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How To Use Twitter For Marketing
By Darren Olander (c) 2008

Twitter is a relatively new web 2.0 site that is starting to
gain a lot of popularity. That means that a lot of people have
heard of it, but it is also quite common to run into people who
haven't heard of it.. yet. Twitter.com is this social site that
encourages users to post often about what they are currently
doing.

A lot of people are using it to improve their marketing
reach, by being an active twitterer they gain followers who are
interested in what they have going on. This means people being
exposed to their updates on a regular basis. For example, if you
have hundreds of followers in Twitter and you decide to post an
affiliate link, that means hundreds of people have instantly been
exposed to your offer. In this article, I will discuss ways to
maximize Twitter for your marketing as well as a big mistake you
need to avoid.

In order to have a fan base per se of followers in Twitter,
you must be able to keep their interest in you and what you are
doing now. "What are you doing?" is the whole foundation of what
Twitter is about in the first place. Make sure to post daily, if
not several times throughout the day, updates about what you are
doing. The magical thing behind this is that many of your
contacts will be able to feel like they know you so much better,
will trust you more, and feel much more comfortable about working
with you. On the other hand, when you follow others you can learn
about them and their possible needs.

The big mistake to watch out for is only posting affiliate links
or offers on your Twitter page. This looks like Spam and many
people will see you as just abusing Twitter for your own personal
gain. Think of it this way, if you would not want to invite your
friends or family to keep up with you via Twitter, then you are
going about it all wrong. As with anything you send out or
provide, ninety percent should be content and ten percent (at
most) advertising.

So this concept is quite simple... constantly post throughout
the day what you are doing.. it is usually very simple and only
takes a few seconds to post! Secondly, if you write articles or
provide content online, provide a link for those in your Twitter
posts. You may post many things within one day, but the last
thing you post for the day is usually the most important because
it will be there the longest. This means that your last post for
the day should contain a link that you want your followers to
see before your start Twittering again the next day!

Another part of Twitter is contributing. As with any social site
it should be a give and take relationship. Notice that give comes
first... the more you give the more people will want to work with
you and the more attention you will receive. Make sure to read
and follow other users in Twitter. If you read something
interesting or helpful, then make sure to reply and say so, or
even put a link for it on your Twitter so that you are directing
others to more quality content. This can also be as simple as
connecting with other users. If they know you are reading their
Twitter page, they will be much more likely to check out
what you have going on too.

To get started in Twitter you should first invite contacts who
aren't using Twitter and also find contacts who are already
using Twitter so that you can start following them and also
start getting people to follow you. Twitter has a nice invite
and find feature that makes this incredibly easy. To grow your
reach even more you can start following people who follow or are
followed by the people who follow you.. or that you follow. You
might need to read that sentence again.. but basically you can
find other users to connect with that are already connected to
other users.

Now for a big tip. If you really want to maximize the potential
with Twitter, you should make sure to take advantage of any
plug-ins or sites that support Twitter. Here are three, but I'm
sure there will be many more in the future if not already.

Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/) allows you to input your
Twitter account info into your Squidoo account and then it can
automatically post updates to your Twitter account when you
create or update Squidoo lenses.

Facebook has an application called Twitter
(http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543&b),
that automatically updates your Facebook status when you make a
Twitter post.

The other tool is a free WordPress plug-in called TweetMyBlog
(http://tweetmyblog.com/) that allows you to create a two-way
connection from your blogs to Twitter. TweetMyBlog allows you to
use a widget on your Wordpress blogs that will display your
current Twitter feed.. that way all visitors to your blog can
look at the widget and see a running feed of your latest Twitter
posts. If they click on that, they will be brought to your
Twitter page. In addition, when you make a new post to your blog,
TweetMyBlog will automatically make a post to your Twitter page
with a link to your latest blog post. Imagine the extra exposure
you can receive by using these tools that help people see more
of what you are doing.

Lastly, have fun! Twitter is a social site... so interact and
enjoy!
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Darren Olander is dedicated to teaching others how to create a
success online through internet network marketing strategies. He
is a site owner, article writer, coach & marketing consultant
enjoying the benefits of working full time from home. Learn more
about him at http://www.darrenolander.com
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