Twitter Report

What Are You Doing?
Discover The Top Ten Most Jealously Guarded Secrets Most Tweeps Will Never
Know About How To Build A Following Of Thousands Who Are Eager To Find
Out What You Are Up To So You Can Drive Massive Amounts Of Traffic To Your
Websites And Blogs On Demand!
By Simon Leung • Website: www.SimonLeung.com• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Table Of Contents
Introduction! 5
What Is Twitter?
5
How Does Twitter Work?
6
Why Should You Use Twitter?
7
Can Twitter Build Your Fan Base?
11
How To Sign Up For Twitter
18
Before You Begin
18
How To Build A Following! 21
Create Your Brand
21
Be A Follower Yourself
24
Follow The Right People
26
Communicate With Everyone
29
Encourage Interaction
35
Increase Your Credibility
39
Be Funny And Entertaining
51
Take Photographs & Videos
55
Promote And Reciprocate
64
Conclusion! 70
Social Media Best Practices
70
Managing Your Followers’ Tweets
71
Expand Your Reach
77
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Integration Outside Of Twitter.com
78
Twitter Social Proof
81
Your Next Move...
84
Twitter Resources! 85
About The Author! 86
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Introduction
What Is Twitter?
Twitter is a free micro-blogging platform originally designed for its users to
communicate with their followers and tell them “what they are doing.”
Since then, Twitter has become one of the biggest social media websites on the
Internet, and is now largely used by “tweeps” for both personal and business
purposes, resulting in the building of a ton of relationships with other tweeps all
around the world.
No longer is Twitter just used as a one-way communication tool to tell others what
you are doing...
Today, Twitter is more like a social networking chatroom that allows you to chat
with other tweeps and further maintain the relationships you have worked so hard
to build.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
That’s because with Twitter, you can instantly reply to your followers or join into
any conversation that you want.
The more time you spend communicating with your followers and followees, the
better your relationship will be with them, which is extremely effective in the long
run when you finally have important messages you want to send across.
How Does Twitter Work?
Basically, your goal is to communicate what you need to say to your followers and
get your message across to them within 140 characters or less, since that’s all the
space Twitter gives you per message.
If you are sending out updates or random thoughts, you can simply phrase it in the
form of a sentence or a questions...
This can spark replies from your followers, which will give you the response you
need to engage them more into deeper and newer topics of conversation.
Ideally, your conversation will be so interesting and perhaps even controversial that
other tweeps will soon begin to join in, and before you know it, you’ll have several
to a dozen people to tweet with.
The way that you respond to someone’s tweet or to direct a conversation to
someone is by putting an “@” in front of their username.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
So if you’d like to answer to my question of “what are you doing,” you would type
in the following response into Twitter...
Why Should You Use Twitter?
Different tweeps use Twitter for different reasons...
Many actually use Twitter like a blog, perhaps to literally update their followers
with what they’re doing, and seldomly engage themselves in any types of
conversations or interactions with others.
Then there are those who also like to use Twitter for personal reasons, but are also
social with their followers and plan to have discussions with others as a way to enjoy
their social lives online.
In the recent months, however, Twitter has become more and more a platform for
marketers, as well as small companies and big companies, to start building their
brand and presence with their customers.
As a matter of fact, this is the main reason entrepreneurs are logging on to Twitter -
to be able to network and connect to their prospects through the power of social
media, in turn gaining more exposure and credibility for themselves.
Of course, as a marketer myself, I am a clear advocate of building brand and
relationship on Twitter.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
On the other hand, my specific niche of Google marketing and optimization
specifically for generating traffic for my websites allows me to think outside of the
box a little bit.
Even though Twitter is a ultimately a great tool for me to making connections and
build relationships, I tend to also use it in ways that will help me generate more
visitors to my main website, http://www.SimonLeung.com.
Did it work?
Well, at any given month, I may have thousands or even tens of thousands of new
and returning visitors to my website.
Since I started using Twitter actively on a more regular basis around the second
quarter of 2008, I’ve noticed not only an increase in traffic to my websites from
using Twitter effectively...
But by the end of 2008, Twitter has actually become my #1 source of traffic
compared to all other traffic sources, which includes some of the most visited
websites on the Internet!
As you can see from the screenshot of my website stats taken directly from my
cpanel’s statistical reports, we are searching for information not just on a certain
day, week or month of the year, but rather the entire year as a whole.
This screenshot was taken a few days before the end of the year.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Now, taking a closer look at the referrers statistics, which gives us more details on
the websites that have referred traffic to us, you can see that Twitter actually
occupies both the first and second positions in this graph.
Based on this graph, which does not include any of the search engine traffic
referrals, Twitter is the #1 and #2 traffic source, even out-beating other immensely
popular websites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook!
And if we do want to compare Twitter to all traffic sources including search
engines, you can see from my Google Analytics account below showing all my top
traffic sources that Google is the only other website that refers more traffic.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
As a result of effectively optimizing my Twitter profile with relevant and valuable
content Google considers to be high quality, my website is also rewarded with
higher and multiple rankings for my most popular keyword, “simon leung.”
