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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Famous entrepreneurs and their stories

We all know of these famous entrepreneurs - people who through their wealth andbusiness success became famous. Just think of the likes of John D. Rockefeller orRichard Branson.
Successful entrepreneur
Moguls and tycoons, they are people that had built empires from their businesses and thrived. They are the envy of the common folk, but as per the definition of entrepreneur: they take great risk for the potential of great reward.
This section of my site is dedicated to these famous entrepreneurs who were not necessarily born great, but achieved greatness through their business savvy and the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit.
They are a financial inspiration for the rest of us and by studying their lives and methods we might learn valuable lessons regarding wealth and success.
If they were not born great, what is it that makes them great? Is there one thing that they all have in common or are each and every one different?
Whether they achieved their wealth through oil likeJohn D. Rockefeller or computer software like, currently one of the most famous entrepreneurs, Bill Gates, they all had their fair share of trials and tribulations that they needed to overcome. Valuable insights can be learned from their struggles and how they overcame it.
Do they see the world in the same way that we do or is there something radically different? We can glean insights from their books or the books about them. Thesefamous entrepreneurs may have something valuable to teach us and we have the opportunity to learn by studying them and their history.
In all this we need to remember that they are only humans and they have their own faults and weakness. How they overcome these are what is important to me and the other entrepreneurs out there.
It is mostly their businesses that made these men and women famous. But some of them achieve fame by other means, whether through entertainment like Oprah Winfrey or through their flamboyant lifestyle like Aristotle Onassis.
Whichever means they use or have used, they are custodians of great wealth and with that great wealth come problems that we can only imagine: the extra security needed, the loss of privacy or fights over inheritance. Some have overcome all obstacles and founded dynasties - wealth to last generations.
And then there are the heirs - the inheritors of great wealth, who either spend it all recklessly or have to climb out of the giant footsteps of their forbearers and walk their own path - great challenges in their own right.
These men and women are well known and their fame (or infamy) is indisputable. I set out to learn as much as I can about each and every one of them and then to use theirmethods and techniques in my own life as entrepreneur and my struggle for financial freedom.
The sheer size of the achievements of these famous entrepreneurs is inspiring to me and maybe you and I may be fortunate enough to learn something from these great men and women. All these famous men and women share the same spirit - the Spirit of the Entrepreneur.

List of famous entrepreneurs

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Eluding the Illusion of Time: Douglas Karr on Priorities, Resources, and the Value of Quality


When your goal is to meet a deadline for a project, time can sometimes become your biggest enemy.
It’s not that I don’t understand the work involved to complete a particular task at hand; it’s all of the other unanswered questions that come along with working with clients and teams. I don’t know if my client will provide the resources in time. I don’t know that our team’s resources will be consistently applied. I don’t know if we’ll run into problems with the technology. I just don’t know.
What I do know is that I’ll be held accountable. The problem is that I won’t be held accountable for the result – I’ll be held accountable for the deadline.

When Will it All Get Done?

Recognizing this, I pad project schedules for safety. That said, I am putting my contract and relationship with my client at risk by taking my time estimate, doubling it, and doubling it again… eventually ending up at 4 times the original estimate.
It’s not that I’m lying or trying to delay the project — it’s that I want to ensure it’s done correctly and exceeds the expectations of the client. And, of course, I want to ensure that the client will get the hand-off when they expect it. There are often downstream repercussions when a project isn’t completed on time. This is the critical moment in our relationship. If the client asks their internal staff, the staff will say it takes a fraction of the time. If the client asks a competitor, they’ll undercut me for sure. It’s a critical moment because the only reason why the client would accept my estimate at this point is because they trust me. If they trust me, we’ll move forward. If they don’t trust me, we’ll end the relationship.
It has nothing to do with time and very little to do with the results. Time is an illusion.

What’s Your Hourly Rate?

