Pallavi asked:

With the passage of time, things have changed and improved. Like in computers character user interface was used but with the popularity of computer, graphic user interface was used. Graphic user interface became so popular because of its application, its user friendly environment and its appearance. Twitter applications are the examples of graphic user interface. Special applications are provided by The Twitter Secret. With these applications, usage of applications become easy and saves lots of time.

Twitter Applications have become very popular in youths. Main reason is these are very attractive and eye catchy. Applications are specifically designed according to youth’s environment because maximum young people surf the net most especially social networking websites like twitter, facebook etc.

Twitter Applications are additional features that can be added to the twitter secret. By adding a twitter application to your profile, your public profile information will be shared through the application with its developer, with your friends who receive your updates on twitter.

There are various kinds of applications like computer application which is known as software in your compute. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, internet, browsing, and anti-virus and e-mail software. The entire buzz for the past year has been about social applications, interactive pieces of media that you can install on your Twitter.

Twitter is becoming popular day by day and now it’s impossible to escape from twitter. With the usage of it, it’s becoming popular and to increase its interactivity various twitter applications are launching in market. Applications like playing games, using stylish fonts in your account, sending flowers to your friend on his/her birthday and so on. The reason of popularity is also 140 microblogging systems which twitter uses. In microblogging, you can send short message to your friend and its character limit is only 140.

Many of twitter applications are written by harmless programming enthusiasts as a bit of fun, but many are also written purely for marketing purposes. Nowadays marketing has become 1st most step of any product. It is the kind of conveying and telling information about the product to the customers. If marketing strategy is good and attractive then no doubts customer will use the product at least for once. It’s all about promoting your product to the user and nowadays the main medium of marketing is television and internet. These are the 2 mediums which is most popular and useful nowadays.

Using social networking site is really popular because you can contact to your old buddies through it. That’s why people love it while using it. And they try various things on it. For example, if today I have launched twitter application – “make love relations”. I assure you while seeing this application maximum user will add this application in your account and start using it. The main motive of any application is to increase popularity among users.

The main motive behind twitter application is to give the facility to the user, to enjoy the website while using it. Many of twitter applications are written by harmless programming enthusiasts as a bit of fun, but many are also written purely for marketing purposes.

Jeremy Gislason asked:

It’s not surprising that social media has become so popular in so short a time. Not only is it a source of entertainment for most people, it is also the newest strategy for acquiring customers for businesses. And with hot new tools like Twitter, social media marketing has only become more progressive and popular!

What Is Twitter?

In case you’re not familiar with Twitter, it is a social media tool that allows people to know what their fellow twitterers (people using twitter) are doing at this very moment.

Are you getting ready for bed? Put that on Twitter! Are you buying a new couch or writing a report on the effects of social media marketing? Put that on Twitter! Are you throwing a birthday party for your golden retriever? Well, you can put that on Twitter as well. There are no boundaries as to what you can put on Twitter. In Twitter, even the most mundane updates about your life can be pretty liberating.

Sounds simple, right? Perhaps, it is this simplicity that has made Twitter quite a sensation on the Internet. There’s also something amusing about knowing what other people are doing and letting them know your own business as well. This combination of fun and simplicity is what ultimately appeals to Twitter fans.

Applying Twitter In Business

If you’re business-minded, then you probably already have more than a few ideas on how to make this social media marketing tool work for you. Having a Twitter account allows you to inform your clients and would-be clients the progress in your company. You’re not putting up an ad every week (because that tends to be annoying). However, you get the chance to share with them what’s happening to your company’s products, people, tools, etc. right now.

Twitter, unlike MySpace and Facebook, poses an advantage for new and advanced marketers. As an efficient social media marketing tool, Twitter allows you to build a giant list of followers. It allows your clients and subscribers to see what you’re doing right now. It gives them access to your immediate profile and permits you to share your ideas with other twitterers. All free of charge.

How Twitter Can Explode Your Profits

While many people have other purposes and values for the use of the free service, the marketer can use Twitter to jumpstart a list of followers that can grow into thousands.

If you’re someone who sells used cars, you can use Twitter to attract members who are interested in automobiles. When a new shipment comes in, you can use Twitter to announce that the latest Ford model has arrived. Or if you’re having a sale, you can use Twitter to let everybody know about it.

These followers are the next best thing to customers. If they haven’t bought anything from you yet, then you can rest assured that they will be buying something soon. As long as you keep providing them something nice to look forward to, they will always be enticed to purchase something from your company.

