Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Getting - Twitter

from pc world

Eventually, for most of us anyway, it dawns on us that Twitter is a lot more than a worldwide stream of trivial, self-promotional text bombs. And when that happens, we begin to see the beauty in Twitter's simple, terse messaging system. Used in conjunction with a good client app like TweetDeck, Twitter becomes an active massively multi-user conversation to rival any other social medium. The more people you follow, the more enlightening that conversation can be. (Up to a point, of course. I've found that my own ability to process the incoming stream from folks I follow breaks down beyond the hundred mark.)

For those who do get it, or get over their misconceptions about it, Twitter really can be a tremendous tool for information gathering and social networking. Sure, you can follow big-name celebrities who aren't likely to follow you back or care about you, but you can also follow minor celebrities and luminaries who just might follow you back and respond to you. More importantly, you can follow people you actually know, and keep abreast of the events in their lives and--more importantly--the ideas they're sharing in a way that requires very little of your effort or time. If the people you follow are at all interesting, you'll probably learn something from their tweets. And if they're not, you can find new people to follow.

For those who are still trying to figure out what, if anything, Twitter has to offer them, here are a few easy tips for getting more out of the service:

1. Follow people. A lot of people.
Whether you're the last in your social group to sign up or the first, it helps to follow a whole lot of people. Don't just add the dozen or so of your friends who are tweeting; look up and add some of your favorite authors, newscasters, and others you trust to deliver information that has meaning for you. Don't be shy, and don't worry about offending them if you later decide to stop following them because they turn out to be too noisy, boring, or self-promotional for your tastes. Following or unfollowing someone is a one-click affair. But if you don't follow enough people to keep your stream filled with fresh tweets each day, you'll never get a real feel for how the conversation works.

2. Don't self-promote. (Or, at least, don't overdo it.)
The recent surge in Twitter's popularity has everyone thinking that joining Twitter is a smart way to boost their business, raise their public profile, or otherwise improve their social and monetary standing. In most cases, that's bull. If all you tweet about is your latest blog post, book, or other commercial venture, you'll quickly turn off most of the people who follow you. So even if you did sign up just for the hope of pecuniary gains, make a point of at least occasionally tweeting about something that real people might care about. If your followers are intrigued by the latest news story you've linked to, they might think twice about dumping you over all those get-rich-quick posts you've been spamming them with.

3. Use a Client App
Twitter's Web site is terrible. Even if it weren't constantly over capacity, its interface is static and unhelpful. But a decent client app will put all of Twitter's coolest features at your fingertips, as well as helpful third-party features like URL-shortening and photo support. I've tried most of the leading clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and my personal favorite across all three platforms is TweetDeck.

Conclusion

It doesn't really matter to me whether Twitter is a viable business unto itself. If it collapses, there are plenty of other social networks out there. And even if its user-retention rate were upwards of 80 percent, I doubt it would have any impact on Twitter's ability or inability to turn a profit. So the effect of newbies abandoning their accounts is probably a net gain for the rest of us in terms of reduced congestion on the site and fewer annoying, clueless tweets.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not dissing those who check it out and then bail, even though it may sound that way. As near as I can tell, almost everybody goes through that check-it-out-then-bail phase when they first try it out. What I am saying is that if you're not getting it, and it's not resonating with you, we won't miss you if you log off until you get a clue.

Robert Strohmeyer is a senior editor at PC World, and he tweets as @rstrohmeyer. You can follow him if you want to, and he may follow you back.

Twitter is fast becoming the most effective B2B marketing channel in the world.

Posted by: Kenneth Yu on The Total Package Website
April 28, 2009

So what’s the difference Twitter has that no other marketing medium possess?
Ambient Intimacy.

Let me explain.

Researcher Leisa Rechelt defines Ambient Intimacy as a state where in a social media setting, users are more intimate and responsive with others - in contrast to real life. Due to the anonymity of the online space, people have the tendency to let their guard down and will act in a way that belies the real-world trappings of social decorum.

Granted, this applies to all forms of social media including Facebook, Flickr and MySpace. However, this hyper-connectivity is amplified in Twitter more than all of them.

Here’s why …

  • Twitter is Safe. Your contact information is protected, and it takes just the push of a button to block a threat. As a result, people interact without the fear of intrusion.
  • Twitter is Real Time. Studies have shown that immediate interaction is the key to accelerating intimacy between two people.
  • Twitter is Short. With a 140 character limit, prospects will not think twice about baring their soul because brevity creates the illusion of security.

