I have been on Twitter for a few weeks now. It is a fun site to read and often confusing to follow. I know that using tweetdeck, a Twitter organization application, will help, once I get the hang of that program and the time to add in and group all of my followers. Still, following some 300 conversations all at once can be daunting.
Following a person by reading their home page directly is also a good way to get familiar with how much that person is using Twitter to advertise and how much the use is to form relationship bonds, or both. One can also find out if that person uses personal references in tweets or leaves them out entirely or partially and even whether or not that person's tweets are ever about their personality over their (mis)using Twitter just to constantly plug a website or an Internet skill, such as blogging or selling handmade items to and for me.
Some Twitter users want only to plug their sites or products constantly on Twitter. Some want only to be my cyberfriend or to become my pimp. None of these do I find at all appealing. Those who message me only to give me their knock my sox off bonafide ebook or program for marketing or getting traffic from social networking sites turn me off. I didn't join the Twitter community to just read ads all day!
What I did join for was to maybe get a handle on the thinking processes of some of the more successful Internet movers and shakers. I wanted to find out if those who say they want to help others learn to earn on the net really want that. I also hoped to discover how many of them really only wanted to earn mega bucks from my, and others' naivete' or, if you will, stupidity.
The fun thing is, I found much more than I had anticipated! The gurus are there. Yes, there are some Internet marketers who only advertise their seminars and programs on Twitter. Most of them are not the best known gurus however. The best known gurus do plug some of their stuff, true, but that is not all they do. Mostly, they kid one another about things, share their travel and home experiences and thoughts, and let others see who they are as people as well as gurus. Twitter is a tiny window into some of their thought process and, as such, is both fun and fascinating to just read and to tweet (participate with a 140 character message) when one has something to say or wants to share.
Asking questions on Twitter is a great way to gather information, or get fast help to solve a problem. The problem can be with your business, your site or even your marketing. If you ask a marketing question though, be prepared to get some recommendations for programs, systems and sites where you can find help. Twitter is not a forum or a message board for newbies, or even seasoned hands, to pick the minds of gurus for free instead of purchasing their latest system which addresses your problem.
Sometimes experts in various fields use Twitter to get input as to people's needs and questions about Internet Sales and Marketing. They will then host a symposium on one of the broadcast media with those questions as a base. Often the symposium will be free and will be advertised on Twitter, including ways one can actively participate in the broadcast discussion. Wednesday seems to be a popular day for such special broadcasts and symposiums.
Since tweets are limited to 140 characters I have noticed that some Twitter members hold an evening or day long forum on on or more topics. These are hosted on another site where longer posts are permitted. They can often be quite lively and are fun to read. Since they often contain lots of good information and learning or techniques used by other successful Internet marketers, they can be valuable to download or copy to notebook or to whichever word processing program you use.
I have been known to go back the next day (the site may stay up for a day or two after the forum/symposium is officially over) to download (save) the page to my computer and then I can copy it into my word processing program to use for my own information. As tempting as it is, I hesitate to make this saved material into a saleable ebook or report because, unless I ran the symposium, I don't have rights to the material or permission from the participants to use their posts. Always be sure YOU get permission to use a person's comments or posts in a product before you include them. Otherwise you will find yourself embroiled in lawsuits and will lose the trust of your forum/symposium participants. If you plan to use your forum contents for a book later, be upfront about it and let participants know up front and at the very top of every page that all contributions and posts become the property of the site owner or forum host and may be published at a later date in any form.
I digress. The joy of Twitter is the 140 character limit to each post, called a tweet. It puts everyone on an equal footing and prevents over domination of the medium by one person. It is also a challenge for everyone to say all they want to say in 140 characters or less. Abbreviations and use of symbols and numbers for words are common. Website urls are also abbreviated, mainly using TinyURL to shorten them before they are added to a tweet.
There are some fun "traditions" on Twitter too. Fridays are days to recommend other participants to follow. It's called Follow Friday and all of the recommendations have the append #FollowFriday in the tweet recommending others. If a member has some favorite or very interesting followers, the tweet goes something like this: @joelcom, @williecrawford & @steveweber r my faves this wk #FollowFriday. The # sign will automatically save that tweet to a list of #FollowFriday tweets which can then be searched and read.
It doesn't take long to learn enough Twitter conventions to participate. The @ before a username will record that message on a page of the username's Twitter home site. The # sign in a tweet also saves it to that list for searching. All tweets go immediately to the general list of everyone. Those tweets which appear on your home page are those of the people you have chosen to follow. A list of your followers appears in another page of your Twitter home site. From there you can choose to follow them back or to block them. Blocking them won't prevent them from reading your page, just from sending you direct messages (DMs) or from following you until you unblock them.
Following back is a courtesy, and I usually follow back those who follow me. Later, if I find a follower is flooding my page with all advertising tweets or becoming obnoxious, I can always go back and block that person. They will still be able to @ message me or read my stuff on my site. I just won't be inundated with their tweets.
Becoming twitterfied, i.e. an active Twitter participant is fun and informative. There are many groups of people on the site. I tend to search out and follow those involved in Internet marketing and sales on any level. I also follow and have some followers from the music industry, from broadcasting and from various healing arts and alternative medicine fields. There are, of course, jewelers, crafters and crocheters there too. It is an interesting mix of people who interest me or think they might find me interesting.
The danger of Twitter is that it is easy to become what I call Twitterfried. That is becoming so addicted to Twitter, or so interested in a conversation thread that one tweets and reads tweets all day and/or night to the detriment of one's business, family life and/or health. It is a very real temptation. If you are strong and can avoid it, then Twitter is a great way to quickly check in on what is going on in the world as you choose to see it, to form new relationships with likeminded people all over the world, and to advertise your Internet or offline wares as well as to learn more about your chosen profession. Enjoy! I do.
