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So we’re talking about twitter, which is a micro-blogging service that has seen exponential growth in the last few months. Twitter has been in the news media more and more in recent times which has exploded the ranks of its users.

So in this article I’m going to talk a little bit about how to get people to follow you. What sorts of the things should you twitter about that will get people to follow you and more importantly, what are some things you should not twitter about that’ll most likely keep people from following you.

There are lots of different schools of thought as far as how to get people to follow you, this is what I believe:

1. Don’t spam: what I mean by this is don’t just send out offers to join your list, or send out offers for special products, and tweets that are only related to your business. Let me rephrase that, unless you’re Dell, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, or some other business that is on twitter, don’t only send out messages related to your business. Most people don’t care. Most people will care about you and what you are doing rather than what your company is doing unless you happen to be one of the above mentioned companies, or you happen to have or happen to be twittering under a company account.
2. Be engaging: like I mentioned people want to follow people not companies. What the above companies are doing on twitter is that they are engaging their followers. I’m telling you here to be engaging. These companies are going to where the users or customers are and then engaging their customers where their customers are at. Don’t just be a marketing robot. Yes, twitter can be a marketing tool. Having said that, I feel that you should not only use Twitter for marketing.
3. Be entertaining: say something fun, refer people to a fun website it can be your own website by the way, the more funny you are the more people will follow you. Of course there’s always an exception to the rule, however, most people want to have a good time on twitter so if you’re always recommending things that are fun, or interesting you’ll get a a lot of followers.

I should mention, that you should not look at your number of followers as a scorecard. It doesn’t matter if you have 10,000 followers, 50 followers or 10 followers. You should try to interact with everyone on your list at least once or twice. And if you have too many followers to always engage with then only engage the people that you find interesting.

These are just some general tips for what to do in order to get people to follow you.

Twitter is one of those phenomenal opportunities to build your online presence for free, but I see a ton of people making major mistakes on Twitter. Here are 3 mistakes and what to do instead.

Mistake 1:  Being overly salesy.

It’s true that there’s a time and place to promote yourself and what you offer on Twitter, as on all social media platforms. The mistake is in overdoing it. If you look at some people’s Twitter streams, it’s all about them, their links, their products. I’ll tell you the truth, no one wants to follow you on Twitter or anywhere else if you’re one big billboard.

What to do instead:

Twitter is called social media for a reason. It’s social! Be a real person, post what you find of value for other people, good links, new ideas, good resources. Of course you can post some promotional tweets too, just keep it around 20-25%. If you wonder if you’re overdoing it, click on your own profile and take a look at your own Twitter stream. Make sure lots of sociable tweets are dominant, with promotional stuff tucked in here and there.

Mistake 2:  “If you build it, they will come” — or waiting for people to follow you.

People will follow you as they see you posting good valuable tweets, but if you sit around waiting for a bigger following, you could be waiting longer than you need to.

What to do instead:

Use the search function of Twitter to look for people by keyword, either geographically if that’s important in your business, or by important keywords. This search function is also available in several of the applications that continue to pop up to make Twitter more useable for people, like Tweetdeck.

Mistake 3:  Becoming a Twit-addict and spending too much time.

If you haven’t found this out yet, you will soon — it can be addicting to sit and follow the conversations going on all hours of the day and night on Twitter! You can look up and find an hour has passed if you’re not careful — and what have you really accomplished?

What to do instead:

First, use tools like Tweetlater that allow you to schedule your own tweets to appear at different times during the day. This is important because people are on at all different times and you want them to see you participating with value. You’ll catch more people in different time zones by posting at different times of the day. Also you can set a time in your daily or weekly calendar to pre-schedule some tweets, which is one more way that ‘batch processing’ can be a great time management tool for you.

You’ll also want to participate spontaneously and just pop on and enter some conversations that are going on. Schedule 10 minutes one or two times a day to do that, depending on your availability. That way you can take advantage of hot topics and be seen as someone who adds value, but you also manage your time and don’t get into a ‘Twitter trance’ and lose track of time! It’s a tool, make it work for you!

The common thread of social media marketers is that they connect with the world, the people, and their surroundings. These people are connecting, communicating and reach out to others. Always sharing and giving news and ideas. The main interest is other people, always sharing and being active in the interest of others. To be successful in Social Media one must be active in it. Social Media marketers are communicators.

Know the area. Look at it like a map. You must know the layout and the terrain. Understand the products, the people you are reaching out to, understand the industry you are promoting. An expert Social Media marketer must understand the Internet as if they are a member of the community and they know, understand and gain the trust of that community. You will fail if you do not have the working knowledge of customers, markets, and the complete picture of the company’s product. Knowing the Internet, using it most effectively and being able to distribute the information is very important.

