5 Advanced Twitter Tips

I know, I should post more often - I've got requests for posts about RSS and some Twitter basics, but in true absurd human fashion, I will give you some juicy advanced Twitter tidbits (twidbits?) instead. If you need a basic overview of Twitter, please see Twitter Blog Marketing Tactics, leave a comment, or contact me directly. Please add your favorite advanced Twitter tips in the comments! Here are my top 5 Advanced Twitter Tips for Twitter Power Users, in no particular order:

• Be retweetable. The best ways to do this are: 1) say something funny and somewhat random (keep it related to your "primary topic"), or b) bring the news - tweet breaking articles within a few hours of them being posted to get lots of retweets! Tip: leave really good tweets up overnight - remember how your latest tweet is in nice big attention-getting font? Great place to leave a joke, quote, tip or link to your awesome product/service for 6-12 hours (if you can stay away from Twitter that long).


• Timing is everything. Morning in the US (or your local market) is a great time to Tweet, especially if you want people to act today. Based on some of my analytics, Twitter may be up to twice as "active" on weekends, so if you Tweet once a week, make it on Saturday.


• Pay attention to your following. Try to follow most of the people you expect (want) to be your customers. Note things like tone (casual/professional), "style" (lots of RT's? Do they recommend or buy other products? What attracts them to people/products/companies?), what time of day their tweets are the most dense (hint: check the difference in timestamps of the first and last posts on your home page - closer together = good time to engage your followers).


• Give stuff away, at the right time, to the right people. People are attracted to Twitter specials - try pre-releasing a product on Twitter, or giving a discount to your followers!


• When you @reply, make at least some of your @replies such that anyone will benefit. An @reply can be a powerful recommendation for a product or service - just remember to add a description (e.g. Don't just say "This will work", say "Robo2112 widget will help you add that spark you need to your website")


• DMs can help - or hurt - you significantly. DM's (and @replies) are the bread-and-butter of Twitter. Carefully crafted direct messages can create strong personal relationships and quickly convert a follower into a loyal follower, or even a paying client. I would recommend staying away from auto-DM's, at least until you are over, say, 100,000 followers. I do understand there is a point at which marketing this way makes sense, but while you have the ability to enjoy close reciprocal relationships with your most targeted followers, take that opportunity. Use the above tips to write powerful DM's that make your point in a concise and memorable way and you will be able to literally pick the clients you want to work with - a powerful edge in any industry!


• Last but not least, timing is everything (paying attention?). By now you should have a target market of several specific niches and some understanding of your followers' Twitter habits (twabits). When they are online - DM them, @reply them, follow the people they are chatting with (who are also online and should follow you back), and follow some of their followers. Hint: Twitter followers are listed in chronological order by when they followed that user (most recent first). The first page of users, especially for popular users in your target niches, should be online currently - follow them to get more targeted followers.

Disclaimer: None of these techniques are likely to get you tens of thousands of followers in 90 days or whatever it is everyone is DM-ing around lately, nor will they shoot you to the top of the Twitter celebrities. These 5 advanced Twitter techniques may, however, help you use Twitter within your overall marketing strategy as an effective tool to build a community of close-knit, engaged followers who may become your best clients!

Bonus - Cool Free Twitter Tools!

• Twitterator lets you follow a bunch of people at once


• TweetCube lets you share files (<10MB) on Twitter for free! Remember the "give stuff away" tip? Here you go...


• Twits Like Me helps you find people to follow who share some of your interests. Targeted marketing, and such.


• If that's not enough Mashable has a list of over 140 Twitter tools


• Last, there's the older Twitter Toolbox - some of these may no longer work, but there are still some good Twitter apps and tools there!

Happy Twittering and remember to Retweet!

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone tweeting this post!

@IgorFomichev @seanometer @MarjyMeechan @MonicaPortugfan @mabsmith @CodeSucker @zygbot @EdwinKersten @hsbcnews @julianpettit @TracyGazzard @twitme101 @AnthonyMcMurray @kdburnett @briankurtz @Marenda @foolsprogress @thewildjoker @Jan_Geronimo @fpalattao @mparent77772 @sillyaudrey @twitte_r_tips

Want to get even more Twitter followers? Just Tweet these 5 Twitter tips, and I will put your Twitter link on this page! Feel free to leave comments to remind me!

"5 Advanced Twitter Tips" continued here...

Twitter Blog Marketing Tactics

So you've chosen your topic, written some great content, and made a blog. Hopefully you used some of the blog SEO tips I discussed in my last post to get indexed and ranked for at least some of your target keywords. Maybe you're even starting to see some traffic trickle in, but... wouldn't it be great if you could send interested visitors to your blog as soon as you post? Even better, I'll show you blog marketing tactics that can get targeted visitors to come to your blog whenever you choose!

