New Facebook Contest & Promo Rules

Just hours ago Facebook released breaking news of its new and loosened Facebook Contest and Promotions Rules and Terms of Service.

These are published under Facebook’s Page Promotion Terms as well as Facebook’s downloadable Promotion Guidelines. In short you can run contests in a simple way by asking for a Like, Comment, or a Message (not a share). Third party apps use are no longer a requirement. From August 2013 Facebook Contest Rules will never be the same again!

This change makes it easier to run promos, and it will save you time and money. It makes it easier to start Facebook marketing, and begin to reach early goals. This is especially good news if you are in a lean start up phase.

What does Facebook regard as Promotions?

Facebook suggests these:

• Entry/registration
• Element of chance
• Giveaway or prize

What has Facebook changed with its Competition and Promotion rules?

• Facebook no longer requires third party apps to administer competitions
• in other words – it is now legal to use the Page timeline to promo competitions with no app

Can Facebook Page Administrators still use apps?

Yes you can still use apps. Facebook gives Pages permission to administer promotions via their Page tabs and apps as long as the promotion is run according to Facebook’s promotion guidelines. Do I recommend using third party apps still? Yes, definitely, as soon as your budget allows. Apps are a benefit for gathering email addresses for long term relationships, market education and promotion, and analytics. Apps allow you to be in control of your database, and your marketing.

Why is Facebook making this change to its Contests, Competitions and Promotions rules?

• ‘Facebook wants to make it easier for marketers to create and administer  Contests, Competitions and Promotions
• it benefits companies of all sizes
• it aligns its policies’

What CAN you do with Contests, Competitions and Promotions?

since the 27th August 2013 change Facebook Pages can:

• ‘Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post. Note – ‘sharing’ is not in this list!

• Collect entries by having users message the Page

• Use an app to promo

 

This is a bit like using Facebook likes as a voting mechanism.

What can you NOT do with Contests, Competitions and Promotions?

since the 27th August 2013 change?

• Tagging: Facebook prohibits Pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in. So, it’s not OK to ask people tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize
• Clients must not administer a promotion on a personal Timelie or Profile Page. This has not changed.’
• Can’t ask people to take part in a promotion by liking, sharing, or posting something on their Personal Timeline. All must be done on the Facebook Page

 

Note key elements:

• that as the policy does not permit ‘share’
• the policy does not permit this interaction on Personal Timelines / Personal  Profiles
• tagging is a no, no.

Why are Facebook Competition interactions limited to Pages?

• Facebook wants high quality content with caring Page with Fan interaction
• Privacy control is another issue. Confining interaction to the Page enables fans to control, choose & ‘limit visibility of their interaction to only themselves, friends or to a custom group of people ‘
• Technically it is not possible for ‘Pages to access all of the entries that people post on their own Timelines unless these entries are public.’

What are the benefits of Facebook competitions with no contest app?

• SAVES TIME – simply create post that requires people to like, comment and message for a chance to enter and win the contest. The post will show in the Facebook’s News Feed. Simple, easy, no learning curve, no software
• SAVES MONEY – it’s FREE. No apps to lease or buy. Less graphics to design. Spend the money on the prize and on ads to promote the competition and grow your fan base instead!
• SAVES EFFORT – easier for people to enter a contest. In the industry we anticipate this will make it easier for people to see and interact with your contest.
• MOBILE FRIENDLY –  The contest will be as mobile friendly as Facebook is (Apps tabs are not mobile friendly.). No more concerns about whether contest is mobile friendly or not.
• STRESS FREE – no worries about which is the best app to use – if you decide on the ‘no app’ way
• INTERACTIVE – competitions are a great way to get fans to talk and interact with you – on your Page

If a couple of clients follow through with their plans, I will soon be testing competitions with some fairly new Facebook Pages. Come back to this bog to see the results using these new and loosened Facebook contest rules.

What are the disadvantages of Facebook competitions with no contest apps?

• WILL NOT BUILD LIKES – without an app you will get comments, but you won’t build likes. Apps require ‘likes’ to enter
• WILL NOT BUILD AN EMAIL LIST – without an app you will not build an email opt in database. With an app as people join the contest they also opt in to your database.
• LESS BRANDING OPPORTUNITY – strong branding and looking professional attracts.
• LESS PROFESSIONAL – while no apps & posting to the timeline is a simple, it is also a less professional method. For those with design and programming skills, an alternative to using third party apps, is to set up a landing page .

How To Run a Contest from Your Fan Page Timeline in 2013

1. Plan the competition. Write a post telling your fans about the contest (graphics & ads will help a lot!), choose a winner and give away the prize. Promote the completion.
2. Or after competition planning, use a third party app to host the competition. Choose a winner and give away the prize. Promote the completion. Promote the completion.
3. Or with competition planning, set up a landing page to lead capture, Write a post / display graphics telling your fans about the contest, choose a winner and give away the prize. Promote the completion.

More info on Facebook Promotion Guidelines 

For info on Facebook contest apps  and pre- August 2013 Facebook contest rules head on over to this post

Interested jn the legal implications of the new Facebook Promotional Guidelines and contest rules?

You will find this link on Facebook Promotion Guidelines handy for the official word from Facebook

Want help with your Facebook Ads and Contests?

If you need a hand with planning your Facebook competitions, using Facebook apps, and planning or implementing Facebook Ads (yes, you need them to work hand in hand with your competitions) then ask me!

Chargeable Options:

1. Q & A session

2. Coaching or training

3. Consulting – done for you planning

4. Consulting – done for you planning and implementation

Contact me: The very best places you can reach me on are https://www.facebook.com/TweetTwins or http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennywilmshurst  (if this site was a fully fledged website I’d be using automated landing pages and automated forms). A new website is in early planning stages!

Info I will need in your initial enquiry are: your Facebook page url, your personal profile url, website, estimated Facebook Ads / Competition campaign start date, budget, which chargeable option you’d like to use. We will talk about other planning needs when we get started.

Looking forward to helping you!

Facebook Competitions without Facebook Competition Apps

The most meaningful motivations for you to run Facebook Competitions with competition apps is the massive benefits to your business results vs risks.

So many of my stories are from conversations with clients who are searching for a better way to do business online and offline. Other stories from trends and online practices that just don’t work or could bring more powerful results if a few tweaks are applied.

Right now a few clients are either asking me for competitions or are needing the benefits of Facebook competitions. One thing I am noticing is a trend to use ‘Like and share this post and win..’ type of posts on their Facebook page walls. Usually these business owners are totally unaware of what leverage they are missing out on by not using competition apps. I’m sure that is a massive motivator compared to the fear of Facebook closing down their page for non compliance!

So to put it simply – when you get more likes on a page – that is all you get! What does ‘more likes get you? Numbers with no loyalty and not even necessarily a second look at your page.

From a marketing  perspective, it gives you more people who come to a  page and have absolutely no reasons to ever return. It bolsters up the page numbers wise – but that is it. If you do not use a competition app you have no way to talk to the same people again and again by email. Let’s say you own a nightclub. You run a ‘like and share campaign’ from your Facebook page ( one without a Facebook app and it is non complaint). The prize is a bar tab. You ask the winner to claim the prize off the Facebook Page. You get a ton of new likes. Now what? How can you make contact with the likers again? You don’t have their email addresses or their mobile phone numbers. So you cannot market to them again. Many Facebook page likers do not return to a page. Also how can you reward your existing fan base who have already ‘liked’?

Facebook competition apps allow you to run competitions for current fans as well as new ones, AND build in ways of capturing contact details.

From a Facebook perspective solely focussing on ‘likes’ does not satisfy the algorithms that Facebook uses to make pages more popular and visible. It is a bit like meeting people in a party while in holiday resort, and never needing to return or never having a way to catch up with them again. There is no reason or purpose to continuing the relationship and no reconnection.

Facebook’s algorithms rely upon engagement and interaction not just likes.

If you use a Facebook competition app it is many easier for you to communicate on how to  enter, what the competition rules are and how the winner will be notified, and to release Facebook from the competition.

Getting the right set up help you to get the right info so you can add more promo to the completion e.g. awarding the prizes to winners. It is another opportunity to share excitement around your business, product or brand.

Some Facebook competition  apps have such powerful viral capabilities built-in that can send  results through the roof in a way that is not possible by simple ‘like and share’ tactics.

So if you do not use a competition app to run your competitions you are losing out on marketing leverage and revenues big-time compared to just using a non compliant’ like the page’. The risks are that Facebook can close you down in an instant. Do you want your Facebook Page closed? Facebook is closing Facebook Pages daily, all around the world.