Proficiency in the various social web community is the main goal of the new marketer. One that connects, an information resource at the same time being very trustful and an active participant, a conversationalist in the social media community.

Ideally, a Social Media marketer, not really “marketer”, is a person with many qualities, Web Marketer, Customer Service and PR combined with genuine enthusiasm, trustfulness (listening, speaking, a conversationalists).

Do not let all of the tools, peer pressures, and work get in the way of the big picture, our morals and knowledge that develop significant and gratifying associations. As an expert in Social Media, we must have the ability to conclude which networks are pertinent to the product/service we represent. And why, how and when to fit into place.

The conclusion, those who find the most success in this marketing territory are those who are seriously networked and make certain that continue constant associations is part of their everyday routine.

Where have YOU been?

Unless you have lived in a cave the last 4 years, you have probably heard of this. It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be almost everywhere today. It is on the news. It is on the radio. It is on the minds of millions of folks a day.

It is called “Facebook” and over 175 million people are active on this site.

Ok- I know that you may be asking,” A LAW about Facebook?” Yes, 10 of them for marketing and business success in what you do. I am a marketer and have been for 20 years. I built a training and consulting business that does business in over 20 countries, because of social media and the internet. And there are marketing laws that all marketers and business professionals must follow if they are going to have Success in the marketplace online.

It is the same for Facebook.

Lets cover them briefly:

1) The Law of Visibility on Facebook.

You MUST be visible on Facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on Facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “Facebook blueprint” and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the ‘Visibility Zone” on Facebook, and on the radar as far as people on Facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.

2) The Law of the Powerful Facebook Profile.

Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your Facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?

Powerful Facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.

Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.

3) The Law of the Facebook WALL.

You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a Facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don’t stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on Facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.

4) The Law of Your Facebook Network.

You are part of a local Facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?

Click on “settings” and then click on “network.” You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.

5) The Law of the Facebook Notifications.

This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your “Facebook email system.” Go to “email” at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on “notifications.”This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the Facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on Facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. And make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.

6) The Law of Facebook Link Love.

The Link application on Facebook is a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people’s LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.

WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people’s links on Facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.

7) The Law of Facebook Groups.

Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? Here are a few reasons: EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. INCREASE YOUR REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group - then on a profile page.

Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.

The Law of Facebook Events.

Attend events. Attend more Events. And then attend many MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 Facebook events every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under “Upcoming”-these are the events that are upcoming. There is one unique twist: You have birthdays under the “upcoming” tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT’always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.

Event UP! This will do you well on Facebook. Put the term “events” in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends. It is a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!

9) The Law of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.

People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on Facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the Facebook news feed, but also will allow you to “tag” others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn’t THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!

10) The Law of the Facebook NEWS FEED.

This is the big kahuna of Exposure on Facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the “featured” part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person’s message on the Facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on Facebook.

Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on Facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing.

blessings…Doug Firebaugh

What differentiates your digital business from all the others who use the social media? Do you have an effective profit strategy? What does your target audience experience in dealing with you on Facebook or MySpace or other sites to encourage them brand you as unique, compared to all your potential competitors?

One impact social branding strategy that is easy to implement is “quick, full response.”

You hear so many voices in online buzz. Being ignored is fairly routine, especially in social media. But if you quickly respond to Twitter messages or shouts on Digg, your feedback creates a favorable impression. Your audience sees that you are actually listening. Even more … maybe you actually care. A complete reply with a sense of urgency may even spotlight you as a person with a passion for what your followers are doing.

That is certainly the way to win friends and influence people on the internet.

It’s also useful to know, for your niche, what support questions are people most likely to ask? Have the answers ready. What electronic tools are they most likely to search for? Find a widget solution for them. What frustrations really get their goat? Be ready to offer a work-around. Dedicate some time to learning advanced search techniques and resources, so you can really come through for your potential customers, as you enhance your own popularity.

The more you understand your market and their dreams and desires, the better able you’ll be to give them better options and unforgettable value … which will often trigger the reciprocity response. What could be better?

I have my own unique model of Innovation which helps with obtaining ‘buy in’ and best of all, it leads to a method of measuring the capacity to innovate which is a much more sensitive measure than waiting for KPIs to change. I had been puzzling for a while about how to model the spread of Innovation and the transfer of knowledge as well as other issues such as communication and trust. Little did I know that I had already considered this without really understanding.

