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There are a number to tools that help you maximize your use of Twitter.

Tools like Hashtags, Ping, Hootsuite, Tweet Later, Twollo, Twitter Local, and Tweet Deck are briefly explained in this video. Give some of them a try.

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100 Million New Users

In 2010 Twitter signed on more that 100 million new users. And as the number of Twitter users grows, the usage of Twitter by existing users is also growing.

Twenty-one percent of Twitters users are following more that 100 people. That is an increase of 7% over last year. And sixteen percent have over 100 followers.

The average Twitter user is still a newbie. Over 80 percent of the users have fewer than 500 tweets. And 22 percent of the users are responsible for 90 percent of the tweets.

How are you going to expand your usage of Twitter in 2011?

A Tool for Twitter (and Facebook)

Huck

TweetDeck is a free application that you can download onto your computer. It monitors your Twitter accounts. It also allows you to post onto Twitter and Facebook.

TweetDeck lets you create all kinds of sorting and filtering that helps maximize your time monitoring what people are Tweeting. Find out when they are talking about you or your company. See what they are saying. And then determine if you need to respond. It may be a sales opportunity, or it could be an opportunity to put out a fire.

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A YouTube Demo

Take a look at this demo from YouTube and think about how you can use it for your business.

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Download TweetDeck

Go to TweetDeck.com and download the software. Then create some lists to follow and make some postings. It won’t take long for you to discover what a powerful tool this is.

What Kind Of Followers Do You Want?

The Quantity Of Followers

Some people have made it their mission to gain as many followers as possible. One way to do this is to follow other people. Many people out there will follow you when you follow them. However, I wouldn’t advise doing this. When you are inundated with thousands of tweets then they are worthless to you. You don’t have time to read them or the time to filter to those of value.

The Quality Of Followers

From the point of view of a business you want people following you that see value in your posts. Choose to target only those people with an interest in a narrow topic. You want them active and engaged in the subject. And with that being the case you are going to have fewer followers than the person who is just shooting for numbers.

If your topic is very general then your followers may be of larger numbers. But keep in mind when your Tweets are in a broad category you have many more people tweeting on the same subject. In such a case you need to post content that stands above the competition in order to stand out. This requires more resources.

Specialize Your Tweets

The more productive thing for businesses to do is to Tweet about specialized topics. This is a way for businesses and individuals to display their expertise in focused areas. If you have more than one focus area then set up more than one Twitter account. And monitoring those various accounts may give you some ideas as to the needs of that market segment.

For example, Garry West is one of the typical rough necks at Four Seasons Realty in Albemarle, North Carolina. Garry, like everyone else in the business, wants to sell any and all the real estate that he can. One option for him to use on Twitter is to post a regular tweet every day on some real estate activity in his market area. It would cover a wide audience. The problem is that several other real estate agents are already doing this. Therefor, Garry’s posts are not very likely to sway someones opinion on who to use as an agent.

A possible option for Garry is to make regular posts of any news he hears about commercial property in the area. Odds are no one in the area is doing this. If he learns that a business is looking for property for manufacturing in central North Carolina, then post that fact and site the source. If he learns that one of his competitors has just listed the old Lowe’s building in Albemarle, then post that fact, note the price and give an opinion on the value. That might help his competitor but it only costs Garry a minute and a few clicks to get the message on Twitter. Over time Garry’s followers will develop an image of him as the commercial real estate expert (even if he isn’t). Once he has developed this reputation, his followers are more likely to list their commercial properties through him or bring up his name if they know someone about to list theirs.

If he wanted to broaden his market, then he could set up a separate Twitter account and focus the posts on homes on the lakes and rivers of the area. Over time Garry would grow two sets of followers, one interested in commercial property and one interested in waterfront property. And in the eyes of both groups Garry is “the expert”.

If this just generates one additional sale in a year, then it is well worth the effort of making 3-5 posts a week.

Go to search.twitter.com and type in “anyone know” in the search box. Doing that as I write this blog, I see 12 posts in the last minute where someone was asking a question that included “anyone know.” Then look for posts that include “Show Conversation” icon at the right of the post. Click on some of those and see how someone’s question got answered.

