In the words of Marshall from ReadWriteWeb …“users no longer see public replies sent by friends to people they themselves are not following. (Fragmented conversations, they are called.) This isn’t a small change at all, it’s big and it’s bad. The new setting eliminates serendipitous social discovery.”

?v=0″ alt=”Tweeting in a Cage” />

The changes sound small, right? Yes, it is indeed a small change, it’s just that we can’t see Tweets from people we don’t follow and all the @name replies. We used to have an option to switch to that function, but they took it away and now everyone’s function is fixed. What about most of the people who actually WANT to listen to other people’s tweets.

Fruit juice is good for health, yes, and I do find it refreshing to drink it once in a while. But I like a variety of drinks, Coke, Pepsi, Coffee, Tea, not so healthy, yes I know, but I like it, it makes me happy because I have a choice. Now I am stuck to drinking ONLY Fruit juice because they think it’s good for me.

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Twitter is not Facebook

This is not Facebook where we only want to connect with people we already know, this is Twitter, a place where we find people whom we never knew. Doesn’t that explain why Twitter and Facebook are different? Now they are quite the same and personally, I think taking away that function makes Facebook actually more appealing than Twitter from today onwards. At least I can find more more about the people I know in their multi-page profiles rather than a single column 5 lines Twitter profile.

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So it doesn’t really affect how we use Twitter right? No, it changes 50% of how we use Twitter.
Let’s see what Twitter said on it’s blog on the changes.

“Spotting new folks in tweets is an interesting way to check out new profiles and find new people to follow. Despite this update, you’ll still see mentions or references linking to people you don’t follow. For example, you’ll continue to see, “Ev meeting with @biz about work stuff” even if you don’t follow @biz. We’ll be introducing better ways to discover and follow interesting accounts as we release more features in this space.”

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hmm, so does that mean we can now only Tweet inside our cage where we can talk to people we know? I think we want to be in a jungle where we can meet all the Twitterers.

Yes, I am shocked that Twitter implemented this function. My guess is that they won’t put it entirely back, but some changes that makes us happier in a few days time. If they reverse the decision, then it’s pretty heroic which gives me a reason to love the Twitter Team more.

Original Image Source

Would love to hear what you think

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Thanks to the ReadWriteWeb Team :  Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis, Jolie Odell and Phil Glockner.

And also for Marshall Kirkpatrick recommending political commentator Baratunde Thurston, cyborg anthropologist Amber Case or Google’s Kevin Marks

Hi everyone, we have a guest post by Christian Russell @christiantjr, a real estate expert who is also into social media. You may have seen some of his very insightful comments left at a couple of our blog posts here and I highly recommend that you visit his blog at http://www.myonehundredthings.com for more of his thoughts not only in the real estate world but also his experiences in life as a real person.
…and not only that, I find that he’s a very intelligent and friendly person. Just Top Notch. Let’s hear how Christian is leveraging the use of Twitter and intergrating it into the field of property.

Reasons why to listen to Christian

#1 in sales out of a sales force of 1500
#1 sales trainer in US for sales volume
#2 sales trainer in North America for sales volume
#1 real estate agent in residential real estate sales for both sales units and sales volume.

Guest Blogger: Christian Russell
Website: myonehundredthings.com

People are losing money. They’re losing money in their 401(k) and IRA portfolios. Many business people and salespeople (including tons of real estate professionals like myself) are being forced to find new ways to grow their businesses in the midst of an economy that is shrinking their marketing budgets. How can Twitter possibly help with this?

I get these questions all the time…

• How can you justify “wasting so much time on the internet”?
• How do you make money blogging?
• I don’t “get” Twitter. Why do you use that site? It’s so boring!
  (actual message I got a few days ago)

Obviously, Twitter doesn’t make sense to a lot of people! Compared to many blogs, my blog gets only very modest traffic, but I have found that using a blog, Facebook and Twitter to grow my network has enabled
me to help a lot more people, and it has truly transformed what I do. Twitter has been a big part of that.

Here’s how I make money with Twitter:

1. I connect with people who are interested in real estate and social media.
2. I talk with them (revolutionary, I know!), and then I tell them about new articles I write on my blog.
3. They visit, they engage with me in conversation on my blog, and we occasionally do business.
4. They’ll either ask me how they can use their 401(k) money to buy investment real estate, and I’ll help them out. Or they’ll ask me to build a blog for them. Or they’ll hire me for a coaching session. Or they’ll ask me to refer them to a friend of mine who can show them an investment property in their town.

