Twitter Manual 1.1

Copyright © 2008-2009 Brian Adrian –All Rights Reserved Legal Notices: The Publisher has endeavored to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this work, not withstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet. The author of this manual also makes no representation or warranty with respect to the applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this manual. The Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional. Like anything else in life, no guarantee of income is made. You are advised to use your own wise judgment and due diligence in applying the information within this manual to your circumstances and condition. This book in not intended to be a source of professional, legal, financial, and/or accounting advice. Where these subjects are concerned, you are advised to seek competent advice from professionals. Publisher is not affiliated in any way with most of the resources included in this e-book. Trademark Notice: All rights of the copyright holders are reserved and rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in a manner meant to benefit the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Authorship is a royal priesthood; but woe to him who rashly lays unhallowed hands on the ark or altar, professing a zeal for the welfare of the race, only to secure his own selfish ends. -- Horace Greeley With this in mind I humbly present this work with an eye toward enlightening those who wish for or need such enlightening. Instead of rehashing in my mind the toil which went into writing this document, I think on the joy of knowing someone in need received this information without paying a dime. Feel free to give the Twitter Manual to your subscribers, friends, business partners; providing no part of it's contents are changed. Make sure you are registered for updates of this work by visiting: http://www.twittermanual.com/ Let's connect on the site of your choice. Facebook Youtube Twitter BlogTalkRadio Linkdin Brian Adrian Table of Contents Page Preface To Edition 1.1 Foreword: The Jewel of Web 2.0/Social Media Chapter 1. The Basics of Your Twitter Account. Chapter 2. Using Your Twitter Account Chapter 3. Building Your Twitter Following Chapter 4. Popular Posting Tools Chapter 5. Research and Conversation/Friend Management Chapter 6. Viral Marketing and Massive Exposure Chapter 7. Learning from Others x xi 1 14 19 26 33 39 48 Preface To Edition 1.1 So much has happened in the world of Twitter since the original release of this manual. From a relatively small and close knit community Twitter has grown into a global powerhouse with both the benefits and problems that come with such massive exposure and popularity. Most “old school” Twitter users yearned for this, yet also feared it. Among the most pressing problems of Twitters astronomical growth is the ever increasing spam problem. Most spam is the result of people using software to generate hundreds and even thousands of accounts. They will then use auto-follow tools to gradually trick others into looking at their profile and/or following back. Sometimes this can make it hard to find REAL people. Though this problem has been around since I started using Twitter it has reached all new heights. I doubt if any of the scammers/spammers care about you or your family. They want your money. Pure and simple. GREED. Important Twitter rules. The arrival of tens of millions isn't the only new thing in the world of Twitter. New applications arrive daily and some of them are true works of genius. These tools and resources are the primary reason for this update, though most have been excluded as “me too”, useless, or overly self serving to the creator. So, the world of Twitter still has extreme value to those who keep their sense of wonder intact. It hasn't been ruined or reached it's peak. In all probability Twitter will be around for the foreseeable future despite the moves of Facebook and Google to compete with it. After you read this manual and share it with others be sure to come back to it as a reference point as needed. Enjoy! x Foreword: The Jewel of Web 2.0/Social Media Twitter. Probably you were badgered to join Twitter or you heard from a thought leader that Twitter was the place to be for your social media marketing. Maybe you thought it sounded like hype at first and didn't join right away. Maybe you did join but didn't do anything because you didn't see what the big deal was. As a social media marketer I have been in the Web 2.0 trenches for 3 and a half years. I've studied and then applied that knowledge to getting more traffic, clients, business partners and even friends. I know about and use hundreds of social media tools so I can tell you honestly: Twitter is where I would start if I had to do it all over again. The hype you heard about Twitter is true. Yes, it's true. BUT, you must work it. Twitter is a tool and like most tools it needs YOU to work. Despite the attempts of many to automate relationships (What the hell is an automated relationship? Sounds horrible.), I have yet to see it accomplished. True relationships require YOU. Quality social media campaigns require many different resources to be effective. Without the proper use of blogging, video, audio, micro-blogging, press releases, ect. a social media campaign is doomed for failure. All of these tools are important. People who scoff at Twitter and the micro-blogging concept are losing out on what may be one of the most important emerging traffic tools currently on the internet. Though Twitter is great for covering real time happening now news coverage and convenient for easy video and audio sharing, it is less a jump forward in communication as a culmination of the decades long shift of advertising power. Twitter is one of those tools foreshadowing the future of the internet. Far less will we see advertising against our will. We will choose the ads we want. On Twitter we do this by choosing who we want to follow. If we change our minds we can choose to unfollow anyone at any time. This permission based atmosphere leads to stronger communication between customer and brand. xi To say Twitter is the end all would be silly. Something better always comes along. But to say it's insignificant, or even worse, a waste of time, is to not fully comprehend it's awesome power. If you have already been tweeting for awhile you may wish to skip the first chapter. If you are at the stage where you're looking for new ideas to increase your following I would suggest you start with chapter 3. Remember, the information in this ebook has been compiled through hours of online investigation, but some of the resources mentioned may be obsolete as soon as this is released. Some others may fold up and be parked at GoDaddy. The internet changes quickly. New Twitter resources appear almost everyday and as soon as information is compiled into any kind of list it is out of date. Think of all lists in this ebook as a place to start. Also, due to the dual use of many resources you will find some resources listed in multiple sections. This has been done sparingly to avoid any confusion. One last thing: All of these resources are NOT created equal. Some cost money and are only