Successful Blog

Tailoring Twitter: Does Your Twitter Profile Attract the Right People?

by

Beginner’s Guide to Twitter – Profile

Is Twitter Working for You?

insideout logo

Imagine.

You are sent or invited to a huge conference or the world’s largest networking event. What a opportunity! People from every industry all over the world are gathered talking and sharing what they do and how they do it. But there’s thousands maybe millions of them who all seem to do know what to do. The opportunity is overwhelmingly huge.

You stop to look around yourself and realize that you’re only one you.

How do you get from being a one to being part of the group? How do you find that part of the group that is the best fit for you? That huge opportunity requires the ability to sort and navigate what looks like an almost infinite group. How will you find or gather the group that will make the easiest, fastest most meaningful?

How Do You Tailor Twitter to You

This guide to Twitter is for people who are new. It’s also meant for “Tweeps” who know that their Twitter isn’t doing as much as it might do. If you got on Twitter without a strategy. If you’re are feeling like no one sees or hears you. Start from the ground up to tailor Twitter to you and people who would value what you do.

Let’s visit your Twitter account with a look toward attracting and reaching out to the people you’d want to make relationships with in the World’s Largest Networking Room.

Networking is all about connecting. It’s natural for people to feel more comfortable connecting to other folks who

  • who know the kind of people they like to talk to
  • who share something about who they are.
  • who offer value that’s easy to see
  • who show generosity and start a conversation to learn more about other people rather than to “sell” themselves.

On Twitter it helps to know why we’re there – what kind of people you want to meet and talk with. It’s easier to find and attract those people in the world’s largest networking room if we think about them in how we put together everything they see, read, and know about us.

The Profile

Just as you decide to what to wear to a gathering at Joe’s Pizza and BrewPub might be different than what you wear to the Ritz Charity Gala, your profile is what you wear into the Twittersphere. What you say in your profile reveals what you value and respect. It’s not about you, it’s about the people you want to connect with.

Click on anyone’s twitter name and you’ll land on their profile page. If I click on your name, what does your profile page say about you?

  • The avatar: Everyone wants to know who we’re talking to. Does your avatar look like you? Does it show as you might look while talking to the people you want to connect with?
  • The Bio: We’re all broader and deeper than the 160 characters that fit in a Twitter bio.

    Did you think about the people you want to form relationships with while you were assembling it? If you want to connect with other moms and dads, mention your family and your kids. If you want to talk to CEOs, mention your business and what makes your business worth getting to know.
  • The link: We’re all interested in more about the people we know. Do you link to something that tells more about you — your blog, your LinkedIn profile, your about.me page? Is what you’re linking to the same place that the people you want to form relationships with would choose?
  • The timeline of your Tweets: What we tweet and retweet reveals a lot about who and what we value. 0 tweets makes me wonder why you’re silent at a networking event.

    What % of your timeline is only about you? What % is @mentions in which you raise other up? Do you curate and offer content from sources other than your own? If we want people to listen to and participate in our conversation, it helps to think about them and make our messages relate to them deeply.

  • The Following / Follower Ratio: Newbies and spammers follow thousands more people than the number of people who follow them back.

    The ratio of Following to Followers offer insight into whether you are listening or talking. If your ratio is 2/1 or higher (following 2, you’re likely to be broadcasting — talking but not listening. You might also be listening, but you’re not responding. If your ratio is 1.5 you or less, you are likely to be listening as well as talking. If your ratio is less that 1.5, your followers are likely to be listening to you. Find new people to follow knowing that others will look at the ratio as a way of determining whether you’re a broadcaster or a communicator.

  • The Background: The default background is like inviting someone home to a free hotel room. Nothing about it shares anything about you.

    Changing to one of the offered backgrounds is easy. Go to Settings > Design and find one you like that might be attractive to people you’d like to talk with. Uploading a favorite photo or simply changing the color takes little time but shows that you’ve invested even a few minutes in making the space your own.

All together a Twitter profile can offer a picture of someone worth trusting and getting to know. What you put there and what you tweet can lead me to connect with you, learn more about you, explore your expertise. It can be what leads to a relationship in which we swap stories, strategies, and knowledge gathered. A great profile draws the interest of people who value what you do and disinterest people who don’t. Here’s what mine says about me.

Liz on Twitter


Or it can make me wonder whether you’re a spammer.

possible bot or spammer-profile

Visit your own profile page to consider these questions. If it belonged to a stranger, how much confidence would you have in making a relationship? Would you trust that the person behind the page is real? Would you risk a conversation with him or her? Would trust his or her recommendations? Does your Twitter Profile page attract people you want it to meet — people who value what you do?

