Clare’s book isn’t good, it’s great!

Now, before I offer my review of her book, let’s get one thing straight: I’m not benefitting from this review at all. I don’t earn any commission, nor any kick-back of any other sort. I just loved the book, so I thought I’d recommend it to my readers.

So here’s my review…

Synopsis of ‘Using Twitter for Business’

The book’s title says it all. It’s simply a guide to “Using Twitter for Business”. Nothing more, nothing less. I can’t put it any better than Clare when she says the book is “is a straightforward and concise guide designed for beginners, who don’t have time to search the Internet looking for ways to use Twitter effectively or to read lengthy e-books.”

The Good

• Easy to read – Clare’s writing is conversational, so it’s very easy to read. The book’s design is very nice too, so you don’t feel like you’re labouring through ‘War And Peace’.
• Clare ‘gets it’ – Clare understands that Twitter’s real power is that it gives you the ability to develop personal relationships and use them for business ends. And she shows you how. She’s 100% on the money when she says that if you get it right, “you will receive back in ways you can’t imagine”.
• It’s detailed – Clare offers a bulleted list of tips for using Twitter for marketing. And another list for using it for customers service. And another list for using it for business development. All with practical points you can start using immediately.
• It’s practical – This ebook’s doesn’t isn’t just vague fluff. Clare actually steps you through the signup process and the Twitter interface and conventions (it’s something of a Twitter manual!), then goes on to discuss how to build a quality network that delivers a return on your time investment (not just motherhood statements here – she even gives a few examples!).

The Bad

Not much bad to point out, really. It’s a great intro to Twitter for business. There were a couple of things though:

• No mention of Twitter desktop applications – I would have liked to see some discussion of the desktop applications you can use instead of using twitter.com (much as you use Outlook for email instead of logging onto your webmail). Desktop Twitter apps are a great time-saver, and should be considered by anyone who’s using Twitter for business. TweetDeck’s my personal favourite at the moment, but I’m keeping a close eye on Twunami. It looks very promising.
• Not enough on WHAT to tweet – I’d also have liked a little more discussion on how to choose WHAT to tweet (what to talk about when you post updates on Twitter). You don’t want to bore your followers or overwhelm them, and you have to make sure everything you tweet is directly relevant to the type of followers you want to attract. There’s a bit of an art to this. Perhaps Clare will include it in her second version…?

Conclusion

All-in-all, a very nice introduction to Twitter for business. It doesn’t really contain much that’s not freely available elsewhere on the Web, BUT in Clare’s book, you have it all in one place (which is a huge time-saver) and you know it’s all spot-on advice (because Clare’s a very engaging Twitterer herself!).

I heartily recommend Using Twitter for Business to any small business owner or marketer who’s new to Twitter. At just $14.95, you can’t go wrong!

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Facebook is a lot like your very own reception room. It’s a spot for professionals and small businesses to interact and introduce themselves to others, a sneak peak of who you are. If you’re going to make the most of it, branding and awareness should be your main focus. In short, you want to attract others to you, while going out and showing others what you’re made of!

And to do that, you need to know a few tricks…

Your Profile

Clients want to feel they can connect with you. So you should fill out your profile properly, using a good, personal picture, a list of interests, favourite things, etc. You also want to make sure that your genuine personality shines through in anything you write. (Especially if you’re a copywriter, because people won’t be able to help but judge your skills by your profile.)

Have the right tabs or profile boxes added to your main profile. If you’re a copywriter, the ‘Notes’ portion is extremely important. (You can feed the RSS of your blog into it, for example. See how I’ve done it.) If a web designer, you might want to add additional applications to show off your work, or even how-to videos.

