Twitter Tips

May 14th, 2012

Twitter's Search should not be overlooked.  We should all be looking up our town for instance on a daily basis.  I typed in Annandale, VA and found a job listing, 5 "Yelp" type tweets, to the tune of: "I am at....."  and a couple of news stories. Invariably, I would not have seen any of this had I not typed in my local town.

Twitter's Locality Search tool is infinitely more powerful for updates than Facebook's, Pinterest or G+  and for those social media sites, for the most part location based search is non existent.

Twitter doesn't even promote the search feature to create local, useful networks.  Had it went in that direction, we would have seen many small businesses utilising this valuable tool.  Instead Twitter has gone with the "Big Business Madison Ave Advertising" global reach paradigm.  This is great for creating "landing page" retrieve and capture campaigns, but the locality features are overlooked in the meantime.  Millions of small Twitter accounts are inactive, because users saw no immediate potential.

The potential is obvious, immediate and of immense value to small businesses.  Even spending two minutes following local people will yield results.  I give an example here:  http://pronetworkbuild.blogspot.com/2012/05/two-devilishly-handsome-guys.html where a local connection was made in 5 hours.   Update: On a Saturday, May 19th, I found a local sale for a "Car Detail" service in the Canadian Woods.  His business is literally off the beaten track - an uphill climb to say the least.  Within 2 minutes of following a gal, a new record, even for me I might add, she had responded, and now wants her car done:  here's the proof:

Now multiply that by the literally millions of users which have become inactive over the last 4 years on Twitter?  Imagine the possibilities those people are missing by dropping out?  Imagine the opportunities we are all missing by simply not logging into search at least once a day to see what's going on in our neighborhood?

Such an awesome direction we can take!   While Facebook goes public, and there is all the fanfare being made over that social media conglomerate, Twitter has a way of creating dollars right now, quietly, sitting here under our noses, and just waiting to be exploited. 

Enter Your Town Now in Search, and Tweet Me about Your Experiences.  I'd love to hear them!



For Locality Based Search Services See: http://pronetworkbuild.com/  We provide 400+ new meaningful, powerful local connections each month which the Client can convert to paying customers and local influencers.   We only follow real, active, engaging people in your geographical area.
My Book, Just Released on Kindle:  How to Use Twitter for Local Business: How Anyone Can find 250+ Local Connections Per Week, and Convert them to Clients and Customers  http://www.amazon.com/How-Twitter-Local-Business-ebook/dp/B007VSR6Y2  You can use the "Free Kindle for PC"  Link at the site to Upload a Free App so you can read Kindle Books on Your PC. 


September 18, 2011

I've heard people call the Multiple Person "Shout Out" spam, a waste of time, and other disparaging adjectives.  Some just ignore them.  I used to.  I remember the first time someone mentioned me in a Tweet with a group of people, I had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on.  It wasn't till a Tweeter named @JoeyGiggles spelled it out for me, that I started to get the idea.  He said:  "Follow Each Other and ReTweet......"  A light went off inside my head. 

 


Never Use the ReTweet Button, Never Start the Tweet with the @ Sign.


When you are mentioned in a multiple person Shout Out, Cut/Paste the Entire body and send it out as a mention.  Do not start your Tweet with the @Sign.  ALWAYS PUT SOMETHING IN FRONT OF THE FIRST PERSON'S NAME, even if it is the ~ mark, or ` .   It's best to put  RT  and the @Sender's Handle.
Did you know that Tweets starting with the @ Sign cannot be read by everybody? They can only be read by the person mentioned in the tweet!!  So when I type:  
   Since there is nothing in front of the first @ Sign, then those 5 People (one Ferret) and only our mutual followers see it.
   To Properly Cut/Paste this Tweet, you'd see this:
   RT @ProNetworkBuild Follow @RcToyPalaceCom  @MuseInks @PiperBayard @PenelopePhoto @Samuel_Clemons @JenuineHealing 

(You are more than welcome to lift this Tweet out, and Send it.  I won't mind, and neither will any of the above.  All fine folks, and I am honored and proud to know them all)  


   Lastly, and Most Importantly:  Think of the Multiple Person Tweet (FollowFriday for instance, or any other Shout Out ) as a Viral Tweet.   Using just the 6 people above for example, over 115,000 people are potentially exposed to the tweet.  But what if they cut/paste the tweet, and then are ReTweeted?  Are you starting to get the picture?  These Multiple Person Tweets are truly viral marketing, and are available to anyone at any time.

   A multiple person shout out is a great asset for widening your audience, gaining followers, and expanding your network.  You simply HAVE NO IDEA who is going to see your end user name, follow you, and they turn out to be a wonderful person!