Recently, I attended a talk by Dr Kelly Page of Cardiff University about New Media and Web 2.0. I became particularly excited by some of the concepts and analysis surrounding Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

In an (ideal) Innovation culture there is little or no hierarchy and knowledge flows at varying rates and often ‘on demand’. There are groups of interest and depending on technology, trust relationships can also be built. Rather than humans adapting to technology (remember the first mobile phones, the birth of the Internet), technology is now being developed to match and mimic the behaviour of groups of people in a social environment.

Analysis of this behaviour is interesting. Looking at traffic on say Twitter, a group interested in a particular topic will have what looks like random connections. These are not random and are built upon interest, trust and knowledge amongst other things. Within Organisational Development we might say that these connections do not map onto an organisational structure chart but map onto informal advice, trust and communications networks.

So interactions within Social Media look like those in an ideal Innovation culture, and playing with this idea we can adapt our model for a range of situations. But these changes are incremental. We know that introducing certain technologies into society often changes society itself (electricity, telephone, motor car) so will introducing technologies such as Social Media actually lead to changes in society and in particular our businesses?

The answer is most definitely yes. By trying extreme versions of our new model we can safely say that hierarchies will die and that concepts such as vision and values will truly have shared ownership. Ultimately it will make our businesses more profitable as those working in them will be empowered and will all share responsibility for success. Those who cling onto the old hierarchies will find themselves bypassed in advice, trust and communications networks, they will be lonely. Watch this space for new developments (or should I say MySpace?).

The #1 purpose of all the social media systems on the internet is to create new relationships by networking with other like-minded people .. whether it’s Facebook or MySpace or Twitter or your own blog. To make profitable connections, you need to get the basics right.

And nothing is more bottom line basic than building positive buzz with your personal online social profile.

What unforgettable branding impression do you want to achieve with your social media presence? Maybe:

• Make yourself attractive to your target niche market. Entertain and engage them with a story.
• Let your prospects see the value, resources, and opportunity you can bring into their lives. Talk about a particular skill you can help them with.
• Highlight your appealing personality, so visitors can identify with you. Maybe a short, funny, quirky human interest story.
• Demonstrate how you and your audience are alike. Tell them a dream you have, and that you are looking to interact and bond with others who share that dream.
• Show them that you really care. Make them an offer - tools or time - they cannot refuse. Reward them for their time.
• Get them wanting to have a long-term relationship with you.

It’s important to have an accurate picture in your mind of the impression you want to create. You want a web presentation you have total confidence in, with all the features in your mental picture, that you can drive people to.

Over time, this profile may introduce you to thousands of people. For each of them, if your profile doesn’t excite or inspire them, that is probably the end of that possible relationship. Your unique profile has to make you stand out from all the gazillions of competitors out there, looking to create new relationships. The time you spend creating a riveting social media profile that you can use again and again is time well spent.

The green movement has been speeding up in the past few months, and you can expect it to gain even more momentum in the months to come. As the Earth experiences severe climate change, the governments and the private sector are coming together to provide more green options to the consumers and help save the environment in the process. We have seen eco-friendly monitors, laptops, toys, gaming systems, and even credit cards. Research has shown that as long as the price is not too high the consumers are ready to take action and buy eco-friendly products.

Many experts acknowledge that raising awareness about eco issues is one of the biggest challenges for the industry. When you talk about Toyota Prius, a lot of folks only think about how much they can save on gas and now how they can save the environment with eco-friendly cars. That mentality needs to change, and one way to do that is by reaching out to others in green social media networks. By expanding your reach, you can raise more awareness about causes that are important to you and help the movement in the process.

Here are 5 eco-sites that you should be involved in to promote your cause:

1. Tree Hugger: one of the most popular social communities around the globe, tree hugger is dedicated to tackle environmental issues that we are struggling with. Whether its solar, wind, or recycling challenges, you can hear it all on Tree Hugger.

2. Mind Body Green: this website tackles health issues and shows you want you need to take to live a better, greener life. The challenges of cleaner energy sources and cleaner foods are discussed here as well.

3. Care 2: a top social-media community in this category, Care 2 allows you to create your own profile and connect it with other top networking sites. If you are looking to connect with other like-minded folks, here is where you should start.

4. Eco URLs: this website is dedicated to bringing you the latest eco-news. If you want to get it all in one place, Eco URLs is a service to consider.

5. Celcias: Celcias tackles the issue of climate change. One of the most important issues we are all struggling with these days.

Whatever your cause, you can’t do it all by yourself. By connecting with others who believe in the same cause, you can join forces and get more done. Who says living greener is no fun.

