Internet Marketing Tools

Part of your marketing effort is to make your videos as wide spread as possible.  Putting your videos on other social media sites is one way to do this.  Here’s a wonderful article on how to use your videos with your Twitter site.  Enjoy and prosper.

May 23rd, 2009 | by Jennifer Van GroveView comments49 Comments and 834 Reactions

There are a number of useful ways to share video on Twitter. Pretty much every social site across the web has enabled a quick, no brainer way to tweet your content out to your Twitter network. At the rate Twitter is growing, we can certainly understand why.

Since we’re seeing a lot of healthy competition in the “TwitPic ( ) for video” space, we thought that we’d give you the lowdown on five different services that you can use to upload video to Twitter ( ). You’ll even see a few that support photo and video uploads, allow for webcam recordings, and track video mentions across Twitter.                                                                                                

It’s safe to say that none of the available options have hit critical mass yet, but you can bet the major desktop clients, like TweetDeck ( ) and Seesmic Desktop ( ) (which just keeps getting better), are paying special attention to the most popular video sharing apps for Twitter. The end game for these services is to get integrated into the most popular Twitter clients, where they’ll no doubt gain immediate exposure and new users.

1. TwitVid

Let’s face it: there’s yet to be a single video sharing site for Twitter that’s managed to attract the same level of attention or substantial user base as TwitPic has done for the photo sharing world. Hoping to capitalize on this, is TwitVid ( ), a new Twitter video sharing site that supports upload via Web, email to u@twitvid.io, and eventually webcam.

The site is crazy simple to use: just log in with your Twitter credentials, choose your video file (up to 1 GB or 20 mins), enter 117 characters or less, and hit the tweet button. That’s all there is to it.

If TwitVid is trying to become the TwitPic of video, then it’s certainly taking the right steps. TwitVid displays all the tweets that mention a particular video on Twitter right on the video page, something that TwitPic can’t match. You can also retweet, share, like, and reply to videos on site.

2. Twiddeo

When it comes to sharing videos on Twitter, Twiddeo’s certainly a viable option, as long as you’re not the type to judge a book by its cover. The aesthetically unappealing site comes with the basics for Twitter video sharing, so you can upload, email, or record (via webcam) your videos for instant sharing with your Twitter network.

Video ( ) pages are pretty sparse, but you can leave comments (powered by Disqus ( )), grab embed codes, and get a glimpse of all the videos that a user has shared.

A feature that Firefox ( ) users who tweet via Twitter.com will love is Twiddeo’s Greasemonkey script ( ). The script enables Twiddeo videos to play right from your Twitter home page. Pretty neat, eh?

3. Twitc

If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for sharing photos, videos, and a myriad of different file types with Twitter, then Twitc’s multipurpose hosting service could be just what the doctor ordered. Not only can you upload your own content — multiple files at a time — but you can also import videos via URLs, so YouTube ( ) and Hulu ( ) videos are all fair game.

What you get in extra features from Twitc comes with a cost. It takes more than just a few steps to actually tweet a video (and any other content you want to share). Before uploading content, you’ll need to create and name your albums (which are like folders). Then while you’re uploading or adding content, you can specify the appropriate album. Finally, you can return to your albums to select the appropriate video or image, and then click to push out to your Twitter stream.

Twitc is not the most immediate way to share videos with Twitter, but it does come with some extras that might make the additional steps worthwhile. With Twitc, not only can you update your Twitter status (no video or image required), but you can search, comment, favorite, and check out the most viewed, highest rated, or just plain random content on the site.

4. twitLENS

twitLENS is another dual purpose tool that handles both video and image sharing via Twitter. This beta site supports multiple uploads at one time, videos up to 50 MB, mobile uploads, comments, and even anonymous uploads.

There are two things we love about twitLENS. First, it’s the only app on this list that’s actually supporting Twitter OAuth for secure login. Second, it’s super easy to tag people in photos and videos using their Twitter names. To accomplish the latter, just upload your content, and then return to your profile to access the photo or video and tag away. Those tagged will get tweets from you (so use this wisely) notifying them that they’re staring in your rich media content on twitLENS.

