While some automation tools do nothing but make your social media profile look like an announcement board, other tools can be used to sync right into your normal engagement to give it a helpful boost.

Here are some Twitter automation tools, services and tips, which when used the right way, can be a valuable addition to your social media strategy. And when I say the right way, I mean that you should be using these to supplement your regular social engagement and not only using these tools to give your account the look of activity.

Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed is a service that allows you to set up RSS feeds from your favorite blogs, and whenever those blogs have a new post, it will be tweeted to your account. It can be used to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

How to Set Up Twitterfeed

To use Twitterfeed, you simply need to register for a free account and then set up your favorite blogs using the following steps.

1. Enter an easily recognizable Feed Name and the blog URL or RSS feed URL.

Twitterfeed Setup Step 1: Enter the feed name and blog or RSS URL.

2. Use the advanced settings to customize your tweets. I usually change the Post Content to Title Only and include via @username of the blog owner in the Post Suffix.

Twitterfeed Setup Step 2: Configure Advanced Settings.

3. Choose the Twitter or Facebook accounts that you would like to have updated with the blog’s latest posts.

Twitterfeed Setup Step 3: Set to update statuses on specific Twitter or Facebook accounts.

You’ll need to use the “OAuth” authentication for new Twitter accounts and “Connect” with Facebook for new Facebook accounts.

Pros of Using Twitterfeed

So what benefits can you get from using Twitterfeed? If you choose the right blogs that your audience enjoys, you’ll be able to give them the latest news from their favorite sites and they will appreciate it!

If you choose blogs that your followers like, you will receive plenty of thanks.

Generally, you’ll know if your audience likes them because you see retweets of those status updates or, if you’re really good at choosing the right blogs, you’ll get thank-you messages for posting them, like the one above.

Cons of Using Twitterfeed

So what’s the downside of using Twitterfeed? As far as I know, there isn’t a way to say when to tweet new posts. Sure, you can tell it to only check every certain number of hours, but even then it doesn’t let you say only between the hours of 9am and 5pm, for instance.

Another little quirk is that if you send an update that you want to stay at the top of your Twitter profile for a while, you might be out of luck if one of your blogs in Twitterfeed has recently updated right after your priority tweet.

The last one has to do specifically with affiliate marketers. If you’re promoting an event, such as the Social Media Success Summit, the last thing you want is to tweet a post promoting the same event (with someone else’s affiliate link). But it’s likely to happen if other blogs in your Twitterfeed are promoting the same products or events.

Twitterfeed Best Practices

So what best practices should you follow if you want to get the most out of Twitterfeed? Here are some good tips.

• Try not to include blogs that update multiple times a day. Nothing will annoy your followers more than seeing 12 updates from the same site in one day. If you feel you must include one of those sites, be sure to use the Advanced Settings and only check the blog once every 4 hours and only tweet one update at a time.
• Only choose blogs that you can depend on to have quality posts. I find that including blogs like Social Media Examiner which only feature posts on specific topics are the safest, while personal blogs that have the occasional rant post are a little more iffy. The last thing you want is to automatically tweet posts that may offend your readers.
• Be sure to monitor your tweets regularly to make sure your favorite blogs haven’t veered off topic. Your favorite photo blog may have decided to go culinary which may not resonate with your followers.

Social Oomph

Ah, the dreaded automated direct message. I wish I could greet all of my new followers with a personal direct message or a friendly mention, but it becomes tough to do once you’re getting a high volume of follows in one day.

Plus, it’s sometimes hard to tell which accounts are manned by real people and which are bots, and why would you want to waste precious time greeting a bot?

So yes, I like to use Social Oomph to create an automated direct message for new followers.

How to Set Up Social Oomph Direct Messages

Once you have created a free account (apparently no longer free for new members) at Social Oomph, you can set it up using the following steps.

1. Use the navigation menu and go to Social Accounts > Add New Account > Add Twitter. Be sure to log into your desired Twitter account beforehand and Authorize Access.

Social Oomph Setup Step 1: Authorize your desired Twitter account.

2. Use the navigation menu to go to Social Accounts > Edit Welcome DM and select your Twitter account. Here, you will find the form to enter your automated direct message and a checkbox to automatically send a welcome message.

Social Oomph Setup Step 2: Customize your direct message for new followers.

Underneath this setup is also an option to follow your new followers back or place them in a queue to manually approve or reject following them.

Social Oomph Setup Step 3: Automatically follow new followers back.

I always follow people back for one main reason. As you can see from my automated DM, I give them the opportunity to contact me privately, and if I’m not following them, they cannot do that. In general, I feel that if someone is connected with me, they should be able to contact me privately like they can on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Pros of Using Automated Direct Messages

If done correctly, you can make your new followers feel very welcome and open a good line of communication with them right off the bat. With my direct message, I also have the added bonus of discovering new questions from bloggers and social media users which have led to some good topic ideas for my blog.

Cons of Using Automated Direct Messages

If done incorrectly, you can put off users who are anti-automated direct messaging. I have tried out a few variations of direct messages, and unfortunately have had some that did not generate good feedback. My latest has been all positive though.

Automated Direct Messages Best Practices

The following will ensure that you keep your new followers once they receive your welcome message and not generate a lot of negative feedback.

• Don’t try to sell new followers anything in your welcome DM. Period.
• Don’t try to get your new followers to sign up for your mailing list—this includes trying to tempt them with a free gift. I rarely (unless I know the user) ever click on a rogue bit.ly link for a free anything in an automated DM.
• The most successful direct messages I’ve tried do not come with any links at all. These are seen as more trustworthy and can open the door to further communication.
• The second most successful direct messages I’ve used are ones that simply link to blog posts that my new followers would be interested in. If you know that you have an audience following you for blogging advice, then your latest blog post with 100 great tips for new bloggers might be well received.
• Be sure to check your direct messages regularly and respond to them when necessary. This is a huge trust-builder and will lead to more engagement in the future.

Tweet Old Post

Tweet Old Post is a great plugin for WordPress users. It allows you to connect a Twitter account with your blog and regularly tweet posts from your archives to your followers.

How to Set Up Tweet Old Post

Setting up Tweet Old Post is simple.  Follow these steps once you have logged into your self-hosted WordPress blog and related Twitter account.

1. Go to your Dashboard > Plugins > Add New and search for Tweet Old Post.

Tweet Old Post Step 1: Search for the Tweet Old Post plugin in your WordPress dashboard.

2. Click on the Install Now link below the Tweet Old Post plugin by Ajay Matharu.

Tweet Old Post Step 2: Install Tweet Old Post plugin from the search results.