So get compliant with your Facebook Competitions. Make sure you set up your competitions with a competition app, and in a compliant way.  Here is more on the Facebook Competitions subject. Go earn well with Facebook! Enjoy your fans company even more!

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Which Internal Collaboration Tools are Ideal for a Company

Today a student asked me whether FaceBook could be used as a company collaboration tool. She was exploring how to create an internal collaboration space for a company’s members to interact together. The idea was to use an online space that team members could talk openly, away from clients and competitors’ eyes and ears.

It got me thinking about a range of needs of various company sizes.

If you want absolute simplicity and are a small company, you could use:

• LinkedIn Groups set to private (LI is setting itself up as a collaboration site)
• Facebook Groups (set to private)
• Skype (if you want sharing of learnings with a focus on conversation, and real-time sharing, with a low need for document sharing)
• Blog

If you want more range of tools available within the platform, increased functionality to collaborate and / or may be a mid-sized company, options that may suit are:

• LinkedIn Groups
• Ning
• Yammer
• Wiki

If you are a large company or need maximum, Enterprise level functionality:

• LinkedIn Groups
• Ning
• Yammer
• Wiki
• other specifically developed Social Enterprise Networking / Internal collaboration tools
• IBM, Oracle Microsoft collaboration tools e.g. Sharepoint

Your choice of tool will depend on what the purpose is, the future use, and current needs, ability to scale as your  company grows or as collaboration grows. Here are some ideas to :

Before you decide what tool you will use, you would need to explore and decide what:

1. Purpose of the tool
2. Current needs
3. Future needs and ability to scale with growth of use and growth of the company
4. Type of information / media needs that will shared and in what kind of format (e.g. podcasts, webinars, pdfs, Slideshare / Powerpoint, Q & A, info dumping, market feedback, best practice, social events etc).
5. Functionality you need eg. discussion only? ease of searching for old discussions and data? ability to download / upload?

There are many examples of these being used in New Zealand and offshore:

1. Chapman Tripp, an NZ law firm,  uses Facebook internally
2. Microsoft lead developers uses blogs to communicate new developments
3. Telstra Clear NZ favours LinkedIn Groups (private) as a communication tool
4. Banks, airlines are using a range of Social Media tools for internal communications, not just marketing

What questions do you have about internal collaboration?

Online Referral Marketing

Online referral marketing can be achieved through many methods. It could mean a range of different things to different people. When I receive webinar invites, requests to opt in to reports and requests to like Social Media sites, I keep my eyes peeled for good examples.

I’ve seen peel ads, popovers, pop unders, opt in toolbars, slide in code opt in boxes, Facebook connect, refer a friend (friend get friend code), sharing icons (email, Digg, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc) and all sort of other methods intended to create virality of opt ins or info sharing.

The example of one received today is at the top of this article.  How do you like this method which was part of a webinar’s thank you page?

Music sharing apps, tools and urls

Music sharing apps are sometimes on my ‘hunt ’em out’ list. You too?

Here are some discoveries on how to share and find music online :

 Find song lyrics to song titles   lyrics.astraweb.com or use a Free Music Toolbar Music.alot.com

Find The Lyrics To Any Song!

Find Song title for The Lyrics !

Find the song title when you only remember some lyrics of the song  lyrster.com Songlyrics.com

By Mobile Phone
Profile Song allows you to share your favorite songs with your Facebook friends. Trade music suggestions, upload your own songs, and skim through their extensive library of choices. The application picked up 301,385 new fans.

On Facebook

Bump Now iPhone users can “bump” together two iPhones and share music, which can be streamed from YouTube, and previewed or purchased through iTunes, all within the  Bump application.

Zumodrive Share your iTunes folder on your computer and being able to play it right from your Android device. The music player in Zumodrive feels like it was just made for Android.

On Twitter:

Twic.li allows you to share music, photos and videos from your PC.

Twt.fm allows you to type in an artist, track, and click the preview button. twt.fm will then generate a preview of your track song, then you can tweet it to your followers.

SongTwit is a free service that lets artists and fans share music on Twitter and see what friends are listening to.

Imeem is an online music service that gives fans instant access to almost any song they want, for

Twiturm is the easiest way to socialize your music. Twiturm allows users to post their mp3′s to numerous social networks including Twitter and Facebook.

Twisten.fm turns twitter into a music station. It mash-up with Grooveshark and crawls Twitter for tweets about music. It then takes those tweets and throws in a play button so that you can listen to the song being talked about.

Twitter for DJs

Tweet a Sound for the DJ set  – is the sound design tool in Max that lets you share synth presets. How To Send A Tweet From Max/MSP { sound + tutorial } Traktor Pro is now Twitter-enabled

On the Web

Try these out playlist.com last.fm blip.fm

Christmas Songs Radio Station

XmasRadio.cais a free online radio that plays 24/7 Christmas Music. This is a free service brought to you each year by BlueFur.com. We currently have 3 days worth of Christmas music which we can draw upon.

Recent additions:

Muziic for Facebook,  Muziic DJ for Youtube. For other applications similar to Muziic DJ, check out the playlist-oriented TurnTubeList or the far more simple YouTubeDJ.

Have fun twiddling your onnline dials!

Compiled by Jenny Wilmshurst, Teeet Twins Social Media

Linkedin News – Integration of Contacts

LinkedIn’s latest news is that it will integrate with Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live suite of products. LinkedIn features in Hotmail will start to roll out as of 23 September 2010, and over the course of the next 3 weeks, depending on your location.

There are four key areas we’re focused on in our deep integration with LinkedIn:

• Keeping your contact list organized with auto contact linking across Hotmail, Messenger and the rest of Windows Live
• Helping you use Messenger to keep up with what your LinkedIn contacts are doing.
• Making it simple to share updates from Messenger to your LinkedIn contacts.
• Helping your Messenger friends keep up with what you are doing on LinkedIn

More news to follow.

Social Media Rise and Fall of Adoption

Social Media Rise & Fall of Adoption is a way to describe how some see Social Media as the bane of all, the saviour of modern business or the middle road we really need.

This cycle of adoption is nothing new. It does explain varying attitudes and adoption though.

Maybe it even could be an explanation of potential adoption risks / perception of succss risks in a company’s early use of Social Media. Take a look at this diagram. It explains all! 

 

 The timeframe used here is not accurate to the actual introduction of Social Media as online conversation tools. have been with us prior to 2008.

Graphics courtesy of http://socialcommercetoday.com/

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media – Social Media Training, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Planning

Social Media Debate Auckland Chamber of Commerce

Social Media debate. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce recently staged a Social Media debate before 200 odd people. Afterwards, a Chamber of Commerce debate participant commented on the debate.  This inspired this post.

The Auckland Social Media Club also ran its own debate. I attended the Social Media Club debate. In each debate, the against team won.Oodles of fun it was too!

In some pockets of Auckland business there is reserved acceptance of Social Media. In others it is wholehearted or yet with others there is cynicism.

Some do not believe that Social Media could power up a business!  Maybe I would not have either if I had not been part of it myself, I wonder.

So here are my pondering & observations on lifting our views of Social Media:

