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Make your Twitter Brand stand out

Years ago, a man came into my agency on Madison Avenue with a real challenge. He was a small business owner from Meggett, S.C., and wanted us to create a brand for him for an odd product: pecans. He wanted to be like “the big guys”, like Harry and David.

We talked to him for a while, and he told us why his company, Harrell Farms grew the biggest and best pecans ever. He brought pounds of them to our offices, chocolate covered, plain, salted. We got fat eating them. They were great, and we created a story about his farm, his wife, her recipes.

We finally learned the secret to his great nuts…it was the bees that buzzed around them that gave them a unique taste. We spun the story around those bees and how those pecans got so big and fat, and why the honey he sells is really amazing.
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Twitter has imposed reasonable limits to help prevent system and user abuse.

Why Can’t I can’t Follow More People on Twitter?

If you hit a technical limit, Twitter will tell you by showing an error message in your browser when you try to perform an action. If you’ve hit a limit, it means you’ve exceeded one of these limits:
• 1,000 updates per day
• 250 direct messages per day
• 150 API requests per hour
• Follow limit
You can find Update and API Limits here.

What are the follow limits?

Twitter doesn’t limit the number of people who can follow you, but they have put limits on how aggressively users can follow others. Every user can follow 2000 people total. Once you’ve followed 2000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow: this limit is different for every user and is based on your ratio of followers to following. Click Here for the Follow Limits and Best Practices help page for more information on Twitter’s follow limits and recommended practices. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter and everyone is subject to follow limits, even high profile and API accounts.

But I’m white listed!

Some API administrators have whitelist status so their applications can function without hitting system limits for direct messages, etc. White listed means that an application can have more API requests per hour; it does not increase the follow limits. All whitelisted accounts are still subject to follow limits.

If I hit a limit, what should I do?

1. If you’ve reached a daily limit, wait 24 hours (or one hour for API requests) and you’ll be able to perform the action again.

2. If you’ve reached a follow limit, you’ll need to wait until you have more followers before you can follow additional users. Follow limits are systematic. Support cannot remove follow limits.

Hitting a follow limit does not mean you’re a spammer. Twitter has these limits to help improve site performance and reliability which helps make Twitter a nice place for everyone.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to list them below in the comment section. Don’t forget to leave your Twitter username so myself and others can follow you. Thanks for your time and let me know how I can help you with your Twitter experience.

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -TwitterWatchDog

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Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @alferretti

A lot of people still miss the point of Twitter’s original functions. It was not exactly made to be a huge chatroom. Though having a conversation on Twitter is great, for some of your followers, it may make them unfollow you. There are people that believe having thousands of followers is the way to get ahead. It only does in your own mind if you do not influence anyone. Influencing your followers means engaging them in what you have to share.

I have put together a short Creed for Twitter Tweeps (“tweep” is the actual word for people who use Twitter.)

The Creed of a Twitter Tweep

1. You are not obligated to follow back everyone.

2. You are in control of your content, so make sure you are aware of articles you Retweet. Retweeting an article blindly could affect your trust if the article is not up to par with what your followers expect.

3. Do not expect others to follow you back even if you keep sending them tweets. It does not necessarily mean you are being ignored, but they may be a bit busy to respond to every tweet, especially celebrities on Twitter.

4. You should use Twitter for more than connecting with others. There are sites that send their articles through the Twitter stream that could prove beneficial to you or even just be of interest. (Be open and expand your knowledge.)

5. Advertising is okay, but excessive advertising is seen as spam. Be cautious and do not become a spammer.

6. (For Newbies) It is okay to have more than one Twitter account if you are a person who tweets as an individual, for a company, or even for a particular website if you have more than one website. (Example, I have 3 accounts I tweet under, in the process of making one for my webhosting and design company, and tweet for the company that I am a social media intern.)

7. Do tweet your blog articles to your followers. How will they know you if you do not share your content with them?

8. Be active and choose your conversations wisely. While someone might be offensive, it is best to just unfollow or block, and not give them the joy of your ire.