Before I got into social media, I was a one trick pony…I sold houses. And I sold a lot of them…made good money. Now, the economy is on it’s ear, and my business is improving, while others are losing their
shirts. Old school media is ineffective and costly. Twitter is personal, engaging…and FREE.
Ask me again why I use Twitter

While Twitter doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, to me it makes perfect sense! Why would you spend thousands on an ad in your local newspaper, when you can connect and talk directly with people who are
interested in what you do on Twitter?

Twitter forces you to change the way you think about selling and your business overall. But it creates value for your customers and clients, it improves your connection with people, and it enables you to drastically decrease your costs. Sound good? My blog is about “building a business and a life that rocks…” It’s not even focused exclusively on real estate, yet it improves my real estate business. Funny how that works While the economy is down (and I honestly believe it will stay down for a while) there is HUGE opportunity in learning how to use new tools…FREE tools, to grow your business.

Christian’s Favorite Sales Story
My favorite sales story is about how I sold a $1500 vacuum, for cash, to a drug dealer, while his partner pointed a gun at me from behind a door in the next room. Opportunity can be found anywhere. I believe that. I believe sales is a way for anyone to become wealthy, and without sales, no one becomes wealthy. I believe in living well and rocking hard. That’s what I want to make this blog about.

If you like this story, you are going to love the great stuff he writes on his blog. Do give him a visit at
http://www.myonehundredthings.com

Photo by mugley

Source for original Photo and some words: Straits Times
The Straits Times is the most popular and powerful published paid newspaper in Singapore and it has a circulation of around 400,000 with a reach of more than 1 million. That is almost half the country’s population. It was a privilege to interviewed and featured in one of the main section in the papers. This time, it is about Twitter and how I came about to be the 2nd most followed person in Singapore.
 

In this blog post, I would like to thank the people who made it possible and also to reach out to companies in Singapore and the world who want to get into the new social media platform which is set to change how things are done in business and marketing BEFORE other companies catch on and by that time, it might be hard to catch up….really hard.

In another sense, you don’t want another Coke VS Pepsi epic battle, what you really want is a comfortable dominant market position like Colgate, P&G, NTUC or Walmart, a level much higher than the next in line that catching up is going to be a paramount task for others. I will be most willing to have a talk with you regarding that direction, just contact me.

First of all, I would like to congratulate Ms Weizen Tan, the journalist for this paper for a very well thought out and written article. Kudos to you Ms Tan. Thank you also to WL for the photoshoot, very nice shot This article has been a quite hot topic not only in Singapore’s Twitter world but also around the community. Let’s take a look at the significance of this article to the Twitter World in Singapore.

Header

The Header shows 3 things:

1. What is Twitter?
2. Who are the top in the World?
3. Who are the top in Singapore?

Left Portion

I think that the report captured Twitter very accurately in the papers as to what it is to the general public.

Middle Portion

Well known names in the respective: CNN . Obama . Coldplay . Al Gore . Tony from Zappos

I’m really glad that #28 Tony from Zappos was included in the list because I mentioned that Tony and I exchanged tweets before during the interview and it might be likely that his name was picked up to be included in this list from there.

Do send Tony @zappos a tweet that he’s mentioned in Singapore’s most popular newspaper would you? Just send him the link to this post.

The Article Mention

Below is part of the article mention on the newspaper and I will be elaborating more on what the 4 points mentioned in the article meant, points of discussion, exclusively on this blog post.

How are you using Twitter and Facebook?

“What are you doing?” is what most people are Tweeting about in Twitter and “What’s going on in your life?” , that represents what most people are doing on Facebook. Everyone has different uses for a platform, in this case, a social media platform where people can meet and converse with each other.

Imagine this akin to a very small piece of blank paper, anyone can write anything on it but the true value is what’s written on it within that same small space. One can write “Had Starbucks this morning” or another can write “E=mc^2.” The perceived and true value are different. One is just a mention while the other changes how the world thinks. Think about this for a while on what’s your purpose for being there and how you are using your time. Time is really the only thing we have which everyone has an equal number of. 24/7/365

#1. WHAT are you going to be the best in the world in?