• Some NZ businesses run 100% on Social Media and get phenomenal results. The non Social Media business we have been growing capabilites of over the recent years, using Social Media, has yielded individual leads valued between $1k and $4.2 million, globally. The company’s Social Media use reaches the key influencers and it attracts conversation & relationships, then sales result from there. He’s launched several key products this way. The owner would say Social Media is THE SOURCE,  the ONLY future of his business. How else can you globally reach and convert without leaving your city? This is not an isolated NZ example.
• Social Media tools aren’t the vehicle for the future? If not then the Social Media Way is. Social Media Tools + Communications Strategy + Business Strategy = ROI. Tools keep changing. Just like any product in a live market, they ebb and flow as flavour of the day. Use tools with the discernment of a media planner. What are the demographics? What are the tools’ strengths weaknesses, personality and etiquette? Which match your target market? It’s psychographics as well as demographics. We can never rely on the tools wholely. It takes a tool’s policy change and your social media profile is wiped in an instant. Control your IP regardless. Take charge. Back up what you can. Leverage the Social Media Way despite this. It is the globe’s new marketing culture (albeit in migration from traditional media)
• It is the way the tools are used strategically in a communications strategy within your entire business planning that counts. Think about tailoring each of your communications messages. How do they fit with each tool? Consider how you’ll integrate Social Media and traditional media. So important while markets are still in the process of migrating to Social Media.
• The unique psyche and ethos that runs behind Social Media is way more than developing relationships and networks. Communication and relationships are foolish if they do not result in profit. I’ve heard open, large-scale conversation that leaves me wondering that maybe some Auckland Social Media aficionados’ practices are random and un-targeted?! We all really enjoy the social side so much! A bit of a trap? I bet someone will not like this being said! However we have to move Social Media skills upward in our sector.
• Social Media is WAY more than the tools. The tools are way more than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Their functions serve less than 25% of the types of Social Media activities and objectives i.e among 4 quadrants of interaction intensity and types of interaction. There are thousands of Social Media tools, applications and plugins. Our organisations need to strive to run as Enterprise 2.0 ‘s (Web 2.0, HR 2.0, Customer Service 2.0, IT 2.0, Ops 2.0, Business Planning 2.0) with a strong engagement centred culture. A change managers dream!
• One size does not fit all. How this statement has been quoted time and again after I wrote it way back when! Different markets and niches have different requirements. A Social Media marketing mix may even exclude Twitter Facebook, LinkedIn. Other Social Media tools may suit better. What about video, podcasts, webinars, recommendation /review sites, discussion, article sharing sites, media and content sharing sites? These were all part of our original pioneering Auckland Social Media workshops. I believe it is a disservice to clients if we do not expose them to these broad options.
• Get the right Social Media mix. Ignore the ‘results take many months’ myths If the right Social Media mix and activity level is not used then the powers that be will stifle the initiative head on. Get the right mix of relationship intensive and low risk, medium to low intensity Social Media activity. Globally marketed products and services can get results within weeks NOT MONTHS if you choose wisely. Benchmarked repeatedly over several years! It is true that  short term test and measure must be used as each client and sector differs.
• Each specific niche has its own set of tools that your markets favour. Each needs to discover them. Not all Web 1.0 tools are dead. Forums in some niches are vibrant! With foresight paln and be in the media while waiting for your market to arrive.
• It is not who you know. It is not even who knows you. It is who knows you who is the INFLUENCER WILLING TO PAY.  Tweet Twins sayings are spreading! So we added to our own saying again after a few new insights.
• Leverage the ‘Empty Forest’ way. Be the RARE animal that everyone in your niche is looking for. Be so findable online & offline that they cannot help but find you.

Let’s OPEN OUR MINDS to possibilities for leveraging our business?

If you got 90% of business from Social Media would you say Social Media doesn’t work?

Why would you use any other method?

So, have a strong desire to succeed with your online growth.

Desire to figure out the strategy and tactics. Or seek help

Stop settling for less than what is possible for you! Ask for the help you need to move your business  results forward.

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media – Social Media Training, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Planning

Twitter Best Practices

Though this is not the thorough Twitter best practice guideline, it is a reminder of what we can all be doing better:

* follow others – keep a similar numbers of followers and following
* use DM for your idle chit chat (the ‘what you ate for breakfast’ category)
* use the Twitter stream for the relevant content you want to enrich others with
* avoid selling without high quality relationships
* mix content styles: links, comment on others’ info, your thoughts, variety of urls, no duplicate tweets, retweets, quotes
* be regular in adding content
* interact with others. If you do so publicly you will be more visible to others’ networks – leverage it
* create original content
* interact
* use the search tool to find those who need your services
* mix automation with human interaction, but never use total automation
* integrate into other Social Media platforms

What else do you think can be added to the list?

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Implementation, Social Media Training

File sharing – what is it?

File Sharing – what is it? Here is a quick summary on Box.net so that you all have a bit of a feel for how it works.

This type of tool is core to practical Social Media: file sharing. You are now discovering that Social Media is way more than LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube! File sharing is a way of sharing files of various types (not just documents) without having to email the whole files. There are many different brands with all sorts of USP oriented uses. For example, one particular brand we (Kevin and I at Tweet Twins) have discovered is a file sharing site that you can charge each person to download your content through.

File sharing sites are especially useful for large files, or group of files or those that require team / project collaboration. Tweet Twins have used box.net to distribute specific info simply, and when we want to measure outcomes. I’ve also used it when my web development company sent a large backup file of one of my other websites.

Box.net is practical for use with LinkedIn, so it is now a preferred brand among the many brands of free to paid file sharing sites.

Downloads can be set to be private or for public access. You can share a link or a whole folder of files. There are other collaboration, sharing features, version management and measurement stats also.

You upload your content to Box.net. Then you either send the content or share the link with your contacts. Sharing the link is the easiest way. Then the recipient gets and email with a link included to enable the download.

Any files that you store will be kept secure, and will only be accessible by others if you explicitly authorise sharing. To display your content to the public, you may designate a folder to display on your profile. All files or folders in that folder will be visible to viewers of your profile. All other files and folders are kept private, although you may share specific items with select individuals.

To share content with specific people, just click on the menu for a file or folder that you want to share, and select the “Send to connections” option from the menu. From there you will be able to select from your list of contacts people whom you want to share your folders and files.

Collaborated folders are folders for which you invited others to have special access rights, or for which you were invited for special access.

For example, imagine if you are running a course with different modules for different participants. It is best to upload content to private folders to prevent anyone from anywhere from accessing it at will. I’d say you only want those who’ve paid for each part of the course to access each of the downloads. Control this by sending the links of the specific course subject only to those who attended/paid for that day.  Alternatively you could use a file sharing programme that allows payments per download.

Questions?

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media

10 new Google Apps

10 new Google Apps to make business easier, were announced in July 2010. Here are the highlights of these apps (described in an article posted by TechDay’s IT Briefs):

Google Apps administrators can install, evaluate and deploy the new apps “in only a few clicks”.

“Several of the new applications help you manage communications more effectively, from tracking contact with customers and partners to making your inbox more efficient,” he adds.

Here’s a list and description of each new app:

• Bantam Live is an easy CRM & team collaboration app to track contacts, prospects, deals and organize projects, tasks, and events. It Integrates with Google Apps and social networks to import/aggregate contacts.
• Etacts helps grow your relationships. The application and Gmail contextual gadget enable you to instantly find out who you talk to the most and who you’ve neglected.
• Organizer by OtherInbox helps cure email overload. It automatically organizes low priority email out of the way, leaving your Inbox much smaller so it’s easy to find the important messages from real people.
• Aprigo NINJA for Google Docs provides advanced access management controls for Google Docs, giving organizations greater visibility and control over how documents are shared within and outside of the company.
• Gliffy makes creating professional-quality flowcharts and diagrams simple, intuitively helping you turn complex information into attractive images everyone can understand
• Gminutes is your one stop meeting minutes management solution for professionally executing meetings. All you have to do is create your meeting space, add relevant people to it and you are good to go.
• Meetingmix helps you run meetings. It allows you to easily create agendas, take minutes, and share with attendees.
• ReachPeople provides easy group alert notifications for critical communications. Now, schools and businesses can send one or thousands of mass notification messages via voice, SMS text, or email.
• SiteKreator is an online service that allows anyone to instantly design, build and publish elegant, fully-branded, and interactive business websites.
• TheDeadline is an intelligent Todo-Manager. The system makes collaboration very easy and helps users focus on the most important tasks and keep an overview of large sets of to-dos.

Posted by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media, Social Media consultants, empowering business CEO’s, business owners, marketers and their teams

10 ways to thank for a Twitter RT@

10 ways to say thank you for retweeting. The significance of a retweet?

When a follower retweets, they see your content as valueable to share your  post with their Twitter network. In other words share with your 2nd degree connections. You become more visible to others, as does your content. It opens up potential new business relationships through conversation.

Instead of saying thank you here are 10 ways you can thank a person for retweeting:
1.Follow back if not already following
2.Visit their Twitter profile
3.Retweet something interesting from their stream
4.Visit their blog or website
5.Subscribe to their blog
6.Comment on a blog post
7.Retweet their blog post
8.Stumble their blog post (use Stumbleupon – a bookmarking to share a post)
9. Link to their blog post
10. Connect with them on Facebook, emall on Linkedin (subject to access/perissions)

Or all of these!

What other ways could you say “thank you” and make your followers feel special?

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media NZ, Social Media consultant, Social Media speaker, Social Media trainer & mentor, NZ’s female pioneer Social Media expert.

For more training options, speaking engagements  contact Jenny.

Is a Storm brewing in a Cloud near you and is your freedom at stake.

It is computing not as we knew it. Like lemmings rushing to the edge of the cliff, the adoption of adopting Social Media, online computing, remote computing, digital communication, online friends and virtual worlds, is all challenging business models, how we market and who owns and controls our identity. Eben Moglen founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center delivers informed insight for anyone using Facebook, Google, Linkedin and the numerous other online platforms.

Freedom In the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy, and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing

Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They’ll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in.

And you can’t wait to let them. They’ll store your stuff, they’ll organize your photos, they’ll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the “Cloud.”

How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before. At a public meeting of the Internet Society of New York on February 5th, Moglen asked the audience to consider how much worse things have become since then and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.