9. The number of followers are NOT important. It is the quality and trust. You can have thousands of followers, but what benefit is that when none of them have any interest in what you want to share? Without quality or trust, there is no influence among your followers.

Of course, there are more that can be added. I have left this a bit open so you, the reader might be motivated to add to this list.

Follow Nile on Twitter at @blondishnet.

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TweetMiner

BACKGROUND

TweetMiner is the brain child of Justin Vincent, @justinvincent on Twitter, who started coding TweetMiner to solve a personal problem he had with other clients. No twitter client offered RSS feed integration or user experience like TweetMiner. He saw the way other Twitter clients handled scheduling and thought it was too tedious and said “there has to be a better way!” Justin is coding this all by himself, while other twitter tools have had millions in venture capital, not here! Justin codes TweetMiner in his spare time.

I was one of the first 200 people to try TweetMiner and fell head over heels in love immediately. I contacted Justin and asked what I could do to help. I’m now assisting him on spreading the TweetMiner buzz and helping add new features.

SPEED AND USER INTERFACE

Signing up was a 10 minute process. After receiving my email confirmation, I associated my twitter account using OAuth withTweetMiner. One of the core strengths of TweetMiner is it’s user interface. Justin has worked hard on making the user flow correct. From the screen shot above you can see how your eye starts in the top left and flows to the right.

You click on the button and then you see your twitter account. Click on your account and then you can see your twitter streams. Clicking the “+” in twitter streams allows you to add a twitter users to follow, twitter search term or the new twitter lists to follow. You can also tell TweetMiner how often you want that stream to refresh. A notification in the form of a pop up window and update count in parenthesis next to the stream will show you when new tweets have arrived. The auto refresh button does that for you for every column automatically once every minute.

Mouse over the avatar of an incoming tweet and you are given a host of options.

These options include:  Reply, Reply All, View Profile, Direct Message, Instant Retweet, Edit and Schedule or Favorite that tweet. The pencil tool is where the power of TweetMiner lies.  With the pencil tool, you can edit a tweet then either schedule it to send in the future or add it to your rolling schedule.

RSS FEEDS & ROLLING SCHEDULES

RSS feed integration and scheduling in TweetMiner is like no other tool. RSS Feeds fit seamlessly into the workflow where you can monitor your own twitter and friends streams, then move over to RSS to content for your followers. You can add RSS feeds from any source, edit, instant retweet schedule or add to your rolling schedule. Rolling schedules is a feature not found in any other Twitter client. Many twitter tools allow you to schedule your tweets, but rolling schedules are different. You tell TweetMiner what hours of the day you would like to tweet, then add tweets, RSS feeds, news searches Retweets…whatever you like, to your rolling schedule or pile of tweets and TweetMiner will just take the next off the pile and tweet it. PR types and brand manager will love the ability to have all their information funnel into one place and schedule content for their brands in minutes, instead of hours.

BE THE SIGNAL NOT THE NOISE

Tweetminer is all about usability and flow. The strength of TweetMiner is in speed of the interface and the ability for you to control the content that is sent to your followers. But let’s not forget, TweetMiner isn’t just for power users or brand managers, new twitter users can find ease of use over the main Twitter web page. The speed of the UI will win you over.

TweetMiner comes in both a web client as well as an Adobe AIR version. TweetMiner has a free version that allows you to try up to 5 twitter accounts and paid version that unlocks additional API and allows you to use your own bit.ly key.

So while other Twitter clients just do the same old thing,  TweetMiner injects many new features that makes it stand out in the crowd. Why not give TweetMiner a try!

Follow Thomas Clifford @tommytrc on Twitter

How to use Twitter the right way with a step by step Training and Support System

Many people especially new people on Twitter are focused on trying to get a huge number of followers. I can’t blame them cause I was the same way almost a year ago when I started using Twitter. Today I realize the quality of followers in more important then the quantity of followers. Who am I to say what your reason is for using Twitter, here are some techniques to consider if you’re just looking to generate lots of followers.