The first thing we should answer is WHAT are we in, WHAT we are REALLY doing. If you look at the article excerpt above from the Straits Times report, the keywords at first glance is “video production” and “online publishing”, that’s the topic for now. But the main subject to be the best in the world about is just one keyword, “Start-ups.” Maynas Eric wants to be really good at business start-ups, either as a whole or new department. It matches his way of living his life as well as business, frugal living = bootstrap business, fun and adventures in life = creative and exciting ideas…example. Point of Influence: Richard Branson

What are YOU going to be the best in the world in?

#2. WHY are you doing what you do?

The energy given off from a light bulb is just strong enough to enable us to see, focus the beams of light through a lens and it can fry an egg, focus many of these and you have a laser beam that can even bore through one of the toughest material in the world, diamonds. I imagine that this works like time, use it everywhere and we get nothing significant done.

Focus your time on something and you can master a skill and get things done much better than the first few times you tried. Focus your life on a topic and you can do things that others might think impossible, even traveling in space (Thanks Virgin Galactic).

Why am I on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook? To meet more people, make more friends, have more connections and have people whom I like to work together with me, to do and accomplish great things together. What is life without Family and Friends? Our immediate family is fixed, that’s good. But who we choose to marry, live a life with and who we choose to spend our time with to share moments together, go out together, do things together, I would think that it makes sense to be around with people whom we like, that makes life happier and more meaningful to live. It is all right to be ranked second in Singapore but not the first because the significance of it, although it matters, isn’t that great as long as we know what we are doing. Some people get online to tell people what they are doing, I get online to get people to do things together. Slight difference in words but significantly different in meaning.

Who we choose to be with is as important as who we choose not to be with. Beautifully captured in the “Follow” and “Unfollow” function of Twitter.

Point of Influence: Warren Buffett

Why are YOU on Twitter and Facebook?

#3. WHO are you talking to?

It is said that who you are can be quite accurately assumed by the 5 people whom you are most in contact with. 5 is just a number to represent your inner circle. I would think that 100 is a better gauge nowadays. I imagine that “Who you are and what you become is correlated to the 100 people you are in quick contact with constantly.”

Not everyone will like you, but you don’t have to be contact with people whom you don’t like too. It doesn’t really matter to me if you are poor or rich, what matters to me is if you have a good heart, but it does matter to me if one is complaining about being poor or bragging about being rich.

I like to spend my time with people I like, respect and whom we can relate to each other about things. Like ebay’s motto, I believe that people are generally good. Give them a chance, see what they tweet about in twitter and you can get an insight of the kind of person they really are. Look into their Facebook and you can have an overview of the people they mix with. If a person doesn’t have Twitter or Facebook, and just have face to face contact with you, the information you can get from them is limited. You can only see what they are trying to show you at that one meeting.

On Twitter and Facebook, you get to see who they really are over a period of time. Are they genuine people or do they have something sleazy up their sleeves? In life and business nowadays, you have to be transparent at least to a certain extend. I like Tom Peters and Seth Godin, what they say is really what they do.

Point of Influence: Tom Peters and Seth Godin

Who are you talking to and who is actually talking to you?

#4. HOW do you plan to create your World?

We have to define what kind of world we want to live in. Some people’s world evolves a circle around their family only, some a little wider to extend to their friends, some even wider to their community, some to the extend to their country, local. There are some who want to extend to the World. That is where I want to be for now. Richard Branson went another level higher, he is extending his reach to outer space, now, that’s something!

I have worked with and hired people from other countries, for example, the States, Australia, Romania, India and also countries in Europe and Asia. One thing is clear, excellence has no discrimination. If a person is of good character and can produce good results, it doesn’t matter who he or she is, how old or where they come from as long as they are not doing anything wrong or harm anyone. Some of the best in the world are just waiting to be discovered by us, and the World is now flattened by the rise of the Internet to give us the power of instant connections. That’s powerful.

Point of Influence : ebay, Joel Comm and Tony Hsieh from Zappos

How do you plan to create your World? Is it a worldly one with meaning and prosperity or a smaller one with comfort but insecurity?

The Power of Money is often Overrated and the Power of Love is often Underrated.

Money is good, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help others you feel you should help for free. Love is good, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t charge people who you like. For those who know me, you will know that I don’t like to charge people for the things I do for them voluntarily and I don’t like to help people for the things they ask me to do for them for free especially when it feels like a demand. I am like most people, I do not like to be taken for granted. As I understand this, it is also what I remember when it comes to other people. Love comes in many forms, I believe in two other kinds of love in friendship, Philia and Xenia (Greek).