referenced here for the more advanced reader. To learn the language of Twitter be sure to visit: Twittonary: Find Twitter related words using this handy search tool. Twictionary: List of Twitter words and meanings in wiki form. xii Chapter 1. The Basics of Your Twitter Account Welcome to the world of Twitter, a micro-blogging or status update platform. Think blogging but mini or micro. Your updates may only be up to 140 characters. When you write a new blogpost, article, Squidoo lens, create a new video or just about anything else, be sure to post the link on Twitter. People will see your tweets (a tweet is an update) and they may click the link you are tweeting about. You don't even have to log-in to post as Twitter integrates your cell phone, instant messaging, Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo, Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress and many other popular platforms. Twitter can help ANYONE do the following: ● Brand yourself, your businesses or your products by fostering market awareness with your twitter postings. Simply by answering questions in your area of expertise you can build a know, like, and trust with people you have never met outside of Twitter. Find a niche and dig in! A year from now you want to be heavily entrenched in your market, then when people new to Twitter find you they will recognize you for the leader you are. Easily find services, coaches, trainers, virtual assistants, celebrities, news outlets, and almost anything else. If it's not already on Twitter it soon will be. Build a crescendo of excitement for your new launches by providing content rich posts that keep your followers in step with your launch preparations. Get your followers emotionally involved in the story of your product or launch by letting them participate in review and feedback, product creation and/or product naming. They will wait in anticipation for your product or service to come to market and be among your first buyers. Page 1 ● ● ● Connect with others of like mind to form life long relationships. Don't think it can happen? Are you just joining us in the social networking revolution? Setting up your Twitter account: When you visit http://www.twitter.com/ you will notice a “sign up now” link at the right side halfway down the page. This will take you to the sign up page where you will make sure you pick a good user name that best describes you, your niche or your business. This will help connect you to those people searching for information on your area of expertise. That's right: Think keywords. You may wish to use your real name or your business name as Page 2 long as it's short. Don't pick anything people will have a hard time remembering or a hard time spelling. The sign up page is displayed below: When you click the “Create my account” button you will be directed to this next page so you will be able to easily connect with anyone you know who is currently using Twitter. Page 3 You may wish to click the “skip” button if none of your current friends are using Twitter or if you would rather have your account set up before your friends are invited to look at it. By clicking “skip” you will see the following page: Page 4 You can choose to follow some celebrities if you want. These are not usually the kind of people who care to develop real relationships with anyone. If you click the “Skip this step” button you will see: This is your homepage. On the top right side of your homepage (under your picture and user name) is the stats. Above following is the number of peoples updates you are following. The number above followers is how many people are following you and your updates. The number above updates is how many times you have posted on Twitter. Under these numbers is the Home tab. Home: Your homepage is where you will communicate with others and view their tweets. Don't be shy, type in your first update. Let the Page 5 world know your setting up your Twitter account. When you begin following others their posts will appear under your status update box. By hovering your mouse over a post you will notice a star and an arrow to the right of the post. Favorite a post with the star and reply to a post with the arrow. @username in the beginning of a message will send your message to the recipients reply box. In this example someone could type @tweetmanual in the beginning of a message and it will show up in this tab or box. here. These messages are only viewed by you. appears in this tab. @Username: All replies to your posts go here. Typing Direct Messages: Every message sent to you directly is located Favorites: When you favorite a post (yours or otherwise) it Search: Search for conversations or people. follow. Following: This tab will be full of pictures of those you chose to At the top right of the page, above your user name, is a group of buttons. Home: Same as the other home button as it will direct you to your homepage. Profile: This button will direct you to your profile page. Your profile page will contain all of your updates. This is the page people see when they look at your profile or account. They will see your Page 6 name, location, website and a short bio. By hovering your mouse over your updates you can click the star to favorite and the trashcan to remove any of your tweets. You can also use the star to favorite other peoples tweets when you find them valuable. Find People: Located at top right of homepage this allows you to access your email accounts to see if you have contacts already using Twitter. Great tool. Once your account is set up and looking presentable this tool should be put to use. your website or blog address. Quality and inquisitive traffic will flow through this link. Also create a short bio and be sure to include your name and location. People will find you through searches by the keywords in your bio, your name, and your location. THINK MORE KEYWORDS. Settings: On the main Settings page you will need to type in Help: If you are ever in need you could click this button, but that's what your new twitter friends are for, right? People helping people. BUT if you feel you must go outside of your twitter friends this is a great place for info. SignOut: Log out of your account. Within the Settings you will see the following tabs: Account: Manage your name, user name, email, time zone, URL (your blog or site), bio, location and language. Page 7 The Account Page: Be sure to notice under the more info URL box is a button to add Twitter to your site or blog. You could also make your updates private, but many Twitter users are hesitant to begin following someone when Page 8 they can't even see what type of things they talk about. Password: Change your password. Change Password Page: You know what to do here. Just want to be thorough. ;-) messages. Devices: Use your mobile phone to send and receive twitter The Devices Page: Page 9 Send and receive twitter messages on the go. Experts tend to agree over 90% of text messages are opened. Talk about almost guaranteed eyeballs to your offers. What if you build a solid relationship as the foundation BEFORE you ever offer anything? Of course it's always beneficial to build know, like, and trust. You already knew that. That's why your so