With the growing number of users on Twitter (now at 105 million registered accounts) it’s important to treat your followers the way you would like to be treated…or tweeted J

Here are a few tips to make sure you are being respectful on Twitter:

Never Spam – Many people, especially business owners think Twitter, as well as other free social media platforms, are a place where they can sell their products or services within a week and drive instant traffic to their website. In rare cases this will happen, however if you create a Twitter account and all you do is talk about your product(s) or services, you are spamming your following. Make sure 70% of the content you are tweeting is adding value to your audience. Things like links to industry news, new laws or standards, quotes, tips and advice, and just general networking; talking to other Twitter users. 20% of your posts need to be the sharing piece meaning you are ReTweeting/RTing (reposting) other people’s post and making comments on their posts/blogs. Only 10% of your tweets will be self promotion, so make sure you start following this rule so you aren’t spamming your followers.

Be a Human, Not a Robot – The thing that is beautiful about Twitter, but also overwhelming, is how many applications there are to manage and automate your Twitter account. Even though there are many tools for automation, I strongly urge you to have human participation with your Twitter account, especially if you are using it for business. You have probably seen Twitter accounts that put out several feeds at once linking to blogs or promoting squeeze pages and that can be ok to do, however you must combine your automation with human interaction. Also, I recommend turning off auto Direct Messages (DMs). Since Twitter users have been given the ability to auto-respond to new followers via direct messages, the DM section has become complete spam and I rarely check my DMs due to this issue. I also know of people that will automatically unfollow you if you send them an auto DM. Use DM’s for private conversations, not to sell.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T and Customer Service– Hopefully as a business person, you are already treating your potential clients and peers with respect, but now with advances in technology people get to see a much more insightful look into our lives and businesses. I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter start fights and arguments and they’re business owners starting arguments under their business accounts! This behavior will put you on the fast track to damaging your credibility and reputation which can take a very long time to rebuild. Think of Twitter as a customer service tool and know that tone is very hard to read via Internet, emails and texting. Be attentive and helpful and if someone is upset with you and challenges you online, think before you type! Make sure you are handling the person with professionalism. There might also be times when it is just not necessary to respond to someone if they are intentionally starting a fight. Remember, people can see what you say and it can be saved to use as proof or to be used against you, tweet wisely.

As you tweet, remember that Twitter is a free brand management and relationship tool, don’t abuse it and always Tweet people how you want to be Tweeted! J

If you are a part of the Twitterverse then you have surely seen #FollowFriday or #FF used before, perhaps you’ve even seen it… every Friday? #Followfriday has become the most popular social convention tool used on Twitter but if you don’t know what it is or how to use it, you might feel a little out of the loop.

If you have a great #followfriday feel free to leave a comment, we’d love to pass it along to our networks!

First Edition of Happy Minutes…cause who can really be happy for an hour? Check out our Twitter Tip about #ecomonday

Understanding if you should use your personal Twitter profile for business, or if you should create a new one; all while rescuing her shoes from waves.

What I wanted to say was whether or not a business should use their personal Twitter profile or not is completely dependent on the type business and goals for Twitter. In my opinion, authenticity is key so using your personal profile for you biz is fine. However if you work for a company, you need to know what their social media policies are and have open and clear communication to know what exactly you can and can’t say about the company on your personal account

Don’t just join the social media conversation because it is the new idea of online presence that is catching like wildfire, you need to create and maintain a business plan for online media that supports the overall marketing strategy otherwise, you are going to fail. It’s not as easy as going to Twitters homepage and creating an account, in fact that is far from the truth of the twitterverse. If your serious about integrating social media into your business plan there are a few things to think about.

To start, it’s important to reflect on if your web strategy supports your marketing strategy. If not you need to realign either/or so they complement each other nicely. Having online presence means your ultimately looking to convert viewers into customers, how are you going to use social media as a tool to do this effectively? Think about SEO, social media, usability, social networking, blogging and (our newest favorite) Adwords which are all components that should all be given the same amount of attention. You have to think big picture, which should be a balance of how your marketing plan and your social media plan mirror each other.

The biggest thing people seem to surpass is that using social media in your business marketing plan will not produce immediate results. We thrive off instant gratification and technology has enabled us to live our daily life around getting quick, fast, results but you must be patient, you must give it the opportunity to produce and measure successful results, however, at the same time you, have to be persistent and consistent (and don’t be a fail whale). Goodluck to all!

If you’re a business using Twitter wanting to take it to the next level and have a better response and participation from your followers, do a contest! Watch this video to learn how and get some exciting ideas:

It seems as though every sport has a different take on using social media but the NHL seems to be having a little fun with the idea of using Twitter for promotional strategies. The NHL appears to possess a refreshing attitude that is optimistic about using social media to create NHL Tweetups and contests for fans to get involved.

The season is quickly approaching (October 3rd) and the promotional pull is back in full force. Through the use of Twitter they are giving fans a chance to win free tickets with their #NHLPick15 contest. The name of the game is Pick 15 because anyone who picks the winners of the 15 games that will be played October 3, and tweets them to @NHL has a chance to win free tickets. The tiebreaker goes to anyone who answers this question, “What is the total, combined number of penalty minutes that all 30 NHL teams will have in the games played on October 3rd?” correctly. The tweet should look like this (but don’t copy me because I am pretty serious about winning)

One lucky person who gets all 15 winners right and the correct number of total penalty minutes will receive free tickets to any regular season game of their choice, while 10 other lucky contestants get Game Center live for a season. Using Twitter as a promotional strategy is a small but effective marketing promotion that gets fans active and engaged with a competitive edge(what hockey’s all about anyway). So for all you Hockey tweeple get your game face on and pick the teams you think will win Saturday!

Oh yea, go AVS!

Example:

Happy Monday!

This is the Early Christmas Edition of my Twitter Tips. I hope you find it useful and if you have any questions, just @reply me: @madametwit

Enjoy your week!

Twitter tip from the Ghost of Crystal. I have terrible lighting, but an awesome tip!