I hope to use this opportunity to send a message to you and the people I hope you will be sending here to read this post. If you’re looking to improve your business, selling something, looking for a job, looking for investors, looking for more business contacts or simply looking for like minded friends then you can take this opportunity to join my newsletter to get the latest updates of what’s going on and important events.

Bucket List Revisited

I am also currently looking to fulfill my bucket list for 2009/2010. This is the list as follows, if you think you can help, it will be great if you could contact me.

For those who know me for some time, you would have known that I have a bucket list which consists of over a hundred entries in the list, things I hope to do in the journey of my life. In this revised Bucket List, I have shortlisted those I wish to accomplish in the years between 2009 to 2010. I imagine that by accomplishing these lists, it would be able to set me up to accomplish my goals of setting up a school and research facilities in the areas of renewable energy and life enhancement.

Find out more about Eric or Find out what people think about Eric

Some of the objectives in the list might seem difficult to accomplish and yes, they certainly are in some sense but they are definitely worth doing. I have confidence in achieving them as life has taught, when there’s a will, there’s a way. However, I know that I cannot do it alone and would need like-minded people to accomplish the goals together with me. If you are interested, please do contact me and let’s move ahead together, shall we? *Smiles*

Goals for 2009/10

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1. Build up a network of good people and friends who can get things done (join the100monkeys.com
2. Successfully start up an online publishing house (need MANY authors and list holders. Interviews with well respected people.)
3. Successfully start up an online web design studio (need strong designers and contacts)
4. Successfully start up an online fashion house (need private printers and tailors)
5. Successfully start up an online video production house (need contributors and funding)
6. Successfully start up an online business consulting firm (spread the word)
7. Successfully publish books on Amazon.com (need bestselling co-authors)
8. Successfully develop own stock trading system (US, SG, KOR)
9. Successfully develop own real estate trading system (AU, NZ, SG, US, UK, EUR)

Self Improvement

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1. Go for Lasik to have perfect eyesight (more convenient for travel purposes)
2. Remove acne scars (Both vanity purposes and for courtesy to audiences)

By 2012

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1. Go for PhD, complete it around 2012
2. Set up private schools to teach entrepreneurial and life skills internationally
3. Set up research facilities for renewable energy and life enhancement

If you would like to join me on this journey on some of the above mentioned goals, please do feel free to leave a comment below or you can Contact me for private discussions. Thank you my friends.

Services Provided:
We currently provide design services such as custom Twitter Backgrounds, Professional Facebook Profile Pictures, Logo / Graphic Design and writing services mainly to raise extra capital for our expansion. Feel free to contact us for quotes.

Looking for:
We are currently also looking for Twitter and Facebook application developers, WordPress Theme designers, video producers and blog writers at the moment. Do contact us if you know any. Thanks!

Do remember to sign up for our newsletter Thanks!

Everything starts from Zero One (thanks to @fredinchina). Even the highest mountain was a molehill once, even the great people who ever lived in the world were babies once and they knew as much as any other babies, not much. From there, we keep on improving, little by little. Each day of improvement is just like any other day…then suddenly it happens…the scales tipped.

The scale was tipped over at its critical mass and there is a giant spike! Take the case of Facebook and Twitter, both were virtual unknowns once, then as it slowly builds up its user base, suddenly it tipped and it seems like the whole world knows about it! This is a short research about a major effect, we can call it the The Tipping Point as by Malcolm Gladwell, or the 100th Monkey Effect which originated from Lawrence Blair and Lyall Watson.

Let’s take a look at Malcolm Gladwell’s version of the effect in his book, The Tipping Point:

The Tipping Point

“…It’s a book about change. In particular, it’s a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does.

…it’s that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us.

…My argument is that it is also the way that change often happens in the rest of the world. Things can happen all at once, and little changes can make a huge difference. That’s a little bit counterintuitive. As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect.

…It’s the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It’s the boiling point. It’s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.

…I spent a great deal of time in the book talking about the way our minds work–and the peculiar and sometimes problematic ways in which our brains process information. Our intuitions, as humans, aren’t always very good. Changes that happen really suddenly, on the strength of the most minor of input, can be deeply confusing. People who understand The Tipping Point, I think, have a way of decoding the world around them.