When I started my business, I responded to one ornery prospect with a rate of $250.00 per hour. He grimaced and literally berated me for the next five minutes or so. He said he could hire someone for one-tenth that rate and there’s no way he would pay it. I asked how much he would pay. He responded $75.00 per hour. So, I told him that I could do it for $75.00 per hour, but that it would take me three times as long as my original quote. I smiled. He didn’t. So I walked.
The illusion of time appears again. Within that discussion, the value of the project at hand wasn’t discussed — only my hourly worth as a human being. If he interviewed 10 people who ranged from $25.oo per hour to $250.oo per hour, I’m confident that the $25.00 per hour contractor would get the contract. I’m also confident that the results were disastrous. Just about every day, we meet with clients who have completely blown their budgets on cheap contractors who couldn’t get the job done.
We don’t manage retainers nor track hours anymore. We set budgets with our clients and have them hold us accountable that the value we generate is greater than the monthly subscription we charge. We like to measure that in increased visibility on search, social, improved conversion rates, and – ultimately – more dollars to the bottom line.

How do you Manage Time?

I don’t. Ten years ago, I started the Marketing Technology Blog and grew a sizable following online. The authority I built, combined with the following, began to drive demand for my services. The demand was enough that I launched my agency 5 years ago. Suddenly, I was a CEO and a blogger. I was recruited to write Corporate Blogging for Dummies. My influence grew, my network grew, and my business grew.
On a daily basis, I have to respond to a dozen or so tweets, a handful of Facebook status updates, dozens of PR pitches, hundreds of emails, a few phone calls an hour… and I need to execute for the clients who are paying my agency. I am surrounded by an amazing team that barely keeps me from drowning and thankfully keeps our clients afloat.
You can’t balance a checkbook when you don’t have enough money to cover the checks. The same goes for time management. When the demand for your time exceeds the number of minutes in the day, there is no time management. At that point, we’re not really managing time — we’re managing priorities.

Prioritization over Preservation

Some folks tell me that what this means is that I’m not charging enough, or I need to grow my business, or I need to say no… but that’s not who I am. I want to stay affordable to most businesses. I want to help more clients improve their marketing results. I want to stay engaged with my following on social media. I want to read every email from a new startup or a public relations professional. I love my disaster of a life!
The result is that I turn away business. Not because of the time it will take or the money it will pay, but because it’s not a fit for my style of work. I’m sure many of you are shaking your heads and some of you probably think I need psychological help, but I don’t. I’m absolutely content with finding and working with businesses that appreciate the value and commitment I bring to their company, instead of holding me accountable for over- or underestimating timelines made for self-preservation.
And I’m not alone. Virtually every client I work with is resource-challenged, and the demands continue to grow. Our service, sales, and marketing staff now balance a plethora of social mediums, a barrage of emails, and the interruption of meetings. They face increased expectations of developing content, nurturing leads, improving customer retention, and acquiring new business — all with less money, fewer people, and just a handful of tools.

Visualization Management

The key to our success isn’t managing time, it’s managing priorities. We balance our publication, our speaking schedules, our sponsors and sponsorships, our audience and our community alongside our clients’ demands. Because of these myriad responsibilities, we use a ton of visualization tools. From cashflow in our accounting platform, to analytics for our audience, to email visualization tools to handle bulk actions (check out Mailstrom), to MindManager and ProjectDirector for identifying obstacles and opportunities to drive business results.
In my opinion, time management is as dead as the corner office, the personal assistant and the flashy gold watch. It’s simply not how we’re working anymore. We have a fixed amount of resources, not a flexible amount of time. The challenge for every successful business is to prioritize their resources effectively — not based on deadlines, but on results.
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Ten Tiny Apps That I'm Thankful For


