Tips

10 tricks for using Twitter

October 25, 2011 by Raul Colon

In order to find an effective and efficient way to use Twitter, here are 10 tips that may be useful for any Twitter user. Whether you’re new to Twitter or an experienced Twitter user these tips can help you get more results.

1. Use a tool for managing your tweets.

In today’s mobile world it’s easy to stay up to date with Twitter. With so many available applications to choose from such as: Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, and others can enhance the experience of Twitter.

2. Rotate links in your Tweets.

You should rotate where you place a link. Sometimes you should place it before the message which causes the user to see the link and then the message. This may increase the readers curiosity. At other times you can place the link in the middle of the message. It is a good idea to alternate the structure of your “tweet” so they do not all look alike.

Example:

Before the message: “http://about.com – Portal to find useful and interesting information.”
After the message: “Portal to find useful and interesting: http://about.com”
Middle of the message: “Portal to find useful and interesting: http://about.com information.”

3. Create “tweets” with no more than 120 characters.

Tweets that are less than 120 character make it easier for others to “Re-tweet” and pass the information along.

4. Create lists to filter messages from users by topic, relationship, or events.

As the number of contacts you have grow, it becomes more and more difficult to read through all of your messages. Having lists allow you to better control the flow of messages and interaction with other users.

5. Understand how to use “hashtag” and its many features.

A “hashtag” is a keyword which is placed with a number sign (#) in front. This allows the Twitter platform to easily find users that have used that keyword in their tweets.

6. Include a Background on Your Profile that identifies you, or the effort that you are running.

Twitter provides a generic background designs for its users, however, you have the ability to create your own background. This is very useful if your a business because it allows you to make your presence in Twitter stand out. Your background imagine can be as simple as just your logo, but I recommend having key features of your business on that background.

7. Complete your profile and highlight your interests so others with similar interests can see you as a potential contact to follow.

Be sure to keep up to date photo of you and information describing your interests. Creativity is always welcome.

8. Add links to your profile.

This will help to direct followers or visitors to your blog, or anywhere they can find more information from you. I always recommend to include your blog or website.

9. Share “tweets” from other users.

Twitter is a channel of communication whose purpose is to share information. Be sure to share and pass on information shared by others. If you only share what you create you miss the opportunity to create new relationships. Many users choose to stop following users when messages are often personal propaganda only.

10. Never click on links from strangers they usually arrive via a special “DM” (direct message).

Many people receive private messages which may have malicious code that can take over your account. Once you see suspicious activity call the Twitter security team they will show you how to precede.

These are 10 tips and tricks on how to use Twitter. If you have some tips for Twitter users post in the comments below.

If you need help on improving your online presence for yourself or your business feel free to send us your contact info!

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Get alerts from your Facebook Pages

January 27, 2011 by Raul Colon

Just as they advertise on there page HyperAlerts is the feature facebook forgot. Thanks to our friend @julito77 I was able to sign up to this service so I can get alerts periodically when someone does post something on the Multiple Facebook Pages I manage.

This feature is something that cuts down the time from when someone posts something on the Facebook page to the administrator responding.

Before I would use a dashboard in hootsuite that gave me the opportunity to look at multiple accounts at once but it was still a manual process.

Feel free to sign up for the beta version.

http://alerts.hyperinteraktiv.no/

What other features would facilitate the monitoring and use of your facebook page?

Starting a Business in Seven Steps by @raffel

January 26, 2011 by Raul Colon

Content and post from jimraffel.com

There are many details involved in starting a business. Here, I’ve boiled it down to the seven that I have found to be most important to continuing business success.

1. Open a checking account. The moment you make the decision to go in business for yourself, open a new checking account. Decide how much you are willing to invest (lose) giving this business idea a shot. Fund the account with that amount. By the way, your accountant is going to love you because you will not be commingling personal and business funds. Also, until you setup an accounting system you have a basic way to keep track of expenses and income.

2. Decide upon legal structure. There is no right answer for this step. I’ve been a sole proprietor, a member of an LLC and probably will have S and C corps before my career is over. This is the time to call on the professionals in your circle. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each with your accountant and attorney. Then, you can make an informed choice; a choice, by the way, that is not etched in stone.

