It’s not me it’s you.

No but seriously, it’s you. It’s your fault. You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’.

Since Twitter went mainstream, I can’t seem to figure out if I LOVE or HATE Twitter. The value for me is fading. I get so tired of going through the crap trying to be shoved down my throat, not to mention the always pleasant automated DM’s.

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has it perks but it also has it’s downs.

If you’re reading this, how are you using Twitter currently?

Is it valuable?

Or becoming annoying?

Twitter is about to “Cash In” all their Traffic

Have you seen Twitters new homepage? They just released it a few days ago. After one glance at Twitters new homepage, are you still thinking Twitter won’t find a way to make money?

Twitter has slowly been expanding their real time search functionality (search.twitter.com) and continues to make it more apparent to their users. The most recent is when they added the search box to the sidebar.

I think eventually, this sidebar will become a “Sponsored Results” section. And as an paid search advertiser myself, I would be a fool to not want to buy paid search ads on Twitter.

That’s exactly what Twitter is going to do.

Get ready for the new Google Adwords. Maybe Twitter Tweetwords

The more Twitter followers you have, the more leverage you have to promote your brand or website. Before I list these 10 tips, just think about how important Twitter is when it comes to promoting your brand. It’s not hard to imagine that if you offer some type of value to people, naturally your Twitter followers will climb in a short amount of time.

Think about having 500 followers. You simply leave a quick “tweet” about a new post you wrote on your blog. You just advertised to 500 unique visitors for free! There’s also a good chance that a few of your followers will “re-tweet” your message to all of their followers as well!

The moral of my ramblings… Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter!

10 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers

1. Be Social: Be active with your followers – Reply to them, comment on what they’re doing.
2. Be Smart about who you Follow: Follow people with a large number of Followers and reply to them. Your replies will be in front of thousands of followers. Don’t follow someone just because they have a lot followers, be sure they are of interest to you as well.
3. Blog Posts: Have a blog? Guest posting on a blog? At the end of each post, ask people to follow you with a link to your Twitter profile.
4. Email Signature: Promote your Twitter account in your email signature.
5. Forums: When posting on forums, leave your Twitter profile with your signature on your threads.
6. Activity: Twitter more Often. When you use Twitter more people will find you through Twitter search.
7. Promote: Create a Twitter badge on your site promoting your Twitter profile.
8. Facebook: Facebook has an application that includes your Twitter updates. Add that application to your profile.
9. Other Social Networks: Add your Twitter Profile to all of your other social network profiles.
10. Acknowledgment: When you get a new follower send them a direct message and say “Thanks for Following.” They’ll be more likely to be an active follower and tell their fellow friends to follow you as well.

Does anyone else have any other tips on how to get more Twitter Followers?

For some strange and unknown reason the peeps and Twitter have more then one search function for Twitter. It almost seems that Twitter has neglected to fix one of the search tools too. I guess the other one is cooler.

The “Twitter Search” I am refering to today is the one you’ll find at the footer of Twitter. Also know as “search.twitter.com” If it happens to be your first time using search.twitter you’ll see why they have neglected to fix the other search tool.

Twitter Search isn’t only used to Increase Followers

Some of you might be surprised that Twitter Search has more benefits then increasing your followers. Most are guilty for it but it seems like more and more people will follow you to get the follow back. In the past week I have had a handful of new followers and when I go to look at their profile I see something like this:

“lgkajlsdkjrlkeja” is now following you!

562 Following, 28 Follwers, & 2 Updates.

I mean following someone for the simple reason that they have something in common with you would just be insane right? (Insert Sarcasim). Wrong. Think about this. No matter what interests you have, what industry you work in or even what your favorite baseball team is (*Cough* Boston Red Sox) there are people on Twitter that have more in common with you then you think.

Use Twitter Search to Leverage “Trending” Topics

This can be very helpful to find up to date information on any specific topic. The best part about using Twitter Search to do it, is you’ll see hundreds and thousands of different views on the subject. It’s not like you get the story from a single persons opinion. You can spend 5-10 minutes learning the details of the story and create your own point of view.

Also, depending on what type of work your involved in this can get you a head start. Maybe you’re a blogger wanting to publish a new post about this topic, an affiliate marketer wanting to see trends, or whatever the case may be I think you get my point.

Follow fellow Twitterers with your Same Interests

Here’s what I find powerful about Twitter. I live and breath anything online – marketing, blogging, design, etc. I follow people on Twitter that are complete geniuses about my industry and they openly share their knowledge. I can’t even count how many times a new app has come out or someone reviewed a new keyword tool and I was lucky enough to come across it before a big majority of people do.

Also, when following and be followed by people with your interests you help each other. I know I find myself asking for feedback or advice and I’ll get instant responses. The same works on the flip side. The point of Twitter is to be social, so be sure to return the favor and in the end, everyone is happy.

