Tweet This Seinfeld

If Seinfeld were on the air today they would most likely write an episode in which the characters would bet each other on how long they can go without tweeting. Of course this would lead to hilarious dialogue and scenarios.

How long can you go without using Twitter? Are you an addict?

The five classes of Twitterland

As far as I can tell – Tweeters fall into one of five classes…

1) “I tweet therefore I am”

The issue: These folks identify so closely with their Twitter identity that they write only their @name on their name tags at conferences.

Key danger: You actually believe someone doesn’t exist if they don’t have a Twitter account.

2) “I am a compulsive tweeter”

The issue: These are the folks who just can’t stop Tweeting. Don’t have wifi or cell service on that long airline flight? Oh no – how are you going to tweet what you had to drink with your meal? Write 140 characters on the back of an airline napkin and then type it into Twitter when you land of course.

Key danger: Like any addiction – you tell yourself you don’t have a problem and this thing is manageable.

3) “I don’t have a clue what I’m doing on here. Someone said I should be using this so here I am.”

The issue: These people don’t know what they are doing and so begin to post without really understanding the toolset. They begin to post random complaints or thoughts that they think sound candid – but in reality – they sound very contrived.

Key danger: You look like a dork who doesn’t have a clue.

4) “I will post links to all my amazing and awesome offers and business opportunities and you will love them so much that you will visit my site and make me millions. Hehehehe.”

The issue: No one cares about you or your millionaire maker website. At least not until you engage us as humans and not masses of people who can make you rich.

Key danger: You give yourself false hope. You are building a reputation as “that guy.” What a sorry sap you are.

5) I am very manipulative with my tweeting by name dropping and hoping to be apart of the “in” crowd at conferences and events.

The issue: You are in need of friends and an ego boost. Instead of just developing relationships with people you come in contact with – you go after the big fish and expect them to reply to your @ messages every time. When they don’t – you are enraged.

Key danger: You are setting yourself up for disappointment.

My Advice For Serious Twitter Users

Be yourself. Be helpful. Be encouraging. Be interesting. A lot more can be gained by focusing on other people and their hopes, dreams, successes, and failures. It is rewarding and fun to help others succeed.

What are your thoughts on Twitter? Do you agree disagree?

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership and How To Use Social Media To Find A Better Job. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

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Why Hashtags Are Useful

My camp story

Every summer as a child I would attend camp. I was usually placed in a cabin with about eight other boys. We were all the same age and about the same size. Because of the carefree manner of young boys we had a difficult time returning home with all our stuff. Some stuff would get lost and some would end up in another boy’s suitcase.

One summer, a boy showed up with small name tags sewn into his clothes by his mother. They were designed to help him return home with all the clothing he took to camp. We teased him all week about it. But on the last day of camp when we couldn’t find all our garments – he had most of his. It worked. His mother was able to save on loss because of tagging.

Much like that boy – people use tags on Twitter. They use them to identify Twitter posts so they don’t get “lost” in the shuffle. It allows for these posts to be easily searched for and categorized. It allows people to easily follow a topic, discussion, or event by searching for the tag. Basically, it is a way to index content.

What Can You Do With Hashtags

Using hashtags you can:

• Label your Twitter posts to make them easy to index and search
• Create a set of posts centered around a topic or event

Hashtags are non-hierarchical. The challenge is to find and use a tag that hasn’t already been used. To give some order to the process the website www.hashtags.org was created.

How To Make A New Hashtag

Start using a # symbol in front of a word or group of letters

Use hashtags in your tweets, preceding key words. For example #superbowl would be the hash symbol and the keyword “superbowl.” It can be helpful to do a little research first, to find out if the subject you’re tweeting already has an established hashtag.

Track your hashtag and others that you are interested in

Track other tweets on the subjects you’re interested in (ie: those containing the appropriate hashtags) by browsing/searching at www.hashtags.org.