intrigued with Twitter. You see the potential for building relationships that could very well last a lifetime. Notices: Manage Twitter email subscription and notifications. The Notices Page: If your relatively new to Twitter I would check all the boxes except the auto nudge. The rush of being notified when you have a new follower is the greatest when you are new and can help re-energize you to overcome the frustrations of learning a new tool. If you are worried about a cluttered email inbox this probably isn't for you. Page 10 Show me all @ replies should be selected if you want to keep up with everyone talking to you or about you. At first it's a must in my opinion. Later, when you start using other tools to monitor your Twitter relationships you can come back and change it if you wish. image of your product or niche, but always remember a picture of YOU works best. The Picture Page: Picture: Make sure you include your picture or an appropriate If you are promoting a company or product exclusively you may get away with having a picture or logo, but why handicap yourself? Even if you are working for someone else people want to see you. They don't much care for avatars, or logos. They want you. If you want people to remember you provide them a face to recognize. People are good at remembering faces, but struggle with names. Make sure you are taking advantage of that. Twitter. Design: Make a custom background or select a theme provided by Page 11 The Design Page: Manipulate design colors and background image. A designer I'm not, but are you? Here is your chance to be unique! Load a background image for your homepage to give your profile a custom look and feel. This is a great place to continue your branding. Learn more about backgrounds: FreeTwitterDesigner: Personalize your own Twitter background. Log-in with Twitter to have your design loaded for you. Page 12 FreeTweets: Free Twitter backgrounds. MyTweetSpace: Customize your background. Tweetbacks: More free customizable Twitter backgrounds. Twitbacks: Even more free customizable Twitter backgrounds. PrettyTweet: Edit background for free online. PrincessTimeToys: These free twitter backgrounds have the girl in mind. The Closet Entrepreneur: Learn to create your own background using PowerPoint. Page 13 Chapter 2. Using Your Twitter Account Twitter asks us one question: Though you can tweet about anything, “What are you doing?” is a great place to start. You could type your first tweet as “I'm setting up my Twitter account”. You type in the box, press the update and your tweet is sent into the public twitter stream. Go ahead and post some more. Get the feel for it. Dance like nobody is watching. Most people don't pay attention to the public stream anyway and by doing some practice posts your profile won't appear unused. Share yourself. Posting Tips ● Be easy and natural. Never force a product or service down your followers throats. Never retweet or repost an update or the same link over and over again. Share quality links you find on twitter if your followers would benefit from them. ● ● ● A tweet could be thought of as a headline. If your good at writing headlines using Twitter couldn't be easier. If you're a novice at creating headlines Twitter has to be the most cost effective place to practice. After all, it is free. Page 14 The key to posting in twitter is creating a flow of conversations with people while mixing in a blend of meaningful news and/or resources. Be supportive of other Twitter users and help with your expertise when applicable. This is SOCIAL networking. Every update shouldn't be a sales pitch. ASK QUESTIONS. How better to get a discussion started? Get to know people. Bond with them over time and you can't lose. ONE WARNING: By participating in social media the odds are good you will get burnt or flamed or defamed or any other unpleasant word you choose to use. If you don't it could be a sign of social invisibility. Social invisibility is probably worse than being flamed for making a stupid statement. Building Goodwill and Friendship The holy grail of building friendships has to be the act of being nice. Simple, right? We all slip up here from time to time, but by being nice the seeds of friendship are planted. Be nice always and use the following techniques to augment your efforts. RT/Retweet/Retweeting: This is a great way to introduce your followers to new people and interesting information by personal recommendation. As an example: I send a tweet talking about a new blog post. You follow the link, read the blogpost and think to yourself, "Self, there is really good information in that blogpost." You copy and paste my tweet being sure to place RT at the beginning and send it to your followers. Your sending visitors to my recommendation as a sign of goodwill and hopefully good content. Simple enough: you help others spread their message and if they are appreciative of your effort they will do the same for you in the future. Page 15 Retweeting Tips (where applicable): ● Don't retweet low grade information in a bid to be more popular with the original tweeter. This will often backfire and cost you followers. Only retweet if you actually looked at the site/source your recommending. ● @username: This is the act of sending someone a message directly to their mentions inbox. To reply back to a tweet directed at you click the arrow (reply button) beside the tweet and their @username will be populated into your update bar automatically. This messaging technique will also send the message into the reply tab of the receiver. *NOTE: When you @reply or @mention someone the only followers of yours to see that tweet are those who also follow the person you are messaging. There are pros and cons to this, but that's how it stands at time of writing. Often Abused: The Direct Message USE SPARINGLY The direct message (DM) is for more personal communication with your Twitter friends. Only users following you will receive your direct messages. Send a direct message by viewing the right side of their homepage under Actions. Click message. Your followers can view your message on their twitter page under Direct Messages and in their email if their settings are set to do so. Many complain about autoposted direct messages. Tread lightly. Example: If I were to send a direct message to my friend Rick Cooper I could visit his profile page @RickCooper, scroll halfway down the page on the right and under Actions I would click message. Page 16 After I click message I see this: I simply type my message and click the send button at the lower right corner. EASY. Message someone directly from your update page by placing a D before their username, as in: D @brianadrian Don't forget the space between the D and username. Page 17 Core Tweets These are quality tweets with a long shelf life. Think of your Twitter stream as a television station. It's perfectly normal to repeat or rerun a tweet of value as long as it's not back to back to the original post. People are online at different times and different days or may miss your message even if they happen to be on Twitter when you first post it. Educational audios, videos, p.d.f's, and blogposts can make great core tweets. In most cases a salespage