Want more people to interact with you on Twitter?

More readers for you blog?

Or maybe you just want to spread your message to the widest audience?

Here’s how: Give people what THEY want.

So many authors, blogger, entrepreneurs come to me asking “How do I get noticed?”

I tell them to do what I do… STOP trying to get and start giving.

This is not a sermon… it’s just good marketing. You will succeed when you find out what your audience wants and give it to them.

Want more followers. Be follow worthy. Be seen as someone who GIVES help, support and attention to others.

One great example of GIVING is my friend Azim Jamal. He and his co-author Harvey McKinnonwrote a book called The Power of Giving. They get attention from it, but gave all the royalties to charity.

When it came time to promote The Power of Giving paperback, they asked how they could reach more people with the message. The answer GIVE MORE. Azim went to a blogger convention and talked to bloggers about how they give. 50 interviews with bloggers that they could use freely.

NOT talking about Azim and his book.. it’s all about them. Here’s one with Big time blogger and NY TIMES best seller Chris Brogan (author of Trust Agents

Hashtags (the letters and symbols that work ad a code staring with a pound sign “#”) have been on Twitter since nearly the start

While they are known for adding silly fun or searchiness to a tweet, that aspect has never been needed. Search can find ANY word in a tweet.

I’ve always liked them for events.  Affiliate Summit, the big show this week in Vegas, could be in a tweet about the event, but sometimes doesn’t fit in the sentence. So without explaining where the tweet comes from, users add #ASW12 and everyone at the event, or following it can easily see what happening in real time.

Twitter didn’t invent hash tags. It’s a hack like comments in software code that was added by users. Over the years, Twitter had made them clickable, and many use them for all sorts of things.

Now Twitter is working on EVENTS.. which will eliminate this necessity

At Twitter, that means associating a tweet with an event, tied to it by a number of keywords. That may mean that the keywords auto-associate to the event itself.

“I think we’re finally going to have the Events feature,” Stone said, in a brief interview. “It’s something we’ve been talking about forever… and now that Ev’s back on products, I think that’s something that’s going to be coming up soon.

“Obviously Twitter electrifies events. You’re connected to it, in this matrix,” Stone added. “You want to be connected to it, if you’re there; but if you’re not there, you don’t want to hear about it… And in a short time, it’s gone.”

My guess would be that hashtags are going to be around long after EVENTS and other features are added.

What’s your favorite tag?

For Immediate Release:

Las Vegas: Social Media author Warren Whitlock, host of “Social Media Radio” announced a new series of radio talk show begin in late January and running throughout 2012.

“We have lined up interviews with the top authors and trainers in social media, online marketing, publishing and publicity for this series” said Warren Whitlock. “We know that many people prefer to listen to audio to learn new and better ways to marketing and online promotion and will supplement the blogs, books and training programs with free content for busy business people”

Each program will be posted on the blog talk radio network where it is instantly archived for listening on demand. The program is also available in the popular mp3 podcast format and available free of charge on the iTunes store.

For a listing of shows planned, and to participate live during shows, go to Warren Whitlock on Blog Talk Radio

Guest will include best selling authors, application software developers, social media trainers and expert in social media marketing and promotion. The program will talk about strategy and techniques so that users with any level of experience can benefit.

Warren Whitlock is author of two best selling books on social media. “Profitable Social Media: Business Results Without Playing Games” and “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online”

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about a service that promises to add a whole lot of unsuspecting followers on Twitter. There are still some marketers who think that all we need to do is build up a massive list of people and then they all will magically buy stuff.

I’ve been replying with “This is a chain letter.. what’s next? Will you have me send $5 to each person on a list?”

But one of them admitted he didn’t believe the claims himself, and asked me to explain why it might not work.. I wrote:

It’s never a question if the chain letter works.. in fact, they were banned in snail mail BECAUSE they were so effective.

Here they have removed the “you will have bad luck if you don’t” and “send $5′ part.. thanks to emails, you can blast this out a lot keeper and don’t need to twist arms.

