100 Best Twitter How-to Tips to Maximize Your Twitter Business Strategy by Dan Hollings
NOTE:There are a lot of wimpy "Twitter Tip Lists" out there; this is NOT one of them. These 100+ Twitter Tips go from insightful Twitter toddler level to explosive Twitter-bomb advanced. Even if you think you're a Twitter social or Twitter business pro, you might want to start from the beginning - this is one hefty shovel full of "Twitter How-to" ready for you to Digg.
NOTE 2: All 100 Twittin' Secrets are complete and have been posted across multiple internet sites, blogs and other innovative locations such as within the MyTwitter Toolbar.
Individuals who follow Dan Hollings on Twitter will be notified as new tips and secrets are revealed and where they are posted.
NOTE 3: Feel free to use, expand upon, comment and share these Twitter tips, secrets & strategies as you wish (all 100 are free), but please credit or link back properly so that everyone may benefit from knowing the original source. I welcome feedback and commenting.
Dan Hollings is an internet marketing, social media and mobile marketing strategist. Dan has consulted for celebrities, talk show hosts, NY Times best selling authors, world renowned entrepreneurs, and companies both large and small . Dan is well known as the internet strategist with the smash hit movie "The Secret," considered by many as the most successful internet launch of its kind. Dan's greatest love next to family, the environment, and worthy animal causes, is teaching and helping others with internet and mobile marketing strategy.
Dan's "100 Twittin Secrets" are the result of exhaustive observation, implementation, research, testing and just having a little Twittin' fun. Never one to settle for the obvious, Dan's Twittin' Secrets exemplifies thinking out of the box and pushing the envelop, just enough, to get you thinking far more creatively about Twitter than perhaps you were before.
TWITTER RESOURCES
Before we begin: If you are a Twitter newbie and do not really understand what Twitter or micro-blogging is about, read my article published on Google Base:
Invest some forethought into your Twitter username (15 characters or less); short, memorable, relevant, personable, and easy to spell are good guidelines. You will also be able to associate a 20 character (max) REAL NAME with your username. If you are a local business or if you use an 800# free recorded message service, it may be possible to incorporate that phone number in the real name. You could also categorize what you do as part of your real name. This is a very visible part of the Twitter system, chose wisely.
EXAMPLE, I could use the following: Username = dhollings Real name = Dan H (800) 633-9638 -or- Real name = Dan (Mr. Universe) -or- Real name = Dan (Web Strategy) -or- Real name = Dan (Marketing Help) -or- Real name = DanHollings.com
Imagine if you did a lot of local Twittering (Twitter does allow you to target geographical areas) and your real name was: Joe (Great Plumber) - no, not "Joe THE Plumber." That would stick in the often underused "Tweet-lobe" within the brain of many people as they saw your name in the Twitter timeline daily. One day, someone's hot water heater starts leaking and guess who they are looking for?
One additional insider secret, is to secure a common username across multiple social networks (even if you can't set them all up right away). Use this Username tool to help you achieve this.
Secure additional Twitter accounts to cover other key "usernames" that might be associated with your business, products, services or Twitter uses.
Brainstorm categories of use in which a Twitter account may be beneficial to your business. (Customer support, Inner office communication, branding, consumer tips, To Do list, Event Updates, Polling, Traffic generation etc). Reserve accounts for each category.
Create a public Twitter index page on Twitter that provides sitemap-like linkage to all your Twitter accounts. Include a link to your Twitter index page on your web site, blog and other Twitter pages.
Make certain there is a dedicated person to update each Twitter account you plan to maintain. A Twitter page where rigor mortis has set in does little to help your business and a lot to make you look like a zombie.
Twitter accounts not (yet) used should still be completely set-up with Twitter wallpaper branded to you, links to your active Twitter pages, a proper "bio line" (which does not literally have to be a bio - just an appropriate message), and at least one post.
Dormant Twitter accounts or Twitter pages that are meant to be primarily static (Like a Twitter index or Sitemap page) should be reposted at least monthly, even if with the same content, so your post date does not look like "even a Caveman could do it."
