Twitter

4 Reasons Why You Must Use Twitter

June 1, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Although there are over 255 million active users on Twitter, some people do not have their own Twitter accounts. In addition, some people are inactive on Twitter and do not get to unlock the social network’s potential. Twitter is a social network that becomes harder to ignore as the days go by. Whether you are inactive on Twitter or don’t have an account, you must be on Twitter. These are the four reasons why you have to do that.

Twitter allows you to connect with others. On Twitter, you can develop strong connections with targeted followers. Some of your targeted followers will end up buying your products. A larger percentage of your followers will visit your blog and subscribe for updates.
Twitter 140 character limit makes you have longer conversation threads. On other social networks, the character limit is either nonexistent or much higher than Twitter’s 140 character limit. As a result, you and the person you are talking to will have to send more tweets to each other in order to get the same message across with 1 Facebook post. By making the conversation thread longer, you will be able to develop a strong connection with the person who you are talking to.
You can talk with experts in your niche. If you have a question for an expert in your niche, Twitter is the ideal social network to ask those questions. Since you are limited to 140 characters, experts in your niche are more likely to respond to your questions. Since Twitter is a social network of simplicity, it won’t take a large amount of time for an expert to give you his answer.
Twitter is a network of simplicity. The third reason that you should be on Twitter gave a short summary of why simplicity makes Twitter the go-to social network. The reason people are getting trapped on Facebook is because it is not a simple social network. You can use more than 140 characters. In fact, Facebook posts can go over 1,000 characters. That’s too many characters for a social media post. Twitter allows you to quickly read posts and then move on to your notifications or trending topics. While the average person spends almost 7 hours on Facebook every month, the average person is spending less than 30 minutes every day on Twitter. That will save you a lot of time, and the more time you save, the more you will be able to get done.

Those are the four reasons why you must be on Twitter. If your account is inactive, then start tweeting. If you don’t have an account on Twitter yet, then you know what to do. What are your thoughts on the list? Are you on Twitter for any additional reasons? Please share your thoughts below.

7 Ways To Tell Whether Someone Is A Newbie On Twitter

May 31, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

There are obvious signs of a new driver. If the car in front of you makes a left turn with the right blinker on, stops and starts often, and is making bad turns, then you know the person behind the wheel is new to driving (I start the entire process this summer). There are also obvious signs that someone just started to use Twitter. These are seven of them:

The person does not have a lot of tweets. If someone has less than 1,000 tweets, then that person is definitely a newbie on Twitter. People with over 1,000 tweets, are not newbies.
The egg avatar. Some people have thousands of followers but still have the egg avatar. Those accounts are the exceptions, not the rule. If someone has the egg avatar, that person is probably new to Twitter. If someone has the egg avatar and has thousands of followers, then that account may be a spam account (this does not always happen, but it is common).
Statuses that do not flow. If you feel awkward reading most of someone’s statuses (awkward in the way that reading them sounds), then that person probably just joined Twitter. In the beginning, people experiment with tweets and have no idea what creates the perfect tweet.
A really bad follower to following ratio. An obvious sign of a new account is one with 100 followers that is following 1,987 people because that account currently cannot follow over 2,000 people. The people behind these accounts heard that following a lot of people to get follow backs is a great idea, but these people took it a bit too far.
These people only talk to celebrities. Celebrities almost never respond to other people’s tweets. If you sent a tweet to your favorite celebrity, then you know that I mean. Some people go on Twitter just to follow celebrities and hope that one day, their favorite celebrity will respond to one of their tweets. The people who are thriving on Twitter decided to go from talking to celebrities to talking with their own followers.
Asking for the shout out. With over 50 million followers on Twitter, Katy Perry will not be asking for a shout out anytime soon. If you are a part of the large majority, you don’t have 50 million followers. In fact, the majority of Twitter users have under 1,000 followers. These people ask for shout outs because they think that if someone with 100,000 followers gave them a shout out and they only gained 1% of those followers, that person would gain 1,000 followers. The problem is that it never happens that way. Less than 10% of those 100,000 followers will see the tweet. Then, less than 10% of those people will read the entire tweet. Then, less than 5% of the people will follow the account. Mathematically, that would still be 50 followers, but that won’t happen. Asking for and getting shout outs is the most overrated way to get more followers. Twitter users who have been tweeting for a while know that this is true.
Two tweets to relay 1 message. Some newbies will need more than 140 characters to relay their message. Instead of using less characters to relay the message, some newbies will send out the first tweet and then send out a second tweet which is a continuation for the first tweet. While continuations work very effectively in reality TV shows, they do not work well with tweets.

Those are the seven ways to tell whether someone is a newbie on Twitter or not. What are your thoughts on the list? Is there another method you use to tell whether someone is a newbie or not? Please share your thoughts and methods below.

