What is Twitter?  Well, on the Twitter login page it is introduced as: a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The concept of Twitter at first glance appears to offer a very unique method of communicating with people for casual banter.  However, if you are marketing in any way on the Internet, this can be a powerful platform for providing information and for generating traffic.

When entering a message (known as a Tweet), the user is forced to communicate effectively, because the content is limited to 140 characters.  It does not take long to figure out how to concisely get your Tweet across.

If Twitter is new to you, perhaps you have not yet grasped its true potential.  It definitely has to be one of the best free traffic generators on the Internet.  Its simplicity and accessibility has made this tool extremely attractive to over two million users, and that figure seems to be growing exponentially.

Once you register to participate on Twitter (http://twitter.com), you will begin to follow other Twitterers.  But, the real key for you as a marketer is to generate your own followers. Thus, giving you the opportunity to get your message out quickly and easily.

As with any marketing headline, the goal of the Tweet is to capture the readers attention and lead them to where your moneymaker content is located (sales page, opt-in, article, etc).  Within your 140 characters you hopefully entice the reader and provide a short hyperlink.

Beyond the linked message area, the perks of this site are multifaceted.  The page begins with an automatic welcome that introduces you to the reader and invites them to become a follower.  Next, in a personal information area in the upper right corner of the page you can embed a link to a web page and provide a brief bio.

Of course, if you are going to encourage folks to follow you (or to retain followers), your Tweets need to offer value.  For the Internet marketer there can sometimes be a fine line between responsibly leading someone to more information or using a platform to blatantly spam an unwanted message.

Take the opportunity to promote your Twitter page whenever possible.  Place your Twitter link on your website, blog, ezine, article signature box, and so on.  For example, this is my link: http://twitter.com/davidschaefer, and I encourage you to become a follower.

Twitter.com includes a few more features not mentioned here – just visit the help section.  And, everyday creative entrepreneurs are offering new products and services to independently support and expand the use of Twitter.  The most important point is to take advantage of Twitters simplicity, effectiveness, and potential marketing reach.

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Microblogging has become one of the biggest trends in both social networking and making money online. The website Twitter is one of the biggest and most widely used micro blogging sites on the internet, and can be a powerful marketing tool if used properly.

Here’s the key: Using Twitter to make money online is all about driving traffic to places where people will take an action that will put cash in your pockets. Micro blogging gives you a chance to target your audience and build a very personal relationship with them while still using massive leverage.

Because of this, the traffic that you generate using Twitter is some of the best web traffic that you can have visiting your site. This is because if someone visits your site due to something that you mention on Twitter, then you aren’t a ‘total stranger’ to the person.

This means that you have a higher degree of trust with them, and higher trust always = more sales. Also, it can have a viral effect if you are giving people links to content, tools, or information that they enjoy. Imagine passing a link onto people who will repost the link for 100′s of their followers to check out… The possibilities are endless.

One of the most effective tricks of using Twitter to make money online is to use Twitter to drive people to articles that you’ve posted on your blog(s). Blogs are very dynamic and allow you to constantly add new and relevant content on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. This keeps you fresh and allows you to keep people coming back to your site over and over again…

If you offer people good content on your blog, then they are likely to tell others and return themselves. However getting people to your blog originally can be tricky.

This is where micro blogging really shines because the number one thing that you need to know to make money online (for your own ‘brick and mortar business’, affiliate marketing, or something else) is how to get the right people to visit your site. Twitter and other micro blogging sites will help you to supercharge your targeted traffic faster than nearly any other form of free marketing.

Here’s how it works:

Twitter can help you generate traffic by allowing you to let all of your followers know that you’ve posted something new and letting you link to it. A good tip while doing this is to post the article name as a question that will arouse curiosity. One example might be, “Are you using the #1 trick to making money online with Twitter? (insert your link here)”.

This tip can also be used when using other people’s articles through your blog. Simply tell people that you ran across a great article and link to your blog. Then have a blog entry that summarizes the article or promotes it briefly while linking to the original post.

