In “Favorites the New ReTweet Measurement” we posited that by placing special tweets in the Favorites tab you could then ReTweet those favorites providing your network of followers a look at the tweets you felt were the most important. This would be accomplished by using “FAV” in front of the tweet. The FAV acronym would tell the reader the tweet was Favorited by you and that it was of the utmost importance.

Consequently it makes sense to create a scoring system for ReTweets aka a FAV score. Due to the fact that users are now able to sell their influence, via tweeting advertisements into their stream, on a per tweet basis- a rating system must be created. For more info on paid tweeting see the San Francisco Chronicle’s: Startups Cash in on Twitter with Pay-Per-Tweet

Rating ReTweets: FAV Score

• Percentages: Twitter should devise a tab within the Favorites tab that provides percentage of Tweets vs ReTweets. How many of your tweets are ReTweeted?
• Point System: Twitter could devise a point system based on an algorithmic formula rewarding users based on their percentage of FAV from their tweets that are RTed
• Rewards: Twitter must begin rewarding users for their viral abilities. With the new influx of advertising dollars available to users with influential follower bases, it’s imperative that users have statistics to back up their “viralability”

Here is a simple and powerful viral Twitter Strategy I wish to propose. If you are like me you currently utilize your “Favorites” feature as a repository for the best tweets- a resource Twitter library of sorts. Why not RT your favorites section as another method of viral effectiveness for your network? Instead of using the automatic RT tab or “RT” tag the tweet with “FAV”-this would indicate it was a Favorites selection.

Favorites: The New ReTweet

• Collect: tag every important tweet you find each day
• Review: review and choose the best 1-2 tweets
• “FAV”: ReTweet your favorite tweet but instead of using RT use “FAV” to indicate that you chose this tweet as a favorites selection
• Rating: using “FAV” would give a tweet more influence or importance since it was something you were willing to tag and save as a Favorite selection
• Measurement: using the “FAV” would be a way to measure your tweets importance as you could count and save (favorite) your own tweets which were FAV of your network

Realtors, businesses, entrepreneurs, and consultants are still asking the question: Why should I have a Twitter account? Many cite the fact that Twitter has an abandonment rate of 70% after a 60 period. Others hold onto the idea that Twitter will go away soon-why waste the time?

I have news for you if you are in either one of those camps:

• Twitter is not going anywhere
• Your competitors are using it and beating you to your prospects

Why Should I Have A Twitter Account:

• Broadcasting: Twitter is the fastest social network to Broadcast information
• Delivering Links: assuming you have a blog, you do have a blog right? Twitter allows you to deliver links (blog articles etc.) to your strategically targeted following
• Targeting: done right, you can strategically attract the followers you wish to attract
• Lead Gen: how many of you are paying for your leads? STOP! Twitter can provide you leads if strategically leveraged
• Reputation Management: Twitter is a tool that allows you to deliver information- in some cases you can use it to correct erroneous information or fight an unfair review on Yelp or any other review site
• Networking: meet your peers, business people, or prospect by creating the right Twitter strategy
• Perception: how often do we see Realtors who have a photo that is 10+ years old in an attempt to appear as young as possible to prospective clients? It happens ALL the time. Instead if Realtors use Twitter they will be perceived as Internet and social networking savvy. Lower your age perception by using cutting edge technologies or strategies

Conclusion

This may seem harsh but it’s reality: if you don’t stop wasting time with excuses about not adopting social media, you will be too far behind to catch up. Newspapers are going out of business, real estate magazines are almost gone, advertising in the traditional way NO LONGER resonates with today’s savvy home shopper and seller.

Wake up to the fact that social networking is not the “new fangled” I don’t have to do this fad- it’s the evolution and reality you (and I) all face in today’s world

You are on Twitter, have a following, and are beginning to look to increase your audience. You provide solid content, content messaging that is value 65% of the time and “you” information the rest. You refuse to consider acquiring followers  through the gain twitter follower schemes that litter the Twitter landscape like so many wrecked cars in a junk yard.

Now is the time to try Twitter “link baiting.” Simply use keywords in your tweets to attract the followers you want to attract.

