Dishonesty Hits Twitter

Twitter is a wonderful community as you should know by now. There are lots of interesting people to network with and learn from. But just like every other social networking site on the planet, marketers are finding ways to monetize this community. There is nothing wrong in making money online. But there is something wrong about claiming that you have “unlocked” a Twitter formula that allows you to gain thousands of followers fast when you are just gaming the system. There are people who have a lot of followers. Some of them have grown their followers’ list organically, while others have used gimmicks to get people to follow them. Not all of these people have unlocked a hidden formula for success on Twitter.

There are many ways to gain followers on Twitter. The easiest way is by following lots of people and hoping for them to return the favor. You can then use a service such as FriendorFollow to remove those folks who are not following you and go at it again. There is nothing wrong with this approach as long as you are not following just about everyone. If you truly want to follow super interesting people in your niche, this is the way to go. But, this is not a tactic that should be monetized. It’s dishonest for someone to claim they have unlocked a winning formula on Twitter when they haven’t. It’s one thing to have 20,000 follow you when you are following only 1000 people. It’s another thing to have a 50K/20K following to followers ratio.

Another dubious tactic used by marketers on Twitter involves them abusing the website URL section on their profiles. It’s one thing to enter your site and have a landing page about a product you are hoping to sell. It’s another thing to follow thousands of people and hope for them to check your affiliate link and get you some passive revenue. As long as you are providing value to others, the community may not mind you making some money in the process. But it’s really hard to tell what your intentions are when your profile link is a Clickbank affiliate link!

Ultimately, the Twitter community is very smart, and it rarely falls for aggressive marketing tactics. If you provide value to the community, you are going to get value in return. But if you just want to go in there, and promote affiliate products, you are going to lose your credibility. And that is something you can’t get back that easily.

Your take: what’s frustrates you the most about Twitter?

Social Media Books To Look Forward To

The world of social media is changing all the time. In fact, the industry is so volatile that it’s been very difficult to take a snapshot of it. Every social media book I have read has become somewhat obsolete after a few weeks. Take Facebook for example. It has been updating its code, and you can guess what happens when it does that. All Facebook coding books become outdated. The same can be said about books on social media services. A lot of companies have gone under and many new ones have replaced them. If you are reading a book that is more than a few months old, the chances are you are behind the curve.

With that in mind, here are a few new social media books that should give you a solid social media knowledge going forward.

The New Influencers: Paul Gillin’s book is one of the best books to read if you want to understand the concepts that can help you dominate the social media. I had a chance to read this one a while ago, and I’ve got to say it’s not for the faint of heart. If you have no idea why Twitter matters or think Facebook is only for kids, you’ve got to read this book.

Facebook me!: a cool new book that shows you how to use Facebook to get traffic to your website and promote your projects. If you have no idea what to do on Facebook, this is a good starting place. But don’t put all your hopes in this book. Facebook changes fast, and you’ve got to be in the game if you intend to win it.

Social Influence Marketing: Social Influence Marketing has been in the works for quite sometime. The book will finally be released month and is one newbies have been waiting for. Whether you are a small business or just interested in using social networking sites to drive traffic to your website, you get it all here. If you have no idea how to choose the right social media sites to take advantage of, this is the book to read.

There are many new social media books that will come out this year. But you can’t read them all. At some point, you want to start following the news and developments through blogs. But the books are a good starting place to learn the basics about this new field. Ultimately, you’ve got to in the game and practice what you read to get any value out of your efforts.

Your take: what social media book do you look forward to reading?

The Truth About Twitter Automation

Recently, I came across one of those Twitter tools that made the whole process of finding friends and following them easy. In essence, the program would find a list of people who follow others easily and followed them for you. The upside was that you could get hundreds of new followers in a flash. The downside was you were getting fake followers, and who would want that?

There are in general three kinds of tweeters these days. The elite only follow each other, and have a very high followers/following ratio. The middle class have a decent number of followers but they are following a lot of folks as well. Then there is a third group who follow a lot of people just to get them to follow back. Some tweeters follow everyone they can, and that is great for networking purposes. But at some point you hit the 2,000 follow limit, and you will have to remove people who you are following. Now, if you belong to that third-group, you can expect people who are following you to remove you as soon as you stop following them. That’s what I like to call losing “fake” followers.

These people are not that interested in what you have to say. They are following you because you are following them. In fact, there is a good chance they stop following you when you are not looking. Fake followers are not necessarily bad, but you should also try to provide value to others to get them to follow you regardless of what you do. It’d be hard at first, but if you adopt a long-term Twitter strategy, you can slowly build up your follower list and find people are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Twitter can be a huge distraction or a very rewarding experience. It really comes down to how you approach it. If your goal is to be a super connector, you can try to connect with as many people as you can. On the other hand, if you want to get the latest industry opinions and mingle with folks who are interested in the same things that you are, you should do your due diligence and use services such as Mr. Tweet to find proper followers. Either way, I do not recommend signing up for an automated Twitter service to get more friends. It’s just not worth it.