After you’ve installed it, you’ll need to activate it on the next screen by clicking on the Activate Plugin link.

3. Scroll down to the bottom of your dashboard and go to Tweet Old Post > Tweet Old Post to get to the main settings for this plugin.

Tweet Old Post Step 3: Configure settings for Tweet Old Post plugin.

Here you’ll want to:

• Sign in with Twitter to the Twitter account from which you want to tweet your post archives.
• In the Tweet Prefix field, you can set something like From the Archives or similar text.
• Check the URL shortener box to use shortening services like bit.ly which will require an API key that you can get when you register for a free account at bit.ly.
• Create default #hashtags to go with your tweets, such as #blogging or #socialmedia.
• Set the minimum and random intervals to send tweets, considering whether you want to tweet posts from your archives one or more times per day.
• Set the minimum age of posts to be tweeted.
• Exclude particular categories from being tweeted.
• Save your changes.

4. If you have specific posts from included categories that you want to exclude from being tweeted, use the Tweet Old Post > Exclude Post settings to pick certain posts to exclude from being tweeted.

Tweet Old Post Step 4: Exclude specific posts from being tweeted by Tweet Old Post.

Pros of Using the Tweet Old Post Plugin

Chances are, you gain new followers to your Twitter account and blog on a daily basis. Using Tweet Old Post is a great way to point new followers to some of your awesome content from the past. It’s like having a Related Posts section that plugs into your Twitter account.

Cons of Using the Tweet Old Post Plugin

Some followers may not be as open to older content, especially if that content is outdated or they’re simply the type who only likes new and fresh blog posts.

Tweet Old Post Best Practices

To make sure your followers are only getting your best content, consider the following tips.

• Create a category to house only your best content, then go back through your older posts and add them to that category. This way, you never have to worry about anything that you don’t want to be tweeted from your archives, and you don’t have to mess with excluding posts on an individual basis.
• Be sure to exclude posts that are time sensitive from your archive’s tweets, such as a special discount that has since expired for a product or event information that has already passed.
• Don’t overdo tweets to your older posts—you don’t want your stream to look like it’s all about you and nothing else.

HootSuite Scheduling

HootSuite offers an option to schedule updates to specific social media accounts, which can come in really handy if you have items that you would like sent at specific times when you may be away from your computer.

How to Set Up Scheduled Updates From HootSuite

The following will help you set up scheduled updates to be sent from your Twitter accounts linked to your main HootSuite account.

1. Enter your desired status update in the box as you would like it to appear and select the accounts to which you would like it posted.

HootSuite Scheduling Step 1: Enter your status message as you would like it to appear.

2. Click on the calendar button to bring up a scheduling calendar to select your desired date and time to send the status update.

HootSuite Scheduling Step 2: Schedule your status message by date and time.

You will also notice the Schedule in Bulk option.

HootSuite Scheduling in Bulk: Schedule multiple messages all at once.

From here, you need to download a .CSV spreadsheet file so you can enter dates, times and tweets to schedule if you want to do more than one at a time for a specific account or set of accounts.

HootSuite Scheduling in Bulk: Use a .CSV to format your status messages for bulk scheduling.

3. Need to make a modification or cancel a scheduled update? Create a column for your Pending Tweets in HootSuite to see what you have scheduled. Use the Edit link to make changes or the X to delete the update.

HootSuite Pending Tweets: Edit or delete scheduled messages in this column.

Pros of Using HootSuite Scheduling

Time-sensitive tweets can be scheduled in advanced so you don’t forget to send important messages in a timely fashion. This is great for affiliates who are promoting the last few hours of a discount or special, speakers who want to send a countdown to their upcoming webinar or anyone who wants to keep his or her account updated at a regular rate.

Another great use for scheduling is when you’re reading through article after article that you want to send to your followers. Don’t just send ten articles in a span of five minutes—use the scheduler to space them out over the next few hours instead.

Cons of Using HootSuite Scheduling

If you’re using HootSuite to schedule your messages when you aren’t going to be around the computer, you may miss out on answering people who send quick questions about your latest tweet (if it needs any clarification).

HootSuite Scheduling Best Practices

There’s a big one here that really applies to any automated social media service: Be sure that your account has more than just scheduled tweets. You want to be engaging with your audience, not just broadcasting to them.

One Final Reminder

The above tools are meant to supplement and enrich your social media experience. They’re not, by any means, meant to replace the most important part of social media networking, which is engaging with your followers and fans on a regular basis. Not every status update should include a link!

Your Thoughts on Twitter Automation Tools

Do you use any of the above or other tools to enhance your Twitter presence? What results have you seen, good or bad? Leave your comments in the box below.

Be sure to watch this edition of Social Media Examiner TV with our host Mari Smith.

In this episode, Mari introduces you to the concept of curating content and how it can help your business. And Mari also reviews 8 content curation tools to help you find the best information for your business.

Share your feedback, see the show notes and discover how you can be part of a future show below!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mKJQuREIHw

Here are the content curation tools Mari reviews on this video:

#1: Google Alerts

Use Google Alerts to get notifications of your important keywords. Mari also explains how to use Google Alerts for reputation management with vanity searches.

Set up Google Alerts for keywords relevant to your business.

#2: Google Reader

Subscribe to blogs in your Google Reader for better social media management.

#3: Facebook Friend Lists for Better Facebook News Feeds

Get more control over your Facebook news feed with Facebook Friend Lists. Mari shares a great tip on how to make a Facebook Friend List with your favorite fan pages for better content curation thanks to a filtered view of your news feed.

Create Friend Lists of your favorite fan pages on Facebook to filter your news feed for quick content curation.

#4: Twitter Lists

Mari shares how you can create Twitter Lists to curate information from people who consistently share great content on Twitter.

Create lists of your favorite news sources on Twitter.

#5: HootSuite

You can use HootSuite with multiple social media profiles to make it easier to share the valuable content you find online. Mari gives you some great tips to get the most out of this social media tool.

HootSuite helps you curate content and share it across your social network.

#6: Paper.li

With Paper.li, you can publish your own virtual newspaper which pulls in information from various social media platforms.

Paper.li is an easy way to pull in links from your favorite sources.

#7: Alltop

Alltop curates the content for you by allowing you to create a MyAlltop page to subscribe to your favorite blogs.

Alltop is a great resource to help you find the best content from your favorite blogs.

#8: Mobile

Flipboard and Pulse are two mobile apps Mari mentions in this video. And she explains why using mobile apps makes it easy for you to curate content on social media.

