twitter tips

5 Reasons Why You Need To Share Your Location On Twitter

June 10, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Twitter is a big place filled with a lot of people. Because of this, some people are fearful of including their location on Twitter. They do not want others to know private information that can make it easier for people to find them. However, the location you put does not have to be very specific. You do not have to reveal your address, but being too broad does not solve the problem either. Telling people that you live on Planet Earth is not a good location. On the other hand, telling people that you live in a particular location that is not too specific but not too broad is the best way to approach the problem.

On my Twitter profile, I reveal that I live in Scarsdale, New York. By doing this, I am not giving away my address, but I am not telling people that I live somewhere in the Americas. Just because a lot of people reveal their location does not necessarily make more people want to include their locations. Some people do not include their location on Twitter just because they are amazed that some people would actually put their location up. However, putting up your location on your Twitter account is a very good move if you want to excel on the platform. Here are five reasons why.

You get to make more connections, and those connections will be stronger. If someone currently lives in or used to live in the same town you live in now, you will have a stronger connection with that person. If you talk with this person for a long time on Twitter and find that this person is very trustworthy, you could possibly meet in real life.
You will get more local speaking opportunities. When businesses hire people to speak at their events, they look for the greatest quality for the lowest price. If you live near by, that means the company does not have to pay for a plane ticket for you to speak in public. If someone in New York City is looking for a public speaker, and it is visible on your Twitter profile that you live near the city, the person behind the event will want you to speak at the event.
You will get more fans. Your fans are the people who know everything about you that has been released to the public. They know your marketing strategies, great moments, bad moments, birthday, and location. Giving some people one more thing about you will turn them into fans.
You can connect with leaders in your niche and ask if you would like to meet. If one of the leaders in your niche lives near by, ask that person if they would like to meet you at a restaurant in the afternoon. If you ask a leader in your niche to do this, you must build a strong connection and talk with that person first. If a stranger came up to you and asked if you would like to have lunch together, you would be very likely to say no.
It gives you leverage during news stories and vacations. If you tweet, “Enjoying the sun at my vacation destination,” it will be winter in some parts of the world. When it’s summer in North America, it’s winter in Australia. If you say, “Enjoying the sun,” and your location for that tweet is somewhere in Florida, then you have more leverage. Instead of your followers asking where you are, they will be able to say, “Have fun at Florida.” Florida is not specific enough for people to pinpoint an exact location for where you are, but it is enough to give people an update about where you are.

Including your location on Twitter is an essential way to build more connections, get more engagement, and boost sales. The most common reason why people do not include their Twitter location is because they are afraid of their safety. The chances of someone looking through your account thinking about hunting you down are extremely unlikely. You will be safe if you put a brief but sufficient location for yourself on Twitter. All you need to do for your location is leave the city and the state/province that you live in. What are your thoughts about including your location on Twitter? Have you already put your location on Twitter? Please share your thoughts below.

70 Amazing Twitter Tips

June 9, 2014 by Marc Guberti 52 Comments

Twitter is a powerful social network that has transformed this blog and others as well. However, when it comes to using Twitter, many people get confused. They do not know how to create quality tweets with only 140 characters, build a strong following, or interact with the followers that they have. In this blog post, I will provide numerous tips that cover all three of these aspects on Twitter and others as well.