The Image Above Shows that just from one day, I have followed back or "reciprocated" 210 followers.  That is 210 I did not have to follow to get them to follow back, they found me!  And you guessed it:  They found me because someone mentioned me in a Tweet. 

Remember some folks don't like the Multiple End Person Mention, because they don't know any better.  Forget them, let them be judgemental, it's their loss.  I generally include people whom I feel are going to ReTweet, or whom I want to mention.  I might get 1,000 to 1500 of these Tweets a week, so because I do not want my account suspended, I am limited and can't mention everybody.  Twitter only allows about 200 tweets per day.  Most people are not in danger of this.
So take advantage of this viral tool, be courteous, mention and shout out to your heart's content.  You never know who you might meet.

August 1st, 2011
Twitters new automated link shortener is designed to compel us to use the RT button, as opposed to cut/pasting the entire tweet and resetting.  Moreover, the new automated shortening is a double whammy! I have found even when I use http://tinyURL.com for instance, Twitter is still taking this already shortened URL and shortening it again!  So if we cut/paste the tweet, these Twitter shortened URL's DO NOT hyperlink.   I will tweet a bit to Twitter to get them to correct this problem, but I suspect this is all by intention.

So: Double check your links, after you tweet, make sure they open, make sure they hyperlink at all. 


May 5th, 2011
Twitter drives more traffic to blogs than Facebook or Google.  It is basically a "hit engine".  Avoiding the sociological and psychological reasons why, analysis, statistics and anecdotal evidence all bear this out.

Twitter end users like to click "links".  They are drawn to this practice like iron to a magnet, and in the case of spam, like moths to a flame.  For better or worse, this is what they do.

Leverage this phenomena, by including links in your Tweets to your:

   A.  Blog Posts 
   B.  Facebook Fan Pages
   C.  LinkedIn Profiles
   D.  Website Landing Pages

Quick Tips:

Mix it Up:  Don't just Tweet links to your page.  Loyal EndUsers, even your most devoted follower will soon ignore you entirely, and your reputation can be damaged.  A good mix, is one of your own links to ten of other links.  Retweet others, make sure they don't compete with your space, but don't get consumed with worrying about the competitor, you need them, they need you.   Check that your retweet links are not spam, and that they are real, genuine articles.  Do mentions of others.  Say hello, be friendly, and don't reply in one word responses. 

To enhance search visibility be specific in your Tweet, don't generalize, and don't send the enduser to the "home page"  which is harder to track, and analyse.
Don't send them to SallysCookieTray  Home Page,  send them to SallysCookieTray/BestRecipesForGrandmasCookies   then Tweet:  Best Recipes for Grandma's Cookies from Sally's Cookie Tray (tinyURL)

Another quick Tip:  The best time to Tweet a link?  Between 4pm and 4:45 PM on Friday Afternoon.   Workers are still at their desks on the East Coast of the United States, and the heaviest concentration of population between Boston and Washington, DC are "squeezing in" their Twitter Management at this time.  I have found more traffic on my blogs and landing pages at this time than any other single period.  Research Articles by Twitter, Google, and other sites  has proved this time and again, and analysis has shown this to be true.

In short, if there was one time of the week when you should be tweeting and adding links to your tweets? It would be Friday afternoon.

 Follow Lon Dunn on Twitter http://twitter.com/pronetworkbuild
  Follow Lon Dunn on Linkedin at  http://linkedin.com/in/londunn



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April 10th, 2011  Copyright Lonny Dunn http://twitter.com/pronetworkbuild

Stop Doing what Einstein Described as "Crazy".  He said the definition of insanity was to do the same thing over and over, and expect different results.  Don't follow people who haven't tweeted in weeks!!  And Read this Article I wrote for Evan Carmichael, in it's entirety here:

I've read recently a few articles on the “active” vs. mildly active endusers on Twitter. By some estimates only about 25 percent of the profiles we follow on Twitter are active. My own anecdotal evidence has pointed this out as well. As I go deeper into my timeline, the time of the last Tweet get's longer. Go two thousand people back, and I see last tweet: 3 days ago. Go 10,000 people into the list, and I see last tweet: 1 month ago. And I'm seeing it more and more across a wide range of accounts.

Networks that aren't growing are stagnating

When we allow an account to fester, and are not active, a unique phenomena occurs over time. The users drop off, drop out, or tweet less. Our timeline seems clogged with advertisements, automated messages, and links to for profit schemes. Why? Twitter is mimicking real life “live” networks. If we are not adding people everyday to our list we are not rejuvenating our conversation pool, we are not adding new life to our streams.