A few quick tips for filling out your profile:

• Don’t add too many ‘fun’ applications. You’ll regret it later. Trust me.
• You want to be friendly, but do use your discretion. Writing about how you ran out of mix on the weekend and started drinking vodka with pickle juice isn’t likely to attract work. At least not the type of work you’d like to take on.
• Do optimize your content. This is how people will find you and your business. Plus, if Facebook is ever opened up to the search engines, you’ll be glad you did.
• When adding interests and other items, use keywords that are separated by commas or on separate lines for easy identification.
• Don’t be afraid to join up with your favourite charities and causes. People want to see that you’re a responsible member of the global community. In fact, this can often be a deciding factor.
• Link your other social media accounts to your Facebook wall, including your blog, Flickr, Twitter, and more. This gives you more bang for your buck out of each one, promotes your other accounts, and improves your visibility. (Found under ’settings’ on your main wall. Application settings are under the main ‘Settings’ option in the navigation bar to add tabs, boxes, etc.)

Pages

If you really want to start promoting yourself or your business on Facebook, start a Page, which is actually like a profile for businesses. You can have people help you do this, or go it on your own. Either way, think of it like a newsletter for all your ‘fans’. It can also make a great landing page for promoting different aspects of your business; they are indexed by search engines, and provide you with some analytical information that can help you define your customer base.

A Page works the same as your profile to set up with status updates, photo and notes applications. When you fill out all of the sections for the page, be friendly and make people feel you’re approachable, but give it a bit more of a professional edge than you would a personal profile. (When you convert ‘fans’ to ‘friends’ on your personal profile, it will help build on that connection and make them feel like they’re in the ‘inner circle’.)

Quick tips for using Facebook Pages for business:

• The Static FBML application is a must have. This allows you to better customize your Page giving users a much better experience. You can also use it to pick up subscribers (*hint* *hint*).
• It doesn’t matter whether you add to this every day, once a week, or once a month, but be sure to add to it on a regular basis. This might be letting your fans in on what you’ve been up to, offering them a ‘Facebook Fan-Only Promotion’, or giving them a post that will help them get more from your products and services (for example, how they can use article marketing more effectively).
• Resist the urge to post the same things on your personal profile. It makes you appear artificial and degrades the importance of the connections you build there.
• Blog feeds do appear in the notes application, but be sure to add things directly to the notes application on occasion. This shows clients there’s a benefit to connecting with you there.

Groups

To create a place that gives you the ultimate interaction with your clients, Groups are the ideal function on Facebook. Anyone belonging to the group can post information, chat, or just browse through and have fun. Like your Profile or company Page, you want to update this regularly with information.

How you fill out the group information is extremely important. Like your company Page, you want to have a bit more of a professional edge. However, because people might stumble upon your group through the search function without knowing much about you, use the main section at the top of the group like a well-written ‘About’ page, with an inverted style. Tell them what your business can do for them, explain why your company is the best (i.e. cite benefits), and then tell your story.

Other than that, you want to use this much as you would a company Page or your Profile: provide information and engage members.

Quick tips for getting the most from your Group:

• Anyone can create a Group about your company. While this can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing if you don’t do it first.
• Lead the group by providing value, but be sure to ask questions and draw members into the group. That’s the number one reason Groups often die off.
• Give unique information and keep it updated.
• This function puts discussions about you, your company and your industry directly on your radar. Don’t ignore it, guide it in the right direction!
• Be sure to give people a place to vent as well as praise.
• It doesn’t always have to be about the company itself. Discuss industry news, provide related information, or even something totally unrelated. For example, if you join Kiva, don’t be afraid to promote that here.
• You want as many members as possible. In fact, a small group (with fewer than, say, 10 members) can be detrimental to your online community. To avoid this, build up your page fans first, or be sure to get a fair number of clients to commit to joining before launching the Group.
• You can set the privacy level of your group. To attract the most members possible, consider leaving the group open to the public.
• Sweeten the deal by offering group members something special when they join. It doesn’t have to be big. A small discount, audio file, or even a small report work nicely.

General Tips for Using Facebook

Now that you know a little more about the main Facebook Features and can set them up successfully, here are a few tips to help you get the most from your Facebook experience.