More tomorrow on Tailoring Twitter to Build the Network to Support You.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Related
Tailoring Twitter: Building a Powerful Network that Fits You Perfectly
Tailoring Twitter: Get Busy Folks to “Get” Twitter in 2 Minutes Flat!
Tailoring Twitter: The ROI of Curating Content on Twitter

More on Twitter profiles:

How to Write a Twitter Bio that Attracts More Followers by @blueskyresumes
Twitter Avatars as Personal Branding by @ahockley
The Top 7 types of Twitter avatars by @10000words
20 Twitter Bios that Demand Attention by Iron Shirt Media Blog.
How to Write a Great Twitter Bio to Get Targeted Followers by @salmajafri
What is Your Following/ Follower Ratio? @Gauravonomics

Thanks to Week 285 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

method-to-the-mayhem
mompoppow
sparkz
thomas-wanoff-in-laos

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Cool Tool Review: Proxlet – Your Rescue for Twitterchats

by

A Guest Post by Leo Widrich

cooltext451585442_tools

Last Sunday was my first time to participate in #blogchat a weekly held Twitterchat and boy was it an amazing experience conversing with @lizstrauss and @mackcollier. It boasts great personalities each week helping you to answer any Social Media and blogging related questions.

For long I was quite reluctant to join in Twitterchats as I felt I would overwhelm my followers for the time the chat was going on with my tweets.

Fortunately I finally found a solution I can offer, since staying away from this massive amount of great insights at #blogchat is definitely not an option.

It is a nifty Twitter App called Proxlet.

What does Proxlet do?

Facebook has a very useful “Hide this post” option integrated. Proxlet gives you this exact same thing, only for Twitter.

Using proxlet, you can temporarily hide certain things on Twitter which clutter your timeline or aren’t currently the core thing of your interest.

How to best use it?

Proxlet fortunately takes the “hide this” feature a step further and allows you to explain in a very detailed manner which area of tweets you want to block.

  • You can block Apps you don’t want to show up in your Timeline. For example am using it for both foursquare and paper.li since I feel they don’t add enough value.
  • You can also stop certain individual users temporarily, for example because they are at a conference and you are not really interested in their tweets at that point.
  • Another way to make use of Proxlet is to block certain hashtags from showing up in your timeline.

What is the best part of Proxlet?

The best part of proxlet is that it works not only at twitter.com, but can also be used for your favourite Twitter clients such as Twitter for Iphone, Tweetdeck and others.

Someone approached me that he couldn’t take the load of my #blogchat tweets and Proxlet turned out to be a superb solution for both of us. He could continue following me, yet was freed of those unwanted tweets in a short space of time.

What are your thoughts on Proxlet (http://proxlet.com) ? Have you had a similar problem yourself before too? Please let me know below.

Leo Widrich writes Tips for Twitter on his blog. You can visit his website, Bufferapp, or find him on Twitter as @leowid.

_________

Thanks, Leo, for checking out proxlet for us!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Avoid these 3 business failures

by

by Patty Azzarello

cooltext466496263_leadership
avoid-3-failures

Awhile back I wrote a post about Debate Phase vs. Go Phase.

These labels help timid people raise issues when it’s helpful (Debate Phase) and then keep everyone focused on execution vs. talking more, when it is time to go. (Go Phase).

I got some questions about what to do when people undermine Go Phase with passive aggressive behaviors, when they continue to debate behind the scenes, expecting or trying to get the Debate Phase to re-open.

Let people know you are serious

The basic remedy here is that you need to let people know you are serious about the new work in GO phase.

The natural habit of an organization is not to change. People will always go back to what they were doing before if you are not explicit about making the change stick.

Behaviors don’t change for 2 key reasons

1. Dissenters. Passive aggressive people really don’t agree, and they are trying to do something different on purpose.

2. Reality strikes back. People with the right intentions cave when the reactive pressures of the day re-assert themselves, and they get nervous about doing something different or strategic.

As soon as the first person jumps ship and goes back to the old way of doing things, then others will think, “oh I guess we are not doing this new thing any more and I better get back to reacting to the emergencies like before, because that is what is valued. I believe this to be true because I can see people acting the old way, and I haven’t heard about the new thing in awhile”.

I recommend these strategies to my clients to avoid 3 common failures to predictable, on-time execution and to make change stick.

1. Track Progress Better

Have someone help you track progress.

Do you find yourself communicating strategy, assigning work and owners, and then absolutely hating doing the follow-up to keep checking in with everyone to see if things are on track? Or just being too busy with customers and other things to do a good job at this. When I was a CEO and GM, I know I struggled.