Keyword Your Tweets: Keyword “Link Bait”

• Keyword List: create a keyword list that will attract the types of followers you want following you
• Keyword Tweets: tweet messages with one or multiple keywords buried within the message
• Regional Tweets: if you are looking for geographic location followers try tweeting with a city, town, neighborhood keyword
• Describe: be creative when compiling your keyword list- include words that your prospective followers use to describe their business, needs, products, or services
• Search: once you have a follower who you identified came from a “keyword link bait” tweet, perform a Twitter search looking for other prospective followers

My partner Susan Hanshaw and I ran webinars, during the summer of ’09, that included establishing your presence on Twitter. We estimated that at least 90% of our attendees did not have the correct mindset before launching their Twitter presence.

Check Yourself Before Establishing Your Twitter Presence: Is This You?

• Beginning: eager to begin right away without any thought behind the process
• Fearful to Begin: afraid to begin right away-doesn’t know what to say
• Etiquette: no understanding of Twitter etiquette
• Functionality: No understanding of Twitter’s functionality as a business tool ie. CRM, sales, lead gen, broadcasting, breaking news announcements, internal communications, networking, etc.
• False Expertise: think accumulating large number of followers equates to “authority”, relevance, importance
• Spam Follower: begin following hundreds of people-companies immediately without a plan
• Follow to Follower Ratio: due to their lack of “follow” strategy they are out of balance with follow to followers ratio lopsided
• Research Preparation: never read the Twitter blog or any blog articles about Twitter aka research
• Lazy: thinks Twitter runs itself with minimal effort
• Noise Messaging: messages (tweets) are exclusively sales pitches, listing, and all about their service aka “noise”
• Lack of Commitment: will give Twitter 60 days to prove it’s worth and then abandon

Conclusion

You can’t benefit from a tool if you don’t understand how it works, functions, the etiquette, or where to start. You can benefit from Twitter if you understand how it works, how to attract the “right followers”, and what function you wish the tool to perform for you.

I received a comment on my last article that stated my reader did not yet know how to use Twitter. The following is a search I performed in 45 seconds! The results I posted in my response to the commenter:

Twitter Search: Example of Lead Generation

My subject is a San Diego area Realtor. My goal is to find people searching for homes to buy in that area. Here is what I did to find a prospect:

• Go to Twitter
• Find the Twitter “Search” box
• Input the keyword phrase “house hunting in San Diego” here is the return:

“Briana_McDonell House hunting in San Diego county” 1 day ago from TweetDeck

• Briana is a Millennial woman and a prospect
• Briana posted this message 1 day ago

Conclusion

• create a keyword list for your city, neighborhood, region
• use multiple keywords and keyword phrases
• input these into Twitter search
• this search took me 45 seconds to perform

There are numerous mistakes being made by huge corporations, small businesses, and one off entrepreneurs while launching their Twitter account. One of the worst mistakes being made gives the appearance that you are a spamming, MLM, or affiliate marketer concerned with hard selling your products.

5 Tips To Avoiding Being Perceived As A Spammer On Twitter

• Follow to Follower Ratio: Do NOT begin your account on Twitter by following hundreds of people-companies or you will be perceived as a MLM, affiliate marketing spammer. This condition is called “Being upside down”
• Follow Recipricols: Begin by following companies or people who almost automatically will follow you in return. Ex- GuyKawasaki usually follows everyone, Pat Kitano, or me deansguide
• Build Slowly: Monitor your “ratios” for the first 100- try to keep it at a 1-1 ratio of followers to those you follow
• Listings-Sales Messaging: Do NOT simply run tweets filled with listings or sales pitches for you or your properties. B-O-R-I-N-G and the fastest way to lose an audience
• Messaging Content: Just like on a blog, concentrate on tweeting about your region, city, town, community, neighborhood, politics, schools, events, restaurants, construction and any hyper local news that will make you the go-to source for your area

ComputerShopper.com published this deansguide article 12-31-09

One quick, simple, and relevant Twitter strategy is to build lists. One of the easiest first steps is to build a list with all of your affiliates, parnters, or service providers. This list, much like a blog’s blogroll, allows people to see who you work with and what they do.

