers. Don’t look like a sales person. Send a minimum of 15 tweets a day. Make sure that your direct marketing tweets don’t make up for more than 20% of your total tweets for the day. Keep sending links to articles, blogs and videos that may interest them. You can also use various Twitter analytics tools to send automatic tweets.

Modify the database – keep deleting those who don’t follow you back. This will allow you to form a database of targeted audience who are likely to become your customers in the future.

Shorten your links – Since the space is minimum, you must shorten your links. You can use the website bit.ly to shorten your link. Shortening the link will give you more space to write.

Social media networking was a life changer for Hannah. Learn more about her Twitter campaigns athttp://getfreetwittertips.com – Free Twitter Tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hannah_M._Perry

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Twitter has quickly become one of the most popular social networks. Its has revolutionized the way we communicate with like-minded people in ways we never could have predicted. Unfortunately, the notion of having ‘followers’ is lost on many people. Today we are going to look at practical ways to build lasting business relationships on this network.

Twitter Follower Count Is Not Important

The original purpose of ‘follower-count’ was to give Twitter users a quick and simple way to gauge their audience. It allows you to see how many people you are following, and how many people are following you back. Unfortunately, something terrible happened. People learned how to game the system to inflate their follower-counts.

Users started taking advantage of auto-follow services to rapidly form false relationships. The basic idea is: if you follow someone, they will auto-follow you back as long as you continue to follow them. This works for a while, as long as both participants maintain a reasonable number of relationships.

Unfortunately, both parties repeat this process until they are following so many people that they cannot reasonably keep up. Everybody is in it solely to get their own message out. Its like entering a stadium packed with shouting people, in an attempt to have your message heard.

Participants Are Not Fooling Anyone But Themselves

Now, clearly people that use this tactic feel their is some motivation for doing so. Here are two potential reasons why they may think this strategy pays off. First, they may think Twitter is just all about the numbers. If they get thousands of followers, maybe a few will actually listen to what they have to say. Second, they may think that having a high follower count acts a social proof to make them appear important. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

People that use Twitter to form real business relationships can instantly spot this phony behavior. These are people that actually want to network, and would make excellent business contacts. However, they instantly lose all respect for auto-followers when they spot their follow-stats.

In other words, the people make the best business contacts ignore users engaging in this behavior. Nothing screams networking-amateur louder than someone trying to take advantage the system for personal gain. And, in a world where respect is hard to come by, this is a big reputation killer.

How To Build Real Twitter Relationships

If you want to build relationships with like-minded people, you need to focus on quality over quantity. Ignore your follower stats for a while, and focus on connecting with people that share your business goals. You may not have a massive audience, but you will have greater influence within your network of true followers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rick_Kettner

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Today, Twitter is one of the most powerful social networking website which is used by the internet marketers to build credibility and get instant traffic to their websites. If you have not yet included Twitter in your marketing plan, then I strongly recommend you doing it right now to get the best results out of your marketing efforts.

Here are my 5 powerful tips to get the most out of your Twitter marketing efforts:

1. Choose your networking partners very carefully

Only network with the relevant people from your industry like your business associates, competitors, and peers. You don’t have to accept every person who wants to follow you on Twitter if you don’t share similar interests. Instead, choose your networking partners carefully and look for people who work within your particular niche. Then, make sure to follow their progress, look for their advice, and of course, give some of your input as well to build your credibility.

2. Use Twitterfeed to maximize the potential of Twitter

Make sure to use Twitterfeed to help people in your network stay updated. Twitterfeed is basically the website’s response to an RSS feed, and it is one of the great way to automatically keep your network partners updated without them checking your page. It also allows things to be updated on their own, so you are not required to spend extra time telling everyone you have an update; it is all done for you.

3. Flash your Twitter profile wherever possible

Make sure to display your Twitter profile on your website, business cards, and in email signatures. Remind people in every possible way that you are on Twitter. You may get a snapshot of the home page of your Twitter profile and then display it on your actual website. Include the Twitter profile URL in your email signatures and if you like you can even get this print on your business card.

4. Include a video plug-in on your Twitter page

To make things little more exciting you may incorporate a video into your Twitter page. There are many people who do not know that now Twitter allows multimedia additions, so please feel free to include video plug-ins on your Twitter profile page. This will build your credibility in your niche and people would like to follow your postings more closely if you have video included in your profile.

5. Host different contests and events for your followers

Host different contests, surveys and events for your followers to keep them interested and engaged in your tweets. You may want to host a giveaway event on Twitter for your followers only. Freebies are always a guarantee of getting new followers and this will build your credibility in your niche.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Puneet_Kumar_Singhal

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To your success!

Bek Davis

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On my quest to better understand Twitter, I found this article.

Twitter is one of the social media. It is pretty much a blog combined with a chat room, so, basically, it allows you a platform to get your ideas out before a group of people in real time.

Before we get into the meat of my article, I want so share something amusing that happened as I was writing it: As I was dictating the title of my article, my dictation software spat out this sentence instead: “how to use torture as a marketing tool”

Back on topic: It might be helpful to briefly discuss how Twitter works: It is sort of like a walkie talkie in that only people who have switched on to your channel (by following you) can receive your messages. In the same way, you will only receive messages from those people whose channel you have switched on (by following them.)

So, the first order of business, after you join, is to start adding people to your followers list. You will then be switched into their channel and be able to receive their messages.

Who should you follow? Anyone who is interested in your niche. So if you are promoting a make money offer, you should follow people who are interested in making money. If you are promoting a dog training book or technique, then people interested in dogs would be appropriate. Use the “find people” tool at the top right of your screen when you are logged into your Twitter account and type in keywords related to your niche. You will then pull up a list of Twitter accounts tagged with those keywords. Pick one or two accounts as a “base” account out of that list and start following people who are following that account.

I should insert a word of caution here: Twitter does have a follower limit: you may follow no more than 2000 at a time until 2000 or more people are following you. After that point, you may follow an additional number of people no greater than 110% of the number of people following you.

Accordingly, you should be careful about whom you follow. Don’t feel the need to follow someone just because they’re following you. You want followers who will actually read your tweets, and are not just following you to increase their follower count.

Once people start following you, you will be able to send them messages. What should you “tweet” about? Well there’s no hard and fast rule here, other than you should always aim to send no more than one promotional message for every three messages that you send out. The reason for this is that you want to give your followers a reason to keep following you, and constant promotional messages (like one after the other, all day long) is probably the fastest way to get “unfollowed” really quickly.

If used judiciously, Twitter can be a great marketing resource. You can use it to build a list of followers highly interested in what you have to say. That, in Internet marketing terms, is like having money in the bank.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_McGraw

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I invite you and your friends to come along for the ride with me.

– Bek Davis

Follow me:  http://twitter.com/bekdavis

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