The majority of people that I’ve connected with on Twitter have said the #1 social media place that they’ve gained the most business from is……Twitter, hands down. (keep in mind all of them were also on other sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc) So I started asking why..

One of the common replies is… (and I am paraphrasing here) Twitter provides immediate connections with like minded people who embrace collaboration (win/win) opportunities and are seeking to partner up with one another. Sometimes these connections happen through referrals they might get through the initial connection. Sounds a bit like networking right, well it is but on steroids…

You see, the secret to connecting and networking on Twitter is to harness the power of your tweets. All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.

On a side note, have you ever seen someone tweeting they can help you get thousands of followers fast on Twitter?
Or how they can help you fully automate your Twitter stream with push button marketing?
If so, run for the hills….

Here’s 3 reasons why your competitors are more successful on Twitter than you:
1. Engaging
2. Building Relationships
3. Providing Value

Engaging

You will make more friends and attract more followers by becoming interested in other people versus trying to get other people interested in you. The key to engaging with others on Twitter is making the other person feel important. A great way to connect with someone new is to give them a compliment. There’s always something nice to say about someone.

To engage successfully remember to keep conversations focused on safe topics. Be positive and listen to a person’s point of view. Here are four proven methods to engage using the easy to remember acronym

F.O.R.M.

The “F” is for Family-Friends
(Tweet about their family members, their background, etc)

The “O’ is for Occupation
(Tweet about their business, their profession, organizations they belong to, etc)

The “R” is for Recreation:
(Tweet about their hobbies, what they like to do for fun, online presence, favorite sports team, blogging, etc)

The “M” is for Message:
(Tweet about what is important to that person, what does that person stand for, what are that person’s values, etc)

When engaging with “F.O.R.M.” it helps you to learn more about a person, it shows sincere interest and opens the door for providing a solution to that persons needs.

When you show that you care and there is a need, a person is more receptive to hearing about your company, products, service and/or opportunity.

Tips for Engaging:

• To start the process of engaging send a tweet to people that interest you.

• Start connecting with a person by using Direct Messages (DM); this will make your conversations more personal (one on one) and private.

• When someone sends you a reply or direct message, be sure to get back to them in a timely manner.

• Talk about what they want to talk about and take notes, this will come in handy in the follow-up.

• Give a compliment, ask questions, float ideas, solicit feedback are all additional ways to start the process of engagement.

• View a persons updates as a way to help you engage in the most recent conversations or topics taking place with that person.

These are just a few suggestions to get you started engaging on Twitter. Remember your followers on Twitter are potential customers waiting for you to engage.

Building Relationships

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. With Twitter, People can get to know, like, and trust you much faster and more efficiently than traditional means of marketing by focusing on one major step when building relationships, the follow-up.

The Fortune is in the follow-up. Many successful business owners have discovered that following up with people has made all the difference to their business. If you don’t follow-up with people, your competitors will.

Tips for Building Relationships:

• Before you follow-up with someone go to their blog/website and do some basic research. Visit their about page and send a tweet with a positive comment about them or their business. Doing this will show them you took the time and are being thoughtful.

• Listen and watch people’s tweets carefully. One thing people usually like to talk about is themselves. By listening you can uncover their need(s) and help them by providing a valuable solution.

• When someone tweets about you or retweets your messages acknowledge them with a compliment or a simple thank you.

• Retweet someone’s message, this will help you build a relationship as you are giving back to that person.

• Use the notes taken from previous tweets about the other person to show them you remember and care about them.

• Saving valuable or informative tweets to your favorites on Twitter is a nice option for keeping track and referencing tweets.

• To take your business relationships to the next level begin interacting over the phone and/or in person.

• Send a direct message asking the other person if it’s ok to call them on the telephone. Always ask for permission before asking for the phone number or leaving yours.

Take advantage of these relationship building tips when following up with people. One of the single most important things you can do when building relationships is provide value to others…

Providing Value

Your true worth is determined by how much more you provide in value than you take in payment. When you effectively engage and build relationships by providing value and give people what they want you will gain new and repeat customers with Twitter.

Nearly all successful networkers say to go from amateur to professional requires giving first. In this section, we show you simple and very effective tips to be a pro at giving by providing value.

