The Phenonema that is Twitter

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For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter... (and yes, there are some out there, because I went to dinner with two of them last night)... I would like to give a very brief description.  Twitter is a way to communicate with others using a micro-message with a maximum of 140 characters.   It will give your copy-writing skills a great workout.

When it first came onto the scene, it was used  mostly by young people to send small personal messages back and fore to their friends.  Forward thinking people began to see potential in this tool, and dreamed up ways to utilize it to enhance their  business.  

The idea is to follow people.  When you do this you get to read the messages they are posting to everyone.  If you find one of those people interesting, you can click on their name and, after checking them out,  decide if you want to follow them yourself.  The idea is to then have these people follow you back.  One very neat tool is called Tweetlater.  You can set your account up to automatically follow anyone who follows you.  You can also create a personal message that will be e-mailed to them thanking them for following you.  Here again, you can use your copywriting skills to maximize the opportunity to direct these people to your blog or some other place.

Some folks have well over 10,000 people following them.  Just imagine for a moment the power in that.  You can send a message in an instant to 10,000 people and suggest something to them.  Even if a small percentage of them check out what you are suggesting, it has not cost you a dime.  Twitter is free, as is Tweetlater.  In fact, the majority of the Twitter tools that are now being advertised, are actually free.

What people in the internet marketing business want more than anything else, is free leads.  Social media is leading the way....in fact, it seems to be the only way to get those free leads.  Twitter is just one of  the tools out there that's working for many people.  A friend of mine, who has quite a loyal following, mentioned an upcoming program launch to his followers.  He gave them a link to check it out.  Many of them did, they liked what they saw, they bought and within a day or so my friend had made himself over $40,000.00.  That's the power of Twitter.

Another great tool is Twollo.  This is also fully automated and it's allows you to follow targeted people.  You enter subjects that are of interest to you and the tool will locate people who are having conversations about those subjects.  These people will then automatically start following you.  You can set up as many subjects as you like. 

You have to keep in mind that not all the people you follow are going to follow you back, so you have to keep an eye on your statistics.  Twitter will not allow you to follow more than 2000 people, if you do not have at least 1800 or so people following you.  A few times a week it's a good idea to clean out your account.  By that, I mean go in and unfollow all those people who are not following you back.  Here again, some very smart person has come up with a tool for that.  Go to friendorfollow.com, enter your Twitter name and just like magic, all those people who are not following you back with appear.  You can then choose who you want to unfollow.

These a just a few Twitter tools that are available to help you benefit the most from your Twitter account.   Each day there seems to be something new to enhance your Twitter experience.  It's a good idea to periodically Google 'twitter tools' to see what is the latest and greatest.

Of course, if you are just interested in twittering back and fore with your friends, then these tools would  be of no interest to you.  However, if you are an internet marketer, looking for a way to generate free leads, then Twitter is where it's at right now.  You want to get yourself in front of all that traffic.  Now is the time to build that huge following and take full advantage of the Twitter phenomena.

Jan Shimano was District Manager for Health & Welfare Canada for many years. She was also self-employed as a Nutritional Consultant and a Master Herbalist. She is currently a Business and Health Coach and operates her own internet marketing company from her home on Vancouver Island. Jan invites you to visit her at http://www.JanShimano.com where you can learn more about internet marketing and social media. You can also sign up for her free newsletters on becoming a successful entrepreneur. You will also find her at http://www.youtube.com/1jinny where you can view her numerous videos.

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