If you want an easy way to discover people using Twitter in your city, try Twellowhood. I’ve already talked about how Twellow can be used to search Twitter user profiles. In this video I’ll show you how the “Twellowhood” can be used to find people in your area.

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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, speaker and social media marketing coach 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.

Unlike Twitter Search, which searches content, Twellow searches user profiles. As a small business you can get a better sense of who to follow by seeing a profile than you can by reading their content (tweets).

For example, a real estate agent may be talking about soccer on a Saturday afternoon. During a typical Twitter search he won’t come up in your “real estate” search terms. But if he has “real estate agent” on his Twitter bio, then he will show up in the Twellow search results.

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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, speaker and social media marketing coach 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.

Twitter has given birth to some pretty strange sounding names. Twibes, Twellow and now Twiangulate. This application allows you to see commonalities between three Twitter users. In this video I show you how it works.

For example, you can discover the common followers of your three biggest competitors on Twitter and then build relationships with them. I can see various uses for this tool. What suggestions or uses do you have? Leave feedback in the comments 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, speaker and social media marketing coach 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.

Google caffeine is here and could kill the old web

Google just released what it is calling Google Caffeine in an attempt to become more relevant with search results. In the olden days when you performed a web search you were served with relevant content that was old (a few hours or days depending on the content).

Now with Google Caffeine search results are going to be more relevant, timely and immediate.

Google Caffeine matters to your small business

With the release of Google Caffeine your small business needs to find ways to come up in the Google search results “in real time.” This means that you will need to have content available in real time.

Twitter search has moved us in this direction. I posted about how to use Twitter search for your business to do market research. But what I didn’t mention is that others are using Google search too. And your business needs to be in those real-time search results.

Real time search and Google Caffeine

Jeff Pulver calls the era we live in “the state of now.” Things are happening so quickly and information is always new, fresh and constant. As a small business you MUST create and release content on a consistent basis to be found on the internet.

Your content (tweets, audio, video, blog posts and photos) needs to always be fresh and up to date.

How to change your mindset to a publisher

Most small businesses scream in protest when I suggest they begin to think of themselves as publishers of information. But it is true.

In order to survive the coming changes that will come from Google Caffeine, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other online platforms – your business will need to PUBLISH content.

Start thinking of yourself and your staff as journalists. Your one assignment is to “cover” your own business. Look for all the information that can be used to tell your business story – just as if you were writing for the newspaper. Except this newspaper you write for is your own.

In the coming weeks we are going to delve deeper into this idea of small business publishing and content creation. We are working on developing a system and blueprint for small businesses to use that will make content creation easy, simple and automatic.

Today’s action step

I would recommend you read the full article on Google Caffeine. This will give you some insight into how Google is changing the way they search for your content online. More changes are coming and it is critical that you stay on top of these in the near future.

Online change happens very fast and it’s hard as a small business owner to keep up. For this reason – it’s important that you stick with us as we walk you through using social media and internet marketing to grow your business and double your sales & leads.

Subscribe to “The Folk Media Insider” and you’ll be on the list of those who take small business serious and want to get more customers. Plus it’s free.

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 or Google Buzz.

To harness the true power of Twitter you need to understand and use Twitter search. In this video I’ll show you how.

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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 or Google Buzz.

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.

1. Use http://tinyurl.com to shorten your log URLs when you post them into Twitter. Otherwise it may run over 140 characters

2. It’s good to have more than one person in your company posting to Twitter. But I would recommend still having the faces behind the account.

3. How to use Twitter for your business. Great advice from @copyblogger http://short.to/l4s

4. As a business Tweet about other people and their businesses. Spread the love – it will come back to help you in the end.

5. A lot of people new to Twitter try to read every post. Impossible. Don’t even try. Treat it like a stream and dip in and out when you can.

6. If you really want to dig into Twitter use the search feature (http://search.twitter.com) Look up your biz – you might be surprised.

7. Tweets make it possible to have your thoughts go viral. People will spread your ideas across the web. Very #ideavirus.

8. RT means Retweet / @ is how you reply to someone / using a # is called a “hashtag” and puts metadata to tweets.

9. When using Twitter for business – Twitter works great as an instant opinion or survey poll.

10. The power of Twitter is in the listening and searching.

11. Twitter is a great place to get real time insights into questions you ask. It’s like instant market research.

12. Twitter Quick Tip: Two great desktop Twitter Apps: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta and http://www.twhirl.org

13. Twitter is a good way to drive traffic to your site. Build a special landing page specifically for Twitter traffic.

14. “Twitter is not about making money, it is about building relationships.” – Shawna Coronado.

15. Twitter is simply a tool. Don’t get bogged bown by it. Only use it if it makes sense for your company. Not all tools are the best choice for every situation.

Joel Mark Witt is a producer, speaker, and new media leader who writes about social media and its impact in the business world. He is also the Founding Director of Folk Media. Send him an email: joelmarkwitt (at) folkmedia.org or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by Dvortygirl