This will get people to your blog and often they will read other posts, ads, reviews, etc. before clicking through to the main article you are referencing.

This is just one of many ways to use Twitter to make money online by driving traffic to your blog. Use it as an idea and get creative in your own way because the possibilities are endless!

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A fun and easy social media guide for the over-55 set People over 55 were the fastest-growing user group on Facebook in the first half of 2009, and they’re flocking to Twitter at a faster rate than their under-20 grandchildren. From basic information about establishing an Internet connection to rediscovering old friends, sharing messages and photos, and keeping in touch instantly with Twitter, this book by online expert Marsha Collier helps seniors j… More >>

Facebook and Twitter For Seniors For Dummies

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The most Internet marketing fun you will ever have!

I have to admit there are many parts of Internet marketing which are downright boring for me. Rewriting articles into original content, submitting links to directories, the record keeping involved…these are all important, but they are not my most enjoyable tasks.

Therefore, I am very excited when something comes along which not only works well, but I can have fun with too! Twitter is my cool new Internet marketing tool I have been using lately. I can honestly say it is probably the most fun I have had with any marketing method!

I had my account for a while before I took Twitter serious. Sure it was fun. But was it really worth my time? When I kept seeing many of the top Internet marketing gurus using Twitter, I decided to take a closer look. After all, those top marketers probably weren’t spending their time with Twitter unless it was producing results for them.

I decided to give Twitter a closer look. I dug into it to find out exactly how marketers like John Reese and Willie Crawford were using it. It amazed me how much time they were devoting to this new marketing method! My methods were hit and miss at first, but thanks to a few Twitter mentors I was able to craft a system which is working very well for building a large following. At the time of this writing, I am consistently adding more than 50 new followers a day!

Imagine! 50 new leads a day which cost me virtually NOTHING but a small amount of “fun time” on Twitter. Also, the best part about my methods is that the new followers I get are targeted. It really does no good for me to get leads who are not interested in Internet marketing. For example, those tweeting about “gardening” or “coin collecting” really won’t do many any good as followers.

Although there are large amounts of Twitter users in the area of Internet marketing, Twitter is also used by followers in many other niches. Once you learn the process of “Twittering” and how to attract targeted followers for your niche, the sky really is the limit! Best of all, unlike many other marketing methods, Twittering is an absolute blast of fun!

Here are a few hints for Twittering success:

- Always have a descriptive bio of yourself and include a great landing page. You are allowed one active link in your bio. You can include other URL’s in your description, but they will not be active.

- Make sure you take advantage of the reply and direct message features. These two features are the real “meat and potatoes” of Twitter. Using them will result in strong (and profitable) relationships with other users.

- Use a link shortening tool like TinyURL to shorten links to deal with the 140 character limit for each tweet.

- There are some cool third part tools which I use to ramp up Twitter’s marketing potential. Be sure to see my Twitter bio for more information about this.

Give Twitter a try for a few weeks and watch the results!

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The use of hashtags in Twitter messages is growing in popularity. Hashtags (i.e. the “#” sign) can be attached to a keyword and added to a tweet message so that it and all other messages with the same #keyword attached can be looked up and read together.

A sure sign that this method of logging tweets is having an impact on the Twitter membership is that there is now a website that is dedicated to it, Hashtags.org. The website lists all the assorted #tags that are currently in use on Twitter.

Twitter members can easily start to utilize hashtags in their own tweets. They are best used if you want to post a regular flow of notifications and have a way to look them all up in a single search. Simply remember include a hashtag in the body of the message.

What exactly do you use these tags for? One important function they serve is to keep a group informed about plans for events and so forth. Hashtags can also be used by Internet business owners who want to inform customers about products and services. Let your client base know about your tags, and you’ll provide them with a handy method of following your tweets.

So the next question this raises is, where is the best place to look them up? Twitter recently bought a search tool called Summize and has incorporated it into their site at: search.twitter.com/. That is now the best place to run your searches for keywords with or without hashes.

Here are some ways to get the best use out of your Twitter hashtags.

Tip 1. Follow Twitter.com/hashtags and they’ll automatically follow you back and start tracking your hashtags for you.

Tip 2. As you will want to use hash tags to promote your website posts, make sure the word or phrase you use is unique to you. Go to http://hashtags.org/ to see if you’re preferred hashtag is already being used for other posts.

Tip 3. 140 characters is not a lot to play around with so keep your hashtags as short as you can.

Tip 4. Google lists Twitter tweets, so it makes sense to use relevant keywords as your hashtags, particularly if your message features a link back to your internet site or web log.

In Conclusion, a note of caution. Use #hashtags with discretion when you tweet. Don’t alienate your readership by peppering every tweet with multiple hashes. Not everybody likes them and some individuals have developed a strong antipathy to them, while others who claim to hate them use them in their “I hate #hashtags” tweets!

In short, try to avoid using more than one hashtag per post. As long as you use them with circumspection, you will find hashtags a useful tool when networking with Twitter.

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Seeing as how Twitter is becoming more and more popular amongst businesses (even Walmart uses it!) we have decided to give you a quick over view of some Twitter best practises.

Top 10 Twitter Tips:

1)    Make objectives about what you want to achieve by using Twitter, and stick to them. You need to know what you want to achieve with Twitter. If there are too many things, create more than one account – each one should have its own agenda and credibility. Think about your user name. If you want to build up awareness for your own name brand, use your name, but if you want to build up your company name, you could try a mix of your name and the company name or just the company – depending on the length of your company name. E.G Leila_Interleado. You don’t want to use a name like superstar69 because it gives absolutely nothing away about you or your company and it doesn’t inspire any kind of credibility.

2)    When you add your avatar try not to add a picture of you wearing a giant silly hat, or you sitting in a boardroom. You want to be a human as well as professional. You also want to inspire confidence in your business capabilities and not look like a joker. Keep it simply you -and enforce your brand (whether it’s a personal brand, company brand, or your voice in the company brand).

3)    Add your URL and a small bio to your profile. People will have an online reference to learn about what you are offering them or what else there is to learn about you. Your profile reflects your brand.

4)    Twitter is like micro blogging. Your messages have a limit of 140 characters. Make them count.

5)    Twitter is no longer there just to tell people that your dog had 5 adorable puppies and you have decided to name them all Bob and Trudy. Now is the time to use Twitter to tell people about your business goals, your professional interests, to spread knowledge and offer customer support. Use your own ideas to spread the messages – be unique!

6)    That said, by no means is it deemed acceptable to spam your followers with “Tweets”* only concerning your company and how great it is. This is a sure fire way to either lose follower or not gain any. Add a human touch by passing on the link to an article you found funny or interesting. Tweet about issues you have online, things you found on your way to work, ask questions and reply to what other “Twits (or Tweeps)”** say. Offer customer support for example. Be useful but keep a balance.

7)    Add followers who you think you can learn from.  Hopefully they will think the same of you and follow you in return. It’s about building up a network here, the more useful all the connections are the better for you and everyone who networks with you. This means not automatically following people who follow you too. Depending on what you want to achieve, it seems logical that you would only follow people who have things to say that you find useful or interesting in any way. This is a chance to gain new blog readers, newsletter subscribers or software users. Again, this depends on what you want to achieve with Twitter.

8)    If you like what one of your followers  contributed, say so! By “Retweeting”*** what one of your followers or someone you are following says, you let them know that you found what they said interesting and that you are willing to share it with others . You could also reply to them or send a direct message and let them know. To retweet something, users typically type in “Retweeting” and the user name with an @ in front of it to show who posted it originally e.g. “Retweeting @LeilaPan” then paste the Tweet here. To reply to someone you type in the user name with an @ before it e.g. “@LeilaPan nice article!”. Users can be notified when they get these replies so they will know you replied to them or retweeted their message and may be more inclined to return the favour. Try to keep  a balance though, people can see when you are Tweeting your own messages or when you are replying or Retweeting – make sure you have your own voice.

9)    Use Twitter regularly. The more you use it, the more interaction people see. The more use people see in following you and the more followers you will receive!

10)    Twitter can give you insight you may not have had before. It can form part of your online reputation management. Track what people say about you or your company, or both! See if people are Tweeting your articles. By responding to what people say about your brand you build up your network and credibility.

Of course there are many Twitter tools and resources out there to help you use the application as best you can. It’s all about using it and finding out what works for you. You might also want to brush up on your Twitter lingo (you could even make up your own Twords! Twitter words…that one’s all mine.) Twittering can be fun, and keeps the communication lines with your target audience wide open.

The most important thing to remember is that this takes time, but it is becoming more and more widely accepted as a way to interact with existing and potential customers or even your niche heroes.

If you would like to follow some Interleado employees, you can follow me or Interleado’s CEO, Peter Cullen.

*Twitter posts

**Twitter users

***Reposting a Tweet

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Product Description
Learn how to get more followers, promote your business, self, and blog. Get started right away. … More >>

Twitter Tactics: 50 powerful tactics or serious Twitter users!

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Twitter is not just a free social networking site but is also a great marketing tool and can be used in many other ways. This article will explain you some of the creative ways to use Twitter.

For starting, set up a Twitter account. Make sure that your profile has your picture, a short biography of yours with an attached link to your website. After this, I suggest doing a search for your friends on Twitter. The search is focused towards finding the people whose updates you want to follow, people that relate to you and your business. Spamming while promoting your business through updates on Twitter strictly needs to be avoided, as people do not like spamming.

Twitter could also be used directly to post updates, but there are other sites also where one can do this. Tweetlater is one such website, which allows users to schedule their future updates/tweets, and acts as a great timesaver for the people who don’t have much time to post regular updates on Twitter throughout the day. It allows you to save a customized welcome message which is automatically sent to the new followers on tweetlater as well. Try to keep your updates interesting.

Another great time-saving option is provided by the websites like Hellotxt or Jabber which allows users to send updates not only on Twitter but on other social networking sites like facebook, dig as well at the same time. One can send their followers direct private messages; which allow them to meet and network with new people.

Linking twitter with your blog, Squidoo: explore lenses, Facebook or MySpace accounts and many other websites is another creative method of using twitter. When you send an update on Twitter it is automatically also sent to your followers on these other linked sites. Bloggers can use Twitter Feed to post blog updates and articles in their twitter account. When one of your articles goes live it automatically sends an update to all your followers on twitter. For using Twitter Feed you just need to log in using your open id and then put in the URL of your blog feed, and how frequently you want to post it to twitter.

These were some of the ways in which you can use twitter creatively and for promoting your business.

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Making Money With Twitter is certainly possible. By now everyone is either on Twitter or has heard of it. Twitter is now number 596 on the most visited websites in the Alexa ratings. Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, began as a research and development project inside a San Francisco company Odeo in March 2006. It became Twitter Inc. in 2007

The Wall Street Journal has written, “These social-networking services elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel ‘too’ connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills, and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they’re having for dinner.

That’s how I felt when I first heard about Twitter”. Do I really want to know what people are doing during their days and do I want people to know what I’m doing? Now that I’ve tried it, I’m hooked. Its like a blog and it gives you a chance to express yourself . Of course, like all online things I’m sure people will get bored of it after awhile, but the serious marketers will use it to try and make money. After all, this is America, and where there’s a will there’s a way to make money. I’m not talking about Twitter itself monetizing the site. I’m talking about the users making money off of it.

The most obvious way to earn money is by putting your affiliate link inside your posts. You don’t want to do this too much though because Twitter is not crazy about it , and people realize you are just trying to sell them things. Another way to make money on Twitter is to get a user name that will draw attention to a certain market. For instance, you could choose the user name Boston Red Sox. You would probably get a lot of people,watching your page ,who are interested in the Boston Red Sox. Then, you could try and sell them things related to baseball or the Red Sox specifically. Thosse are two methods, maybe you can think of others.

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