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Can Twitter Build Your Fan Base?
When done effectively, you can grow your follower list tremendously and in a short
amount of time.
It’s not uncommon for me to get several new followers an hour, and many times, I
have dozens new ones from the time I sleep till when I wake up in the morning.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
The cool thing about having a Twitter following is that now, you have a lot of
people to turn to when you need something, have a question or just want to chat.
Many of them are also fans of yours, so when you need help, they will most likely
see it as an opportunity rather than just doing you a favor.
Yes, it’s this report you’re reading right now... think people responded?
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
You bet they did! All very enthusiastically too, and within minutes of my posting
the request :)
Here’s some more...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Oh hey, and why not... some more here too :)
So does Twitter work for building buzz... peeking curiosity and getting your
followers to become fans of you or your work?
Can we use Twitter effectively to get the momentum going for people to become
interested in us, so that we can do what we need to do to maximize the benefits of
this social media platform?
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
You betcha! I’m living proof that it can be done... with a live demonstration I just
conducted less than an hour ago at the time of this writing!
But hey, in case you think this was a one shot wonder... let’s take a look at another
example of a tweet I sent a few months ago.
Within seconds after sending that message, I already began receiving public and
private tweets from interested individuals, and continued to receive dozens of
additional requests for the next few days.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Another great thing about your Twitter friends is that they truly and sincerely care
about you.
For my birthday, my friends @Coachdeb and @WarrenWhitlock organized
@SimonLeung Day...
Within seconds after the clock struck midnight on my birthday, an overwhelming
outpour of well-wishers began wishing me Happy Birthday!
And even though the birthday wishes started on Twitter, they continued publicly in
other social media forums like Facebook and MySpace, then privately on Twitter
DMs, Instant Messenger and even text messages on my cell phone!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
This just goes to show the power of Twitter and its impact on social media both
online and offline, and it was very cool to continue receiving hundreds of birthday
wishes and new followers on Twitter.
In fact, this day was so cool that I even wrote a blog entry about it that you can read
here => http://simonleung.com/blog/simonleung-day/
Do you want a Twitter account yet? :)
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
How To Sign Up For Twitter
You can sign up for your own Twitter account in literally 30 seconds or less by
going to http://www.Twitter.com, clicking on the green button labeled “Join the
conversation” and following the online instructions.
Before You Begin
Because this report is designed to cover mostly strategic content on optimizing
your tweets to maximize Google-friendliness, we will spend a very minimal amount
of time on the hundreds of available Twitter tools and resources on the market.
And quite frankly, with so many available to talk about and review, it would take an
entire other report just to cover information only on tools.
However, what we’ve done is provided a section on Twitter Resources that you can
find at the end of this report, which you can refer to in order to find out how to
access some of the Twitter tools we do recommend.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
But prior to implementing your Twitter traffic generation strategies, I do have a
few tools I personally use on a daily basis that I would say are essential to your
Twitter experience.
1) Tweetdeck - By far the best Twitter account management client available on the
market today
2)Tweetlater - Use it to schedule tweets, automatically send welcome direct
messages, auto-follow your followers, track keywords and more
3)Tweetburner - Track statistics on your outgoing links - it’s really cool :)
What To Do Next
In this introduction, we’ve covered briefly on some of the basics about what Twitter
is and some of the results that are possible.
Yes, it’s very possible to get high search engine rankings and yes, it’s also very
possible to build a fan base - we’ve established this to be true along with some
social proof in the first several pages of this report.
However, as you move forward, we need to understand that your primary objective
is to optimize your Twitter profile to what Google wants so that they will perceive
you to be higher quality, hence giving you better rankings.
Before we begin, we need to have a clear understanding of what Google wants and
what Google is looking for as we move into 2009 and into the world of social media
domination on the Internet.
What Google wants is authority sites... and what makes you an authority is by
providing users with valuable content that’s always dynamic and changing, as well
as consistent and positive user interaction.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Everything we’re going to be discussing in just a minute has to do with exactly this
- maximizing the social media experience for the end user which will in turn reward
us with higher authority points on Google, which will help us get more exposure
from the world’s best search engine.
So while it may seem as though this is simply a strategy guide on how to use Twitter
to enhance your relationships, please understand that the end result of an effective
relationship building process is a positive user experience, which will improve your
quality score rating on Google, which will get you more traffic.
It’s not rocket science - we just need to know exactly what Google wants, and now,
we do...
Google wants to know... What are you doing?
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
How To Build A Following
Create Your Brand
After you have signed up for your Twitter account, you must first create an inviting
profile for yourself, just as you normally would when you are writing your profile
for a new MySpace or Facebook account you’ve just created.
One of the most important things you should do first that will add a more personal
and inviting touch into your profile page is by immediately uploading a photograph
of yourself.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
A nice photograph not only makes your profile more personable, but it also helps
you with the relationship building process so that people know who they are
tweeting and conversing with.
It’s common for some people to want to upload their business logo, a caricature, a
random icon or clip-art, and just about anything else (or nothing at all) other than
their real picture.
