TwitterWatchDog.com

Most people know that Twitter is about QUALITY, not just QUANTITY.

With that being said, and if you are sick of spammers, people that never reply, maybe you are feeling overwhelmed and can no longer keep up with the tweets on your twitter stream; then Twit Cleaner may be for you..
Read the rest of this entry »

I mentioned that I would address why you should have a twitter account for your business and it comes as sort of a gift in time for Christmas, especially for those who are first timers to TwitterWatchDog.com. Just to give you a little background on where I live – I live in Centralia, Illinois, which is in southern Illinois, barely within the St. Louis metro east. Centralia is a very small place. It is a city that has a annual Balloon fest that attracts a lot of people from over the region, and a large yearly Halloween parade, much larger than some of the city parades I have seen growing up.

I have the privilege to talk to a lot of small business owners. Centralia is a place where people are still a bit hesitant about the internet, but those in business are contemplating if they need a website. The problem is, a lot of them do not have that much money to fork out for a shiny website made by a big kahuna web design company. I offer my services. I often talk to them about Twitter as I believe any business should plug into the social network.

This is helpful on several levels. If you use Twitter to connect with others, and they find you trustworthy, you build a reputation that is easily searchable. You help your business virtually get on the map, and furthermore, you get your town/city on the map. A lot of smaller cities do have a website, and for places like Centralia, it is great to see business coming in from anywhere. The brilliant part about Twitter is – IT IS FREE!

There are many tools to find people in your general area or even in your niche. You do not necessarily have to have an e-commerce site, but if you have products you like to feature that are unique to your business versus others in your niche, Twitter would be one of the great places to share that information. You never know, you might either make a good transaction over the phone, or actually set up an e-ecommerce site.

Another thing is that you can use Twitter to provide Live Support too. There are several places already that do, like Best Buy’s Twelp Force. Even though they are a larger business, small business can use that as an example to help others.

Going further, Twitter is great for freelancers. Freelancers are small business owners in their own right too. Using Twitter allows them to connect with others in their niche. The number of projects I have paired up with other freelancers who needed my skills are more than I can count, and a lot of them came from connecting with them on Twitter.

There are more reasons, but I thought I would allow some room for conversation. If you are a small business owner, what are your reasons? How have you used Twitter so far for your business?

Follow Nile Flores of Blondish.net on Twitter – @blondishnet.

10 Easy Steps with training videos, live calls and a complete support system to help you succeed faster with Twitter.

Since December of 2008 Skeeter Hansen and myself (Al Ferretti) have been giving back to the Twitter community by teaching, training, and providing valuable Twitter tips and tools to tens of thousands of twitter users and business owners through radio stations, conference calls, blogs, training guides, and much more. For that, we thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you.

In case you may not know me, I’ve had a nice run of success and my share of failures as a leader in the corporate world and as a business owner on and offline since the early 90’s. Now, I’m dating myself and for those of you doing the math, yes I am 29 with 10+ years of experience.

So where am I going with this? Well, when used the right way, Twitter is the single most productive business tool I have ever experienced compared to other methods of communication, advertisements and marketing tools. And I’ve learned that people are looking for fast and simple ways to generate traffic, leads, and sales in their business with the least amount of expense.

The problem is that most people don’t know how or have enough money to successfully build, grow and monetize their business online or with Twitter. That is one of the reasons why Skeeter and I are launching Tweet Formula to the world this holiday season.

Tweet Formula is a proven and simple step by step system that teaches you how to successfully build, grow and monetize your business with Twitter, the right way. This has not been seen anywhere else and we believe that you’re really going to appreciate it.

Skeeter and I are dedicated and committed to teaching, training, and providing you with the support and tools that you need to be successful online(aka making money) and so much more.

With that being said, I personally invite you to get on the early bird list today and be the first to have exclusive access to Tweet Formula. Take advantage of this opportunity and let us help you attract new customers that want to buy what you have to offer. So what are you waiting for? Let’s work together and make 2010 the best year for your business…

Wishing you and your family all the best during this holiday season.

