3 Free Ways to Get Quality Followers: Not An Affiliate Post!

I know that I used the word "follower" in my tweet, so you may think this is one of those spam posts. It is not.

It is just the opposite. This is how to get quality followers for free.

There are Twitter rules to getting followers. You are free to follow up to 2,000 without any limitation. However, once you reach 2,000 people that you are following, you can only follow 10% more than the number of followers that already follow you. For example, if you have 3,000 followers, you can not follow more than 3,300 people on Twitter (10%) more. If you try to follow more people, the Twitter api will just make sure your click to follow won't work.

Background

Image via Wikipedia

First, you need to understand that quality starts with understanding your keywords. What are keywords? Keywords are the text your customer would put into a Google search box to find products or services you provide.

For example, let's say you sell antique watches. Your customer may type in watches in Google search, but it may be better to narrow it down to antique watches.

If you are not sure what keywords to select, you can go to the Google Keyword Tool. This tool will help you identify your keywords.

Now that you have some keywords, you can begin to identify quality followers.

Second, in order to get followers you need to first do the following. The people you follow will decide if they want to follow you back.

Finally, you should follow both leaders in your industry and potential customers.

Here are 3 Free Ways to Get Quality Followers

1. Use Twitter Search

Put in the Twitter search bar one of your keywords. A list of Twitter users that have used your keyword in their tweet will appear.

Read the tweets and find one person that connects for you. Click on their name, and follow them.

But, don't leave them yet.

2. Use that Twitter User's Followers and Following

Once you have identified a follower, you may want to follow who they are following and/or the people who are following him. Again, followers tend to have shared interests. The easiest way to follow these people is click on the following or followers tab, and just follow people right on that page. It's that simple.

3. Use Twitter Directories

There are directors of users based on interest--which again, can be your keywords. My favorite is twellow. Find a category, select, and there will hundreds, if not thousands of users you can follow. Just go down the list and follow.

Another favorite of mine is wefollow.

I have not tried justtweetit. or many others. However, if you do a Google search on Twitter directories you will find a dozen or more Twitter directories to find people to follow.

There are additional free ways to add followers. But for now, this will keep you busy.

A Key Tip:

Don't forget to put those keywords in your Twitter bio and register with one or more directories. People want to find you--so it make it easy for them to do so.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks.

3 Ways Using Twitter Has Consumers Buying From You Sooner Rather Than Later

The Communications Funnel

There is a classic funnel in marketing which represents the consumer's decision making process. It looks like an upside down triangle. The top of the triangle is the widest and represents the largest number of consumers. As you move down the triangle it narrows, representing fewer and fewer consumers. The stages that a consumer moves through from the top to the bottom of the funnel are awareness, interest, desire, and action. The action stage is the time the consumer is ready to make a purchase.

Twitter speeds up this decision making process in three ways:

1. Twitter speeds up the decision to buy from you.

When people engage you on Twitter they are often at the action stage. They are telling you that they are ready to buy. But, before they finalize their decision, they have questions. They can do more research and ask friends. However, if you are using Twitter the right way, you will be perceived as a friend by your followers. You have the ability to influence them, and engage them with tailored responses to their questions, at precisely the right moment in time.

2. Twitter quickens the movement to the next stage of decision making.

Prospects listen to the conversations you are having on Twitter with your followers. While these consumers may never engage you, they are being influenced by what is being tweeted. That is why understanding Twitter etiquette is so important. If you engage in conversations on Twitter as a trusted friend, you will get potential customers to move from awareness to interest, or interest to desire, or even desire to action.

3. Twitter lets you turn your buyers into advocates, who in turn influence their followers on your behalf.

When a person buys from you on Twitter, they can become an advocate if they are happy with their purchase. These Twitter buyers have followers who not only listen to what they tweet about you, but will often ask for their opinion about your product. Opinions and recommendations from friends, even Twitter friends, is more trusted than any company message. Turning buyers into your advocates also helps to speed along this decision making process.

Overall, in today's economy, you want your potential customers to buy from you sooner rather than later. Twitter can help make that happen.

5 Reasons Why Twitter is a Waste of Time For My Business

1. My business doesn't need a presence on another social media network.

Image by *spo0ky* via Flickr

2. We don't need to connect with Twitter users; they are not our customers.

3. I really don't have the time to learn another way to market our products.

4. Twitter doesn't work to sell products and services like mine anyway.

5. Who cares what you are doing--no one.

Reasons to Explore Twitter for your Business

If you believe that any of these are good reasons to avoid using the power of Twitter for your business, then you are suffering from "excuse-itis." Did you know:

1. Twitter is the fastest growing social media network with over 15 million users.

2. Twitter users are adults 18-49, a prime market for many companies.

3. It doesn't take a lot of time to learn about how to use Twitter for your business, test it, or to manage and use Twitter on-going.