[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEMv0S8AcA]

What: Software Freedom Law Center Chairman and Columbia Law Professor Eben Moglen will speak on “Freedom In the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy, and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing.”

Webcast: http://www.livestream.com/isocny

Sponsors: ISOC-NY, NYU ACM, Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic

Text Both highlights and a full transcript of the speech are available.

Audio Ogg Vorbis: Speech; Q&A

MP3: Speech; Q&A

Video Ogg Theora: Speech; Q&A

H.264: Speech; Q&A

The Tweet Twins is a branded partnership to empower and assist you with Social Media and related tools to grow your brand, bottom line and online authority. We believe that to lead and guide you through the Online, Cloud, Social Media experience we need to inform you, challenge you and inspire you. Your Social Media experience is hugely more than just learning how to make a new click and figure out how to embed a video in your Linkedin profile and send your latest Tweet to win more followers.

Contact the Tweet Twins for your Social Media needs.

The Tweet Twins, Kevin Andreassend and Jenny Wilmshurst

tweettwins at gmail com http://www.tweettwins.com

Published by Kevin Andreassend, Co-partner and founder The Tweet Twins

Where is marketing really at?

Where is marketing really at? The buyer has flipped the equation on it’s head. With the current oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, could the consumer have the power to close this company down in the USA? Could the combined voice of Social Media bring this giant to its knees in America?

No amount of fancy ad campaigns or attempts at putting the cork back in the bottle are going to redeem BP from the disdain they are now experiencing. Will this be the first case of Social Media bringing down a global giant, or at least giving it a serious nudge in that direction.

Buyers are deciding where and how much they will pay and what model they will buy long before they ever hit the retail store. Buyers have become sophisticated buying machines with all the power of technologies at their finger tips.

A product failure can spreadlike wild fire to millions in a split second.

In a marketing seminar coming up being promoted by Richard Gee where Richard Brookes, Associate Professor of Marketing from The University of Auckland will speak has the title of Marketing Today: At the crossroads or in the crosshairs?

The seminar preamble follows… How an understanding of the shifts in modern marketing will help you in your business.

Being a marketer today is a tough challenge. Here is your chance to be really up with the play.  Some thought provoking information from Richard Brookes will provide insights that will be useful at your place.  Discover from someone who combines academic insight with the implementation of commercial marketing strategies.

Marketing is under pressure. Whilst brand choice has never been greater, too many brands are seen to be delivering only unrequited promises. Customers are becoming more resentful, and less loyal. Developments in information and communications technologies, in particular, have given customers a greater voice-over, and extended their power.  In a changing world, how should marketing change?

If you are an optimist, marketing is at a cross-roads. If you are a pessimist, it’s in the cross-hairs.  Richard will examine six fundamental changes that are impacting on organisations and marketing practice, and will discuss their implications for both marketing theory and practice.

In my capacity as Managing Director of international exporter ICE AV Technology, I would go one step further in the above pre-amble with the following …. Make sure your cross hairs are on the cross roads. Make sure you are in the cross roads and in somebody elses cross hairs. Now what do I mean by this? Consumers are gathering at a vast range of cross roads, either researching, discussing, asking questions, giving opinions, buying, comparing and browsing, and the sellers need to be there because the buyers are coming after you. There is a food chain in business and each player needs to be handshaking on both sides.

Today (figure of speech) I need to constantly need to ensure I am in the target of potential clients and suppliers, talk about role play because the next minute I need to also ensure I can target specific opportunities, whether it be distribution channels, supply channels or clients.

I was once in Singapore Airport passing some time and browsed in on one of the duty free shops. I noticed a store assistant giving instructions to a potential client. I eaves dropped in on his conversation and explanation on the features of this digital camera. I was some what amused by his inaccurate instructions and explanations which had a number of flaws. I sure he was doing his best with the level of expertise he had, but nevertheless it was inaccurate. I felt inclined to step in and could have easily closed the sale, but felt that would have been rather rude so left the assistance to his best efforts.

Today within 5 minutes a consumer from the comfort and anonmity of their home can know your price, how your prices compares, what others shoppers say about your store, about the product specifications and brand. They can even ask 100’s of others whether it is a good model and what they would recommend – all without you ever knowing.

In the international market place what I have found, is that if you take a gun sight approach and line up your cross hairs at the cross roads you will attract buyers, have unknown buyers hunt you down, and previous strangers from around the globe want to give you thousand’s of dollars. So how does a company do that with a virtual zero dollar budget and yet attract serious players from both both sides of the trade coin. From my personal and practical experience there is one way that allows you to play with the big boys and it is the intelligent use of Social Media, that over a sustained period will bring results. This was aptly demonstrated in the last few days when an offshore manufacturing partner will front up with $US4,000,000 of product for  an international level project as their role in the deal in a no money down arrangement, all based on the online reputation of the writer and his company’s commercial activities. Of course understanding the value to the partner is a crucial aspect of pulling off such an undertaking. An important aspect of this is being able to develop relationships. It might surprise many that deals of this nature can be undertaken by building relationships thru the use of Social Media between business people from two very different cultures.

The use of Social Media can have far reaching implications for businesses wanting to grab it with both hands and to spend time implementing it. You will find rectrospectively that a delay in your strategic implementation could cost you thousands of dollars in revenue loss, plus put you further behind your competitors. Many freak out that they are being stalked, or that they will be scammed, whilst others are worried by the unsavoury aspects. These are all aspects to consider and manage but overall they are minority aspects needing your attention when compared to the business riches out there when using Social Media.

The Tweet Twins is a branded partnership to empower and assist you with Social Media and related tools to grow your brand, bottom line and online authority.

Contact the Tweet Twins for your social media needs.

The Tweet Twins, Kevin Andreassend and Jenny Wilmshurst

tweettwins at gmail com http://www.tweettwins.com

Published by Kevin Andreassend, Co-partner and founder The Tweet Twins

“I’ve never, ever left an event so inspired!”

Some months I attended an event here in Auckland and listened to a speaker by the name of Paul Dunn. His message was not how you could make a million dollars online, but rather how you could have an impact on millions. If you want to be enlightened, gain a new perspective on life, your business and your personal journey then keep reading.

Actually, the entire quote from the subject line is this:
‘I’ve been to so many events but I’ve never, ever left one so inspired and so ready to take positive action as this one.

Paul just nails it!’ Auckland-based Furniture Retailer Angus Dawson said that after he’d seen business and marketing legend Paul Dunn in Seminar just recently.  Paul is great. He’s back in New Zealand soon and I’m suggesting your reaction will be equally as glowing as Angus’.

So if you’re in business and you want it to be a better business in every sense of that word, click on the link below for the location that’s closest to you. Read about it, register for it.

We have arranged a full $77 saving for you too so it’s completely f*r*e*e* for you. It’s all automatic; just go to the link, select the number of tickets you’d like and press ORDER NOW or REGISTER.

Just click on the relevant link. It’s really simple

Christchurch, evening of 29 June

Wellington, evening of 30 June

Auckland, evening of 1 July

You’ll learn tremendous things. And you’ll love it.

Former Accenture Consultant and now Melbourne-based entrepreneur Peter Cook puts it like this:
“I have been fortunate to have the benefit of Paul’s experience, wisdom, insight and generosity. I have taken my primary business from taking 60 hours a week and running at a loss to earning a healthy profit and only needing a couple of days a week (and for two months, those two days a week were done remotely from Bali!), launched three other businesses, and am feeling much happier, healthy and more relaxed. If you want to succeed in business and you get a chance to work with Paul in any capacity, grab the opportunity with both hands!”

This is a full-of-impact, high-value evening with a real legend. It’s specifically designed to give your business a huge boost. And even more importantly, I know it’s an evening you’ll benefit from immediately. You’ll be seriously WOWed and inspired.

Those links to get all the details are:

Christchurch, evening of 29 June

Wellington, evening of 30 June

Auckland, evening of 1 July

Do go ahead; take a look now and act on this – I’m certain you’ll love it.

I live in an incredibly privileged country, where we do not have war, food shortages, beggars on the corner, homeless children wandering  for crumbs, nor people living in fear of bombs, being kidnapped, torture, or fire bombed because I believe different to you. Every week I communicate with clients from around the world as diverse as Libya, Moscow, Seoul, Uganda, India, San Jose and Shanghai and acutely aware millions will never in their wildest dreams ever have and achieve what I do in business. And so the vision Paul Dunn has and implementing is compelling to every business owner to consider.

The Tweet Twins is a branded partnership to empower and assist you with Social Media and related tools to grow your brand, bottom line and online authority.