1. Follow new people everyday will help you get more Twitter followers. The daily maximum Twitter will let you follow per day is 1000. This doesn’t mean you can just follow 1000 people per day and not get into trouble with Twitter. You must have a balance in what you’re doing or Twitter will suspend your account. You can get suspended for a number of reasons. There is also a ratio to consider once you get over the 2000 follow limit. This ratio is about 10%, meaning you can follow about 10% more people then you have followers.

2. Unfollow those that don’t follow you back. Many people on Twitter have auto follows setup which means they auto follow you when you follow them. Again being to aggressive may cause your Twitter account to get suspended, there must be a balance. You can use programs like twitterkarma to unfollow large numbers of people at one time. One thing you can do to make room for more followers is to remove some of the people you are following even if they are following you.

3. Send out tweets to give people a reason to follow you. If you’re trying to sell something you want to send out tweets with a link to your sales page but this can damage you. If all you do is send out links especially to many in a short amount of time people will block and unfollow you. When you get blocked by a certain number of people Twitter may suspend your account. Send out other tweets in between the tweets with links. For example: quotes, jokes, @replies, retweets etc. will help keep your account looking like all you’re doing is trying to market a product or get more followers.

4. Set up your Twitter account for automation with tools like tweetadder to get more done. With just this one tool you can schedule tweets to go out around the clock. Set up your account to auto follow everyone that follows you. Auto unfollow those that unfollow you, follow people with a certain number of followers, send out direct messages and the list goes on. Just keep in mind you can only send out 250 Direct Messages per day, once you hit this limit you will have to wait until the next day before you can send any more.

5. Having a balance to protect your Twitter account from getting suspended and gain as many followers as possible is the one thing many people are trying to figure out. Only send out two tweets per hour with links and send at least one other type of tweet in between. Never follow the daily maximum of 1000 people per day, keep this number to about 400 to 500 to be safe. Don’t send out the same tweet two often, have plenty of different types of tweets will help keep you from looking like a spammer. Only send out about 300-400 direct messages per day. The last thing you want to happen is for your account to get suspended. This is just part of the list of things to consider when it comes to having a balance with your Twitter account.

These are just a few methods to help you get more followers but don’t blame me if you get to aggressive and your account gets suspended. Read the list of reasons why Twitter suspends accounts and take these reasons into consideration when trying to generate lots of followers.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to list them below in the comment section. Don’t forget to leave your Twitter username so myself and others can follow you. Thanks for your time and let me know how I can help you with your Twitter experience.

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -TwitterWatchDog

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Many people are great at sending tweets, emails, text messages and so on but the best way to take Twitter to the next level is connecting with someone on the phone or in person.

Taking Twitter to the Next Level

Why is it so many people are willing to engage through tweets, emails, texting etc. but hesitate when it comes to meeting someone in person or talking to them on the phone? Even when I call my kids they don’t answer the phone but when I send them a text they get right back to me.

I see people everyday on Twitter engaging with people through tweets but how many of you actually talk to people on the phone that you’re tweeting with. I have engaged with hundreds of people through tweets and when I find a connection with someone I want to build a relationship with I will ask them if I can call them. Tip: Always ask for permission to call someone! This has worked for me every time, you just need to know when the timing is right.

I have talked with dozens of people on the phone that I have met on Twitter. I can get more done and take the relationship to the next level. But it’s much more then that, you can hear what the persons voice sounds like, listen to them laugh, and start building a bond with that person you can’t just can’t do through sending tweets.

If you’re like me, you don’t have all day everyday to spend talking to people on the phone. This is one of the benefits of the 3rd party tools like twellow that integrates with Twitter so you can locate people in your niche. When possible connect with people on a local level and when the timing is right meet them for lunch. Put on a local TweetUp in your area and send out some tweets letting people to know about it.

When meeting with someone or talking to them on the phone for the first time never try to sell them anything. Use this time to learn more about the person and find out what their looking for. People love to buy but hate to be sold, simply provide them with some information to learn more about your product or service.
Book a follow up and never be late for your follow up call or appointment.

If you have any other questions or comments please feel free to list them below in the comment section. Don’t forget to leave your Twitter username so myself and others can follow you. Thanks for your time and let me know how I can help you with your Twitter experience.

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -TwitterWatchDog

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