Now go take action.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

* Photo By jeffisageek

Why We Recommend Hootsuite

Hootsuite is web based

We are firm believers in keeping your content and applications on the web. This allows you to access your information and tools from anywhere in the world. Hootsuite is completely web based and can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.

Great metrics

If you can’t measure it – it doesn’t exist. Metrics are great to show the boss, clients, colleagues and employees. Hootsuite generates useful metrics. Need we say more?

Free service

As of this writing Hootsuite is free. Get in now and you’ll probably be grandfathered in if they ever do go to a pay model. They also released an iPhone app for $1.99 to give all the Hootsuite  features while on the go.

What Does Hootsuite Do

Allows you to schedule tweets in the future

We talked about planning your Twitter posts in advance yesterday and then scheduling them out over time automatically. Hootsuite allows you to do just that. You can sit down for an hour or two and schedule out a year of tweets if you want. We recommend you schedule out about 60 percent of your twitter posts.

Track your click-throughs

The powerful tools that Hootsuite gives you to measure link clicks is very powerful. All the metrics are provided with graphs and charts along with itemized lists of popular links that followers have clicked.

Allows multiple authors

The ability to have unique login credentials for multiple users makes Hootsuite a powerful application for business. Multiple authors allow the workload to be shared – as well as preventing any one person from feeling like they “own” the organization’s Twitter account.

Allows posts to Facebook and LinkedIn

Not only can Hootsuite update your Twitter feed, but now it can update the status of your Facebook page and LinkedIn profile.

How To Set Up Hootsuite

Sign up for an account

Go to www.Hootsuite.com and register for a new account.

Add your Twitter profile

You can actually add more than one Twitter profile. Hootsuite will store your Twitter username and password for the future. You are then able to choose which account you want to tweet from on the dashboard. You can even post the same message to all your accounts at the same time.

Begin posting

Begin posting to your account from the Hootsuite dashboard. Notice that there is a small link “send later” that allows you to schedule your tweets in the future.

It’s fairly simple and straightforward to set up an account and begin using the service.  If you have specific questions about this or anything else related to social media – head over to our Facebook page and ask your questions.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

*Photo By .imelda

I would recommend that you start using the following five tools to augment your Twitter communications online.

Hootsuite

This is my “bread and butter” application. As of this writing I manage dozens of of various Twitter accounts for myself and clients. Hootsuite allows me to manage all these accounts from one dashboard. Plus I am able to create unique logins for my staff or clients.

One of the best features of Hootsuite is the ability to schedule tweets. You can spend some time writing Tweets in advance and then have them auto post at a later time.

Hootsuite also has the ability to track URL clicks. You can monitor the popularity of your Twitter posts with this feature.

Echofon

If your business is serious about using Twitter and social media you’ll need to begin using a mobile device. If you are using an iPhone – I would recommend the free application Echofon. There are a bunch of iPhone apps for Twitter – but I like Echofon.

I use Echofon on on my iPhone to Twitter while away from my computer. I find that the best time to check my Twitter feed and respond to posts is during “downtime.” Standing in line at the bank, sitting in the doctors waiting room, or passing time during a boring meeting are some of the best times to Twitter. These are wasted moments that would pass by without any productive activity. Mobile devices have turned wasted time into productive time.

Tweetbeep

I use Tweetbeep for alerts. The alert feature is great for busy professionals who want to be part of the Twitter discussion without having to actually be on Twitter 24 hours a day.

You can set up hourly alerts that will email you a summary of all the people who have responded to your Twitter posts. Then when you get an alert you can log into Twitter and engage them in conversation.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is a desktop Twitter client that I use to keep informed of particular keywords and terms used on Twitter.

I use Tweetdeck to monitor predesignated search queries in Twitter. For example if you are a florist and you want to see all the recent Twitter posts mentioning flowers. You can set up a predetermined search in Tweetdeck to monitor the term “flowers.” Let’s say you read a post that says something like:

“My anniversary is tomorrow. I wish I could find a place to overnight flowers this late”

This tweet would show up in your search tab and you could respond immediately offering your special overnight rose delivery package.