I was lucky early in my career to have someone on my team who was great at this. I assigned the work. He wrote it all down, he made sure I didn’t fail to assign specific owners or dates. Then he relentlessly followed up with everyone involved, and created tracking reports for how we were doing on finishing the things we committed to.

If you are not doing a good job tracking progress you will fail to execute.

If you are not good at this yourself, get someone on your staff to do this for you, or you will never get the important things done. I had a person on my staff to do this for me for the next 15 years of my career once I learned this lesson. I would have failed without it.

2. Communicate More

Have someone help you communicate.

Once you make your decisions and you are in GO phase, communicate a lot. Communicate more than you ever thought you could. Get bored to death with your message.

Talk about key initiatives in every communication, in every meeting, in every 1-1 discussion. Make sure that when people see you coming, they know you are going to want to hear about the key initiatives that are in GO phase.

If you are not communicating regularly, you will fail to execute.

If you are not in the habit of communicating regularly, or other things keep you too busy to focus on it, get someone to help you do this.
Have them put you on a schedule for email and group meetings.

Have them write up a straw-man of the communication. Have it include milestones and great examples of how people supported the new strategy, and questions for you to answer about what people are confused or concerned about.

Don’t ever go more than 1-month without revisiting and communicating your progress on key initiatives with everyone involved.

3. Set a good example

Don’t let sloppy behaviors get in the way

I have seen leaders who say they are serious about execution, that it’s the most important thing to them, but then they are late to their own staff meetings. Or they let missed deadlines come an go and never mention it or deal with it.

If you want your organization to be good at executing, you to set a good example for the quality of execution you expect with your own behaviors. And you need to hold people accountable when things don’t get done.

If you have people helping you track and communicate, it’s just a matter of your following through. (but you still have to be on time for meetings!)
What do you think?

What has delayed execution in your organization and what have you done about it?
Share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

—–
Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advior. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

Successful-Blog is proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

The Book List: Built to Sell and The Millionaire Messenger

by

The Book List: a weekly series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors & writers to help them with their online book promotion and marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!).

The books in The Book List series will cover a range of topics such as social media, product development, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

‘Built to Sell’ by John Warrillow

bts-3d

“John does a masterful job in Built to Sell of illuminating the qualities that business buyers look for in a company, and he does it in a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging manner.”
—Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants from the foreword

Covering every important aspect of the process, from attracting multiple bidders to getting the most for your business, this book easily explains what you must know and do if you want to create a business you can sell. “
—Steve Strauss, USA Today

Here are a few of the tips I enjoyed while reading this book and my take on the tip:

One of my favorite tips in the book is #5 – Avoid the Cash Suck. Once you’ve standardized your service, charge up front or use progress billing to create a positive cash flow cycle.
—>(Teresa’s Take) I think this is really good advice because as Warrillow illustrates in the parable with Alex’s business, many businesses have services offered and then choose to wait 30-60 days to get paid. Smart idea to create a way to build in a up front payable product or at least evaluate the payment options for clients and possible develop a billable option where there is money coming in up front and then billed on a monthly basis to produce the positive cash flow.

#6 also caught my eye- Don’t be afraid to say no to projects. Prove that you’re serious about specialization by turning down work that falls outside your area of expertise.
—>(Teresa’s Take) This reminds me of the message—Turn on your strengths and turn over your weaknesses. It will probably take you twice as long to do a project and the quality of the project may suffer, however, if you choose to focus on projects where you highlight your strengths, you shine and so does the project (and this will most likely lead to more referral business!).

About the Book*:

If you’re like most business owners, you started a company because you thought it would give you freedom—to do what you want, work on your own schedule, make the kind of money you deserve and eventually retire on the fruits of your labor.

Unfortunately, according to John Warrillow, most owners find that stepping out of the picture is extremely difficult because they’ve built a business that relies too heavily on their personal involvement. Without them, their company—no matter how big or profitable—is essentially worthless.

Luckily, there are steps you can take—no matter what stage your business is in—to create a valuable, sellable company that can grow and thrive without you.

To illustrate this, Warrillow introduces us to a fictional business owner named Alex, who is struggling to sell his company. No one bites because the business can’t run without him. For guidance, Alex turns to Ted, an entrepreneur and old family friend, who lays out an easy-to-follow plan that enables Alex to transform his business. The key is making sure that every product or service meets three criteria:

* Teachable: A built-to-sell business offers products and services that you can teach employees to do, or program technology to deliver, while you sleep
* Valuable: A built-to-sell business avoids price wars by specializing in doing one thing better than anyone else
* Repeatable: A built-to-sell business creates a stream of recurring revenue where customers have to re-purchase often

Like Alex, readers can apply these powerful strategies to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

About John*:

Professionally, I’m a writer, speaker, entrepreneur and angel investor.