Retweet other people’s tweets. If you share other people’s tweets, then others will be more likely to retweet other people’s tweets. If you have not retweeted anyone else’s tweet in one week, then you are using Twitter wrong.
Grow a targeted following. A targeted following is the best kind of following to have. These kinds of followers are the ones who are interested in your tweets before they even start to read them.
Ask questions. Asking questions will encourage people to respond with their answers. This will allow you to engage more with your followers.
Answer questions to join a conversation. If you want to engage with new people, then look for the people who are asking the question. By answering these people’s questions with a tweet, you may get some new followers, but the conversation will more than likely continue.
Tweet every 30 minutes. Tweeting every 30 minutes allowed me to build a strong presence on Twitter. No, it’s not annoying to tweet this many times every day.
Better yet, tweet every 20 minutes. The more you tweet, the more times people are going to see you. Tweeting every 20 minutes allows almost all of your followers who logged in on that day to see one of your tweets. I didn’t annoy more people by tweeting this much. In fact, I gained more people and saw more engagement for my tweets.
Schedule tweets. The only way you are going to tweet every 20-30 minutes is if you schedule tweets in advance.
Get HootSuite Pro. It will make your life much easier and save you a lot of time. I am able to schedule 36 tweets in just 6 clicks.
Tweet about your blog 80% of the time. If you want to drive more traffic to your blog from Twitter, you need to tweet about your blog at least 80% of the time. Only tweeting about your blog 20% of the time is a mistake. Your followers won’t care if your blog posts are filled with quality content.
Tweet pictures. Pictures have been proven to increase retweets, favorites, and conversations you have with your followers. Basically, it’s something that you must do.
Tweet at the moment. Don’t schedule a question! If you get answers right away, you can extend those conversations by replying as soon as possible.
Get the Twitter mobile app. The Twitter mobile app allows you to tweet at the moment no matter where you are. If you’re in the parking lot waiting for someone to get to the car, you can send out a tweet with the mobile app and respond to people in real time.
Use Twitter’s search engine to find targeted people. It’s cool, reliable, and easy to find targeted people with Twitter’s search engine.
Follow journalists. If you follow these journalists and build a strong presence for yourself on the web, then these journalists will be more likely to write about you in a popular magazine.
Follow the right people. Follow targeted people who are likely to follow back, people that you like, people you want to (and can) build connections with, tweet awesome stuff, and/or the leaders of your niche. Don’t follow the people who are not going to provide more value for your Twitter experience.
Tell everyone about what you do in your niche in your bio. You bio is a place for you to tell people what you are an expert at.
Also tell people about all of your accomplishments. The accomplishments are proof that you are an expert. The social media expert who got on the Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Users list looks much better than the social media expert with 500 followers.
Get more words in your bio by using commas and incomplete sentences. Your English teacher is not going to come and haunt you if you use sentence fragments and do not have a verb in your bio. Simply list everything you do as well as your accomplishments by separating everything with commas.
Use TwitterCounter to keep track of statistics. The best way to grow on Twitter is to know when you did well and when you did bad. TwitterCounter allows you to see how many followers you gain for up to 6 months (free version). It’s a nice tool to utilize.
Use Tweriod to see when your followers are on Twitter. Using Tweriod will allow you to identify the times when most of your followers on Twitter. Now you know when to send out your most important tweet.
Include RT or r/t at the end of some of your tweets. Including RT or r/t at the end of some of your tweets does lead to more retweets. However, if you overuse RT or r/t, its effect will ware off, and you will not get as many retweets if you include RT or r/t at the end of your tweets.
Thank the people who share your blog posts. Thanking people for sharing your blog posts is an unexpected act of courtesy that can result in this person sharing more of your blog posts and being grateful that you thanked them.
Favorite tweets on occasion. Talking with someone is better than clicking the little star.
Use more verbs and fewer nouns. You will get more retweets this way.
Use hashtags. Using hashtags also has a good effect on getting more retweets. However, any tweet with more than two hashtags does not get retweeted as much.
Make your tweets 70-100 characters long. This is just another way to get more retweets. 70-100 characters seems to be the sweet spot.
Do not connect your Facebook account with your Twitter account. It’s annoying for your friends and followers on Facebook. It’s not worth it.
Use your Twitter account to promote your other social networks. If Twitter is your biggest social network, it may take a small push to turn your other social networks into something extraordinary as well.
Promote your Twitter account on your other social networks. Getting multiple small pushes to leverage your Twitter account can lead to something incredible.
Pin a tweet to the top of your profile. Make it the tweet that you want everyone to see. Choose wisely.
Focus on one specific niche. People follow specific people. If you scatter around from niche to niche, people will not know why they are following you.
Tweet motivational quotes. No matter what your niche is, motivational quotes always increase engagement.
