Archive for the ‘twitter’ Category

Twitter has just added a great feature to the popular micro-blogging site.   Twitter Lists are the latest and greatest feature offered by Twitter.  To know if you are eligible to begin using this feature, you will see this announcement at the top of your Twitter Page.

With Twitter Lists users can organize the people they are following into specific lists for easy recognition and communication.  For example, I have set up two lists, so far.  One is call “bizbuddies” and included in this list are the people that I follow related to my business, affiliate partners, clients, and others that I have a business relationship with.  My second list is called “social media.”  This list is made up of all the people I follow that have some connection to social media. (My Twitter ID is @avirtualbiz if you want to add me to your Lists)

Now when I want to hear the latest “scoop” in social media, I simply click on my Social Media List on Twitter and I can be updated very quickly with the latest industry information.

Another great feature with Twitter Lists, is that you can search for lists that you would like to follow and with just one click, you are following the entire list. To see the top lists and to recommend your friends and business associates to a list (and even yourself) go to Listorious.  You can search on hundreds of keywords, and industries to find lists that you would like to follow.

You can have up to 20 lists and each list can have 500 people in it.  So set-up your lists and each time you follow a new person on Twitter, add them to one of your lists or create a new one.

This is just another step toward simplifying and streamlining our social media experience without sacrificing the quality and benefits of social networking.

What are you thoughts regarding the new List feature on Twitter?

P.S. If you would like to recommend me to a social media list on Listorious, I’ll recommend you back!!

Bing and Google both announced today that they are adding Twitter updates in their search results.  They believe that this will greatly benefit users by giving them up-to-the-minute information on searches.  And I couldn’t agree more!

Now you can search for your favorite celebrity and get the latest in conversation, as communicated by Twitter, on what’s going on with them.  Or, you if you search for travel information on your next vacation spot, you could possibly get recommendations from people currently vacationing there.  Maybe you can even follow them and strike up a conversation with them to get tips on the best places to have dinner.

This offers Twitter users more opportunities to be “found” through search engines by their keyword rich Twitter posts.  As a business owner, I try to share good quality content that is relevant to my business.  And sometimes I just add things for fun.  It’s great to know that my Tweets will now be included in searches on both of these sites!

You can read more at their blogs:

Bing Blog

The Official Google Blog

Be careful little eyes, what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear. And be careful little Twitter users what you Tweet!

Now that Twitter and Facebook have beefed-up their search capabilities, all of your Twitter and Facebook posts are easily searched and found by others.

Such is the case of a business that was in a dispute with their marketing firm and said some “not so nice” things about them on Twitter and Facebook. The marketing firm is now suing the business for breach of contract related to the use of promotional materials without permission, along with some other things. But really, had the business not been so vocal with their comments through social media, this might have been easily rectified.

So the lesson is, to be aware of what you are saying on social media sites.  Use the “count to 10″ rule if you’re angry before you post a comment.  Just because it doesn’t show up on your computer screen, doesn’t mean it isn’t still hanging around cyberspace.

My philosophy is…if you don’t want the world to know what you are saying, don’t post it on Twitter!

Some of you probably don’t even know what #FollowFriday or #FF is.  Others are probably annoyed by all the Twitter posts with #FF or #FollowFriday in them.

I just ran across a new perspective on this seemingly useless marketing approach.  To read a post from TwitTip, follow this link #followfriday Revolution.

I like this blogger idea and plan to implement it this coming Friday!

After you read the post, come back and let me know what your #FF plans are.

With most things online, you need to be brief, yet informative.  Here is a nice application to help you Keep It Short Sweetheart. 

This program is designed to shorten your lengthy urls to a more manageable and shortened length.

There are several programs to shorten urls for use in Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, but I like this one because it offers statistics for your shortened urls.  I can go back to my account and view how many people clicked on my shortened url link and actually where they are from!  Now that’s pretty cool.

There is also a toolbar and sidebar button you can add to your page.

So KISS with Bit.ly.

Everywhere you turn, you hear about these Social Networking and Social Media Websites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.  It looks like they are taking over.

Facebook has 200 million active users!  Up 89% this year alone…Twitter grows at 300K new users per month…. YouTube visitors are viewing 13 billion videos a month… Linkedin has over 36 million business people networking.

*** THE BIG CHALLENGE ***

The big Challenge is that most people are wasting their time with these sites.  Countless others don’t know how to grow their business or generate leads using these sites and many people are just watching from the sidelines.

*** THE SOLUTION – SelfGrowth.com Social Media University ***

My friend David Riklan, the founder of SelfGrowth.com, came up with a powerful way for small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors and direct marketers to learn how to leverage the power of Social Media.   He is calling it Social Media University.

Through SelfGrowth.com’s Social Media University, you will be taught by a team of 8 Faculty members who have applied Social Media Marketing to become wildly successful!  And they will teach you the practical, step by step, insider tips you NEED to be profitable with social media marketing!