However, for the purpose of building and maintaining relationships online, it’s
important for your followers to put a face to a name because most individuals will
only be friends or do business with people that they know, like and trust.
Once you have uploaded a photograph, you should also introduce yourself to
Tweeps by providing more personal information in the requested fields, including
your location, website and a brief biography that’s limited to 160 characters.
Finally, Twitter also gives you the option to change the default Twitter-design
background if you’d like.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
In order to distinguish yourself from everyone else, I definitely recommend doing
so, whether it’d be as small as changing the text and background colors of your
profile, or as significant as changing the entire look and feel complete with custom
design altogether.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Be A Follower Yourself
When you first create your Twitter profile, you have zero followers. After all, if no
one knows you exist, who’s going to follow you?
Well, in order for your messages to be read, you’re going to need to get some
people following you.
So, how do you get followers?
The quickest and easiest way to get followers is by being a follower yourself.
No, I don’t mean that you should follow yourself. I mean that you should start
looking for people that you’d want to follow.
Following someone does two things...
First, most people have their accounts set up so that they’re notified via email or
even on their phones when they receive a new follower, which means that they are
likely to notice that you’ve followed them and, in some cases, they may even follow
you back.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Second, when you follow someone, you also appear in their “followers” list, which
means that whenever somebody (anybody) clicks on that link to see who’s following
that person, there’s a chance that the person will see your profile and begin
following you, as well.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Follow The Right People
A great way to start is by following people you already know. This can be your
friends, family, colleagues or business associates and partners.
Twitter lets you access your email list and send invites to your friends in your
address book, and you can also do your own searches through Twitter’s friend
search interface.
To follow somebody, all you need to do is go to their profile page, and then click on
the “Follow” link underneath their profile photo.
Following people you already is a great way to start building a following because if
you already know this person, then the chances are very good of that person
following you back.
Another great way is to follow famous names that you admire in your particular
field or industry, and especially those you are interested in connecting with and
learning from.
That’s because from time to time, these experts tend to share some really great
information that may be relevant to what you are looking for, as well as offer you
some opportunities to interact with them, and interaction, as we all know, is a great
way to start building relationships with people.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
And just like how others are able to look at people’s profiles and potentially find
you in either the “Followers” or “Following” sections, you can also do the same
thing - by browsing at your friends’ followers and following, and find additional
people you may know and/or want to follow.
However, don’t stop there, because if you’re in the mood for pro-actively browsing
for people to follow, you can use Twitter’s search tool to find more people by name
and interests.
You can find and use this tool at http://search.twitter.com.
In addition, you can also use this cool tool that actually recommends potential
people you may want to follow: http://www.WhoShouldIFollow.com
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Finally, a seldom used but effective strategy is to simply follow back those who have
chosen to follow you. Doing so demonstrates a mutual gesture of respect, and
often improves their perception of you even more.
And, of course, when you follow someone back, or anyone for that matter, that
increases your exposure because others can now see that you are either a follower
or following someone while browsing within their profiles.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Communicate With Everyone
In Twitter, it’s all about communication.
This conversation doesn’t begin with your first tweet, it begins right away... from
the very first time your follower begins following you.
And chances are that your follower is following hundreds, maybe even thousands of
other people, so you definitely want your first impression to count.
From my tests, I have found that my followers appreciate the fact that I send them
an automated direct message (DM) right when they follow me.
I’m sure you’ve noticed other people utilizing the auto-DM feature on their
profiles, but the way that I do it is a little bit different.
The first tool I use for auto-DM is Tweetlater (which also has several other great
features that you should check out, so sign up - its’s free).
In my welcome message, you’ll notice that at the time this screenshot was taken, I
am offering them a “surprise bonus” (which helps tremendously in making a good
first impression) to thank them for following me.
Then, I provide a link where they can access my gifts for free, which, in this case, is
a series of reports I wrote on the topic of Google AdWords.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
While most people simply send an auto-DM with a generic welcome message and
perhaps a link to their blog, not only do I have free gifts for them, but I also have a
follow-up DM that is also automatically sent to them, but somewhere between 5
minutes to an hour or more after my original auto-DM.
This second auto-DM is sent using a tool called SocialToo, which in addition to au-
DM, also has some other cool features you may want to check out as well - some of
which are available in other tools, some of which are not.
Furthermore, the customization of this particular tool allows you to automatically
insert the first name (and last name if you want - not recommended though) of your
new follower.
Depending what your follower put in the “first name” field (whether it’s their real
first name or username), that’s the name that will appear with this tag, and it is a
feature that has been proven to be extremely effective.
In the example above, the “first name” field was replaced by the follower’s
username because that was what she had put in that field.
Here, you will see that the “first name” has actually been replaced by the follower’s
appropriate first name.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Moving on to your tweets now, you’ll notice that when you make your updates,
your followers will reply to you - sometimes just in response to your comment, and
other times, with the intention to spark additional conversation.
That’s because in the Twitter community, everyone is always looking for a chance
to interact, and often jump at the chance to be a part of a new conversation with you
when they see you tweet.
