Twit Twit Twittering … A little birdy told me.

For the past twenty years I’ve woken up around 5:00am, sometimes it’s nearer to 4:00am but that’s usually if my mind is working on technical thingymajigs. So, I’ve heard the dawn chorus, the twit twit twittering of bird song, every morning for as long as I can remember. And; living in the country, with a bird friendly garden, we have lots and lots of birds and they do like to twitter.

What does this have to do with building an online business?

Well, if you haven’t guessed already, we’re talking about twittering or tweeting on twitter and the dawn chorus really is quite relevant, especially in spring and early summer. Why? because sitting in the garden with your morning coffee, at 5 to 6:00am you get the full range of birdsong and with netbook on the garden table and wifi enabled, I get to spend 30 to 40 minutes tweeting along with the twittering birds and adding a little authority to my websites.

You see there’s two types of twitterers, tweeters, twits, we’ll settle for twitter users.

There’s the sociable type and the business type and how you tweet defines which type of twitter user you are.

Tweeting what you had for breakfast, some inspiring quote or the color of your new man-bag will probably place you squarely with the sociable types.

Tweeting your latest widget upgrade, your next webinar date or your new CEO appointment will slot you in with the business twitterers, oops, twitter users.

But what if you don’t build widgets, hold webinars or appoint CEO’s, what if you’re just building up your online business website, and you want that exposure that the tweeting community can provide. How do you get your twitter love?

Before reading further remember, do it the wrong way and twitter can be a massive waste of time. It will simply help you while away hours doing absolutely nothing useful, and can be another online way to procrastinate and make hours and days fly past without creating one useful piece of content.

But do it the right way and twitter can be a great way to break news, ask questions, get answers, monitor your competition and step a little closer to the figures you admire.

No other communications channel can match twitters capacity for real-time, person-to-person broadcasting. Done the right way, twitter will slowly, (repeat slowly), build your authority, add credibility to your site and eventually drive some visitor traffic.

Firstly, How to Start Twittering …

• Sign up for an account at http://twitter.com. Use an account name that is easy to remember, and easy to type. There’s a 15 character limit on your account name and many twitter users, use their site name. But you should use your own name as it adds real credibility.

• Once you have your twitter account click into Settings and complete your profile details. Make sure you include the URL to your site in the “More Info URL” field and be sure to add a photo.

• Use the DESIGN tab to customize your look and feel. If you don’t add a photo, or customize your background, your Twitter page will disappear into the background and will have absolutely no personality. Have a look at Matt Cutts twitter page for a really effective basic layout, and one I like is Cool Trips, not much there yet but a really nice background photo.

• Once you are happy with your look and feel, which hopefully matches your site, start tweeting slowly. No more than four to six tweets a day to start. Twitter might prompt you with “What are you doing.. NOW“, but ignore it and only tweet when you have something to tweet about. Resist the urge to comment on the minutia of your daily life. Focus on posting updates that are useful, entertaining, or timely. Try to make your Tweets interesting to other twitter users.

• In the beginning, try to find and follow some people you know and who know you. Go to their Twitter page and click on the Follow button. If they know you they they should follow you back and help you get up to speed on Twitter.

Next; Using Twitter to Grow Your Online Business …

Once you’ve setup your twitter account and you’ve got it looking the way you like it, spend a little time and watch the way people you follow are tweeting… Ask yourself, What they are writing about? Are they using humor? Are they passing on interesting links?

Get a feel for the sort of tweets that catch your attention and a feel for what you could write about on your site that might be interesting for you to tweet about.

Use the SBI Sitesell twitter account as a guide to how a large business can utilise its employees and customers to virtually flood the twitter-sphere in an attempt to gain exposure in the trending sections.

Personally I won’t follow Sitesell Tweets, as they are far to self-promotional. With too many SBI owners and SBI affiliates adding bland uninteresting comments just as link bait, either to their affiliate URL or their website.

It’s uninspiring, unreal and fabricated … everything Ken Evoy and the SBI Action Guide says you shouldn’t do.

If you’re thinking of investing in Sitebuild-It then read the SiteSell tweets @Sitesell – to reassure yourself that there is a large credible team behind the SBI system. Find your own way there, I’m not following them nor do I have an affiliate link to push.

The secret to effective twittering is to find positive ways to use Twitter to build your online business. Prioritizing your time is essential, hence the twit twit twittering with the dawn chorus.

So initially, invest some time in searching for interesting and influential twitter users in your niche. Once you find them, follow them.

Build up the number of quality, niche related tweets you make and then reach out to these influential tweeters, twits, twitterers … sorry, twitter users.

And once that person adds a niche related tweet that you can reply intelligently to. Then, a) They may follow you and b) You now have a valid reason to make a personal contact.

Don’t push to hard, just keep adding intelligent niche related tweets and eventually it should pay dividends.

Once you, get how to twitter, it should soon become almost second nature for you to build new content and to then tweet about it. Just make sure the new content goes live before the twit twit twittering.

Oh! and if you are tweeting publicly, remember that everything you say can be read by the whole world… So,  Keep It Real.

NOTE; Remember you don’t have to be in the Twitter website to send and receive tweets. Instead, make use of programs like Twitterific, Feedalizr or Twinkle, and get updates on your cellphone as text messages.

Or use something like PocketTweets, Tweetie or iTweet for the iPhone. Twitterific is good for Mac users, it’s a tall, narrow window at the side of the screen. Incoming tweets scroll up the window and it isn’t too distracting.

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