I am honored that David has asked me to be one of the chosen faculty members!  I will be teaching the session on Introduction to Facebook where I will share with you The Seven Key Strategies to Build a Strong and Profitable Facebook Presence.

To get the full details, please go here:  Social Media University

In this 8 week program, you will learn:

1. The top 7 mistakes that people are making using Social Media.
2. How YOU Can Position Yourself as an Expert in any Niche fast without spending a dime.
3. The Top 4 Ways People are Generating Leads through Social networking.
4. Exact daily Social Media processes (a) for you and (b) to delegate to your assistant for maximum results…and how to manage that in 30 minutes or less per day.
5. Why social media is changing marketing forever.
6. How to use Social Media to generate MASSIVE income.

Unsure if this program will help your business?  You can even speak to a social media specialist to find out if you are a good candidate.  To request your complimentary consultation now, please go here:

These tools are changing the future of business and the Internet.  If you want to be part of the future, don’t miss out on the SelfGrowth.com Social Media University.

Don’t forget to request your complimentary Social Media University consultation here to find out if the program is a good fit for you.

Is your Twitter InBox full of Direct Messages?  Are you looking for a quick and easy way to manage your DMs?

TweetLater has a new feature for both the Free and Professional accounts.  With TweetLater you can now run a purge on your DM Inbox, and delete all DMs, DMs older than 7 days, or DMs older than 30 days.

To access it, login to TweetLater, click the blue DM menu tab in the top menu bar, and then the Purge DMs sub-menu tab.

I am following 2,001 peeps on Twitter.  I thought that was pretty cool.  I have 2,001 new people to learn from, share with and potentially do business with.

But when I clicked Follow for number 2,002 I couldn’t make it work!  I kept clicking and even tried it on different people, thinking they had their account blocked.  I went to different applications to try and follow them, but to no avail!  I couldn’t Follow anyone else.

What? I know some of the “biggies” on Twitter follow thousands and thousands of people and have that many or more following them.  So I put on my detective hat and decided to get to the bottom of this dilemma.

After searching the help section and some Google results, I found the answer to my problem.  Here it is exactly as worded on Twitter Help:

You can always follow up to 2000 people.  After that, more than 2,000 have to follow back, and then your following is based on a ratio determined by the number of people who follow you.

Well, nobody told me that before!  So I began to un-follow some people that Mr. Tweet and some other helpers had followed for me.  Now I can add new people again.

So the lesson is to be strategic when you Follow people.  I know it’s tempting in the beginning to Follow everyone, but it will come back and cause you some trouble when you hit the 2,000 Twitter Limit.

Here are a couple of things to help with following:

• Check the people you are following everyday
• Look at their profile and see if they are truly someone you want to know, learn from or do business with
• If they don’t fit into your specific criteria, un-follow them (it’s OK, it really won’t hurt their feelings)
• Promote your Twitter ID on your website, blog, Facebook & LinkedIn account, your email signature and any other business material you publish.  This will drive new Followers to your profile.

As Twitter states, you can Follow up to 2000 people, but you can’t go past 2,000 until you have 2,000 people following you.  The promotion of your Twitter ID is important to keep your profile healthy and free to add new and interesting people as you find them.

Get connected with others in your local area on Twitter with Localtweeps.  Localtweeps encourages local connections and local information sharing. They will help you find local tweeps, get found locally and share geographic trends on Twitter.

Tweet your ZIP to @localtweeps and put yourself and your city on our Twitter influence map.

Reprinted by permission of Edward Boches http://edwardboches.com/

If you are a CEO, it’s time to get on Twitter. If you know a CEO, do him or her a favor and tell him to get on Twitter. If you are the PR counsel to a CEO, make him get on Twitter. America has about had it with our business leaders: from Enron’s deceit, to the auto industry’s incompetency, to AIG’s bonuses. Trust and confidence is at an all time low. Even Steve Jobs is no longer immune given the lack of openness about his illness. There’s a sense that you’re insular, selfish, focused on the short term and don’t care about anyone but yourself and maybe the board that protects you. But if you get on Twitter, here’s what will happen.

1. You’ll personally get to hear and feel what people think about your company, about your industry and about you.

2. You’ll discover that you don’t have to be so scared of the public. They’re not trying to bring you down. They just want you to be accountable.

3. You’ll find that there are hundreds, if not thousands of smart people with good ideas that can actually help you lead and make decisions.

4. You’ll be surprised to find that the return on being honest and open and generous is as high as virtually any other investment you can make.

5. You’ll encounter a community of people willing to give you credit just for being there and trying.

6. You’ll get a chance to test and improve your ideas, your communication skills and your knowledge of popular culture.

7. You’ll be taking the first step toward building a customer-centric organization.

8. You’ll have the chance to turn prospects into customers, customers into loyalists, and loyalists into advocates.

9. You’ll be a significant step ahead of your competitors unless they get there before you.

10. You’ll conclude that you never again want to be so isolated from the people who buy, and will buy, your products and services.

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Edward Boches
http://edwardboches.com/

and on twitter
http://twitter.com/edwardboches