Tip: if all of your partner-affiliates establish Twitter accounts and build an Affiliate list with you on it, this will increase your “findability” and viral effectiveness.

Build An Affiliate List

• Showcase your affiliates
• Add value to your readers by giving them a one stop shop for service providers
• Market your affiliates to your network on Twitter by creating the Affiliates list
• Viral effectiveness is increased by the number of lists you are on; to get there you have to give first
• Links are created for each list once you have established a list
• Deliver your Affiliates list link to people you believe would benefit from your service providers by writing a tweet which includes the Affilate’s List link

Before you can use Twitter you must first understand the lexicon, jargon that people use within Twitter. The following is a list of 20 jargon words or phrases on Twitter.

Twitter to English

• Twitter: a micro-blogging social network using 140 character messages

• Micro-blogging: a shorter version of blogging

• Blog: contraction of the words Web and Log. Think of Capt. Kirk and his “Captains’ log star date entries” yes I am a Star Trek geek

• Tweet: a 140 character (or less) message sent by you to your “network”

• Network: those folks who follow you on Twitter

• Followers: people or companies that follow your Tweet stream

• Tweet Stream: the log of messages (tweets) you have compiled since you established your Twitter account

• RT: aka ReTweet is a way to recognize and suggest someone’s content to your network of followers. It begins with a RT in front of their message. There is a new feature that allows you to RT without using the RT

• Following: these are people or companies you choose to follow on Twitter

• What You See: you will see “tweets” from the people-companies you follow

• DM: aka direct message. This is Twitter’s version of private email between users

• DM Spam: unfortunately the vast majority of DM’s are spam sales pitches with no concern as to whether you have established a relationship with that person or company

• MLMers: these are the worst DM spammers on Twitter. The Multi Level Marketing armies that promise you riches if you buy their products and recruit your “down-line”

• Twitter Bio: this is the area where you can briefly describe your company. They allow you to place one hyperlink in your bio

• Mining the Blogroll: many folks looking for the right people to “follow” go to the “blogroll” on the right sidebar that is a picture box of people-companies that person follows. From this list you can begin to build the people or companies you wish to follow

• Twitter Search: this is the goldmine where you can input keywords to find prospective clients, current clients, people talking about your area-product-service etc.
• Keywords: Ex you work for a hotel resort in Miami. You are looking for vacationers and people visiting Miami. Some great keywords to input into Twitter search: “Miami” “Going to Miami” “Vactioning in Miami” “Resorts in Miami” “In Miami”
• #: hastags are pound signs you can type in front of a word. When you do this this sends your tweet to a tweet stream that is being followed by a large group of people. EX #Followfriday this is an event that happens every Friday where each Twitter user can “recommend” people or companies to other Twitterers to follow
• Lists: a fantastic way to go viral or move your content to many folks. When you are listed by people you are showcased within a niche for folks to observe

• Tweet-Up: this is a real world live meeting of people who use Twitter. There are Tweet-ups going on nationwide and they are fantastic ways to network within your community

ComputerShopper published this deansguide article 12-29-09
It is important to have a set of Twitter strategies in order to get the most out of your time and effort on this vital social network. One of the best and fastest twitter strategies involves viral effectiveness. Simply put, the following strategy will support your effort to move more people to your blog, website, social network or a particular page.

Twitter List Etiquette

Twitter lists allow users to compile lists of their favorite, people, companies, or things to follow on Twitter. The following is a best practices tip on how to make your content more viral:

• Recognize: thank everyone who includes you on a list with a public @tweet
• ReTweet: Retweet the link to the list you are included within
• Follow: if you feel compelled or if the person or company looks like a fit for your strategy follow your lister
• DM: send a direct message as a second thank you for their kindness in including you on their list(s)
• Blogroll: if you are a blogger, and your supported on multiple lists by the same person or company, consider giving them a link on your blogroll

DM Spam from @ScottPotential

One of the biggest Twitter mistakes many brands make is to either blindly follow everyone that follows them or follow nobody . In the first case, the stream gets clogged with useless spam junk. In the latter, your brand is perceived as arrogant. If companies considered the DM channel a valuable tool to communicate authentically they could leverage it for a number of activities.