Get in touch with the leaders in your niche. Leaders chat with other leaders. Show people that you are a leader by talking with the leaders. In addition, you will be able to learn new things by talking with the leaders of your niche.
Tweet a tip of the day. This allows you to provide your followers with easy to access knowledge about your niche.
Use Twitter to make a difference. Vivienne Harr has done that quite nicely with her Make A Stand Lemon Aid. She’s also six years younger than me.
Take advantage of trending topics. If you say something clever, you will get more retweets for that tweet than your typical tweets. Trending topics are popular which means when you get discovered, it will have a big impact on your engagement.
Follow others instead of trying to be a rock star. Don’t be the guy or gal who wants to have 100,000 followers and only follow 10 people. It doesn’t work that way, and even if you got that to happen, you are not using Twitter to its fullest potential (building connections).
Use Bitly to shorten links. *Almost* any method you can use to save characters is a good method. Bitly links also come with detailed statistics.
Hire someone to create your background. I hired someone to design my book cover and saw unprecedented success in my book sales. Hiring someone to create an awesome Twitter background for as little as $5 on Fiverr can make you look more professional.
Follow back the people who follow you. This is all about building the connections that you have gained through Twitter.
Do not use automated DMs. That is, unless, you like getting unfollowed.
Properly use DMs to contact some of your followers. Personalized messages to a few followers strengthens the connections you have with those followers. In addition, you can have long conversations by sending DMs back and forth to one of your followers.
Turn your Twitter followers into fans. Tweet incredible content and build your credibility. Become someone who your followers would be proud to show off to their friends.
Become a guest blogger. Guest blogging is an easy way to get more exposure and followers on your Twitter account. In addition, becoming a guest blogger builds on your preeminence.
Get people to interview you. You credibility gets boosted and you get more followers at the same time.
Interview other people. For most people, this tip is easier than Tip #45. The people you interview will be very likely to follow you on Twitter and tell their followers about you.
Give yourself goals to aim for. Instead of striving to gain more followers, strive to gain 10 followers every day. Then go up to 20 followers every day and keep on building.
Proofread your tweets before you send them out. It sounds like something completely unnecessary, but it is important. You would be shocked with how many typos are on Twitter.
Look at the Twitter strategy you already have in place. Identify its strengths and areas of improvement.
Don’t argue with anyone on Twitter. It’s wrong and makes you look bad.
Regularly check your profile and keep it up to date. The information you wrote on your bio three months ago could be outdated. You could also be doing something more remarkable than anything on your bio and may want to add that in your bio.
Only list one person for Follow Friday. Follow Friday is overrated, but if you participate in it, only list one person for every Follow Friday. No one likes to see a list of 10 usernames with no motives to follow those people.
Review your Twitter apps to make sure there are no problems. That’s how you get hacked. I got hacked once because I did not review my apps carefully. Learn from my heartache.
Use ManageFlitter. It’s a great tool that allows you to identify the people who are not following you, the people who are following you, and other cool features as well.
Use Tweepi. Tweepi helps you grow a targeted following by displaying a list of someone’s followers based on last tweet, follow back ratio (the most important), number of followers, and more!
Look at your Bitly links and continue tweeting the links that get clicked on the most. If people liked it the first time, they’ll like it again. If you see a decline in clicks for one of your Bitly links, then that link needs to take a break.
Have perseverance. Remember that Rome was not built in 1 day. Neither was anyone’s Twitter presence.
Don’t ask to be followed. Instead of asking people to click the follow button and build a connection made from pity, build your presence on Twitter.
Don’t ask for a shout out. Just don’t. Ever.
Don’t send out boring tweets. If you send out boring tweets such as status updates of you walking your dog or something else, it will bore the reader.
You should tweet about one thing 80% of the time. Stay focused on one niche. You can go out of your niche sometimes, but use this 80% rule to make sure most of your tweets are the ones that your followers want to read.
Don’t think about lost followers and connections. Instead of looking at what you lost, look at what you have gained.
Know why people follow you and would want to read your tweets. Knowing is the first step towards seeing better results.
Check your notifications three times every day. By checking your notifications three times every day, you will be able to reply to more of your followers faster. If you check your notifications more than three times every day, then that’s even better.
Use a real location in your bio. There’s no harm in adding your location, and it can result in strong connections with people who either live near by or used to live where you live now.
Raise your Klout Score. People look at your Klout score to determine how influential you are on the web…and Twitter!
Have a good bio picture. The bio picture is one of the most important factors when someone decides whether someone will follow you or not.
Use Twitter every day. If you want to become successful on Twitter, you need to be dedicated.
Look at what the leaders of your niche tweet. Then see if you can tweet something similar.
Tweet slideshares and infographics. Those happen to work very well on Twitter.