How to drive traffic to your blog using Twitter

First things first, you have to sign up for Twitter if you do not have an account. You can check out my Twitter profile here: absurd_human on Twitter. Now, here's the key - don't blindly follow people, even though some "pros" will tell you to do so. And definitely do not use any sort of autofollow tool. Find people relevant to what you are doing, and follow them. Be active with a good balance of @replies, direct messages, and public tweets. Try to restrict your Tweets to your area of expertise or the topic of your blog or site. If you are using Twitter as a personal tool to communicate with friends, you may want to create a separate Twitter account for your "brand" - even if it is just a small blog or website right now. Hint: find someone who is interested in the topic of your site (try a Twitter search) that follows say around 1,000 people, and look through the people they are following (not the people who follow them) for interesting people whose updates you might be interested in. Follow between 50 and 100 people per day, but don't let your ratio of followers / following get too out of hand.

How to get followers on Twitter

• Make a bio! People generally skim follower lists, so they only see your bio as it pops up in the tooltip. Most people make their decision to follow people on Twitter based on just the image, username, and bio. If you have these three things, and they attract attention, you will get more followers.


• Customize your Twitter page! This one is a little more difficult, but worth it. Check out my Twitter background. Spiffy, no? To upload your own, click "Settings"->"Design"->"Change Background Image" - make sure your image is large enough for most resolutions (1024px x 768px) or use the "tile" option


• Post meaningful tweets, with a good balance as described above.


• Retweet things you find truly interesting or funny, but don't go overboard.


• Tweet the right amount: don't tweet every 3 seconds or every 3 months, somewhere in between should be good.


• Offer something useful in exchange for following you: software, services, friendship, something of value.


• Don't auto-anything. Scheduling tweets for later using Tweetlater is ok, but I don't think anyone really likes getting auto-DMs or spam


• Make it easy for people to interact with you through Twitter: put a Twitter widget on your blog, add Tweetmeme buttons to your posts - they work!


• Tweet your posts, but don't spam. It's ok to tweet about the same post later, but don't let your profile start to fill with only links to your own stuff.


• Use cli.gs or another URL shortening service that comes with analytics. See what works and what doesn't!

Is marketing on Twitter worth the trouble?

You might think "Why don't I save myself all that time and just use PPC advertising to drive some quick traffic to my blog. That seems to work for all the marketing pros." Yes, PPC can give you targeted blog traffic (if you do your keyword research), and it should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. However, I would recommend waiting until you've made money from your free marketing efforts, then put that money into PPC marketing - that way you are not taking on any risk and have the luxury of being able to lose money finding the best PPC strategy for your site.

If you still don't think it is worth your time to build a targeted network of followers, consider the fact that a "good" CTR for Pay-Per-Click advertising is around 1-5%. Earlier this week, when I had a mere 100 Twitter followers, I sent out a link to my post about the new AdSense privacy policy requirements. Here are the results:

Notice the little pop-up box that says "12"? That's the number of hits on the first day I sent it out. So, just over 100 followers, 12 immediate clicks. 10% CTR. Ok, sure, I can get 10% on one link one day, you say... Good, you should be skeptical, especially about Internet marketing. Let's see what happens next.

I keep diligently finding Twitter followers who share my interests in technology, music, and above all, humanity. Friday I was over 600 followers. I sent out another link, this time to these blog SEO tips. Let's see what happened:

Again, notice the pop-up box: 63 hits the day I sent that link. 63 / 600 ~ 10% close enough for me to assume there could be a positive correlation (I know the Twitter box says 723 followers - I procrastinated a bit). Now, I obviously can't guarantee that you will get x% CTR or that people will buy from you if you market your blog on Twitter. What I can tell you is that this is one of my blog marketing tactics, and I'm seeing a consistent 10% click through ratio and gathering attentive readers who often become return visitors. If you follow the steps above, you will probably have a much smoother Twitter experience than if you choose the path of the "pro marketer" and use auto-follow tools and buy any Twitter marketing tool when it comes out.

Follow me and you just might build a super-targeted network of followers who share your interests, engage in meaningful discussions, and eagerly wait for you to show them the next cool new thing on Twitter!

Thanks for reading - Please ReTweet!

"Twitter Blog Marketing Tactics" continued here...

Will the Internet survive Conficker?

The Conficker worm - also known as Downandup, Kido, and Downup - has become a serious threat on the Internet in the last several months. Microsoft is offering a reward of $250,000 if you find the creator, and Internet security professionals have been scrambling to keep up. Conficker.A was pretty bad, then Conficker.B infected over 1 million computers in 24 hours. Now there is a third, even more robust version, called Conficker.C, which does not focus as much on spreading itself, but significantly increases the worm's hold on an infected system.

