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vangogh
01-22-2009, 12:35 PM
I know a few people here are curious about Twitter and whether or not it can help your business.

Darren Rowse, the person behind ProBlogger, started a new blog called TwitTip (http://www.twitip.com/) not too long ago. I've been reading it since the beginning and there are a lot of good tips and ideas for how best to become involved with Twitter.

The site is relatively new and if you're interested you could probably read all the posts in a night or two and get caught up to speed.

Do you have Twitter resources you want to share? Blogs? Tools?

KristineS
01-22-2009, 12:57 PM
I've been wanting to use Twitter more so this is a very helpful resource. Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't have any resources to share, but I did want to ask about one. It's something called "Tweetdeck". Is that a program that keeps Twitter on your desktop or something?

vangogh
01-22-2009, 02:47 PM
That's exactly what TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/) is. It's what I'm using now. When I want to engage with Twitter I open it up and leave it to the side of my monitor. Then I can pay attention when I want and ignore it when I want too.

TweetDeck isn't the only desktop client for Twitter. I used to use one called Twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/), which I liked, but TweetDeck makes it easier to find replies and direct messages. I believe you can also set up groups with it, but I haven't really checked that out yet.

Most of the desktop clients for Twitter run on top of Adobe Air so you need to have that installed first, but most of the clients including TweetDeck will download and install Air as part of the process.

KristineS
01-22-2009, 03:25 PM
I figured it was something like what you described. I'm not that much into Twitter yet, but I think I'm going to be increasing my involvement soon. I'll have to look into TweetDeck.

vangogh
01-22-2009, 04:10 PM
Having a desktop client does make a difference. I think most serious users aren't doing so through the site itself. Something like TweetDeck can help a lot.

orion_joel
01-22-2009, 08:15 PM
Twitter is really i think creating an industry of it's own i think. With some of the different things i have seen. Even including advertising on your twitter profile, with Twitad. Plus i have had some fairly good experiences so far with the still very small network that i have.

vangogh
01-22-2009, 08:25 PM
There's a ton of Twitter tools out now and more seem to spring up every day.

orion_joel
01-22-2009, 08:33 PM
Just found another one and i cannot even remember how i came across it and it only happened in the last 15 minutes, it was tweetburner, for shortening URL's lets you track the clicks on your links in tweets. I had been using TinyURL, but anything to help me know more about how things are working.

seolman
01-23-2009, 01:11 AM
Very nice resource. Thanks Steve.

rezzy
01-23-2009, 09:32 AM
Ive always been ski-dish of allowing sites access to my email account, but using it allowed me to find people on Twitter I did not think were using it.

Although, I have not benefited from using it yet. Its only connecting me to people in my field, not potential customers. But this has been first week of real usage. I'll check those resources you mentioned, they might something useful.

vangogh
01-23-2009, 11:23 AM
Bryan I wouldn't be too worried about letting them have your email address, but you can always set up a new account just for social media.

Keep in mind a site like Twitter is about networking. Most of the time that will with your peers and not so much with customers, though customers could certainly end up following you. Consider, though, that your peers can help you. They can link to you and recommend you and offer advice, etc. If you enter Twitter with the goal of marketing yourself and convincing people to contact you for services, you'll probably end up frustrated. If you fo into it looking to connect with like minded people you'll end up finding you have new friends and allies and without realizing it you may find you have more customers too.

orion_joel
01-24-2009, 08:05 AM
I have not had such a problem with allowing access for email, as i tend to keep a hotmail account purely for use on msn messenger, which has most of my contact's i talk with online in, and my actual email is separate to that so i am not really getting to mixed in their.

However that does not allow me to really look for to many of my business contact's directly on these sites either. like twitter and linkedin.

KristineS
01-24-2009, 04:27 PM
I use my personal e-mail on all the social networking sites and I've never had any problems. I've thought about having a separate e-mail just for those sorts of sites, but mostly it's seemed like too much trouble. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't seem to get spammed too terribly much and I haven't encountered any majorly creepy people.