Following a person by reading their home page directly is also a good way to get familiar with how much that person is using Twitter to advertise and how much the use is to form relationship bonds, or both. One can also find out if that person uses personal references in tweets or leaves them out entirely or partially and even whether or not that person's tweets are ever about their personality over their (mis)using Twitter just to constantly plug a website or an Internet skill, such as blogging or selling handmade items to and for me.
Some Twitter users want only to plug their sites or products constantly on Twitter. Some want only to be my cyberfriend or to become my pimp. None of these do I find at all appealing. Those who message me only to give me their knock my sox off bonafide ebook or program for marketing or getting traffic from social networking sites turn me off. I didn't join the Twitter community to just read ads all day!
What I did join for was to maybe get a handle on the thinking processes of some of the more successful Internet movers and shakers. I wanted to find out if those who say they want to help others learn to earn on the net really want that. I also hoped to discover how many of them really only wanted to earn mega bucks from my, and others' naivete' or, if you will, stupidity.
The fun thing is, I found much more than I had anticipated! The gurus are there. Yes, there are some Internet marketers who only advertise their seminars and programs on Twitter. Most of them are not the best known gurus however. The best known gurus do plug some of their stuff, true, but that is not all they do. Mostly, they kid one another about things, share their travel and home experiences and thoughts, and let others see who they are as people as well as gurus. Twitter is a tiny window into some of their thought process and, as such, is both fun and fascinating to just read and to tweet (participate with a 140 character message) when one has something to say or wants to share.
Asking questions on Twitter is a great way to gather information, or get fast help to solve a problem. The problem can be with your business, your site or even your marketing. If you ask a marketing question though, be prepared to get some recommendations for programs, systems and sites where you can find help. Twitter is not a forum or a message board for newbies, or even seasoned hands, to pick the minds of gurus for free instead of purchasing their latest system which addresses your problem.
Sometimes experts in various fields use Twitter to get input as to people's needs and questions about Internet Sales and Marketing. They will then host a symposium on one of the broadcast media with those questions as a base. Often the symposium will be free and will be advertised on Twitter, including ways one can actively participate in the broadcast discussion. Wednesday seems to be a popular day for such special broadcasts and symposiums.
Since tweets are limited to 140 characters I have noticed that some Twitter members hold an evening or day long forum on on or more topics. These are hosted on another site where longer posts are permitted. They can often be quite lively and are fun to read. Since they often contain lots of good information and learning or techniques used by other successful Internet marketers, they can be valuable to download or copy to notebook or to whichever word processing program you use.
I have been known to go back the next day (the site may stay up for a day or two after the forum/symposium is officially over) to download (save) the page to my computer and then I can copy it into my word processing program to use for my own information. As tempting as it is, I hesitate to make this saved material into a saleable ebook or report because, unless I ran the symposium, I don't have rights to the material or permission from the participants to use their posts. Always be sure YOU get permission to use a person's comments or posts in a product before you include them. Otherwise you will find yourself embroiled in lawsuits and will lose the trust of your forum/symposium participants. If you plan to use your forum contents for a book later, be upfront about it and let participants know up front and at the very top of every page that all contributions and posts become the property of the site owner or forum host and may be published at a later date in any form.
I digress. The joy of Twitter is the 140 character limit to each post, called a tweet. It puts everyone on an equal footing and prevents over domination of the medium by one person. It is also a challenge for everyone to say all they want to say in 140 characters or less. Abbreviations and use of symbols and numbers for words are common. Website urls are also abbreviated, mainly using TinyURL to shorten them before they are added to a tweet.
There are some fun "traditions" on Twitter too. Fridays are days to recommend other participants to follow. It's called Follow Friday and all of the recommendations have the append #FollowFriday in the tweet recommending others. If a member has some favorite or very interesting followers, the tweet goes something like this: @joelcom, @williecrawford & @steveweber r my faves this wk #FollowFriday. The # sign will automatically save that tweet to a list of #FollowFriday tweets which can then be searched and read.
It doesn't take long to learn enough Twitter conventions to participate. The @ before a username will record that message on a page of the username's Twitter home site. The # sign in a tweet also saves it to that list for searching. All tweets go immediately to the general list of everyone. Those tweets which appear on your home page are those of the people you have chosen to follow. A list of your followers appears in another page of your Twitter home site. From there you can choose to follow them back or to block them. Blocking them won't prevent them from reading your page, just from sending you direct messages (DMs) or from following you until you unblock them.
Following back is a courtesy, and I usually follow back those who follow me. Later, if I find a follower is flooding my page with all advertising tweets or becoming obnoxious, I can always go back and block that person. They will still be able to @ message me or read my stuff on my site. I just won't be inundated with their tweets.
Becoming twitterfied, i.e. an active Twitter participant is fun and informative. There are many groups of people on the site. I tend to search out and follow those involved in Internet marketing and sales on any level. I also follow and have some followers from the music industry, from broadcasting and from various healing arts and alternative medicine fields. There are, of course, jewelers, crafters and crocheters there too. It is an interesting mix of people who interest me or think they might find me interesting.
The danger of Twitter is that it is easy to become what I call Twitterfried. That is becoming so addicted to Twitter, or so interested in a conversation thread that one tweets and reads tweets all day and/or night to the detriment of one's business, family life and/or health. It is a very real temptation. If you are strong and can avoid it, then Twitter is a great way to quickly check in on what is going on in the world as you choose to see it, to form new relationships with likeminded people all over the world, and to advertise your Internet or offline wares as well as to learn more about your chosen profession. Enjoy! I do.