Here is what the Internet security community knows about what Conficker does and how it interacts:

• Conficker supposedly does not spread through downloading or email, but installs itself when you plug in a USB drive or insert a CD, and it can even hack your whole network using brute force password cracking (especially if you have weak passwords). So if one system on your network is missing security updates, all networked computers could be compromised.


• Conficker disables system services and antivirus, and adds services to listen for traffic.


• Conficker pings common sites to test for Internet connectivity, gets the date from search engines, and gets your IP address using online tools.


• Conficker can lockout accounts, change user settings, and send user information out over the Internet.


• Conficker.B and Conficker.C can also block access to Windows Updates, antivirus websites, and many removal tools


• Conficker has the ability to download new code and update itself.

Conficker's signature move is downloading updated code - not the first worm to do this, sure, but certainly the most effective so far. The worm randomly connects to one of several domains and tries to receive instructions. Conficker.B could connect to 32 domains out of a list of 500. Now we have Conficker.C that can connect to 500 random domains out of a list of millions. Conficker's download dates that I've seen referenced are March 8, March 13, March 18, and March 31. Supposedly, Conficker.C will initiate another attack sequence on April 1 - please ensure you are patched by that date.

Conficker Cleaning and Removal

Download the Microsoft patch at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962007 and then do the steps here

Bitdefender has released a removal tool that can remove Conficker versions Conficker.A and Conficker.B, but may not remove Conficker.C. Download and run BitDefender's removal tool to check for and try to remove Conficker.

Symptoms of a machine or network infected with Conficker*:

*Please note you may be infected even if no symptoms appear.

• 1. You are unable to install Windows Updates


• 2. You are unable to view security websites or download antivirus and anti-malware products


• 3. It takes a long time to log in to your computer.


• 4. You see strange popups or programs running.


• 5. Unusual entries in Task Manager, Services, Event Viewer, %Windir%\System32, or the registry


• 6. Strange network traffic, especially relating to network logins by administrator accounts

Conficker may be a decoy?

In case the existence of this worm is not bad enough for sysadmins and IT professionals everywhere, some Internet security professionals think that this whole mess might just be a distraction for a much more serious attack. Until recently, most security professionals assumed that the end-game for Conficker was just another botnet - a network of computers under a hacker's control. However, “We think this is a wide-scale distraction to hide data breaches,” said Ryan Sherstobitoff, chief corporate evangelist for Panda Security. “It does not appear in the variants of Conficker that they are building a botnet, but that wouldn’t surprise us, either. This is an attack we have not seen in some time and is certainly a warning sign for something more to come.”

I agree that this is likely a distraction for a major Internet attack - think about the possibilities. It's April fool's day, they could even send out a link that says "This is a virus" to everyone's contact list and they would still get a bunch of clicks. Network admins would be slow to react to the flood of "server down" notices also. And your customers might not feel the need to let you know that your website now just displays Lolcats (and spreads malware).

Please get the word out about this problem - share this article (using ShareThis below), blog or write about this on your website, talk about it in forums, and tell your friends. Update Windows systems (or switch to Linux), update your Antivirus and anti-malware (you do have both, right?), use strong passwords, and read Internet security news sites regularly.

Links:

• Conficker Technical details from CA


• Conficker.B infected 1.1 million in 24 hours - Ars Technica


• Conficker download schedule - PC Mag


• Cleaning Conficker - Keeping Your Network Safe From Windows Worm


• Conficker attack April 1 - eWeek


• Not all tools remove all versions of Conficker - Heise.de
• Microsoft offers $250,000 to catch creator of Conficker


• Conficker update 2 - The Tech Herald


• Kaspersky and OpenDNS team up against Conficker

What do you think - will the Internet survive Conficker?

"Will the Internet survive Conficker?" continued here...

Search Tips to Solve Problems Fast

How do we find information on the Internet?

A simple question that people have been trying to answer since the Internet happened. Many pieces of code and humans are working constantly to "index" this endless dynamic web using complex algorithms to make it easier to "find" things on the Internet, so for now we will focus solely on perfecting the art of the web search. Unfortunately, the average surfer uses mostly basic queries and may only click the first search result, using only a few resources to solve even complex problems. Fortunately, there are simple ways to increase the effectiveness of your searches and decrease the time required to come up with a solution.

You need to solve a problem at home or work - whether it is technical in nature or not is irrelevant. For this example, let's say that you have limited groceries and need a creative idea for dinner.