would be a poor choice for a core tweet and an affiliate salespage as a core tweet may well deserve hanging. These repeatable or core tweets should be crafted with the utmost attention to details such as SEO quality and retweetability. You often won't know how well a tweet works until after you tweet it. Test. Pay attention. Take note. Keep record. It's worth it. Search-Targeted Tweets These tweets are targeted toward specific search phrases. SEO quality is everything with search targeted tweets. If someone searches a keyword phrase in your niche or about one of your (or a competitor's) products it's important for you to be seen here. The “here” being Twitter Search. This will call for some hard work on your part. You must first think of phrases people may use when they search for your solution. Do you want to target people looking for more information or people looking to buy now? Maybe you want to target both types? As you compile your list of possible keyword phrases remember to use the question (?) mark at the end of your phrases. You would then craft your tweet with the question in it, post it to Twitter, and now when someone searches that particular phrase they will see your tweet. Target long-tail keyword phrases people don't normally use in their tweets, but still search. Free Keyword Tool. Page 18 Chapter 3. Building Your Twitter Following Other than providing quality content and connecting with your existing followers, building your follower list should be the next most important objective you have. Remember, people will judge you on whether or not you have a large following. It happens. People are hesitant to follow someone if no one else is doing so. No social proof equals no following. Think chicken or the egg. You need a following to get a bigger following. The ideas below could provide the catalyst you need to start building your readership, or following. Your Personal Contact Lists Your List: If you are a marketer you can always go to your faithful readers/email subscribers. (If you are not building your list you need to be shot. Just kidding. No, seriously if you are a marketer and you are not building your list YOU really do NEED TO BE SHOT. Again, just kidding. Kind of. Start building your list already.) Let your faithful subscribers know you are on Twitter. Invite them to follow you. Ask. If you have a decent relationship with your list you may be surprised how fast you can build a small and loyal Twitter following. of your homepage. This will search your email contact list for people already using Twitter. Your Email Contacts: Located in the Find People button at top Visit Twitter Directories Twitter directories may be the best way to find serious and active twitter users. After all they did take the time to list themselves. GeoFollow: Location based directory. Page 19 LocalTweeps: Lists twitter users by zip code. follow. Also helps others recommend and find you. MrTweet: Helps you find influencer's and interesting people to Tweeplepages: Directory by interests. in specific niches. If you have a youtube, delicious, digg, facebook, friendfeed, identica, linkedin, magnolia, plurk, spoink or stumbleupon profiles you can link to them. based on their location. Twellow: Categorizes twitter users making it easier to find people Twellowhood: This geographical tool by Twellow. Find people Twibs: Business directory with reviews. Twibes: This is a place for Twitter Groups rather than a directory but can be used in much the same way. Find people of like mind based on interests. They will follow. TwitDirectory: The name says it all. Let people know you exist. Twindexx: Endorse your favorite Twitter users. alright if you repost. You may get some followers out of here. One more place for exposure. of packs or whole categories. Recommend users by topic or geography. Twisky: Allows you to be featured for 36 hours, but appears to be TwitterPacks: Find users listed by category. Allows auto following TwitterStates: Directory by state. leaders in your niche and start following. People will find your listing and follow you. Page 20 JustTweetIt: Catagorizes twitter users. Growing like mad! Find the WeFollow: Another great Twitter directory. Search for Followers (Find like minds!) ChirpCity: Search by city and topics. NearbyTweets: Find the locals talking about the things important to you. Topsy: Search for experts. SUPER neat social media search tool. User Search: Located at the top of you twitter page. This allows you to find people to follow by searching keywords in your niche. You may wish to search the names of experts you already know about as many of them are probably using Twitter. TwitterLocal: This Adobe AIR based application allows you to find tweets based on location. TwitterSearch: Search Twitter conversations in real time. Get the scoop on who is saying what while they are saying it. You can find great people to follow by simply typing in your favorite topic or niche. Great way to find like minded individuals. AdvancedTwitterSearch: Great way to search for people using Twitter in your area. TwitDir: find the top 100 followers, followed and more. Great for finding the very top influencer's. Twithority: Authority based search engine for Twitter. Twitority: Sister to Twithority. Great way to find thought leaders. Twubble: Search your friend graph and select people you may want to follow. Doesn't work well with BIG accounts. Page 21 WhoShouldiFollow: Find people based on your friends. Bulk Following and Unfollowing Before you use these tools make sure you understand Twitters rules on “follower churn”. It's getting easier all the time to have your account suspended if you engage in mass following and unfollowing. Like I've stated before: be careful, use these tools in moderation. Buzzom: Find and follow. (Be careful of “follower churn”) Mycleenr Unfollow those who haven't updated lately. Socialtoo Paid bulk unfollow Tweepular Bulk follow, unfollow other specific users. Tweetspinner Follow by keyword, location, or if they are following Twitterator:Follow a group of people all at once by pointing to a Twollo: Auto-follow based on keywords. Twollow: Auto-follow based on keywords. list of twitter usernames or enter them manually. Target A Niche Leader If you visit the page of a leader in your niche you can click on the link representing their followers (or better yet those THEY FOLLOW). Start following these people and a certain percentage of them will follow you as well. Go slow with this. Twitter limits the number of people you can follow to 2,000 UNTIL you have roughly 2,000 people following you. Page 22 After you reach 2,000 followers you can follow 10% more than are following you. Twitter has also experimented with limiting the number of times you can follow in a day. Currently it stands at 1,000 follows a day but at one time was limited to a low 500 follows a day. If you find yourself out of balance (following too many more than follow you) or Twitter stops letting you invite any more people you can click the tab representing who you are following and manually stop following those who didn't follow you back. You may also choose to use one of the unfollowing tools listed above. Once Twitter is happy with the