Contact the Tweet Twins for your social media needs.

The Tweet Twins, Kevin Andreassend and Jenny Wilmshurst

tweettwins at gmail com http://www.tweettwins.com

Published by Kevin Andreassend, Co-partner and founder The Tweet Twins

Twitter Statistics 2010 – meaning for online marketing

Courtesy of Huffington Post, the latest 2010 Twitter statistics:
• Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
• New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
• 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
• 75% of Twitter traffic comes from outside Twitter.com (i.e. via third party applications.)
• Twitter gets a total of 3 billion requests a day via its API.
• Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day.
• Twitter’s search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day.
• Of Twitter’s active users, 37 percent use their phone to tweet.
• Over half of all tweets (60 percent) come from third party applications.
• Twitter itself has grown: in the past year alone, it has grown from 25 to 175 employees.

To check out the original blog, go here: http://huff.to/huffington-twitter-stats

What does this mean to you, your online marketing and your brand?
• Twitter registered user volumes mean you need to tightly target and create a community that enjoys your content. Drive followership to opt-in lists for optimimum communication flexibility and to counter list ownership issues. You don’t own a Social Media following but you can own your list offsite.

• Save time – get your favourite Tweeple’s content emailed to you driectly from Twitter for fast offline access. Create lists so you can access them online quickly
• Unique visitor volumes prove popularity of the medium. Numbers provide opportunity.
• High third party application use means that users are mobile, seeking integration & productivity tools
• With 55 million tweets a day make sure you use keywords so your message can be found. Seek other prospects by keywords.
• At around 600 million search queries per day, your messages have an opportunity to be found approximately 10 times for every tweet.
• Of Twitter’s active users, 37 percent use their phone to tweet. Mobile offers one of the biggest marketing opportunities from 2010 on. Check what services are available in your sector to capitlise early on this trend.

Written by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media NZ, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Wrokshops, Social Media Traning and Speaking

Linkedin is the new After 5 Networking Platform…working for you from breakfast to supper 24/7

Learn How to Use LinkedIn To Build Your Brand, Become a Thought Leader, and Achieve Your Goals all from the comfort of your home.

The Tweet Twins have one over riding philosophy, creating, delivering and gaining the “biggest bang for the buck”. Crude as that might sound, it is a value I think all people in business desire: a maximum return for the energy spent.

In our Social Media Workshops we pack in value so that your engine is primed to burn rubber as soon as you take your foot off the brake. For many people though, it is difficult to attend a webinar or face to face workshop so we have gone one better… a Linkedin Book that you can read on your Kindle, iPad or print out and read in bed.

In this book you will receive all of the information other “LinkedIn experts” can’t teach or show you because they haven’t done it all themselves. Learn how to finally use LinkedIn to start Generating More Business Leads, Opportunities  and Income.

Shipping Now. Immediate Download Available

Have you noticed that you could actually be out every night of the week at a network industry event, seminar, client event or something related to connecting. We understand the pressures of family life duties, business events and giving time to your partner and family. This is where the real leveraging power of Linkedin comes into play, it can give you back time if you use it creatively. But first you must get your Linkedin Profile properly set up.

Master Linkedin Strategies ready for you to download NOW !

In the Linkedin Master Strategies book you will learn how to:

• Generate more revenue
• Generate an abundance of quality leads
• Convert leads into happy customers
• Find investors for your products and companies
• Find your dream job
• Quit your job to work for yourself
• Find the right employees
• Drive traffic to your website
• Build your contact list
• Sell products
• Find freelancing opportunities
• Become a thought leader in your industry
• Get free PR
• Get your company on TV and other media mentions
• Get high end clients to pay you without having to hard sell

I will show you step by step how to increase your trusted network so you can contact more people, and more importantly, more people can find you, contact you, and have the opportunity to pay you on LinkedIn.

Did you know that Linkedin is no longer a distant foreign social media platform. Australia and New Zealand now has its own Country Manager as of November 2009. Clifford Rosenberg is responsible for Linkedin downunder.

Twitter Experiment

The Twitter Test

Introduction:

Tweet Twins provides 99.99% high quality content when we blog and tweet about these. Recently one of the The Tweet Twins decided to create a case study to experiment what happens when you defy the Social Media rules. It is one thing to say to a client ‘don’t do this because…”from a theoretical viewpoint”. It is another thing to be able to quantify and provide allegoric evidence.

Background:
We came across a high quality e-course product produced by a team of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn experts. They were promoting a webinar that gave gems of Social Media strategy and an invitation to join their Social Media e-course. Their case studies are extremely well reputed and their business connections also of high calibre and the free webinar content was worth listening to. The course was on limited offer at a discounted rate. Although the course cost was similar our workshops, the learning opportunities were particularly good for any clients, prospects and followers. Amid a flurry of inferior online marketing information, this tested and measured strategy content stood out heads above the rest.

The Test:
The test was to identify the responses of  what happens when you tweet about paid product when your Twitter account is a ‘brand’!  Tweet Twins had never previously promoted product to their Twitter followership. We often identify excellent resources some we share and others may go into our treasure trove. We do see a lot of promo tweets of questionable quality  of which seems to be just noise.

The Action:
So the test to see what happens when you tweet about paid product when your Twitter account is a ‘brand’! Messages were scheduled to appear (via Social Oomph, formerly Tweetlater) in Twitter at well space intervals to ensure that it would be least likely to be considered spam, yet maximise the various global time zones. Shortening codes were used so that the hit rates could be measured. In order to comply with US FTC rules an earnings disclosure statement was required with the tweets (‘you buy, I earn). Not exactly our wish but that is how it goes with compliance! To keep the test pure, no other messages were sent between the product promo tweets.

The Results:
The responses were interesting.
1.      Two followers DM’ed regarding the posts. One queried whether the Twitter account had been hacked. The other was concerned  about the tainting of the Tweet Twins brand by the product promos.
2.      Response indicated ‘hype weariness’ despite the genuine, enthusiastic endorsement of the product
3.      The response rates were significantly lesser and slower in uptake than a charity promo we’d run some months prior
4.      16% of the hits looked at the free webinar offer twice
5.      3.5% of the hits registered to listen to the strategy gems in the FREE webinar
6.      No one bought the product
7.      The messages appeared hourly i.e. at a higher frequency than scheduled (human or system error?)

The learnings:
1.      Brands – be weary of how you make changes to the tone and content on your Twitter account. Followers may do notice!
2.      The findings endorsed the wisdom of all of us in Social Media circles – we preach quality Social Media practices.
3.      It is said in Social Media circles that sales messages should be at the most 1 in 5 to 10 tweets. Tolerance for sales messages is low. We are on Twitter for relationships. We are not on Twitter to be sold to and certainly not to feel spammed.
4.      The effects of seeing product promoted with such regularity could have been diminished by supplying quality information links on Social Media news, between sales tweets
5.      A following with engagement will results in prompt engagement about new account behaviours. It is not dissimilar to reactions you’d get in an offline networking environment. If you talk about your interests only, your relationship and communication  will be affected
6.      Selling products to a following requires the absolute mutual trust of the follower and brand owner
7.      A lead capture method could have been used with the promo. This could have been used to begin building a list of ‘buyers’ (i.e. qualified prospects rather than lookers aka suspects) and to maximise future mutual opportunities

Are you a pain in the neck for your Twitter followers?

Here are three key rules to ensure you are not Two years ago Twitter faced the “what use is twitter”, however today it has gained metaphoric rise to be a darling on the internet. Many have jumped right in tweets and all, whilst others are still on the sideline. Whatever describes your situation the following Three Twitter Rules will give you valued followers and ensure you are not seen as a spammer or scammer.

For many on Twitter they seem to treat it as verbal diaoreha of tweets about any and everything. Others communicate value, excitement and great insight. Social Media is going to be here to stay and will be a influence whether you are “into” Social Media or not and so the question you need to ask within your company is what will be your level of participation.

A few in the company might be registered on Linkedin, have a Twitter account and a smattering of other sites. The important reflective question you should be asking yourself is really do you or your company really know how to utilise these to the best of your abilities? Or are you just tweeting about incidental or shortened links.

Twiite is an excelent tool to share your company’s ideas, insights and information. Directing followers to good content is key. If you give your followers something to look forward to, your tweets won’t be invasive or annoying. They will start to look to you as a thought leader and trust that you actually know what you’re talking about.

So does the following reflect your current style. You have signed up on Twitter but unsure what you should say and how to convey that message.

Lets create a fictious employee and we will call him Donald. Now Donald has a reputation gogetter and recognised that Twitetr was a great way to keep in touch with current customers and gain new customers interested in what his company offers so he created a company account in February after his summer break.