This is Thanksgiving, so I’d like to show some gratitude for ten tiny apps that I use almost every day. If you’re a writer, blogger, speaker, or entrepreneur who uses a Macintosh, please give them a look because they will make you more productive.
  1. Adjix.jpg
    Adjix. Adjix is the best way that I’ve found to post links to web pages on Twitter. It shortens the URL of the page, enables you to edit the tweet, shows you the ever-important character count, and renders a preview of the page you’re linking to so that you can be sure of what you’re tweeting. Price: Free.
  2. BBEdit.jpg
    BBEdit. BBEdit is admittedly overkill for the HTML editing that I do. However, it does a great job of formatting text into XHTML, and it houses the SmartPants UNIX filter that I use to smarten quotes and dashes (see below). Generally speaking, if BBEdit can’t do what you want to text, it probably can’t be done. Price: $125.
  3. Foxmarks.jpg
    Foxmarks. I use Firefox on three different Macintoshes, so I need to synchronize your bookmarks across them all. Foxmarks enables you to do this as well as create a backup of them. I wish other programs did synching so cleanly. Price: Free.
  4. MarsEdit.jpg
    MarsEdit. I use MarsEdit to write my blog postings for my blog, the Alltop blog, and the American Express OPEN Forum. I compose in MarsEdit because of the built-in HTML markup features and then finish the writing in BBEdit. What would make me even more thankful: MobileMe synchronization of drafts. Price: $29.95.
  5. Preview.jpg
    Preview. Preview is simple application to open up graphics and text files. I use it to resize screenshots and to annotate them with circles and comments. It can also send your photos to iPhoto for storage. Skitch is another application that does this if Preview doesn’t have enough power for you. Price: Free.
  6. SmartyPants.jpg
    SmartyPants. I hate dumb apostrophes, quotes, and dashes but replacing them is not simple because HMTL links must contain dumb quotation marks—for example, href=”http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/”. However, in regular text, I want replace a dumb quotes with smart ones. SmartyPants knows that HTML links should not be smartened while apostrophes, quotes, and dashes should. Price: Free.
  7. TextExpander.jpg
    TextExpander. This is a utility that expands abbreviations to full text. For example, it expands “gk” to “Guy Kawasaki.” I use about ninety of these abbreviations. I’d be even more thankful if it didn’t sometimes paste the clipboard not the desired abbreviation. Incidentally, I love a competitive product called TypeIt4me, but it cannot synchochronize my abbreviations across multiple Macintoshes via MobileMe like TextExpander can. Price: $29.95.
  8. Tweetdeck.jpg
    Tweetdeck. This is a front-end application to Twitter. I have to stay on top of many terms in Twitter such as “Guykawasaki,” “Guy Kawasaki,” and “Alltop” as well as private and public messages to me. It is the best way to use Twitter that I have found. Price: voluntary donation, so I sent $50.
  9. Twittelator Pro.jpg
    Twittelator Pro. I use this iPhone application to access Twitter. In a sense, for me it’s Tweetdeck on a phone. I’d be more thankful if I could customize the menus structure, but it’s still the best iPhone application for Twitter that I’ve found. Price: $4.99.
  10. Yojimbo.jpg
    Yojimbo. This is my catch-all for things like passwords, invoices, travel confirmations, and bills—basically all the stuff you know you’ll need someday but don’t know how to store. You “print to Yojimbo,” and this creates a PDF of the document and stores it in the application. Then you can do a freeform search for any text to find the information later. Price: $39.
    Update: Several readers told me to look at Evernote, and they are right. This is a cross-platform application and service that enables you to synch information across Macintosh, Windows, and iPhone. I’ve been using it for a four days, and it’s very good. You should check it out.
There you have it: my favorite tiny applications that make me more productive on a Macintosh. As you can see, a few bucks goes a long way these days! My heartfelt thanks to the men and women who created and support them. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 24, 2008 in Cool stuff | 


Read More http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/11/ten-tiny-apps-t.html#ixzz2dPKEDImv
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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Copywriting based on the science of persuasion

If you’re ever going to sell anything online, copywriting is a much needed skill.The conventional copywriting wisdom says that you should more or less try stick to the following formula:
  1. Tell the reader you understand their need,
  2. Tell your prospect why your product is the best solution they can buy,
  3. Offer all kinds of proof like testimonials, charts and so on,
  4. Explain all the ways the product will benefit the customer,
  5. Present the price in a way that makes it sound like a great deal,
  6. Give a (better than) money-back guarantee,
  7. Add bonus products to really motivate the customer to buy,
  8. Make it a limited time or quantity offer,
  9. Ask for the sale and tell them exactly what steps to take.
Is the exact sequence that persuades people or why should this work? What scientific data is available to use about persuasion? Which research can we rely on to make our writing more persuasive?
Here’s a summary of the most prominent books and publications on the matter.