5 Reasons Why Targeted Follow List Cleans Up the Direct Messaging Channel

• DM Spam: Following targeted consumers ensures that your direct message (DM) channel will contain (primarily) useful messages from your prospective consumers, partners, or networking partners
• DM Messaging: a direct message is more useful as a “clean” private channel to deliver information
• Perception: if consumers know your DM messages are filled with useful content, they will pay attention to your messages and consider them valuable
• DM Marketing: once a brand’s DMs are known to be valuable, a company can then deliver call to action marketing messages
• DM Sales: the DM channel is NOT a sales channel. If a brand utilizes marketing and informational messaging they will be very effective with their consumer base

Twitter strategies are numerous and often confusing. The moment you think you understand the network, something new poses a challenge to your efforts. One of the first challenges new Twitter users will experience is understanding who to follow. The first and worst mistake new users make is to beginning following hundreds of people or companies immediately. The resulting lack of strategy places the new Twitter user in what is called a “upside” down position. Simply put if you follow hundreds and very few are following you, you give the appearance of a spammer, MLM hard sell marketer, or worse yet an affiliate marketer.

This is a very basic first phase description of how to screen the people and companies that follow you. Due diligence is important, unless you are a spamming hard sell MLM or affiliate marketer, to building an effective network. Let’s examine my due diligence steps with social media analyst Jerimiah Owyang:

3 Due Diligence Steps to Build Your Twitter Network

1. Read Bio: read the bio of the person-company following you. Understand what they do and if they fit into your network of followers, if they provide information valuable to you, if they have a large network you wish to leverage, and if they are in your industry or niche.
   
2. Links: click through the link provided in the bio. This link should lead to a website-blog with mission statements, purpose, goals, industry, and niche. This IS my most important step in the due diligence process.
3. Tweet “Stream”: read the tweet stream to understand what is being written. Does the person or company provide valuable information to you and your network? Is this person providing new thought leadership like Jeremiah? Do they share techniques or new processes? Do they tweet breaking news about your industry or niche?

Conclusion

It is up to you how you screen your twitter followers and who you will follow in return. I utilized this process 80% of the time. The downside to this process is that it is time consuming. The upside is the fact that you will have a more targeted network that will serve your research, broadcasting, prospecting, sales, networking, announcement, crowdsourcing needs in the future

4 Ways Twitter Could Eliminate DM Spam

• Crowdsourcing Court: Twitter users vote on the guideline of penalties awaiting a company or individual who is found guilty of spamming the Twitter network. Base it on Dell’s Ideastorm crowdsourcing site
• Eliminate Links: disallow the use of links in any DM messages with the hope that spammers will no longer see the benefit of using a DM
• Less than 140: cut the number of characters in half for a DM making it a 70 character messaging channel thus challenging a spammer’s ability to create spam
• DM Limit: create a limit for the number of DMs allowed each Twitterer per month. Once you reach your limit, you have to wait until the next month to send a direct message

Holy smokes Scott this is the lamest attempt to persuade me to do anything-  let alone what I already do in my business. Did you even look at my bio my friend? Do I really “Rock”?  Wow what an offer how can I refuse?– deansguide

The worst aspect of Twitter, the microblogging sensation with multiple benefits, is their implementation of a Direct Message feature. Known as a “DM”, this feature has morphed into the biggest spam tool and channel on the social network. Affiliate marketers, Multi Level Marketers, hard sell rip off artists, and anyone with a scam can (and WILL) deliver their messages.

The problem of DM spam is so previlant that the majority of savvy Twitter users do not monitor this channel more than once a week. What can Twitter do about this problem?