Especially since they are following you, more often than not, they are very
interested in learning more about your thoughts on certain discussions, and would
very much like to hear from you.
If possible, you should continue the conversation with your followers, especially if
the topic is interesting, because that may also engage others into the conversation,
and you’ll suddenly have yourselves a discussion.
In most cases, you may not even need to be the one who starts the conversation -
you can be the one who joins in on one, and it’s always fun to invite yourself into
the conversation with a funny comment.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
And of course, it’s always good to join in on conversations where you can be of
service to somebody, particularly if they are publicly seeking for help or asking a
question that you can answer.
You’ll run across this from time-to-time, because many people use Twitter as their
own personal helpdesk, as a way to publicly look for help from others and use it like
a public forum.
Especially when you have friends who are well-known experts or, better yet, TV
celebrities, you’ll want to be a resource to them because with their popularity, an
active conversation with them can get your name exposed to potentially hundreds
or even thousands of people.
In the next example, I responded to a question posted by TV star, Armando
Montelongo, whom I also offer marketing assistance to, resulting in an unsolicited
compliment that carries a ton of weight coming from a well-known and credible
source in a public forum like Twitter.
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After conversing back and forth several times with your friend, this will then spark
additional conversations from your other followers who may also be looking for a
similar solution.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
However you decide to make your presence known, when the participants of these
conversations notice you, they will also begin talking to you, and ultimately adding
you into their own list of followers.
And when people start talking to you or about you in their own tweets, those who
follow them will also notice their reference to your name, which will also help
increase your exposure and consequently, your followers as well.
So communicate well and converse often, because the more you include yourself in
conversations, the more people will know you and follow you.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Encourage Interaction
Along the same lines as communicating with your followers, having a conversation
with your followers on Twitter is more than just having a simple chat - one of the
best ways to keep an active following is by encouraging interaction.
When you’re tweeting your updates, don’t limit yourself to just sending general
information about what you’re doing, or sending messages where no one can really
respond to.
While it’s often great to update your status with your whereabouts or what you’re
doing and with whom at the time, it is much more interesting if you can post
something that are much more interactive and requires a response.
This way, you’re not just talking to a blank wall, and your followers would also
appreciate that you are reaching out to them and communicating with them, and
are genuinely interested in them.
There are obviously many ways you can do this, and I have several that are my
personal favorites.
One of my favorite is simply by asking a question - but not any question, a question
that expresses your interest in them, as well as one that requires more than a yes,
no or otherwise one or two-word answer.
As you can see in the example below, a simple open-ended question can spark
some interaction with your followers.
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In response:
Another way to interact with your followers is by asking for advice, just like how
others are also asking for help.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
You would be surprised how quickly, openly and willingly your followers would
respond to your calls for help, and usually within minutes of you asking them in
your tweet!
Finally, another one of my all-time favorite ways to encourage interaction among
followers is by asking for feedback or requesting that they “check out” something.
And even if you don’t specifically ask them to comment or respond, you’ll notice
that many times, they will because they do have an opinion, and are often just
waiting for the chance to share it.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Check out this feedback!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Increase Your Credibility
When someone frequently gives dull and unproductive updates that most people
don’t care about, such as “going to starbucks” or “i’m bored,” many people will
consider that a waste of their time, and consequently end up unfollowing them.
That’s because when someone follows you, they may have a certain level of
expectation when it comes to the type of content you are tweeting about, which you
may or may not choose to meet.
For example, there are a lot of people out there who want to use Twitter for the sole
purpose of having fun and keeping in touch with their friends, and to them, they
may not care if a follower they didn’t know ends up unfollowing them.
However, if you are using Twitter for the purpose of business relationship
building, you may want to leverage this tool as a way to endorse your own
credibility and “softly” market your various websites and even products.
One effective way of increasing your credibility on Twitter is by associating
yourself with other experts in your field offline, and when interaction occurs during
public appearances and other live events, it’s often effective to update your
followers when these things happen.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
If you’re at these live events as more than just an attendee, perhaps as an expert
panelist or even a speaker, you can send a tweet just as you are about to present (I
like to combine it with an interesting comment or a joke, so it doesn’t look like I’m
trying to show off or anything).
Even if you’re not speaking at an event, you can still let your followers who you’re
hanging out with - especially if you can increase your credibility just by being in the
presence of these experts.
Now, I don’t recommend random name-dropping like “i’m listening to so-and-so’s
course on blank” if that adds no value to you, but if you’re in the company of wellknown
and respected experts, perhaps having lunch/dinner with them or visiting
their office may be something you’d like to share with your followers.
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Another way to increase your credibility by just tweeting alone is to identify the top
keyword terms for your particular niche, and then intentionally tweeting these
keywords so your target audience picks them up.
Earlier, we mentioned that a tool like Tweetlater can track keywords (Tweetbeep is
another one), so they basically act like Google Alerts, but for Twitter as opposed to
Google search.
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For example, as you can see from my own tweets when referring to this report, I
always used the phrase “twitter report” or “free twitter report,” as opposed to just
“report,” which is a weaker and less relevant keyword term.