Content curation apps like Pulse are valuable tools to stay up to date.

Watch the video to learn more about these content curation tools!  And be sure to listen for Mari’s hot marketing tips on how to craft a tweet to get more retweets.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, make sure to tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

We want to hear from you! Do you include content curation in your marketing tactics? Which content curation tools help you find content online? Please tell us in the comments below.

Mari shows you how the new design impacts the way you use Twitter and how you can use popular Twitter clients and apps in conjunction with it to improve your Twitter networking. And at the end of the show, Mari gives you a hot Facebook marketing tip.

Share your feedback and read the show notes below!

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this show.

How to Use the New Twitter User Interface

Mari shares how this new interface was designed and guides you through the whole layout.  She shows you how it works and how you can use this new setup to improve your Twitter marketing.

The new Twitter UI (user interface) is a vast improvement on the old one.

What’s Better With the New Twitter?

The best thing is the new side panel because it improves your Twitter experience in a variety of ways.  As you look at your tweets on the left, you can click on the tweet, or the person’s name, and see extra information in the side panel on the right.

This new side panel is so useful because you can now see what’s referred to as inline media. This means you can see the different media links without leaving Twitter.

In this example, the side panel on the right opens up the YouTube video mentioned in the tweet.

But this isn’t the only thing that’s useful about the new Twitter, so be sure to listen to what Mari has to say.

What’s the Downside of the New Twitter?

There are only a few downsides to the new interface. One of them is that you can’t add a comment with the new Retweet button.  Another downside is that you can’t automatically reply to several people at the same time.  Listen to the video to learn more.

How to Use Your Twitter Clients With the New Twitter

Mari also shares how you can use the new Twitter user interface with popular Twitter clients.

HootSuite

Find out why you might like to use HootSuite with your new Twitter user interface and the value of HootSuite’s Hootlet to make social bookmarking easier.

TweetDeck

You can also use TweetDeck for a full central command on a variety of different platforms.

Mobile Apps

This is becoming more important as most users access Twitter on their mobile devices.  Here are the Twitter apps Mari mentions:

• Twitterrific
• Twittelator
• TwitBird

Hot Facebook Marketing Tip

Here’s the code for the fab Ninja Facebook tip Mari shares at the end of the show. When emailing your list, you can ask your readers to share your content on their Facebook wall right from your email.  Here’s the exact code you need to use:

For example, here’s a link for this Social Media Examiner TV episode to share on Facebook! (Click the link or the image and a new window/tab opens up with the option for you to write a comment and post on your wall!)

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, make sure to tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

We want to hear from you! How do you like the new Twitter user interface? What has been your experience? Leave us a comment below.

In this article, I’ll share some tips to help you leverage social media to gain more exposure.

#1: Reap What You Sow

What are you aiming for? What is your goal?

If you want to get yourself known, social media is a great way to build visibility and a platform. Getting known might be your goal or it might be a means to an end. Again, social media can help you build connections that pay off in terms of opportunities and offers.

At the very least, when you do the right things in social media, you’re building a profile that represents you in the best possible light when anyone wants to look you up. It is a rare potential employer who will not do a quick Google search, and apparently even potential dates now do this routinely!

#2: Model Real Life

Social media grew out of real-world social rules and therefore what works in real life works well in social media, but with wider distribution and accelerated cause and effect.

Often people say to me that social media does not work, but what they really mean is they tried to extract value before they put any in. In fact, at the time of this writing I almost got into a protracted debate on Twitter about this very thing. Because this one person didn’t see any results, he believed social media “didn’t work.” The problem is, social media does not work for people who just want to take and be selfish, so he is setting himself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You can’t withdraw very long from an empty social capital account. Essentially, if you want to get out value, then you need to start putting value in.

#3: Be Likeable

Another aspect of social media engagement is that your basic interactions are communicating more than the 140-character status updates. People also read between the lines. Again, this can work for or against you.

Brands are built through experience just as much as what you say and any image you create. The brands you love and hate are much more about how they have treated you than their logos and corporate mission statements!

The same is true on a personal brand level. It’s about treating people well and giving them a positive experience with you. It really helps if you like people because you are going to need to be consistently a good person to know.

Using light humor, being kind, sharing about more than just your work—including your interests—allow people to connect with you on a human level as well as a business and technical level.

Beyond this we have to be aware of boundaries and limitations to sharing. We have all seen the damage that can be done through “overshare” or Too Much Information, and also what we find humorous might well put people off, or even cause emotional or professional damage.

Consider a popular blogger who is constantly on the attack, belittling people, making fun of people, “digging up dirt” and so on. Yes, he will gather a following—bullies often do—but how do these kinds of tactics affect long-term relationships and loyalty?

At SXSW I had a discussion about this very topic and we realized many of the highly visible people who used this approach 4 or 5 years ago are now seldom heard from and nobody will take their calls.

Social karma works in the negative as well as the positive, and the Internet has a LONG memory!

Does This Really Work?

At this point you might still be skeptical. So to reassure you that there is some real cause and effect going on here, just look at your own social media activity.

• Who do you follow? Think about your top three social media users and what they have in common.
• Which blogs do you read? Again, which are your “must-read” blogs?
• When have you had the best results? Think back to when you had your best win. What did you do?
• How do you attract new contacts? When you want a social media or list boost, what works best for you?
• What can you test today? Still skeptical? Good! Test, verify—what can you try today to move your metrics needle?

I am 100% sure that when you put out good, valuable, positive stuff—when you share only the best—that’s when you will get the best results. It also follows that the people you are most attracted to or listen to most are the people you get the most value from, be that entertainment or education, and with whom you feel the best connection.

#4: Share, Share, Share

Tactically this is about sharing good stuff. If you want to position yourself as an expert, then share what you know.

The more you share good stuff, the more people will want to listen to you. Even better, if you share your expertise with good stuff from other people mixed in, it shows you’re generous and have your followers’ best interests at heart rather than pure self-promotion.

• Answer questions in LinkedIn.
• Share links, videos and anything useful that you find in Facebook and Twitter.
• Post your slide decks to Slideshare.
• Upload advice videos and demonstrations to YouTube.
• Write valuable content in your blog and answer comments.
• Invite people to ask you questions on your Facebook fan page, Twitter and your blog.

#5: Conduct a Whuffie Audit

Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing fame invented the futuristic reputation, or social capital–based currency, of Whuffie. Some days I wish Whuffie really existed and that just by looking someone up we could see what kind of person they were and how much they added to society. Unfortunately we do not have Whuffie yet, but you can “audit” yourself to see how much social capital you are generating.