Invest 15-20 minutes reading the Twitter HELP area of Twitter. However, do not read it as if it is a dreaded chore; rather, read it as if there are some hidden gold nugget ideas within and your job is to find them. If you have questions, post and explore "Get Satisfaction:" http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter
Bonus Tip: To generate Twitter traffic and get new followers, search "Get Satisfaction" for topics you are involved in and engage in constructive commenting. (See example) Take time to add IMAGES to your comments and set up a nice profile. Also please engage in the Twittin Secrets Get Satisfaction discussions or follow "Overheard" to get the inside scoop.
Spend a few days exploring other Twitter tweets and personalities. Listen to the conversations. Observe and take notes. To see BOTH sides of a Twitter conversation use PeopleBrowsr.com's inline conversation mode or a dedicated solution like Tweader. What do you like, what don't you like? Try to ferment in your mind (and yes, a beer or glass of wine might actually help here) a "style" of Twittering that you like. Maybe you find someone's style you can mimic or perhaps you create a mash-up sorta style that's all you.
Do not think that just because Twitter asks for your web address in the settings account area with the silly question, "Have a homepage or a blog" means you must put in your blog or homepage URL. In fact, in many cases that is not a good idea. Instead, enter the URL to a dedicated page made specifically to greet, excite, or manifest interest from the people that will be investigating that link. It's literally like a landing page and in many cases should be design to get people to follow you. (See Tip #64 for another Bio link idea). ==> Tweet This
As often as you can, provide obvious ways for people to return to your Twitter page if they click away via a post link or bio link. Services like http://twittersplit.com can help, but should not be over used or inappropriately used.
Definitely optimize your 160 character "One Line Bio" which appears on the upper right of your Twitter profile page. It does not have to be a bio, it can be an interesting message or statement if you prefer. It can include a link (perhaps to a Twitter index or sitemap page). In most cases the goal of the bio line is to get the reader to think you are "follow worthy." Make it real, make it fun, make it interesting, make it YOU. Literally make your bio in to Twitter "follow bait." If you are fishing for followers, the better the bait, the more followers you'll catch. Tips #12, 13, 14 and 15 all focus on optimizing your Twitter profile. You can GRADE your profile here: http://twitter.grader.com/ and if you like, you can see my grade here: http://twitter.grader.com/dhollings (Obviously, this is not a perfect tool, but it might provide some insight.)
Try to keep your Twitter "Following / Follower" ratio balanced. If a potential follower sees you are following 1532 people and only 32 are following you; rightfully or wrong, some people might make assumptions you've not washed your socks in months. You can prune your Followers and Followings easily within your Twitter account or if your numbers get big try services like Friend or Follow http://friendorfollow.com MyTweeple http://www.mytweeple.com/ or "Less Friends" http://lessfriends.com/ ("Less Friends" - ha! You gotta love that name)
If you are curious WHY folks are jumping ship or stop following you, QWITTER (http://useqwitter.com/) might provide some insight. Qwitter will email you when someone stops following you and notifies you of the post you recently made that might have sent them running for the hills.
Make your personal picture (icon) a good one - in fact, make it great! Twitter is driven by personalities, so use a picture that expresses the "personality message" you want to get across. Logo's, text, and images without humans or animals are often too business-like and negate the driving social force that propels Twitter.
For a great example: check out this compelling background for the eccentric marketing entrepreneur, Joe Polish, it can be seen here (note the Toll-free number on background): http://twitter.com/jpolish. Joe has significant real life followers in the offline world, but converting those to online followers is a new process he's already seeing great results.
Author/Cartoonist, Andrew Mathews, presents another Twitter background idea that connects cartooning and one of his many popular books on happiness, "Follow Your Heart," with the idea to follow Andrew on Twitter. Your background is very important - so make it fun, compelling, or interesting.
What do you post? Ah, that's the magical part. Now granted, what you post depends largely on your goals and purpose with Twitter, but in general this is easy... post interesting stuff, preferably related in some way to what you do, who you are, what you (and your followers) are interested in etc. It pays to be interesting to your followers, but it pays more to be interested in your followers. Twitter is NOT a micro-advertising billboard.
When you engage in conversation with others, reference who you're talking to or about in your post by adding their Twitter username in this format: @dhollings
If you do not answer direct messages, if you do not engage in conversation, if you do not update post regularly, or any other "out of Twitter character" anomaly, that's ok, but make it clear to your followers so they know upfront.
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