Donald was a bit unsure of how to engage his audience on Twitter so for a couple of weeks he wasn’t very active. And then, heis organization decided they wanted to tweet press releases, case studies and fun things going on at their Auckland head office.

Donald grabbed the opportunity and took that information and ran with it. For about three months he regularly tweeted links to online content.

The only problem is that the links were the only thing he was tweeting – and they were shortened links.

Donald never posted any identifying information about who the link was from or where it would lead someone who clicked on it. He though that just because HE was the one who tweeted it everyone would want to click on that link. What he never realised though, that for all his followers knew, Donald’s Twitter account had been hacked and was tweeting viruses.

Rule # 1 of Twitter – Shortened links can be scary. Explain what they are or where they lead people.

Donald overlooked another important rule of Twitter here – no matter what platform you are using to draw customers to your company, you have to hook them with something they want or need.

Many will never click on Donald’s links because he never told them why that specific link would interest them. There is a lot of information never viewed about the organization because he never gave me a reason to do so.

Rule # 2 of Twitter – Make sure you explain where your shortened links lead to in a compelling way. You have about 120 characters (after you post a shortened link) to grab attention so you have to be clear and very concise as you write what is essentially your link’s headline.

If you are a Donald and reading this post hopefully you will stop sending out random tweets, because if you do not you are on the verge of breaking one more rule that is will see you on the verge of being “unfollowed.”

Rule # 3 of Twitter – No matter how important you think the information you’re tweeting is; please don’t tweet it more than twice in a row over an extended period of time.

Donald breached this rule last week. He was posting event pictures to his organisation’s Facebook page. To let his Twitter followers know there were new pictures available, he tweeted “Conference fun time.” And he tweeted it. And tweeted it. And tweeted it. And tweeted it. And just to be safe, he tweeted it one more time all within a 60 minutes.

You are probably like me, but I don’t really care about conference fun time at Donald’s company that much. It was funny when I saw the link the first time, but after the third announcement I was trying my hardest to ignore you and by the sixth tweet my mouse hovered dangerously close to the “Unfollow” button.

Maybe Donald will slowly pick up on Rule # 3 and save face soon.

Despite Donald’s tweets, I’m actually interested in what his company has to say. If I didn’t have an acute interest in the company he would have been banished in a click.

Remember to ask yourself. Do you know what you’re doing on Twitter or are you like Donald and need a bit of guidance?

Following my top three rules is not a fool-proof way to not annoy your Twitter followers, but it’ll help in the big picture.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend co Partner at Tweet Twins.

Free Webinar – How to blend Twitter & Google for a continuous, up to date lead generation system

Google has entered into an arrangement with Twitter whereby Google has access to Twitter’s real time data. Google’s own search repository is a bit more historical while Twitter’s results are by nature real time.

Now you can use Google’s superior search technology with Twitter’s real time data and get a leg up on the competition. The webinar will show you how to blend the two and create yourself a constant flow of fresh leads.

Let’s say you sell products or services to realtors in the state of Texas or the North Island of New Zealand. Whenever a new realtor in Texas or the North Island starts using Twitter, you want to be informed. Using the methods in the webinar, you’ll be able to do exactly that.

In addition, using a separate method, you can accumulate a large number of Twitter users who happen to be realtors.

We will also discuss how to keep your followers engaged. Acquiring followers on Twitter is important but keeping them is even more important.

To better understand the concepts and for ease of navigation, you may want to open the following in separate browser windows before the webinar starts:

• Google.com
• Google Alerts – open a free account
• Twitter.com
• TweetSpinner – open a free account
• 24 Hour Twitter Expert manual – Free  download (well, almost free)

Date: Tuesday, December 29, 2009:  Time: USA Time.

• 9:00 p.m. Eastern
• 8:00 p.m. Central
• 6:00 p.m. Pacific
• 02:00 GMT

Here is the link to the webinar to register: http://bit.ly/ayjEp

Almost FREE GIFT: In the meantime here is a

almost free download

to the 24 Hour Expert Twitter Manual

Free Mini Blog Course

By now you have probably heard someone talking about blogging, you may have even visited a few blogs recently. A blog is simply another name for a web site, but not just any kind of web site. It is a new format of creating personal interest topic, niche topic and business web sites. They can be completely free, you don’t even need a computer degree or any college training.

Probably the most difficult aspect is knowing how to turn a computer on and how to connect to the internet. If you have found this page and can click on the picture … you are well on your way to making a blog site to win customers and influence your market.

To help get you started we have here for you a 16 page free Mini Blog course. We guide you step by step how to register and setup a blog with your own domain name. So without spending any money this will get you underway with your very own blog simply by clicking the down load link.

Download the free Intro Course to Blogging. It is your pre-cursor to Blogging With Pride

The mini course is a precursor to Blogging With Pride, a far more in-depth course where we cover each area in far greater detail where we will start you

right at the very beginning showing you the best newbie information including:

• What is Blogging
• The basics on Blogging
• Why you should Blog
• The advantages of Blogging
• How I started out with my Blogs
• Promoting your Blog
• A step by step guide to creating your Blog
• SEO Blogging
• Finding a niche to Blog about
• Blogging for personal use
• Creating Blog traffic
• Planning your Blog

Let me state now categorically that competition doesn’t matter and none of the system I’m offering you involves Adwords or anything similar.

Forget what you’ve been told and think about it from a common-sense point of view. How hard can it be to set up a blog telling someone all about a subject that they want to know about (I’ll show you how) and offer them links to paid products for them to buy from you in exchange for money?

Now I understand you’re reading this wondering how it would help you because I’m going against everything you’ve ever read about blogging.

And The Best Way To Prove This To You Is To Show You How I Do It, With Examples Of My Own Blog, Full Explanations and Full Guidance.

Copy my methods and I can see no reason why you shouldn’t have the same success with your niche sites that I do. If you too are sick of the get rich quick schemes and having your ass kicked with over the top Adword charges.

To achieve your success click on this link and download the free course and then set aside 1 hour for an enriching rewarding knowledge boost.

The Tweet Twins teach you how to set up blogging tools, enter content, embed content from elsewhere, corporate blog sites in our half day and full day workshops. We are available to run them in-house for your company or group.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Tweet Twin Partner

Free Twitter Course

We organised some exciting products to launch your online success right here to celebrate the new year. Your New Year Gifts to get you started online with Tools that are setting the internet alive. Twitter and Blogging are more than just idle chat platforms.

Master these and discover the techniques to engage with your market, buyers and interested parties. Become more effective, establish your leadership will allow you to access and influence markets previously impossible.

Would you like to learn many of the concepts, techniques and methods we teach in our day long workshops right here on how to use Twitter.
Of course you would, so here is your first key to success.

It’s called ’24 Hour Twitter Expert’

Best of all – It’s valued at $97 but for a VERY limited time we are making it available for ….. $ZERO.

Master the techniques to become a master of Twitter

Simply click on the this link to access the FREE 58 Page Manual.

Are you beyond the basics of using Twitter. Is this you ?

Kevin, I’m Ready To Become A Successful Twitter Expert And Learn The Secrets To Making Money On Twitter That You Reveal In Twitter Expert – Advanced Twitter Tactics. If this is you, proceed here to find out more about this power packed guru’s course click here on the download link and you are on your way to online success. PS There is a special 2010 bonus discount here.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Tweet Twins Partner
Founder of iQRite Interactive - World's first kitset 10 point touch frames

Measuring your Social Media activity with Xefer

Measurement of your Social Media activity is an important aspect of measuring the amount of attention you are receiving, your influence as a thought leader, your connection. There are a range of tools available to measure many aspects.

This tool is one of the many live tools. In this case it measures your Twitter activity with an uptodate list of those who reply to your tweets.
The following is a recent chart of the Tweet Twins tweets. Click on this link will take you to a live link where you can also measure your tweets. Make sure you scroll down as you will see those who have engaged with the Tweets and event the tweets at the time.

LinkedIn and Twitter founders chat

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter Founder Biz Stone discuss the power and potential of integration of their tools. What a fine example of collaboration between 2 online companies who seek to benefit each other.

After you watch or listen to this video you’ll be eager to race to your LinkedIn account and integrate Twitter into your profile. LinkedIn makes it sooooo easy to do. It is an absolute bonus for those following you on LinkedIn as they can see your blog, twitter and LinkedIn updates and articles all one site! You’ll look like an absolute whizz too – as it you are even more active than you are due to the Twitter feeds integrated. It’s less work for you, as it is automated!

What did you think about this LinkedIn and Twitter discussion?

Posted by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins Social Media workshops and business owners / leaders’ Social Media onboarding

Social Media benefits Sales Management

Social Media benefits Sales Management – but how? This may be new thinking to many.