Here’s why this information should excite you. Since time immemorial, marketers have long been taught to “enter the conversation in your prospect’s mind.” To tap into it, engage it, answer it - Being the solution to their deep-seated problems. Creating an invulnerable bond and relationship.

The more effective you are at getting into the conversation, the more wildly successful you will be. Here’s the amazing thing …

Twitter is one big mental conversation. Getting into your prospect’s mind has never been easier. It’s almost telepathy!

This means all the persuasion tricks you know and love, take on new vital life in the Tweetasphere.

You probably can see Twitter’s business potential already, so here are three alternative uses of Twitter.

  1. Psychic Market Research

    Due to Ambient Intimacy, your prospect can give their unvarnished opinion about your service and product on their Twitter stream without reservation. Even better, your prospects Tweet their innermost hopes, dreams, and fears. This means that you’re only a click away from discovering your prospect’s dominant emotion and tailoring a marketing angle that they respond to.

    And you know what’s even more amazing? It’s all in real time! In fact, this unique Twitter trait has not been lost on Google, with all the recent rumors of acquisition flying around.

    You see, where Google is effective is finding out what people are searching for now, Twitter is effective in finding out what people are THINKING now. Imagine being able to execute marketing campaigns that do not just tap into what matters to people this month, week and day but THIS VERY MINUTE. Can you picture the soaring response rates?

  2. Become a Savior

    One of Jay Abraham’s famous teachings is the Strategy of Preeminence. It basically says once you position yourself as a go-to person in your niche and be a source of help, the money will follow because you’re perceived as an authority.

    In no other medium can you see this more vividly than on Twitter. People constantly Tweet for help all the time, which means if you’re observing, you can come to their rescue and be their knight-in-shining armor at their precise point of need.

    And you know what’s even more remarkable? The human mind can’t differentiate redemption coming in extended help or short 140 character Tweets? Your short Tweets can easily give you maven-hood status in record time if you know what to do!

  3. Network on Steroids

    Here’s another delicious point — top dogs and gurus are equally susceptible to Ambient Intimacy as much as the next person. And more often than not, they have not outsourced their Tweeting efforts yet, like they do with all other forms of communication.

    If you’re not too pushy with your own agenda and engage with them on the conversation that’s going on in their mind (Easy to see, because they’re Tweeting it), you’ll make friends fast.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Twitter the Marketing Tool Part 2

by Puppet Master on April 22, 2009 http://ow.ly/3yzi

1. Twitter has just had the Oprah Effect

As you know, Oprah is one of the most influential people on earth. Love her or hate her, her endorsements have turned otherwise obscure books into New York Times best-sellers; she is the reason why The Secret is the world-wide phenomenon it is today as opposed to a niche viral video.

And now, Oprah endorses Twitter above Facebook and Myspace and all the other social media of before.

It doesn’t take a detective to know that whatever Oprah endorses becomes successful.

We can already see the spike she’s caused; over 1.5 million more users were added on Twitter because of her arrival.

Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore have used Twitter and brought it into the mainstream market, but Oprah has just stepped in to open the door to a much wider demographic.

And here’s why it matters to you.

1. Now you have a fresh audience on Twitter. Twitter’s grown immensely over the last year (1000%) and it’s probably going to grow another 1000% in the next few months because of the Oprah endorsement.

Hence the tipping point.

2. The second point is the acceleration of a trend that’s already growing on Twitter, namely that the older demographics are the first to get on board the Twitter wagon.

The 25-35 year-olds and the 45-60 year olds are by far the biggest users of Twitter right now, as opposed to teenagers or kids.

The Oprah audience is largely of this demographic as well.

This demographic has money, is eager to do business, and have the disposable income that marketers and businesses covet.

It’s not a fact ignored by many corporations either, because tons of brands are getting on Twitter.

Although Twitter has one seventh or one-eighth of the audience of Facebook, there are more businesses on Twitter than there are on Facebook already.

In short,

(i) You have a new dimension of audience on Twitter

(ii) And for the first time in history, this early-adopter/cusp of mainstream audience is a group of people with money; people with a financial security and disposable income.

That’s really good for business when you have a marketing channel filled with people who have the money to spare.