Send us a tweet and lets connect.
@alferretti
@skeeterhansen

I have a great friend (in real life) who is an internet guru. So, about 7 months ago she called and mentioned to me that the people I follow here are “all over the map”: horoscope folks, quoting people, housewives.

I agreed. “Why? She asked, do you follow all of those people back?” I told her I do because I learn from them all. Well, she said, I wouldn’t. I only follow a select few, and those are the people I can learn from and are “quality”.

Pondering her words for a while, I had to reflect on real life. If I only associated with marketers my whole life..I would have been a total bore. More important is that my life (up to now) would have lost its luster. I wouldn’t have met some of my wonderful artist friends, my speaker friend, the friend who nursed my Mom for years. My client from Marshalls became a lifelong buddy, though she’s a housewife…I always learn great life lessons from her (Patti Mae).

In fact, I would have missed out on having this diverse, maybe weird group of amazing friends who have been there for me, and taught me all kinds of things.

So, “yes” I do follow back all the authentic people who follow me. There are lots of them. Some become quite special to me, like @DiannaHuff (Dianna Huff) (who said she’s been reading my Creative Corner column for years), @wilsonellis (Wilson Ellis) who always remembers what i’m doing, and asks me about it, @theBeanCast who has an online radio show an a great little grean brand, @relevance who always points out when I say something good, and remains silent when I don’t. @kansasauthor gives me a morning chuckle on the state of the world, and @AlFerretti (Al Ferretti) who always says “thank you” for whatever I yak about at the moment. @skeeterhansen (Skeeter Hansen) is always sending out great new ideas, that I actually use.

Narrow my focus? Look for prospects? Nah…I’ll keep doing what I’m doing on Twitter, making friends. My advertising agency will do fine and thrive. It always does.

Well, that’s my Twitter philosophy. Maybe I’m not focused on business, or have great clarity of goals…but I’ve always been rich and blessed with many wonderful friends…like you!

You can follow me Lois Geller on Twitter

Discover how to use Twitter the right way with a Proven Training and Support System to help you.

“Most people just laugh when they hear that the secret to success is giving… Then again, most people are nowhere near as successful as they wish they were.”

That is a quote from one of my favorite books in the whole wide world…The GO-GIVER.

I would like to give a special thanks to authors Bob Burg and John David Mann. Your message in the GO-GIVER has helped transform my life for the better, and the results are priceless.

The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman.

Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of successful “go-givers”: a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial advisor, a real estate broker and “The Connector,” who brought them all together. Pindar’s friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving.

Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving—putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives—ultimately leads to unexpected returns.

Imparted with wit and grace, The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “give and you shall receive.

If you’ve seen me ask the question on Twitter… “Are you a go-getter or a go-giver?”, now you probably have a better idea of the meaning and purpose behind that question.

Here are five simple but powerful laws in the Go-Giver that I learned and try to apply as much as possible Read the rest of this entry »

On December 8, 2009,Techsmith, developers of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio, released a new version of Jing, a screen casting, screen capture software that works on Mac, Windows XP, and Vista.

In short, Jing is another neat tool, that allows you a fast and easy way to add your screen captures and screen casts to Twitter.  Jing is similar to Screenr that I posted here on Twitterwatchdog several weeks ago.  The following is a summary of some of the features of Jing.

Screen Capture – Capture What You See.

With Jing you can capture any thing on your desktop (image, text, and icon), or just make a video of your desktop.  You can initiate a capture by clicking on the Jing’s “SUN” icon, located on your task bar after installation, or by pressing a hotkey of your choice.

Record What You See and Do on Your Desktop

With Jing you can capture a window, pane, or region to capture or record.  All you have to do is select a window or a region on your desktop and Jing will record up to five minutes of video of everything that appears in the selected area.  You can “point to things with your mouse, scroll, flip through photos, and click around in a website or application” and Jing captures it all. Read the rest of this entry »