Keep an eye on your key metrics to see if they are growing and what behavior is influencing them:

• Followers, friends and subscriber counts—How many people you have following you is not the best metric, but it does tell you if you’re attracting versus annoying people!
• Retweets, clicks and shares—If people want to share your stuff, it’s a hint that what you are putting out is valuable.
• Comments, favorites, discussions—Can you spark discussion and debate? That’s value right there.
• Key contacts, referrals, recommendations and testimonials—Are you reaching people and are they telling others about you? What do people say about you behind your back? Will people publicly connect their name, and reputation, to yours?

Closing Thoughts…

I know how frustrating it is when we say things in interviews like “provide value, join the conversation.” Hopefully I’ve explained a bit more about what this means and some of the steps you can use. It comes down to having the intention to really help, inform and be an excellent person to know.

A reputation is difficult and time-consuming to build, but with social media we can damage it in an instant. When you have what’s best for your community in mind, you will not go far wrong.

How does this work for you? Got any tips to share? What has worked best in your experience? Please SHARE your thoughts in the comments!

Yes, many people just use Twitter to share their day with their friends. Friends who may live 2,000 miles away.

And some people use it to broadcast a breaking news story as it happens. Like the time a plane crash-landed in the Hudson River. A man in a nearby boat with an iPhone got the “scoop” on that story before the news media reported it.

“That’s certainly dramatic,” you say. “But how do I create a marketing message in only 140 characters?”

You can start by buying Twitter Marketing For Dummies by Kyle Lacy. Yes, there’s a Dummies book about Twitter marketing now!

The whole point of social media — of which Twitter is part — is to find your satisfied customers and encourage them to recommend you to their friends and relatives. In social media terminology, this is called finding product evangelists.

And it’s so easy to do this on Twitter.

Twitter Marketing Made Easy

1. Sign up at Twitter.com. It’s free!
2. Create a profile for your business.
3. Use the search feature to find messages about your company, products, or services.

“Wait a minute!” you say. “Twitter keeps all of those messages?”

Yes! And suppose your search of the Twitter archives for your company name or product names pulls up the following message:

“Just bought. Can’t get it to work! Help!”

What would you do? Here’s what you should do immediately:

1. Click the Reply button.
2. Send the person who posted the message a brief helpful response.
3. Look at the next message you found about your company or products.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3.

That’s easy enough, isn’t it?

“But what will I say?” you ask. How about, “If you need help, please call our Customer Service Dept. at 1-800-555-2848.” That’s only 75 characters.

What you’re doing is eavesdropping on the global conversations about your company and your products and services. And starting conversations with the people who are talking about you.

You can even follow them and they can follow you. This means you’ll see all their messages — their “tweets” — and they’ll see yours.

And people share information on Twitter by “retweeting” messages. If someone retweets a message you sent them, all of the people who follow them will see your message.

“The entire idea of using Twitter for marketing is to get the people who already follow you to share your content with the people who follow them,” says Lacy. “That’s viral marketing at its finest.”

And there are many third-party programs that make searching the Twitter archives so easy, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be doing it.

Once you get good at this, you’ll start tweeting yourself. More on that later.

The Twitter Marketing Plan

Like all of the Dummies books, this book takes you by the hand and leads you step-by-step through a complete Twitter marketing plan.

It includes detailed instructions, screenshots, and lists of important tips and resources. It covers the following topics:

• Planning your Twitter marketing strategy
• Searching the Twitter archives
• Using third-party applications to increase your Twitter productivity
• Using analytics software to track your marketing efforts
• Building your Twitter network of product evangelists

And many more.

Do you understand now how you’re going to use Twitter to market your business? You can start by monitoring all of those messages about your company and responding to them whenever it’s appropriate.

In social media terminology, this is called reputation monitoring.

Don’t worry about being overwhelmed by all those messages. Each tweet is only 140 characters long. That’s approximately 20 words.

Once you master eavesdropping, you can start tweeting yourself. Post interesting and informative content — not advertisements! — that your followers will retweet to their followers. And those followers might just retweet it to their followers. Content like:

• Help from your customer service department
• Links to your latest blog post
• Notes about interesting news in your industry
• Product/service updates
• Announcements of events and special deals

Yes, you can still “advertise” in a tweet. But Lacy recommends that you limit advertisements to 1 out of every 15 tweets. You don’t want to come across as a “spammer” because Twitter will close your account.

Remember, you need to find people who are already talking about you and offer them help with your products and services as well as interesting content. If you do that, they will not report you as a spammer. They might even share your messages with their followers!

And when you have hundreds — maybe even thousands — of followers who each retweet your content to their hundreds of followers, you’ll understand what product evangelism and viral marketing are all about.

Here is how social media such as Twitter are changing advertising forever, according to Lacy:

• Reach your customers where they are, instead of advertising in places you hope they’ll be.
• Send your message only to people who care about your product, instead of wasting ink and money on people who don’t.
• Create frequent content and get it to customers at all hours of the day, not once a month or only at game time.

Are you ready to try the new way of advertising? Targeting the people who already care about your products and services and helping them spread the word about your company? That’s Twitter marketing in a nutshell.

And did I mention that Twitter is absolutely free?

Social Media Examiner gives this book a 5-star rating.

See “It Pays to Listen: Avaya’s $250K Twitter Sale” on SocialMediaExaminer.com to learn how Avaya employees got a $250,000 contract by tracking their company name on Twitter.  Also be sure to check out our Twitter Marketing Video Tutorial (free when you subscribe to our email updates).

How are you using Twitter to market your business? Please add your comment in the box below!

The best way to keep Twitter a valuable, viable channel is to emphasize the social aspect, and one important way to do this is to show appreciation for your Twitter friends using lists. I’ll discuss 4 easy methods below.

#1: Follow @ListWatcher.

@ListWatcher is a great resource that sends you a direct message (DM) when anyone adds, removes or changes you on any of their lists. This is such a simple reason to send a thank-you tweet for adding you to their list. It adds a special touch that you have taken time out of your busy schedule to thank someone for thinking of you. People love to feel appreciated and valued by their fellow Twitter peeps.

It’s also an interesting way to understand how others perceive your presence on Twitter. It may help you to change or modify your tweets if you feel it’s an incorrect perception. It may also give you a positive perception of yourself, which can be a great source of encouragement if you’re feeling a lack of motivation in your endeavors.

Seeing DMs come in from @listwatcher is also a great reminder to continue adding people to your Twitter lists. It’s very easy to forget about this relatively new feature, which provides a great way to connect and keep up with new and old friends by reducing Twitter’s noise.