2. The Pareto Principle is now in Full Force

You see, Oprah’s audiences have been dwindling due to some mistimed moves.

Her audience has been dropping but she’s still the most influential person on television (as far as I know). But what is happening is a very clever strategy especially in the recession period: the Pareto principle, which is, as you probably know, 20% of your customers contribute 80% of your sales.

This means that if you have an existing brand like Oprah or you’re a small business owner and you’re actually getting people to follow you or to subscribe to your Twitter channel without much promotion or pushing, or just by promoting it to your customers, they probably fall into the 20% of your customers because they’re willing to sign up to what they know if a marketing channel and they’re interested in what you have to say.

Twitter succeeds in being a filter of sorts between the 80% of your audience who don’t care so much about what you have to say vs. the 20% of your audience who really care and actually sign up to be hit from multiple marketing channels with more marketing angles by you.

This is really good because as you know, 2 out of the 3 ways to make money are (i) to sell to an existing audience and (ii) to increase the size of purchase for every transaction. Twitter does that really well; it creates a pre-sold audience that’s already interested in you and can create a 20% that’s already interested in you just like The Cult Of Mac.

And Oprah knows that — she knows who her 20% are, as opposed to the 80% nominal viewers; she knows who the consumers are who’ll buy from her over and over and over again.

As you know, the backend sales will normally surpass the front-end ones, and it’s this 20% of your buying population who’ll do that.

Twitter easily and effectively separates the nominal 80% from the 20% of raving followers.

And the beauty of Twitter is that through certain strategies, even that 80% who may be lukewarm to you on Twitter can be converted into your 20% raving followers ratio.

3. You — Like Oprah – Will Now Know What People Want

Oprah now has what is probably the most effective channel of knowing what people are thinking of or about at the moment. Remember that I’ve said before that Google is good for what people are searching for at the moment, while Twitter is good for what people are thinking of at the moment.

No market research is as immediate and as precise as what’s happening on Twitter at the moment.

Oprah now has all that information; she would know what her 300,000 fans have to say; she’d know their thoughts by simply using the ultimate, free research tool: Twitter.

If the celebrities are going in, in full force, to get this direct connection with their fans on Twitter, it’s best for you to go in and to know your customers in a more intimate way too because on Twitter you’ll probably have people tweeting you their hopes, dreams, fears — uncensored and in a very safe and personal setting.

As you may know when it comes to marketing research and focus groups, a lot of focus groups don’t really work simply because people in that kind of setting will give an answer they think you want to hear as opposed to what they really think.

On Twitter, it’s uncensored and spontaneous; you get a true feel for your market’s demographic and you can craft marketing angles one after the other to create really excellent response results.

4. You still have room to dominate this marketing channel

Stephen Pierce, the great internet wealth expert and motivation speaker said something really interesting recently. He said that it’s easier now to dominate channels that it is to dominate markets.

What does that mean? It means that it’s easier now to dominate a certain channel of marketing for a particular niche as opposed to dominating the niche itself (unless of course the niche is really small and is at its beginning stages).

We’ve reached a point where nearly any and every niche is crowded.

You go into the marketing niche and there’s a thousand pretenders; you go into the financial niche and there’s a thousand other people competing for your share.

What you can do is be an authority in a specific marketing niche. And because of the newness of Twitter and because of the pioneering aspect of Twitter you can go on Twitter now and be the expert in your field for that particular channel.

Because of Twitter’s mainstream acceptance, when you position yourself as a Twitter expert, you have a large inbuilt list of buyers and prospects that you can reach out to that will see you as an authority, as the channel expert in your field on Twitter.

There are many ways to dominate this channel, and many ways in which you can position yourself as an authority.

For me, the world of copywriting is somewhat saturated, but on Twitter I am my own man; I am ‘the king’ of copywriting and email marketing with close to ten times the followers of most copywriters on Twitter which gives me credibility in this niche on Twitter.

Twitter has given me the authority and the edge I otherwise wouldn’t have if I’d followed the traditional route.

That is why I urge you to sign up today so that you can dominate Twitter so that no one else can. This is first-mover knowledge, it’s first-mover intelligence whereby I teach you how to dominate Twitter, to be a Twitter expert and to claim your market share as much as possible.

It’s so easy to get really big on Twitter simply because it’s easy to get new followers fast.