Twittergadget for Gmail

TwitterGadget is the newest tool I’ve been using. Gmail allows third party gadgets to run inside their email client. I’ve found this useful for quick tweeting during the day. Since I live inside my inbox – this simple tool makes updating to Twitter effortless. It’s a one stop shop.

Of course – at the time of this writing – TwitterGadget only allows one Twitter account. So I only use this for my personal @joelmarkwitt Twitter and Hootsuite for clients and business.

These are the tools that have been working for me, our company, and our clients. Of course tools mean nothing unless you have a Twitter business plan to make use of them.

Are there tools that you would add to this list? Please feel free to comment below.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

A Folk Media insider John Lucchetti alerted us today about the new Twitter Business accounts. Apparently, Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone is talking up the idea of having paid business accounts featuring advanced tools like analytics and tracking.

Stone said, “This takes advantage of some of the commercial use of Twitter we’ve seen from businesses like airlines and big box stores… we want to present to them a layer of features that allows them to become better at Twitter, show them some of the analytics.”

“Twitter will still be free for everybody and we’ll still tell them to go crazy with it,” said Stone in an interview. “But we’ve identified a selection of things that businesses say are helping to make them more profit.”

If Twitter moves to empower businesses by offering paid accounts with metrics, I think we will see a huge growth and surge in business users.

My advice is for your business to begin using Twitter now while it is still in it’s massive growth phase. Plus, It is an easy way for your company to get onto the screens of the millions of mobile devices around the world.

As a business owner – would you pay for more features on Twitter?

Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

Why Use Tweetbeep

Automatic way to track your keywords & @mentions

I’ve written before about the importance of tracking your metrics. There is a powerful free tool that allows you to keep track of your hashtags, keywords and @mentions automatically. By automating your metrics tracking you will free up time for important Twitter tasks like content writing.

What Tweetbeep Does

Find any keyword in Twitter

Tweetbeep is an online application that you can set up and forget about. It searches Twitter for any keyword or term and sends an update when a post is made containing that term, keyword, hashtag or phrase.

Emails an hourly summary

Each hour you will be sent a nice summary email with all the terms you’ve set up Tweetbeep to send you.

How To Use Tweetbeep

Sign up for an account

To sign up for your free Tweetbeep account visit www.tweetbeep.com.

Enter some keyword searches

Once you sign up, you are given the option to set up keyword alerts. You can have multiple alerts sent for various keywords and terms.

Decide how often you want to be notified

Decide on the frequency of your notifications. Under the free plan, Tweetbeep will only send you 10 alerts each day.

By using Tweetbeep, you will be able to put your Twitter listening on auto-pilot and free up tons of time.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

The real (secret) power of Twitter is in listening

Two ears and one mouth

When I  was a child, my mother used to tell me that God gave me two ears and one mouth. As a result I should do twice as much listening as I do talking.

It doesn’t matter if you agree with my mother or not,  this is great advice as you begin to use Twitter.

If all you did on Twitter was listen to the current conversation between key businesses and professionals you would harness 80 percent of its effectiveness.

The power of Twitter is in the listening – not the tweeting. The tweeting ability is powerful – but it pales in comparison.

Eavesdrop in real-time for opportunities

Many people claim that Twitter is full of people talking about the mundane things going on in their lives. Many people will post what they had for breakfast, where they are or  who is with them at the moment. But what business people miss in all of this is the opportunity this kind of information presents.

Think about it for a moment. For the first time in the history of the world you are able to eavesdrop on people’s everyday conversations. If you are knife salesmen, you can listen to who is talking about knives – right now! That’s a powerful tool.

The cable company Comcast actually uses Twitter to find the people who are complaining about their service and then reach out to them in real time.

Comcast staffers spend their time searching and listening to the “mundane” conversation for opportunities to correct their customers’ concerns.

