(+)How To Use Twitter Like A Pro(+) - Intro

How I Got 1,000 Followers - genuine followers, new networking buddies and awesome people in general

When I go about my daily rituals and browse my google analytics account I see that a lot of the searches done in google I am getting are under a select few phrases; ‘how to get twitter followers fast’, ‘how to quickly get twitter followers’ and ‘help me get twitter followers fast’. Fast is a very popular and revealing term in these searches. Twitter is a huge trend right now, notice I said trend and not fad as fads are just like trends but are short lived. But as I was saying, Twitter offers huge potential to increase your online leveraging power and is something that anyone striving to establish a strong online presence should take advantage of.

But be *warned* as there are a lot of things out there that can steer you in the wrong direction. There are a lot of awesome tools out there that can help you get 1,000 genuine followers in no time at all; and there are a lot of tools that will ensure your eventual list of 1,000 followers won't be genuine and really won't do you any good. Let's quickly go through the right and wrong way of getting followers, touching briefly on the first steps...

The First Steps on the Right Path

#1) BE YOU! - I rarely use all caps but I must in order to make sure this first step is well established. You need to be you, this is the front line of Web 2.0 here people and in this new world your businesses come second to You. Upload a picture of yourself, write a brief bio and start off with personal tweets. If you come marching in with your tool belt of automation and spam tweets out - you're sure to make your followers ignore your avatar.

#2) Try not to follow a crap load of new people in order to get them to follow you back. Although this works in the sense that it gets you a % of follow backs, it will ultimately make twitter just some classified ads list and severelyunder utilize twitter in the process. Instead find networks related to your interests and begin adding people there, be sure to interact with them along the way - first impressions matter even more online!

The First Steps on the Wrong Path

#1) There is only one step to the wrong path, putting your business in front of yourself. When your profile pic is your company's logo, or all your tweets are impersonal and contain affiliate links, automated messaging, etc. These are the old fashioned - quick result kind of mentality that will not get you far with twitter. This old approach may have worked for email pitching, ad posting, and other pre-web 2.0 marketing approaches; but seriously, there is a huge Web 2.0 movement going all around us here people - get with the program!

The Next Steps on the Right Path

Once you begin familiarizing yourself with all the @tweets and follow back stuff you can then begin branding yourself. What do I mean? Well, essentially you will be meeting all kinds of new individuals eager to network - your profile is a blank canvas that your tweets, pictures, website and imagination can paint to any specifications. It is up to you to paint the canvas, and to make sure you know what canvas you're painting.

• Tweeting: Now before I get too abstract and lose everyone I'll get concrete. People ask me questions like, "I don't get the point of twitter, what do you write about?" Tweet about You, man I sound like a broken record but it's true. Example, as I am writing this blog I just tweeted - tweet about your day; your goals, your aspirations, your fears, be you... There are times to do business on twitter, times to directly use it as exposure and what not but that's a whole other blog to be written. In terms of getting followers, start by telling the world who you are and latching on to interesting new people you meet.

• Following: I recommend that everyone follows Mr.Tweet as he will serve as a valuable resource later on. Next I would recommend grabbing Tweetdeck to organize the whole process making things easier. In terms of where to start following people I went over to people I new were dominant faces of the marketing niches I associate myself with. For example, when I first came on Twitter I went over to Perry Belcher's page, scanned who Perry Belcher was tweeting to and started following. A crucial step in this process is not to overload yourself - follow 10-20 new followers at a time, as they interact back be sure to make your e-impressions and do not treat these followers as mere numbers and potential eye balls for links...

• Getting Followers: The best way to get followers is to be remarkable. To be remarkable simply means to be remarked about, to be talked about... A lot of followers are to be had depending on the type of tweets you send out and the type of interaction you do as you frolick with your mutual followers. Just being active on twitter get's me a awesome new followers every day. Of course there are a number of 3rd party programs I highly recommend such as TweetDeck and some aspect of Tweetlater which help manage your followers as the list gets long; the majority of genuine followers will come from genuine networking.

• Taking it to the Next Level: Taking it to the next level involves fully branding yourself. Work on a landing page, an about me of sorts with a bio - but preferrably you should have an online presence or website. *Note - there is no excuse not to be hosting your own website! You can get one up and start blogging today - see my blog for a website tutorial - That aside, the reason you want to begin branding yourself is to establish your incentives of being online as genuinely as possible so that other like minded people can branch out and connect. I have met a lot of awesome fellow networking friends who I continue to work with thanks to social networking. Since twitter only allows you 140 characters, it's all about your online presence and the way you paint that canvas.

Thanks to all my readers for stopping by this intro post - I love and appreciate all the feedback and comments I get - Look for updates on this blog as I insert links to new Twitter posts on the following categories; Beginner's Guide To Twitter, The Art of Tweeting, The Many Ways of Followers, Managing w/3rd party programs, marketing and twitter, taking it to the next level and more!

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