Just tap into my secrets to find out how you can be wildly successful on Twitter.

The mantra of both my course, the Twitter Salvation System and my marketing is this, “psychology, not technology.” You may have the latest nifty Twitter tools that can enable you to spread your message spread far and wide, but if you can’t grasp the Twitter user’s mindset, you’ll never be able to sell a dime.

Instead of using tired “Buy or Die” tactics, I give you sound advice and demonstrate the full potential that my little labor of love can do for your business.

I used these principles to launch a 5 figure biz from scratch nearly exclusively using Twitter—and that was even before I discovered any of the Twitter tools. Purely by using the web interface we’d made $10k in 3 weeks—with no list, no name and very little money.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool

Twitter is the best Interenet Marketing tool to have arisen in recent times.

Its fast

Its direct

And its reach its unparalleled.

And now because of Oprah and Ashton Kucher - its growrth is unstoppable.

For instance - today April 27th Oprah has (let me look)...658,330 followers. And Ashton has 1,473,144 followers - you check when you read this. See if theres any growth there!

Remember one week before this _ Ashton had 1 million followers, and a week before that he had 860,00.

And 1 week ago - Oprah hadn't even started on twitter.

A friend of mine - not a celeb is hitting Twitters limit of 1,000 new followers a day, every day, the first hour of the day.

So, to be clear - there's growth available.

Now like all things Internet, Twitter will peak.

But it hasn't peaked yet - and if you want to reach a market - any market - twitter can do it.

Of course being micro- Twitter doesn't carry all the baggage- you need. Web sites and stores and email responders etc to back up this little wonder.

But Twitter gets you in the door, Twitter gets you the lists in double quick time.

You then only have to target and quantify the lists to turn them into leads, and then turn those leads into buyers.

That's old news

Its always getting the initial list that was the pain.

No More

Now there's twitter.

Whats the best way to use it?

Watch this space.

And fill in your e-mail up there on the right, to subscribe to the latest from the best minds in the twitterverse.

Hey I did.

So you just "got on" Twitter and - what is this? - where is everybody? - where is this twitter universe?

To begin:-

Twitter is a mini-blog - a blog where you can only use 140 characters (letters and spaces) to create your masterpiece.

If you've been on Facebook recently its like Facebook "Whats on your Mind" without all the other stuff.

Its micro-blog.

Its minimalist blog.

And if your blog won’t go it’s because you're over the 140 limit, edit edit edit.

And if you want to add a url to your wonderful mini-blog use one of the url shortners (thats why you see all those weird tiny urls and 'bit.ly things) saves space.

Heres link for one (of the many); http://www.tiny.cc/

The best way to use Twitter is to tweet (write the mini-blog) and tweet and tweet and see if you can find someone to tweet with and then...well onward.

There's hundreds of twitter apps out there to enhance and confuse - so have at it, all.

For detailed explanation of Twitter, and its set up and all that - this Getting started guide by Al Ferretti et al. is excellent - link here -http://darrenmonroe.com/cooldwnlds/Jumpstart.pdf

And always - ALWAYS - keep in mind, Twitter is growing so fast , the application and Twitter.com is always being overwhelmed. So expect - hangs and stalls, plus your picture to suddenly disappear, your background to disappear, and when you try to reapply from "settings" nothing happens, then it does, then it doesn't - Twitter is very busy.

Then - the dreaded Fail Whale





That means Twitter is overloaded again. But it'll be back.

BTW great free background at twitbacks http://www.twitbacks.com/

And twitpics is where you post all your , well - pics http://twitpic.com/

But

But

The best way to see the "twitter world" is to use something like TweetDeck (its free).


Click on this link here to download it

http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

TweetDeck also allows you to tweet away (create small messages on Twitter) without 'hangs' 'crashes' or other annoying things the overworked Twitter program does.


Open Tweetdeck, open "All friends" "Direct Replies" and search your twitter name and open that column. Now you will see anything that relates to you. But, of course if you are not following anyone or anyone following you -its kinda empty.

So..

Start searching terms you are interested in, and you will see all 'tweets' that have that term being used.

On tweetdeck - on settings the spanner icon - check box in 'General tab so that "opens profile in web page"


Now get "social" - anyone, I mean anyone your interested in - "follow". On TweetDeck that means put your mouse on their picture or icon, and 4 boxes appear left-click on the * star box, bottom right and 'mouse over" user to "follow" - click - you are following that person.