Of course, I'm also pretty vigilant too. I take advantage of whatever blocking abilities the social networking programs afford me. If someone feels hinky, I block them.

orion_joel
01-24-2009, 07:01 PM
I think the main thing is that many of the sites dont actually make the address public for one thing, but then also sites like facebook, and myspace, not everyone makes their address available so spammers, one would have to register, and secondly have to accept limited success, and thirdly would probably get picked up quite quickly by the social network.

Additionally sites like linkedin only have a limited range on searches unless you pay memebership. But really social networking sites i think are just to much hard work for spammers to bother looking through them for email address, when they can do it much easier and quicker through their regular means.

Harold Mansfield
02-16-2009, 03:12 PM
OK, I finally investigated the whole twitter thing, and how to work it. Spent last night following "twitterers" that seem to be in my niche and got back 72 followers so far, and they are still coming in.

So far I am following 700 twits, targeted by niche and known cities rich in dance music..Detroit, Chicao, New York, Dallas, San Francisco, etc.

I also put 2 twitter widgets on my Dance Music blog, which I like, it's kind of like a live Dance Music Twitters widget of all the related twits that I am following.

I set up and respond to every follower with a welcome, my link, and an invitation to submit promos with my email address.

Let you know how it goes, but so far, especially for music, I can see this being a very good thing.

Harold Mansfield
02-17-2009, 07:09 PM
Spent a little more time on it, now following over 1200 Twitters and coming up on 300 followers. Yes there has been a surge in web traffic, but too preliminary to judge, however, have gotten a lot of direct messages from industry people and DJ's, so that is a good thing as far as networking.

I notice a lot of people spamming Twitter, but then again, John Chow and a few other SEO and internet marketing "guru's" have a following on there as well.

I think after a few more days of casual observance, I can corner out my niche and gain some good followers.
This is definitely a good thing.

orion_joel
02-17-2009, 11:10 PM
Eborg, I think that you will find that there are a lot of people spamming on twitter, however most of them are very very easy to spot. More specifically if someone has a lot of people they are following, and low number of people following them with only one update, they are most likely spamming.

Also i think that the way that you are doing it is possibly the better way where you are getting involved, and responding, so showing that you are a real person and not an automated system. Although it may be possible that you are able to automate what you are doing.

One thing that you will find is that you may want to make some conversation that is not directly related to getting people to you site, if you see someone say something that you can respond to then say something back @ them. This also i believe will get your name out there a little more especially if they then reply back to you again.

Harold Mansfield
02-18-2009, 02:55 AM
Definitely good tips Joel. Believe it or not, I'm actually getting into it, and have probably responded to 10 or so direct emails of small record companies, and independent Dj's in different parts of the world looking for some promotion....which is perfect.

I see a lot of "Just made a new blog post" messages that look really desperate and stupid. I actually do have a game plan. I kinda scoped out who's doing what, and I definitely see an opportunity.
I have to warn anyone not currently "Twittering"...once you start, it is addicting.

BTW, The President of the United States, Barack Obama has a Twitter profile with a few hundred thousand followers, and it is updated frequently. There were a few quick messages about the stimulus package getting done.

billbenson
02-18-2009, 06:50 AM
The new pres quickly cut over to a new white house web site from what I read. I didn't look at it. Seems like he is the first president to really try to use the web to his advantage. An interesting change.

Harold Mansfield
02-18-2009, 02:11 PM
The new pres quickly cut over to a new white house web site from what I read. I didn't look at it. Seems like he is the first president to really try to use the web to his advantage. An interesting change.
It is actually very refreshing. I still get frequent emails from when I signed up on the Obama website during the campaign.

It's kinda nice to get a State of the Union update from the President of the United States in your email box every couple of days. Signed by The President.