#2: Support Your Twitter Lists With Hootsuite.

Hootsuite.com is the holy grail of Twitter applications. Hootsuite has many incredible features, but we’ll focus on Twitter lists for now. Be sure to add your Twitter lists as columns in order to scroll down and take time to review them. Give back by retweeting great quotes, links and any other interesting tidbits that you discover.

The great thing about sharing your appreciation in this way is that it doesn’t take an enormous amount of time to retweet great ideas and content. All it takes is scanning down the columns of your Twitter lists and finding the ones that would be beneficial for yourself and your friends to retweet. When I find great tweets, I add them to my Twitter favorites, which is another way to show your appreciation. Others can view your Twitter favorites and find interesting people to follow from your favorite tweets.

Tweetdeck provides some similar features, but one of the best advantages of Hootsuite over Tweetdeck is that it doesn’t take up a lot of resources on your computer. It’s possible to view multiple columns of Twitter lists in Hootsuite without having to worry about resource issues. It also provides for a much faster response time—I used to waste time waiting for Tweetdeck to load. I’ve been an avid Hootsuite fan since I’ve made the switch.

#3: Ask Your Friends How They Want to Be Listed.

As I added my friends to certain Twitter lists, I thought to myself, “What if this person wants to be listed differently?” This prompted a blog post in which I asked my friends, Which Twitter List Defines You? View some of the responses and consider asking your friends, especially if they’re known for multiple talents. As you can see, Denise Wakeman shared a variety of different options.

It’s not necessary to write a blog post to ask your friends; it can also be accomplished by sending a private direct message or sending a public @ reply, depending on your preference.

The approach is your decision, but the goal is the same: discover your friends’ Twitter list preferences and share them. There are some people who find it hard to initiate conversation on Twitter. Simply asking for a person’s Twitter list preference can also be a great icebreaker in meeting new people.

This exercise helped me to better understand my friends, learn which Twitter lists they would appreciate being part of and can also help build a sense of community as others share their thoughts.

Twitter lists can provide a great directory at a glance without having to go to other websites such as Twellow or WeFollow, although these are great sites to find new relationships. Start thinking of how you would like to be listed so you’ll be prepared when you’re asked for your Twitter list preference.

#4: Share Your Lists on Listorious.

Listorious.com is a fairly new site that features the top Twitter lists around the Twitterverse. Create a new account and add your Twitter lists to the directory. This gives exposure to your friends as you create and add your Twitter lists to this site.

Once you’ve added your Twitter lists, it’s possible to recommend people from Listorious after clicking on your newly created list. Just add in the person’s username and there’s an option to tweet it right at that moment. This is an incredibly easy way to show that you appreciate and value your friends. Take some time to search around and find some great Twitter lists to follow.

Make sure to check out this very popular post on How To Market Your Business With Twitter Lists here on Social Media Examiner. I learned some new things from this post, especially about SEO.

What do you think about these ideas? Share your comments below…

By honing your social networking skills and adapting them to this fast-paced environment, you can use Twitter as the starting point to build a strong business network.

There are two parts to networking on Twitter:

• First, you need to connect with the people you want to get to know.
• Second, you need to find a way to establish relationships with the right people and get beyond the scope of Twitter.

Just like in the offline world, you’ll find people with different styles of communication and different levels of people skills.

We don’t all have Mari Smith’s communication pizzazz.

But don’t let this deter you. You simply need to identify the communication styles used by the people you want to connect with and then join in.

Here are 8 different ways to begin networking on Twitter.

#1: Show Others What You Want to Talk About

First, remember to show others what you are most interested in. You communicate your areas of interest in several ways:

• Paint a picture of who you are with your Twitter bio.
• Shows others what you like to talk about with the content you tweet.
• Share the conversations you are interested in by using hashtags in your tweets.
• Tell others who’s important to you with the names of your Twitter lists.
• The lists you are on show how others see you.

By paying attention to the consistency of your Twitter presence, you’ll send a strong message of what interests you and you’ll attract the people you want to connect with most.

#2: Get Your Actions Right

Your first impression always counts, even on Twitter. Others will notice content on your Twitter profile page: your Twitter handle, your photo, your name, the page you link to and your bio. And they will also notice the actions you take.

• Follow. Do you have approximately the same number of followers as the number of people following you?
• Autofollow. Do you automatically follow everyone?
• Welcome messages. Do you send a welcome message? Is it a personalized message or one that looks like an automated message? Does it promote something or does it show you want to connect and care?

There are no absolute guidelineson what you should do.  You simply need to act in an appropriate way for the people you want to connect with. 

Twitter monitoring will help you find out how to make the right first impression. Regular monitoring will also keep you up to date on any changing trends in Twitter etiquette so you can adjust your tactics when needed.

#3: Retweet Others

Do you feel uncomfortable about reaching out to others on Twitter?  Retweeting is a great way to start networking but you usually need to do a bit more to get a response and start a dialogue.  For example, add some personal comments to the retweet.  Notice how others engage with people and copy the ones you like.

"Good morning!" The simplest tweets often work best.

#4: Shout Out to Others

If you want to connect with someone on Twitter and just don’t know where to start, here are some ways of simply shouting out to people on Twitter to get them to notice you.

• Consider mentioning them for #FollowFriday.  You do this by simply saying something nice about the person, include their Twitter ID and “#FollowFriday” or “#ff”.

• Another option is a public mention of someone you appreciate.

Show your appreciation after connecting elsewhere.

#5: Link to ‘Other’ Social Conversations

As you monitor Twitter and other social media platforms, you’ll notice more conversations. Show others you are paying attention to their conversations.

• When you notice someone’s birthday on Facebook, send a “Happy Birthday” with their @name on Twitter to show you are paying attention to them.
• When you come across a great LinkedIn question, link to it and give the @name of the author on Twitter.
• When you read a great blog post, share the link and take the time to find and mention the author’s @name in your tweet.

The more you show others you are listening to them, the more they’ll pay attention to you.

#6: Write Tweets to Engage Conversations

After getting on other people’s radar, it’s time to take the networking up a notch and try to begin a real conversation.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to reply to a tweet and add value.

• Add useful information.
• Ask a good question.
• Show you are sincerely interested in the topic.

Make it easy to respond to your tweets.

#7: Introduce People

As you meet more people on Twitter, you’ll see people with similar interests.  Take the initiative and introduce people! This is a great way of strengthening your own network because others will notice your introductions and make associations.

Introductions are easy to make.

