Archive for June, 2009

One of the best ways to increase your effectiveness on is to leave a part of your sense of humor behind with every .

No, Twitter isn’t the Improv. No, you’re not under any contractual obligation to be funny, either. If you can bring a few laughs to the site, however, people are going to appreciate your effort.

That doesn’t mean that you should spend a great deal of time Tweeting and to your followers. You aren’t doing a standup act, after all.

What it Read the rest of this entry »

You know the deal about snowflakes, right? Every one is unique. They’re all different and you can dig through a after a mountain blizzard to prove it. You’ll never find the same design twice.

” rel=”tag”>twitters are a lot like snowflakes. There all different, too.

Did I say Twitters with an “s” instead of plain old “Twitter”?

Absolutely. And I did it on purpose.

You see, people too often think of Twitter as a sort of monolithic thing that everyone uses and sees the same way. Read the rest of this entry »

If you do via email, one of the most important statistics is the open rate, right? You need to have a good idea of how many of your recipients are actually opening those emails.

marketing, in some ways, emulates list marketing. People opt-in to your s” rel=”tag”>tweets and you send them out, at least occasionally trying to drive traffic to one of your web properties.

The problem is that you have no idea how many people are actually ever seeing the Tweets. You can check your Read the rest of this entry »

When a plane crashed and the big news crews didn’t yet have anyone on the scene, they relied on reports from eye witnesses to patch together what had really happened.

Actor made headlines on all the gossip rags and entertainment shows when he snapped a photo of Demi Moore’s derriere and shared it with the world. How did he distribute the photo? He posted the link on Twitter.

Laid off people are finding jobs with Twitter. Grandma’s are ing to granddaughters. Read the rest of this entry »

The automatic direct message was one of the earlier add-ons. It’s turned into one of the most hated. Today, only those who are really “out of the loop” are still sending automated direct messages to people.

The most for the messages was to say “thank your for following me”. That seems pretty innocent, right? Well, it was. And then it became a way for people to say “thank you for following me and check out this link while you’re at it”. Suddenly, the DM had crossed Read the rest of this entry »

The critics are having a heyday with ” rel=”tag”>twitter. If you’re not listening to someone go on and on about how great it is, you’re probably listening to someone who’s making fun of it.

You’ve heard the criticisms. It’s narcissistic volunteer voyeurism at its worse. It’s nothing more than of self-important people sharing the of their not-so-exciting lives. How can Twitter be the next big thing? Are there really that many people who care what everyone else is making for supper?

Hey, Read the rest of this entry »

Your success on ” rel=”tag”>twitter is going to be defined primarily by the quality of your s” rel=”tag”>tweets. If you are a consistent of good information and insight, you’ll gain followers and build a network that can have some tremendous advantages.

Here’s a little trick you can use to get into the habit of posting those good Tweets people love. I recommend making one of each type of Tweets on a daily basis, preferably during a high-traffic portion of the day.

First, Re-Tweet something great from Read the rest of this entry »

s are like diamonds. No, they’re not the product of millions of years of high-pressure activity under the earth. They’re not even carbon based. And before you get a big head, no one is saying that your Tweets are quite THAT valuable.

Remember that popular ’s ad that proclaims, ““? That’s the point of . Your Tweets are long-lasting, too.

When you Tweet something, anyone in your stream can see it and they can create a copy of it. Likewise, they Read the rest of this entry »

Every once in awhile, even the best ” rel=”tag”>twitter users around find themselves losing s. People just drop away, without explanation. Sometimes, it’s easy to track the reason why. If you lose several followers every time you make a highly-charged political (not usually a good idea, by the way), it doesn’t require a genius to figure out what’s happening.

Sometimes, though, you’ll lose a follower (or several) for no . Just to make you feel a little better when that happens, Read the rest of this entry »