3. Decide on an accounting system. If I was doing it over again I’d probably use something like FreshBooks.com and OutRight.com. Again you’ll want to consult with your professional support to decide on issues like; calendar year versus fiscal year; cash basis versus accrual accounting methods and other details that matter but can be worked out quickly with professional assistance.

4. Sell something. I’d actually be totally okay with this being your step number 1. There is really nothing wrong with selling first. I’ve read enough business success stories to know that getting out there and selling is the key to success. In the early days, when the founder of Sam Adams brewery wasn’t quite sure what he should be doing, he took a six pack of beer and walked into six pubs and let the bartender try the beer. It always resulted in increased distribution.

5. Spend about 10 seconds putting together basic marketing materials. I am talking about the very basics like a web-site and some business cards. It might take more than 10 seconds but honestly if you spend more than a day on this at this point in your business’ life, I think you are making a mistake. Later, when business is booming, you can hire a designer to clean up and improve upon what you’ve started.

6. Sell something else. The life blood of any business is revenue. Unless you’ve had past business successes and lots of capital (venture or otherwise) behind you, selling will be your #1 job. Early on, you will very likely sell the wrong things at the wrong prices. It’s okay as long as you protect the downside and don’t let any one transaction put you in a position that could put you out of business.

7. Decide what you should be selling. Now that you have sold a few things, decide if what you are selling is actually what you should be selling. I realize this may sound silly on the surface, but I learned early on what I could sell profitably and what I could not. Whatever your business is, you need to analyze your products and services mix often. Products that are profitable and awesome for your business today could be putting you in the red a year from now.

Once you have an ongoing concern, make sure to look at your books a minimum of once a month. I’m not talking about a glance at the financials. I’m talking about a solid hour or two of uninterrupted time figuring out what is working and what is not. Once a year, I look at all our monthly expenses and commit to cutting them by 20% no matter what. It’s never been difficult to do so.

Obviously, every startup will be different but I suspect the steps that work for you will be approximately the same. Did I miss any important ones?

Photo Credit

Learn More About the Author

Jim Raffel is the CEO at ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC a company he co-founded in 1996. Jim earned a B.S. degree in Printing Management at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1986. After graduation Jim worked as a quality control manager assisting in the start-up of two 8/9 unit web presses. Jim then engaged in two years of independent consulting while developing an early version of the ColorMetrix software. The consulting assignments were diverse and took Jim to places as far away as New Zealand. Next, came a position as a special projects manager with a large web printer. Jim worked on and managed projects related to quality and productivity enhancement through the use of technology. One project alone added over two million dollars to the company bottom line. During this same period Jim earned an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management in 1994. In addition to managing the day-t0-day operations of ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC, Jim writes daily at JimRaffel.com with his unique inspirational storying telling public speaker and small business CEO perspective.

Follow him on twitter @jimraffel

Broadcasting equals less Engagement

January 25, 2011 by Raul Colon

255658719_1113bbdc97_z — Photo Credit: Flickr

Many business accounts are constantly Broadcasting their sales, accomplishments, product features, company news, and anything they can find about themselves that appears to be interesting to them. When people broadcast a message it is mainly to attract the masses not focusing on quality. Something I have found through social media is that the more you broadcast the less interaction you get.

I have outlined the reasons why some twitter business users end up broadcasting and end up with little or no interactions.

Self-Promoting products, services, and company

Many twitter business users that are new to twitter create accounts and immediately start sending messages about there products, services, and other information relevant to company and interests. I have even seen a few that go after users and beg or harass them to follow them.

Most of these users also lack interaction with other users. On the other side they feel that everyone should learn about there company but they don’t take the time to learn about the others. They fail greatly in not looking for the interests of their community and clients.