The work of Robert Cialdini

Mr. Cialdini is undoubtedly the biggest authority on the field. His books are bestsellers and have been in the “must-read” list for marketers and copywriters for years.
Cialdini came up with six scientific principles of persuasion that will help guide you to become more effective at getting people do what you want. In case you have no idea what those principles are, then here’s the summary:
Principle 1: ReciprocityPeople feel obligated to give back to others who have given to them.
How to use it: teach your prospect something useful in your copy, give away free stuff and better yet – add value to your prospects long before you even start to sell them something.
Principle 2: LikingWe prefer to say “yes” to those we know and like.
How to use it: talk/write like a human, connect with the reader, share details about yourself. Blog. Be friendly and cool (like Richard Branson).
Principle 3: Social proofPeople decide what’s appropriate for them to do in a situation by examining and following what others are doing.
How to use it: show how many others are already using your product. Show off your numbers. Use testimonials. Link to 3rd-party articles.
Principle 4: AuthorityPeople rely on those with superior knowledge or perspective for guidance on how to respond AND what decision to make.
How to use it: Demonstrate your expertise. Show off your resume and results. Get celebrity (in your niche) endorsements.
Principle 5: ConsistencyOnce we make a choice/take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressure to behave consistently with that commitment.
How to use it: Start small and move up from there. Sell something small first (a no-brainer deal), even if you make no money on it. They now see themselves as your customer, and will be much more likely to return to make a larger purchase.
Principle 6: ScarcityOpportunities appear more valuable when they are less available.
How to use it: Use time or quantity limited bonuses. Limit access to your product. Promote exclusivity.
SEOmoz has a great illustrated article on all of these principles. Naturally you can get the full picture of these principles from his book Influence. His other book – Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive – builds on that and adds some practical ideas. See the list of these 50 ways here.

Robert Gifford and five elements of an effective message

Mr. Gifford is a professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. He is co-author of a relatively recent American Psychological Association report that examined the interface between psychology and climate change.
He explains what makes people receptive and how to get messages across effectively:
  • It has to have some urgency.
  • It has to have as much certainty as can be mustered with integrity.
  • There can’t be just one message: there must be messages targeted to different groups.
  • Messages should be framed in positive terms. People are less willing to change their behaviour if you tell them they have to make sacrifices. If you tell them they can be in the vanguard, be a hero, be the one that helps — that works.
  • You have to give people the sense that their vote counts and that their effort won’t be in vain.
While his work focused on the message of climate change, it will work in your sales copy too.

The art of persuasion by Angela Lee and Brian Sternthal

Research by Kellogg professors Angela Lee and Brian Sternthal offers insight into effective messaging. In a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Kellogg professors say the key to an effective message is finding the fit between the consumers’ goals and the level of abstraction.
The researchers found that when consumers aimed to fulfill aspirations and satisfy achievement goals, more abstract messages — for example, those highlighting the freedom TiVo provides — stimulated favorable brand evaluations. On the other hand, consumers who sought to fulfill their responsibilities and satisfy their security goals were more persuaded by concrete messages, such as those emphasizing TiVo’s replay and slow-motion features.
So this means that first you have to figure out the emotional vibe of your prospect – or figure out what kind of motivations you’re targeting with your product. If you get it right and the level of abstraction fits the goal, people understand messages better and are more easily persuaded.

Messages that stick

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.”
Isn’t that true? Some stories – especially urban legends, conspiracy theories, and scandals circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people who really try to spread their ideas – businesspeople, scientists, politicians, journalists, and others – struggle to get anyone to remember what they said.
Two brothers, Chip Heath (a Stanford Business school professor) and Dan Heath (a corporate education consultant at Duke) found after extensive research that the ideas that ‘stick’ all share the following six principles:
  1. Simplicity – Your message has to be simple – stripped down to it’s core intent. You must come up with a profound compact phrase that would summarize your whole premise.
  2. Unexpected – In order to capture someone’s attention, you need to break a pattern – in other words to present the unexpected. You need to understand and play with two essential emotions – surprise and interest. Surprise gets our attention and interest keeps our attention. Got a conventional product? Get a new one.
  3. Concrete – People won’t remember vague stuff. What helps people understand new concepts is concrete language. Concreteness is an indispensable component of sticky ideas. Don’t say ‘fast acceleration’, say 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds.
  4. Credible – You need somebody who people trust to confirm your case. The trustworthiness of your source makes all the difference. People need something / someone credible in order to believe you.
  5. Emotional – Feelings inspire people to act. If you story does not invoke any emotions, you’ve lost.
  6. Stories – How do you get people to act on your idea? A credible idea make speople believe. An emotional idea makes people care. Put both of them together into an idea as stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and to inspire.
Remember to read their excellent book ‘Made to Stick‘.

