In the First Part of Using Twitter to Raise Brand Awareness, I covered the following points:

* What is Twitter?
* Tools to Make Using Twitter Easier.
* How to Have Your New Blog Posts Automatically Post to Twitter.

In this second part I want to cover a few points including how to gain followers on Twitter.

Lets get started!

Why Do I Want People Following Me?

In order for you to use Twitter effectively and for Brand Building or Traffic Building you must have people following you on Twitter. Why is that you ask? Whenever you post a comment on Twitter whether it be Via the Web, IM, SMS, or Using one of the Tools we talked about in the first part, the only people that will see that message is people who are following you for the most part.

So in order to build brand awareness or increase website/blog traffic, you must have a following.

Okay, so here’s your next question I’m sure… How do I increase my Twitter Followers?

Follow and Thou Shalt Be Followed

Most people don’t realize that the best way to get people to start following you once you signup for Twitter is to simply start following others! Following people is very easy and most people, even the big names out there, will return a follow.

There is one thing I would like to mention. Don’t follow people just to follow them. You need to find and follow individuals that talk about or are interested in the same things as you. The reason for this will be explained a few points down.

What I have found works the best is to follow about 30 - 50 people, preferably people that are considered respected in your area of interest and have quite a few followers them self. Again more as to why will be explained a few points down.

Watch Others Twitter Replies!

If you just signed up with Twitter after reading Part One to this series, then you’ve had a few days to play around with it. You’ve probably noticed in many people’s messages Twitter Replies. What are Twitter replies? They look something like this.

@problogger Yeah, your totally right and I agree with your blog post 100%

Take note of the part in bold. This is someone replying to something that problogger said on Twitter that they read. The great thing about this is when someone does this not only does it allow the person to know they are talking to them, but it also makes a link going to the persons twitter page.

So for example in the above @problogger would be a link that would take you to http://twitter.com/problogger

The great thing about replies is that normally people following people are normally interested in the same things as that person. So as I said above once you have 30-50 people your following you’ll see them using @someone and you can assume 99% of the time that person is also interested in the same things so you can follow them, which takes you back to rule one. Follow and Thou Shalt Be Followed!

Easy Right?

Get in The Conversation!

Again this part has to do with @replies. A great method to getting more people to follow you is to have people talking back to you using @replies. The reason for this is because anytime someone says something to you and uses the @reply everyone that is following that person now has a link to your profile page where they can follow you!

So, again as the bold print says, make sure you get in the conversation. If you see a couple people talking about something make sure you reply and get in the conversation. By doing so, you’ll have people responding to you as well.

That wraps this little Twitter series up and I hope you found some helpful tips in these two articles. Make sure you Sign Up at Twitter if you haven’t already and then be sure to Follow Me On Twitter!

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So like you’ve been reading on alot of blogs lately, everyone is really starting to get into Twitter, and just about everyone and their mom is joining. However, one thing I notice is that most others blogs are simply saying to join and then follow them.

So, I’ve decided to change that and not only invite you to join Twitter and to add me as a friend, but also show you some of the great things about using it and also some of the great tools out there to make your twitter experience more fun and productive.

Be Warned though Twitter can be very addicting… very addicting indeed!

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro blogging system. Although, I personally would consider it to be more like an IM program if you download any of the great twitter tools I’ve listed below. Anyways, Twitter allows you to post to anyone who is following you and share what your doing, share great sites you’ve found, network, etc.

One great thing about Twitter in my opinion is the fact that your messages can only be 140 characters long! This keeps people from going off on tangents and keeps everything straight to the point when your having a conversation about something.

Tools to Make Your Twitter Experience Easier - Great Twitter Tools

Now if you’ve signed up for Twitter, you have probably already made your first post using the web interface that you see once you sign into Twitter.

However, its very hard to keep track of incoming Twitters and also posting Twitters while working on your websites, reading blogs, reading forums, etc. So how can we make it easier to interact with other Twitter users?

There are several Twitter Clients that basically makes Twitter like an IM (instant messaging) program like AIM.

The first Twitter Client I want to talk about is called Twhirl. Twhirl works for both Windows computers as well as Mac OSX. This is the client I use to post and read twitters from other twitter users. Its an excellent program and in my opinion the best one for any Windows computer. Twhirl is also a free program, doesn’t cost a penny!

The second one, called Twitterrific, is only for Mac OSX. If your using a Mac computer I would recommend this one over Twhirl for the Mac. This program is also free, but unlike Twhirl, you will have ads on your program. You can however, pay $14.95 which I think is a steal to remove the ads. It also helps support further development of the product. If you can afford $14.95 its definitely worth it!

Post your Recent Blog Articles Directly to Twitter

This section covers a few tools that will automatically send a tweet via twitter whenever you make a new post on your blog. This allows you to gain exposure and traffic to your blog by people following you receiving the tweet and following the link to your site.

There are a couple tools, none better than the other in my opinion, just do it in a certain way. You decide what you need as I’m sure you’ll be happy with any of these tools!

The first tool is called Twitter Tools written by none other than Alex King. This tool will post a tweet each time you make a new blog post for all your followers to see.

Another tool that does the same thing is called WordTwit. Again it will post a tweet to twitter each time you make a new blog post.

Now, if your like me and don’t like to have a ton of plugins on your wordpress blog there is another service called Twitterfeed. You simply sign up and give them your twitter username and password and then set how often they should check your blog for a new post. If they find a new post, it will automatically get posted to Twitter.

Stay Tuned and make sure you subscribe to our Blog for when we release Part Two of Using Twitter to Raise Brand Awareness where we will be discussing how to quickly gain friends, network, and increase your brand awareness and traffic.

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