If you ignore Twitter in your online marketing strategies stop! Twitter will be the boom site of 2010 and, from Internet Marketing POV it simply can't be ignored. It's like burning one quarter of your money!

After You Read This Guide… You’ll be able to master simple, easy-to-remember tweeting techniques
that can genuinely help you discover:

· The hidden secret experts can unwittingly teach you (if you make a habit of looking twice)
· The 2 most important factors to remember, when deciding who to follow
· 3 must-have elements of creating high perceived value on Twitter
· One insider tip and one insider app - both can make a difference in your Twitter effectiveness
· 3 ways to attract quality followers who can give you valuable feedback and information you can use in your marketing
· 2 Golden Rules of Twitiquette - follow them, and people will love you!

How To Twitter Effectively

A year ago, critics insisted we didn’t need another Social Networking platform. Now almost every one has come around to the necessity of adding Twitter to their list of networking venues. Once people discovered how easy it was, it caught on so quickly that many who were indifferent or against Twitter realized they were getting left behind.

The Art Of Following

Don’t be fooled into overlooking effective management of both the people you follow, and those who are following you. Mastering the art of following should come before you go rushing off to add all sorts of fascinating Twitter apps.

You can waste a lot of time at first (and clutter up your Twitosphere) by subscribing to a lot of useless `follows’, if you’re new to Twitter. In fact, following the wrong people can deter others from following you! So if your primary purpose is business, plan your Twitter following intelligently.

Talking Turkey There’s an old saying: “If you want to soar with the eagles, don’t run with the turkeys”. Applying it to Twitter doesn’t mean you should just blindly follow the top gurus – it means the first thing to do is be selective, and focus on your field. Choose from areas that target your exact niche market and business needs, and select people to follow from those sources.

If you have favorite experts in your field, check out who they follow on their profile pages. Most likely, a few of the people they follow will really appeal to you – and if you follow related top people, you’re more likely to be exposed to:

· Sound tips you can apply to your business practices
· Insider information about your market, upcoming trends or products and tools
· The right way to Twitter – there’s nothing like subconsciously absorbing strong examples of good Twittering

Be choosy, too, about the number of people you follow. The one thing you never want to do is be seen as following 3786 people – with 2 followers. (It brands you, rightly or wrongly, as a Spammer.)

If you find anyone’s posts to be lacking in value, be ruthless. Unfollow them. Think of your Twitter experience rather like hunting for nuggets of gold. If you pick one up, and discover it’s actually just a piece of worthless iron pyrite (“fool’s gold”), you toss it, right?

Same with people whose posts don’t provide anything of value (other than endless links to their products – with no personal interaction. Remember, the whole purpose of Twitter initially was communication. If the people you follow never bother to answer a single question, or comment on any of your Tweets, you might want to reconsider what you get out of following them.

Find A Guide

Another lightning-fast way to figure out who to follow: Use Mr Tweet. This service performs 2 functions:

· Suggests people who are followed by your friends
· Suggests people from your followers list who you might want to follow back
· Provides stats to help you decide (their number of followers, chances of your receiving reply, update frequency)

Twitter Clues

Using Twitter as a marketing tool is rather like having the inside scoop on a murder mystery. It allows you to examine the evidence before the police arrive on the scene. In fact, sometimes before anyone even knows there’s been (or is going to be) a crime. You can scan the Tweets of people you are
following for “tip-offs” to things like:

· News about new projects
· Insider insights
· Warning signs of major changes – before they happen

The Art Of Being Followed

Who do you want for your followers? Not just your target market, but experts who can help you in your business growth.

Here are some ways to attract quality followers – people whose posts:

· Fit naturally with your personality and goals (you really enjoy their posts!)
· Provide strong insights into your market segment (see how both being a follower and following is a two-way street?)
· Give you valuable feedback and information you can implement and use in your marketing

Fortunately, the most effective ways to attract quality followers are also very easy ways.

· Display your Twitter link prominently on your website. Reinforce the hint with an invitation to follow you, like so: “Follow me on Twitter”.

(Your hyperlink for this would be formatted like so: http://twitter.com/[Your Twitter Name], - E.G.
"http://Twitter.com/Bobolink42"

· Insert your Twitter link into signatures you use in Forums (check the rules first – and use the format “@[Twittername]”.

· Use a widget like Ricardo González’ Twitter for Wordpress to display your most recent Tweets on your WordPress blog

Twitter itself does have similar widgets – both Flash 9 and HTML – you can access in your Twitter page’s “Goodies” section. It all depends what you are looking for, visually. Twitter for Wordpress starts the discreet, blend-in end of the spectrum, and Twitter’s Flash 9 is at the strongly-contrasting and eyedistracting end.