Twitter is a revolutionary social media that has changed the way people communicate with each other. You get 140 characters to share your thoughts with the world and provide value to others. And if the community finds you useful, there is a good chance they are going to follow you. If you have been involved in Twitter, you have probably seen all these gurus that have thousands of followers. A lot of folks can’t even get their first thousand. And you’d have to have a lot of followers to have the community disable the rule that doesn’t allow you to follow more than 2000 people. You may find getting that many followers daunting, but in reality, there are legitimate tactics you can use to increase the number of folks who are following you.

Here is how you can increase the number of your Tweeter followers:

• Don’t be stingy: if people take time to follow you, don’t just ignore them. Read their profiles. See what they are about. If they are providing value, it never hurts to follow them back.
• Follow the masters: by following the top folks in your market you can not only see what they are about but also get a lot of followers as a result. You see, a lot of folks follow the top guns’ followers, and you can benefit from it.
• Give away an ebook: if you have a report or ebook that you are giving away to your e-mail list, you can do the same thing with your followers. Ask people to follow you and reward them for it.
• Give away your product: one of the best ways to gain followers on YouTube is by giving away a product in return for them retweeting about your product and following you.
• Provide value: don’t go off tanget on your Twitter account can only cost you. Stay on message and provide value your followers are seeking.
• Join the game: there are many things going on in this community. By joining the events going on, you can gain lots of new fans. Take Follow Friday for example. Join the game and recommend folks whom you feel are worth following, and the chances are they’ll return the favor.
• Giveaway goodies on your blog: similar to the above approaches, but this time you are using your blog as a method to drive you new fans.
• Create a video: videos are hot these days, and you are going to get a lot of fans if you provide valuable content in your videos.

There you have it. The key here is to provide value and think outside the box. Freebies work great, and so does great content. Don’t expect to become a superstar overnight. It take a bit of time, but as long as you are adding to the community, you’ll get there.

Marketing and PR- a tweet away!

Not enough sales coming your way? Having a hard time finding customers and making your brand visible? Here’s a one stop strategy for all your marketing and PR needs- Twitter. A popular social networking and micro blogging service, Twitter has truly made the world look smaller and now more and more people use Twitter for marketing and PR. Twitter, with its wide network of users has an incredible potential for expanding your marketing and PR campaigns, efficaciously. Innumerable internet savvy companies have used twitter to their advantage, so why not you?

Start tweeting!

Sign up with Twitter services for free and invest your time to increase your profits. You can post your updates or tweets and also find somebody to follow by checking out the face book profiles of the other members. Try to post something interesting and informative in your posts. You can even provide a link to that information. Build a big network of friends by finding your friends on Twitter. Then, post comments and discuss professional, personal information and business through micro-blogging. Blogging is considered time consuming but micro-blogging in Twitter, with its 140 characters makes posting updates easy and simple.

Why Twitter?

Twitter, with its myriad users and followers is the best place to meet people and improve your business potential. Using Twitter for marketing and PR can be the best way to build relationships with prospective business associates and partners. You can post information on the company, events, new products, press releases, collaborative efforts, etc and you can increase the traffic to your company’s website by creating a commendable impression about your company among your followers. Sometimes a creative and intelligent post can give your company that extra mileage that can steer you to greater heights.

Twittering, marketing and PR!

Using twitter search, you can monitor the people who talk about your company. Follow everyone whom you find talking about the company and strike conversations with them. Among these people, you might find prospective clients, employees and customers. Interact with them constantly for better communication and collaboration.

* Convince the CEO of your company to use social media for marketing and create a company page.
* Identify a few top users and influential people in the field of marketing and follow them.
* Engage your community with the latest updates on the company, events, products, etc.
* If a new product is to be launched, build the expectation by asking your followers to subscribe for the company newsletter and so on.
* Publish contents about your products that are simple and very helpful.
* Interact with your customers and listen to their opinions on a product, which can even allow you to create a better product in the future. This will improve the customer-company relationship.
* Twitter can be used to announce special offers, deals, discounts and sales to a larger audience.
* Provide updates on conferences, events, last minute changes and exclusive events on Twitter.
* Post links to webinars, blog articles, pictures, upcoming events, etc on Twitter.
* Encourage discussions on your products and company.
* Follow what people have to say about your brand/product/company and make necessary amends that are possible.

Improve your online brand reputation and enhance your companies image by becoming accessible to multitudes of people around, through Twitter. Twitter has revolutionized the concept of traditional marketing and has become the best tool for online marketing and increasing PR. With a tad bit of innovation and imagination, you can use Twitter for marketing and PR to your company’s advantage!