Seven Twitter Tips That Will Blow Your Mind Out of Your Skull

Twitter is all of the rage with the kids these days. No kidding. It’s all the rage with the webcocks* too. Here’s how to kick ass with Twitter, without being a webcock. These tips are written with the assumption that you are using Twitter for marketing purposes and want to be seen as influential, interesting, and helpful.

1. Try not to follow more than follow you. (this is admittedly childish and snobbish) Every once in awhile I go through all of my newest Twitter follower e-mails (I have a rule that automagically archives them into a folder), and see if they are reputable people I should be following, or just spammers. The first thing I look at (and I imagine is the case for others) is follower/following ratio. If it’s less than 1, I’m instantly turned off. Then I’ll look at their latest tweet, or two. They better be damn interesting/useful for me to then decide to follow this person back. If the ratio is more than 1, I’ll look at more tweets than in the former scenario, but they still better be interesting/useful.
2. Say something interesting. Sure, Twitter is about “what you’re doing right now,” but c’mon! They don’t mean that. Well, you can use it for that if you really want to, but if you’re really trying to get a following, then you will have to do better than that. Make sure you’re saying things that concern those whom you want to have following you, rather than just you. The fact that your coffee is too hot today probably doesn’t concern anyone other than yourself. Now, a link to a coupon that will get your followers 25% off at Starbucks, well, that’s another story. If you’re looking for followers surrounding a particular category, then scour the web for really amazing new stuff around that topic, and tweet links to that stuff. It will pay off in the long run.
3. 

   GOD! I hate all you fucking complainers!
   Don’t complain. I think this is called “Twitter bitching,” and yeah, we all do this, but there are some people you would swear only do this (not that I’m complaining . Think twice just before you hit send on that tweet that simply says “I’m sick,” and in pursuit of the former tip, maybe say something like “there’s nothing that works better for my colds than aromatherapy with eucalyptis essential oils [link].” 
4. Track things. You know that link from your tip about treating colds? Wouldn’t you like to know if anyone gave a crap about that tweet? Try putting that link through a URL-shortening service that tracks clicks. I like to use snipr, but cli.gs does it too. This way you can get an idea of how interesting your tweets are to your followers, and adjust accordingly.
5. 

   Oh, so many tweets scheduled!
   Tweet at the right time. You want people to read your tweets, right? So make sure the important ones go through during prime-time. In my experience, for business-related stuff, that’s during working hours. If you come up with a doozy over the weekend, or finish up your latest blog post at 3am, don’t tweet it right then! Use a service like TweetLater to get the word out at a time that works better. I have yet to find a URL-shortening service that tracks activity by time-of-day, but if anyone knows of one, let me know!
6. Engage in conversation. Unless you’re famous for that very fact, you aren’t going to get much of a following by not engaging with your audience. Respond to people’s tweets with useful thoughts. Ask people questions when you need help. You end up helping people in the former situation, and making others feel useful in the latter (besides getting your questions answered). I know it’s hard to keep track of all of those @ replies, but TweetLater, in addition to helping you…Tweet…Later, provides an @replies digest e-mail, that is delivered to your inbox on regular intervals, so you won’t miss out.
7. Here is my last tip. When you’re linking to something, arouse curiosity. Get your audience motivated. How many times have you seen someone tweet “here’s my new blog post: [link].” Why on earth should I click on that? What the hell is your post about? I recommend pulling out an interesting tidbit of information from the post, and tweeting it, along with the (shortened with a trackable URL-shortening service) link.

20 Twitter Tips to Make You a Better Twitter User

Since Twitter is growing in popularity and I am an active twitter user, I thought I would put together a quick list of twitter tips to help make sure that your twitter experience is pleasant and beneficial to both you and your followers.