Monitor the chatter about your company

A few months ago I was on the set of a Carmax Superbowl commercial shoot. I took some photos of the cast and crew creating the spot. I posted a Twitter message mentioning that I was on a Carmax commercial shoot. Within several hours, a marketing manager from Carmax contacted me and wanted to ensure that I meant the company no malice. He was listening very carefully to the chatter about his business.

What Do You Listen For

@Mentions of your username

Be sure to listen for @mentions of your username. These are easy to monitor by clicking on the @mention link along the right column of your homepage.

Mentions of your name, company or business

You can also use the search box on the Twitter page to see who is mentioning your business, company, or industry without using the @mention. Visit the Twitter search page for a more advanced version of the search feature (www.search.twitter.com).

Potential customers

Remember the knife salesman example? Be on the lookout for ways to find and reach out to people who are talking about problems that they are experiencing.

How To Listen & Search

Click on the @Mention area everyday

You can simply click on the @username link on the main Twitter page and you will be presented with a list of the most recent @mentions.

Search for your name, company, and business

Use Twitter search to cook up some searches for the words your customers will use to discuss what problem your business solves.

Save your searches for later

You can actually save your searches for later viewing. Twitter will remember your keywords and place a link in the right column of your Twitter page.

Listening and searching really is the secret to using Twitter effectively. Most people view Twitter as a distribution platform to send out messages. I encourage you to view Twitter as a listening platform to monitor what people are saying about themselves, you, your industry and business.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

Why Your Username Is Important

Brand recognition

Your first consideration should be the brand you are building. Obviously if you have a currently recognized name (even on a local level) doesn’t steer away from that on Twitter.

People search for it

Your username should reflect what people search for when they search online. For example, if you are not a “brand” business but rather a medium size plumbing company, consider a username like “PlumbingHelper.” The word plumbing is searchable to people who don’t know you or your company.

What Is A Good Username?

Think carefully about your username

For obvious reasons, it is important to use an appropriate username that people type in to see your Twitter page. Our website, for example is FolkMedia.org. In the early days of Twitter we quickly reserved the Twitter username FolkMedia. We were interested in building this name into a “brand” around social media.

Think carefully about how people search for your organization. I recently typed twitter.com/coke and was expecting to get the Coca-Cola Company.

Instead I arrived at a random non-company site. Coca-Cola is probably kicking themselves now for not securing a Twitter username early in the game. The official Coca-Cola Twitter is actually Twitter.com/cocacola. But many people search for the term “coke.” Keep this in mind when picking your username. You need to carefully think through how people search for you and your organization.

Decide on a Twitter handle/domain name. Make it count! Make it searchable! Make it relevant!

Easy to remember & easy to spell

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing your username is its spelling. Your name should be easy to spell and easy to remember. Consider these two fictional certified Public Accountant examples and decide which one makes more sense:

Twitter.com/RiechmanCPA

or

Twitter.com/nycInsurance

The name “Riechman” is hard to remember. If you speak the name verbally people have no idea how to spell it. Contrast this with the second example “nycInsurance.” This name clearly labels what the organization does – they are an Insurance business. It also narrows down a geographic area.

You use it other places online

Are there other places online that you use a particular username? You would be wise to keep your usernames consistent across multiple online services.

How To Choose A Username

Make a list of possible names

Sit down with a blank piece of paper and begin to brainstorm possible names. Keep in mind that your username is allowed a maximum of 20 characters and cannot contain any spaces.

Search For Your Name

Go to http://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter and search for the usernames you’ve brainstormed. You will be able to see if it is already being used and how it is being used.

Now go take action and decide which username you are going to use.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

There Are Reasons Why You Should Not Abuse Twitter

Remember you are building a digital legacy

Never forget that everything we do online is being preserved and archived – FOREVER. Your great great grandchildren will be able to search and view your digital footprint.

You can fool all of the people some of the time

At the end of the day your good name is all you have. You can certainly fool some people and make short term gains from abusing Twitter. In the end you will lose.