How to search effectively:

1. Define the data you already have; In this case, note the food items you have on hand. This will turn into your query.
2. Define the result you are looking for; Here, this will be one or more recipes.
3. Think about similar problems you may have solved or come across in the past. Did you see a recipe on a blog or hear about a type of dish you might be interested in trying?
4. If you are already familiar with some resources, start there. In this case, you might try Food Network's website or searching simply for "recipe" or "chicken recipe". Do you see anything that grabs your attention? Look for categories you may be interested in as well as key words. Make sure you always read at least the entire first page of results, and pick out the most reliable links by their title and description.
5. As you see things you might like, you can require terms in your query by using a plus sign* (+) before the word (no space). In this case, try your main ingredient first, such as: recipe +chicken
6. Refine your query by trying additional ingredients, like this: recipe +chicken +paprika
7. Try adding actions, for example: recipe +chicken +paprika +bake
8. You can also exclude words by adding a minus sign(-) immediately before the word. So, if you don't like (or have) garlic: recipe +chicken +paprika +bake -garlic
9. If you need to include or exclude a phrase, use quotes: recipe +chicken +paprika +bake -garlic +"sour cream"

*Most search engines will give you similar results without the plus sign (recipe chicken paprika ...), but using the plus sign requires exactly that word as opposed to including synonyms.

More Search tips:


• Generally, you can use "find this phrase" in quotes to search for exactly that phrase - words in that order. Try this for queries like "less than" +minutes
• You can use the plus sign (+) before a word to require the exact word rather than including synonyms.
• You can usually use the word OR to indicate pages that include one word or the other, or both.
• Use the minus sign (-) to exclude words.
• You can use -"this phrase", however this seems to work differently depending on the search engine:
  
  
  
  1. Equivalent to -this -phrase in some cases (Ask.com)
  2. Works as I expected - excluding only "this phrase" in order(Google)
  3. Strange results sometimes, such as including results that should definitely be excluded, especially with more than two words in the phrase.(Yahoo!)


• You can usually use the asterisk (*) to replace a single word, so to get results for "marinated in (or with or using...) paprika" you would use: marinated * paprika
• Sometimes you can use the underscore (_) to mean "near" - so you could use the following query to get results with "marinated", "chicken", and "paprika" in the same paragraph: chicken _ marinated _ paprika
• Using the underscore gives you results when the words are near each other, usually within the same paragraph.
• Don't be afraid to use long queries. For computer problems, search for the whole error text. To look for the author of a poem, paste a line or stanza. Try with and without the quotes. Use advanced search. Try different search engines.
• Most importantly, read the documentation (usually under "Advanced Search"), refine your query and observe how your results change between queries. With practice, the 9 steps above should help you find information and solve problems more efficiently on and off the 'net.

Feel free to share your experience or add other search tips in the comments below.

"Search Tips to Solve Problems Fast" continued here...

State of The Internet: 3.7.09

Here's what happened behind the scenes of The Internet recently, while you weren't looking. Yes, it's important.

IBM not so sure about open source anymore. Nobody has any money, of course they won't take our free products! Hope this doesn't keep up, or tech might have a "financial-style" rude awakening about the importance of customers vs. profit.

Microsoft will let you disable IE (only if you're absolutely sure) - no word on whether one day we can also disable "Slow", "Blue Screen" or Vista's trick of pinging the Department of Homeland Security. Move along, no glaring irony to see here.

Facebook a little red in the face after realizing that people aren't quite as dumb as they thought. Time to get a smarter lawyer. Or dumber customers.

Foreclosure scams on the rise. In other news, you probably won the lottery at least 4 times this week - go check your email! Make sure to write the tracking code "ID10T" legibly on the envelope containing all of your assets.

Britain printing paper money - good thing nobody remembers the time when money had to have something of value to back it

How to think what nobody else thinks

Managers buy out company instead of letting it go bankrupt. If only there were a group of people at GM, Bank of America, or Circuit City that had enough cash laying around to do something similar.... But clearly large companies haven't been paying their top people enough over the last several decades.

Company gives $9 million to its employees. Wait, I thought "The Economy" had all the money and that's why we can't have any? It really is just the scumbags at the top?

Schwarzenegger is still very sensible and intelligent - it's too bad everyone thinks he's just a big dumb jock.

We might have a shot at efficient solar cells after all. Realistically, the military will get exclusive use this technology so we can have invisible killing machines instead.

Microsoft is a little slow.That's ok, they have a lot of money, and it's their free country we live in so we all need to adjust to the lowest common denominator. Seems to be the norm these days.

These "scientists" are going to try to make a real live dinosaur. Want to guess who's money their using? And we all wonder why "The Economy" has collapsed (here's a hint - it's NOT the banks fault people can't read, make decisions, or do math)...

Please visit Fark if you want to survive the chaos. Remember - information is more powerful than greed, now we just need more people to have the first than the latter!

"State of The Internet: 3.7.09" continued here...