Twitter API: Up and Running – Preview

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites in the Internet industry. While people didn’t fully appreciate the power of Twitter a few months ago, it seems they are catching on now. No wonder why more companies and individuals are buzzed about it.

Twitter is more than just a social media site. It’s a platform that you can use to create new products and services. With the power of Twitter API, you can design unique and very useful websites based on information you can pull from Twitter. Think about it. You can create mini-microblogging communities with Twitter API, and the possibilities are limitless.

Everytime I mention Twitter API to my colleagues, they tell me that they are “marketers” and not “programmers.” That’s fair enough. You should always focus on what you do best. But books such as “Twitter API: Up and Running: Learn How to Build Applications with the Twitter API,” are more than a simple programming book. They give you a solid background on what Twitter is about and what you can accomplish on this platform. Reviewing the sample applications provided can give you all kinds of ideas.

When I look back at my own library, over 60% of my books are programming books. I used to be a programmer but haven’t done anything special for years now. But that doesn’t stop me from buying more programming books. With Twitter API, you are going to learn the basics, and if you do decide to outsource the process, you’ll know what to talk about with your programmer.

Here is what you learn from Twitter API:

• Chapter 1. Hello Twitter
• Chapter 2. Favorite Twitter Applications
• Chapter 3. Web Programming Basics
• Chapter 4. Twitter Application Ingredients
• Chapter 5. The Output
• Chapter 6. Application Setup
• Chapter 7. Sample Applications
• Chapter 8. Automated Tasks

As you can see, you are going to learn the ins and outs of top Twitter applications by reading Twitter API. I did have a chance to review the rough cuts version of this book but have decided not to review the book until it is finalized. Kevin’s book doesn’t require you to have any prior knowledge of Twitter programming. He even teaches you the basics of Web programming. If you are interested in starting your own Twitter application, this is the place to start.

How To Find New Opportunities on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been around for a while. In fact, it’s one of the top growing social networks around the globe. Whether you are an entrepreneur or just an employee looking for new opportunities, LinkedIn is the place. I know a lot of folks talk about the importance of taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter, but you are not going to find any better professional social network than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is different than most other social networks. It’s not a community of friends (like Facebook), and it’s certainly not similar to Twitter. LinkedIn is designed to help you expand your network and find professionals. But there is more to LinkedIn than creating a short profile and joining a few group. If you play your cards right, not only you will find other professionals in your industry, you may even find business opportunities and new projects (e.g. clients).

Here are a few tips on how to put your best foot forward on LinkedIn:

• Create a professional profile: your profile is your first impression on folks who find you on the web or through LinkedIn. Make sure you have information on your skills and recent projects. Add your relevant experience to your work history and don’t forget to mention your education. You should also put something professional in your status box. LinkedIn is not Twitter, and nobody wants to know what you are having for lunch.
• Connect with your past colleagues: don’t wait for others to find you on LinkedIn. Take action and add your former colleagues to your network.
• Join LinkedIn Groups: LinkedIn groups are a great way to connect with others and build your network. Just don’t join them. Participate in them. Post articles. Communicate with others.
• Manage your contacts: thanks to LinkedIn, you have a decent contact management system that you should definitely use to manage your professional networks.
• Add Your blog/websites: if you blog or own a website, you should definitely add it to your LinkedIn account. Make sure you don’t post junk website to your profile. People do check out your profiles.
• Get recommendations: don’t be shy to ask for recommendations on LinkedIn. It’s much easier to get folks to recommend you on LinkedIn. And when someone asks you for a recommendation, don’t suger coat it. Now, it’d be awkward to turn people down, but if you have nothing good to say about someone, then you shouldn’t write a A+ recommendation for them.
• Turn on Applications: LinkedIn is taking a page out of Facebook’s book and focusing on its own applications. You should add your reading list, your blog feed, and even use BlogLinks to connect with other bloggers in your network. You can even share your presentations and slides using these apps. So you should definitely take advantage of them.
• Ask Questions and Provide Answers: the best place to show your skills is in the Q&A section on LinkedIn. Search for what others are asking and provide decent answers. You’d be surprised how many doors you can open for yourself with this method.

There you have it. LinkedIn is an ever changing community, and you can be sure they will add more networking features in the future. But you should make the best of what you already have available on LinkedIn.

Your take: how do you use LinkedIn for networking or business?