balance of followers to followed you can begin following others again. Make sure you are giving people enough time to follow you back before you go on an unfollowing spree. I know it's hard to believe but everyone isn't on Twitter everyday. (I know! What the hell are they thinking!?) Note: Certain circles of Twitter (call them purists) frown on following others to get them to follow you. But how would you ever meet the majority of people unless you take the first action? In many cases purists don't think about this because they are already celebrities or famous for something. People come to them. Be a purist if you wish, the rest of us will use Twitter to connect with the masses. Following the thought leaders in your industry or niche is also a key to being visible to others. Since people typically follow those who follow thought leaders you will be placing yourself in front of them. Some of these will be real quality people and not just spammers. Searching, Directories and following others will all help you build a larger following if you are willing to work hard. Now, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to find some people to follow. Some of these people will follow you and you will interact with them. You will keep the tweeting about your business or products at a minimum and you will remember Twitter is more than a "pitch fest". Page 23 Keep an Eye on Your Progress (Personal analytics) BlueTweet: Twitter marketing solution and analytics. GetClicky: Professional real time web and Twitter analytics. HappyTweets: See how happy any user is including yourself. The happier you are the more people enjoy being around. Klout: Check your Twitter influencer metrics. Twanalyst: Analyze your twittering. TweetEffect: See what updates made people follow or unfollow. TweetReach: See how many impressions a tweet gets. TweetStats: Your Twitter stats including tweet per month, day and hour. Also provides a cloud of your most used words. Tweetronics: Twitter marketing analytics. Twinfluence: Various stats on your Twitter network. Twitalyzer: Ranks users. TwitGraph: See graphs of your tweets by day, top 5 word count, top 5 shared links, and top 5 replies. Great way to break down how you are using Twitter. TwitterAnalyzer: Analyzes you and your following. TwitterCounter: See statistics for the growth of your Twitter following. TwitterGrader: Grade your twittering compared to others. Page 24 Twitterholic: Keeps track of top twitter users. You can view your stats by checking out your twitterholic ranking. TwitterRatio: Ratio of followers to how many you follow. TwitterSheep: See what type of followers you have according to their bios. Page 25 Chapter 4. Popular Posting Tools For more Twitter applications than we had space to include visit: TwitterDownloads WikiFanPage: Even more Twitter applications. APIwiki: Learn to build your own applications. Popular Desktop Clients As a rule of thumb most new Twitter users are going to find SeesmicDesktop and TweetDeck have the best all in one solutions for their posting and incoming tweet management needs. The only desktop client even close to these two in terms of popularity being Twhirl (Also by Seesmic). post tweets. Inspired by the Mac application Twitterific. accounts. Madtwitter: This Windows desktop application lets you read and MATT: (Multiple Account Twitter Tweeting): One update to multiple SeesmicDesktop: This popular desktop application allows you to read and post updates in both Twitter and Facebook. Snitter: Adobe AIR powered desktop client for Twitter compatible with Mac and Windows. Tweetdeck: Adobe Air desktop application enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns for easier monitoring. TweetDeck is currently the Twitter desktop application leader with the most users and allows both Facebook and MySpace integration. Page 26 Twhirl: This Adobe AIR application is the second most popular desktop client for Twitter. Features include multiple Twitter accounts, search, image posting and more. TwitterIM/TwitterMail: E-mail to Twitter. Twitteroo: Windows based client with clickable links and tweets, auto-refresh and more. Twitterific: For MAC with iphone and ipod touch versions. Popular Web Based Posting Services My advice about all auto-posting tools is moderation. Your following will crave personal attention and interaction. You must give it as much as possible. This is especially true when you are first getting started. Meet people. Give of yourself. Don't hide behind automatic messages. EasyTweets: This is a costly solution, but to the right person it could be worth it. Monitoring and more. FutureTweets: Schedule your tweets for later delivery. HelloTxt: This service enables you to update Twitter and dozens of other social sites. Most of the sites listed are non-U.S. in origin. I use this service as a backup to Ping.fm as it does post in some of the same services. Ping.Fm:Use this web based service to update Twitter and many other micro-blogging, blogging and social network sites. I love this service. PostLater: Posting Scheduler for various blog and micro-blog platforms. Considered by many professionals to be the best. Page 27 Twaiter: Posting Scheduler. Twalala: Control what you see in your Twitter stream. Tweeter: Twitter without leaving Facebook. TweetLater: Auto-poster/Scheduler for Twitter by the makers of PostLater. TwitResponse: Auto-poster/Scheduler. TwitterGadget: Twitter from Gmail. Posting with Browsers/Extensions/Buttons Flock: An awesome web browser you may already be using if you are a marketer or social butterfly. Well worth looking into. TwitterBar: Tweet from address bar. TwitterFox: This Firefox extension allows publishing and viewing of tweets. TwitSnip: Clip any webpage then share to twitter. Twitzer: Extend your tweets beyond 140 characters. Twshot: Post with a browser button. Mobile WARNING: You don't want any surprises on your bill so make sure you have unlimited text messaging on your mobile account if you are going to use it with Twitter. Page 28 Hahlo: Safari based twitter iphone application. Access by visiting http://hahlo.com/ while using Safari on your iphone. Jargong: Twitter, Flickr, instant messaging, and feeds. jTwitter: Download "jtwitter" to your phone by using your phone web browser to visit http:www.