So I’m not saying not to do it.. I’m just betting that the types of followers you get from automated systems will be like FFA pages and freebie list builders… short lived.

Social media does because it’s so easy to opt out of reading the over hyped messages. The average person looks at 19,000 follower in a month and thinks scam and wont want to follow you.

If you pay someone to follow you, they will be more loyal.. but it’s kind of like paying people to be your friends.

Think of Twitter like a party. You can pass out a lot of business cards.. but you’ll be known as “that guy” and shunned.

Don’t you want to be invited to the next cool party? If so.. make conversations, be helpful and build a real relationship.

Some people look at social media as a new way to build a pyramid scheme.

Fortunately, we know have control.. we just avoid following them or un-follow. If we don’t follow, they become irrelevant fast

Social media gives you the chance to meet people, build relationships and meaningful connections. No reason to be THAT GUY.. you will do a lot more business if you treat people right and listen to them instead of spend your time on scams and schemes

When you start a relationship with a networking contact or prospective customers, one of the best tactics is an offer for a free gift.

I’ve noticed that there were some questions about what makes a good gift and some common misconceptions.

I do a lot of “list building” promotions and we use gifts for readers that want to get a newsletter and more information. The “gifts” have to be easy for many people to get and it’s common to make that a simple e-book or Mp3. We call them gifts because they are free, and very little obligation (you can unsubcribe).

A real gift of value can position you as a provider of value in business (or life). Dr. Robert Cialdini refers to this as the Law of Reciprocity. A gift given without an expectation of quid pro quo seems altruistic and might look like it’s less likely to sell, but studies show that the life time value of customers who get a gift early one is almost always higher than something that looks like you are buying an opportunity to pitch them

Here are some tips to increase the value of using online gifts?

1. Make it a real gift If you send everyone to the same page with an free report signup and then offer that as a “special gift” on another promotion it’s not special
2. Don’t make people sign up for your mailing list. We use this this option on a regular basis “free gift plus newsletter” but don’t assume that the recipient is giving you permission to mail any ad you wish. The more limited and targeted you use email, the more value it can have for your readers.
3. Give away something that others are paying for. That shows it has real value right now
4. Make it a wide appeal. No need to give your lead generating gift when it’s publicity for you, your site and your business.

These guidelines for for contests, charity gifts etc. There are plenty of times when a “free download” gift is perfectly right.. on your sites landing page or in as a bonus for someone buying at a partners site. That’s what we call a “lead generation” marketing program.

I ask myself this question when choosing a gift: “Would I think this was a good value if I wasn’t doing this for a living”

We gave away thousands of copies of Twitter Handbook before releasing Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online. If you’ve seen the ebook, it’s got almost as much information as the real book and tons of value. We knew that the people like you that download it are early adopters and the kind of people we want in our network.

The law of reciprocity says that when you give a real gift, without demanding quid pro quo, you create a bond with the recipient. In marketing, we know that some of the people will come back and that the publicity value will outweigh the small investment in the gift.

Ultimately, giving away real value in gifts gets you the best results. Free can be more valuable that charging.

Pretty cool, eh?

When I started on Twitter, I reached out to people by finding a person in a conversation with my friends and then clicking on the follow button.

That never seemed like enough.. almost immediately I decided to go one step further.

The get to know a new twitter friend process goes like this:

1. Click on the name of a person I don’t know from an interesting thread
2. Read their profile page and look for a  link to their blog or anything that they care about
3. Read till I find something interesting, copy the URL and Tweet about it
4. Include the @ handle at the end saying “thanks” and then the handle
5. Leave a comment if possible on the person’s blog

It wasn’t always blogs, but in the early days, I was there to connect with bloggers, so that was my favorite. I also connected on Facebook or LinkedIn when I could.

It didn’t take long and I had tweets thanking me. Even when I didn’t, I felt great sharing new finds with my friends.

Interspersed with this, and the conversations I had, I’d  often say “Follow @coachdeb. She’s cool” or something like that  (NOTE: that’s pretty close to the first tweet between my future co-author and I).