Twitter is Valuable

Use Twitter to your advantage. Find people with your interests, create and build relationships and be the biggest sponge you can be because there’s no shortage of valuable information from this awesome community.

Call me crazy but this is what I think, do you Agree or Disagree?

The point is, I think there’s a different Twitterer in all of us.

So why type of Twitter User are you?

When I asked this question on Twitter, here are a few of the responses I got:

I think it’s important to know this. With the power that is behind Twitter it is important to continue your social interaction with Twitter. If you’ve setup an account and you’re not using it then you’re missing out.

Here’s my take on the different Twitter Users

The Observer

You tend to sit back and watch the conversations take place. You occasionally update a new tweet or even reply to someone. This is not effective and of course, it’s not social. You’re wasting your time by doing this. Get in the conversation and make some new friends. You’d be surprised how many cool people are out there.

The Socializer

This is the type of Twitter Follower everyone loves. They’re responsive, always have great tweets throughout the day and for the most part they are a good Twitterer. Just beware, you give your fellow Twitterers some breathing room. There are some Socializers that update and reply so often, that they begin to take up your first 2 pages of your tweets. All in all the socializer is a great Twitterer.

The No Follower

The Twitterer that wants everyone to follow him/her but doesn’t feel the need to follow you back. I understand it to a certain extent. Once you get to a certain amount of people you’re following it can be difficult to maintain your profile. This is your “Results not typical” Twitterer. Unless you’re some amazing human being or have a huge brand don’t count on this happening to you. You’re fellow Twitterers will eventually start falling off and you’ll regret not following them.

The Replier

I enjoy having “The Replier” as a follower. It’s nice to be able to ask a question for genuine feedback and know you’ll get some answers. If this is you, just don’ forget the either side of it. Are you leveraging Twitter the same way. Don’t be afraid to use your Twitter followers as your feedback team. In fact, if you are a replier, chances are your fellow followers will be more inclined to “return the favor” for always being social with them.

The Automated Robot

Now, there are 2 scenarios how the automated robot twitterer interacts with his/her followers.

1. When you follow him/her you get the automated message right in your inbox. Usually it’s something like this. “Hey thanks for following, now check out my blog. (Insert Link to blog)”
2. You know what their tweets look like. The ones that take the 140 characters of the post and add the link to the rest of the post. They didn’t take the time to write out an interesting title to have you click the link. If you don’t have time to write 140 characters and paste a link then you need to really look at your schedule.

Why do I care what type of Twitter User I am?

The truth is, there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter. I think all of the different types of Twitter users are great in their own ways. If you can focus on all the different ways to leverage Twitter as a “Twitter User” then that is when you can get the full power out of Twitter. You become intriguing to follow, you provide feedback, you get feedback, people enjoy reading your tweets, etc.

So possibly taking a little bit of all the different types of Twitter users is a good thing.

• It’s good to observe, but don’t forget to join in the conversation
• It’s good to not take on too many followers but still be curtious
• It’s good to reply but don’t make that all that you do.
• It’s not good to be automated. This is a social network, knock it off and start being social.

I know there are plenty of different variations of how people use Twitter but I think this post covered a big portion of them.

What are your thoughts? Don’t you think it’s important to work on being a better Twitter user?

Today I wanted to touch on a great way to leverage and optimize the traffic coming through your Twitter Profile. Let’s face it, Twitter and other social sites for that matter are taking off. The traffic and interaction of people on these social sites is tremendous day in and day out.

Make your background personal

When you have a twitter profile you are able to make it your own. You can change a variety of the colors, change the background image, etc. I want to show you a few examples on ways you can alter or change your Twitter profile background to promote your brand. Below you find two examples of both mine and Aaron Dommer’s Twitter Profiles. You can see by both screenshots we are promoting a couple different sites and it also matches our profiles.

JR Farr’s Twitter Profile (Follow JR Farr) – Click to View Larger

You can see I have made my background a little more personal and I have also included a few other places you can find me. I have only noted a few places but you could list as many or as little as you like. Or perhaps, you have a logo or email you want to have people see. Basically you have a whole piece of real estate on the side to do whatever you like!

Aaron Dommer’s Twitter Profile (Follow Dommizzle) – Click to View Larger

Again, the same idea of promoting other sites or ventures Aaron Dommer is involved in.

Head over to your Twitter Profile and Test it Out!

This doesn’t take much time to do and it’s obviously worth the time. Now, if you haven’t already thought of it, I know that this isn’t a very trackable method of advertising or promoting your brand. I figure, this is just wasted space on your Twitter profile and why not put it up there right?

Best of luck my Twitter Friends!

“What is the point of Twitter?”

Hopefully this helps shed some light on that question and shows you just how cool and powerful Twitter really is.  Hope you enjoy!

Please leave any feedback!

[ad#468x60]
–

P.S. Follow Me on TWITTER

My main goal of this post… How these 2 are connected and why they are beneficial.