//jtwitter.com/wap. TreoTwit: Easily check and update your Twitter right from your Treo. Tweetie: Application for iphone. Twinkle: For iphone and ipod touch. Twittelator: iphone app of choice for many. TwitterBerry: Twitter built for various BlackBerry mobiles. Widsets: Twitter applications for hundreds of mobile phones. File Sharing TweetCube: Share files of 10 mb maximum. Photo Sharing Picktor: Social picture community and service. Pikchur: Updates your social networks with pictures. Screentweet: Images, screenshots, and videos. Tweetphoto: Photo-sharing for Twitter and Facebook. Page 29 Twitgoo: Twitter image sharing. TwitPic: Built into many popular posting applications like Twhirl and Twitterrific. Twitrpix: Share by mobile, email, and web. TwitSnaps: Easy sharing. Snaptweet: Send your Flickr pictures to Twitter. Yfrog: Images and video to Twitter with message. Audio Posting and Voice-to-Text CellSpin: Send audio, video, text and pictures to Twitter and a host of other popular sites. Dail2Do: Send to email or text. Jott: Popular voice to text service. Twitsay: Can leave 10 second voice message to post on Twitter. Twitterfone: Send messages with voice. Utterli: Micro-Podcasting service auto-posts your audio on Twitter. Video Posting CamTweet: (by justin.tv) Live video sharing on Twitter. BubbleTweet: 30 sec videos on your Twitter profile. Page 30 photos and link to their Twitter profiles. Greetter: Share video, text, and photo's to Twitter. Tag people in MobyPicture: Post photos, text, audio, video. TinyCastMe: Record video and audio then share on Twitter. TweetReel: Share video from your iphone. Tweetube: Share webcam, youtube, photos. Twiddeo: Upload videos or record via your webcam. Livestream) TwitCam: Film via webcam then link is posted to Twitter. (by Twitlens: Post video and photo to twitter. TwitVid: Video sharing for Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace. TwitC: Multi-media sharing to over 35 social media platforms. TwitLens: Video and photo sharing. Vidly: (Formerly TwitVid.io) Record and/or share vids. Email and Mail Posting TwitterMail: Send and receive tweets via email. TweetBySnailMail: Send a postcard with your tweet on it and it will be posted in the order it's received. Page 31 Post Over 140 Characters TweetWall/TwitWall: Embed videos and widgets. Upload photos and audio. TwitLonger: Post long messages on Twitter. Page 32 Chapter 5. Research and Conversation/Friend Management Friend Management and Interaction If you have exercised the steps outlined in Chapter 3 you have a growing list of new friends. Friend and follower management now becomes the primary concern. Below is a list of tools many people use to better manage, keep track of, and interact with their Twitter following. A great plan of action would be to regularly create polls and surveys to stimulate discussions and generate interaction. You don't have to do all the talking, or even any at all. Your followers will often take your topic and debate/discuss it among themselves and their followers. CheckYesOrNo: Simple yes or no polls. Allows posting directly to Twitter from site. CrowdStatus: View the status of your friends; seperate your friends into crowds. FriendorFollow: Find out who you are following who isn't following you back and who follows you that you don't follow back. LessFriends: Like friend or follow you can find out who your following who isn't reciprocating. your friends newest tweets. You can also send messages without leaving Outlook. OutTwit: If you use Outlook this will send you email messages of Polldaddy4Twitter: Polldaddy Twitter Polls. Page 33 SocialToo: Send auto-tweets when you get a new follower and host surveys. Paid mass unfollowing, ect. Twaction: Send virtual gifts or abuse. TweetAways: Random winner selection for giveaway contests. TweetBrain: Use Twitter for questions and answers. Tweetgift: Allows you to send virtual gifts to people on Twitter. Twittangle Rate and tag friends to keep up with the most important. TwitterStorm: Squidoo asks your twitter followers a question and builds a page around the answers. TwittFriends: View friends and friends of friends. TwitterKarma: Allows you to view your followers and those you follow. TwitterLess: A tool to see who unfollows. TwittPoll: Twitter poll. TwitterSnooze: If someone is posting more than you can handle snooze them. Conversation Tracking Tools I often see people wondering how a person could keep track of the conversations when they follow thousands. “They CERTAINLY can't be keeping up.” or “No way can you connect with anyone whole heartedly when your following that many” They, my friends, don't understand the concept. Don't look at the stream of messages coming from those Page 34 you follow as email. It's not. It's not meant to be read that way. It's a living, breathing thing. It changes. It mutates. This is real time conversation. It's usually not important what someone said yesterday. Most large conversations on Twitter are marked with a hashtag identifying all related tweets. If you and I were having a conversation about Twitter we might end each tweet with a hashtag like this: #twitchat Or if we were talking about politics we might hashtag each post with: #politics It a simple way for many people to follow a conversation even if they are not following all the participants. As you further explore Twitter you will notice hashtags are only growing in use. Make sure your following twitter.com/hashtags for your posts to be indexed and start adding hashtags to your tweets. the ability to install a search plugin into your browser. FlaptorTwitterSearch: Another Twitter search engine but includes GoogleTwitterSearch: Google knows the importance of Twitter. people to follow, you can use this as a research tool by creating a search and then subscribing to the search with an rss reader. Search Twitter is also a great tool to find trending topics and keep up with conversations by using the related hashtags. I can't say enough about this tool. Top notch. shown all tweets connected to it. Twitter threading. create. Get listed in channel discussion. SearchTwitter: Already mentioned earlier as a great source to find Tweader: Type in the location (URL) of a tweet and you will be TweetChannel: Create your own channel based on a hashtag you Tweetag: Tag and conversation finder. TweetGrid: Great tool for keeping up with a conversation. TweetGridTrending: Trend search. Page 35 TweetGridWidget: Twitter search widget for your webpage. Twemes: Creates a meme by collecting public Twitter messages based on tags. Twitag: Tag finder for Twitter. Collects all posts beginning with a hash (#). The hash is followed by a tag. Could be a state, country, city, event, whatever. Twitterdigest: Follow message streams of individual twitter users or groups. View via web or atom feed. TwitterThreads: Threads conversations. Twittertroll: A twitter search I never use. Maybe you will. Search and Reply If you want to create conversations with potential clients or customers who don't currently follow you simply compile a list of frequently asked questions. These questions could be the concerns of the marketplace or a phrase someone might use when they are ready to purchase something. Use Advanced Twitter Search to find the people asking these types of questions or use the Search Operators and type them directly into Twitter Search. Finding a quality search can be a challenge in some niches so be sure to save them as you find them. Over time you will be able to plug these tested search queries into Twitter Search and have people to talk with/help on demand. Be careful how you approach people you find through Twitter Search. They may not be open to any suggestions from those outside their followers. Therefore, make sure you follow them before you send any suggestions. Don't abuse this. Page 36 Spying and Research This is one of my favorite parts. :-) Many of the tools listed here could also be listed in the conversation tracking list of resources. As you will see many of these tools would fit in any number of other categories. Neat stuff, though. Great tool for finding people who live near you. MyTweetMap: The