Think of it as fishing. You already have the fish interested in your bait. All you have to do is wait for the fish to bite. According to quantcast.com, Twitter reaches about 6.1 million U.S. people every month. This social media tool has also reached other countries and is hugely popular in Japan. In fact, there are other Twitter-like applications that have popped up due to its insane fame!

Despite the huge popularity of Twitter, it is not a disorganized system that doesn’t have any limits. For example, you can only send 1,000 updates, 100 API requests and send 250 direct messages each day. And while there is no limit to the people who can follow you, the same freedom doesn’t apply vice-versa.

The maximum number of people you can follow is limited to 2,000. In Twitter-speak, to follow means to receive Twitter updates. This limit will only be lifted if you manage to attract more than 2,000 followers to your account.

According to Twitter, this is done to prevent SPAM users from adding up into their system and to prevent abuse from all current members.

It’s not that difficult to attract more followers into your account. In the long run, this will only make your Twitter account more meaningful because of the effort you’ve put into it.

The beauty at this stage is that once you are at such a level, it’s easier to attract new followers into your account. The benefits from taking such steps are acquiring your own list of eager followers (in which you can pitch your own products and services); and more importantly, gaining new business contacts.

Other Social Media Marketing Methods

There are other methods of social media marketing available for your use. Twitter isn’t the only way to enhance your business and get a constant flow of leads.

Other methods you can explore include:

1) Blogs

2) Community forums

3) Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn.

4) Video-sharing sites such as Youtube, Metacafe, Google videos, Yahoo videos, and AOL videos.

5) Content sharing sites such as Squidoo, Hubpages, Wetpaint, Qassia, and Google Knol.

These days, you shouldn’t just limit yourself to one thing. With the Internet as vast as it is, you should use every opportunity to make new contacts and establish yourself. Besides, think of all the new things you can learn from interacting with other people online!

Leave comments on your choice blogs and participate in forum discussions that allow for signature files after every post.  Make informative videos and upload them to video-sharing sites.  Explode your list of contacts through social networking sites. Share your knowledge and be recognized as an authority by submitting your content to content-sharing sites.

Not only will these help you establish credibility, you probably won’t even have to worry or stress about making money in the future. Remember that social media marketing, like any other marketing methods, works if you work it! Now like many of our mentors say – get to work!

Teajai Kimsey asked:

From a business perspective, social sites provide an opportunity to get in front of potential customers and influence buying decisions because online social networkers are three times more likely to trust their online community of peers over advertising when making purchase decisions.* And, according to a Nielsen survey, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising with 78% of the respondents.*

So how do you use Twitter, the most celebrated social networking tool of the moment, and generate more business? Here is the formula I use for the clients that are using twitter. These same principles will work for every business because it’s not about the product or service you have, it’s about the people and creating a social buzz that will lead business to you.

Social marketing has grown exponentially especially over the last couple of years. From the beginnings of blogs, MySpace & FaceBook to networking sites like linked in and the newest star: Twitter.

What makes social marketing so popular? Simply put, human nature. We all want to feel like we are a part of a community whether it’s in the local community, like churches, teams etc. or in the online community like Twitter. Thanks to the internet, our sense of community can include people from across the United States and beyond our borders bringing us into the global community.

From a business perspective, social sites provide an opportunity to get in front of potential customers and influence buying decisions because online social networkers are three times more likely to trust their online community of peers over advertising when making purchase decisions.* And, according to a Nielsen survey, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising with 78% of the respondents.*

In other words, if someone is recommended to your business by a co-worker, neighbor, friend or online network member, that person is 78% more likely to buy from your company. Because of this fact, 81% of people in marketing who were surveyed said they would be spending as much, if not more, on social media than they do (or did) on traditional advertising.*

So how do you use Twitter, the most celebrated social networking tool of the moment, and generate more business? Here is the formula I use for the clients that are using twitter. These same principles will work for every business because it’s not about the product or service you have, it’s about the people and creating a social buzz that will lead business to you.

First, of course, you need to set up an account in twitter, if you don’t already have one. When setting up your account be sure to add a photo of yourself or something representative of your business. Since the key to networking on twitter is to have followers, the photo will make people more likely to follow you. Also, add your location (for local searches), a link to your website (http://ideasthatwork.net) and brief information about your business. For a more professional look it’s best to have a custom background created for your twitter site.

Side Note: TweetDeck.com is an awesome tool to help you manage the twitter universe.

Here are some basics you’ll need to know before you start tweeting:

* a follower is someone who is watching your updates.