5. Tweetube

Tweetube started out as a way to share YouTube videos, then the service expanded to include Tweetube for Mac OSX, a desktop application for creating video via webcam to share with Twitter. Tweetube then hosts the videos and even allows for comments. Most recently, Tweetube added support for multiple photo uploads by web or email, and multiple link sharing.

Even with the updates, the only way to share video with Twitter is by YouTube URL or desktop webcam recordings, which happen to be limited to 25 seconds in length. Still, we like what Tweetube’s doing. If they continue to evolve their product, it could be a great way to share videos with your Twitter friends.

To see more details about this article go to:  http://mashable.com/2009/05/23/video-for-twitter/

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

You have created your video.  You have saved it on your website. You have created a description for YouTube to get it found by search engines.  Now it’s time to put your video on your website or blog. You have three options to connect your marketing video with your blog or website.

I will not go into details here about uploading your video to YouTube.  Go to your account on YouTube and follow the simple instructions for uploading your video.

Option One

The first option is easiest but least attractive from a marketing perspective.  You can simply copy the URL of your video on YouTube and paste it into you blog or website text.  Like any hyperlinked URL, when the person clicks on it, they go to your video on YouTube where they can click and play it.

This is a simply option.  It works well for those who don’t feel comfortable dealing with html code.  It will work with most email programs.  The downside is that when a person clicks on your video URL, they are taken away from your site and may have a difficult time returning to it.   They will also see other YouTube videos in your same category.  Maybe even your competition!

Option Two—Embedded Code

Embedded code is the most popular option.  YouTube has made it easy.  When you uploaded your video, it supplies the code you need to embed the video player along with your video on your website or blog.  Here are the steps involved from the YouTube instructions:

1. You’ll need to edit the HTML of your blog entry or page—this should be relatively straightforward. In Wordpress click on the HTML option.  In Blogger, just click the “Edit HTML” tab.

2. Next, go to the video that you want on YouTube and look for the ‘Embed’ box in the “About This Video” section. Copying the HTML code that’s there into your website will create an embedded player; the video will play within your site when the user clicks on the ‘Play’ button.

3. You can resize the player by editing the object width=”425″ and height=”350″ fields at both the beginning and end of the embedded player code. Make sure that the sizes you choose have the same ratio as the default numbers, so that the video doesn’t get stretched—just multiply the width by 0.8235 to get the height.

You use the same process for embedded the code on to your website.  You do need access to the html code on your web page. Once you have access, you can place the embedded code between the <body> codes so that you have the video player and your video.

Third Option

A third option is to connect the video you made to a video player other than a Youtube video player.  You have seen these on various websites.  In these situations, your video has been uploaded to your server of your website using a FTP program.

Once it is on your website/server level, you can place video playing code onto your webpage or blog that finds the address of your video on your server.  In short, your video is stored on your website server and you are not going outside of your “system” to get the video played.  (Videos take large amounts of band width. If you have a lot of videos, your server may have a limited amount of bandwidth available to you).

Here is a source for free code to get an alternative video player.  It takes only a minute to determine how you want your video player to look and play.  You can get the free code here; follow the instruction on this site: http://www.freevideocoding.com/

Go here to see the sample of this video player, how it looks and operates from a client of mine. http://site.mawebcenters.com/stpaulflatbreadco/Flatbreadtraditions.html.  Below is the actual code I copied and embedded on the webpage to use this alternative video player.

<!– START FreeVideoCoding.com –>

<embed src=”StPaul_Flatbread_Holidays.wmv”  width=”320″ height=”283″ autostart=”0″ showcontrols=”1″ type=”application/x-mplayer2″ pluginspage=”http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/”> </embed>

<!– END FreeVideoCoding.com –>

Conclusion

Now you have your video on your blog or webpage.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Most of your videos will probably use the audio tract that was created while you made the actual video shoot. There maybe times when you want to do a voice narrative over or add other audio pieces to your video.