3 Twitter Ideas To Curb DM Spam

• 7 days: require a 7 day waiting period before a DM can be sent when a follow-follower relationship has been established
• Opt In-Out: create a opt in-out option where Twitterers can either choose to receive DMs or turn the DM channel off
• Penalties: automatically penalize Twitter spammers who violate “content regulations” created to stem the tide of unwanted hard sell sales pitches and phishing activities

8 Reasons to Make “Following” Widget a Functional Blogroll

• Showcase: I could provide exposure for my most influential people-companies I follow
• Best of Class: my following widget could be populated with the best providers of information
• Perception: the perception of me or my company suffers in the eyes of my followers if less than appropriate or different people are showing up in my following widget aka blogroll
• Change: provide each user the ability to change their “blogroll” daily, weekly, or monthly. This would allow me to run blogroll themes. Examples would include best of social media; social media companies, best hyper local resources, best regional information, niche information
• Hashtags: I could feature the most prominent Twitterers from hashtags
• RT: I could feature the most prominent RTers of my information as a recognition and thank you
• DM Abusers: I could feature companies or people who use the DM as a spam messaging channel; This would be a warning system for users
• Unfollowing: this could be a list of people or companies I am about to unfollow

In what was purely a chocolate meets peanut butter accident, ReTweeting took on a new possibility for me. I am not sure if this is a new Twitter strategy or simply a “renaming” of something old. With that spirit in mind, I decided to combine a RT with a with a blog article I produced. For lack of a better phrase, let’s call this new experiment: ReTweet Combos or RTC for short.

What is a RTC?

A ReTweet combo is the combination of a tweet you feel is valuable enough to recognize, by ReTweeting, and one of your own articles or that of another resource.  Here is an example of my first ReTweet Combo:

In the example, I am ReTweeting @mashable’s tweet about UCLA’s Study that describes how searching on the internet activates your brain. The second bit.ly link is to my deansguide article “Twiter Strategies: How Smart Do You Want To Be?” which describes how research on Twitter will make you smarter and more relevant.

Benefits of ReTweet Combos

• Recognize Your Resources: your RT recognizes your resources of people and companies
• Building: by adding your own article or an outside source you are building upon the original RT idea
• Authority by Association: by adding a link to your work you could be tied to that person-company’s concept
• Networking: this could open up the lines of communication for networking

Possible Negatives of ReTweet Combos

• Authority by Association: the original source of the tweet may not want to have a “partner” in a RT
• Disagreement: the original source may not agree with your link regardless of whether it is your work or that of a 3rd party
• Recognition: the original source’s information could be overshadowed by your information if it is stronger or more relevant

Before Twitter became my biggest resource for research, I was an old schooler stuck with a library card. From that library card, came the advent of the internet and portals–places information flowed from with little structure. And from that evolution came the dawning of the Web 2.0 social media paradigm shift we have today. Although Twitter.com is not the biggest or the baddest social network on the block–they do hold one major distinction–real time instantaneous access to valuable information.

Why Twitter Is The Resource for Information

• Real Time: instantaneous information links
• Multitude: information from every niche, subject matter, topic, and genre can be found on Twitter
• Freemium: the information is free, it is not charged for except in the case of the “old school” news agencies unwilling to understand that information is becoming an “open source” commodity
• Authority: forgetting the welebrities for a moment, some of the smartest most brilliant new thought leaders from many niches share their research, expertise, studies, and cases
• Crowdsourcing: information can be examined, commented upon, and scrutinized via the masses with new information formulated based on these “group” efforts
  Courtesy The Big Cartoon Database

Grow Your Brain On Twitter

Twitter is like your diet. If you choose to consume junk and crap you will end up with a bad body. But if you choose to be careful and mindful of what you consume, perform your due diligence, and be open minded–the sky is the limit. Here is how to get started:

• Identify Niche(s): before you can learn you must target the niche(s) you want to learn about in depth
  How: that is up to you so look within for this answer
• Create Lists: once you have your niche(s) you need to create rough lists of people-companies to follow that fit your research needs. These lists will change as you become aware of more resources. Note: always be willing to experiment & tweak your list(s)
  How: you can use any number of Twitter applications to create lists. Some of the favorites are Tweetdeck, Hootesuite, and soon to be “Lists” function on Twitter
• Search For Sources: roll up your sleeves and begin looking. Start with wefollow.com, try Twazzup.com, utilize Twitter’s internal search engine, & look on Google
  How: list your keywords & keyword phrases relevant to finding your sources; input these keywords with relevant factors like region, geography, or demographics if they apply
• Due Diligence: once you have your list of resources, begin to follow their tweets. Perform some due diligence by going through their tweets to make sure they are the right source for you
• Mine The Blogroll: after finding each important resource (person-company) mine their blogroll of people-companies they follow. Note: this is often an accelerated way to gain new resources to follow
• Save Your Links: once you begin to utilize Twitter you will find massive amounts of important links containing great information. The fastest way to bookmark, bank, these links is by using the “Favorites” button. By favoriting a tweet you automatically save it in your “Resource Bank” for later consumption