Tips for providing value:

• Be the referral source by referring a persons business to other people. There is simply no better way to get someone to want to do something for you, than first doing something for them.

• Be the connector by setting people up with others that have a common interest. The fun part is introducing them and setting up the relationship.

• Be an information resource to a person by providing valuable information on hot topics that may be of interest to them.

• Use the person’s first name when sending out tweets will personalize the tweet and have more value. Example: I love your smile Sue, hope to tweet with you soon.

• Retweet a person’s tweets to help promote what they are doing. This will give them an incentive to do the same for you. Example: Highly Recommend RT @AnnEvanston New Post Twitterology: Quality not Quantity (URL)

• Participate in surveys or feedback when possible to people you want to connect with.

• Stay in touch with your followership and give them something of value in exchange for their time, attention and business. Example: Give out free bonuses, discount coupons, etc. for your followers.

• Come out and ask your followers if there is anything you can do for them. Example Hi Joe, thanks for the tweet, what can I do to help you today?

• Show your customers you value them by providing them with a prompt solution to their problem(s), this also lets you know what people want and need.

Providing value to your followers will help your credibility and build trust at the same time. The more value you give to people first, the more value people will give back to you. That’s the secret.

All things being equal, when you engage, build relationships and provide value with your followers you can receive beneficial results for your business fast and it can also be a lot of fun.

Ask yourself, how can I best serve others by providing value?

Now you know 3 reasons why your competitors are more successful on Twitter than you. Because the successful ones are harnessing the power of engaging, building relationships and providing value. Through that, comes connections and collaboration opportunities that takes your business to levels some never even imagined.

Take advantage of these three reasons and become highly successful with your followers to leverage your business quickly.

Are you a beginner or advanced on Twitter?
Check out this Proven Twitter Marketing System that gets faster results. Learn More

Follow me, Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

and Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Some Tweeps have asked me questions about what is a Tweetup, how they can start one, the benefits of attending a Tweet up, etc. Today I thought I would share a short but sweet post to answer those questions and provide more insight that can be to your benefit.

A Tweetup is a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through Twitter.

This is an excellent opportunity to engage, build relationships, and provide value with multiple people at one time in person. Meeting your friends and followers in a group setting will give you the option to share ideas and take your relationships to the next level.

To locate or start a tweetup in your area visit twtvite twtvite.com. You can also do a search or ask your followers by tweeting them for other social networking events. (Attending other networking events is another great way to connect with people in your niche or target market.)

Click here to see an example of a Las Vegas Tweetup I Co-hosted and participated in recently.

Learn “How to throw a Killer Tweetup” . posted by Kim Redd (Kim Redd)

Have you been to a tweetup?
(please share your comments, likes/dislikes/ideas)

Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Besides sending a simple Tweet, how would you like to take advantage of other ways to make use of Twitter?

Well, with the availability of (tech like terms) like an “open API” and the power of “third party service integration”, you can find a job, exchange business cards, play games, raise money, social bookmark, start a petition, or share files, music, images, videos and much more. Sky’s the limit on the options all of us have with Twitter.

1. Find a Job

TwitJobSearch Twitter offers an unprecedented chance to find out about new opportunities and connect with potential employers in real-time with Twit Job Search.

2. Exchange Business Cards

TwtBizCard a simple service that lets you set up an electronic business card that can be easily tweeted to your new contacts by sending them an @reply with the hashtag #twtBizCard.

After signing in, twtbizcard will pull in the data from your Twitter profile as the basic information, and all you have to do is type in your additional information as needed for the biz card.

3. Play Games

Spymaster. Love them or leave them, games are here to stay. Interactive Twitter-based game Spymaster can be addictive if you play it. So if you’re in the mood to escape the busy life for a while, then check out Spymaster.

4. Raise Money

Twitpay It’s still an emerging trend, but Twitpay is out in front of the pack when it comes to payment platform on Twitter. It’s a hot space that Facebook is looking to get in on as well.

Right now, there are some limitations to using Twitpay, but for the adventurous, there may be money to be made from selling your own goods.