This can be done with Windows Movie Maker (WMM). I made it a personal challenge to learn the process. I will share it with you. I will take the video from my last blog entry which showed video editing techniques and add the before and after so you can see the difference audio can bring to the quality of your videos.

First you need a source for your outside audio or music clips. If you are going to do a voice over the video, you will need a microphone to record your narrative while the video is playing. One source of music is www.shockwave-sound.com. Here you will need to pay for the music or sounds but they will be royalty free. It’s important not to be using other people’s music without their permission.

Like your video clips, you want to import your audio into your movie project. Click on the Import Tab and go to the area where you audio clips are located. Then click on them or drag them into the Collection area. Then you can drag them to the lower part of the page to the audio section of WMM.

It’s important to make your new audio clip the same length as your video clip. So you my need to do some editing with the audio clip.

This is how you separate and add new audio from the video

> In time-line view of WMM (Windows Movie Maker), click the + button beside the Video track in the Time-line view. It turns to -

> Right-click the Audio track and select Mute from the drop-down menu.

> Close the + Button beside the Video track

> Import the audio you want to use with the project

> Drag it into the Audio/Music track

> Click Play in the Preview pane to see the results

Here are some instructions from WMM help desk on doing your own narratives.

Adding Narration to Your Movie (From WMM Help Desk)

With Windows Movie Maker 2.1, you can easily add a voice-over to your home movies. Adding narration lets you use your own words and voice to describe the scene that viewers are seeing.

You can add voice narration to your movie, but first you need to connect a microphone to your computer.

Once you have assembled the elements of your home movie on the timeline, you are ready to start your narration. Mute any existing audio.

The audio narration you capture is imported automatically into the current collection and the narration is added automatically to the point on the Audio/Music track where you started the narration.

Windows Movie Maker 2.1 also includes the ability to tune the volume level of the narration or background audio tracks so you can focus your viewer’s auditory attention. For example, you can set the audio levels so that dialog in your video can be heard over the music that plays in the background of your movie. In this example the background music appears on the Audio/Music track of the storyboard, and the narration appears on the Audio track.

There are times when you may decide that you want to use only the audio from a scene that you shot with your video camera. Windows Movie Maker 2.1 makes it easy to incorporate the audio portion of the scene without displaying the video in your movie. Simply split the section and make sure you un mute this section so you can hear the original audio..

Conclusion

Now check out the before and after video below. The first shows the editing techniques using the original audio tract. In the second video, I muted the original audio and added Lori Line’s Nights in White Satin song as background music. You will immediate see how this new audio improved the quality of the video. You can do these techniques with your marketing videos.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Now comes the fun step in making your marketing videos—the editing.  Here is where you can unleash your creativity.  Maybe inside of you is the next Steven Spielberg.

There are many editing tools on the market.  Sony’s Vegas is a good one for Windows users.  Final Cut is a good one for MAC users.  In these next two posts I will show you how to use Windows Movie Market (WMM) since most likely you already have this tool on your computer as part of your Microsoft package.  When you get more sophisticated you can graduate to most expensive tools.

Step One

Locate the place where you original video was saved.  In the case of the Flip Video, I connect the flip video to my computer and find the video I saved.  A web cam will save the videos in a different place.   When you upload from your cell phone, you may wish to save the video on your Desktop so that it is easy to find.

Step Two

Open the Windows Movie Maker program.

Step Three

You need to import the video into WMM.  Click on the File Tab and Import into Collection. Browse your computer to find your saved file.  Click on it or drag it into the collection area.  Bringing your saved video into the Ccollection area, brings the video into a format that can be used by WMM.  Depending on the length of your video this may take a few minutes.

Step Four

Once your video is loaded into WMM in the Window’s formate, you are ready to start the editing process. Click and drag your video to the Time line near the bottom of the WMM page.  On the left you will see a displace screen.  All of the editing for the video, transitions, or outside audio you may want to add will be done on this Time Line.  (Instead of the TimeLine version of your video, you can work in the ShowTime mode which is a frame by frame mode.)