Ask The Experts

As you increase your business’s use of Twitter, you are going to gain followers who are knowledgeable in your field. So if you have a question that you can’t seem to get answered, post it on Twitter. It takes just a couple of minutes and you may come up with an answer that will really surprise you.

What kind of experts have you found on Twitter?

The basic concept of Twitter is to send short messages to individuals who elect to hear from you. What a simple concept. Twitter users have expanded that concept to paradigms that were not dreamed of when the tool was developed.

A Two Way Communication Tool

Too many people think of Tweets as one way communication. Those are the folks that think their word is golden and yours is not. We all know who they are. The real beneficiary of Twitter is the person who gets quick answers to urgent questions. Ask a specialized question and get an expert response.

People that are following you elected to do so themselves. They probably did it because they share some of your interests. So when a question pops up, odds are someone following you has some knowledge on that subject. When they see your request, they can respond to it. And the odds are pretty good that you’ll get a response.

Follow Back

When someone follows you, be a little liberal on following back. When in doubt, follow them. Chances are they share a common interest and their posts may be of value to you. You can always remove them it you find they are the type that post useless information 20 times a day.

Lists Save Time

Twitter provides a list tool that allows you to organize the people you follow. You can place the people in categories and then you are able to choose the categories of tweets you want to see.

Sometimes you want to see tweets related to a particular business topic, other times you may just want to see the tweets of your friends. You can add as many categories as you want.

Here is a great video to learn how to use Twitter lists.

What categories do you divide your tweets into?

Huck Huckabee

Keep Up-To-Date

If you are keeping up-to-date on your social media, then you are running into the same problems we all are. And that is keeping up to date! Everything is changing and changing very quickly. A lot of times we get so caught up in the new elements that we forget to review the basics.

Review The Basics – Tagging

Erin Blaskie has put together some great videos on the basics of Tweeting.

Her Part 2 video is a great one for learning some of the basics. In this video you can also learn how to find someone to follow, learn how to tweet to the world, learn how to send a direct message. And learn more sophisticated procedures like tagging. This is a good review of how to get followers and how to make sure people know when you mention them on Twitter.

This video was created in October 18th. So it is very up to date and does a good job explaining some of the new features of Twitter.

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Need Help Setting Up Your Twitter Account?

If you have not set up a Twitter account and need help setting one up go to Erin’s first video by clicking here.

Who Should Manage Your Company Tweets?

First, this person needs to be able to represent your company. He needs to have the ability to represent management, sales, customer service and other sectors of the organization. This is often a sales person or other member of the company marketing department or management that already interacts with the public. A good communicator is imperative.

Multiple Twitter Accounts

Your marketing manager then needs to study what successful businesses in your industry are doing with Twitter. You may find there is a need to set up multiple Twitter accounts. One may be designed to notify existing customers of updates to their services. Another may be to offer free advice to the public in an effort to turn them into customers. And various other target audiences should be considered.

If Your Company Is Not On Twitter Yet…

So if you haven’t done it, get a Twitter account set up for your business. Have someone get started learning to use this tool. Invite your company contacts to follow you. Follow your industry contacts, industry leaders and even your competitors. You can learn a lot from other people and organizations. Tie it into your blog site if you have one. Services are available that will put initial text of your blog postings on Twitter and provide a link to your blog article.

If you need help, contact us at Business And Social Media, or call Huck Huckabee 704-438-2910.

A Closed Group

Twitter can be used as a communication tool that is only open to people that you want to allow into the conversations. On the “Account” page in “Settings” you can click “Protect my tweets” and then you will be required to approve who will be able to follow you.

Selected Followers

Using twitter in this manner is designed to create an online forum. It includes team members who can interact and keep members of the group informed on the progress of a project they are working on. Gaining a large number of followers is not an object of team communication. The object is getting quick communications in the hands of a select group. Those posted communications are then available for members to read and review at their convenience.

In team communication Twitter can be used to post updates to a project, troubleshoot a problem, or request help. Make sure your team members are familiar with Twitter. Those who are not may need some training and should be encouraged to get familiar with it.