5. Social Bookmarking

Are you looking for an easy way to archive the links you share on Twitter?
Fleck Lite, is a simple bookmarking tool that will both generate a shortened URL based on the page you’re sharing and archive the collection of links you’ve shared for later reference. If you share a lot of links on Twitter and want a convenient way to remember them for later, definitely give fleck lite a test drive.

6. Start a Petition

Twitition Petitions are a powerful tool organizers have been using for decades to raise awareness, demonstrate support for an issue, and bring people together around a common cause. Try Twitition.

7. Share Files

FileSocial A service called File Social provides a great way to send files. Simply sign-in with your Twitter credentials to share your file with all your followers. A good security note: File Social uses Twitter OAuth to log you in, which is more secure than directly asking for your Twitter username and password.

FileTwt You can also send a file privately to one other person with FileTwt. The downside is that filetwt doesn’t use OAuth for authentication.

8. Share Music

Depending on exactly what you want to do, you might want to check out Blip.fm and Songza.

Blip.fm Blip.fm is much like Twitter but specifically for music, and can integrate with your Twitter account to share what tracks you’re listening to.

Songza is a very easy to use music search engine that lets you easily tweet any track you’re listening to by clicking the song name and selecting the “Share: Twitter this” option on Songza.

9. Share Images

Twitpic Perhaps the “classic” service for sharing photos on Twitter is Twitpic. There are a number of alternative methods for sharing photos on Twitter…

Flickr Use Flickr to host your image collection, this is a great way to also share photos to Twitter all in one.

10. Share Videos

We saved one of the most popular for last. There’s a good number of video services out there that will likely cover your need(s). From TwitVid.io TwitVid.io to Tweetube Tweetube,which handles other sharing duties as well.

There’s also TwitVid TwitVid.com and 12seconds.TV 12seconds.tv to that list. The latter perhaps obviously limits you to only 12 seconds’ worth of video, but it works well with the spirit of Twitter’s 140 characters or less structure.

Have you tried any of these or do you have other ways to use Twitter that you would like to share?
Please leave us your comments…

Help provide value to your friends and followers by retweeting this post.
(Thank you for helping spread the word)

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

You might be reading this post and wondering why your great
product, internet marketing or home business opportunity
isn’t making you money. Maybe you’re frustrated with
the precious few hits you’re getting on your website.

Or, you could be totally confused about how or where
to even start with your internet marketing or home business.

You might even be thinking that it’s only a lucky chosen
few with money, resources and perhaps the “magic touch”
who are able to generate money on and offline.

Check this out. It’s been said that Coke-a-cola has an approx.
brand equity of 67 billion (no, not pop cans) DOLLARS, $67B.
This is assumed to be one of the largest brands on planet earth.
Pretty amazing for a business that mixes sugar and water.

Can you guess which brand has the most value to you?
Look in the mirror, what do you see?
YOU.
Yes, it’s by Branding yourself. Not your company or product.

Now when I say Brand yourself, I’m not talking about spending
any more of your hard earned money on marketing products
or expensive advertising and promotion. Not one red cent!

First, look at what Branding yourself can create for you short and long term…

1. Become a known and popular internet personality AND..

2. Earn great recognition as a respected expert AND..

3. Enjoy an increase in traffic to your website or blog AND..

4. Receive FREE public exposure, awareness AND..

5. Save money on, or even totally avoid expensive
internet advertising, AND…

6. Increase sales for your internet marketing or home business.

Yes, Branding Yourself ranks as one of the most powerful SECRETS
the Pros take advantage of everyday and the great thing is-you can too.

AND..it’s being done on Twitter with SIMPLE and FREE tools like pictures, audios, blogs, videos, webinars,
teleseminars, and more.

So instead of branding a company name or product, brand yourself. Branding yourself is where you will get the most value both short and long term by engaging, building relationships and providing value on a regular basis.

How do you brand yourself on Twitter? Need Help branding? Feel free to leave us a note below

A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Tonight Skeeter Hansen and I will be featured on Diane Walker’s @MLMBlonde Free Live Webinar. In case you may not know Diane…she’s a true professional (6 figure income earner), leader, relationship builder with several successful years in the network marketing arena.

Diane will be asking us various questions about how to successfully use Twitter for your business, such as..