Sharing Accomplishments

It is human nature to feel you need to be recognized for your accomplishments. A good example of people that want to be recognized are the so called Social Media Experts which share a collection of names such as Guru, Evangelist, Kings, and Queen. One of the terms still up for grabs is “Swami” for those of you who want to make the recommendation to these experts feel free to recommend it to them. They are constantly bragging that they have a certain klout score or have to announce how many followers they just gained. What they don’t realize is that other people take there perspective they really don’t care about how many followers you have they are to worried about their own.

Let other people share your accomplishments you will get better results. If you feel like sharing something find a polite way to share it but don’t bombard your users with your constant accomplishments.

Hoarding Followers

When I started using twitter I confused it with other social networks. I remember when I used ICQ in the late 90’s where my objective was trying to get in contact with as much people possible just to be able to keep multiple conversations all the time.

Twitter is a micro-blogging portal very different from others in social media. It is key that you earn your following and focus on quality of contacts. The more interested your followers are to your tweets the more probable is that they can be advocates of your message or thoughts (and maybe later on your company and services).

Always look for contacts that have things in common. Many people start adding people randomly in hopes to get someone to follow them back. Even if they follow you most people might not even read your tweets. By interacting with the people you have and really taking care of your audience you will start building a community that will be well worth waiting for your follower count to rise organically.

More Attention

There are no many ways to call attention to yourself. But something you need to keep in mind is that you can do it in a negative or a positive way. People that try to hard end up sharing a negative image. When you are using twitter and/or other social media platforms it should be with the purpose of establishing relationships. To increase the opportunities to establish those relationships you should do a great job at projecting a clean and positive image.

If you need some help on getting attention to attract clients in a positive way @jimkukral’sAttention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue.

In what ways do you interact with your online communities?

How are you going to increase interaction and eliminate Broadcasting?

Keeping Followers Interested With #FollowFriday

August 5, 2010 by Raul Colon

6 recommendations to Unleash the Power Of FollowFriday

If you are just starting on twitter who should you start following? I think everyone new on twitter runs into the same situation. How about if you are a business how do you gain followers?

In my opinion I see the benefit of growing your followers organically. I have seen many companies with new presence on twitter spamming and following as many people on twitter as they can get a hand on. Personally I think they should really focus on earning followers (without spamming), establishing relationships, and keeping those followers.

On twitter I have been a huge advocate for #FollowFriday and the Spanish version of #VivaViernes. The #FollowFriday hashtag was initially created and suggested by @micah on twitter. As you can see the first #FollowFriday Tweet below.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/micah/status/1124262248″]

For individuals it is a great way to share top people to follow on Twitter. It also gives you the chance to find recommendations from friends who they think deserve your attention. If you actually take those benefits and transfer them to a business account I see many advantages.

Getting back to actually maintaining your users by using #FollowFriday we recommend:

Give a short description of your opinion on a user or what they tweet about. If you also see they are aligned towards efforts that your followers or yourself are an advocate for make sure to mention them.
Opt Out if you are not going to give it your genuine touch. I see many people just creating lists of people but if you really want your followers to feel that you are mentioning them because they mean something to you then you should at least accompany the #FollowFriday with a short description of why you think they should be followed.
Categorize your #FollowFriday. If you want to recommend a list of users who have something in common. Example if you follow a group of Web Designers then you can mention the category small phrase and the users recommended.
Recommend People with High Impact Tweets. If you consider that a certain user is impacting you and might have a high impact with other users this is a user you might want to recommend.
Take care of users who share Helpful Tweets. If you find that you ask a question and one of your users is actually replying with help or assisting other users in your list what better way to be grateful than with a recognition accompanied by a #FollowFriday.
Most Interactive users with your account should be mentioned. I personally created a list of the Top 40 people who I interact with and usually I use that list as a guideline to send out my #FollowFridays

Overall search for the best option of the #FollowFriday to fit your business needs. I constantly switch them up and would recommend you to try or even mix my recommendations.

I also recommend you to visit Followfriday.com (@followfridaycom) which is a great new tool to measure how many #FollowFridays a user has received.

It also gives you a few tools to help you be grateful for the people who mentioned you with the #FollowFriday hashtag.

Are you using #FollowFriday for any business purpose?

How do you use your #FollowFriday?

Any other suggestions on how to keep your users interested?

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