What Makes A Bad Twitter Citizen

Big mistake: Don’t use auto DMs

An auto DM is an automatic direct message sent to another Twitter user when they begin following you. If you haven’t experienced an auto direct message yet – follow some more people and you soon will.

People get very tired of the “Let me show you what  I can do for you” DM’s. Just prove it . If you do decide to put out an automatic direct message, make it about your followers, ask them to tell you about themselves and how you look forward to following and learning from them.

More things to avoid:

• Don’t buy Twitter followers
• Don’t Curse flood, or SPAM – a quick way to lose followers
• Don’t try to read every tweet. Just picture Twitter as a rushing river that you dip in and out of.  It’s too hard to try and catch the water.
• Don’t feel the need to reply to every @mention
• Don’t bad talk or argue with anyone
• Don’t talk negatively about your employers, company, being bored at work, etc.
• Don’t wait for people to find you.
• Don’t brag, no one likes a pompous tweeter, if you do want to promote an accomplishment, be humble.
• If you choose to install the Twitter application on Facebook – do so with caution. It can cause your Facebook status updates to become flooded.
• Be careful when signing up for apps that require you to sign on using your Twitter login and password.  This will result in automated tweets/spam.

The Fastest Way Into The Twitter Hall Of Shame

Spam

We all hate spam. I bet even spammers hate it when it happens to them. On Twitter Spam is unsolicited direct messages, posts, or @mentions intended to confuse or direct traffic back to the spammers website. Being too direct with offers, a call to action or invitation to visit a website can be viewed by many as spam.

The best way to ensure that you are not spamming Twitter is use the ratio of one call to action tweet for every 20 regular helpful tweets. This is a good rule of thumb that most people respect.

Abuse

There are people who are eager to abuse others via Twitter. Don’t be among them. If you have a disagreement with someone, take the high road and deal with it civilly. It is okay to post a disagreeing viewpoint, but don’t personally attack another person.

Keep in mind the above tips and be a good Twitter citizen. There are many people who don’t follow basic rules of decency and their reputation suffers because of it. Don’t be one of them.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

*Photo By Mr Squee

Why Is Measurement Important

If it can’t be measured – it doesn’t exist

We are firm believers that anyone who doesn’t measure their results is wasting their time and money. It could be worse. They could be wasting YOUR time and YOUR money. Measurement is critical for success.

Measurement lets others know the progress

Not only can you gauge how well you are doing on Twitter through measurement, it keeps others in the loop as well. By measuring you keep up the moral of your employees and supervisors.

Measurement shows you your future and adjustments

How will you know where to make adjustments if you don’t measure your results?

What A Measurement System Looks Like

Hashtags – tracking links – and searches

Measurement on Twitter is a new discipline. Every day there are new tools being developed to track how messages are read and repurposed. Currently, the best way to measure is to use a combination of hashtags, trackable links and searches.

Automatic tracking

Of course, like most things online, tracking your metrics can be set up automatically. We recommend that before you set things up on autopilot, you at least understand the mechanics behind manually tracking your Twitter posts. The first step is setting up your Twitter posts to actually be trackable.

How To Set Up Your Measurement system

Begin using hashtags

As we learned earlier, hashtags allow us to label our tweets. Multiple tweets with the same label can be searched and grouped. So by adding a hashtag to your twitter posts you can create a listing of each time that post is retweeted or referenced.

Use a service that allows you to tack links

Services that allow you to shorten your URLs and track them are powerful for measuring clickthroughs. We already mentioned Hootsuite as our link tracking application of choice.

Use search.twitter.com

Visit www.search.twitter.com and you will see the most powerful feature of Twitter. From this search bar, you can search millions of conversations in real-time. By searching for a hashtag, username, @mention or other keyword, you can begin to compile a list of followers who have referenced and retweeted your Twitter posts.

By measuring what messages are forwarded & monitoring your clicks on shared links, you can measure how well your Twitter strategy is working.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

*Photo By Jek In The Box