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Along the same lines, I did a very similar thing when I was requesting testimonials
and promoting the manuscript for my first published book, “Google AdWords
Made Easy.”
By including the credential keywords into your tweets, your name gets more and
more associated with it whenever people do searches on these term s on Twitter, or
request to get notified when others tweet these terms.
Now, I understand that “Google AdWords Made Easy” might not be a highly
searched term at this time, which is why I’ve also used other keywords.
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Keyword: adwords assistants (to promote my Google AdWords outsourcing
service at http://www.AdWordsAssistants.com)
And even with the more general term “google adwords”
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And yes, even the most general of them all - “adwords” - which may ironically be
the most effective of all, because I was able to use this keyword to expose my
credibility in building campaigns, different types of ads, my outsourcing service,
consultation service and even customer care related to Google.
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Provide Value To Your Followers
The primary reason most people may choose to follow you in the first place,
besides the fact they are raving fans of yours, may be that they feel like they would
be able to learn something from you.
As an expert in your field with a following who is eager to learn from you, you do
have a certain level of obligation to ensure that you are not wasting the time of your
followers by giving them useless updates.
When you have nothing particularly interesting going on, do some research into
some of the latest news and find out what types of new products or services may
have launched, and let your followers know.
Of course, this can be yet another opportunity for you to increase your credibility
in the eyes of your followers, and that’s by pro-actively looking for questions
people are asking about your area of expertise.
The way you can do this is by doing a Twitter search on a relevant keyword related
to your niche and seeing what type of questions people are asking that you can
increase your credibility by answering.
As you go through and answer them, you may notice follow-up questions not just
from the poster, but from other people who may have an interest in the topic of
discussion as well.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
In this case, you should do your best to answer everyone’s questions, which will in
turn bring more people exposure to your expertise.
As you can see in this particular example, a pro-active response to someone’s call
for help has sparked additional follow-up questions raised by my fellow followers
who read my response.
By playing the support role and taking on even some challenging questions that
may be raised, you increase your authority in your niche and more people will come
to you for answers to similar or related questions.
Whether already on your follower list or not, you will soon begin to see an increase
in your following because people are interested in what you have to say, and are
also referred by others who recommend you as a resource.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Before you know it, more and more people will start coming to you directly for
advice because you have built that relationship with your followers, and they know
that you can help answer their questions, or at least bring value to the table.
As you build more and more relationships on Twitter, you’ll soon realize that
unlike traditional marketing where you can control your target audience, Twitter is
full of individuals in all sorts of fields and interests.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
And of course, we know that we can’t possibly be everything to everyone, so it is
inevitable that if people don’t find your content relevant, they might “unfollow”
you, which will prevent them from receiving your further updates.
Again, unfollowing is inevitable and, heck, you may want to unfollow those you
don’t want to hear from as well (for whatever reason)...
So don’t feel bad if somebody decides that they want to unfollow you - just let them
be because they’re not interested in what you have to say anyway.
However, we can always minimize the chances of this happening by providing cool
resources to your followers, while indicating your target audience, even if the tools
are outside of your target market.
When you do this, not only do you achieve the appreciation of those your resources
may be relevant to, but they may also show their gratitude by in turn “retweeting”
your tweet to their followers as well.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
In the example above, you can see how people who appreciated the graphic design
resource shared the message with their followers by entering “Retweeting” or
“RT” prior to the tweet I had originally sent.
But of course, you don’t want to stop there...
As many opportunities as you can get, be as resourceful to as many of your
followers as possible by providing helpful tips and tools in a variety of niches and
areas of interest.
Besides, chances are that there are followers on your list who may be interested in
multiple areas, and a lot of your resources may be helpful to them after all.
You can also gauge interest by people who end up responding, or better yet,
retweeting your resource - which is pretty cool.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Be Funny And Entertaining
Of course, you don’t want to be that guy or gal who always sends the boring
business-related updates - you also want to be fun and post entertaining tweets that
you can share with your followers.
If you are funny by nature, be sure to show off your personality. Even in real-life, it
is often important to be yourself in order to better build relationships with people
you want to eventually do business with.
On Twitter, you should do what you can to do the same thing, whether it would be
sharing an amusing experience in real-time, or saying something funny, like a joke
or something.
Here are several ways you can share your experiences with your followers:
Tell lame jokes...
Use humor to express frustrations...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Share cool experiences...
Share humorous things about yourself...
Doing so will take the walls down from those who previously didn’t know you, and
will be extremely essential for you in the relationship building process.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Just like how people may appreciate useful Twitter tools, believe it or not, they may
even appreciate - or at least entertained - the useless (but fun) ones.
And similar to the other strategies, you may also want to share entertaining
resources and funny websites/videos to your followers:
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Of course, regardless of what niche you’re in, everyone always enjoys a good laugh
every now and then, so if you do come across any kind of hilarious clips, definitely
share it with your followers!