#8: Create Opportunities to Network Further

What can you do when networking opportunities just do not seem to pop up naturally? Create a reason to network with the people who interest you!  Tweetups and Twitter discussions are a great way to do this.

Another easy first step is to start a public list of people you recommend on Twitter. As you come across people to add to this list, give them a shout out to show your recognition. You’ll find it much easier to connect with people this way.

You might also want an additional step to feel more comfortable with the people you meet on Twitter. Sometimes you need a good ice-breaker.  I find Twitter Interviews helpful because they are usually a fun experience for both participants and I also get to know more about the people I interview.

Networking Beyond Twitter

As you begin to develop your network on Twitter, you’ll want to regularly spend time making connections beyond Twitter.  A phone call or a chat on Skype is always a good step.

Twitter will simply become one of the communication tools you use in your overall business networking plan.

Do you network on Twitter? What tactics do you use to reach out and connect with others? I’d love to hear about what works best for you.  Please share your stories in the comments below.

I began as a direct marketer, doing business face-to-face at a kitchen table with a phone call and a handshake. Back then, getting customers was tough work. These days, they are all over, just waiting to be found.

On any given day, there are millions of people looking for something on Twitter, be it a cup of coffee, a snack, a nice book to read, or just something to help them pass the time.

Add the fact that smartphones and other mobile devices have given the average consumer the means not only to find what they want online, but also to talk about it, and you’ve got the perfect situation for finding new customers.

“Ugghh, just woke up… need coffee”

This is an average tweet that I see when I start work in the morning. People are waking and they want their coffee. As I’m not in the business of selling coffee, this isn’t of much interest to me, but to the local coffee shops trying to compete with Starbucks, this is a goldmine.

Now, if you run a local coffee shop, you’ve got a chance here to win a new customer. But unless you interrupt their pattern of either making coffee at home or going to Starbucks, then you’ll miss out.

How can you turn a random tweet into a potential customer?

1. Go Local With Twitter Geotargeting

Using Twitter Search, you can use geotargeting to find tweets from your area. To do this, simply use Twitter’s “advanced search” function.  Or use the following syntax: coffee near:”New York” within:15mi.

I also recommend setting up custom searches in a Twitter client such as TweetDeck or Seesmic. That way, you’ll receive real-time results and can reply on time.

Alternatively, you can use a tool like TwitHawk to automatically find tweets for you. This service uses custom search queries to target potential clients and sends an email notification when it finds a match. It’s perfect for those of you who just don’t have time for Twitter.

Geotargeting to find potential local coffee customers

2. Join the Conversation

The first step obviously is to have a Twitter account built on your company name that you can use to respond to tweets. If it were my coffee company, I’d respond with something like: “Mocha… cappuccino… just coffee? I’ll give you 50% off your first cup.”

If you’re using TwitHawk, you can create a list of built-in responses and choose to rotate among them, or manually submit a response. At just a few cents per tweet, you can create a campaign that runs on autopilot for you. Just make sure you keep an eye on the results so you can reply when necessary.

Now, given your response, the customer has the option to either respond back or ignore you. Not all will respond, but some will, and over time you’ll bring more new business to your coffee shop. If you do a good job of “friending” the people who seem interested, it gives you a chance to follow up in the future. That’s the difference that turns cold prospects into loyal customers.

3. Do Something Unique

An alternative, or rather an interesting way to beef up your capabilities, is to become known in your area for giving out discount codes online via Twitter. Whether it’s the media that blasts your tactic to the public or a strategic marketing campaign, the point is that by being known for giving “today’s specials” on Twitter allows you to capture an audience that might not have been there before.

In the past they went to Starbucks, but now they follow you on Twitter to look for specials… not because they like your brand necessarily, but because they like Twitter and you give them a reason to use it more often. Like them, you’re trendy and hip, and you speak the same language. That’s how you break into new markets with Twitter.

I realize we’re speaking in generalities here, but the bottom line is that Twitter marketing works. And once you’ve expanded your area of influence beyond your current clients and prospects to their friends, then you’ve reached a second level that very few businesses achieve without spending thousands of dollars on traditional marketing campaigns. You’ve done it by just being there and reaching out.

4. Use Contests

To build even more buzz around new or existing products, you can create contests of all types and sizes. You might remember the #moonfruit contest, where anyone using the hashtag #moonfruit was entered in a drawing for a free MacBook (everyone loves MacBooks, right?), which was so popular that it made the Twitter Trends list.

More recently, a fellow blogger and I launched a Twitter contest to promote our blogging book. This was perfect for what we needed, which was to have our hashtag repeated often enough that people became curious.

We didn’t reach Twitter Trends, but we sold a lot of books. People said they heard about our book all over the place, even though the tweets were small in comparison to other trending topics. However, in the space we marketed to, you couldn’t go more than 10 minutes without seeing someone tweet about our book. That’s social proof right there, and that’s worth its weight in gold.

How we created contest buzz:

1. We created a simple contest page, explaining the prizes and the rules.

2. We created a graphic that made it easy for people to retweet our message. The banner was placed at the bottom of the page and was loaded with a built-in message.

3. We used a call to action, inspiring people to retweet our message.

4. We placed a real-time search results window, courtesy of Tweetizen, to highlight the large number of people already entered; a bit of “social proof,” if you will.

Tweetizen real time search results window

The Bottom Line

The trick to attracting new customers on Twitter is to start by being there for them. Make yourself known by listening and responding when necessary.

When you’re ready to step it up a bit, you can start nudging them over to your shop with a coupon or discount. People love personalized interaction, and if you get them in once, provided they have a good experience, they’ll be back again… eventually with a friend.

Lastly, when you want to kick it up a notch and build momentum to launch a new product or service, you can get it done quickly, efficiently and cheaply by using contests. Everyone loves to be a winner. In running a contest, both your business and your customers become winners.

Have you tried geographical Twitter searches? What about contests? Share your thoughts and experiences below.

As my recent poll shows, generating incoming traffic is the number-one need that people have right now, and for good reason. Traffic translates into:

• Attention, engagement, conversation and recognition
• Spreading your message far and wide
• Prospects and subscriber opt-ins
• Customers, increased sales and leads
• Media and interviews, which lead to more attention

… and last but not least, an ego boost.

In a previous article here I mentioned the many benefits of Twitter for your business. Now here are seven key points you need to know if you want to get more targeted traffic from Twitter:

#1: Know your audience

Growing your traffic always starts with your audience if you want to do it right. Untargeted, uninterested “hits” are a waste of time and resources at worst, and at best just pure vanity.

• What does your audience want and need?
• How do they like it delivered?
• Which topics are on their minds right now?
• Are there trends that are growing in popularity?
• How do these folks speak? What words and phrases do they use?