• Ask questions. This makes it easier for you to better serve your clients, and it makes the client feel important. When they feel important, they’re more likely to participate.
• Applications can really suck your time away. Avoid the needless ones and spend more time on the ones that matter.
• If you’re having trouble keeping up, consider sharing responsibilities with someone else. And be sure to set limits for yourself. Tools such as browser add-ons can make it easy to keep up with what’s going on at Facebook.
• Promote your site, services, and other social media profiles on Facebook. But, be sure to do the opposite as well by having links or a badge to Facebook on your blog and business cards, and by Twittering about it, and adding the link to other locations to keep the momentum up.
• Find other people, Groups, and Pages who have similar interests to you. Don’t just swoop down on them like a vulture, though. Start by engaging then in conversations and showing them the value of connecting with you, without looking like a know-it-all. Other Groups with a target-rich environment are a good place to start.
• Go out to other pages and actively offer value to others. Answer questions, offer advice, help out with different events. Show them what you’re made of. Don’t be afraid of your competitors either!
• Check your privacy and application settings before you get going too far down the road. Otherwise, you could have everything set to ‘no one’ and everyone will miss out on the good stuff. I have mine set as public and as open as possible to ensure that everyone knows I’m approachable.
• When you want to find out more about your client base, or you’re really curious about how you can do something better, use Facebook’s Polling function to ask your most loyal fans. After all, no one else will have the answers!
• ‘Trolls’ are common. Learn to recognize them, and deal with them effectively. In other words, don’t add fuel to the fire.

Conclusion

I’d like to leave you with one last little tidbit: no matter what social network you choose to include in your business, always remember to be the real you. That alone will gain you more business than any other marketing tactic in the world.

Other sources you might find helpful:

• Facebook for Business: Opportunties and Limitations
• Inside Facebook
• Using Facebook for Business – A Real Life Example
• 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally
• 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence
• Facebook Grader

About the Author

Angie Haggstrom is the head writer at Freedom Freelance, specializing in on and offline content. She’s also the founder of the soon to launch, Intuitive Social Media Image, and contributing writer at SEO Scoop. She can be reached at 1.306.662.2239, angie@professionalwebcontent.com or you can follow her on Twitter.

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I love my Twitter followers (although I hate the term ‘followers’). They’re so helpful and friendly and giving. And I have some brilliant conversations with them.

I’d like more of my followers to do the same

But I keep seeing the same names and faces popping up in my @ replies column in TweetDeck. Don’t get me wrong; I love seeing their smiling faces! It’s not that I want them to stop. I just want more of my followers to engage with me in the same way.

Perhaps I’m just not tweeting good stuff?

Now I know everyone’s busy, and that’s partly why I’m not seeing more faces. And I know a good percentage of my followers probably followed me ages ago, then promptly forgot about me (or stopped using Twitter altogether). And, doubtless, some followed me just to get me to follow them – they’re just playing the numbers game.

But I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. I suspect I’m simply not tweeting enough about the right stuff. I suspect I’d get a lot more response if I knew exactly the sorts of things my followers want to hear more of. So here’s what I’m proposing…

To WIN, tell me what to tweet about…

Please tell me what you’d like me to tweet and blog about. Just add a comment below. Even if you only heard about me for the first time through this post, feel free to follow me now, then jump in and tell me the sorts of tweets and posts you value most.

In return, I’m offering a prize: 3 FREE pages of SEO copy. I’ll select one comment at random, and its owner will get 3 pages of SEO copy written/re-written for FREE. By me, personally. (Obviously spam comments will be discounted.)

I’ll be announcing the winner on Monday, April 6, 2009.

