Have you been reaching out and identifying followers since my last post?  Are you following them back?  Its good manners as my mother would say.  Seriously, it is proper Twitter etiquette to follow your followers back.  And don’t forget to say “thank you”.  A personal message back to your followers will help connect with them.  Always remember Twitter is a “social” network, so don’t forget to be “social”!

Follow my followers?  You are probably thinking how do I have time to keep up with that?  I did!  Take a deep breath.  There is help.  Automated help.  Twitter has more tools and add-ons developed to work with it than MySpace and Facebook combined!  Even better the majority of them are free to use. 

My favorite tool to use is ”Tweet Later”.  They have a Free version and a Professional version.   The Free version provides very robust features and is great for anyone just starting out with Twitter.  You can set up your account to “auto” follow anyone who follows you.  You can automate ”direct messages” to your new followers with a personalized “thank you”.  You can also schedule your “tweets” to be sent throughout the day.  An important time saver!  Be careful to not ”over tweet” however.  Remember proper etiquette!!  Check it out at http://www.tweetlater.com.

IMPORTANT TIP:  I addressed in my last post the Twitter guidelines concerning followers in order to protect us all from SPAM.  In addition to the daily limits for following, Twitter also has thresholds on the number of people that you can follow.  Twitter will only allow you to follow 2000 people until you have about 1850 to 1900 followers.  Once your initial followers/following are balanced at 2000, you will be able to continue to grow your followers beyond that limit.  

What happens when people do not follow me back?  Sounds like a topic for another post.  Till next time!

By the way, did you add your Twitter badge to your other social network profiles?  I expect that to be done before my next post!

You have now set up your account in Twitter.  You have, haven’t you?  If not, Click Here to set up your account.  It’s free! 

So, what do you do next?  You want to start following people and have people following you.  Keep in mind that Twitter is a social network, so it is all about building relationships.  Before you start looking for followers, you must decide what your focus is for “tweeting”.  Are you just looking to make new friends?  Do you have a business that you want to promote?  Are you a musician or band and you are looking to interact with fans and attract new fans?

For the purposes of this blog, I will focus on musicians and music lovers finding the right followers.  However, the same concepts will apply to any business. 

For musicians, there are several ways to find followers.  Some passive methods are as follows:

1. MySpace:  You can send bulletins out to all of your friends on MySpace to get them to follow you on Twitter.
2. Twitter “badge”:  Add your Twitter “badge” to your MySpace and Facebook profiles.   Once you have logged into your Twitter account, click on settings.  You will notice a message in parenthesis under the box where you entered your website URL.  The message says “You can also add Twitter to your site here”.  Click on the link and it will take you through the steps to create your badge.  Click here  to check out my MySpace page to see my Twitter badge.
3. Facebook:  Post your Twitter URL on your Wall for your fans to see.

All of these passive methods will work to get your current fans to start following you on Twitter.  However, Twitter is a great place to find new fans!  This will require you to actively search for fans.  Some active methods are as follows:

1. Follow other musician’s followers:  This is a great method to get “active” tweeters.  Find other musicians on Twitter and start following their followers.  Some musicians currently on Twitter – @GeorgeStrait, @CollinRaye, @LBTmusic (Little Big Town), @MCHammer, @cunderwood83 (Carrie Underwood).  Get the idea?
2. Follow music publications (great way to promote yourself with them):  Some notables on Twitter – @Billboarddotcom, @countrymusic (CMA), @FollowCMT.  Starting to make sense?
3. Twellow – Twellow is the Twitter Yellow Pages.  It’s a free search engine to find targeted marketers.  You can search by categories or my specific interest.  Click here  to check it out.

Important Tip – Twitter has guidelines just like MySpace and Facebook. As you are building your followers, be careful not to start following more than 400 per day. Twitter watches this type of activity just like MySpace. These guidelines are there to protect all of us from SPAM. Support them and we will all be successful!

Now you are ready to start building your followers and finding new friends and fans!  Check back for my next post in this series on Twitter.  Till next time!!

What is a Twitter?  I hear this every day.  Well, Twitter is one of the newest social networks.  It is very simple.  You send out “tweets” to your followers that answer one simple question “What are you doing?”. Your tweets are displayed on your profile page as well as the profile page of your followers.

Twitter is typically referred to as micro-blogging since your tweets are limited to 140 characters. Hey, we are all learning to be more conservative these days are we not? You can even send updates to Twitter via your cell phone with the use of text messaging!

Twitter is currently ranked as the third largest social network today with Facebook ranked #1 and MySpace ranked #2. Currently there are an estimated 5 million registered users on Twitter with forecast of 50 million by the end of 2009. Twitter receives 6 million unique visitors per month with over 55 million hits per month. Look out Facebook and MySpace!

Who is using Twitter today? Well, President Obama (@BarackObama), John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain), George Strait (@GeorgeStrait), MC Hammer (@MCHammer), Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong), Collin Raye (@Collinraye), CNN (@cnnbrk), and the list goes on!  Oh, so am I (@texasgirltalkin).

Why should you join Twitter? It’s fun! I warn you it can be addicting! Also, it is a great marketing tool. You can identify targeted followers for your product whether you are an artist, author, or any type of business. Marketing is about communication and visibility. Visibility for your music or visibility for your product. It works!

Signing up for Twitter is free and easy! Come join the fun! If you would like more information about setting up your Twitter profile and how to effectively use Twitter, I have some friends that have put together the best training material I have found. Click here to check out their blog.  The information is free! I have met them and they are great guys! The manuals are loaded with great tips

Check back for my next post in this month’s series on Twitter. What to do once you have set up your Twitter profile. Till next time!