We went out and followed people to open our account, why stop doing what works?

People stop enlarging their account for many reasons, and I suspect the answer is rather subjective, and relative here, but it is once again, our “comfort zone”. Others run into Twitter follow limits. Still others tell themselves that they don't have to or want to follow. Others are stymied by boredom, it takes work to follow 200 active followers. This causes the timeline to stagnate, and there just isn't much good conversation, the timeline becomes rather stale, and we are not entertained or stimulated.

Tips:

Pick a number and stick with it. If that is 50 per day? Fine. More ambitious? Find 200 people each day. But stick with it, be disciplined, and stick with that number. I help people do this who don't have enough time to do it themselves, and I have a staff of specialists who take on new accounts.

Use Tweepi, a free API application for following and unfollowing. Follow 200 new tweeps per day, and give them a week or ten days to follow back. As you continue to do this, you can go to the last page of Unfollowers and “flush” them using Tweepi. You will begin to develop a pipeline that you are always flushing the unfollowers and following new people.

Engage the lively followers. RT often, put links into your timeline to outside articles, and use hashtags ( the pound sign or # ) for subject search. This stimulates activity from active Tweeps.


Be consistent, set rational goals and milestones that you can do each day, spend 20 minutes following and unfollowing each of your accounts, and you will always have new people and you will always be enlarging your network.  
http://twitter.com/pronetworkbuild



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Twitter Who To Follow Suggestions

    I have found these suggestions to be a mixed bag.  Let’s take these suggestions for instance on my PronetworkBuild account, today, March 14, 2011.  On this date, Twitter suggested” that I follow:  Riskie_Bro   LookoutItxAntJ_  FayeKama3532  and FRSHENT .   




Suggestions on Old Twitter
We can follow all of them by the way, without altering the page I am on.  I don’t have to open their profiles, I don’t have to see who or what they represent or tweet, I can just follow them based upon Twitter's Suggestions, which is what Twitter Wants me to do.         

Who to Follow Today "New Twitter"  I don't need to open profile to follow them.
                                
                    

  Here are my personal observations having used this “suggestion” box over time, over various accounts, and at different times of the day. 
 
  You are suggested whom to follow  based upon whom you have recently followed.  So for instance, I have followed “Charlie Sheen”  then Twitter may suggest I follow Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and Britney Spears.   But you are also “suggested” based upon paid suggestions. 

   What is wrong with this process?   It’s a never ending cycle.  The more celebs I follow, the more Twitter suggests.   This is not going to get me out of my comfort zone as a networker, and certainly no challenge in the selection making process for Twitter.

    Moreover,  many of these celebs already have a few million followers, and their total simply grows by one more, and they have no intention of interacting with any of us non celebs anyway.  There are certainly security issues involved tweeting:  “Hey Lonny, thanks for the great Tweet @ProNetworkBuild”  even if they wanted to, I might have to “lock” my tweets so I don’t get weirdo’s following me. 

    This is one of the reasons I don’t follow celebs in the first place, they have gotten to where Twitter is but their mouthpiece for preaching to us, or some kind of statistical race to see who is has the most followers.  I won’t contribute to that. 

     In the instant case, I am not going to get celeb “suggestions” from Twitter, because I don’t follow celebs.  But I did get some 4 suggestions of regular  normal people. 

     I have found this to be true.  Last night, I clicked on a few of them, and I got people who had accounts with only 40 followers, maybe 100 followers.   People just like you and me.  I remembered back when I started a popular profile, the account was promoted by Twitter for a week, and that account received many followers from being up there on the suggestion box.   I haven’t seen that account up there since, but it was nice while it lasted. 

     SO I have followed all 4 of the suggestions, and out of fairness, disclosure and honest reportage, I have also listed their profiles. 

Riskie_Bro: Easy Too Get Alonq With Because My Intensions Are Too Keep Youu Smilinq (;


FayeKayman  Her account was suspended! No joke, Twitter “suggested” I follow a suspended account.


FrshEnt:  No Profile.  Seems to be an account simply to post hip hop events.


    All seems rather random doesn’t it?  One account suspended, another with not enough profile information for either Twitter or myself to make any kind of informed decision, and one even lacking a profile. 

    Obviously, the randomness today is just that.  Randomness, because Twitter uses this as a platform for “paid” suggestions.  None of these accounts, I assure you paid to have their account put in this “suggestion” box.  Especially not the suspended profile.  But I have had “Paid” suggestions by Corporate Accounts and others. 