It's actually cool as hell.:)

rezzy
02-18-2009, 03:59 PM
It's actually cool as hell.:)

I agree, its the constant contact that makes you like and feel closer. Which is why Twitter is so cool.

orion_joel
02-18-2009, 08:10 PM
I have just started a new sort of test on twitter, and so far after less then 24 hours, i have added 130+ new followers, and they are continuing to trickle in, the number is higher each time i check, so maybe losing some but seem to be mostly gaining.

Although at this stage, from the link or two that i have posted having more followers does not always seem to convert to more clicks. I get more clicks on my other twitter account with about 50 followers.

vangogh
02-18-2009, 09:40 PM
Oddly I haven't tweeted in a couple of weeks yet I'm picking up new followers every day. I am following all the legit ones back. I think maybe I found my way onto a list somewhere.

orion_joel
02-18-2009, 10:55 PM
Some of it could just be that you are following one or two people that followed you but are quiet selective in who they follow, and then people see these people and follow who they are following if you get what i mean.

Additionally an update, it has just come up on about 24 hrs since i created my new profile for one of my sites. Through following a number of people (about 640 at this time), i have just over 200 followers, still growing and picking up people that i did not initially follow. Also, i have been replying to direct messages as i receive them, and also doing a number of @ replies and Re-Tweets of interesting things i see. Plus a couple of people @ replied to me which means i then show up to their followers. I wont know until tomorrow if or how it has affected traffic and such on my site, but i will be sure to update you. I will probably look to try and keep this momentum up for a week or two and then re-evaluate what direction to go.

Also one other thing, i have had least 2 links shared without request by people i have started following so not such a bad start me thinks

vangogh
02-18-2009, 11:07 PM
I think it's that a few people outside my usual circles started following me and I've been good about following people back lately. I guess my name made it's way to some new people. I think a lot of them have been local to Colorado too.

Harold Mansfield
02-19-2009, 12:02 AM
I am starting to narrow down my real target followers now, about 400 since I started 2 days ago.
Twitter has been my top referrer the last couple of days.
I have been completely up front about what to expect from me. I don't expect that I will push anything, my whole premise is that I will be "Twittering" updates that you won't find on the blog, and geo-tagging club events.
It's a good out let for me since I get a lot of information in, but I couldn't possibly post about every club event in every city that I get them from, but a quick geo -tagged twit is easy enough and keeps people informed.

I noticed that even some of the big names in my niche are not capitalizing , and the ones that are, are just a bunch of twits about them and them only.

Next I have to set up timed twits so that any updates I post for clubs in different time zones like the U.K., Germany, The Netherlands, Philippines, Tokyo and such will go out when I am sleep but they are awake.

I am getting the hang of it.

vangogh
02-19-2009, 12:26 AM
You seem to be taking to Twitter very quickly. I can see how it would be useful to you too. Tweeting club events seems made for Twitter.

KristineS
02-19-2009, 12:31 PM
I so need to start using Twitter for my personal stuff. I've been using it for one of the companies and it's been really interesting. We're picking up followers regularly, and we're interacting with them, which is awesome. I'm not sure it's translated into sales yet, but it certainly has raised awareness which is what I really wanted.

orion_joel
02-19-2009, 08:21 PM
I am finding that the building with Twitter is easy enough, probably sitting at a little under 48 hrs and do have quite a lot happening, i have about 490 followers, which is over 50% of the number i am following at about 960, I do have a very large amount of direct messages, currently 82, I am trying to reply to as many as i can that do not look like flat out spam.

The visitor count on my website has gone up in the last 24 hours by about 60 visitors, where the average day to day increase is about 15-20, so traffic has increased and some of the referrer's are other people tweeting or retweeting my links.

I am trying to keep a track of the day to day changes that i am seeing to try and show how things have changed day to day.