Also, keep in mind that everyone loves a classic moment, so feel free to share when
the season or mood is right.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Take Photographs & Videos
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and when you can share
your experiences with your followers through visual photos and videos, this helps
build your relationship a lot more on a personal level.
Especially in the Internet Marketing business, it’s extremely important to establish
your credibility with your followers, like so with the following Twitpic photos.
Live presentation at a seminar...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Sharing the stage with famous speakers...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Dining with famous friends...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Partying with VIP friends...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Funny moments...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Pretty cool moments...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Good times...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Even though photos is a very interactive way to send tweets to your followers, my
favorite way is by using videos to communicate with them, because nothing
compares to watching you move and listening to you talk when you’re trying to get
your message across.
Like pictures, there are many ways you can send your video messages, depending
on what you’d like to communicate and who you’re talking to.
On location at a live event...
Product launch news and updates...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Annoucement of product access...
Team introduction and office tours...
Photos and videos are excellent ways to send your tweets and makes your messages
a lot more personal since you are directly talking to them or, at the very least,
allowing them to see what you see.
If you are serious about maximizing your credentials and building genuine
relationships with your followers, photos and videos are a must.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Promote And Reciprocate
Okay, now that you have worked so hard and long to gain the trust and respect of
your followers, you can now slowly and subtly begin to promote yourself by
showing them links to your own websites.
However, don’t just send them a blind link - you want to preface your referred
website by letting them know that it’s going to be something good, or something
that they may have an interest in.
One way you can do this is by giving people updates with text, photos and even
videos on recent live events or gatherings with people they know or famous names
they may recognize.
Even better would be giving them up-to-date info as they’re happening.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
As you begin to promote your information, other people will also begin to notice
you, and because they are also in the business of bringing value to their followers,
they would be more than happy to recommend that they follow you as well.
Sometimes, your friends may also recommend you to certain individuals whom they
feel would benefit from your friendship to follow you.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
And even when yours is combined in conjunction with other names, a follow
recommendation is always cool when associated with other experts.
Little by little, as your fan base begins to grow, more and more people will begin
following you based on other people’s recommendations, browsing through
Twitter or random searches online, even from search engines.
An important thing to keep in mind is that even though your popularity is growing,
you should also do your part to keep it a positive and interactive community, and
you can do that by reciprocating and referring your recommendations to your
followers as well.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Also important is to understand different ways of promoting people because it may
take more than just a recommendation for someone to follow them - instead, it’s
much more powerful to just show them how much value your referral can bring
them if they do follow.
And yes, people will also show their appreciation by retweeting...
But perhaps even more importantly, you should reciprocate to your followers by
following them back in return, especially if they specifically request it from you.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
They definitely appreciate it when you follow them back...
They definitely don’t appreciate it when you don’t follow them back...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
And they definitely get sour if you later on decide to unfollow them!
Haha ok, the first one was a joke unfollow (I ended following Cassey back right
after she sent that tweet).
The second one was a mistake... I had never followed him in the first place, but he
had noticed that I wasn’t following him and thought that I did at one point.
In any case, the moral of the story is that unless you have a very strong and
compelling reason to unfollow somebody, you probably shouldn’t because that has
the potential to do more harm than good.
By the way, if you already follow me and I’m not following you, unfollow and then
follow me again - and I’ll follow you back automatically (another great feature to
take advantage of with TweetLater and SocialToo).
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Conclusion
Social Media Best Practices
As you should already be aware, Twitter is a tremendously powerful social media
platform that can help you build relationships and credibility in a short amount of
time - when done right.
By effectively implementing the relationship building strategies outlined in this
report, you will slowly but surely gain the recognition and respect from your
current and future followers.
In business, and in all aspects of life, people not only like to do business with, but
also interact and listen to those whom they know, like and trust.
When you’re using Twitter, be sure to keep this in mind, because you’re not just
building a list of followers, you also need to spend the time to foster these
relationships so that they will know you, like you and trust you.
Don’t just promote to your followers and send them links - follow them, talk to
them, interact with them and get to know them as people.
When it’s their birthdays, wish them a Happy Birthday... when it’s Christmas or
New Year’s... send them Holiday Greetings.
This is how you will earn the trust and respect of your followers, who will
consequently become your friends, and you can then leverage the relationship
you’ve built with them to invite them to visit your latest blog post, photo, video or
product promotion.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Managing Your Followers’ Tweets
Not to be confused with Twitter account management tools (which are discussed in
the Twitter Resources section), managing your followers’ tweets refers to the
actual communication that takes place between you and your followers.
As entrepreneurs and business owners, it may seem natural or “standard” in most
cases for many of us to hide behind our helpdesk or customer support teams.
We tend to let them take care of all the support tickets, the weird requests and
questions related to your products and services.
However, now more than ever, in the business of Internet Marketing and social
media, it is much more important for you to stand on your own two feet and
become the face of your own company.
And when you join an active social community like Twitter, you can no longer hide
behind the company’s walls as you once were able to do, because as soon as you
participate in social media, anyone who wants to get in touch with you are going to
be able to.
Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t a bad thing; in fact, I think it’s a very good thing
because now, you are more credible than ever and it proves to people that you’re
not hiding behind anything.
As you become more and more involved on Twitter, you’ll notice an increase
number of questions directed to you that you would normally refer to your
customer service team.
To maximize your reputation, it is essential that you do play the role of a customer
service representative and answer the questions, or at least give them a satisfactory
response on...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
1) Business inquiries
2) Niche-specific questions
3) Technological ponderings
4) Customer support issues
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
5) Consultation inquiries
6) Internal resources
7) Interview request
8) Team applications
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
9) Meet-up invitations
10) On-location trip visits
11) Client goals
12) Connection requests
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
But of course, not all interactions with your followers are going to be positive, so
it’s important for you to be aware of these kind of situations and attempt to rectify
the issues before they go completely out of hand.
Earlier, you saw a few instances of when my followers were upset over the following
status - well, here is an example of one of my responses with amicable intentions.
Well, this is an example of when a negative interaction with a follower has turned
positive, which is something you should always strive for in situations like this.
Unfortunately, not all of them will have similar results...
If an angry individual already has a certain mindset or opinion about something, it’s
almost impossible to convince them otherwise, or even have an intelligent
conversation about it given Twitter’s 140 character limits.
So in cases like this, the best you can really do is to attempt to respond to them in
as logical and fair a way that you possibly can.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
You’ll notice that even though you are trying to make peace out of the situation and
for it to come to a mutual understanding, it’s very easy for someone to quickly
point fingers at you and making personal attacks on you...
In many cases, a negative conversation like this is probably not worth continuing...
but for the sake of standing up for myself just a little bit, I didn’t even really have to
say much, because I had even social proof in my name to speak for itself.
Of course, our friend really wants the last word... :)
Whenever we run into a sour situation, like when we fail to turn a negative
conversation into a positive one, it’s usually best to just walk away and not make the
situation even more complicated.
In this case, I lost a follower, but as I justified it earlier in this report, those who
unfollow you are mostly people who have no interest in what you share or
understanding of the value you provide, so it’s a much more positive experience for
everyone to follow only those they want to, and be followed by those who want to
hear from you.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Expand Your Reach
When you’re choosing which followers to interact with, don’t limit yourself - think
outside the box and think big.
That’s because it’s easy for us to think in our niches and find like-minded people in
our area to connect with.
Well, you may be surprised (it surprised me too!) that Twitter has actually become
a very popular social media platform not just within our area, not even within the
United States, but all around the world!
This is the “world of Twitter” according to Google Insights...
So yes - think BIG - because there’s a big world of tweeps out there dying to know
what you’re doing!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Integration Outside Of Twitter.com
Even though we spend a lot of time and effort to create a user and Google-friendly
environment on Twitter, the traffic success of your website does not stop with the
on-page optimization of your Twitter account - you must continue to optimize your
intended website to integrate with Twitter.
With more and more ways to do this every day, there will never be a complete guide
on how you can maximize social media integration onto your websites because
what’s complete today will be incomplete by tomorrow.
That said, I’m still able to show you the tools and widgets I use on my own website
that have been proven to result in higher authority points because we’ve spent the
time to implement what Google looks for - encouragement of user interaction and
an overall positive user experience.
If you visit my blog, which is my main website that I’m driving traffic to with my
Twitter account, you’ll see this right when you land on the page.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Right away, we are establishing credibility with the photos because it shows Google
and our users that we’re not trying to hide behind anything, and transparency does
go a long way when it comes to your quality score.
The next big thing we see on here is a call-to-action to follow me on Twitter to
receive real-time updates, along with a Twitter feed widget that displays all of my
most recent tweets.
As we mentioned, Twitter integration for maximum quality points on Google is an
important element now if we want to have better rankings, so we’re definitely not
going to stop there.
On my actual blog page that contains my content posts, you’ll actually see that my
sidebars are full of different Twitter-related widgets and plugins, as well as other
social media integration components - all of which play a tremendous role in
getting my websites indexed quickly and ranked high.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
The data feeds... the instant photos... the 12 second videos... they’re all there on
the sidebar of my website, integrated into my blog because that’s what Google
wants to see.
And as social media develops and as more and more related widgets and plugins
become available, I definitely recommend that you continue to integrate them into
your websites to maximize the effectiveness of social media and to keep up with all
the latest trends.
By understanding the value of social media and what Google is looking for when it
comes to social marketing and interacting in a Web 2.0 world, your intimate
knowledge of the specific details Google wants is going to go a long way.
So now, it’s time to put your foot to the metal... optimize your Twitter with great
content and start telling the world what you’re doing!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Twitter Social Proof
In the beginning of this report, we talked about the power of using Twitter to build
buzz and gauge the interest of your audience.
As my audience, I want to thank you for being a part of my case study for this very
report - you’re the reason Twitter works, and why social proof is so effective.
Here’s proof that Twitter is a very reliable traffic source (data screenshot taken
from Feedjit.com).
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Also earlier, you read about how I recommended someone who accused me of not
bringing any value to anyone other than myself to do a Twitter search on my name.