Important notes

1. I’m not suggesting I’ll be changing my overall approach and general subject matter domain. But if there’s something in particular you’d like me to be tweeting – or even blogging – about, more often, I’d really like to know.
2. And while I’m more than happy for people to follow me purely as a result of this post, I ask that you only do so if you’re interested in copywriting, SEO copywriting and general SEO stuff. That’s my area of expertise, and what I usually tweet about. I don’t want a whole swag of disinterested followers. That would kinda defeat the purpose of this post!
3. When I say “3 FREE pages of SEO copy”, I DON’T mean copy like this or this. I’m talking about more succinct corporate SEO copy like this, this and this. We’re talking up to about 300-400 words per page, here.

Please comment…

So tell me… What would YOU like to read about more often in my tweets and blog?

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C’mon! I know blogging is hard work and takes a lot of time, but do you really think the answer is outsourcing to someone cheap? How good do you think the result will be?

Let’s think about the logic for a second: it takes YOU about half a day to write a quality post, right? And you’re the subject matter expert. How long’s it going to take a copywriter? They have to get their head around your offering, your customer, your target reader, the purpose of your blog, the purpose of the post and the fundamental message of the post. Then they have to research and understand the details, plan the post, write numerous headlines and choose the one that’s most engaging, then write the post and optimize it for search. All the while, ensuring their terminology is credible!

At least, that’s what they’ll have to do to write a quality post!

Now I can’t speak for everyone, but it takes me a good day or two to get through all of that. And I’m no slouch. I’ve been writing professionally for 15 years. I’ve run a business for six years. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit and Linguistics. And I have a Master of Arts in International Communication. So I research effectively, I learn fast, I understand business and I write fast. This isn’t a sales pitch, it’s all fundamental to my argument.

So if it takes me a good day or two, let’s be generous and assume it’s going to take most SEO copywriters about the same. Let’s say 1.5 days per post. Now if you’re paying $10 – $25 per post, that equates to around $7 – $16 per day for the writer. That’s only $2,555 – $5,840 per year, assuming they work every day! There’s no way in the world that any decent SEO copywriter will work for that! (Well, there’s a miniscule chance you’ll find a great junior SEO copywriter who’s just starting out and desperately needs the money. But finding an SEO copywriter like that is like finding a needle in a haystack. And they won’t stick around for long. Trust me, I’ve been down that path.)

I know it’s tempting to say, “Send it to India,” but that’s not going to solve the problem, either. A cursory scan of Indian job search site Nakuri reveals that a half-way decent copywriter can earn around 4,00,000 to 8,00,000 Rupees per year. That’s around USD $9,390 to $18,780 per year + benefits. So why would they work for $5,840 (much less $2,555) per year?

No. What you’ll get is a blog post that was written in an hour (two, if you’re lucky). Poorly written, rehashed rubbish with no subject matter expertise, and certainly no relevant opinion or thought leadership.

Be honest. Would you subscribe to, return to, talk about or link to a blog like that? Of course not!

And after all, if you’re blogging for SEO, it’s all about subscriptions, return visitors, buzz and voluntary backlinks. Which means you have to repeatedly offer original, helpful thought provoking blog posts. Blog posts that people consider worth bookmarking and worth sharing with their own visitors and networks. What’s more, if you’re touting that sort of rubbish in places like Twitter and Plurk, you’ll quickly lose all credibility, and stand no chance of developing a following.

That’s why it amazes me when I hear so-called ‘social media experts’ suggesting this tactic. They should know better!

My contention is that if you’re serious about your blog (and not just blog-spamming – which is no better than article spamming), you have only four options:

1. Write your own blog posts;
2. Write your own blog posts and have a good SEO copywriter with social media knowledge edit & optimize them;
3. Have a good SEO copywriter with social media knowledge ghost-write your blog posts (which will cost a lot more than $10 – $25 per post); or
4. Try to attract some good guest-bloggers who’ll do it for free (and who aren’t competitors).

If you’re not up for any of those options, then you can forget about blogging. It’s not for you.