* following refers to the act of you following other people.

* the @ symbol is placed before a users name within the tweet to reply to another user, and this will show up in the main twitter stream

* the # (hashtag) is used to help you sort by topic. For example you can use #survivor to tweet with other Survivor fans.

* direct messages go only to the user you are messaging

Once you’ve got your account set up start by posting at least 1 tweet so people who see your profile will know what you’re about.

Next you’ll need to look for people to follow. If you are really in this to gain business referrals, I strongly suggest you don’t follow every person on twitter. Instead, do a search for key terms that describe your business. If you want to concentrate on the local market, use the city and state to for search terms. If you are a wedding planner, look for the search term “wedding.” This search can easily be done within twitter by using the search box at the top of your home page.

There are also well respected members of the twitter community that you’ll want to follow based upon your business. For example business owners may want to follow Business Week (@bizweek). If you’re a coffee lover you may want to follow Starbucks (@starbucks). MrTweet.com can help you find people you may want to follow, just remember you don’t have to (nor should you) follow everyone.

Once you are now following people, you’ll see that people will begin to follow you back and you’ll even see people following you that you didn’t follow first. (All these follows can get confusing, hang in there it gets easier with practice) Remember, you want to follow people who are prospective customers or can lead you to prospective customers. You should also follow people in similar businesses as long as they won’t directly compete with you (unless, of course, you want to see what the competition is doing!) And when people follow you, check their profile before following back. There are hundreds of thousands of people on twitter and not everyone is going to be in your target market.

Now that you’re building your list of followers, you need to start tweeting on a regular basis. You can give tips related to your business, some people put out famous quotes or jokes, others are focusing on the day to day events that they are focused on. I trade off between tweeting about optimization tweets, projects I’m working on, this day in history info etc. I also tweet about everyday stuff like having the forces of technology working against me – argh! The more real and transparent you are, the more people will like you and engage you in conversation.

Twitter is also very good for self promotion – to a point. Nothing is worse than following someone who only talks about their products, services or only passes on their own blog material or articles. It’s a good idea to “retweet” or pass along the good information that others post. Within the 140 characters you can post links to specific information located anywhere on the web, including your website. All you need to do is copy the “URL” or web address of the specific page you want to link and paste it into twitter. Many times you’ll find that the web address for the link is too long for twitter, takes up too much space. In that case you’ll need to use a site like tinyurl.com to make the link shorter.

One big part of twitter is getting involved, participating. You can sit there and read the twitter stream but when you start to reply to people you’ll begin engage others and bring them into your world. The next thing you know, people will be checking out your website and referring you (via twitter) to others. When you are truly involved you’ll really reap the benefits. And, if you are running web analytics on your website, you’ll be able to see the traffic that is referred to you from twitter, and how much of that traffic converts into business.

Once you’ve got the hang of “tweeting” you’ll want to use twitter in more ways like integrating twitter with FaceBook and adding the twitter stream to your website.

There is no doubt that the internet has forever changed word-of-mouth. The power of the people is now greater than ever and is a part of everyone’s daily life. By using twitter as a part of your online marketing campaign you’ll be able to influence the buzz about you and your company.

PS… you can follow me on twitter: @tkimsey

*”Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape,” JupiterResearch, March 2007

*Nielsen, “Word of Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool”

*TWI Surveys/Society for New Communications Research, (November 2007)

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This article written by Teajai Kimsey, Interenet Marketing Strategist, Ideas That Work It may be reproduced and reprinted provided the author’s information including web link is kept intact.

Nancy McCord asked:

Twitter is the current top “hot property” on the Web, but its popularity and how to use it has mystified many business owners. Many people think that they want to, or should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand the platform, its use, or its place in building web exposure. This article will demystify Twitter and help you to learn how to use it in the workplace and to promote your business.

First, I have to say that I had been confused on how to use Twitter to benefit my own business until I downloaded TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows you to review and post status updates on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I consider it a “must have” application for anyone who wants to make sense of Twitter. TweetDeck allows you to sort the people you follow on Twitter into groups, allows you to limit the number of Tweets (Twitter micro posts) to be shown at any one time, and also allows you to remove all Tweets you have seen with one click. Additionally, using TweetDeck, finally a Twitter search on a topic makes sense.

Since using TweetDeck, I have had a much better Twitter experience. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page is intimidating; it consists of post after post from people who you are following, who you may not know much about, and it just seems like a huge volume of content. To get started effectively first group the people who actually have something interesting to say on TweetDeck and voila, you have a powerful tool that keeps you at the forefront of what is happening in your industry and on the Web.

