Image via Wikipedia

Do you have a hard time expressing yourself on Twitter? Do you not totally understand the purpose of Twitter? Well, until about 2 days ago I had no idea what to tweet about on Twitter, or even what purpose Twitter serves. I see tweets as they pop up while I’m working, and some of them are pretty silly. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know why hundreds or thousands of people should know that I just took a shower, or that I’m having a doughnut for breakfast, etc… (WHY would ANYONE even WANT to know these things!?) I also noticed that there are actually little “cliques” like in High School. I would have felt as if I were intruding if I were to try to join the conversation! The whole Twitter thing just seemed like a waste of valuable time. Until now, that is!

I have a free twitter account and the tweet my blog plug in. This plug in is really very helpful, it connects Twitter to my blog and posts a tweet whenever I post something. I also go into my Twitter account once a week and follow people back that are following me. That has been the extent of my involvement on Twitter so far.

In the past two days I’ve accidentally come across three really great posts that helped me to understand the purpose of Twitter and the best ways to express yourself on Twitter. Well, now I’m really excited about using Twitter! I finally know it’s purpose, and I now understand which ways are the best ways to express yourself on Twitter. I’m beginning to see Twitter in a whole different light.

Here’s what stood out most for me after reading the posts about Twitter:

- Provide valuable content in your tweets, such as something funny you read or saw, a great post you just read, a helpful quote, something educational that people can use, anything of interest!

- Remember that most people don’t want to know what you are doing at that exact moment (such as brushing your teeth!). You can tweet about what you’ve been working on (make sure you’re not promoting though), something you did earlier that day (went to the beach), a cause you’re involved with, a free gift you have available, embarrassing moments you’ve had, etc. The list could go on and on, just make it interesting!

- Twitter is for building relationships and credibility, not pushing for sales!

- Don’t keep repeating yourself. If you put up a new post, or submitted an article, or read something great there’s no need to go on and on about it all day long. One or two tweets about it is enough.

- If someone posts a link you like you can “re-tweet” it (it’s a great compliment to the tweeter who posted the tweet!). All you have to do is copy the tweet, paste it into a new tweet, and add RT to the beginning.

- On Twitter you can follow the people who interest you and join in on the conversations.

- If exchanging tweets back and forth with the same tweeter for a long time, it’s probably a good idea to use the send a Direct Message option.

- Have fun, be yourself, and you can develop new relationships, potential customers and potential partners. Twitter is also a great place to share your message, get information and news, and research your market.

For more information on Twitter here are the links to the 3 posts I read:

check out Derek Gehl’s post for some great tips on interacting using Twitter. Derek has the best tips for using Twitter and how it can benefit you. There’s also a short video that shows you how to set up a new account.

Jeff Shecter’s video post is called “What’s Your ROI? – The 4 E’s of Social Media” (ROI doesn’t stand for return on investment!). I really liked Jeff’s video post a lot because it applies to Social Media in general.

The last post I read was at TwiTip, which is edited by Darren Rowse from Problogger Blog Tips. The particlular post I read is “How to Be a Good Dog on Twitter in 8 Easy Steps” by Krista Travers from Whippit Snippets. I thought this was a really “cute” post about using Twitter, and she has a very creative writing style.

You can set up a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com.

Free stuff you can use for Twitter:

Get the “Tweet My blog” plugin here: Tweet My Blog Plugin

TweetLater is a great tool to have, you can set up automated replies and much more!

Tweet Getter is getting around fast – it’s viral! Get thousands of followers quickly!

Well, that’s it for now! I hope this helps you understand more about expressing yourself on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bizathome

Take care,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

I downloaded Social Media Daily a while back, and finally had a chance to read over all of the information last night. Michele McPhearson has done a great job of putting together a daily social media plan designed to get traffic to your site.
She also gives a lot of great advice!

I am going to start implementing her daily checklist. This is something that will be very helpful to all of us!

Go to Social Media Daily to download Social Media Daily FREE!

Take care,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

http://getyourlistbuildingmachine.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

I have been extra busy the last few days working on getting traffic to my site. Now that the holidays and my grandson’s birthday are over I’ll have much more time available!

Here are some things I’m doing to get some traffic to my blog:

Technorati Favorites Blog Exchange

- I went to Jack Humphreys blog and participated in the Technorati Favorites Blog Exchange. What you need to do is favorite Jack Humphreys blog on Technorati, then leave him a comment with your URL and your Technorati user name and he’ll favorite you back! You can also favorite everyone who left him comments with their information.