Buy buttons in the brain

Research in neuromarketing (put together in this book) reveals interesting things about our brains. As it turns out, we have 3 brains. Well, not really, but the brain does have 3 layers. Each layer has it’s own functions: the “New Brain” thinks, the “Middle Brain” feels and the “Old Brain” decides – it reviews input from the other two brains and controls the decision making process.
The ‘Old Brain’ is the part that humans (and it’s predecessors) have had the longest – like 160 million years or so. So the part of the brain that controls decisions is pretty primitive and mostly concerned with survival.
We’re usually trying to talk to the ‘New Brain’ – the sophisticated one – but it’s the brute that makes all the decisions, so we need to dumb it down. Here’s the formula:
Selling probability = Pain x Claim x Gain x (Old Brain)3
First you need to identify the prospect’s pain (the greater the pain, the higher the chance of sale) and make sure they acknowledge the pain before you start to sell them anything. Second, you’ve got to differentiate your claims from your competitors. The strongest claim is the one that eliminates the strongest pain.
Next you have to show convincing proof of these claims. The ‘Old Brain’ is resistant to new ideas and concepts, so your proof must be very convincing. Show tangible evidence, data, testimonials, case studies.
And finally – deliver to the ‘Old brain’. You need to start with a ‘grabber’ – something that really gets the  attention (‘if you’re selling fire extinguishers, start with fire’, like Ogilvy said). Second – the ‘Old brain’ is visual, hence start with a big picture.
Remember – the ‘Old brain’ is concerned with survival. So it only cares about itself and not anyone else. Your message needs to be entirely about the prospect.
Get the book to find out about all the other ways to push the right buttons in the brain.
Last but not least
You can find lots of good stuff from a book that is now freely available (as it was written in 1923) – Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins. Here’s the link to the free pdf download.

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People innovate in America because they are angry