I usually play the raw video several times to get a feel for how I want to edit the video.  The follow are the main Tools you will use in WMM to edit your video:

The Clip Tool

The Clip tools include cutting off the beginning part and the end part of a video that you want to discard.  With this tool you also create a Split in the video.   You can move the tool called the Scrubber along the Timeline and stop it anyplace.  You can Split the video at that point by selecting the Split tool.  If you want to discard parts of the video, Split the part at each end and then delete the middle part you want to discard. The Split is also used to create a point in the video where you insert Transitions, Special Effects,  Titles or Chapter heading.

Tools

The second category is called Tools and it has a drop down menu that includes Titles and Credits you can create to insert in your video.   It also has Transitions and Special Effects you can insert in your video.   Click on Titles and Credits to see the various options you can use.  Within each of these choices, you have many options for sizes, colors, and effects.   These are very easy to learn.

Transitions serve a useful purpose to transition from one point in your video to another.  They are a great way to cover or disguise poor video parts or a script that could use some help.  These are also easy to insert. Create a Split in the video and drag the Transition option to where you have made the split.  You do the same for any Special Effects you want in your video.

Conclusion

I realize these steps maybe difficult to image.  Trust me.  They are not hard to master.  You can always reverse any process you do in the editing mode.

To learn more about the these editing steps, I suggest you view Gideon’s fifth free video in his series.  He shows screen captures for each of these steps.  Go to http://getyourvideoonline.com/confirm-success.html. I have also create a short demo video where I show you how I experimented with these editing techniques.  Enjoy.

Jive Systems  www.jivesystems.com is a paid, closed system for creating and distributing your small business marketing videos.  A close system is the opposite of Youtube which is an open public system.  As you know if you have a video on Youtube it will be grouped with other Youtube videos in the same category. Often, these other videos may be your competitors.

A close system features access only to your videos and those to whom you want to share these videos with, whether via email, your website or your blog.

Both types of system have their place in small business marketing.

Here are some video tips from a recent Jive System webinar.

1.  Be lively and up beat in your video.  Sales is the transmission of feelings. (Zig Zigler)  Enthusiasm about your product will show well in a video.

2.  Introduce yourself this way, “Hi I’m (blank) with XYZ company.”  This tip comes from a Hollywood acting coach who says “When you start this way, people see you taking responsibility”.  This instills more confidence in you.

3.  State your unique selling proposition—USP.   (I call this your personal brand).  Why are you special?  Use different variations of your brand on different videos.

4.  Avoid being too close to the camera.  This is very uncomfortable for the viewer.

5.  Keep your video short and to the point.  People don’t want to hear you babble.

6.  Always have a call to action.  Tell the viewer what you want them to do.  Make it as easy as possible. Show them a clear path for getting the action done.

Conclusion

You can see these tips from Jive Systems emphasize the many of the same suggestions I made in an earlier post (http://successfulmarketingtools.com/wordpressblog/727/organizing-your-video-marketing-shoot/).  Use these tips and your videos will be more professional and effective.

In the next post, I will share editing tips for the videos you shoot.

Your comments and questions are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

In this video, I share with you two tips you can use to improve the quality of your small business marketing videos.  They are mistakes I made and from which I have learned.  Enjoy and prosper.

To be continued, your comments are always welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Before we dive into the practical details about creating your own business videos, I invite you to read this short post by Lou Bortone.  I suggested one reason for using videos in your business is because they are easy.  Lou takes easy to a new level, include how mobile you can now do your video distribution.  Read and enjoy.

Five Ways to Win With Online Video

by Lou Bortone, Guest Blogger November 20, 2009  in VIDEO & VIRAL MARKETING

Recently we shared that viewers are now watching a staggering One Billion videos per day!  If you’d like to promote your business using video, but are still a bit intimidated by the technology, then I give you permission to cheat.  Well, it’s not really cheating, but there are a few remarkably easy shortcuts.  Here are five quickies to make posting videos a snap (or click!)