4. There are numerous business success stories on Twitter. It may be that you can learn from these companies. It may even be that your competition is using Twitter.

5. Twitter users are about more than what anyone is doing today. It is about building a community, adding value, and having conversations with your followers.

It's time to take advantage of this new social media network. Twitter works to sell products, improve customer service, provide real-time research, and much more.

7 Things Twitter Needs To Fix

Twitter is a fantastic social media network that I recommend all of the time. Still I hear comments like "Twitter is a waste of my time," "I don't get it," and "I tried it, but didn't get anything from it." As a Twitter evangelist, I think Twitter the company needs to work a lot harder at improving their service so these opinions go away.

Here are 7 things I believe Twitter needs to fix.

Image by davis.jacque via Flickr

1. The Twitter home page needs to help users who come to the site for the first time.

This home page needs to address key topics like how to use Twitter, why use Twitter, and most importantly, the benefits of using Twitter. It's reported that Twitter loses 60% of their new users after one month. Why? I know that it's not because the service is too expensive.

2. Get rid of spammers ASAP.

Maybe the new policy will help to get rid of all the spammers, but I doubt it. There are way too many of these losers, and they are always coming up with new ways to spam. While you should report the spam to @spam, I'm sure these folks are overwhelmed. Guess what--so are Twitter users.

3. Trending Topics have become virtually useless.

This was a great idea when it started but now there is no reason to go beyond the list that appears on your home page. If you click on a topic you get so much spam, you don't who to believe and where a link is going to take you. What a waste! The new policy should have stated that if you abuse the trending topics section, as Heidi Klum says on Project Runway, "You are out!"

4. Fix both the Twitter people search and main search features so people who join get listed and their tweets will appear.

The Twitter search features are excellent concepts but they do not work flawlessly. I have had friends complain about it, and now I am suffering the same problems. Try to find this blog by searching for it on people search. Try to find my tweets by using some of the keywords in Twitter's main search area. It's not going to happen. Twitter search tools are great but they need to work.

5. Twitter needs someone in charge of customer experience.

I believe that users get frustrated by Twitter and their experience on Twitter. But is there anyone at Twitter in charge of researching these issues and fixing them? If so, this person needs a lot more help to make changes needed. If Twitter doesn't improve, customers are going to seek out alternative networks.

6. When it comes to customer service, Twitter doesn't seem to really care all that much.

I know it's free to use Twitter, but customer service is paramount for any business. While they have a Twitter support section, this is level web 0.5. Twitter should have a customer service account on Twitter, like Best Buy and Comcast, where people can get their questions and problems answered promptly. Yes, you can contact @twitterapi but I believe it's run by only three guys who are probably engineers.

7. Twitter needs to generate revenue so they can fix their product sooner rather than later.

I know that Twitter received over $50 million in their last round of funding. That money is great but it's not recurring revenue. Twitter needs to put in place a revenue model that will work. It will give them the funds to fix things and improve their operations.

Can you think of other things Twitter needs to fix? Please let me know.

Thanks!

Twitter Marketing Plan Template and Sample Plan

Twitter Marketing Plan Template

Image by ATIS547 via Flickr

1. What is my business objective?

The objective should be specific, meaningful and measurable.

2. What is my strategy to achieve this business objective?

Describe how you plan on using Twitter.

3. What tactics do I need to follow through with this strategy?

These include all the activities that you need to take including the third party applications that you will use in your Twitter marketing.

4. How will I measure results?

Be specific on how results will be tracked and measured. Set up any benchmarks and be consistent with your measurement tools.

5. What other areas do I need to address to make my Twitter plan successful?

This includes all things Twitter such as: who has access to the Twitter account, Company guidelines on what can be tweeted, how to tweet, how to streamline the process to save money, and more.


Sample Plan
Twitter Marketing Plan For Just Blue Stuff


1. What is the Just Blue Stuff business objective on Twitter?

To increase sales of our Just Blue Stuff products over 25% in the first 3 months from using Twitter

2. What is the Just Blue Stuff strategy to achieve this business objective?

To generate awareness, interest, positive-word-of mouth, advocates and ultimately sales for our Just Blue Stuff product line among Twitter users who follow us.