I received a lot of comments on hackernews and twitter. Some of them asked “if anger is so important why is there not as much innovation coming out of Greece or Nigeria or Ethopia” which misses the point. 1) Solving a problem and scaling the solution across America is a huge market opportunity and is also very difficult. America is the 3rd largest country in the world by land mass. Its larger than China. 2) While I don’t know about innovation in every country in the world, I think its presumptuous to assume no innovation is coming from other countries. But the scale is vastly different. With the exception of Africa as a continent. If a innovation can be developed in one African country it often scales to other similar countries in the continent. The largest mobile payment provide in the world? From Africa.
America has horrible infrastructure. The railway infrastructure in the
USA was built primarily for the transport of oil (freight) and hasn’t
evolved much since then. There is one railroad company in America
built for the transportation of passengers, Amtrak. Amtrak is short
for American Track, which is funny because it only covers half of
America. HalfTrack might be a better name.
The majority of the tracks Amtrack runs on are owned by freight
companies and Amtrak is beholden to the freight companies in many
ways. For example, if Amtrak is late and misses its scheduled time on a
freight rail line, the freight company can and often does force the
Amtrak passenger trains to follower the slower freight trains. The
average freight train runs between 10 mph to 79 mph while Amtrak has a
top speed of 150mph. While 150mph is nothing compared to other
national rail systems, the effective speed of an Amtrak train is
actually about 79mph. Either because they are running on those rented
rails from freight lines who have no motivation to upgrade the
infrastructure to support faster trains or because they are rolling
along at 20mph behind a train full oats. God bless America.
In the late 1960′s the US postal system was a unreliable and slow
machine. It hasn’t improved much since then. Today I can fly from NY
to San Francisco in 6 hours but if I send a 1oz letter the same route
it will take one week. Smart people at big national firms in the late
60′s figured this was lunacy and instead placed company employees on
planes to take interoffice mail between offices.
Putting people on airplanes was exactly how DHL got its start. Flying
interoffice mail for companies between San Francisco and Honolulu.
This mail transportation system was actually highly illegal and the US
Government went through a lot to try and shut DHL down.
The founder of DHL, a guy named Larry Hillblom was a lawyer and had
obvious physical abnormalities (and might have been a pedophile).
After winning his battle against the US Government, he re-wrote the
laws of a small nation as a way of saying F-U to the US Government, then
sued the US at the United Nations. I think its fair to say he was a
little crazy. After all, who would challenge the United States Postel
service then follow it up with suing the US in front of the UN after
changing the constitution of a small nation state? I think he might
have been a little angry too.
Spending so much time in Japan makes me really wonder why so much
innovation comes out of the USA. And I think its simply because so
many services in the US suck. People get angry, build a solution and
because of the simple fact that America is HUGE solving a common
problem in America often requires the infrastructure of a small
international company.
Amazon.com wants to ship books across the United States? Are they
going to trust the US Postal Service? Perhaps our amazing rail and
freight system? Its an incredibly complex operation for Amazon.com to
be able to ship a book to you within 3 days anywhere in the United
States. Because US infrastructure is so crappy. But they managed to do
it.
Then Amazon.com expands to a country like Japan, where it takes one
day to ship anything from one part of the country to another and they
reduce this shipping to 12 hours. And suddenly they look like shipping
geniuses. After going through the school of hard-knocks in the USA,
its much easier to go abroad.
Airbnb exist because the hotel industry in the USA doesn’t add a
tremendous amount of value outside of providing a safe place to sleep,
unless you are paying more than $500 a night. The entire Airbnb
operation seems to be violating a ton of laws in the process. Despite
that, they figured it out in the USA. Going abroad is easy after that.
Airbnb could never have started as a business in Japan. No tenant
would risk: 1) letting someone into their home 2) no one would risk
violating their lease agreements and 3) apartments are tiny. But its
been able to expand to Japan. It just would have never built momentum
if it started in Japan. Not enough angry people willing to ignore a
half dozens laws to make a buck.
Uber exist because the taxi system in San Francisco is horrible. You
make an appointment for a taxi to show up at 6:30 and they show up at
7:00, if they show up at all. Uber was built out of anger. Its
compelling in a city like San Francisco where the taxi service is
horrible, not as compelling in NYC where their are too many taxis most
days. Despite that, I still used it in NYC. And of course, Uber is
violating a few laws in the process.
Many great innovations in the USA come out of anger and frustration
and a attitude that makes Americans believe they can change the system.
When implemented across a huge country like the United States, Airbnb,
Uber, DHL have to deal with laws and regulations in every single state
in the country. In states the size of small countries. What better
training ground could their be for building a international company?
You have to be angry to break the law in order to build a better way.
That anger and willingness to challenge authority is missing from many
startups, but it exist in all the innovative ones.
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Twitter Strategy: The Incomplete Guide for Beginners


By  | 
One of the hottest topics in our industry right now is how professionals and corporations can use Twitter.

First and foremost, it’s important to note that Twitter is not a blatant sales and self-promotional tool. Social networking on Twitter is a long-term strategy in which you must bring value to the community by publishing and sharing relevant information.

With the proper Website analytics, you certainly can (and should) track traffic, inbound links, leads and sales from Twitter, but like most social media participation, I would not suggest setting out to achieve specific measurable objectives.

Here are the 7 steps I’d recommend for beginners getting started on Twitter:

1) Secure your personal and/or brand name.

If you haven’t already, go to Twitter.com to reserve your personal name and brand name before someone else does.

For entrepreneurs and company executives unsure whether to tweet as yourself (@FullName) or the brand (@CompanyName), although there certainly are exceptions, in most cases it is more effective to go with @FullName.

2) Build your profile to be found.