1. Don’t make your background look like some sort of advertisement, it turns people off
2. Upload a photo of yourself, people love to know who they are chatting with
3. Follow people YOU think are interesting, don’t just follow folks because everyone else is
4. Try to post regularly to make sure that people know you have an active presence (I post around 10-20+ times a day)
5. Try to not use twitter as your own personal “this is what I’m doing” list.  Do you think your followers want to read about your breakfast cereal? Check out the twitter whore to see what I mean
6. Try to add value to the conversation by sharing links or things of interest.  For example, if folks are twittering about SEO try sending them a link to a post that describes how to measure online SEO competition.
7. Mix in SOME personal information so that people know you are a human being and not just an online merchant pushing links, don’t go overboard (see #5), find a balance, there is no exact number here.
8. Thank people when they follow you on twitter with a direct message, I try to thank every single new twitter follower I get.
9. Start conversations with the ‘@’ command, don’t just wait for people to talk to you.  If something is going on in your industry don’t be scared to ask for opinions and feedback.
10. Make sure to respond to people that ‘@’ or direct message you, quite frankly this is just a matter of showing respect, if people are taking the time to message you, respond
11. Don’t worry about how many twitter followers you have, if you become an active participant you will see your followers increase.
12. Remove people you follow if they don’t bring any value to you or if you just don’t find them interesting
13. Don’t spam anyone with anything
14. Promote your twitter name, I have a link to my twitter profile in my email signature, on my business cards, and at the end of all of my posts.  Don’t be afraid to mention twitter offline either, I have met many people offline that I was already connected with online, it’s great!
15. Use twitter search to see who is talking about you and what they are saying.  You can only see your replies in twitter if someone starts off a tweet with ‘@(your twitter name)’ but sometimes people use ‘@’ in the middle of their tweet (i.e. “thanks to @jacobm” as opposed to “@jacobm thanks”), so when you use twitter search, use this command “to:(your twitter name)” to help find tweets that contain your name, just not at the beginning.
16. If you see that people are talking about you (good or bad) on twitter search, then join in the conversation!
17. Take advantage of the many twitter mashups out there to help you engage in conversations and get information
18. Try to keep the amount of followers to something manageable, (currently I’m following 115 people) when you start to follow too many people the stream goes by too fast and you miss a lot of what is going on.  Then again if you happen to think that 10,000 people on twitter are interesting and you want to follow them, then go for it.  Check out what type of twitter follower you are for some tips.
19. Don’t stalk or harass people on twitter, if someone ignores you, just let it go.  The same goes for you, if people are stalking or harassing you, you can block them on twitter.
20. Most importantly have fun and try to build relationships, we’re all people here (except for the damn bots)

Bonus tips

1. If you get followers that are either spammers or just inactive, then block them.  A lot of people don’t do this because they are so concerned with their follower count, but at the end of the day the value of twitter is in the relationships and in the conversations.  You’re not going to have conversations with spammers/bots/inactives, hence no value, thus…block!
2. If you want to understand your twitter usage, you network, and just statistics about how you use the service then check out Twitter Friends
3. If someone says or share something that you find interesting, retweet.  Try to help promote others MORE than you try to promote yourself.

These tips have helped me during the course of my twitter usage.  Keep in mind that these aren’t rules and you don’t have to follow them, they are just a few tips and ideas that I have found helpful.
I Hope you found the above tips useful, did I miss any?
Thanks for reading

10 Twitter Tips

My 10 Twitter Tips:

1) Use the “Find People” tool and search for things you are interested in Real Estate, Fishing, New York City, etc.
2) Follow people that actually “tweet”
3) Do not just twitter personal promotion and advertisements, that is SPAM!
4) The “#” in front of a word, or letters, like “#icny” means that this is a post about an event or popular topic. #icny was used for Inman Connect New York, #Obama may be used for news about Obama, etc.
5) Follow @NYPierre and @trulia if you want to see some twitter action, most of Real Estate’s techiest agents and leaders are on Twitter too.
6) As a real estate agent, you should twitter the following things whenever you can: “Just got a closing in City, State” Just got an offer in City, State”, Just listed a great home in City, State”. This will inspire people who care about those areas or real estate in those areas to follow you. It will also counteract all that negative press out there that says people AREN’T buying homes – they are!
7) Use Tinyurl.com to create a shorter URL for long things, like listings. It is very easy, copy and paste the main link - like your listing URL on Trulia - and paste it into tinyurl, it will shorten it for you for Twitter use.
Twitpic is another tool to post photos right from your phone to your twitter account and add text - like “look at this new listing” and it will insert a link to the photo.
9) Twit about local events, things you are going to, maybe people near you are there too and want to meet - note, keep a lookout for stalkers?
10) Keep it social, don’t think of it as work, follow people first to get an idea of what you can say. you can even reply to other twitters directly.
Bonus tip: Twitter can update your Facebook status too! Look for the application on Facebook.