Source: The Tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

A story about social change.
By Ken Keyes Jr.
The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea…Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

My courteous readers, at this point, many of you might have noticed the similarities between the points brought forward by the Tipping Point and the 100th Monkey Effect. Kudos to Malcolm Gladwell for putting up examples to prove the point and kudos to the person who first tried to explain the social behavior of monkeys akin to how we humans might be socializing as well.

…and now it’s time to give this 100 monkeys experiment a go at proving the myth a reality
The beginnings of the 100th Monkey experiment.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maynaschua/sets/72157616214426628/

Hi Guys, this is a guest post on Maynaseric.com by Ken Ramirez from Axsys Technology Group. Ken mentioned to me that he had a web presentation about social media earlier this week and I thought it was pretty awesome.  In this post, Ken talks in depth about how to drive traffic to your own website harnessing the power of Twitter and how it can benefit your business. Enjoy!

In this post, I want to provide you with some information and tools about how you could be using Twitter (a social media website) to drive traffic to your own website. However, if this is the first time you’ve seen our company or my name, you’re probably wondering who we are, what we do, and why you should read and follow anything we have to say, so first, let me provide you a short paragraph or two of what we do.

About Us

I’ve been involved in the IT industry for more than 20 years as a developer and website designer, and have worked with technologies from C++ in the old days, to Java, and PHP in recent times. I’ve also written for many of the industry’s publications, include IBM developer works and Java Developer’s  Journal (just to name a few). My company, Axsys Technology Group provides:

• Website design and development services
• Premium website hosting services
• E-Marketing services (including Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing)

So now that you know a little about me and my company, let’s get started with social media, Twitter, and how to drive traffic to your own website.

Advantages of Social Marketing

There are a number of advantages when it comes to marketing your website using Social Media Marketing (or SMM):

1. You’re able to become a resource of others (including your potential customers) to use when they need answers. You potential customers want to go to the person that has the answers, an expert in the field. They want the expert in the field to provide the product or service for them.
2. Since most social media websites provide you with the ability to upload or provide content and furthermore, make it available forever, it becomes searchable and discoverable. This places an large advantage on your side, by allowing others to find your website or company via the content that you’ve left behind on other social media websites.
3. By strategically leaving some information around about your services or products, you also create buzz. Furthermore, if you have a few of your customers leave some feedback around on some of the social websites, you extend that buzz to their friends, family, and customers, and soon, they too become your customers.
4. By connecting with your potential clients on these social websites, you tend to view their emotional feelings about certain things. You can then use that information to your advantage. Some clients wear their emotions on their sleeve (especially on Twitter). For example, if I know that someone I’m working with is very conservative from the things they write on their social websites about themselves, it gives me a better idea of what kind of website designs to present to them.
5. As you land one or two clients from a social network, you quickly start to land more because those few clients will go back and spread the word about what a great job you did for them. Nothing spreads faster than the power of words on a social website, again, especially Twitter. It can make you or break you very easily.
6. You’ll have a great platform for placing your branding and your company’s identity.
7. You’ll also be able to reach outside of your own market by using the Internet to reach other cities, other states, and even other countries.
8. Potential clients like to meet you and/or your employees before dealing with you. They like to get to know the people behind a company, before they deal with the company itself. Social websites allow them to do just that, so because what you post and what you write about.
9. If you need a service or product from another business, it’s much easier to find them online using social websites. At the same time, it also presents a great way to spy on your competition and see what they’re up to.
10. Essentially, social media websites help you to understand who your customers are and builds trust between you and your customers.

What Is Twitter?

In a nutshell, it allows you to answer the question:

“What Are You Doing?”

Twitter provides the means for “micro-blogging”. It’s considered micro-blogging for 2 reasons. One, you can only write your posts using 140 characters or less, and two, it’s more interactive and more often performed, than creating a post for a regular blog.

Twitter provides the means for others to follow you and read your micro-posts and allows you to follow those individuals that you find interesting and wish to learn more about. Some ask:

“Is this micro-blogging or micro-stalking?”

Either way, Twitter provides the platform for you to potentially connect with others and has the set of advantages that I listed out above.Many of you may have attended social gatherings, conferences, or business-to-business lead generation meetings where you’ve been able to connect with other businesses and/or potential customers to learn about their needs and to see how they might be able to use your services or purchase your products.