Have you ever been stalked? I have. Have you ever had your home robbed? My parent’s home was robbed. Have you ever been confronted by an unknown person? I have. Security in today’s world is often a consideration we fail to understand. Either we feel safe, we reason we are not celebrities and thus immune, or we do not worry about the subject altogether. Twitter is a wonderful real time communication tool with ramifications if you are not careful. Like real estate, location-location-location, security begins with protecting your plans or location.

Personal Security Risks: Tweets That Tell Too Much?

Transparency is a staple of Web 2.0 and social networks yet how much information is too much? The following are the type of tweets that could be security risks to you or a loved one:

• Locations: tweets that divulge your exact location
  Why: you have no idea who is following your tweet stream and monitoring your whereabouts-giving exact locations places you in a position to be approached; add a close likeness in your bio picture and you are “findable”
• Times: tweets that provide exact times of your location or a location you will be in the future
  Why: these tweets can provide a possible unwanted someone enough information to locate you
• Future Travel: tweets that outline specific travel activities with time or time frames
  Why: the possibility of a burglary, although remote due to address information and other logistics needed, is not impossible considering the amount of information available about you especially when criminals know you are leaving your home

Business Security Risks: Lose Your Job, Business, or Advantage

Like our personal safety, our businesses should remain secure. The following tweets could be a security risk to your business or your job:

• Partnerships: tweeting your new partnerships before they are solid business arrangements
  Why: competitors looking for partners could be monitoring your efforts with an eye on your business partner
• Sales: tweeting your new accounts, new contracts, new consulting gigs
  Why: competitors can quickly act to attempt to under cut price, provide better product or service, and steal your new clients who are yet to be sticky to you or your company
• Future Niche: tweeting your intention to pursue a new niche
  Why: this alerts your competitors of new or fertile ground to be examined. If you believe you are first to the party–don’t tell anyone or you will have company
• Business Travel: telling everyone you are attending a conference filled with your prospects is a sure fire way of attracting added unwanted competitors
• Personal Opinions: As the Ketchum PR disaster already taught us, if you have an opinion detrimental to your customer you would be best to zip it and not say a word.
  Why: if you have to ask why you truly do not get it
• Realtor Open Houses: this is especially ominous. Be careful to have security measures in place before tweeting your open house information
  Why: Incidents of open house crimes are on the rise nationally with murder, rape, attempted rape, assaults, and burglaries some of the felonies committed

Web 2.0 Social Media is a paradigm shift of such massive proportions that it could be the biggest shift since the industrial revolution. The momentum is not slowing. Yet many naysayers try to point out that “this social media stuff” is just a fad- a passing fad. Instead blogging, microblogging, social networking, bookmarking, crowdsourcing, reviewing, and other forms of social media networks or concepts are expanding and evolving everyday.

Want some proof besides the failure of 800+ magazines in 2009, Gourmet the most recent victim, and the implosion of the print advertising business model? Don’t believe that things are changing because the delivery channel is changing? Trying to justify holding out establishing that blog, facebook business page, or Twitter account? THINK AGAIN-STOP and watch the video!

Erick Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, is behind this eye-opening video that details how social media has changed the world. This kind of development reminds me of the music and cultural revolution of the 1960’s—a transformation that will likely have a long-term impact. Are you ready now to take social media seriously?

There are of course many reasons why marketers should use Twitter as a marketing tool. Social media has redefined the way products and services are marketed.

Although social media is a relatively new medium, social platforms such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter offer marketers the ability to not only gain mass exposure for their brands, but to conduct extensive market research at no cost.