Write Your Own Twitter Client using Microsoft Excel

Twitter has taken themselves too seriously to disable a working protocol in lieu of complicated oAuth. I am keeping the post intact for amusement and knowledge of xmlhttp works.
Twitter is fun. You can stay in touch with your friends and followers, 140 characters at a time.
Out of curiosity I opened the twitter api documentation today to see if it is possible to build an excel based desktop client to post messages to twitter.
It turns out that, doing this using twitter api is relatively simple. So I went ahead and built an excel sheet using which you can post messages to your twitter account. Interested? Read on

Create a new MS Excel file and make a data entry form like this

You can insert the button using form controls. Go to menu > view > toolbars  and select “forms”.
Now select the button control and draw it on your sheet.
Excel will show a dailog asking which macro to run when that button is pressed. Enter the name as “tweetThis” or something cool.
Make sure you adjust the text color of password field same as background. That way your colleague (say hello to her from PHD) cannot look over your shoulder and know your twitter password.
PS: if you are using Excel 2007, form controls will be available in “Developer” tab of ribbon. If you don’t see developer tab, you must turn it on from “excel options”. Press office button and select excel options. I guess the option will be in “Advanced” area.

Create named ranges for your data

(this step is not mandatory)
We need just 3 fields of data to post a message to your twitter account. User name, Password and Message . Select each of the 3 cells and create named ranges for them. Name them something meaningful like “tusername”, “tpasswd” and “tmessage”. To create a name for selected cell, just press menu > insert > name > define (press the create name button in excel 2007)

Now, the fun part, writing macro code to post your message to twitter

The actual code is no geek stuff. We will use XMLHTTP object to do our work.
What is xmlhttp? it is the same object your browser uses to dynamically receive and send data from websites. It is the stuff behind all those cool AJAX powered sites.
First, right click on the “tweet” button you have created and select assign macro option. In the window it would show your macroname (tweetThis). Select it and click on edit button. This will open VBA Editor. Don’t freak out.
Our code needs to do the following stuff:

1. Create an xmlhttp object
2. Use twitter API’s post method and post the message
3. Get the status and display it in debug window (just so that we would know if something went wrong)
4. Close the xmlhttp object

I have written the below code, but I am sure you can write your own looking at how simple it is.

---

Sub tweetThis()

    Dim xml, tUsername, tPassword, tStatus, tResult
    Set xml = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")

    'get the username entered by you in named range tusername
    tUsername = Range("tusername")
    'get the password entered by you in named range tpasswd
    tPassword = Range("tpasswd")
    'get the message entered by you in named range tmessage
    tStatus = Range("tmessage") 

    xml.Open "POST", "http://" & tUsername & ":" & tPassword & "@twitter.com/statuses/update.xml?status="
& tStatus, False
    xml.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "content=text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"
    xml.Send

    tResult = xml.responsetext 'you can view Twitter’s response in debug window
    Debug.Print tResult

    Set xml = Nothing
End Sub

---

Finally, enter your user name and password and a test message and test your code

If everything is fine, you should be able to tweet from that spreadsheet. Here is a sample message if you don’t know what to tweet:
Wow, http://chandoo.org/wp just posted a cool new way to make your own twitter client
You can easily extend this code to check someones status message, DM or message someone or analyze twitter stream. For processing twitter data you can use DOM parser objects from VBA.

Download Twitter from Excel Application and Play around with the code

Go ahead and download the twitter from excel app and learn by opening the code etc.

That is all.