So how do you get started with Twitter? Well the first thing is to start on Twitter yourself to understand what you like to read, who you like to follow, and to clearly identify what you like about Twitter. For me, it boils down to this: I like to follow people in my industry who say something of value, who provide a link to a new application or point me to an interesting new article, video, or blog site that I should review but may have never have found myself. Based on what I like, and the people who I find interesting to read, I now write my Twitter posts using this same formula to grow my own Twitter audience.

What I also like about Twitter is that the people who I follow also know how to show their true personality in their Tweets. Ye,s I do like to know what Danny Sullivan (famous search engine marketing guru) ate for lunch, but better yet is the link to the video he thought was funny. I love following Ashton Kutcher (movie star married to Demi Moore who just hit 1 million Twitter followers in April). Man, that guy is really funny and is having a ball with Twitter. His posts are great and he has just earned the status of the user with the most followers. This is why you can’t hire someone to “Ghost Twitter” for you. It’s about showing the real you – you can’t fake that!

So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for linking and this is the real value for businesses. By using Twitter to point people to content on your website, articles you have written either on or off your website, or by linking to a service you want to highlight, you drive traffic. On top of that, Google actually indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can appear in the organic search results so make sure your bio is well thought out. Don’t waste time using Twitter to point to blog posts, use TwitterFeed to post your blog posts directly onto Twitter. If you have a blog or website, you’ll get new Twitter followers by posting your TwitterFeed right onto your web pages. People who may not have known your Twitter ID can simply click the bottom “follow me link” and start following you on Twitter.

What’s important to be successful in using Twitter is to identify what you personally like about this new media and then deliver the same type of things that you like back to your own followers – work to provide value not drivel! So you’ve got to play with Twitter and learn how to use it first before you can really become successful with it for your business.

So how do you get followers? Well, I started by following everyone (who I found by doing a Twitter search) who had the last name McCord. Then I searched for web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click. Any site profile that looked good, I clicked to follow the writer. It was that easy. Many times people who you follow yourself will choose to follow you. That’s how you initially build up your Twitter base. Over time you will start to identify your “Twitter voice” and refine the type of Twitter presence you want to have by changing your content style and the things that you Tweet about. As you refine your presence, you will build a following.

Another cool Twitter use is that you can reply to any of your followers by simply putting an @ in front of their Twitter ID. For example to send something to my attention use @mccordweb at the very front of your Twitter posting and click enter. Just remember that this post is seen by all followers on my site and on your Twitter site. If you need a more private exchange, go to the direct message link on the Twitter.com site and select a follower by Twitter ID name and send your message from there. This note will be private. If you are using TweetDeck you can click on a follower’s Twitter ID icon and then select to send a direct message or @reply to them. TweetDeck will automatically insert the correct syntax for you in the Tweet.

For many businesses the ability for users to communicate with top management using Twitter is an invaluable resource. This one-to-one exchange allows a company principal to keep tabs on customer viewpoints, concerns, and interests. As a Twitter reply or direct mail does not use email and does not require a response, this is a great way to tap into social networking to test new ideas and to ask for user feedback. For example, if you have a new software product ask your Twitter followers for feedback on a specific feature, or provide a link to your beta version for their testing.

How you use Twitter is all about your personal business needs. The best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to use Twitter a bit yourself first to understand the medium and to find out what you like to read best using Twitter. Then, create your own Twitter network sharing information that you find interesting and have some fun.

Currently I am following 204 people and 183 people are following me on Twitter. Personally I find Twitter great fun and a very cool way to find out first what’s happening in the world before you see it on TV, read it on the Web, or see it in the newspaper. That’s the real power of Twitter; you share, you find out, and you know, all by a person-to-person exchange of information.

For those of you clicking in from my e-newsletter the rest of the content on Twitter applications and uses follows.

Below are some of the Twitter applications that I like and use regularly for my business.

Twuffer – I love this one, it is a Twitter post scheduler. Some people feel that Twuffer defeats the immediacy of Twitter posts or Tweets, but I like it as I will schedule Tweets on days that I am not blogging to keep my followers advised of things I find important. It is easy to use, allows you to Tweet ahead, and lets you select a posting schedule by day and time. If you are pushing content on a service or product this is an excellent tool to use. Set your Tweets up one week or one month at a time and feed your content to readers in addition to your regular Tweets. Make sure to use www.TinyUrl.com to change any long URLs you point to in the Tweet to a Twitter-friendly short version to save space.