1. How you can generate traffic to your website or blog from Twitter
2. How you can find targeted high quality followers on Twitter
3. Ways you can Generate Leads and prospects from Twitter
4. Increasing Sales with Twitter for your business
5. How to you can network effectively on Twitter…
and many other techniques and tips…

The great thing is that you can have a lot of success on Twitter without being stuck to the computer all day, if you know how..

Come join us tonight and learn how: Free Live Webinar

WHEN: Tuesday March 9, 2010
6pm Pacific Time
8pm Central Time
9pm Eastern Time

Come join us tonight, you’ll be glad that you did. Free Live Webinar

Follow me Al Ferretti @alferretti

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Follow Diane Walker @mlmblonde

I’ve learned some great networking techniques from Bob Burg (Thank you Bob Burg.) Bob is an author of Endless Referrals, Go Giver, and Go Givers Sell more. 3 books I highly recommend.

Between learning from Bob and adding my own personal touch, here are 7 Networking Techniques you can take advantage right away and apply on Twitter or anywhere else for that matter. Enjoy~

1. Engaging: You will make more friends and attract more followers by becoming interested in other people versus trying to get other people interested in you. The key to engaging with others on Twitter is making the other person feel important. A great way to connect with someone new is to give them a compliment. There’s always something nice to say about someone.

2. Building Relationships: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. With Twitter, People can get to know, like, and trust you much faster and more efficiently than traditional means of marketing by focusing on one major step when building relationships, the follow-up.

3. The Fortune is in the follow-up. Many successful business owners have discovered when following up with people has made all the difference to their business. If you don’t follow-up with people, your competitors will.

4. Providing Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you provide in value than you take in payment. When you effectively engage and build relationships by providing value and give people what they want you will gain new and repeat customers with Twitter.

5. Be the referral source: by referring a persons business to other people. There is simply no better way to get someone to want to do something for you, than first doing something for them

6 Connecting: Before you connect with someone go to their blog/website and do some basic research. Visit their about page and send a tweet with a positive comment about them or their business. Doing this will show them you took the time and are being thoughtful.

7. Tweetups:This is an excellent opportunity to meet with multiple people at one time in person. Meeting your friends and followers in a group setting will give you the option to share ideas and take your relationships to the next level.

The secret to networking on Twitter is to harness the power of your tweets. All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.

With that being said networking on Twitter is all about three core values; engaging, building relationships and providing value in your tweets.

How do you network on Twitter?
Please share your comments or stories below…

Confused on how to use Twitter the right way?
Take advantage of this step by step Twitter Marketing System

Follow me Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Discover how to use Twitter and get more done in less time with the right tools.

With over 50,000 tools that integrate with Twitter now the big question is, which tools do I use for what?

15 Great Avenues For Building Your Network on Twitter…

1. Twitter Local
With this service, you can see tweets from Twitter users in a specific location.

2. Twubble
Twubble will expand your Twitter bubble, picking out people you may like to follow.

3. MyCleenr
Sort your friends by their last tweets, and you can get rid of the inactive and useless accounts you’re following.

4. Follow Cost
This tool will tell you how much effort it takes to follow someone.

5. Tweepler
Use Tweepler to organize your tweeps based on whether you’re following them or not.

6. Just Tweet it
Find Tweeple, tools, Twitter bots and more through this directory.

7. TweetWheel
TweetWheel will help you discover which of your Twitter friends know each other.
(Updated-has been reported as being broken)

8. Socialtoo
SocialToo will help you keep track of all of the people who have followed or unfollowed you.

9. Twitoria
Reduce your clutter on Twitter by finding your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time.

10. Twitdir
With TwitDir, you’ll be able to search for people, and exploring categories including top followers and updaters.

11. Who Should I Follow?
Using this site, you can get good recommendations for Tweeps to follow.

12. Nearbytweets
Learn about all of the Twitter users in a specific area with the help of Nearbytweets.

13. Twellow
Find Twitter users in a specific industry using this service.

14. Mr Tweet
Mr. Tweet is a personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you find relevant followers.

15. Qwitter
Qwitter will help you manage your network by sending an alert when a person unfollows you.

Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Money Marketing With Twitter

Follow Skeeter Hansen on Twitter
Follow Al Ferretti on Twitter