In blogging, there’s no quick and easy option. Just as there’s no quick, easy way to write your corporate web copy (Home, About Us, Products, Services, etc.). Would you settle for $10 Home page copy? If you’re serious about your blog, then you have to treat it with respect. You have to value it as highly as you value your other promotional material. It may not be selling your product or service, but it’s selling something, nonetheless. Something much more important, in the long run: your brand and your reputation. And if your purpose is SEO, it’s selling to a very jaded audience: social marketers.

Social media is the key to SEO these days. And it will remain the key for a few years to come. Certainly blogging is going to be massively important for years. WHAT we blog about may change, but the ACT of blogging will be critical for a long time. The key is expertise, usefulness, credibility, frequency and accessibility. And you’ll never get that paying $10 – $25 per post.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys! And that’s all I have to say on the matter ;-)

Happy blogging!

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Facebook Note Removes British Juror from Trial

WHO removed her?! Unless Facebook has really extended its reach recently, I’m pretty sure IT didn’t remove the juror. I think it’s far more likely a judge did that!

The problem with this headline is that it’s written in the active voice but has no ‘Actor’. The Actor is the person or thing that actually does something. Clearly that’s the judge, here, not the Facebook note.

So how does a copywriter make such a fundamental error? Probably because of a conflict between a grammar rule and a usability rule. The rules?

1. Grammar rule: Headlines should be active
2. Usability rule: Make the first two words count

So why the conflict?

Let me explain. The conventional grammarian wisdom says that headlines should be in the form:

Actor does X to Object

Now in the Facebook story, the Actor is clearly the judge and the Object is clearly the juror. Facebook didn’t DO nothin’! (Kinda ironic, huh?)

But if we followed this rule, we’d end up with:

“Judge Removes British Juror from Trial for Posting Facebook Note”
or
“Judge Removes Juror from Trial Because of Facebook Note.”

Too long, right?

What’s more, what would online visitors see if they were just scanning with the typical F-pattern? Probably just:

“Judge Removes”
or
“Judge Removes British”
or
“Judge Removes Juror”

In a legal publication that’d be fine, but in ‘Marketing Pilgrim’, the key subject is Facebook. And in the Active voice construction above, Facebook is shunted right to the end.

As you can see, the copywriter (or copy-editor) is in a bit of a bind.

Their solution? Simply bung Facebook in at the start of the sentence, in place of the Actor, and hope everyone understands what you mean! In order to avoid breaking a usability rule, they’ve broken a grammar rule, making their headline a muddy mess.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that grammar’s more important than usability. To the contrary. I believe the only solution WAS to break a grammar rule. Just not the one they broke.

I think the headline should have read something like this.

“Facebook Juror Removed from Trial”

Yes, I know it’s passive (Object has X done to it), and worse yet, there’s no Actor, but at least it gets the eye-candy up front, and it’s direct and easy to understand.

The reality is that sometimes, passive headlines just work better. Especially online. If you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll believe leading web usability specialist, Jakob Nielsen:

“Selecting the first 2 words for your page titles is probably the highest-impact ROI-boosting design decision you make in a Web project. Front-loading important keywords trumps most other design considerations.” (Passive Voice Is Redeemed For Web Headings)

Wrap up

The truth is, most readers probably COULD understand the Facebook headline in its current form… if they tried hard enough. But headlines are like ads; if they make the audience work, they usually fail.

The moral to this story? If you’re going to break a rule, break the right one. The one that’ll simply offend a few prescriptive grammarians, not the one that’ll stop readers from clicking through.

Happy copywriting!

PS. What do you think the headline SHOULD have been? Please comment your suggestions.

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But, after thinking about it all weekend, I’ve decided I wouldn’t change what I did.

So what did I do? I used four Tweets to convey one message:

Tweet 1: ” ‘Squidoo raises big money for charity… by donating money from the ads and links you see on every page.’ Google told me this is a no-no???”

Tweet 2: “ ‘If you’d like to donate a portion of your earnings to charity, you are welcome to do so, as long as you refrain from advertising this fact’ “

Tweet 3: “That was from the The Google AdSense Team, in an email sent Fri 29/06/2007 8:48 AM.”