Twitter Feed – This is another one of my top favorites. TwitterFeed allows me to show my blog posts from “The Web Authority” directly onto Twitter. It also allows me to post my Tweets back on my blog (by installing a widget) in my blog template – very cool cross interaction! I pick up many Twitter followers with this technique. Readers come to visit my blog and then choose to follow me on Twitter.

Twitter Grader – This one is a vanity application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users. Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter user based on followers, number of updates, and posting frequency.

TweetBeep – With this application, you can manage your online Twitter reputation. Alerts will be emailed to you whenever a Twitter user Tweets about your business, name, or domain. You select the alert criteria and what to watch for using TweetBeep. This is great for a business that is concerned about branding and online identity. PR professionals should make sure to use this tool to watch for comments about their clients.

Twitoria – Clean up your Twitter followers by finding out which people never use Twitter or post infrequently so you can delete them right from the Twitoria interface.

Qwitter – If you want to know when someone stops following you, sign up for this service. Actually, this can be an excellent tool to find out what a reader hated that you posted about and caused them to “chop” you, so you can fine tune your message. If you get a flood of drops after a Tweet, it allows you to learn that people don’t like a certain type of Tweet – instant feedback at an anonymous level!

One big thing about Twitter that I have not even mentioned yet but is actually one of Twitter’s best features is the ability to text-in Tweets from your mobile phone. Although you can’t easily link to great content typically on the fly like this, the ability to connect with others without being tethered to a computer is an opportunity to show the “real you”. Maybe your followers do want to know what you are eating for lunch or about a seminar you just attended, just be kind and don’t vomit out Twitter spam using your Blackberry on meaningless drivel.

You can easily set up the ability to receive text messages from your Twitter account to your cell or Blackberry, but be careful as you may be inundated if you have a large following. I would recommend receiving Twitter updates via text message to your cell only from a small group. For example if you have a project team, set up a Twitter account for each member to allow them to post just to this small unique circle of team members. The value to track and interact with each other at anytime and anywhere using Twitter by computer or by cell phone adds real value for work groups and teams – particularly team managers. Twitter even allows you to make this type of group private.

Another feature of Twitter is the ability to add hashtags in front of keywords in your Tweets to help with sorting to allow others to find your important content. For example if you wanted to Tweet about a recent earthquake in LA you would use #laearthquake in the front of your Tweet.  By using hashtags you enable Twitter to return your information for topic searches on newsworthy Tweets. You can visit Hashtags.org for more information on the current hot hashtags that are in use for today so you can follow, add to the topic, or create your own. For example in Twitter World, Fridays are the day you post with #followfriday and enter in the Twitter IDs you want to recommend to others.  You would be amazed at the cool new people you can follow and interact with from recommendations of the people you follow.

In conclusion, Twitter is one of the hottest new mediums to arrive on the Internet scene since Facebook. Although it is not exactly “new”, Twitter has just recently become very high profile. If you are in business, Twitter definitely warrants your attention. Not only is it a very smart new tool to use in your marketing arsenal, but I think that the more you use it you will grow to love it and find it fun to use. The ways that you can use Twitter are endless:  for teams, for family members, for business networking, to stay at the forefront of news, to promote yourself and your services, and to just have fun connecting with others online. Just remember you can’t really make sense of Twitter for business without using TweetDeck or another similar aggregating and sorting application. Thanks for reading, see you on Twitter, you can reach me at @mccordweb or visit me at www.Twitter.com/mccordweb.

About the Author

Nancy McCord is the founder and President of McCord Web Services LLC which provides search engine marketing, web design, blog writing, and webmaster services globally. Since 2001, Nancy McCord has developed a national reputation as an expert on search engines, blogging, and how businesses can harness the power of Web for profit. You can visit Nancy and her firm at www.McCordWeb.com.

Jennifer Horowitz asked:

I personally have been Tweeting for a few months. But I use the phrase “tweeting for a few months” loosely. I haven’t been all that consistent with it, and I definitely didn’t have a strategy. I just thought it was kind of cool.

Recently I’ve started paying more attention to it for a few reasons; my mother-in-law was at a librarian conference recently and attended a session on Twitter. I got into a conversation with her about it, and then the next day I saw John Reese’s email about Twitter. It seems like there is a lot of twittering about Twitter going on. What is Twitter?

According to the Twitter FAQ, “Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.”