1. Animoto Mojo – With Animoto.com, you don’t even need a video camera to get a video on YouTube!  Just upload some photos or text, select some music that Animoto provides, and the website mixes a slick video, all ready for YouTube.

2. Quick Flip – If you’ve got a Flip Video camera (get one atwww.GetYourFlip.com), then uploading to YouTube is as simple as plugging the Flip into your computer.  Flip gives you a direct upload button for one click posting to YouTube.

3. YouTube “Quick Capture!” – Speaking of YouTube, just below the “upload” button on YouTube is the cleverly hidden “quick capture” function, which allows you to record your video “live” and on the fly with just your webcam.  Give it a try!

4. Phone it in – If you’re an iPhone 3G owner, you’re in luck. The new iPhone with video not only lets you record video, it gives you the option to send your mobile video directly to YouTube – again with one click convenience.

5. Go Mobile – Even if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still send video to YouTube right from your mobile phone.  Just look for the “Upload from Mobile” button, and YT will provide you with a custom address you can use to “call your video in!”

Online video has indeed become a “do-it-yourself” medium, and it’s easier than ever to get your video on YouTube.   Still, if you prefer to have someone do it all for you, then be sure to check out my new, soooo easy solution athttp://www.Good2GoVideo.com!   Hope to see you online soon!

About the Author

Lou Bortone is a long-time marketing and branding consultant who helps entrepreneurs build breakthrough brands on the Internet, with services such as online video production, video branding, coaching and creative support.  Lou is a former television executive who worked for E! Entertainment Television and later served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox in Los Angeles.  Lou is an author and ghostwriter of six business books, a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and a Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach. Visit Lou’s website at http://www.OnlineVideoBranding.com and you can learn more about Lou’s Video Traffic Blast system at http://www.VideoTrafficBlast.com

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Having a dynamic interchange with your customer is a second reason why you want to include videos as part of your marketing plan.

I want you to do a little experiment to personally experience this reason for using videos in your business.  Immediate below is a two minute video I created about this second reason. Right below the video is a text version of  the this reason.  You be the judge.  Which presentation had more power for you.  The personal interaction or the written word.  Write a comment at the end of this post and let me know what you experienced.  Thanks.

If you are like most small business owners, I am sure you feel that if you can get in front of a prospect, you have a good chance of making a sale.  Your instincts are correct.  People don’t buy businesses.  They buy you.  The more they get to know you, like you and trust you, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Did you know that 93% of communications are non-verbal?  That means that if you are only relying on words with your website or sales page, you are using only 7% of your communication power.

Videos allow your prospects to tap into the other 93% of your communication power.

• They get to see you
• They get to hear your voice
• Watch your facial expressions
• Listen to the tone of your voice.

They get a feel for you as a business person.   All of these elements allow the prospect to get to know you and like you.

If you want to make more sales, make them faster, use video to let your prospects get to know you and like you and trust you.

In the next post, I will share with you a third reason why videos can make your marketing more successful.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Earlier this year I wrote a series of blog posts about Linkedin, the professional’s media site. Over this past summer, I wrote a series of posts about Twitter, today’s most popular social networking site. As I wrote these posts, I researched the programs, learned along the way and share my experienced in the blog posts.

For the remainder of the year, I will turn my attention to Youtube, an essencial ingredient for today’s small business marketing. I will again research the area, write about my experiences in the posts and invite your comments to make these posts as helpful as possible for your business.

So what can you expect over the next two months? Here are some of the areas I will cover in my posts.

• Why you want to use video and Youtube in your business marketing. There are reasons why Youtube gets 1 billion hits per day! How can you use this traffic to your advantage.
• How to do video? What kind of equipment do you need? (Far less expensive than you think). How to shoot videos, edit them, produce them and get them on the internet.
• What should be the content of your videos? We will explore what works best to attract attention with your videos.
• How to Distribute. Build it and they will come works well for Hollywood movies. Distribution and marketing of your videos is a critical for your small business marketing.
• Resource you can use. You will be surprised at the number of free resources that are available for your use for all aspects of your video productions and distribution.
• Tips and Trick. There is no reason why we should have to make the same mistakes as others who have gone before us in using video marketing. We can learn from their mistakes to save time and money for our businesses. There are plenty of do’s and don’t about videos.