    Is that what these suggestions are all about?  Sure.   Twitter has to make money so it can sell itself to the highest bidder in the future.  In the world of the Internet, it is best to show a few bucks coming in, since the days where a company makes absolutely no money whatsoever and sells for a few hundred million are over.   Now a company should at least make an attempt to sell some advertising space, and Twitter’s suggestion box is an advertising spot for Twitter.  

    Are all the suggestions “paid” for spots. No. I have proven that today.  But there are other times when that is certainly not true.  Many is the time when the suggestions are touted on purpose, just like their #TrendingTopic, commonly referred to as TT is also paid for. 

So “Suggestions For You” is just part of Twitter’s “Promoted”  Suite of Products, and an advertising platform?  That is correct.  From Twitter’s “Resource” Page:

       Twitter’s algorithm looks at that account’s followers and determines other accounts that those users tend to follow. If a user follows some of those accounts, but not the advertiser’s account, then Twitter may recommend the advertiser’s Promoted Account to that user. For example, a lot of people who follow several gaming-related accounts also follow @xbox. If someone follows gaming-related accounts, but not @xbox, Twitter may recommend @xbox to that user.

      So Twitter admits, if you don’t follow xBox, you’ll get the suggestion, and if you are thinking of following xBox, you’ll get the suggestion.  Twitter’s advertising department is basically making the suggestions whom you should follow.  

      I have found the more I use the suggestion box, the more suggested “promoted” accounts I get as well.  So eventually, Twitter will get around to suggesting that I follow some promoted accounts, because it’s algorithm knows I am using the suggestion box.

      

http://twitter.com/pronetworkbuild    In Conclusion:   Twitter suggests rather random people to follow when it’s algorithm is not activated very often, and when the “suggestion” box is not used often by an enduser.  When it is used more often, it makes “recommendations” based upon your following patterns.  It is an advertising tool and part of it’s “Promoted Tweets” Department.  Promoted Tweets have a short description on Twitter’s Resource Page.   I think there are many better ways of finding people to follow on Twitter other than using the suggestion box, and taking a random snap shot of Twitter’s suggestions has yielded me exactly one person I might legitimately want to interact with, and it remains to be seen whether she’ll even follow back.  I will update the results of that person when she does.

Gain More Followers on Twitter   http://pronetworkbuild.com/twitter.html


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  www.SocialOomph.com  is a Free API Application for Twitter that Allows Users to Load Tweets in Advance, Sort Followers, and Has a More Advanced Paid Level of Service.




The free version is being used to mostly load tweets when I know I won't be able to be near twitter, or it is inconvenient to tweet by mobile phone:

    A.  At conferences
    B.  Running Errands
    C.  Working on other Projects
    D.  While Writing

 Some presumptions by your timeline if they see your last tweet as 2 hours ago, or worse 10 hours ago:

    A.  He/She is not there, so I won't mention or shout them out.
    B.  Will not reply to me immediately, maybe I will wait till later.
    C.  Maybe they have left Twitter entirely, and won't be back.


After signing up for the "Free" version of SocialOomph,  you will want to go to the left hand tool bar, and fortunately, the first box that pops up after you click: "Main Landing Page"  is "Schedule New Update".    Under the Tweet itself is the time tool for "prescheduling" your tweet.

This simple, free tip is how you can keep your tweets "trending" on other's timelines even when you are not there. 




Gain More Followers on Twitter http://pronetworkbuild.com/twitter.html

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Basic Twitter Tips:  The ReTweet

With over 100000 Followers on Twitter and Growing, Lonny Dunn explains the art of the ReTweet in a Quick Short Read.  
His Personal Webpage is: http://pronetworkbuild.com

  Twitter is the fastest growing Social Networking Site.  This is enhanced in popularity by celebrity use, and ease.  Since a Tweet is only 140 characters, it can be used by many mobile phone applications, indeed, for many of my connections on Twitter this is their only tweeting method.  As such, it is no coincidence this is the length of characters available by SMS standards (texting on your mobile phone) a 140 character maximum.

                                                 Retro Twitter Art

ReTweeting is a popular way to show others you approve of their tweet.  Various reasons may arise for retweeting.

  A.  You simply like what you see.  Maybe you find it funny, interesting, or witty, and want to show your Timeline that you find it interesting.

  B.  Networking.  You may lump a few @enduser names together in one tweet and send it out and say:  Follow These People:  @enduser  @enduser  @enduser.

  C.  Popular Tweets.  ReTweeting Popular Celebrities, or Trendy Topics.

  D.  Communicating a Thought or Idea to More than One Person.  "Hey, @Jan @Sally and @Doug, Please Read My Blog: "

  E.  Crisis, News, Alerts, Virus Alerts, Events, Happenings, Favors, Emergency Tweets, National Disasters.   You might help another person in need or to promote their needs.