How To Build A Targeted Audience On Twitter

May 23, 2014 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

Twitter can dramatically transform your business, but only if you have the right audience. Some people have over 100,000 targeted followers, and that is a good audience to have. On the contrary, other people have 100,000 fake followers, and that’s a bad audience to have. There are also people who have 100,000 followers that are not fake but not targeted either. In order to see Twitter have the biggest effect on your business, you need to grow a targeted following.

Although many people know that the answer is to grow a targeted following, few people know how to make it happen. Growing a targeted following is not challenging at all. In fact, it is a very easy process. It is an easy process that has allowed me to gain over 600 targeted followers every day.

The only two tools you need are ManageFlitter and Tweepi. I use ManageFlitter to unfollow people who are not following me back so my ratio does not go out of control. I use Tweepi to follow targeted followers who are likely to follow me back.

In order to get the best results from Tweepi, you need to be following someone else’s followers. In addition, the person you do this for must be someone in your niche with over 100,000 followers and is also following over 100,000 people. If you want to get an idea of how many followers you will gain from following this person’s followers, look at their statistics on TwitterCounter. If you continue following this person’s followers several months straight, you will gain a similar number of followers every day.

For a long time, I followed the followers of a highly regarded social media expert. This expert has over 200,000 followers on Twitter and follows over 150,000 people. I decided to follow that person’s followers, and the amount of followers I gained every day almost matched this person’s daily gains. If this person gained 150 followers on one day, I would gain 140-160 followers on the same day.

However, I wanted to dramatically grow my social media presence. I didn’t just want to be another social media expert with tens of thousands of followers. I wanted to be a social media expert with over 100,000 followers (based on calculations I’ll be there next month). I decided to follow someone else’s followers. I chose to follow Sean Gardner’s followers. Sean has been the #1 Social Media Power User on the Forbes Top 50 list for multiple years. He also happens to gain anywhere from 400 to 1,200 followers every day. By digging around, I learned that he uses the paid version of JustUnfollow to find targeted users and follow them.

Instead of paying and getting targeted followers the hard way, I decided to follow all of the people that Sean followed. The result has been phenomenal. Now I am gaining 600 followers every day. My goal is to keep on following his followers without taking a day off from doing this for 3 straight months. Right when I saw my daily follower growth about to pass 700, something would come up, I would not be able to use Tweepi for multiple days, and then I would have to start from scratch (back down to gaining 200 followers every day, and then it shoots up to 500 the day after).

That’s the secret to build a targeted following. This is all it takes. All you need to do now is implement it.

Why Only Tweeting About Your Blog Is Okay

May 20, 2014 by Marc Guberti 7 Comments

There are many articles that recommend you only tweet about your blog 20% of the time. These articles emphasize the need to share other people’s content instead of your own. However, I only tweet about my blog posts. Other than 4 motivational quotes, the other 68 of my daily tweets are my blog posts.

At first, I was not ready to implement this tactic. I remembered what all of those articles said about sharing other people’s content 80% of your time and only sharing your content 20% of the time. However, I decided to give it a try.

The results were incredible. My blog’s traffic immediately doubled (I had a big following when I started this experiment), and it has continued to grow ever since. Many people favorite and retweet my blog posts while others have conversations with me that started when I shared a blog post. The experiment was successful, I have continued to implement it since, but this experiment taught me a valuable Twitter lesson.

When you promote How-To articles, articles with tips, or anything similar, your followers do not care who wrote the article. It does not matter whether your friend wrote the article or that article appeared in The New York Times. Your followers only care about the content. Followers only care about the writer after reading the content. If you get a follower to read at least five of your blog posts, chances are that follower will subscribe to your blog and eventually buy your products.

Tweeting about your blog often (or always) is not a mistake. As long as your blog posts contain quality content, your followers will not be unhappy if all of your tweets are links to old and new blog posts with the titles of those blog posts.

15 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter

May 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

Getting more retweets is an essential way to build your presence on Twitter. Although many people find it difficult to get numerous retweets every day, others are easily able to get well over 100 retweets for all of their tweets. Getting retweets does not have to be hard. In fact, you can get more retweets tomorrow by implementing these 15 tactics.