I hope you will join me on this journey into video marketing and Youtube. And of course, share each other’s videos. Please add any questions or suggestions in the comment section below. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing these posts.

Forget what you have heard about Twitter.  I want you to think of Twitter as your personal online network. When you look at Twitter as a personal networking group, you will begin to see how it can help your business.

The secret to Twitter networking is to apply the same skills you use with business networking groups. I will identify those networking skills and show you how to apply them to your Twitter networking.  Let me know your thoughts on this approach to Twitter in the comment section below.

Business Networking Skills

I am sure that you have participated in some form of business networking group.  The purpose of these groups is to gather business people together, usually at a weekly meeting, to provide word of mouth referrals.   Here are a list of skills master networkers use to be successful at these meetings.

Networking is Not a Quick Fix

Business networking requires patience.  Joining a business networking group with the expectations of getting immediate results is unrealistic.  Networking takes time to establish relationships and credibility. Business networking is not a quick fix.

Join the Right Networking Group

All networking groups are not equal.  Most business networking groups are a conglomeration of many different businesses.  What if the members of a particular group are not a good source of business for you?

One lady who owned a decorating business attended a popular networking group.  She didn’t get the referrals she wanted.  She quit the group and joined a professional women’s business group—prime candidates for her decorating services.  The master networkers know that all groups are not equal.

Have an Agenda for Every Meeting

Master networkers come every meeting with an agenda they want to accomplish.  This could be meeting someone new at the meeting, sharing a resource with another member, following up on a promise they made.  They go to every meeting with a purpose, things they want to accomplish.

Clarity About Their Business

Master networkers go beyond the business labels, “I’m a real estate agent” or generalizations about their business, “I sell houses.” They are clear about the benefits their business provides.   They know specifically who is a good referral for their business.  They tell members of the group exactly how they will work with the referrals given to them.  Their clarity makes it easy for group members to give them good referrals.

Be Interested in Others

The number one rule of business networking is “Be Interested”.   Master networkers do not pushed their business card in every face at a business networking meeting.  Business networking success comes from being interested in group members and creating relationships with them.  Who are they?  What is their business about? What’s important to them? What challenges do they face? What do they like and dislike? Many networking groups have a function called one to one’s.  They spend time talking with another group member one to one to learn more about them and their business.

Give Before You Get

Another success principle of business networking is Give before your Get. Givers Gain!  It doesn’t take long in a business networking group for people to identify the “Takers” from the “Givers”.  Takers come to the meetings wanting referrals from others and give little in return.  Givers look for ways to give referrals to others; to share resources and materials with others; to help others become more successful in their businesses.

The Money Is in the Follow Up

Business networking groups are not deal making places.  They are connecting places.  Connecting is not measured by how many business cards you can get or give out.  Connecting is the spark that comes from listening to others, being interested in others and following up with others.

Good networkers know the money is in the follow up.  They follow up on the connections they make at networking meetings.  They use phone calls, emails, and send helpful resources as ways of following up. They keep the connections alive with ongoing follow up activities.

Consistent Participation Skills

The worst thing a business networker can do is join a group and participate on a random basis. Networking groups have an unwritten rule “To get good referrals from others you need to show up every week and participate”.  Out of sight; out of mind. Consistency and participation are ways master networkers create credibility with people in a networking group.  Group members learn more from behavior than words.

The Real Power of Networking

The real power of networking is not who you know but who they know.  This is the fundamental principle of business networking.  Master business networkers realize the power of their networking group is not in the group members.  It’s in the second and third level of people each member knows outside of the group.