In January 2009, @micah noticed how many people weren’t spotlighting other like this and suggested we tell others about our friend on Friday. The #FollowFriday (also called #FF for short) hashtag and phenomena was born.

While I often quipped how this was what I did everyday.. I thought it was great that we were sharing that ethos with all the new people coming on Twitter. Trouble was, pretty soon it got very hard to see messages through all the #FollowFriday

In Fall 2009, Twitter added LISTS and @Scobleizer suggested we put our “Tweeps to follow” on lists. I tweeted this several times, and noticed that the fad has died down some, but every Friday, we see plenty of  the tags.

No one wants to complain about the clutter. After all, each tweet is an endorsement. I sincerely appreciate all the people who take time to tell other about me.

An even better alternative…

“Use Follow Friday to Get More Blog Traffic”

In an excellent post, @ChrisBrogan shared an idea that you see used on this post. He suggests that instead of #FollowFriday list tweets, we take a few minutes to write about the people we are suggesting in a blog post, and then tweet the link.

@coachdeb (my co-author for “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online”) and I saw bloggers talking about bloggers and it was a staple here back in 2008. When I saw @ChrisBrogan’s post, I dropped what I was doing and wrote this article.

I like the style Chris used to with a list and reasons to follow. I like bullet points and numbered lists because they are easy to read and people reading tend to use them as a checklist and are more apt to follow up.

My own style is usually more narrative. So you are seeing my list as I tell this story.

Please, if you haven’t already.. GO BACK and follow all the  people in this list. While you’re at it, try the process I described above.. leave a comment, say something nice, be creative and get in a conversation.

Then, use this on your own blog. Write up who you would like to recommend, and tweet about it.

Extra credit. Pus a Twitter friend and brief description as a COMMENT here. I usually don’t recommend putting URL’s in comments (the exception being when the blogger asks for them) … but TODAY, I WANT YOUR URL COMMENTS.

Tweet about this post so others can try this.

And by the say.. this method isn’t just for Fridays… it works everyday, and works better the more you do it..

@kidfury demonstrates the power of Twitter…

and the fury of not thinking things through.

Call center employee brings works to a halt with prank with one tweet

My best estimate would about about 4000 followers when this happened. Sounds like all of them called in at once

The language is a little off what I”d hope to hear from a call center worker, but he’s off the clock and very real in his presentation.

Perhaps the most interesting part is the reaction from the big boss. I’d like to think I could end it this way, but just a few years ago, I would have blown this for sure.

This story is 2010. I’d imagine that while the attention to a single status update or tweet continues to fall, let’s not forget that the collective power of your customers is growing faster than ever.

Are you listening to them?

I was asked by a Facebook friend why he should bother with Twitter.

Right away, I could tell he was in Stage 1.. so I wrote back:

I’d only recommend using Twitter if networking is important to you business. If you need to meet new people, build closer relationships with your network or keep in touch with a lot of people Twitter is the tool for you.

Most people go through 3 stages getting into Twitter.

1. It looks like a complete waste of time and “why would anyone want to know what people had for breakfast”
2. Friends say “use Twitter” and you get an account to secure your name while you can and still think it’s a waste of time
3. You get into a conversation with someone, pick up a new recruit, learn about some news and start saying “how did I live without this?”

Stage 1 is still most of the world. I’ve seen people in stage 2 for years.

FYI, these same three stage occurred in other technologies. For instance, when telephones came out, most executives assigned someone to make calls (if they had a phone at all). The same thing happened with email, Facebook, etc.

If you don’t use Twitter, that’s ok too. Most of my friends are also in Stage 1. I even know a few that refuse to use a phone. No sense worrying about getting everybody to do things the same way.

As we say.. NO RULES in today’s marketing. Just give people what they want, whenever, wherever, and in whatever format they desire. We all demand that today.

This video is a dramatization of the speed of Twitter.

But in real life, social media is not spreading news in real time.

Whether it’s an earthquake, weather, new product or angry customers causing your next crisis, you won’t have time to plan on a profitable social media strategy.

Today, like it or not, we need to be ready to react in real time.