Twitter encourages users to post messages on what they are currently doing, their views about products and services and just about anything else they can think of. So, if you have a product and people are talking (tweeting) about it, the chances are that knowledge of your product and your competitors could be widespread.

Think about what this means for instant reviews by customers and clients…both favorable and disgruntled.

Twitter can help promote your brand globally in the matter of days…minutes even.

How do you build yourself or your business to be able to wield that sort of power and influence?

Add value. Contribute.

The more you contribute to the Twitterverse by means of useful messages, the more people that will read what you have to say. In other words, the more you give, the more you will receive.

Twitter can be a fantastic way to drive traffic to your sites, driving 100’s of people or more a week to the places you would like them to go.

As with every strategy, there are a number of do’s and don’ts for when you begin communication with the Twitterverse. Your followers on Twitter need to be interested in what you have to say, so posting regular, interesting, useful or humorous updates and feedback is essential.

Remember that your peeps are following you today, but may not choose to follow you tomorrow. Give your Twitter peeps (Tweeps) some love.

Keeping your Tweeps interested or entertained is of course a whole other subject but don’t worry, it is easy when you know how and the process can even be automated.

If you are an MLM’er and use your Tweets to only blast out offers for your network marketing business, expect to lose them as fast as you they found you. But if you create enough value amongst your tribe…they will listen to whatever you have to say.

Build value. Grow your tribe. Share yourself authentically with them.

Show your Tweeps some love…and they will love you back.

Twitter strategies are applicable to a vast array of businesses in need of a broadcasting, lead generation, marketing, and audience engagement channel. The following is a Twitter strategy that can be utilized in a business niche that is extremely competitive: the healthclub industry. The primary focus for healthclubs are membership retention and new membership sales. Here are a few simple strategies to help these clubs connect with their audience in a step by step process:

Connect On Site: Laptop

• Place two laptops at the front desk- one open to the club’s Facebook page, the other open to the clubs’ Twitter account
• Place open laptops next to each bank of large TV monitors
• Place a laptop in the Women’s and Men’s locker rooms

Benefits: Members and Management

• Laptops provide open immediate access to club members, and prospective members, to fan the club’s Facebook page and follow them on Twitter
• Allows members to immediately comment on their experience in the club
• Encourages members become involved in social media networks if they are not already using them
• Provides a voice to club members who know that the club management is monitoring their comments and engaging
• Builds your list of current club members and prospective club members by making the sign up process as a follower or fan as simple as possible

Twitter Hashtags

• Initiate hashtags for Pilates, Aerobics, Ballroom dance, Karate, and any other classes or activities offered at the club
• Create a #Followfriday type of hashtag day such as “#workoutwednesday”

Benefits: Members and Management

• Provides specific feedback for each class taught
• Gives members a voice as well as a “Twitter club” specific to their favorite club activity
• A hashtag day like #Workoutwednesday could act as a networking event for members to meet new members, manaagement to comment on members or instructors, and prospective members to “meet” people from the comfort of their homes first

Personalize Your Staff: Make Everyone Accessible

• “Celebritize” instructors by initiating Twitter accounts for individuals. Follow the bar-nightclub strategy and make your instructors “stars” that people follow and prefer
• Tweetups-have staff-instructors organize “Tweetups” at the club like a party to act as a lead generation event, networking event, and to showcase the club facilities

Broadcasting: Hyper Local News, Discounts, Deals, Specials, & Events

• Become the go-to source for community information about your state, county, city, town, district, or neighborhood
• Vary the messages to include issues outside, but effecting members, the health field
• Broadcast your club discounts, specials, deals on memberships, gear, food-beverages, or events
• Broadcast events or news pertaining to your vendors, affiliates, sister businesses, local businesses, or networking partners

Benefits: Members and Management

• Members will  consider the club a source of valuable information and comeback to read club tweets and club Facebook entries
• Management will be able to engage with their audience, sell their products and services, while adding value to their marketing efforts
• Management will be able to point to their efforts to gain exposure for their affiliates, vendors, and networking partners
• Management will be able to partner with networking partners by providing links for cross marketing
• Members will be able to take advantage of discounts, deals, specials, and events specifically created for their Facebook fans and Twitter followers