Tweet 4: “Has Google changed its policy on advertising sharing of ad revenue?”

Then, about a minute later, Jill Tweeted this:

“I think tweets that span across more than one tweet should be banned…can’t say in 140 characters then don’t say it!”

Now I may be flattering myself; perhaps Jill was referring to someone else’s Tweet. But she does follow me, and the timing was just right. (In any case, if she was referring to someone else, her sentiment applies equally to me.)

In any case, after thinking about it all weekend, and mulling it over on two runs, I decided that I just don’t agree with her. IMHO some things simply can’t be said in 140 words. Especially when you’re quoting someone else’s words. I reckon Twitter’s bigger than its 140 word limit. It’s about community, dialogue, sharing and learning. If my message requires more words, I’ll use more words.

And that got me thinking about the whole question of etiquette. Of other people’s expectations versus my own. Of followers versus communities.

If Jill chooses to unfollow me because I didn’t meet her expectations, so be it. I’d be very disappointed to see her go, because I like to think that she might be interested in what I have to say (and I feel honoured that she’s following me in the first place). But if I reckon Twitter’s a place where you should be true to yourself. People will follow you if they like what you have to say (and how you say it), or they won’t. If I spend my time worrying about how my followers expect me to express myself, I’ll be constraining my expression. And that goes against one of the core rules of social media: be authentic.

I use Twitter to genuinely engage with people. (I work alone, so that’s very important to me.) Yes, I value my followers, but if I change how I express myself to please them, then they won’t be following the real me at all. Eventually I’d only disappoint them – by slipping up and doing something they don’t like, by seeming fake, or just by being boring.

Nope. If you follow me, you get me. Warts ‘n all.

So what’s my point? I suppose I’m saying that if you spend all your time worrying whether your followers are going to like what you say – or how you say it – it’s possible that you’ll develop a big following, but it won’t be a true community. You’ll only ever build a community if you true to yourself. (Exactly as Jill was being by criticizing me!)

In fact, that’s really what people in social media communities really want. People. They’re there to engage with you as a person, not a figure-head, not a PR practitioner, not a spin-doctor. If that weren’t the case, why on earth does Jeremy Schoemaker (aka @shoemoney) have 7000+ followers? (If you follow him, you’ll know what I mean!)

I’d love to hear your comments…

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It wasn’t until I had the privilege of seeing Darren Rowse present at a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) conference, that the penny finally dropped. (Darren’s one of Australia’s leading bloggers, a title you don’t get without being very switched on, committed and genuine.)

The day after the conference, the moment I got into the office, I signed up to FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter (I was already a member of LinkedIn, FriendsReunited and LivingMemory). I didn’t think much of FaceBook and MySpace – and still don’t – but Twitter has been a revelation.

If you want your site to rank better in the search engines, you want more direct traffic, or you just want to engage better with customers and influencers, Twitter is a must. (In fact, 60% of Americans use Social Media, and 93% of them believe every company should have a Social Media presence. Cone)

But just in case you take one look at Twitter and say, “I don’t get it”, here’s a quick list of 10 tips for understanding it and making the most of it.