10 Twitter Tips For Bloggers

#1 Update Your Twitter Profile
Under settings you can add a url, make sure this link is your blog address. This means that when you get new followers and they view your profile they’ll have a direct link to your blog.
#2 Twitter is the new RSS
When you visit any established blog you will see the orange RSS feed in the top right hand corner. Now most people won’t check their RSS feed everyday, but most twitter users will, hence I think twitter will be the new RSS. At the moment a standard button for twitter hasn’t been established, but you should be adding an image next to the RSS link that points to your twitter page.
#3 Follow The Leaders In Your Industry
When you first start out you’ll probably know a few people you want to follow, but it’s quite daunting to figure out who the movers & shakers are in the Twitersvere. If you Follow MrTweet you will be given a list of people who you should be following. If you’ve posted a few updates and a good bio then some of these people will follow you back, so let the networking begin.
#4 Install TweetDeck 
Once you install this software onto your computer it opens up a whole new twitter experience.
When someone your following updates it will ping and let you know someone has tweeted. It allows you instantly reply to updates, and it will monitor for anyone who replies to one of your tweets. No more frantically refreshing the homepage to get that twitterfix!
#5 The TweetMyBlog Plugin
This nifty plugin allows me to have my twitterfeed in the sidebar of my blog.
It will also automatically update my twitter account everytime I make a new post, and if you have established good relationships then you should see instant traffic.
#6 The Sociable Plugin
Once installed this plugin makes it easy for readers to share your content. Be sure to tick the “TweetThis” function so that people can tweet about your blog post in seconds. Providing you produce good Pillar Content the amount of extra traffic could be huge.
#7 Use Search To Get Found
Have you seen people post updates with a #nerdpickuplines or similar? If you use the search function then you will this is a way of trending and picking out what is popular. By tweeting about popular topics not only will you have topics to chat about at the watercooler but you’re being part of the community, which will bring more traffic back to your blog.
#8 Use ViralTweets instead of E-mail Capture
The thinking about offering a free report in exchange for your readers email is that you can follow-up and email them about new blog posts. Whilst email lists are fantastic the chances of ytour reader telling all their friends about the free report are pretty slim. If you study the offer on my sidebar you’ll see that anyone who tweets the message automatically follows me, and posts a link to my main website – long term much more valuable than an individual address.
#9 Be Yourself
Twitter is a big social network that works on the basis of “What Are You Doing?
If all you’re doing is blasting adverts over the twitter network then you’re not going to make any friends, and you’re wasting your time. Conversly if you use it a “Micro Blogging” site and post things that aren’t worth whole blog posts it will work fantastically well for you, and help establish a relationship with the readers of your blog.
#10 The Power Of The Retweet
This final point is probably the most important for traffic generation.
When someone you’re following posts a link to a blog post and you like the content you go to tweetdeck and hit the little arrow button. This automatically retweets the link to the content, and shows your followers you’ve found an article you think they would like to read. By retweeting great content you will gain the respect of your followers, and get on the radar of the person who wrote the content.
Finally if do write a hot topic article then be sure to make sure to tell people that you want it retweeted.
With that in mind if you found this post helpfull then copy this into tweetdeck and hit enter
10 Twitter Tips For Bloggers – Please Retweet http://TwitPWR.com/3JH
Once you’ve done that be sure to leave a comment and include your twitter link, I will follow back anyone who comments.
Happy Tweeting

21 Cool Twitter Greasemonkey Scripts

I am using twitter form Last 2 months and this one is the best, but it doesn,t have lots of feature. But with Greasemonkey scripts you can do lots of thing in Twitter. Here are over 21 that are sure to vastly improve your Twitter experience.

See Also: Free Twitter Themes

Twitter Greasemonkey Scripts
1. Better Twitter Replies – Greasemonkey script that nests your Twitter replies.
2. TwitterScript – Greasemonkey script that puts a very small (and discrete) Twitter status box in the corner of your browser screen for you to update your Twitter status from.
3. Twitter Reloaded Userscript – “For Fluid: Reloads Twitter every two minutes with an in-page countdown. If there is any text in the status box reloads are postponed.”
4. Keyboard Shortcuts Enhancement – Gives you keyboard shortcuts in several different services, and with Twitter it will let you focus on the text area, advance pages and more.
5. Twitter Last Twitter Preview – This script will display your friend’s last twitter when you hover your mouse pointer over his or her image in the twitter sidebar.
6. Twitter2FB – Greasemonkey script that lets you update your Facebook status with your Twitter st
7. Twitter 90% – userscript for if you like your Twitter a little bigger. “This style make Twitter a little more bigger, for big screen resolutions. Also, has a few change in fonts and headers.”
8. Twitter Friend Name Helper – Working like most contact lists, name suggestions appear as you type, eventually allowing you to click on the name of the person to complete your “@” or “D” communication with them.
9. Delete Twitter Messages – Greasemonkey script that allows you to delete all your sent and received direct messages at once. Useful if you have your messages redirected and manage them in some other format (e.g. email). I suppose this only gets really useful if you are receiving a lot of direct messages.
10. Twitter Powertoys – Greasemonkey script that “Duplicates twitter navigation at the top of the status box + adds a ’send personal message’ link besides every user name on the timeline”. The send personal message link appears as a little (m) after the time Tweet was posted
11. Twitter Live Updater – Greasemonkey script that updates Twitter every minute, without you having to refresh the page.
12. TwitPic Previewer – I love this Greasemonkey script! Hover over a TwitPic link and a little pop up preview of the picture linked to will appear.
13. Twitter Emoticons from Yahoo! – Replaces the plain old text emoticons with images from Yahoo.
14. Twitter Enhancements: Retweet This – Adds a retweet option to the end of all posts for easier sharing of messages.
15. Twitter_Lite – A Twitter client you can open up anytime, anywhere on the Web by hitting shift-T.  Gives you some abilities such as searching Twitter, looking up related items on Flickr, switching timelines and more.
16. Twitter Auto Complete – Greasemonkey userscript: “This script assists you to enter your contacts when twittering. Twitter Auto Complete shows your contacts while entering an ‘@’ and autocompletes your contact when only one option is remaining.”
17. Twitter Blacklist – Greasemonkey script based on Earle Martin’s Twitter Blacklist which “intends to gather a list of all the spammers and morons who either try to use the service to promote their nonsense products/websites or simply just are attention addicts.” The Twitter Blacklist script will display a warning message at the tops of the pages of those users who have been blacklisted.
18. Twixxer – userscript that works with Firefox allowing for photo and video sharing. Others with the script installed will see thumbnail images, without the tool users can click on the link to go to the photo or video you have uploaded.
19. Google Reader to Twitter – greasemonkey script allowing you to Tweet posts from your GReader.
20. Twitter enhancement for Friend Feed – greasemonkey script from Internet Duct Tape.
21. UTF8Twitter – Greasemonkey script that adds a bar to the top of your Twitter page so you can add UTF8 characters at the click