Harold Mansfield
02-19-2009, 09:57 PM
I'm surprised no one has dropped their Twitter address. I'll start it off:)
Twitter / 124bpms (http://twitter.com/124bpms)

vangogh
02-19-2009, 10:58 PM
I think we dropped them in another thread somewhere. Here's my Twitter profile (http://twitter.com/vangogh) again. I'll follow your momentarily.

orion_joel
02-20-2009, 11:22 AM
Twitter / no_fixed_office (http://twitter.com/no_fixed_office) or Twitter / Orionjoel (http://twitter.com/orionjoel).

There have been some interesting things i have discovered in building the two accounts.

1. i get a similar number of clicks from posting a link of either account, even though one has about 13 times the followers.

2. direct Messages can quickly overwhelm, first it was 20 which i got through then 48 which i got through then 80 i got half way through and now i have signed in and found 220.

3. getting followers is not hard the difficult part is getting followers that provide value and are going to actually improve your time spent.

Harold Mansfield
02-24-2009, 04:31 PM
I have been amazed at the celebrities that communicate on Twitter daily.
Been following Snoop Dog and also M.C. Hammer has the most followers I have seen to date...over 100k !
Gotta love Hammer.

vangogh
02-24-2009, 05:02 PM
Lots of celebrities are using Twitter. I think Shaq has about 75,000 or so followers.

rezzy
02-25-2009, 03:51 PM
Twitter (http://twitter.com/resnodesigns)So, heres my twitter page.

Harold Mansfield
02-25-2009, 09:57 PM
This is good. At the very least we can compare notes and tactics to see if Twitter will offer any real marketing value for our businesses.

By the way I followed all of you. It's kinda like High School a little : "I followed you, are you gonna follow me?" *giggle, giggle*

orion_joel
02-25-2009, 11:16 PM
Obama, i believe has about 285,000 followers.

The biggest problem i find now is they are imposing limits on how many you can follow, I think it is about 2000 that i have found for me, however others are seeing other lower limits. This doesn't stop how many can follow you. But i believe it may vary based on a factor of following to follower ratio, some testing is required but i need to get follower count up closer to 2,000 to see though.

However even with limits, the fact that i have created a network with almost 1500 people in a matter of a week is not to bad. Originally it was growing quick, while it has slowed down it is still growing. Without adding really any new people i am following each day, and recently posted as such about how i dropped 250+ people i was following and lost just one person following me (on my business blog in the footer).

Harold Mansfield
02-25-2009, 11:20 PM
This just in, Google has a Twitter account and posted for the first time today:
Google says hello to Twitter with a stream of 1s and 0s VentureBeat (http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/25/google-says-hello-to-twitter-with-a-stream-of-1s-and-0s/?disqus_reply=6632237#comment-6632237)

vangogh
02-26-2009, 02:15 AM
I wasn't expecting to see them have an account, but I did follow it.

Harold Mansfield
03-02-2009, 04:04 PM
I wasn't expecting to see them have an account, but I did follow it.

Eventually Twitter will have to make some money somewhere, I assume we will be seeing adsense units spattered around it very soon.

vangogh
03-02-2009, 06:20 PM
I don't think their plans are going to be to include AdSense. I have a hunch it's going to be selling premium services. I've also heard people speculating that Google will buy them since you can usually find better real time results searching Twitter than you can searching Google.

orion_joel
03-02-2009, 09:53 PM
I am not so sure income may even yet be their first priority, some of the things i have read place them as still small compared to what they could be. Plus they are having no problems at all getting venture capital. What i do think though is that when they decide to make money, they will have something that will launch them to a really decent level on the playing field.

Especially there was one article that i saw which showed something along the lines of income to staff in a number of the different companies, online such as Facebook and some others. Even if twitter made some moderately or low income levels they would be more financially justifiable them a large number of other social media companies.

vangogh
03-02-2009, 11:13 PM
They've gained enough financing to keep them going for quite some time so it's probably not imperative for them to start making money tomorrow. Still that's clearly their goal and they've mentioned having some ideas, though they haven't revealed what those ideas might be.