You have 160 characters to describe yourself and pique the curiosity of potential followers. Mix in your personal and professional interests to connect with a larger base of tweeters.
  • Be sure to put your full real name in the account settings section.
  • Create a descriptive, keyword-rich bio. Think about the keywords that you would search to find yourself. It’s fine to be cute and creative, but make sure someone reading your profile understands who you are and what you do.
  • Be sure to include a link to your Website or blog.
  • Do NOT lock your updates, unless you are on Twitter strictly to connect with your existing network.
  • Upload a good picture of yourself with a distinguishable face.
  • Change the design to anything but the default setting.
[SAMPLE TWITTER PROFILE]

3) Pick your applications.

In order to get the most out of Twitter, without getting overwhelmed, it’s important to download applications that make it easier to monitor and participate. Based on a great blog post from @chrisbrogan (who knows far more about this stuff than I do), I now use Tweetdeck for my Mac and Twittelator Pro for my iPhone.

Note that some tweeters will run into corporate roadblocks accessing twitter and downloading apps, so check with your IT department. Also, quick note to HR departments, if you don’t have a Twitter policy in place, it’s probably time to add one to your employee handbook.

4) Publish some relevant tweets.

I’d suggest posting 10 or so relevant tweets before you move on to step 5. At least for me, before I follow someone back I’ve never met, I glance at their bio to make sure we have something in common, and I scan the first page of their updates to see that they are making an effort to contribute something of value to the community. There are people who choose to auto-follow everyone, but it’s not what we advise our clients to do.

So what makes for good tweets?
  • You read dozens (if not hundreds) of blog posts, articles and emails every day . . . start there. Share news alerts, industry trend posts, your own blogs posts, random relevant thoughts on your profession, predictions, etc. Just keep it non-promotional and useful.
  • Re-tweet (RT) valuable information from your Friends.
  • Direct message (DM) people who post especially strong tweets.
Some “Twitter Elite” can post a play-by-play of their entire day and still keep followers interested, but for most of us tweeting in moderation is recommended. I know that personally I have learned to skim by when I see the familiar face of some uber-tweeters.

It’s recommended to share personal information (i.e. interests, hobbies, travel, etc.) because it makes your participation more authentic and creates deeper connections, but we strongly advise clients not to get carried away with this kind of content.

5) Find friends and build followers.

  • Start with people you already know on Twitter. Follow them, then see whom they follow and see if there’s anyone that would make for a good connection. Quick tip, when viewing friends and followers on Twitter.com, hover over someone’s name and their bio will pop up. You can click on their name and visit their Twitter page too.
  • Next go to twitter.grader.com and search by keywords for people like you. Twitter Grader (@grader) pulls keywords from the bios of top tweeters, so you can scan their bios and then click over to their page to learn more or follow. Here are some sample keywords I’ve searched to find friends: CEO, entrepreneur, social media, inbound marketing, PR, public relations, golf, Cleveland and SEO.

  • Another great place to find like-minded tweeters is search.twitter.com. Just enter keywords that interest you (i.e. “public relations”) and see who’s tweeting on the topic. Click on their name, check out their bio, and follow if it’s a good fit.
  • Watch for @ replies from your friends and click on people that seem interesting. Follow them if you’d like.
  • Add your Twitter name to your business cards, email signature and social network profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn).
  • Include your Twitter name at the end of every blog post.

6) Establish a monitoring and participation system that works for you.

The more people you follow, the harder it is to keep track of everything that’s happening on Twitter. It’s amazing how much you can miss in an hour.
  • Use “Groups” on Twittelator and Tweetdeck (or whatever apps you choose) to make sure you at least see the people that are most important to you and your business. Here are some sample groups to consider: your co-workers/employees, media, industry influentials, business partners, top bloggers, Twitter Elite, and local tweeters.
  • Start tweeting at a frequency that fits your schedule. Twitter can be addictive, especially as you're getting started, and when you add it to your mobile phone. I usually check Twitter 6-10 times per day on average (first thing in the morning, at lunch, 1-2 times in the afternoon, end of the workday, and 1-2 times in the evening).

7) Connect, build relationships and have fun!

I’ve met some great people through Twitter, and even connected offline at face-to-face networking events. If you follow the steps in this post, you can quickly build up your follower base and make some valuable connections.
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