I am going to post a link at the bottom of this blog post to Twitter's "Official" ReTweet page, but I wanted to make a few important comments.


Check links before you retweet them, do not send out viruses.
     Right click on the link, "Open in another Page"  and make sure it is not spam.  Twitter can hold it against you if you send out a virus, even if you were not the originator of the virus.  Moreover, it's just good common sense to read an article before you retweet it, you don't want to endorse or support something that is poorly written, or uses bad grammar, as this reflects upon you.



Use the Cut/Paste Method, and Completely lift the tweet out and edit it rather than use Twitter's ReTweet button.  This ninja trick is touched upon in an  excellent humorous article  written by Sarcastic Sam, http://tinyurl.com/22rqvlz called "follow friday, read Dis".    Hey, he's the best follow friday ferret on the planet with 800 mentions each friday, we could do worse than reading his stuff.  Basically, he never uses the ReTweet Button, and Cuts and Pastes the entire multiple enduser Retweet then  sends it out, so all the endusers can see he's done that.www.SocialOomph.com

When we use the ReTweet Button, we are honoring the originator of the tweet, but nobody else can see us when it is full of other users.  So a Tweet like: @ProNetworkbuild: "Hey @Sally,  did you know that @David and @Paul are going to dinner?"  Only  ProNetworkBuild can see that I retweeted,  Sally, David and Paul CANNOT.  

An excellent article I read over a year ago, that spells out why people actually spell out  R-T  instead of using the Retweet Button, is right here on Blogger:  Has Twitter Declared War on Traditional Retweets?
http://rays20.blogspot.com/2010/05/has-twitter-declared-war- on-traditional.html

When Stringing Together or Lumping Together Multiple EndUsers: Leave at least 26 to 30 spaces in the body of your tweet.  This will allow someone to cut/paste and note you in the tweet.  Because the ReTweet Button is unpopular amongst serious tweeters, and the cut/paste method is preferred, if you don't leave space for them, they may just ignore the tweet entirely, and go on to spend their time elsewhere. 

Here's a Hot Tip:  Since more users use Firefox than Explorer in Twitter here's a great link.  This gives you excellent flexibility to either use the retweet button, or use a traditional retweet, and you can edit your tweet!



Great Stuff: Getting the Classic ReTweet Button on Firefox http://jonpierce.github.com/classic-retweet/



Lastly, here is the link to Twitter's "ReTweet" page.  You can see with my aversion to using the ReTweet Button, why I would want to save it for last.  Also, they probably aren't going to be endorsing such important links like the one above about giving you the option of the Traditional Retweet on "New Twitter" and finally, because I don't want you to get indoctrinated by their brainwashing into using it.  Here it is:  http://support.twitter.com/articles/77606-what-is-retweet-rt

Have any problems?  Comment below.


Good Luck, Good ReTweeting, and May God Bless Ya.

PS: If you read this far, you deserve a Twitter ninja tip.  Rapidly clicking ten or 15 retweets in a row will have the benefit of putting you "trending" on other's timelines.  I've done it before, when in a hurry,  but more generally, when there are alot of "mentions" on an account, and I want to get them out in a hurry.  Think about it a moment.  If you rapidly fire off ten to 15 retweets in a 1 or 2 minute span, the chances of the online people seeing your activity are great.  Moreover, you will show up on the "Tweets by Other People" File in the ReTweet Section of your Account, which is more exposure for you.  Not something you want to do all the time, but let's just say it is logical, and the law of unintended consequences at work. 

Gain More Followers on Twitter  http://pronetworkbuild.com/twitter.html 

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Lonny Dunn manages over 12 accounts on Twitter, and maintains those accounts with over 100,000 followers.  Lonny is a Gold Author on Evan Carmicheal, and has a Series of eBooks:  Worlds Best Tips on such subjects as Twitter, Social Media, Networking, Attorneys on the Web, Professional Networking, and other topics.  Lonny was Editor for Thesaurus News from 1995 to 2001 a Stock Picking Newsletter specializing in Telephony Infastructure Stocks, and has areas of expertise in Mobile Marketing, Social Media, SEO,  Traditional Marketing, ePublishing, Image Management and Executive Internet Publicity.   As consultant to business people, celebrities, and executives, Lonny's job is to improve their overall image using technologies, and his personal experience.

Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved Lonny Dunn
ProNetworkBuild and ProNetworkBuild.Com  are Protected Under Copywrite Laws, and This article may be retweeted but no content may be used without express written permission of the owner.  Links are not the property of the Author, but all other content is originally written material in unique word combinations proprietary to Lonny Dunn and ProNetworkBuild.