If you want to see that person profile on Twitter itself, double click his picture or icon and the twitter page will open (you may have to sign in -again).

The thing about Twitter, the more people you follow, the more follow you back. They dont have to, but they probably will if you are not a complete - you know - loser - (but then the losers will follow you so...)

For how to block the annoyers - click here

Yea - But What should I tweet? What should I say?

If you use Facebook or other sites - that's not your question.

Just remember Twitter is a "micro-blog" so everything is happening very fast out there in Twitter World. So Tweet away and it will-maybe disappear instantly - or someone will reply or ReTweet or who knows. Most likely if your getting started - nothing will happen - you'll send it out there and...nothing...

But remember, there are other people, millions of other people out there, with their searches open looking for terms and phrases they are interested in - so Tweet what interest you (remember 140 characters - if the tweet isn't going when you click - too many characters - see its telling you - delete , be sparse

Like any activity that you are new to - do something. Make mistakes, do it wrong - justy do it. The more you do it, the more you learn

And there are a gazillion guides which you will stumble across as you move through the Twitter World - glance through some, ignore many - have fun

Remember it is a Social network - a communication network, so respond, reply (to anyone) and interact - its Social ( did I say that already?)

Here are some links to browse get some idea, and confidence.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/07/26/twitter-for-beginners-5-things-to-do-as-a-new-twitter-user/

http://davefleet.com/2008/10/practical-101s-getting-started-with-twitter/ Blog

http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries Twitter Home

http://twitterthings.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html "Getting" Twitter

Remember Best thing - Do something, write something, anything.

And give it (twitter) and you time to get to know each other

Check back here for more info, as you grow, and I grow.

If you want irregular email tips on twitter and all the twitter world, sign up for an email on the right - your right - other right -( I think its the right)-over there anyway-at the top - you'll find it.

Fill it in, and we'll send you stuff.



What is Twitter

Simply put, a Tweet is a message sent on Twitter. To send or receive a Tweet, you have to create a free account with Twitter. You also need to have friends and contacts with Twitter accounts -- otherwise you're typing to the void. Of course, you could use Twitter as a blog and keep all of your Tweets public, meaning anyone could read them on your personal Twitter profile page. But if you want to use Twitter as a way to keep in touch with friends, you'll need to convince them to sign up, too.


Twitter public timeline
Photo courtesy Twitter, Inc.
Twitter's time line displays the latest public Tweets sent across the network.

Once you have an account, you can begin building your network of contacts. You can invite other users to receive your Tweets, and you can follow other members' posts. As you receive Tweets, you may discover you're looking into only part of a conversation. You'll see your contact's posts, but if he or she is sending messages in response to someone who isn't in your network, you won't see the other person's messages.

Tweets have a few limitations, mostly due to the fact that Twitter's design relies heavily on cell phone text messages. Tweets can only have up to 140 characters before the system cuts off the rest of the message for cell phone users. Members can read full Tweets on their Twitter Web pages or by using a third-party developer's desktop or Web-based application.

Just Make It Short
Some people call Twitter micro-blogging -- very short messages. Users can update people about what's going on, like a blog, but the messages themselves are limited in length by system constraints.

Tweets can only contain text -- members can't include pictures, video or other computer files with Tweet messages. Members who want people in their network to look at multimedia content must find a Web page to host the files, then send a message containing the page's address to their networks. Twitter converts all addresses more than 30 characters in length into tiny URLs -- links that compress the full Web site address to conserve space.

Twitter makes it easy to opt into or out of networks. If you join Twitter and find that you're being bombarded by Tweets from a particular member, you can choose to stop following his or her feed. All you have to do is send a message to Twitter that says "off," plus the chatty member's user name. Later, if you find that you miss the sender's updates, you can type "follow," plus the user's name. As long as the sender has kept you in his or her network, you'll start receiving those messages again.

TweetiquetteOn the Twitter fan wiki, you can find a few guidelines for proper Tweets:

  • Use discretion -- if the subject matter is sensitive, take it off Twitter.
  • Don't impersonate other users.
  • Avoid using profanity excessively.
  • Try to use restraint -- don't bury your network under an avalanche of Tweets.
  • For 2 Free Twitter hints and guidebooks - click here