I’ve heard that this is working well for some of Alex Jeffreys other students, so I finally got a chance to try it out. I will be going back to Jack’s blog today to favorite everyone who left their info in their comments. I think this one is a really great idea and could work well for getting traffic.

Social Bookmarking

- I visited J.T.Martin’s blog and saw that he had a great idea for Alex’s Students to start utilizing social bookmarking when visiting each others blogs!When you go to a fellow student’s blog and read a post take a few extra minutes to bookmark their post. This is something that will be helpful to all of us!

After reading J.T.’s post I signed up for a free account atOnlyWire. You will need to create an account with each social bookmarking site listed, which will take a little time, but it’s worth it in the long run. With Onlywire you will be submitting to 20+ social bookmarking sites all at once which will save you a lot of time. OnlyWire has a Wordpress plugin you can use, or an html script you can paste into your site to to add the “bookmark and share” button.

Then, of course, you can visit some of the other student’s sights and bookmark their posts!

Other Social Bookmarking Sites

I also created an account at Digg, which is very popular.
Reddit is another good site to sign up with.

I’ll be creating a Squidoo lens tonight!

Have a great day!

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Okay, I’m finally posting on what I plan to do to get some traffic to my blog!

- Submit to my RSS Fee to RSS Feed Directories (already did this)

- Create a Hub on HubPages (already did this)

- Create a lens on Squidoo

- Comment on the blogs at winningtheweb.com

- Write some posts on what I learn from some of the blogs at winningtheweb.com

- Posting on some fourms

- Commenting on other Alex Jeffreys Coaching student’s blogs

- Creating a profile and participating on various social sites. (I will give specifics when I have created my profile on some sites!)

- Utilize some classified ad services

And anything and everything else I can think of along the way!

I will give an update sharing my “traffic getting” results within the next few days.

Have a great day,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

Here is a free plugin I came across a few days ago and wanted to share the info with you. It’s called Tweet My Blog. This powerful plugin works for you in 3 different ways:

- Every time you post to your blog you will automatically “ping” your Twitter account, and since your Twitter account will automatically contain a link back to your blog post you could end up driving a huge amount of traffic to your blog.

- You will also receive a blog “widget” that will automatically show your recent Twitter posts.

- The Twitter “pings” and the blog “widget” both contain a link back to Tweet My Blog that contains your affiliate link. So you will also make money as an affiliate.

The plugin is easy to install, and the directions are very good. This is a great way to start generating more traffic to your blog. And, remember, it’s FREE!

For more information Click Here.

Enjoy!

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

In this article we will discuss how you can use relationships to build your internet based business on a more solid foundation.

As is evidenced by some of the large social networks available online Social Networking is very popular. We are talking about places like Facebook, eEntrepreneur, My Space and many others.

Social networking can be used to build your internet based business, for example by combining blogging and social bookmarking to post blog articles to various social directories. There are thousands of sites and you can quickly do this in directories such as Stumbleupon, Propeller and Digg.

Through these social networks you will meet people with common interests. Posting articles on your Blog will create search engine bait as well as traffic from various social directories. This is an easy way to make new contacts and build up your internet based business on the Internet.

Another great way to meet people with common interests is in the Discussion forums and although they are not commonly referred to as social networking sites they serve a similar function. You can join forums as they relate to the theme of your internet based business and get to know the members, offer your expertise and exchange ideas.

You will find that joint ventures are formed every day in discussion forums. The key to making discussion forums work and building your internet based business is to become involved and join in the discussions as opposed to being viewed as a spammer or a person who is just trying to sell something to the forum members.

If you like people this really isn’t that hard to do. Discussion forums are excellent places to keep up-to-date with what is going on in the Internet and in the internet based business arena also!

If you are a people’s person you will enjoy the interaction and banter back and forth that occurs in the different threads. Most forums allow you to create a signature file which will promote your internet based business passively. Have a look around at other members’ signature files to pick up some tips on how to set up your signature file for greatest effect. You’ll be amazed at how much traffic you can get from a well worded signature file.

As long as you are willing to work getting to know people and build relationships then the social network sites and discussion forms are two ways to combine social networking with your internet based business.

————————

Cynthia Minnaar is the owner of http://www.cyns-home-biz.com and she works full-time from home online. She invites you to visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com/Internet-Marketing-Training.html for more tips on how to market an internet based business.