Twitter Strategy: “Share”

Above is the RT by Twitter_Tips of the deansguide article. Twitter_Tips provided this RT without the traditional “RT”and they used it for #Followfriday further showcasing our article. Here is the cool tip:

• 1st Shortened URL: this is the http://mp/mtdNg and it is a direct link to the deansguide article
• Share: here is the cool tip. After the word “Share” is a bit.ly link that when clicked on brings the reader directly back to Twitter with the RT already written out ready to be tweeted like so:

The finished product above makes it extremely simple and compelling for readers to:

• Virally pass your article along to their network
• No need to write a RT as it is already prepared for the reader
• Waste time positioning links
• Waste time deciding whether to RT or not to RT

Tim O’Reilly, the driving force behind the concept of Web 2.0 and a genuine social media thought leader, details why Twitter is becoming the leading social network in today’s social media world. The interview is conducted by FORAtv.com President & CEO Blaise Zerega. Asked to compare social networks to human “senses” and to name the most important social network, O’Reilly nails it with these ideas:

• Unexpected impact: “I don’t know if there is a single new thing, right now, or if we will notice it right away. People didn’t know how big Google would be in 1998.  .  . if there is anything in that category today I would say it’s Twitter.”
• Twitter’s Impact: “The thing that has impressed me the most about Twitter is it’s brought real time to a peak on the web”
• Trend: Twitter’s impact on how we expect  real time information is “making the web more sensory like. . . “
• What Does it mean?: “It means you start to build systems for stimulus and response.”
• Humans & Computers: “There is a whole part in what we’re building here, is this new hybrid human computer machine”
• Constant Factor: We are moving toward a “Collective Intelligence” which will cause a “Revolution in Business.”

Do you understand how to use Twitter’s #FollowFriday hashtag event? There are many strategies involved before beginning your Twitter account and many once you have started. One of the best Twitter strategies is to participate in what is called #FollowFriday.

What is #FollowFriday?

#FollowFriday is a hastag group event that happens every Friday. The mission of #FollowFriday is to help people discover new Twitterers to follow. It is not only a rather social event but it is also a strategic tool.

Benefits of #FollowFriday

• Testimonials: by asking people to follow your follower(s) you are providing them with a testimonial
• Value: you add value to your network by making people aware of valuable resources (other Twitterers)
• Networking: by providing a #FollowFriday recognition for someone you are opening the lines of communcation for others to thank you, contact you for information, or ask you a question

#1 #FollowFriday Tip

If you want to get noticed, provide the best value for your network, and create a new stream of followers for you:

• Do NOT do this- .@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect #Followfriday. This is lame and does NOT give anyone a reason to follow these people
• DO THIS: “If u want great soc media info #Followfriday .@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect” Simply put, you want to write a short description about why people should follow your friends. Give them a reason and be creative. This is like writing ad copy for the very short attention span person.

Protected Tweets: How Does That Make You Feel?

I have a number of people who follow me on Twitter who have locked their tweets. When I see this my initial reaction is to:

• Ask if they will approve me as one of the “special few” in the club
• DM them asking them personally to include me in “their” club
• Block them so that they can not follow me to access my information–maybe it’s a content stealing competitor?
• Ask my network if they request follow status from one of these locked accounts
• Hammer them for their pretentious attitude
• Remain very curious as to what I might be missing

Have You Been Approved?

I run the following Twitter accounts deansguide, innerarchitect, napavalleynews. I have people who follow us on all of these accounts who are protecting their tweets. With close to 5,000 microblog posts and tons of informative content, I have never been invited into the inner circle of a “protected account.” That is just wrong!

Protected Accounts Eliminate or Revise Format

The solution is simple. Only allow people with protected accounts to follow those who they approve. Do not allow them to share in my content with their walled garden account only to freeze me out. This is a simple sharing of information and sharing is the piece that makes Twitter so fantastic. Keep the walled gardens but eliminate their access to people they will never allow in to their domain