3. What tactics do we need to execute for this strategy?

We need to set up an account on Twitter and attract followers. The ways we will attract followers include: Twitter search using our keywords, setting up an auto-follow/unfollow system based on keywords, and using Twitter directories to find followers based on our customer data on buyers of our products.

In addition, we will need to do the following:

A. Listen to what Twitter users are saying about our products
-Thanks consumers who like our products
-Answer questions posted by consumers
-Alleviate any customer issues by answering questions or comments in an appropriate way.

B. Listen to what Twitter users are saying about our competition
-Learn from the positive comments and try to induce unhappy users to try our products.

C. Broadcast product news and promotions
-We will track sales by offering a 10% discount when the user puts in “Twitter” in the bonus code on checkout.
-We will also test a Twitter bird promotion, where everyone who answers a few questions about our business, gets a Just Blue Stuff Twitter bird.
-We are also going to tweet and link to the content we have on our website that will be valuable to our followers, such as consumer testimonials, why blue is the “in” color, and all the ingenious ways our consumers are using our products.

D. Engage Twitter users
-We will follow best practices for using Twitter.
-We will obey Twitter etiquette.
-We will be friends to Twitter users and not hard sell our products.

4. How will we measure results?

We are going to track sales using a code on check-out. In addition, we are going to use Google analytics to see if there is any increase in the number of visitors to our website.

5. What other areas do we need to address to make the Just Blue Stuff Twitter marketing plan successful?

Since we do not have the time to figure all of this out and we are concerned about the time cost to get all of this done, we have hired Mitchell Cogert at www.Twit-streams.com.

Contact him now at mcogert@twit-streams.com or call at 877-27-tweet. He provides a Twitter training and strategy workshop, and/or a customized Twitter marketing plan for your business, and/or his company can be your Twitter manager and they do just about all of the work for you.

Twitter for Business: 11 Best Practices To Follow

Best Practices

Here are 11 best practices your business should follow when it comes to Twitter:

1. Decide on a business objective.

Image by Amy Dianna via Flickr

2. Develop a strategy and plan.

3. Build a community of followers that will benefit what you offer. Think quality over quantity.

4. Listen to what people are tweeting about your business.

5. Broadcast valuable content you have on your site/blog.

6. Engage with people who are tweeting you.

7. Be real and credible in your tweets.

8. Provide value to your followers. What can you today to provide value for your community of followers?

9. Measure results against a benchmark.

10. Use third party applications to save you time and money in using Twitter.

11. Have fun. Twitter is social.

Twitter for Business: "It's the trust, stupid."

"It's the trust, stupid."

I have spent most of my career working with top notch companies that sell brand name products. The great thing about a brand name is that you know your product performs as promised, and it has already established trust with customers. The messaging requires defining your target audience, delivering one focused message, and to do so in a provocative, engaging and creative way.

Granted, that simplifies things, but it works time and time again. And I have worked on top brands from consumer products like LUVS diaper, Bounty paper towels and Tyson foods to technology like Quicken, HP LaserJets, and Barra.

While the specific strategies for these brands are different, these brands have one common theme; they want the character of their brand to be seen as a trusted, friend. It is all about the trust.

Image via Wikipedia

While big corporations have the luxury of big budgets, other businesses must use less costly marketing tactics, which means using the internet. But the internet is a jungle when it comes to figuring out who to trust.

The Internet: Who do you trust?

When it comes to getting reliable information to help make a purchase, the number one challenge for a prospect (consumer or business) is "Who do I trust?"

The answer: Develop a website. Not! Every company has a website with pages and pages of biased, corporate speak.

The answer: Add in positive testimonials and customer reviews. Not! No one is going to post a negative testimonial and those positive reviews can be be added by anyone.

The answer: A blog. Not! A corporate blog is just going to give the company-line and the major blogs are being paid by companies to post positive articles for them.

So who can you trust online?

The answer: Friends. Yes! 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
(Source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries April 2009).

Twitter Friends = Trust

If you go about your business on Twitter the right way, other users will follow you and see you as a friend. You need to follow the right Twitter etiquette. You need to provide value to your followers. You need to make an effort not to go into marketing speak and a hard-sell.

On Twitter, one essential part of your strategy is to to be perceived as a trusted, friend. It works for major brands and it will work for you. You are the brand in a friendly, social media network. Twitter is social. Be social. Be a friend.

The advantages of being a friend is that it makes it easier for your followers to buy from you. People buy from those they know, they like and they trust. And the bonus is that friends who buy from you will often become advocates for you as well.

As a next step, list all the ways you are going to do to be a trusted, friend to your followers on Twitter (you do have a written plan, don't you?). Because yes, it's all about the trust.