1. Twitter is like Instant Messaging Broadcasting – If you’re familiar with Instant Messaging through Windows Messenger, Skype or the dozens of other tools out there, you’ll be right at home with Twitter. It works in much the same way, except that your message (or ‘Tweet’) doesn’t go to just one person, it goes to everyone who has chosen to follow you. Oh, and you only have 140 characters per Tweet.
2. People Follow you if you talk about stuff that interests them – Although Twitter’s tagline and call to action is “What are you doing?”, it’s no longer really a forum for announcing what you had for lunch. The idea is to Tweet about the things that interest your Followers and, importantly, the people who you WANT to Follow you. If you’re a business marketer, your target Followers will be customers and influencers (people who influence your customers). So think about the things that they’ll find interesting.
3. The idea is to build up a community of Followers – Whatever your goal (search engine ranking, traffic or engagement), the means to that end is to become part of a relevant community. In the beginning, it’s mostly about you Following other people. But over time, as you Tweet more often and add more value, people will begin to Follow you. That’s when you start to develop a community all of your own – when you start to become a thought leader or influencer, yourself.
4. Find and Follow the right people – Search for relevant people. Pick a word that’s relevant to your industry, and search for it. The results will show you a list of recent Tweets related to that word, with the ‘Avatar’ (picture) of the Twitterer responsible for each, on the left. Click this pic to see the person’s bio and a list of all their Tweets. If they look relevant to you, Follow them. If not, come back to the search results, and check out the next result. Start out by Following as many thought leaders and influencers as you can – you’ll recognize them because they’ll have many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Followers. This is an incredibly effective way to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry. There’s a very good reason they have such a huge Following.
5. Tweet to add value to your Followers – Although you have a commercial agenda, everything you do on Twitter needs to serve your Followers. Discuss only what they’re interested in hearing, and only as often as they want to hear it. Some people Tweet dozens of times every day, others tweet only once or twice a week. Both are OK, so long as your Followers are OK with it. And if you find yourself scratching for something to say, ask yourself if there’s some relevant way you could help your Followers. Have you just read a really helpful article, or visited a really interesting website or blog? If so, Tweet it, and include a link. (There are tools for shortening links so they don’t consume too many of your 140 characters – if you use Twhirl (discussed below), there’s one in-built.) So long as it’s relevant, these sorts of Tweets will be well received. Eventually you’ll become a trusted member of the community; people will recognize you, and will look forward to your Tweets. You may even use Twitter (as many do) to announce your physical location, e.g. “I’m at such-and-such a bar, if anyone wants to catch up!”
6. Understand and observe local etiquette – Darren Rowse advises people to treat every Social Media tool like a foreign country. Learn the language, the customs, the etiquette. Perhaps even find a local guide. By doing this, you won’t unknowingly offend anyone or make a fool of yourself!
7. Know how to Tweet – To Tweet publicly (to all your Followers), just type your message and press Enter. To address a public Tweet to someone in particular, prefix your message with “@username”. (OBVIOUSLY, you have to replace “username” with their actual username!) If you want to send a private/direct message to someone, prefix your message with “d @username” (again substituting their actual username). If you receive a Direct Message, it’ll be flagged as such, so make sure you reply in the same way. You can even forward someone else’s message on to all of your own Followers. This is called a Re-tweet. The Twitter interface (and Twhirl, discussed below) has all of this functionality inbuilt.
8. Don’t expect too much – You won’t always get an answer to your Tweets. Some people Follow thousands of people, so your Tweets may not always catch their attention. And they may not always want to answer. Everyone uses Twitter differently.
9. Use Twhirl, not your Web browser – Using Twitter in a web browser becomes very difficult, distracting and inefficient. You’ll find yourself continually opening and closing your browser and visiting and revisiting Twitter.com. It’s much more efficient to use a desktop application like Twhirl. It works much like Messenger or Skype; it beeps when a new Tweet arrives and beeps differently when you get a Direct Message. It offers pretty much the same functionality as you’d get in your browser (e.g. you can Tweet, Direct Message and Re-tweet, as well as to mark certain Tweets as Favorites, and Follow and Unfollow people).
10. Follow Darren Rowse. You’ll find that much more helpful than anything I’ve said in this post! And if you think my Tweets might be useful to you, you can follow me to!

The above 10 tips are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more helpful guides out there for using Twitter. Here’s a good one to start with.

In V2.0 of my SEO ebook (which is soon to be released), I discuss how you can use Twitter to improve your search engine ranking. If you want to be notified when V2.0 of my ebook is released, please email me at glenn at divinewrite.com or bookmark my ebook sales page.

Happy Tweeting!

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