NZ Sales Management today published an article today which highlighted these points:
* The connection between online and offline relationship building
* Ways Social Media can be used in the supply chain and marketing process
* Improved ROI potentially
* How specific types of Social Media tools save budget by handling the sales/buying process
* Using your strong Social community of loyal brand evangelists to protect your brand
* What tolerance your suspects, prospects and clients will permit in the use of online tools, without compromising the relationship
* NZ examples of Social Media in the sales cycle. How even exported high tech products can be sold through Social Media!
* That by using online relationship building, you will be swapping methods and where you do business – not necessarily compromising time. The tools and how the process is handled may differ compared to traditional ways.

Confession – the NZ Sales Manager article was written by Tweet Twins Jenny Wilmshurst

The article will leave you wondering more on the how to specifics of Social Media. So check out Tweet Twins Social Media Hands On workshop dates.

December 2009 to March 2010 dates TBA any day now. Please email an expression of interest in Social Media workshop attendance, with your email, phone numbers – mobile & landline, personal & company names) at tweettwins[at]gmail[dot]com. We will let you know the dates once formalised.

To access the Social Media Benefits Sales Management  article or  subscribe here to electronic inspiration from Jenny Wilmshurst of Tweet Twins & other writers at NZ Sales Manager

Social Media in 33 Languages

The Tweet Twins now include a unique aspect to their Social Media services and can now deliver this in multiple languages. Though English is an international platform on the internet, millions are not fluent in English and thereby are separated from potential partners, clients, collaborators, partnerships or new suppliers.

Using state of the art software engines the Tweet Twins are able to work between 33 international languages ranging as diverse as Hindi, Romanian, Russian, French, Latin, German and Thai to name a few in a direct and multi level text to language translation with outstanding accuracy.  This  allows the Tweet Twins for example to set up a Twitter communication strategy using any language, or multi language pages on a blog site.

As an enhancement to this service we are able to also offer human voices doing a direct software translation to spoken human voices from text.

This service is ideal for exporters or those targeting a particular language group or simply need a prompt no fuss email translation of business or personal email correspondence.

33 Languages for Social Media.

Japanese

さえずるツインズ今や社会的なメディアサービスへの複数言語インチものの英語はインターネット上で国際的なプラットフォームは、百万人は英語に堪能されていませんであり、それによって潜在的なパートナー、クライアント、協力、パートナーシップから切り離され、この提供するためのユニークな点が含まれます。最先端のソフトウェアエンジンのつぶやきツインズAAAを使用状態に33の国際語、ヒンディー語、ルーマニア語、ロシア語、フランス語、ラテン語、ドイツ語、タイ語など多様に至るまでの間の言語に直接マルチレイヤのテキストでtransaltion数名に作業をすることができます優れた精度で、この例のためのTwitterのコミュニケーション戦略ブログサイト上のすべての言語、または複数の言語のページを使用してセットアップする私たちできるようになります。このサービスの輸出企業にとって理想的な、またはそれらの特定の言語グループのターゲットまたは単にプロンプトは必要であるビジネスや個人的なemail.の大騒ぎメール翻訳

Korean

짹짹짹 트윈스는 이제 그들의 사회 미디어 서비스를 여러 언어로했다. 비록 영어는 인터넷에 대한 국제적인 플랫폼으로, 수백만의 영어가 유창하지 않습니다이며, 따라서 잠재적인 파트너, 고객, 협력자, 파트너로부터 분리된이 제공하는 독특한 측면을 포함합니다. 예술 소프트웨어 엔진 짹짹짹 트윈스 주 33를 사용하여 국제적인 언어 힌디어, 루마니아어, 러시아어, 프랑스어, 라틴어, 독일어, 태국어 등 다양한 언어로에 이르는 사이에 직접적인 멀티 레이어 텍스트 transaltion 몇 가지 이름으로 일할 수있습니다 뛰어난 정확도와. 이것은 예를 들어, 트위터의 커뮤니케이션 전략을 블로그 사이트에있는 모든 언어로, 또는 다중 언어로 페이지를 사용하여 설정하도록 허용합니다.이 서비스 수출에 이상적이나 특정 언어 그룹을 타겟팅 또는 단순히 프롬프트에서 아무 필요하지 않습니다 기업 또는 개인 email.의 호들갑 이메일 번역

Turkish

Tweet Twins artık Sosyal Medya hizmetleri için birden fazla dilde. Olmasına rağmen İngilizce internet üzerinde bir uluslararası platformda, milyonlarca İngilizce bilmektedir değildir ve böylece potansiyel ortaklar, müşteriler, ortak, ortaklık ayrılır bu sunmak için eşsiz bir yönü vardır. sanat yazılım motorları Tweet Twins kullanma durumu 33 uluslararası dil Hintçe, Romence, Rusça, Fransızca, Latince, Almanca ve Tayland gibi farklı olarak değişen dil arasında doğrudan ve çok katmanlı metin çeviri birkaç isim çalışması edebiliyoruz olağanüstü doğrulukta. Bu, örneğin bir heyecan iletişim stratejisinin bir blog sitesi herhangi bir dil, veya çok dil sayfalarını kullanarak kurmak için bize izin verecek. Bu hizmet ihracatçılar için ideal ya da belirli bir dil grubu hedeflemesi ya da basitçe bir sorulmayacağını ihtiyaç vardır iş veya kişisel email. bir telaş e-posta çeviri

Dutch

Tweet Twins artık Sosyal Medya hizmetleri için birden fazla dilde. Olmasına rağmen İngilizce internet üzerinde bir uluslararası platformda, milyonlarca İngilizce bilmektedir değildir ve böylece potansiyel ortaklar, müşteriler, ortak, ortaklık ayrılır bu sunmak için eşsiz bir yönü vardır. sanat yazılım motorları Tweet Twins kullanma durumu 33 uluslararası dil Hintçe, Romence, Rusça, Fransızca, Latince, Almanca ve Tayland gibi farklı olarak değişen dil arasında doğrudan ve çok katmanlı metin çeviri birkaç isim çalışması edebiliyoruz olağanüstü doğrulukta. Bu, örneğin bir heyecan iletişim stratejisinin bir blog sitesi herhangi bir dil, veya çok dil sayfalarını kullanarak kurmak için bize izin verecek. Bu hizmet ihracatçılar için ideal ya da belirli bir dil grubu hedeflemesi ya da basitçe bir sorulmayacağını ihtiyaç vardır iş veya kişisel email. bir telaş e-posta çeviri

Italian

I Gemelli Tweet includono ora un aspetto unico per i loro servizi social media per fornire questo in più lingue. Se l’inglese è una piattaforma internazionale su Internet, milioni di persone non sono correntemente in inglese e, quindi, sono separati da potenziali partner, clienti, collaboratori, partnership. Stato Utilizzo dei motori di software d’arte i Gemelli Tweet sono in grado di lavorare tra le 33 lingue internazionali, che vanno così diversi come l’hindi, rumeno, russo, francese, latino, tedesco e tailandese per fare qualche nome in un testo diretto e multi layer alla lingua di traduzione con una precisione eccezionale. Questo ci permetterebbe ad esempio di impostare una strategia di comunicazione Twitter usando qualsiasi lingua, o le pagine multi lingua su un sito di blog. Questo servizio è ideale per gli esportatori o quelle destinate a un particolare gruppo di lingua o semplicemente bisogno di un prompt no fuss traduzione e-mail di lavoro o personali email.

Arabic

والتوائم سقسقة الآن تشمل الجوانب الفريدة لخدماتهم الاجتماعية وسائل الإعلام لإيصال هذا في لغات متعددة ، ورغم اللغة الإنجليزية هي منصة الدولي على شبكة الإنترنت ، الملايين من البشر لا يتحدثون الانكليزية بطلاقة ، وبذلك يتم فصل من الشركاء المحتملين والعملاء والمتعاونين معها ، والشراكات. حالة استخدام محركات البرمجيات الفن التوائم سقسقة قادرين على العمل ما بين 33 لغات دولية تتراوح متنوعة مثل الهندية والرومانية والروسية والفرنسية واللاتينية والألمانية والتايلاندية على سبيل المثال لا الحصر في النص مباشرة ومتعددة الطبقات للغة الترجمة مع دقة غير المسددة ، وهذا من شأنه أن يسمح لنا على سبيل المثال لانشاء التغريد استراتيجية الاتصالات باستخدام أي لغة ، أو الصفحات المتعددة اللغات على موقع بلوق. هذه الخدمة مثالية للمصدرين أو تلك التي تستهدف مجموعة معينة أو لغة ببساطة الحاجة موجه لا ضجة الترجمة البريد الإلكتروني للأعمال التجارية أو الشخصية email.