latest tweets of the people you follow on a map. Monitter: Allows you to monitor 3 keywords or phrases. Twitter, Digg, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. Has bar graphs for easy comparisons. Twitter complete with click stats. Just enter the URL you wish to shorten, tweet and track. Great site for finding hot links as well. Another good tool for finding hot topics. often than usual. Sitevolume: See how many times a term has been used on Tweetburner: Tweetburner lets you track the links you posted in Tweetmeme: Displays popular topics on Twitter based on links. Tweetscan: Find rising trends by watching for words used more TweetStatTrends: Keep an eye on those trends. Twitter. Viewable in bar graphs. TweetVolume: See how many times a word or phrase appears on Twist: Like Google Trends keeps track of search terms on the internet, Twist provides trends of what people are saying on Twitter. Subscribe to the feed of the terms you want to track. track of words being used more often than usual. Page 37 Twitscoop: Learn about rising trends by using this tool to keep TwitterAnswers: TwitterAnswers by Mosio allows other people to answer questions you post on Twitter. YourTwitterBlock: See how people are connected to each other by blocks. TwitterFall: Monitor trends in realtime and by geo targeting. TwitterFriends: Informative stat tool. Twitterlinkr: Find the most popular links in Twitter. TwitterStats: Keyword stats. Twittervision: Follows the Twitter public timeline and shows you on a map where those people are posting from. Twitt(url)y: Tracks the most talked about links on Twitter. Twopular: #hashtag trends and stats. Page 38 Chapter 6. Viral Marketing and Massive Exposure. Here we are. Listed here are 5 key elements for using Twitter to virally propel your message to the masses. Viral Key #1: The ReTweet. In chapter 2 we discussed the retweet as it related to you retweeting some one else's message as a symbol of goodwill. Here we will cover the viral nature of the retweet. If one of your tweets was retweeted by 3 of your followers and they in turn were retweeted by 2 of their followers (2nd level in illustration) the total number of messages sent would be 10. Your original message and their retweets. As illustrated below. If your followers and their followers happen to have large followings themselves the viral effect could greatly increase accordingly. Some Twitter users are retweeted 10 or more times by their followers per tweet. Page 39 Imagine further if only 3 of your followers retweeted you, then 2 of their followers retweeted, and if only 2 of their followers in turn retweeted (Whew! mouthful), you would have 22 people sending the same message. You and 21 others. POWERFUL. View the the picture below and think how attainable it would be to get this to happen. Elbow grease required? Yes. But attainable. How many people would see a message retweeted like that? Hundreds? Thousands? If you wasn't already excited about the possibilities of the retweet you should be sitting on the edge of your seat now. The tools below will help you in tracking retweets. Use them to learn who the givers are in the community and in your following. Connect with the givers and the serial retweeters. A serial retweeter will share pertinent information on a regular basis. For maximum advantage follow and create a relationship with as many of the serial retweeters in your industry or niche as possible. Page 40 DailyRT: Tracks top retweets of the hour, day, and week. RePeets: Tracks recent hot tweets. ReTweetAbility: Find the Retweeting power of yourself and others. ReTweetist: @retweetist retweets the hottest RT's of the last 24 hours. ReTweetRank: Track how many retweets you have. start them. Also follow @retweetradar on Twitter. ReTweetRadar: Retweet stats. Track trends and the people who ReTweetSearch There are many accounts setup on Twitter to help you get your message out. Some pick up your message on their own and some you have to submit your tweet via direct message. Below are some examples. @retweettrends @openzap: Openzap.com/ vote for links. Retweets without the RT. @tweetarticles: Submit links to your articles. Monitor Retweeting trends via twitter accounts like these: @powersearch @gtrend @twithority Page 41 Make it easy for others to retweet your updates by including a retweet link! Pleasert.me: Puts RT link right in your tweets. The viral effect of the retweet can boggle the mind. With the right post even a person with a relatively small amount of followers can have their message go viral from a retweeting frenzy. With the right message it would be hard to even keep track of the total effect. Viral Key #2: Hashtag and Word Created Backlinks. In chapter 5 we covered the hashtag (#tag). The word cloud or tag cloud is best explained by viewing the illustration of my word cloud at TweetStats. A word cloud is a simple way to visualize what words are used most often. Word clouds are a great tool to identify trending topics. Virally, word clouds and hashtags are important participants. As an example be sure to search #journchat on Twitter Search to view the popular ongoing twitter chat between bloggers, PR types, and journalists. Page 42 The #journchat conversation has gone viral because of many factors, but the hashtag has to be one of the most important contributions. Every time someone sends a message with the #journchat hashtag it is advertising the chat to people unaware of its existence. New people join in. They use the hashtag. And so on. Viral. If your discussion is in the trending topics on the various word cloud, search and stat sites you are in the way of the masses. You could say it looks like this on paper: This is over simplified (again!), of course. It all starts with your discussion being hashtagged. The hashtag is then syndicated or indexed by various Search, WordCloud and statistical sites. The retweets of your keypoints and resources during the discussion as well as people holding small discussions among themselves using your hashtag will also flow to the Search, WordCloud and other sites. Further, if your discussion is in the trending topics on the various world cloud, search and stat sites it translates to even more people aware of your discussion. People visiting these sites will often view the trending discussions to keep abreast with the goings on in their fields of interest. Page 43 You may choose to bookmark the search results, the cloudpages and the individual tweet pages leading to more backlinks.. This can happen organically as well with no effort on your part if the discussion is compelling enough. Gets you thinking doesn't it? Check out these sites for more hashtag goodness. Hashtags: More hashtag search. ;-) Twubs: Twitter hashtag groups. Tagal.Us: Dictionary of hashtags. Viral Key #3: Groups. Though Twitter doesn't officially have groups others have taken the initiative to fulfill this urgent need. I will let you use your own imagination in taking advantage of these tools. and adds the group hashtag to every tweet. (Automatic page refresh keeps the conversation current.) many people to send a message to a group account where it is then posted to the group. TweetChat (Group Chat) Allows you to