Wikipedia says, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or any one of the multitude of Twitter applications now available”.

Basically Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a short update (your tweets are limited to 140 characters) to your followers (family, friends, colleagues, customers, potential customers etc).

Twitter allows you to send and receive updates (also called tweets) via your browser, email, instant messaging clients and SMS (using your cell phone). No matter where you are, you can tweet!

I haven’t been following Twitter since day 1, so I’m not going to comment on it’s evolution but I will speculate that as its popularity grows, as more and more marketers use it, 2 things are inevitable:

1. Rules on Twitter etiquette will continue to evolve as we learn what we like and dislike about it, and as we respond to the inevitable abuse of Twitter (don’t mean to sound negative but it happens with each exciting new opportunity ‘ people end up abusing it).

2. More and more companies will jump on board and try to get in on the conversation.

Start Twittering, (or is it Tweeting?)

Remember, when you first join Twitter, it can feel like a lonely place. When you aren’t following anyone and no one is following you, you may find yourself asking “what is the point?” I’ve heard so many people say they just don’t get it. In fact, I’ve said that myself.

The key is to find the Tweets you want to follow so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your niche. The next key is to start building your followers. More on that in a minute.

How can Twitter help your business?

The more contact you have with a potential customer, the more likely you are to get their business. You can stay “top of mind” through Twitter. Let them know what’s new in your industry, in your company etc. You become a source of quick news flashes for them.

Here are just a few of the benefits of Twitter: – It reminds people that you exist

- It shows people you have something to say

- It shows them that you are human

- It allows you to mention new offers, sales and breaking news immediately

- It allows you to form a more casual relationship

- You can use Twitter to promote your social bookmarking submissions.

- You can ask for referrals, suggestions, feedback and help, and people will respond.

Twitter is also fun and is contributing to the new language we are constantly developing. For example “Twitterference” ‘ the intrusion of twitter updates on your phone making it hard to have a conversation on your phone.

Finding Followers:

Start by reaching out to your friends, family, mailing list etc. You can also add your Twitter link to your email signature line; add links to your website and Blog. Mention your Twitter account in your newsletter.

Twitter Rules

One cardinal rule (that is in your best interest to follow): if you use Twitter as a pure sales tool, you will lose followers quickly. As with all forms of social media, it is about creating a conversation and sharing news ‘ it’s not all about you shoving your sales message down their throats.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters. This is to allow them to be easily sent over mobile SMS systems.

You aren’t able to embed HTML with the exception of hyperlinks. (But they are no-follow links, so they won’t help you in your SEO quest for backlinks) Bonus: Twitter automatically uses the TinyURL service to shorten links.

Don’t tweet too much, or too little. There is no magic number and it varies according to your audience. Some people say don’t update more than once per hour. Others say not more than once or twice a day. I tend to be in the once or twice a day camp. If there is breaking news and some days you just have to update more often then it’s OK. If your tweets are valuable information people will be more tolerant of frequent updates.

On the other hand if you are too quiet, people have nothing to follow so make sure you find that balance and tweet just enough to keep people informed but not annoyed.

Don’t forget that your profile shows a history of all your tweets, so if a new person comes along and sees that you don’t have many tweets they may decide you aren’t worthy of following. Also if your past tweets aren’t informative or interesting, you lose some potential followers.

You’ll find that sometimes you get involved in personal conversation with someone. Try to avoid doing too much of this. Not everyone will be interested in your personal communications. If you do need to do this, put the @ symbol in front of somebody’s name ‘ this indicates that this message is for them.

One thing to keep in mind about personal conversation tweets – some people who are following you may not be following the person you are talking to. This means they get only one half of the conversation. One suggestion is to word your tweet so that spectators have an idea of what you are talking about. That way, they can feel more included in the conversation.

Trust and Twitter

With so much hype in marketing, people are really looking for a company that can trust. You can build trust with prospects by allowing them to get to know you, and by providing them with information. Twitter allows you to do just that.

A great tip: look at your own Tweet history ‘ is the information valuable, does it build trust? Would you want to follow yourself?

Get tweeting!

It may take some trial and error, and you probably want to check out what others are tweeting about to get a feel for the style. But don’t spend too long lurking ‘ check it out and then jump on in.

Geek Entrepreneur asked:

What Is This Twitter You Speak Of?