The problem with that platform is that you’re restricted by both location and time. You have to be there within a time-frame, and you have to be at a particular location. Once you arrive, you normally move from group to group to determine the best conversation to participate in. Once you find a conversation that you can contribute to, you spend some time waiting for the right opportunity to introduce your services or products to the other participants.

Using Twitter for business marketing, works very much the same way, except, you’re not restricted by either time or place. In fact, if done correctly, you can even jump into a conversation that may have started hours or even days ago. It’s kind of like a social gathering that never ends (even if you run out of things to say or add to the conversation). It also isn’t bound by location. You could be talking to three different people at the same time on three different continents.

The above presentation will provide you with answers to using Twitter for drive traffic to your website by following a few simple steps and rules. I have also provided you with a list of tools that you should be sure to check out and use.

Above all, be careful what you say on Twitter (especially if you use it for business), don’t just talk about yourself or your services. Don’t send auto-replies that simply advertise your products or services. Don’t brag about yourself; let others do the bragging for you. Be as helpful as possible and in return, your readers and potential clients will become dedicated followers.

Twitter Question

If you ever clicked on someone’s Twitter Profile, you might have noticed that in that many people do not fully utilize that space. That short space is really just about the only clue they know who you are and what you are about, but why do the mass majority of people on Twitter waste this space. I would think that because many people find it hard to squeeze the story of their whole life into this frighteningly short space, they might tend to think that it is so unimportant to do so. So what do people really think?

This is a really short post about a really simple but difficult question. It is about who you are, who you think you are and who others think you are. It’s about questions we really don’t feel like answering ourselves because we need to think and expose ourselves to ourselves truthfully. Ouch, it hurts, truth sometimes hurts. *Winks*

It is also about how you can describe about your life in 160 characters.

Let’s take a look at some Twitter Bios:

What do you think about Twitter Bio Profiles? Are they important?

It would be great to let us know what is your current Twitter Bio Profile and if you have changed it because of what you have read here. For readers of this blog, you would know that sometimes, great things will happen by joinin in the discussion *Winks*

Let us know, Retweet this and let’s find out what happens, shall we? *Smiles*

Let’s look at how our next guest bloggers, Christine Rabel, uses Twitter as a tool to reach her customers and also how Roderick Low from expeditusmedia thinks about using Twitter effectively for business.

Case Study :

Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant :  Christine Rabel

“Using Twitter allows access to those whom I would never be able to touch, and the “Virtual MakeOver” on my site allows them access to professional looks, with free shipping directly to them! (US only from my site) I’ve made some terrific contacts with women AND men (men appreciate nice skin, too!), so Twitter has given much back, for no investment! I was hesitant at first (I like face-to-face contact), but have been able to form relationships with this, as well. It’s a win-win!”

How to Use Twitter Effectively for Business

It has been awhile since technology change the way we do things and certainly Twitter did. Twitter have redefine the way we communicate with each other. Millions around the world are using Twitter to connect with each other, share information and form business partnerships. If you are a business owner you can’t afford not to take the advantage of Twitter to expand your business.

There are however the right way and the wrong way of using Twitter. Businesses who are looking for quick cash will be ignored by the community and cast aside. In the worse case, the business reputation will be poor within the Twitter community. In order to get the most out of Twitter, you must think about what you can do for others instead of what others can do for you.

Here are five areas you might want to look into when using Twitter:

 

1. Connect with the right people:

   What is the point of having 2000 or 20,000 members when non of them know you and they do not have the same interest as you? Connect with the right target audience will help you improve your relationship with the members on Twitter as well as send qualified traffic to your website.

2. Provide Value:

   The more you are able to add value on Twitter, the more you get out of it. People follow you for a reason, so give them valuable information, and they keep coming back for more.

3. Network with others:

   don’t be scared to communicate with others and respond to their updates. Twitter is a networking site. It’s a many-to-many communication service. It’s not just about you! Start talking to the members that interest you and build a relationship from there.

4. Know the limits:

   if you are a business owner, you should know that what you say on Twitter can help or harm your business name significantly. Don’t say anything you don’t want others to hear about in a professional situation. I suggest have a guidelines drawn so that anyone in charge of the business profile will know what o say and what to avoid.

5. Listen to your audience:

   Twitter is live and kicking 24/7. That means that you have constant access to what folks are talking about, their needs, and their wants. By listening to what others have to say on Twitter, you can build new products, improve your existing ones, and find new partners.