focus on one discussion GroupTweet: Broadcast your message to a specific group. Allows TweetWorks: Start or join discussions and groups. Twibes: Start and/or join groups. TwitterChat: Create a shout box. (Will need NEW Twitter account) TwittGroups: Yet more Twitter groups. Page 44 Groups really belong side by side with the retweet as they provide a footing for real relationships which is the basis for much retweeting. Viral Key #4: Widgets and RSS. Using Twitter to update blogs and blogs to update Twitter. And other fun stuff. ;-) ChatCatcher: Captures twitter comments being made about your stuff and posts it to your blogs. TweetBurn: Provides friend widget for blogs. TwitterCounter: Mentioned in Chapter 3, I'm only including it again to stress it's importance as a tool for social proof. The faster you grow the faster you grow. Has a great widget to increase the chances for connections. Twitterfeed: Feed blog/rss to Twitter. TwitThis: Allows people to easily tweet your page to their followers thereby increasing your exposure. TwitterUpdates: Keeps your webpage updated with your latest Twitter posts and links to your Twitter profile. Updating applications are currently available for many popular social media platforms including the following: MySpace, Blogger, Facebook and Typepad. Also create custom html for almost any social network using flash and java. Viral Key #5: The Big Search engines This manual wasn't created to be a handbook on search engine optimization and the space alloted here doesn't do justice to the Page 45 subject, but it must be mentioned. If your discussion takes off it will expand from mere tweets to blogposts, videos and audios then back to tweets. A swirling cycle of activity can develop with each action feeding the next. And then the search engines take notice thereby pointing more people to the discussion thereby causing the creation of more blogposts leading to more tweets leading to the creation of videos leading to the creation of tweets...you get the point. It becomes impossible for one mind to consume all the information. Twitter veterans remember #MotrinMoms, a "mommyblogger" assault on an unpopular Motrin ad campaign. Motrin apologized for their offending ad and pulled it from their main site. Many intelligent observers see the #MotrinMoms campaign as more than just a groundswell of popular feeling. To them it was merely an example of Page 46 someone exercising their social media muscles. I imagine the real reasons for the success of the #MotrinMoms campaign would require more space than we have to warrant it. Whatever the emotions or reasoning behind their success Twitter was clearly a vital weapon. This section is really less a key in itself as a culmination of effectively executing the previous keys. If you have done your homework this happens naturally. Getting the ball rolling is as easy as having the right discussion at the right time and having enough followers paying attention to move the conversation forward. Regardless of whether you, I or any one individual decides to use the power of Twitter, it has already proven itself as one of the premier social media tools. Page 47 Chapter 7. Learning from Others It's TRUE! I use Twitter to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am. I CAN'T LOSE! This is my primary reason for being on Twitter. I am easily able to stay up to date with the current news and pulse of my favorite niche markets from the leaders making it all happen. This alone is worth spending a small amount of time each day using Twitter, even if I don't choose to post that day. Want to be a master at your niche or profession? Follow people who are already masters at your niche or profession! Learn from them. Pick up nuggets of wisdom and stay ahead of trends easily by following the right people and paying attention to their tweets. Probably, many of the people you respect and admire are already using Twitter. You may find Twitter gives you a direct line of communication with people whose emails you aways wished you had. Here is where self control comes in. Some (mostly silly MLM'ers) will be thinking, "THIS IS MY CHANCE...I GET TO PITCH A BIG FISH!", but WAIT! Contain yourself. No matter what: DON'T BLOW IT! First you must develop a relationship. Give first, then you will receive. Just be patient. When you are being followed by a person you admire or respect you must exercise caution in your posts. You have to give value or they will stop following you. Stay calm and professional and always make sure you behave in a civilized manner. Remember, you are building relationships for a lifetime. If you focus on the needs of others the chances are good you are exchanging tweets with future J.V. Partners, clients, and life long friends. So you must learn first. Learn, help, give, and give some more. People will notice. I know I do. The longer you are on Twitter the more you will notice certain people consistently giving value and often their personal time to help Page 48 those in need. These people are typically socially available. They follow people back. They reply back when asked questions. They care about you and your life. Compared to the whole they are few, but in numbers they are many. Strive to be one of the few. Again, people will notice. Now you know the basics and a little more. Make sure you also check out THE Twitter Guru Dan Hollings at the sites below. TwittinSecrets: 100 Twitter Secrets that kick butt. Twitter users. You will be impressed. I promise. The Conclusion (We made it!) That's Twitter in a nutshell. Treat everyone how you would like to be treated and you will do just fine. Use Twitter as a long term business tool and don't be discouraged if you can't find the place you "fit in" right away. You will. Stay with it, keep the commitment, and you may just find your new best friends. Don't forget about this huge list of applications: MyTwitterToolbar: This toolbar is a must have for many serious http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps Twittown: Unofficial Twitter fan community. Other Unofficial Twitter groups: TwitterDads TwitterMoms Page 49 Now that you have had a chance to review the Twitter Manual and you now know first hand the quality of the manual could I request you do me a favor? Will you share the Twitter Manual with your twitter followers? You know there are so many who need these teachings. Click Here to share. You will be prompted to log-in if are currently signed out. Thanks. I really do appreciate it and I take note of all who help. And one final piece of wisdom via Henry Ford: “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” So stick around! You did share this with your information hungry friends via twitter didn't you? One more chance. Share here. Page 50 Twitter Series Training Calls FREE These calls are a must for new Twitter users. Calls will be recorded. All registered listeners will be emailed recordings. Details: Twitter TeleSeminar Series Do you need the extra boost? If you are brand new to Twitter you may be interested in this. Limited Time. EXTREMELY limited spots. Limited to those of a loving mindset! MUST be willing to form REAL relationships. Details: 1 on 1 Personalized Coaching and Training Page 51