This means that driving traffic starts with listening and observing. Get to know your target so you can most efficiently engage them.

Twitter has a tool for this. Use search.twitter.com to find what people in your niche are talking about and follow some of their conversations.

Once you get an idea of what people are interested in, join in those conversations and talk to people.

#2: Get the “right” followers

So much rubbish is thrown around about how to grow your follower count that it makes it seem that the number is all that matters. Wrong!

You need people to want to hear what you have to say. This means you do NOT want people who auto-follow because they are either:

1. Robots and not real human beings (e.g., spam software, people trying to inflate their follower count, scrapers)
2. Not actually reading your tweets and just following to allow you to DM them

The followers you most want are those who follow you because they are interested and think they will get value from your tweets. These people are most likely to find you via:

• People retweeting your stuff, either within Twitter or using a TweetMeme button
• Referrals from other Twitter users
• Your blog; for example, your articles that say “Follow me on Twitter at @chrisgarrett and tell me what you think,” or your sidebar Follow Me button
• Other people’s blogs, when you guest post or comment
• Clicking your forum signature when you participate in discussions, or your email signature

Unfortunately Twitter closed off a really nice way that people used to get targeted Twitter followers. It used to be that we could “listen in” to conversations that people we followed were having, but now you have to be following both parties. This means we can’t discover new people that way. If someone puts something before they mention your @name it can still work, and I still occasionally get followers through that.

Essentially the advice is, put your Twitter name where it will be seen and encourage people to share it!

#3: Build engagement

Talk to people.

Engage your followers. Don’t just see them as a passive list of eyeballs! Treat folks as human beings and you will do much better at this stuff. It is called social media for a reason.

• Ask questions
• Hold conversations
• Dip into others’ conversations
• Encourage feedback

#4: Get clicks

So now your followers are seeing you as an interesting person and not a robotic “feed,” which means they are more likely to take notice when you tweet out a link.

Tweet Valuable Links

Whatever you do, don’t just tweet your own stuff. That is both selfish and boring!

Get into the habit of sharing anything cool, regardless of who created it. Retweet good stuff and other people are going to be more willing to retweet yours. Tweet out fun and useful links your friends send you in email or from the news. Be known as a person who tweets good stuff.

Timing

Not everyone is online at the same time. There is a whole world outside of your timezone, plus people have a different schedule than you. You know the feeling of confusion when you land in a foreign country. Not only have you got to adjust to local time, but also people seem to have their meals at a different time of day, shops open and close at strange hours, and business meetings seem to be held randomly. Twitter is like that, you can’t just look at a time zone converter and think people will be at their desk at a certain time.

1. Tweet the same thing a few times, a few hours apart, to give your message several chances to be seen.
2. Vary the times of day you tweet and monitor response.
3. Watch for the peaks and troughs of activity in YOUR stream (not just what works for others).

I tend to aim to catch the peak times for Aussies, the EU/Brits, East Coast USA, and West Coast USA, but it is far from an exact science!

Headlines

There are two main driving factors that affect your chances of getting a click:

1. Your reputation
2. The headline

Hopefully at this point #1 is taken care of, but #2 takes some work.

First of all, use my free download 102 Proven Headline Formulas as a starting point. There are 102 fill-in-the-blank templates which ought to give you a head start on writing a compelling caption.

If you use an interesting title and it matches your audience’s wants and needs, then you are going to get clicks.

Split test

You might not get it right the first time, so try another variation:

• Phrase it as a question
• Make it into a “How To” headline
• Use curiosity versus just the facts

A lot of this is about learning what your audience reacts to best.

#5: Measure performance

When you use a link-shortener with a built-in click-tracker such as bit.ly, you can see how well any of your links perform. This is useful for improving over time and to see which links get picked up virally.  As they say, what you measure you get more of!

With Twitter it’s not just the link clicks that YOU get, but the retweets and shares that really drive the real traffic. TweetMeme and bit.ly can give you vital reporting about how well you do, as well as your Google Analytics.

#6: Do more of what works, but test, test, test

When you find what works for you, do more of that. Keep in mind though that if you only do the same things you will either get the same results and not improve, or you will wear out that technique. Experiment, learn and mix it up.

Trends change, techniques improve, fads go out of fashion. Do not get stuck on rails, move and flow with your audience.

#7: Encourage sharing

Once you have your initial click, your job is not done!

Make sure your article has a TweetMeme button so that anyone who likes what you shared can easily share it too.

If you want to get really fancy, give people an incentive to share, such as a random prize drawing for anyone who tweets your message. Of course, the message will contain a link back to you …

Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to actually ask for retweets. Just don’t overdo it, as you will only annoy your followers. This will make them less responsive, rather than more.

Does it really work?

Here is a case study for you. For the last Social Media Success Summit in 2009, Mike Stelzner and I ran a competition on chrisg.com using all the advice mentioned here in this article.

The competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times

Using TweetMeme we can see that the competition post was retweeted over 1,000 times before it stopped tracking.

Social Media Success Summit 2009 Competition Clicks

Just the cli.gs link alone was clicked 12,753 times.

So yes, it does work.

Bottom line:

• Gather the correct audience
• Be awesome
• Share cool stuff
• Encourage other people to share it too

Does Twitter work to generate traffic for your stuff? Got any tips to share? Anything people do that annoys you? Please share—go ahead and comment below right now!

So what better way to understand social media than by looking at the fundamental principles of influence as taught by Dr. Robert Cialdini, professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University? In his seminal book, Influence, Cialdini covers six “weapons of influence”  that are hardwired into our social and cognitive minds.  In other words, we can’t help but behave in accordance with these laws of social interaction.

Does this sound like something useful to keep in mind during your social media engagements?  Well, let’s take a look six powerful persuasion techniques:

1. Reciprocation

In Cialdini’s words, the rule for reciprocation “says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us. If a woman does us a favor, we should do her one in return; if a man sends us a birthday present, we should remember his birthday with a gift of our own; if a couple invites us to a party, we should be sure to invite them to one of ours.”

And so it is in social media: we’re more likely to retweet someone who has already retweeted us.  We link to people who have linked to us.  And we tend to give a business far more trust after it has provided us with a lot of free value.

Used manipulatively, this turns into autofollow bots that help you amass thousands of followers in a breathtakingly short time—none of whom may actually care what you have to say.  Doh!

Used more positively and constructively, if you focus on initiating reciprocity by providing no-strings-attached value to those in your network, you’ll ultimately wield far more influence.  Not because the gift economy is a new fad in marketing, but because following the law of reciprocity is how we’re wired as humans.