Experts tell us that each of us knows about 250 people.  What happens once we contact these 250 people? Where do we go from there?  Each of these people we know also knows 250 people.  If each the people we know introduced us to 5 of their contacts and each of those contacts introduced us to five of their contacts, well, you can do the math. A network increases exponentially.  The real power of networking is second and third levels of people.

Conclusion

These are the basic building blocks and skills master networkers use for success.  Now let’s apply the same building blocks and skills to operating your Twitter network group.

Your Twitter Network

Twitter is Not a Quick Fix for Your Business

As a digital network, Twitter calls for patience.  If you are looking for short term results you will need to adjust your expectations.

It takes time to establish a brand presence on Twitter.  It takes time to build up the right followers who actually listen to you.  It takes starts and stops to make Twitter into an effective marketing tool. Look at Twitter as a long term marketing strategy.

The Right Followers on Twitter

Critical to your Twitter success are your followers.  Do you follow people who can help your business? Are your followers the best candidates for your business?  You can use any of the free software tools, like Tweet Search to sort and focus on the right group of people for your digital network.

If you are looking for people interested in blogging, use the search process to find them.  Looking for followers in a localized area, use a search term for that area.  Run these software programs on a regular basis to keep your network fresh with the best group of people for your Twitter network.

What’s Your Twitter Agenda?

Before you engage on Twitter, write down you business purposes for using Twitter.  What do you want to accomplish with Twitter?  When you have a purpose and a focus, you use Twitter more productively.  When you have an agenda, Twitter is not time consuming.

Being Clear About Your Business

Social media sites expose small business weaknesses.  Twitter is no exception.  Your Twitter activity is 140 characters or less.  You need to be absolutely clear about what your business does, how you do it and who is your best customers.  Your Twitter followers need this clarity!

I use this helpful exercise.  I sit down and write up 24 one line statements about my business, what I do, the benefits I provide, how I do my business, who is my best customers.  I take the best of these statements and use them to create my Twitter bio.  I take the 24 statements and using a free scheduler, Futuretweets.   I schedule one of these 24 statements for each hour in the day.  I repeat this scheduling process on a weekly basis.  Now I have a quality set of Tweets expressing the core aspects of my business to my followers.  These Tweets bring in new followers.

Be Interested in Others

Use the “interest building” skill with your Twitter network.  Be interested in your followers before you start pushing your business.  Ask them questions.  Respond to their Tweets.  Compliment them. Acknowledge your followers on Twitter.  Being interested in your followers is critical to building a strong Twitter network. Take the time and make it one of your goals to build this foundation.  Don’t skip this step.

Give Before You Get

Twitter requires a giver’s mentality.  How can you help your followers?  What resources can you share with them? Where can you point them to solutions for their problems?  By giving to your followers you will receive in return.  It’s the law of the universe!

Twitter Money Is in the Follow Up

Initially, new followers may be curious about a Tweet you made or something they see in your bio.  This spark needs a followed up.  A Retweet, a Direct Message, a question, an acknowledgment, a compliment will move the spark into a flame.  Then continue with more follow up activities.  The money is in the follow up.

Twitter Demands Consistent Participation

Twitter demands consistency and participation.  How will people get to know you and like you and trust you if you fail to Tweet or respond to their Tweets on a regular basis?  This involves a time commitment. You can use software tools to manage your time.    Make no mistakes about it.  You must bring a consistent participation to your Twitter site.  If you are not committed to this consistent participation, Twitter will not help your business.

Twitter’s Power of Networking

On your Twitter site, you may have hundreds if not thousands of followers.  The real power comes from the people they know and follow.  By clicking on any one of your followers, you can see all of their followers. Click on them and now you opened up many new followers.  See people appropriate for your network, click to follow them.

When a follower retweet one of your Tweets, you are now put in front of their followers. This is the viral element of Twitter and the power of networking.

Conclusion

The key to your Twitter network is applying network building blocks and skills.  Instead of a physical networking group, you now have a digital networking group not limited by a physical meeting space or a specific meeting time.  Twitter is your own personal networking group.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal