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! Why is it that cell phones are limited to only 140 characters for texts? 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.
Now then, 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 doesn’t monetize Twitter!
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 highly suggest using your business or website name, or even your real name for your Twitter user name. Don’t make it something that may be offensive, hard to remember or unprofessional if you are doing this for your business.
- Yes you may have more than one Twitter account, but one is hard enough to manage, who needs more?
– Upload a small image, preferably a small photo of you or your company logo. Now you’re ready to get tweeting!
Next you will need to know more about how it works and what it is you will be seeing in the tweets of those you follow. 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 waste people’s time by posting “Goodnight Twitter”… please!!)
The information you are honestly interested in seeing will not appear in your tweet stream! The information that you do see will be every update by every person that you follow. Imagine following 2,000 people like I do, or 10,000 or 20,000… how can you possibly follow all those 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 absolutely WORTHLESS when 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 so powerful that if I could afford to have one person do Twitter full time I would probably do it.
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. The best advice I can give is to do as much as is comfortable and make it human. You are using Twitter to build credibility with your audience, not to sell to them.
Ok now, in your tweet stream you will see messages with different symbols, abbreviations and crazy looking links.
- The most common symbols you will see are @… (a message sent to the person after the symbol so that it shows up in their tweet stream) and the # (a subject like #photography that is searchable)
– 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 leave it to you to find out what FML stands for.
– 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 awesome. 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 Tweetdeck, and Adobe Air if needed and get Tweetdeck 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 add your other keywords and phrases… ‘dog training’ won’t give you any results for ‘training dogs’ for example, but ‘dogs training’ will. Hope this makes sense!
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. DO NOT TRY AND SELL THEM ANYTHING with your first message and do not make it an automated message either. 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. Yes you can post a link to your site if you feel you must, but they will ask or figure it out if they are interested. 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. Even better, post the same tweets over and over all day long from multiple accounts.
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- Post obscene or controversial messages about relition, politics or bodily functions. Also make sure to insult others and swear as much as possible.
7- Tweet @ every user you see with your offer and website
and so on and so forth…
I know there is information here that you can use starting today to get started on Twitter. Don’t worry about not understanding everything that’s going on or what you should do or say. Start off by following people in your market and see what it is they do on Twitter. 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 later.