So what is Twitter and how can it be of benefit to you or your business? Twitter is a free online micro-blogging application which gives you the ability to send out short messages (up to 140 characters) called “tweets” to people who are following you on Twitter. You can send tweets either through your computer or by using your cell phone via a text message. These tweets/messages can be about anything you want and they can include links, as well. Making Twitter even more useful is the ability to send a direct message to someone you are following (this is done by entering @username at the beginning of your message) or replying to someone’s tweet with your own. You would be surprised how common it is to reply to someone’s message then to have someone who is either following you or the person you sent the reply to reply to your initial message and so on.

People can follow you and your tweets by first signing-up for their own free Twitter account at the Twitter site then adding you to their list of people they are following. Once you have created your account, you can either check your Twitter page (your own personal page which appears after you sign-in at the Twitter home page) for any of your friend’s new messages or you can send out your own. But it is much easier, in my opinion, to use one of the many online or desktop applications which give you the ability to do all of this and more.

Twitter As A Communication Tool

Twitter is a quick and easy way to communicate with family, friends, business associates, and also within a company setting. Being an online service, Twitter is available to anyone with online access. All you have to do is login to your account through any number of third-party applications developed for Twitter or through the Twitter site and you are ready to go. Within a company setting, employees could have a Twitter account created for them with the option to have their messages protected. This means only people they (or you or the person in charge of creating the Twitter accounts) approve will be able to send and receive messages from them. The same thing could be done using an instant message program but with Twitter, there would be no software to install and it would be accessible from anywhere with an online connection. Additionally, the person who is in charge of the Twitter accounts will have the power to control who is and who isn’t part of this private Twitter network.

Even though there are tons of online communication applications available, Twitter can also be used as a way for people who are collaborating on a project to stay in touch with one another regardless of where they are. And depending on which third-party application they are using to Twitter with, these conversations can be saved for future reference. There are even some third-party apps which you can use to send files up to 10MB to anyone you are following as long as they are using the same application, that is. Still, a handy feature to have and one which may become a feature of Twitter if there’s a big enough demand for it.

Marketing With Twitter

Here in lies the great thing about Twitter from a business perspective: the marketing potential it offers users. Sure, it is great to send messages and chat using Twitter, but it can also be a great marketing tool if used correctly. Have some breaking news you want to get out quickly? Send it out as a Tweet. Made an important update to your blog or web site? Let people know about it instantly with a Tweet. Want to promote your project, book, movie, whatever by giving away a free download or preview? Send out a Tweet with a URL to the free download. Only want to market something to certain individuals you are following? Simply enter their username preceded by the “@” and you are set.

Another simple marketing tool available with Twitter is the ability to befriend people who are following someone you already follow. While this practice could backfire on you if you begin to add everyone you find following someone you are following, be picky and just befriend those who either share similar tastes that you do or work in the same field as you or already follow many of the same people you do. Otherwise, you could come off as a spammer which will be a hard image to shake.

Twitter Now And Beyond

Twitter represents a fundamental change in the way people communicate online. There have always been instant messengers and they have their place and purpose but they don’t offer the one thing which sets Twitter apart and that is the ability to instantly communicate with either a couple of people or potentially thousands without the need for proprietary software. No need to download this piece of software in order to communicate with this person or that organization.

Much like how blogging has become a staple of today’s society, Twitter and “twittering” is on the same path to becoming ingrained in today’s culture despite only being around for less than two years. So simple in its execution, powerful in the marketing opportunities it offers, and ease of use, Twitter will be one of the top web technologies to gain worldwide prominence in 2008.

Abe Cherian asked:

You’ve seen countless articles and e-books written about it, but do you know how to market online with Twitter?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Most marketers are still boggled when it comes to using Twitter in their promotion efforts. The main reason is because marketers don’t realize the sheer ingenuity of our favorite microblog’s 140-character limit communication.

The reality is that the internet is information overload for most people. The genius of Twitter is that communication is forced into small chunks of information which most people can willingly digest. Presented with the option, people are more inclined to read a sentence or two as opposed to a long, involved blog entry or email!

In this article, I will demonstrate how Twitter can not only be used by your business for marketing purposes, but also for customer service, product development, free publicity, and valuable access to experts!

Twitter for Marketing

If marketing entails everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers, including all communication, relationship building, and brand recognition-Twitter makes it instant.

For this reason, it is the perfect social networking platform for announcing sales, specials, and promotions. Many larger companies, such as Dell, have a Twitter to announce sales as soon as they become available. As a small business owner, you can harness the power of Twitter this way too!

If you can get hundreds, or even thousands of people interested in your niche to follow your company’s tweets, you have a targeted list of prospects at your fingertips. Simply tweet a brief detail or two about the special, and include your link. It’s that simple!