2. Commitment and Consistency

“Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.  Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision,” said Cialdini.

Chances are, you follow too many people on Twitter.  And you’re signed up for more RSS feeds and newsletters than you can really read.  Objectively, purging your list of followers and unsubscribing would eliminate distractions and increase your social media signal-to-noise ratio.

But most people never make that purge and hardly ever unsubscribe.  Part of it goes back to reciprocation, but a larger part stems from consistency: you’re loath to admit that following and subscribing to those people and newsletters was a mistake.

On the positive side, how much more likely are you to comment on a blog that you’ve already commented on before?  Especially if you’re now “signed in” to comment on the blog during future visits—and if your Gravatar or Disqus headshot shows up next to the comments?

According to the principle of consistency, you’ll want to remind people of their previous positive commitments through perks, public displays, an elimination of friction for increasing their commitment, etc.  It works for Amazon prime, Amazon’s 1-click ordering, and Amazon’s reviewer system, and it will work for fostering blog comments and a blog community, too.

3. Social Proof

One method we use to determine correct behavior is to find out what other people think is correct. We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk

Just watch this video to see this in action!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us are impressed when someone has a ton of blog subscribers, Twitter followers, YouTube views, multiple blog reviews for their upcoming book, and so on.

Yes, people can game the system (autofollows and such), which can jade our intellectual response, but our core and initial emotional reactions stay the same.

On the positive side, creating a lot of value for others can help companies and individuals gain social proof via reciprocation: writing engaging content for guest posts, offering to interview authors and subject matter experts, and so forth.  Not only do these activities provide social proof in themselves, but they can help you gain a support network capable of “salting” your blog comments, your retweets, etc.

And when it comes to social proof, tribes matter.  It’s not just about what the mass of people are doing on social media that constitutes proof, it’s what other like-minded people and peers are doing.  So according to the principle of “social proof,” you should concentrate your social media efforts on finding and building social proof within your tribe.

4. Liking

“We most prefer to say yes to people we know and like,” says Cialdini. Extensions of this principle are:

1. Physical attractiveness creates a halo effect and typically invokes the principle of liking;
2. We like people who are similar to us;
3. We like people who compliment us;
4. We like things that are familiar to us;
5. Cooperation toward joint efforts inspires increased liking;
6. An innocent association with either bad or good things will influence how people feel about us.

How does this work for social media?  Well, to start with the virtual equivalent of physical attractiveness, we give extra credence to attractively designed blogs, messages contained in videos with higher production quality, and corporations’ landing pages displaying a better sense of social media savvy in their overall design and layout.

Similarly, individuals involved in coordinating joint ventures for the common good are associated with—and therefore “haloed” by—those efforts, while at the same time invoking cooperation toward a joint effort, which further increases “liking.”  Think of Seth Godin’s efforts at compiling free and thoughtful ebooks and then using the compilation to raise funds for a non-profit.  Bryan Eisenberg’s Trick or Tweet efforts from a year ago also come to mind.

As for complimenting others, what else is a retweet, a trackback, or a positive blog comment than a social compliment?  And yes, those are all activities you should participate in authentically, sincerely, and liberally if you wish to leverage the principle of liking to your advantage.

5. Authority

Cialdini talks about “The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of authority…”  In his book, he examines how authority can be conferred by (and also manufactured by) titles, clothes, and trappings.

In social media, authority is less about titles and clothes than about virtual trappings.  In his (fantastic) report, “Authority Rules,” Brian Clark talks about how perceived expertise can frequently differ from real expertise.  Meaning that the guy known for blogging about and offering intelligent commentary on a subject will likely have far more perceived expertise (and therefore influence as an authority) than a genuine but unknown non-blogging expert.

But perhaps the most direct measure of authority is the number of people who will buy or download a recommended resource based on little more than an authority’s endorsement.  How many people would buy a copywriting book simply because Brian Clark said it’s a must-read?  How many people will download a free PDF on nothing more than Seth Godin’s evaluation that it contains important insights?

But one thing social media has seemed to spark is a dawning understanding that authority is (or should be, at least) limited to a legitimate field of knowledge.  So when a relatively famous figure like Robert Scoble states on his website Scobleizer that search engine optimization isn’t important for small businesses, he’s “taken to task” on it rather severely.

6. Scarcity

Apart from reciprocity, this is perhaps the most used tool in social media.  When bloggers open up a class or inner circle membership or subscription service, it is never for an unlimited number of customers or for an always open/unlimited time.  Smart bloggers either create or fully leverage already existing scarcity by limiting seats available, length of time to buy, etc.

Laura Roeder has rather famously made scarcity a centerpiece of a signature technique,  wherein bloggers hold competitions with free services as a prize.  When contestants don’t win, they then value the prize more highly precisely because of the newly perceived scarcity.  This makes them more likely to accept a consolation prize of getting the services at a slight discount.

Parting Recommendations

While the six principles of persuasion started out as “weapons of influence” that were used against us by “compliance professionals,” I—along with Cialdini—would encourage you to practice the positive side of wielding influence. To sum up many of the recommendations from the post, here are some very positive ways to leverage the principles of influence to increase your social media success:

• Focus on creating value and initiating the reciprocity principle by gifting your social media contacts with high-value content, insights, reports, etc.
• Sincerely flatter your subscribers, friends, and commenters by responding to them and nurturing your growing community.  Actively reach out to people you admire using social media and pay them the compliment of commenting on their blogs, following their tweets, linking to their content, etc.
• Commit to consistent engagement on the social media platforms you chose to use, to the point of staying away from new social media platforms that you don’t have the resources to actively participate in.
• Use social proof as credibility cues where appropriate.  Show off your number of subscribers next to the Subscribe button.  Possibly use colleagues to “salt” your comments on important posts, build up your network by guest posting, commenting, and retweeting.
• Coordinate within your community on larger efforts for the greater good.  You’ll probably be psyched at what you create or accomplish, you’ll do good and feel good about it, and you’ll likely become associated with the effort.
• Put the extra effort in on achieving professional and inspiring design.  Dress for success on your blog, website, and social media landing pages.
• When creating a contest or trying to spark immediate action, use the scarcity principle to positive effect.  But be honest about it—no changing “last day for” dates, no miraculously replenishing supplies, etc

But, hey, I’d be THRILLED to add to the list if you recognize any of your tried-and-true techniques as falling within—or totally falling outside of—these weapons of influence.

What are your secret weapons of influence? Let’s engage.  Please comment below now.