I don’t want to assume that everyone knows what a Lifestream is, or what Social Media is.  So, I thought I would do a brief post about what the foundations are of Social Media and what a lifestream is.  By the end of this, I hope you see why it’s beneficial.

[ad#468x60]

It’s all centered around Social Sites

Click to view LARGE IMAGE

Photo Credit – Brian Solis

So you’ve probably heard of several types of social networking sites such as:

• Digg
• Stumble Upon
• Flickr
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• And 100′s More…

All of these sites are some way or another considered social sites.  Each consist of thousands of members that have the ability to interact with each other in several different ways… from a social standpoint of course.

Let’s look at a few examples…

Facebook – Allows you to interact with people all over the world.  You create a profile of yourself and basically create your personal brand.  You can share all types of info as you wish.  Share photos, personal info, your business info, etc.

Flickr – Allows you to interact with other members of the site but through pictures.  Say you’re a photographer and you post your portfolio work on your Flickr account.  You work is now scattered throughout millions of people on Flickr and is literally in front of thousands of eyeballs.  It’s quite fascinating when you think about.

Digg – How Digg works. Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by the community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and “Digg” what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.  Thus, creating loads of traffic to your website

When focused, this is considered Social Media Optimization

Basically, when you interact with several different types of social networks you are promoting your personal brand or your company. These social sites have thousands of visitors a day and with how granular they are you can have instant qualified traffic.

Here is a detailed explanation of Social Media Optimization from Wikipedia.

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a “Digg This” button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines such as Technorati.

Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an Online Reputation Management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

Lifestream takes all of your social efforts and combines them

If you take a look at my lifestream, you’ll see that it displays all types of updates from what I have done in any given day.  Based off the social sites that I have accounts setup with, it displays my day in reverse chronological order.  Visitors to your site/lifestream will get a sense of what interests you, what your promoting and start to see your personality.

Here is another example of a good buddy of mine – View Aaron Dommer’s Lifestream

What’s the outcome of it all?

On a personal level

When creating a brand, whether it be personal or a company there needs to be a foundation.  People want to know the origin of where you came from or what you stand for.  As people follow you or connect with you on these social sites, it gives you the opportunity to bring out your or your companies personality.  This allows each visitor to engage with what you’re doing.

They become familiar with your face, see what your interests are and are more intrigued to follow you and what you’re doing.

As far as traffic and SEO efforts

Using Social Media to gain leverage on your website traffic and SEO is a must nowadays.  These social sites again have authority throughout the search engines and again bring in thousands of visitors.  Add the 2 together and you’re creating backlinks to your sites and gaining more exposure to your site.

Lifestream is a reciprical

On the flipside, when you bring a unique visitor your site, you can have the process run the otherway.  People can instantly follow what you’re doing and gather a sense of who you are.

I sure hope this shed some light

Social Media is something that can be very powerful.  You can promote anything and everything.  Use these social sites to give exposure to your companies products/services, your business partners, friends and family.  They’ll praise you for it and it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside

[ad#468x60]

If this did help or if you have any other suggestions about the benefits of Social Media leave some feedback!

It’s much appreciated

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Can you automate your social media?

For example, you have a blog right?  Then you have a twitter account right?  Then Facebook account, MySpace account, Digg account, Flickr account… AH!

It’s hard enough for most of us to keep track of our usernames and passwords.  But social media truly can helpful and if you use them right they can be very powerful to promote yourself, business or ideas.

Here’s where I am getting at… sometimes it gets overwhelming to have to re-write everything you just wrote in your blog in all of your other accounts, sites, etc.  So what can we do to help automated this?

I have been doing some research about this particular topic and I have chosen to start with Twitter.  Twitter seems to be the hottest thing right now since Big League Chew (love that stuff, especially the grape flavor) so I thought that would be a good place to start.

Right now I am testing out 3 Twitter Widgets or Plugins that work with WordPress.

Not only do they work with WordPress but… of course it talks back and forth with Twitter.  Here are the plugins I have installed.

Twitter Tools – Alex King

WP Twitter

Twitter Updater

Now, unfortanetly the theme I use currently doesn’t allow me to use the plugins with all their features. (Displaying in my sidebar.)  But, I have used these themes to see all of their features.

Already Twitter Tools is leading the race.  I noticed with others, my site would take some time to load because the Twitter Updates on the sidebar were taking so long to load. (If you use Twitter you know that their servers sometimes can’t take the traffic!)

Twitter Tools, like I said is great!  It automatically updates your Twitter account when you are posting blog post, editing, and so forth.

But, here is my favorite part so far. When you are in your WordPress Dashboard and you click the “Write” tab you are giving a new sub option.  The usuals are new post, new page, new link and now a new one shows up, “Write Tweet”  How cool is that?  So right from my blog dashboard I can make an update on my Twitter account.

I think this one might pull away with my vote but I am interested to see what others have thought?

Anybody have comments or found something better for WordPress and Twitter to communicate?

—

P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.