A list of businesses on Twitter:

http://www.twibs.com

As a marketer, you know that the speed at which you can get your message out to your potential clients before your competition can reach them essentially determines your success. Twitter affords marketers the advantage of communicating with thousands of new prospects at the speed of light, and allows them to see your offer in real time.

Twitter for Customer Service

Many companies are designating human resources and time exclusively to enhance their customer service via social networking. Companies can find out the challenges, questions, and troubles that their clients are facing by reading their tweets to others.

Customer service representatives or public relations liaisons can immediately resolve any problems by engaging themselves in the conversation. Customer service representatives who engage their clientele via Twitter increase their company’s transparency, and show that they not only concerned about their customers, but they also care about their brand.

Twitter for Product Development

Twitter can be used as an instant survey tool for product development. You can simply ask the likes and dislikes of others with a simple tweet and can incorporate or improve your current products or services.

It’s catching on. In fact, software development corporation Eclipse is working on a Twitter plug-in called Twitterclipse, which will tweet announcements, findings and questions within their development team. It is faster and more convenient than email, and also avails an RSS feed for posting their development updates within the Eclipse website.

Twitter for Free Publicity and Brand Awareness

As you know, free publicity is priceless-and it can be difficult for a small business to get access to the media. Companies regularly pay millions of dollars to imprint their brand in the minds of prospective clients.

With Twitter’s personalization features you can place your brand or company logo on your Twitter page. Because of the viral nature of Twitter, traffic and publicity comes for free.

People will associate your Twitter with your company, and increase their trust in your products and services.

Twitter Gives You Access to Important People

No other media gives you direct access to leaders in your market like the internet does. Twitter gives you personal access to leaders and mentors that you have only ever dreamt of connecting with.

I bet you never thought you would ever get the chance to be 1-on-1 with Brian Tracy on Twitter, right?

http://twitter.com/BrianTracy_

Simply follow them, and open up the channels of communication with your tweets! The leaders of your field impart valuable knowledge that you can apply to your online business, and can be a great source of free marketing tips.

Improve Every Aspect Of Your Business With Twitter!

Twitter is extremely simple, but this fact also adds to its versatility. You may not realize the effect of Twitter on your business when your followers are at a single digit-but just imagine the scope of your business reaching tens of thousands of followers! Many online businesses are using Twitter now…what are you waiting for?

Pallavi asked:

Twitter applications are becoming known to every person rapidly, the reason might be these are user friendly and can be used in cell phones like Blackberry. Those who are technology savvy can understand very well what the importance of using applications through cell phones is. When I was new to twitter, I had no idea what I was doing — as is the case for most people when they first sign up. After I started following a few people I noticed all the different applications their Tweets were coming from various applications like Twhirl etc. How do you sort through all of them and find the right application to use? Is any one of them better than the others? After trying nearly everything, I have a few ideas as to how to find the right Twitter application to suit your needs.

In Twitter there are few terms which you have never heard of it before joining twitter like tweets which mean comments, followers which mean friends in your list. These things sound so good that’s why people attract to twitter and want to know what these things are. Though meaning of these terms are common but still tweets, followers are very catchy words and this is the reason that what makes twitter different from other social networking websites. Orkut, facebook and so on all these are social networking websites. With the advancement in technology these social networking websites launched. With these sites their special features like for twitter, twitter applications launched. The usage of these sites became popular in people especially in youth. Best source to connect people in all over the world. Alumni meets started happening through these sites. Friends, relatives, old buddies started connected with each other. Then slowly various other social networking websites are launched. Now on internet on the average maximum people surf these sites on the internet.

With the popularity of these sites amongst people, companies have started preparing various and special features for these websites. It includes applications like games, astrology, changing font of your websites and so on. These special applications give the special looks to user’s account. With the craze of twitter, twitter applications have also become popular.

Twitter applications are the additional feature which is added in the twitter. Twitter can be called by different names like twitter tools, twitter add-ons, twitter applications which are commonly used. But whatever the name they are called, they are simply websites which have built-in scripts that complement Twitter. There are various twitter applications which are used with twitter.

There are various websites which provide twitter applications and one of them is The Twitter Secret. The Twitter Secret makes applications especially according to user’s need. But these applications are paid which are providing by The Twitter Secret. Our twitter applications fulfill all your need and we are assure about it because while making application we always keep in mind user’s requirement that what you people want, what kind of quality and design.