Archive for June, 2009

There are five main steps:

• Set up an account
• Enter your profile information & photo
• Find your friends
• How to follow someone
• How to post messages

Step 1: Set up an account

Go to http://twitter.com and click the big green “Get Started – Join!” button.

On the resulting screen, enter the username you want, your desired password, your email address and complete the spam checker

About your username:

Use your whole name, nickname, name of your business or a description of your service, examples @lenawest @comcastcares @jenny55 @bizsavvymom @smallbizlady

Step 2: Enter your profile information

Your profile information is important. If you want people to want to connect to you, you’ll need to tell them a little bit about you. Try not to write anything scary or silly; or too personal. You need just to explain your expertise and/or interests. Your location can be exactly where you live, or a larger city nearby.

Log into Twitter, and click on the ‘Settings’ link at the top of your Twitter homepage.

The ‘Account’ tab of the ‘Settings’ section includes a text box that lets you input a 160-character blurb about yourself, along with a link to your website.

The ‘Picture’ tab lets you upload a picture to your profile.  It is best to post a smiling picture of yourself

Step 3: Find your friends

There are a few simple ways to find people to follow on Twitter:

Search for people you know who are already using Twitter. Start by  clicking the ‘Find People’ link at the top of the screen. You’ll see three tabs:

Invite from other networks will search your email address books (aol, hotmail, gmail etc.) to see if anyone has associated any of those addresses with a Twitter account.

Invite by email is a way to invite your friends to join Twitter through email.

Search tab allows you to search for new people to follow. You can mimic this function by using http://search.twitter.com.

You can search for the city where you live to find other users in your area. Enter your industry to find business peers. Enter your hobbies to find people with shared interests. The potential list is endless.

Step 4: How to follow someone

You can log in twitter from anywhere, you can use mobile or desktop applications, or you can use SMS to connect from your phone.

To follow someone

Hover over their @username, click link, read their bio & recent tweets. If they seem interesting, hit follow

Step 5:  How to post messages

To post a regular message

Just type it into the box that says “What are you doing?” and hit the ‘update’ button below

To send an open message

When sending an open message to someone publicly, type “@” followed by their username, then the message. Here’s an example:

encouragement4u @smallbizlady How did you overcome your biggest business challenges? Check out these stories! http://budurl.com/eqbx

Send a Direct-message

To send a private direct message to someone, type “d” then a space and then their username. So, to send me a direct message you would type “d @smallbizlady That was a great #smallbichat on Twitter last night!”

Note: you can only send direct messages to people who you follow, and who follow you back.

How to Retweet or RT someone else’s message

If you like what someone says, and want to show your followers that message.

Copy the tweet (not username), then hit grey arrow to reply, add ‘RT’ before the @username Put one space after @username & paste original tweet. If it is too long, You can edit, but only for space.  Here’s an example of a Retweet:

Holly_Hanna RT @smallbizlady 32 Tips to make online customers love you – http://tinyurl.com/op9bbk (this is really well done)

Quick Twitter Tips

Remember to click your @username tab to the right to see messages/tweets folks are sending to you openly.

Remember to Follow your Followers
Under your username & photo click followers to see who followed you and decide to follow back or not.  When you have time its nice to send a thanks for the follow note.

Now you are ready to get started.

Welcome to Twitterville!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #smallbizchat on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted Twitter resource to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda’s first book, Be Your Own Boss! How to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business 12 Months or Less! is scheduled to be released by Adams Media in early 2010.

If you’re ready to start or grow your small business visit www.succeedasyourownboss.com and subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog.

A slowdown in your business is an opportunity to sharpen your knife and focus on working smarter not harder.  Being a small business owner is an emotional experience that will stretch you in ways that you could not imagine.  If you are really motivated and driven, you can turn things around.  There are no limits to what you can achieve as your own boss. 

Here’s some suggestions to get your business moving forward.

1)  Go where the money is:  if customers are not buying what you are selling, sell something else.

2) Brainstorm ideas with your staff: Sometimes someone in your organization might have a great idea, but no one ever asked them. Make sure everyone knows the situation with the business. That will give everyone ownership over fixing the problem. Your staff will feel more comfortable letting you know about their ideas when you invite them in to help.

2) Create additional streams of income:  If you have a brick and mortar business, sell online too! Are there additional products you can add to your store such as lottery tickets, UPS packaging and pick up, giftwrap, snack & food items?  Do you have information to sell? Are you good writer? Why not create an e-book about how to start a consulting business or coffee shop?

3) Develop a loyalty program:  Create a frequent buyers club.  Hold special sales and create special discounts.   Sponsor a special event where they get VIP tickets.  The goal is to generate more repeat business.

4) Build a list:  Create an offer to collect e-mail addresses from all customers who buy in the physical store and online, and then send them monthly newsletters with special offers, additional products and services and suggestions.  The goal is to generate more repeat business.

5) Become a PR machine:  Develop 3 hooks to pitch your business to the local media and business journal. Create an exceptional guarantee or a special sale with a portion of proceeds going to charity.  Consider doing a live remote with a local radio station.  Find any way to attract publicity and to get people to enter the business:  have a person in a costume pass out flyers, have a party with games and clowns for the kids, hire a musicians to play every Friday for a month, throw some sort of contest for college students to create a jingle for the store or a YouTube commercial.

6) Create coupons or postcard flyers:  These can be displayed in other businesses in the area.  Work out ways to cross market other businesses and they will help you in return.

Small actions CAN lead to big changes in your small business!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE?  You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #smallbizchat on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted Twitter resource to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda’s first book, Be Your Own Boss! How to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business 12 Months or Less! is scheduled to be released by Adams Media in early 2010.

If you’re ready to start or grow your small business visit www.succeedasyourownboss.com and subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog.