With only 140 characters at a time, you can make millions…
Twitter. Why is it that Twitter is only 140 characters by the way? Well, because many cell phones can only text 140 characters, that’s why! And why can cell phones only text 140 characters? Because the message piggybacks on signals already being sent by the phone and it costs the cell phone company NOTHING AT ALL to send the text message! So guess what, they are charging us ten dollars per month each (or more, or less) for something that is completely free for them. Smart… infuriating, but smart.
Ok, let’s get back to business. How do I capitalize on the vast popularity of Twitter and get the millions of daily Twitter users to give me their cold hard cash? How do I monetize Twitter??
You don’t!
Monetizing means to make money directly from something with affiliate links, or adwords ads etc. Take a look around on the Twitter.com site; even Twitter themselves have yet to monetize the site!
If you’re new to Twitter you need to learn some basics about how it works and what exactly is going on in the messages that you see.
First off go to www.twitter.com and sign up for an account. I suggest using your company name, website name or your real name as your Twitter account name. Don’t make it something that may be offensive, hard to remember or unprofessional if you are doing this for your business.
- You are allowed to have multiple Twitter accounts but it can be difficult enough to manage one properly so there’s no need for more?
– Upload a small image, preferably a small photo of you or your company logo. Now you are prepared to start using Twitter!
Next, you need to know a little about how Twitter works and what you will be seeing in your tweet stream. Most of what you will see will be garbage of two distinct types: 1) Spam 2) Random worthless updates by strangers and “goodnight” messages. (Don’t annoy people and post useless tweets like “Goodnight”… please!!)
The information you are honestly interested in seeing will not appear in your tweet stream! The messages you will see are every post made by every person that you are following. Imagine that you follow 2000 people like I do, or what about 15,000 or 25,000… how in the world do you follow that many people?
YOU CAN’T.
You’re on Twitter to get your message across, to speak to your audience, and to respond to only those messages that are actually sent to you and are not spam, but a human that is interested in speaking to you. And, in a nutshell, twitter.com is completely USELESS for doing this!
Now if you follow me, don’t get me wrong; I’m not discounting you as a person or uninterested in what you may have to say, but I can’t possibly be that involved with the thousands of people I would like to reach on a daily basis regarding camera repair. Twitter is amazing, and if I could afford a full time employee to do just Twitter I probably would.
I use Twitter every day, and I see almost every person that tweets about a broken digital camera or digital camera repair. I can’t possibly message them all, and when I try to, I think they think I’m just spamming. I would advise you to not do more than what you can comfortably handle. You are here to build relationships, not to sell.
Ok now, in your tweet stream you will see messages with different symbols, abbreviations and crazy looking links.
- The different symbols most commonly used are: @ (a message sent to a person so it shows up in their tweet stream) and # (an easily search-able topic or subject)
– Some of the most common abbreviations are TT (Trending Topic: something that is mentioned in many different tweets right now), DM (Direct Message: sent only to you, nobody else can see it), RT (ReTweet: somebody else posted this first and I can ReTweet it letting others know I think it’s good) and FML… I’ll let you figure out what FML means.
– The crazy looking links have been shortened so that they take up less space. They look odd, and yes they can take you to any site without your knowledge so you must trust the person that posts it. You only have 140 characters remember, so shortened URL’s are a must.
If you want to be serious about Twitter, you need something like Tweetdeck from www.tweetdeck.com, it’s fantastic. Twitter is completely useless for any sort of business purpose if you try and use it through Twitter.com. Myself, I never actually go to Twitter.com as there’s no need to!
Download and install Tweetdeck, configure it and get it running. You will see a column for anytime you are mentioned (@ symbol before your name) and Direct Messaged (DM). Other than these basic columns you may add more for customized searches that will update themselves and keep you informed when anybody tweets using your specific keywords!!
Maybe you have a dog training business online; create a search column for ‘dog training’ and you will see every single message every person tweets with the words ‘dog’ and ‘training’ in any order of the tweet. They won’t always be about ‘dog training’, (I’ve been in training for scuba diving testing… oh the dog has to go out) but most will. Now figure out other combinations of keywords or search phrases… ‘dog training’ won’t show any search results when the person says ‘training dogs’, but the search term ‘dogs training’ will becuase they don’t have to be in order. Hopefully I am able to clarify the difference!
Any time you see a relevant message about something in your area of expertise, you can follow the person that posted the tweet (you aren’t really interested in following them, but they like it and normally will follow you back) and then send them an @ message. You SHOULD NOT try and sell anything to the person you are tweeting with your first message to them. Open a dialog with the person, let them know you are an expert in the subject manor and gently prod to see if there is anything that you may do for them… FOR FREE. You may post a link to your site, but highly motivated customers will look for a link in your profile, so make sure one is there to be found. Don’t try and push for a sale!
If you want to be a spammer and annoy people, then by all means please try to monetize Twitter! Here’s how!
1- Harass people with your first tweet when they follow you, by sending them an automatic DM that spams them with something to buy.
2- Spam the same tweets over and over all day and night, every day. Better yet, spam the same tweets at the same time from multiple accounts every 15 minutes 24hrs a day.
3- Tweet by spamming Trending Topics just to try and get people to see your tweets!
4- Never personally talk to people that are interested in your subject area, just post automated updates only.
5- Never give free advice, or post tweets to sites that will help people and have nothing to do with something you sell.
6- Make controversial comments about religion, politics and bodily functions. Also swear whenever possible.
7- Tweet @ every user you see with your offer and website
and so on and so forth…
I know if you start today you can use my information to get going with Twitter right away. Don’t worry about not understanding everything that’s going on or what you should do or say. Start following some people in your area of expertise and see what they do. Don’t follow celebrities unless that is your area of business; follow them once you know what you are doing and have the time to do your work plus see what Shaq is eating for lunch.
Tweet @ you Twitterites later.
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