Retweet other people’s tweets. When people see that you retweet other people’s tweets, some people will decide to retweet your tweets too. Some people believe that retweeting your tweet will incline you to retweet one of their tweets. Other people will be grateful that you took the time to share someone else’s quality tweet and then retweet your tweet. Some of your retweets may even get retweeted by your followers.
Tweet motivational quotes. No matter what your niche is, motivational quotes always get retweeted. Motivational quotes fill your followers with a powerful message, and some of your followers will want to share that message with the people who are following them. As a result, your tweet gets retweeted.
Tweet with 1-2 hashtags. Tweets with hashtags are retweeted more often than tweets without hashtags. However, a tweet with too many hashtags is hard to read, and as a result, does not get as many retweets. The ideal number of hashtags to include in your tweets to see the best effect is 1-2 hashtags. Anything over that will not get as many retweets.
Tweet articles that your targeted followers would want to retweet. Many bloggers make the mistake of tweeting their blog posts primarily to get more traffic. In order to get more traffic to your blog, the titles of your blog posts need to be appealing to your targeted followers. I do not tweet my blog posts from the first month because they are not as good as the ones that I am writing now. As you publish more blog posts, you will have more options. Only tweet your blog posts that you know your targeted followers would visit and retweet.
Tweet other people’s articles. These articles still need to be quality content that appeals to your targeted followers. Although you should be tweeting about your own blog at least 80% of the time (as long as your blog posts are really good), some of your tweets should be about other people’s articles.
Include r/t at the end of some of your tweets. The word some is very important. Using r/t at the end of some of your tweets will give you the desired effect of getting more retweets. However, if you include r/t at the end of all of your tweets, it will lose its effectiveness. R/T works like an exclamation point. If I used one exclamation point in this blog post, it would be very effective. If I replaced every period at the end of any sentence in this blog post with an exclamation point, that exclamation point would lose its effect.
Get retweeted by people with big followings. If someone with 10,000 followers retweets your tweet, chances are some of those 10,000 followers will retweet the retweet. As more people with big followings retweet your tweets, you will get more retweets from those people’s followers.
Become a superstar who everyone wants to retweet. Ellen DeGeneres is someone who gets all of her tweets retweeted thousands of times. She also has the world record for most retweeted tweet (3.4 million retweets and 2 million favorites). Although you may not be able to get 3.4 million retweets, or thousands of retweets per tweet for that matter, what if you could get a guaranteed 10 retweets per tweet? What if you could get 50 guaranteed retweets per tweet? Becoming the superstar in your niche will make people pay more attention to your tweets and retweet them.
Tweet more often. In order for your tweets to get retweeted, your tweets need to be seen more often. By tweeting consistently throughout the day, you will increase the amount of retweets you get every day.
Include pictures in your tweets. The only reason Ellen DeGeneres’ tweet was retweeted 3.4 million times was because that tweet had a picture. The same tweet without the picture would not have gotten nearly as many retweets as the tweet with the photo. In my experience, including a picture in my tweet has more than quadrupled the average amount of retweets I get per tweet.
Tweet between 71 to 100 characters. That is the sweet spot for tweets that get retweeted. Making your tweet too short will not give your followers a good reason to retweet it. If your tweet is above 100 characters, then it will take too long for your followers to read the tweet, and they will skip over that tweet. It may sound shocking that people do not have enough time to read a 100-140 character tweet, but since the Twitter feed moves so fast, and there are countless other tweets to read, your tweet needs to be short and to the point.
Time your tweets accordingly. Did you know that 48% of U.S. users go by the Eastern Time Zone? If you want to get more people to retweet your tweets, schedule your tweets to get published at the times when people in the Eastern Time Zone are using Twitter. Even better, schedule 1 tweet every 20-60 minutes throughout the day so anyone from any time zone can read your tweets.
Include a link in your tweet. Whether the links in retweeted tweets lead to articles or YouTube videos, most retweets contain links. Some people do not retweet a tweet based on the 100 characters. Instead, these people retweet the tweet based on where the link takes them.
Tweet about Twitter. The people on Twitter want to get more followers and talk with their friends. If you tweet about Twitter, users who want to learn more about being successful on Twitter (almost everyone) will retweet your tweet. Then, as more people see your tweet, it becomes contagious and spreads across the social network.
Live tweet during events. Ellen’s most retweeted tweet was sent during the Oscars. Oreo’s famous tweet about dunking in the dark during the Super Bowl black out got more than 10,000 retweets. Esurance sent out a tweet after the Super Bowl with their $1.5 million giveaway.

By getting more retweets, your content will be able to spread on Twitter faster. As your content spreads faster, you will gain followers at a faster rate. What are your thoughts about the list? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and tips below.

Why You Need To Get Local On Twitter

May 13, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

On a social network filled with hundreds of millions of people, it can sometimes be hard to imagine that millions of those users live nearby. The only reason those people are not following you yet is because they do not know about you. The solution to the problem is to go local. There are some retail stores that are only located in New Jersey. That retail store does not want more followers from California. That retail store wants more followers from New Jersey. Getting local followers will results in more sales for those retail stores.

There is still a powerful reason to go local on Twitter. If you have a remarkable story and let people know about that remarkable story, local people will cheer you on. In the Boston Marathon, spectators always know (and cheer the hardest) when a Bostonian approaches the finish line.

If you are from California, then the people in California are going to cheer you on the most. That’s because we get that cool feeling when we realize an influential person lives in the same state as we do. When you become an influential person, the people in your state, provence, or country are going to cheer for you the most.

Getting local on Twitter allows you to interact with the fans who will extremely love what you do. In addition, getting local can help boost sales. Do not be afraid to put your location on Twitter because people who live (or used to live) in the same location as you live in now are going to talk with you. Getting local is another way to have more conversations with your followers while gaining more followers.