While you may not want your posts to be too discreet, just remember… strongly contrasting colors and moving text violate 2 of the cast-instone

Commandments of Good Web Design:

1. Thou shalt not use highly contrasting colors that grab attention and offend the senses in thy insertions
2. Thou shalt never, ever have elements on thy web page that flash, sparkle, move, bounce or do anything else with movement that irritates and distracts thy reader into clicking away)

When You Want To Stop Following Someone

Top 4 Reasons most people stop following someone – and you can assume you’ll feel this way too:

· Too many posts –You quickly get sick of seeing 40 of their icons filling up your Twitter page, bumping out interesting messages from other people you follow. (Nobody likes someone who monopolizes!)
· Unrelenting marketing spam messages
· Off-color references, profanity
· No interaction

There are 3 ways to manage how you disengage on Twitter. The first 2 work by cutting the offending Twitterers (or Tweeters) off altogether, when you use either the “Block” function or “Unfollow”.

But what if you don’t want to stop following them – you just wish they’d send less messages?
In that case, you can actually change your reply settings (or change your device settings, if you don’t want to receive text messages from everyone).

Twitter Tyrants

Occasionally, people have been known to start personal bullying campaigns. By all means block them – but there’s one extra step you really need to take…

· Send a DM (Direct Message) to @spam, reporting them.

Twitiquette

Is there such a thing as Twitter etiquette?

You bet there is (even if there’s actually no such word as “Twitiquette”.) It involves, of course, all the regular conventions of business etiquette – and a couple more specific to Twittering.

Twitter etiquette is important, because it defines you as a classy, professional person with savvy and smarts – and it guarantees everyone you interact with will think so too.

Be careful what you say on Twitter – By all means, disagree with someone, but no name calling, of course, and avoid sarcastic comments.

Sarcasm in hyperspace is closely linked to “road rage” in drivers. It’s easy to yell at someone when they’re not standing 2 feet from your nose, looking you in the eye.

Two basic schoolyard rules remain good solid ones to follow:
· If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say it
· Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to your Grandma’s face

On the other hand, if you’re the sort of person who prides themselves in being a “no B.S.”, hard-hitting, cutting edge type, well.. before firing all canons, just remember, you might hard-hit yourself all the way to the wrong end of a nasty lawsuit. (It really does happen!)

The two major cause of Twitter lawsuits? Personal defamation and copyright violations.

When it comes to the latter, Twitter itself doesn’t want to be on the wrong end of one, so they take it seriously enough to provide a special email address, in case an outraged copyright owner wants to contact them to report a violate: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ”

Flout this copyright issue, and you’ll be permanently banned from Twitter before you know it (with or without a lawsuit).

The Golden Rules

We’ve talked about what not to do. Is there anything you should do, to boost your Twitter Effectiveness Quotient?

Absolutely!

1. Always acknowledge or thank anyone who:
· Answers you directly
· Retweets one of your tweets
· Tweets about you

You can either send them a Direct Message, or post a simple Tweet along the lines of:
“Thanks to @[Person’s Handle] for answering my question RE [Tweet URL]”

(Use your best judgment to decide which method is most appropriate, per situation.)

2. Always give credit, when credit is due.

If someone has provided you with a valuable piece of information, and you’re rushing to tweet about it – do remember to credit them! (And ask first, if you think it might be sensitive or personal information.)

How To Retweet

What is “Retweeting”? This refers to tweeting again what other people tweeted first.

What should you Retweet? Only information you find really important or relevant, that you think others need to hear. (Insert a very short note about why you think it’s valuable.) The format for Retweeting is:

The words “What it is” should be replaced with mega-basic info that does its best to show why someone should check it out. Some examples:

· Top 10 Twitter Mistakes
· Unusual article tips

· Monetizing sidebars
– And so on…

Never, EVER Retweet something solely in the hope of gaining brownie points with the person whose Tweet you are Retweeting.

This action will backfire on you, if the Retweet is not of real value to your followers. You may even embarrass instead of flatter the expert in question.

(No one likes to see their labor of love used tritely or weakly.) That being said, relevant Retweeting, done properly, can help you:

· Build trust with your own followers (by giving them truly valuable tips)
· Build your relationship with the person whose post you Retweeted – because you brought value (and maybe even traffic) to them also.

How To Get Your Own Posts Retweeted

No matter how genuinely pleased that person is, however, it’s no guaranteed they’ll Retweet your posts in reciprocity. There’s only one tried-and-true way to get your posts Retweeted:

· Make sure your posts are rich in value and relevancy
· Make sure they’re timely (and on top of trends, too)

Finally, do remember to include a “Retweet” button on your blog posts!
(You can get one from Tweetmeme.com.)

If you prefer, you can also add Tweet This – a plugin adds a Twitter icon to each post, so your readers can share your blog entries on Twitter.

Twitter Value

Twittering (or Tweeting, if you want to be picky) is like anything else in the wonderful world of Internet Marketing. Your primary goal is to give your followers:

· What they need
· What they will perceive as high value
· What they are missing

One way to instantly Tweet in a high-value way is to share powerful articles you yourself have found really helpful. The most effective (and fast) way to do this - visit www.twitthat.com first!

You’ll find a button you can drag to your browser, so that the next time you’re on an article, you can click that button. A window pops up and lets you modify your Tweet. When you are satisfied with it, click “Twit!”. When the article is tweeted, the pop window will automatically close.

Discover more fascinating ways to use Twitter in the Twitter Marketing Manual :