Those are 70 Twitter tips. Chances are you will choose some of these tips from the list and implement them one at the time. In order to get the best out of this article, I highly recommend that you revisit this article once a week so you can see how many of these tips you are implementing. By implementing all of these tips consistently for a long period of time, you will eventually be able to gain thousands of followers on Twitter every week.

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 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.

10 Ways To Find Cool People To Follow On Twitter

May 11, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

In a social network with hundreds of millions of active users, some people find it very challenging to find the right people to follow in the big crowd. Many new users often get lost in Twitter’s search option as they look for people in their niche to follow. However, there are ways to find cool people to follow in the crowd of over 200 million active users. Here are 10 of those ways:

Search your niche’s keywords in Twitter’s search box. If you search for your niche’s keywords, you will be able to find the people who frequently tweet about your niche. After searching the keywords, Twitter will show you a list of people’s tweets about that niche with the top three accounts. On the top left corner is an option where you can display all of the accounts that tweet about your niche. By using this option, you will be able to see the best of the best in your niche. Those are the people who you should follow.
Use Twitter’s “Who To Follow” section. After following a few people in your niche, Twitter’s “Who To Follow” section will be filled with people who tweet about things related to your niche. By following the people on that list, Twitter will continue adding people to that list who tweet about things related to your niche.
Go outside of the niche. Outside of your niche is yourself. Who are the people that you admire? These people do not have to be in your niche. I have my favorite athletes, authors, and singers. Although these people do not necessarily tweet about things related to my niche, I follow these people on Twitter anyway because I like them.
Follow media outlets. The Huffington Post, Mashable, Tech Crunch and ABC News are four great media outlets worth following. There are several other media outlets that are worth following as well. Following these media outlets will allow you to keep up with the news and possibly learn about people who tweet about things related to your niche.
Follow the followers of someone in your niche with over 100,000 followers. Most of the social media experts will tell you to do this when you want to build a targeted following. However, implementing this strategy will also allow you to follow cool people. The people who you are following are people who are interested in your niche. You can have conversations with these people about your niche.
Follow guest bloggers who write blog posts about your niche. At either the beginning or end of every guest post is the name of the author. In many cases, clicking the author’s name will lead to a bio page where you will be able to see a link to that person’s Twitter account. After you get the link, follow that guest blogger. Then, tell him/her that you enjoyed reading their blog post. That’s how the conversation starts (and builds).
Look for social media icons on a blogger’s blog. All of my icons are located on the right sidebar of my blog. Many bloggers add their social media icons to their blogs so they can get more followers. If you like a blogger’s blog posts, you should click on the Twitter icon and follow that blogger. Then, start a conversation.
Follow motivational accounts. No matter what profession you are in, we can all use motivation. Out of all of the motivational accounts out there, in my opinion, @Sports_Greats sends out the most motivational tweets. The account has over 1 million to show for it.
Follow people who have a conversation with you. If someone has a conversation with you on any social network, chances are that the first conversation will not be the last one. In order to stay in touch with the person you are having a conversation with, you should follow that person. In addition, that person will be very likely to follow you back.
Look through tweets about trending topics. For certain trending topics, there are several tweets that will make you laugh. If someone’s tweet made you laugh, you should follow that person for more comedy. In fact, you should also follow your favorite comedian.

Although Twitter is a big place, it is not hard to find people worth following. There are over 200 million active users on Twitter, but somewhere in those 200 million active users are the active users who you need to follow as soon as possible. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you find people to follow through any other method? Please share your thoughts and tips below.