This is what the Twitter search link I provided him displays...
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Here’s several more on the next page, just to show more social proof (and to get
more of my awesome followers more exposure in this report as well :)
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Your Next Move...
Please spend a moment to submit your questions, feedback or testimonial by
leaving a comment on my blog post about this report!
You will receive instant additional exposure by being featured not only on my blog,
your testimonial will also be featured whenever I promote it!
And of course, tweets are always welcomed as well :)
Click Here To Comment Now!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Twitter Resources
Ever since the popularity of Twitter exploded, hundreds of downloadable and webbased
clients, tools, scripts and resources have surfaced to make every tweep’s life
much easier.
Because the ever-growing number of Twitter resources is expanding by the dozens
literally on a daily basis, we’ve decided to direct you to a central page on our
website to allow you to read our reviews before deciding whether or not you’d like
to use these resources.
Now, her name should be pretty familiar to you by now since she has been
mentioned so many times and featured in so many examples in this report, but the
Twitter resources page is being put together and consistently updated by Cassey
Lim, whom you should definitely follow at http://www.Twitter.com/casseylim.
After you have followed Cassey, please feel free to proceed to our Twitter
Resources page at http://www.SimonLeung.com/twitter-resources
Enjoy This Report? Great News!
You Have Free Master Distribution Rights :)
Feel Free To Pass This Report Along To A Friend!
Click Here To Follow Me On Twitter!
Click Here For More Ways To Connect In Social Media!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
About The Author
Simon Leung, known all across the Internet Marketing industry as the Google
Insider, is one of the world's leading experts in Google Marketing and Internet
Marketing.
In April of 2002, back when very few people have even heard about Google.com,
Simon became one of the very first individuals to join the Google AdWords team.
For several months, he was one of the highest performers in his role as an
AdWords Representative, also known as an Editorial Specialist, manually going
through thousands upon thousands of ads during any given week, which gave him
the opportunity to ramp up on the Google AdWords product at a very early stage in
his career.
After mastering the basic skills of Google AdWords, Simon sought his next
challenge as an AdWords Email Coordinator, where he once again became one of
the highest performers on his team, cranking through an average of over 100
customer emails on a daily basis.
In addition, Simon even managed customer support over the phone and in the
Chinese language, even though the official Phone and International Teams had not
yet been established at that time.
Finally, in May of 2003, Simon found his niche. For several months, Simon had
been very interested in optimizing clients’ Google AdWords accounts and often
pro-actively sent optimization suggestions over email and phone. At last, an official
Optimization Specialist position rolled out, and there was an opportunity to
transition into this position full-time.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
However, at the time, there was no Optimization Team. There wasn’t even any
training or real, tested strategies that had been proven to work. As a matter of fact,
Simon was only working on optimizations with one other colleague, who was
someone who had joined the AdWords Team a few months after him.
Despite the challenges, Simon worked hard not only to optimize accounts and
support clients, but also became instrumental in the testing and developing of the
very strategies that are proven to work today. In addition to external client support,
Simon also wrote most of the optimization training materials for new AdWords and
Optimization Team members, many of which are still being used internally at
Google to this day.
Since then, in his position with Google, Simon became not only (and again) one of
the highest performing members of the team, he also became a leading contributor,
trainer, mentor and quality reviewer for all his colleagues. He founded most of the
projects that have been valuable to both his clients as well as his team, and he
became the number one go-to person on the team with optimization quality and
strategy questions.
As an Optimization Specialist, Simon was a tremendous resource internally and
externally, working with hundreds of advertisers with all types of problems and
successfully helping them achieve their advertising goals. Having improved the
performances of thousands of accounts, many of which were new campaigns
created from scratch, Simon tested and developed countless strategies with his
team and knew from the inside what techniques produced results.
In August of 2006, Simon felt that he had exhausted his learning during his
employment at Google, and made the decision to resign from the world’s best
search engine in search of his next challenge.
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung
Within just two weeks into his transition into a full-time Internet Marketer, Simon
had already become a:
•" Recognized expert among the top Internet Marketing gurus
•" Platform speaker at major Internet Marketing seminars
•" Contributor in major product launches by big name speakers
•" Special guest on high profile teleseminar calls
•" JV partner in several new and upcoming projects
•" Creator of several more ground-breaking products of his own
" And obviously, Simon has only begun to scratch the surface...
There are a ton of Google AdWords advertisers out there who are frustrated with
their advertising efforts, and many more who could benefit from services all types
and at all levels. Simon has now dedicated himself to helping such advertisers in a
role and with an angle that he could not have possibly been able to do during his
Google employment.
Today, Simon is a full-time Internet Marketer and Google Marketing consultant,
author, speaker, coach and mentor. He is also the author of several ebooks and
audio products, with many more similar products on the way. Simon is often an
expert guest and speaker at some of the highest profile Internet Marketing
Seminars in the industry.
Click Here To Follow Me On Twitter!
Click Here For More Ways To Connect In Social Media!
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Simon Leung • Follow Me On Twitter: www.Twitter.com/simonleung