6. Twitter is not for everyone.

   If you prefer to treat Twitter as a chatroom for silly discussions, you are better off not using Twitter at all. Managing a Twitter account properly takes time, and you shouldn’t cut corners in that regard. By providing real value to your followers, you can not only build relationships but also drive thousands of qualified leads to your business for free.

Guest Post by : Roderick Low from expeditusmedia.com

Guest Post Written by RJ Harrington
Photography by R.Harrington
Wedding and Event Photography based in Atlanta – Services offered worldwide
Website: www.loversmatinee.com
Mobile: 404.593.4748
E-Mail: harrington@loversmatinee.com

Why Use Twitter?

Let’s face it, when it comes to technology you are either on board or watching success wave ‘au revoir’ as it pulls away from the docks.

This is what I had to tell myself after an event planner in my network of professionals asked me if I ‘twittered’. Considering that I was already semi-addicted to Facebook, I thought to myself, “Wow, yet another ‘thing’ I have to subscribe to in order to keep up with the technology Jones’”. Let me say that I absolutely love what I do, so anything that would assist me with ‘my love’ was worth a try. I found Twitter to be new, easy, and now.

Twitter is one of the ways that businesses, both new and established, are getting the word out to the world in real time. As a wedding and event photographer, I find Twitter to be an excellent networking tool. I communicate daily with florist, pastry chefs, DJs, event planners, and venue consultants. Through this network it is easy to connect with others, including brides-to-be, who might be in need of my services or the services of those in my ‘wedding industry’ network. Twitter helps to establish and facilitate these connections.

Building a Network on Twitter

Is your Twitter network a little slim? Don’t be discouraged; be proactive! There is no excuse for being shy; you have your computer or blackberry to hide behind. Much like Facebook, a user can feel very much like the child that sits alone at lunch until he or she begins to build a network of ‘friends’. But once you do, you realize that this is yet another tool to stay connected with the business world that may or may not have been passing you by.

My hope is that my Twitter network will continue to grow. When my network grows, my success in the wedding industry does as well. And believe it or not, it’s not all about the money. Yes, like everyone else I have bills and such; however I have been in love with photography since I was a small child assisting my father with amateur wildlife photo shoots during our family vacations. For me, any opportunity to photograph the world is a rush unlike no other. I thoroughly enjoy capturing weddings and Twitter is making that ‘rush’ occur more often.

Before Twitter, brides and their event planners contacted me mainly through my website and other industry links such as Brides.com and TheKnot. Twitter has allowed brides to not only connect with me for my services but to share ideas, referrals and a general camaraderie that helps to solidify professional relationships. My sometimes random Twitter posts prove that I am not only a photographer offering my services, but also a friend, a seeker of knowledge and most importantly- a human being.

Photography by R.Harrington
Wedding and Event Photography based in Atlanta – Services offered worldwide
Website: www.loversmatinee.com
Mobile: 404.593.4748
E-Mail: harrington@loversmatinee.com

Want to get featured in future blog posts ?

Hi my friends,

I just got a Media Request from a Journalist to do a feature on Twitter which might be published in the papers. I’m writing it now and it would be great to what you think about too about the two questions.

(1) What do you use Twitter for?

(2) Why do you like it in 140 characters?

Two simple questions, short answers will do, longer ones will be most appreciated.

I might compile your answers into an eBook and do some viral marketing to spread the word around, so do remember to leave a valid contact in your comments. Thanks!

Edit: Here are some more replies from other platforms. There was a bug in a WordPress plugin which didn’t let some Firefox users post a comment here yesterday, thank you for those who contacted me via other ways too

twitter comments 1

Twitter Comments 2

Richard D’Anjolell

I use twitter like a television. Each Tweeter is their own television station and every Tweet can be it’s own show. I have laughed and smiled at brief comments for a moment, witnessed breaking news, and have been entertained for hours by clicking through to a link attached to a Tweeterfeed. Sometimes, just like with television, every Tweet is a commercial and I have to click through the stations to find something that catches my attention. At the same time, Twitter allows me to have my own station that I use as a source platform to the world. Sometimes I write something witty, funny, or cathartic and other times I offer links to my own original work or other material that I think the world should see.

Keeping Tweets 140 characters adds form to the creative process similar to Haiku. It forces one to phrase a message in a compelling format.

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