DIY – How To Use Twitter: Get Twitter Followers & Potential Consumers!

Looking for a new way to advertise, optimize & grow your business?? Twitter is essential to expanding your market reach online and improving sales & conversions.

The ultimate point of this whole Twitter game is to keep people engaged in actively serving as your salesman. By constantly getting updates about what you offer, your followers may become regular customers or be able to refer their friends and followers as well if they see value in it.We cant take action with that we don’t know of.
Does your website really share it ALL?
Are you speaking to the right audience in the right way?
Or are you trying to be too corporate?

Reach a larger audience by engaging through social networks where so many find comforted and at home. Go to them. They’re all too tired to drive to you.

Follow and Be Followed on Twitter

So many people are always asking me “How do I get get twitter followers?”

There are many tools and applications out there with everyone trying to find a “get it quick” solution. Let me first start off by sharing with your the “natural” way.

1. Start Following:
   • Start with those you know and trust wont be upset with you for having a fairly new profile. Close friends and family or those you REALLY want regular updates on/from. Those who will bring value to your network that you want to learn, laugh or love from and with, etc.
   • Next follow those in your industry whose opinion you value like follow press, employees, & even important customers, members of your networking groups, respected individuals in your industry,
   • Remember that you follow other to encourage them to follow you back. How else will they know you’re out there. If you build it, they wont necessarily come. Now go get em tiger 😉
   • If you haven’t already, now is a good time to set up your device updates if you so please. None of us have a lot of time. I don’t always remember to twitter before I shut my laptop for he day. I can remember to twitter when I’m waiting at the doctors, sitting at a stop light or waiting for my lunch. So, make it easy to update with Mobile Device updates!Simply log into your account and select “Settings” and then “Devices” and follow the onscreen prompts. Once the account is set up, you should receive a confirmation text message to your phone. Save that message as a contact and start using this as your posting platform rather than twitter online itself! No excuses! Once this is set up, you can choose to turn device updates on for those who you follow and would like to receive twitter text message updates from.
   • Any time you meet someone new while networking, in the field, as a client, etc….make sure you do a quick search to find them on Twitter. You can search by Name by clicking Find People in your twitter nav.
   • Remember, this is not a popularity contest! Its about quality, not quantity.
2. Using Tools & Resources to Find Followers on Twitter
   • Use @ Conversations with people to build new followers. Engage users to follow you by interacting with them directly one-on-one. Start with @username and start chatting about something they mentioned on their twitter profile.
   • Watch for interesting conversations:Use Twitter Search to find topics your interested in by searching via keyword and hashtag. This means you need to search for the very keywords that pertian to your product, service or industry. If someone is talking about moving in Orange County, and you’re a moving company, you can benefit from engaging with the person who twittered that.
   • You can use a tool like TweetBeep to not only monitor your reputation, but also specific keywords online as well. This will automatically email you to infirm you when a specific keyword is discussed so you don’t have to use the twitter search each time. Its best to make sure that your have very targeted keyword phrases here (or at least location demographic specifics) or else you will be sorting through hundreds of emails every day. :(Using these keywords will help you find profile that are using them so that you can decide if you want to follow them.***Remember: if you follow someone talking about Orange County moving, and you’re a mover, you could find conversions if they follow you back since you handed a solution right to them. No words even necessary, just a follow yourself 🙂

     Click HERE for our blog post on how to set up alerts to your email each time you are mentioned on twitter with our blog, DIY – Tweet Beep Alerts: Monitoring Your Brand, Industry & Target Market.

   • TwitThis! – TwitThis.com is a Twitter promoter, follower & URL shortening service. By using the system to post links to online pages you want to mention, you will also make yourself available to be a suggested user to other people gaining followers. Its all based on the TwitThis points system HERE.

Update Your Twitter Page with “What are you doing?”

When you are on your Twitter homepage after logging in, you will notice that small little box with such a tiny but daunting question…

Go ahead, tell the little box what you’re doing.

You will also notice all the conversations on your wall. These are the most recent updates of your tweeps, or those you follow on Twitter.

Its important to read these updates from time to time. This is how you will find way to ENGAGE and make sales people and clients out of them. Remember, you’re NOT there to sell yourself, your product, or your service. Your there to help and have fun! The rest will happen naturally when you educate and engage.

1. Why Should Someone Follow You? Make it Worth Their While…Ideas For Posting/Making Updates on Twitter:
   • Be the first to break news!
   • Live tweet events and conferences.
   • Link out to important resources and tools.
   • Be funny. Be viral.
   • Top 10 lists, How To Guides, and other articles only with valuable content.
   • Free seminars, coupons, discounts & deals!
   • Contests! – Use Twitter to make contests unique to your Twitter platform to encourage more people to follow you.
   • Your blog posts – link to them!
   • Hot, new, or in season items and services
   • Engage users to follow you by interacting with them directly one-on-one. Start with @username and start chatting about something they mentioned on their twitter profile. This process is not only used to gain followers, but also to retain them.
   • Keep it 80% social, 20% business. Who wants to follow boring snoring? Just what exactly ARE you doing
2. What Not To Do Guide to Twitter. For the love, please don’t do any of the following:
   • Don’t send Twitter spam. Ick! These are real people. Don’t just market the heck out of them. Treat them as you would want to be treated.
   • Don’t always expect a reply. Sometimes direct messages fall on deaf ears. It only gets through if that person is following you.
   • Don’t be rude! Have some etiquette. Don’t send regular consecutive updates. Those of us who are not interested in having 6 texts tell us what you ate for lunch, by unfollow you or at least turn device updates off if you do! Take ot to a private convo or direct message if you must!
   • Don’t get pulled into a negative conversations. Your Twitter reputation IS your reputation.
   • Don’t forget to monitor your reputation on Twitter. If you’re gonna get heavy on business, make sure you know who’s talking about you!
   • Use Twitter Search to see what people are saying about you.
   • Use an online management tool…Click HERE for our blog post on how to set up alerts to your email each time you are mentioned on twitter with our blog, DIY – Tweet Beep Alerts: Monitoring Your Brand, Industry & Target Market.
   • Use Tracking Twitter tool
3. 3rd Party Twitter Tools for Updating Your Page:The following tools are 3rd party twitter applications that will allow you to update your twitter through platform other than Twitter.com.

   Desktop clients for making updates…

   • Tweetdeck.com
   • Twhirl.com
   • Twitterific

   iPhone applications for making mobile updates…

   • TwitterFon
   • Twitterific
   • Twitterena
   • TwitterVision
     
     
4. Twitter Cross Promotion
   • Add Twitter to your email signature, website, blog, Facebook, LinkedIn profile, business cards and any other on and offline marketing materials.
   • Use Twitterfeed.com to automatically integrate your blog into your twitter stream so that a link is auto tweeted every time you make a new post.
   • Use Twitter Facebook application to have Facebook auto update when you twitter. 2 birds, 1 stone! Update your facebook through twitter using the Twitter Facebook application HERE.Want to keep your personal twitter updates off of your Fan page? You can use the Selective Twitter Status Facebook application to only update with a separate account when using “#fb” tag in your tweet.
   • Use Twitter Widgets to integrate your tweets into your Myspace page or any other online presence that accepts HTML