French

The Twins Tweet incluent maintenant un aspect unique à leurs services de média social pour offrir ce dans plusieurs langues. Même si l’anglais est une plateforme internationale sur l’Internet, des millions ne sont pas couramment l’anglais et, partant, sont séparés de partenaires potentiels, clients, collaborateurs, des partenariats. étatiques utilisant des moteurs de logiciels de pointe les Twins Tweet sont capables de travailler entre 33 langues internationales, allant aussi divers que l’hindi, roumain, russe, français, latin, allemand et thaï pour ne citer que quelques-uns dans un texte direct et multi couche à la langue de traduction avec une précision exceptionnelle. Cela nous permettrait par exemple de mettre en place une stratégie de communication Twitter en utilisant n’importe quelle langue, ou des pages multi-langue sur un site de blog. Ce service est idéal pour les exportateurs ou ceux qui ciblent un groupe linguistique particulier ou simplement besoin d’une invite n fuss traduction email d’affaires ou personnels email.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Co-Founder of the Tweet Twins

http://www.simdeck.com http://www.iqrite.com http://www.digitaldaytim

Tweet Twin’s 21 Pointers for Twitter

Twitter is a phenomon that on first glance does not make commercial sense … they have yet to make a profit from Twitter! However as you look way pass the tweet, the long term return is immense. One long term aim that is currently happening is that Twitter is recording, categorising evaluating and monitoring a zillion conversations of real time communication. Make sure you, your brand and company is found in the conversation.

So if you want to be known in the online world Twitter should be a tool you are using and at least have registered your brand / name with before someone else takes it forever.

 

Here are some of the ways you can get the most out of Twitter:

1.) Know what your Social Media goals are and manage your own expectations!

2.) Looks are important even at a few pixels square! Make sure your photo shows you at your best and is engaging and shows your personality, this will be your benchmark for success.

3.) Only use your logo if you have a personal AND a company profile-this will depend on ability to manage and your own internal PR rules.)

4.) Make sure you list a website, blog, Myspace or url link in your profile where your followers can get more information about you. Make sure you test it!

5.) “Protect My Updates” should NOT checked!

6.) Tell the world how great you are in your bio. It should include strategic keywords for the market you are trying to grow you/your brand too.

7.) Shows that you are listening and care about what people are saying by Re-Tweeting and Re-Tweet again, as it a great way to validate others!

8.) Search to find subjects, keywords, trending topics that are important to you and follow the people who are talking about them. Use the Twitter Search tool (http://search.twitter.com)

9.) Do not use the default Twitter Avatar and Background.  Nothing says, ‘I don’t care’ MORE than the default Twitter Bird Avatar or default Blue Cloud Background.

10.) SEO-Search Engine Optimization will love you if you promote Twitter on your other Social Media Networks and vice versa.

11.) In your physical world, consistently talk about your Social Media participation when you are out in public.

12.) Twitter is now part of the mobile phone experience. Download a Twitter Application into your phone. It is just like texting and should be treated the same.

13.) Automatic Direct Message from Twitter automaters can come off as insincere and most people are put off by them. Use with care.

14.) Be thankful – Acknowledge EVERYONE who Retweets you and reply to EVERYONE who @replies to you.

15.) Do not message rubbish. No one cares what you had for breakfast!

16.) Try to make Social Media useful for your Followers by providing information and tips that benefit THEM!.

17.) Twitter is GLOBAL and PUBLIC. Everyone who follows you can see what you are saying.  That means if you are Twittering you will want to make sure you use the same public relations rules you use for yourself or your company.

18.) Twitter is a discussion platform not a one way street for you to blast a sales message. Ask your followers what they want!

19.) Aggregators such as Tweetdeck, Seismic or Twitterific are really useful for a better understanding of how to use Twitter to its full potential.

20.) Try to spend at least 30 minutes a day on Twitter

21.) Try to spend only 30 minutes a day on Twitter.

Share these with your friends and colleagues with this address

http://bit.ly/21TwitterPoints

Would you like to add to the list, please add your comments below.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Co-Founder of the Tweet Twins

http://www.simdeck.com http://www.iqrite.com http://www.digitaldaytime.com

 

Reaching Customers through SlideShare

Your Powerpoint skills are well used in Social Media. Why SlideShare Is An Uber Cool Way To Reach Out To Your Customers. Present once and deliver to many 24/7.

1. Present any time with On-demand viewing – Users can access them and go through them at their own pace.

2. Spread the message Very Shareable – Through the SlideShare community, LinkedIn, Facebook and embeds on blogs your content has plenty of places to be shared.

3. Be found Shows up in Search Results – If your presentation is well titled and tagged, it will rank well in search results.

4. Engaging & Educational – Presentations, when well designed, are perfect for introducing new ideas, products or concepts.

BuzzFactory continues this theme with some excellent insight.

Mitch Joel covers off an interesting point of creating speaker notes for distribution.

One of the skills you learn in Tweet Twins Workshop 101 “From Hands Up to Hands On” is how to create a video with voice over from your existing Powerpoint presentation.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Co-Founder of the Tweet Twins

http://www.simdeck.com http://www.iqrite.com http://www.digitaldaytime.com

Linkedin Interview with Leon Altman

Linkedin is a growing preferred Social Media business community

for establishing business opportunities and relationships.

In this hosted 60 minute interview by Daniel Levis, he Interviews

Leon Altman on how he has maximised Linkedin as a business generation tool.

Listen to how Leon has earned over 6 figures

for his copywriting and marketing consulting practice using LinkedIn.

— and how any professional service person can use it to get more business.

Linkedin can be used to generate significant business relationships, partnerships and joint ventures.

Listen in on how to leverage LinkedIn discussion groups and drive traffic to your website or

blog, and how to turn that traffic into red-hot leads and paying customers.

Linkedin is a growing preferred Social Media business community for establishing business opportunities and relationships and is one of the Social media platforms that TweetTwins incorporates in our Social Media workshop.

In this hosted 60 minute interview by Daniel Levis, he interviews Leon Altman on how he has maximised Linkedin as a business generation tool.

Listen to how Leon has earned over 6 figures for his copywriting and marketing consulting practice using LinkedIn…..  and how any professional service person can use it to get more business.

Linkedin can be used to generate significant business relationships, partnerships and joint ventures.

Linkedin is the ideal social media platform for business growth. Register your email address to receive this 1 hour interview session.

Listen in on how to leverage LinkedIn discussion groups and drive traffic to your website or blog, and how to turn that traffic into red-hot leads and paying customers.

To receive this free MP3 download click on this link and we will send the link to you.  By requesting this interview you agree to receive occassional communication from Tweet Twins.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Co-Founder of the Tweet Twins

http://www.simdeck.com http://www.iqrite.com http://www.digitaldaytime.com

Video Creators can now monetize with YouTube.

The popular video site YouTube has announced  a new plan for creators of online video to monetize their creative postings. The announcment indicated that it was expanding its YouTube Partnership programme to “successful” one off videos.

The programme had initially been focussed more on prolific users who regularly contributed videos that reach a wide audience.

YoiuTube Project Manager Shena Zack indicated ” Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it.”

Video creators that YouTube deem eligible, will receive an “Enable Revenue Sharing” email from YouTube that will appear next to their video”.

Once you’ve chosen to enable revenue sharing, YouTube will sell advertising against your video and pay the creator a revenue share.

An example of the power of even the most amateur movies can have a significant viewing as has been seen numerous times on YouTube. The changing of model of Social Media video redefines the broadcast and advertising model normally associated with video that in the past was ring fenced by the traditional TV broadcasters.

TweetTwins runs media production workshops that combine the technical side of video production, story telling, production values and how to integrate into pdf newsletters, web sites, email links. The workshops are part of the growing need for businesses to  understand how to integrate Social media and video into their brand and customer communication process.

A recent phenomenon wedding that went viral is the Kevin and Jill Heinz wedding video.

The brilliance of social media video has now seen this video alone gone to over 24,000,000 viewers in a matter of a few months.

http://www.jkweddingdance.com

And now this has started a spontaneous following of not just viewers but independent spoofs and all in good fun time humor that has since 29 July achieved over 2 million viewers.

One interesting aspect of this wedding entrance dance video that was originally posted days after the wedding for family, was that not only did it go viral online but got picked up by main stream television across the USA and around the world. In New Zealand alone it was featured in 5 main TV news broadcasts in one day, and even played at my local church where is was played leading to a Sunday morning service.

Written by Kevin Andreassend

Associated companies. ICE AV Technology Ltd

Pro F1 Sim Driver
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