10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners

1. Set up your profile

The first thing you need to do is to set up that profile. See that bar on top of your twitter page? Click Settings and start filling up your profile. The notable areas in here are URL, bio, picture and design. Put up a link to your site or blog in here along with a brief description. Upload a picture to differentiate yourself from the others and then tweak your Twitter design. Like any other social networking site, it is important to completely express what you are or what you stand for in your profile.

2. Follow people with similar interests

Now that you have a profile, start following people. You can find these people in Twitter directories. I use Twellow and JustTweetIt. These sites can introduce you to Twitter users that have the same interest as yours. Follow these people and observe their tweets. You may also try following who these people follow but read up their descriptions and visit their blogs to make sure you’re still on the right niche. Being on the right niche will make it easy for you to build a community with a similar interest.

3. Get into the conversation

So now that you are following people, you will now see some tweets on your board. Read up on what the people your following are up to and reply if it interests you. For example, a person narrates how he is going to conduct a meeting. You may then reply with ideas. When someone asks a question, don’t hesitate to answer if you know it. Don’t be afraid to interact.

4. Don’t spam

Spam is the cause of many unfollows on Twitter. There is a character limit for a reason. Do not send repeated messages to people. Do not constantly direct message (DM) them with links.

5. Update daily

Alright so you’re blending in the community. Now update daily if possible. I know some Twitter users who unfollow because of inactivity. Reply to people and update people with what’s going on with your life. Soon you’ll be recognized and you’ll get some follows.

6. Find the latest buzz and contribute

Now it’s your time to contribute. Find a topic that will interest your niche and tweet it. Since you have established relationships with your followers (through replies), you will get more attention. It’s a nice strategy to always append “please retweet” at the end of your tweet. There will be some people who will be so interested that they will retweet. There are others who will reply to you about the link you tweeted. But you are not a “nobody” anymore. You are not just talking to yourself. People are now responding to your tweets.

7. Help other people out

The famous saying “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you” holds here. Before you can receive retweets, you must help others first by retweeting their messages. Help the people in your niche. One day you’ll be surprised on how eager they are to help you back.

8. Create relationships

Now it’s time to create constant connections. Soon you will find that some users are more active than others. You will get to talk with the same group of people at the same time every night. But don’t get bored. Interact with these people and create relationships. Ask how they are doing and try to touch on their interests.

9. Integrate Twitter with other social networks

Have a blog? Then post to Twitter when you have a post that will interest your niche. Have a Facebook profile? Then ask people to add you. Twitter is really a vital part of web 2.0. It can serve as the core. It can let you build relationships that can branch out to other social networks.

10. Establish relationships even outside Twitter

Have a lot of friends on Twitter? Then take it to another level. Ask for their messenger and talk to these people on a more intimate level. Call them through Skype or even arrange a meet-up. Twitter can create real relationships.
Congratulations! You are now an official member of the Twitter community. You talk, act, think and breathe like us. Perhaps you find yourself spending every five minutes updating Twitter on what you are doing. But I guess I’ll save Twitter addiction for next time.