My goal with my writing is to help business owners build valuable—sellable—companies. Part of the reason I write is ego gratification—I like getting your emails and tweets; the other part is needing to feel that I’m making a contribution in some small way.

I’ve started four companies, the most recent of which was a research business I tried to sell in 2004 only to be told by an expert that it was too dependent on me personally. Learning that my business was unsellable was frustrating. First I denied it. Then I got angry. Finally, I set about remodeling the business into one that could thrive without me. After lots of trial and error, it started to take off, and we were acquired in 2008 by a publicly traded company. I learned a lot in those four years, and those lessons became the inspiration to start this blog.

I think the world needs more entrepreneurs. If I had to rely on anyone to get me off the side of a mountain, I’d want a creative, tenacious and tough-minded entrepreneur beside me. When I vote, I prefer candidates who have started a business. I believe entrepreneurs will be the ones to solve our biggest problems and bring the developing world the quality of life that Westerners enjoy, which is why I’ve created a team of Built to Sell readers who lend money to entrepreneurs in the developing world through an organization called Kiva.

Most of the year, I live with my wife and kids in a town called Aix-en-Provence in southern France, where the climate enables year-round cycling and running, which is important to me because one day I’d like to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Until then, I will have to settle with being a middle-of-the-pack age-grouper in the few races I do each year.

You can pre order a copy of ‘Built to Sell’ online at Built to Sell Website. *this information came from Amazon.

Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on the business book list on Amazon and on my reading list: ‘The Millionaire Messenger’.

‘The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard

This book came out recently on the new releases (business) list on Amazon.

“The expert industry has been shrouded in myth and mystery for far too long. Now Brendon Burchard, one of our most innovative and powerful leaders, reveals exactly how we—authors, speakers, coaches, consultants, seminar leaders and online information marketers–make a difference and earn an income with our advice and expertise. This is an industry defined by how much value we add to others’ lives, and this book delivers and shows exactly why Brendon is one of the best.” –Jack Canfield, New York Times best-selling author of The Success Principles and originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul(R) series

“If you’ve ever dreamed of building a career and business around your advice, expertise and knowledge, then you’ll love this book.” –David Bach, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Automatic Millionaire

About the Book
In The Millionaire Messenger, Brendon Burchard pulls back the curtains on the once-secretive “expert industry” and shows how to become an influential and highly paid advice expert through websites, books, speeches, seminars, coaching, consulting, and online programs. Blessed to receive life’s golden ticket – a second chance – after surviving a dramatic car accident, Burchard has dedicated his life to helping others find their voice, live more fully, and follow their dreams. By following his 10-step program, average, ordinary people can learn to package their struggles, successes, research, or life’s story into advice for others and become experts on any given topic. In the industry of people who share their advice and knowledge with the world and get paid for it, Burchard is the “guru’s guru.”
If you’ve ever wondered how the gurus spread their message, serve others, and build a real business, then this is a must-read.

About Brendon*:
Brendon Burchard is the founder of Experts Academy and the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of The Millionaire Messenger. He is also author of Life’s Golden Ticket and one of the top business and motivational trainers in the world. His famous training events and videos, listed at the bottom of this page, inspire millions of people to start anew, find their voice, live more fully, and make a greater difference in the world.

Brendon was blessed to receive life’s golden ticket –a second chance– after surviving a car accident in a developing country. Since then, he has dedicated his life to helping individuals, teams, and organizations create and master change. His clients have included Accenture, Alcoa, JC Penney, eBay, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Levi’s, Gateway, and Walgreens, as well as thousands of executives and entrepreneurs from around the globe who attend his speeches and seminars.

Brendon’s new public television special “Experts Academy with Brendon Burchard” is currently airing and inspiring millions of people to share their voice and wisdom with the world. You’ve also seen Brendon in SUCCESS magazine and via media appearances on ABC World News, NPR stations, Oprah and Friends, and other popular programs.

Brendon’s life-changing speeches and fundraising events have been sponsored or promoted by Wachovia (now Wells Fargo), Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Morgan Stanley, Sony Pictures, Washington Trust Bank and other major companies.

Brendon’s books, newsletters, products, and appearances now inspire nearly 2 million people a month.

Brendon donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his works to Junior Achievement, Kiwanis International, and other youth and service-based nonprofits. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his incredible wife, Denise.

*courtesy of book website and/or Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘The Millionaire Messenger!’ at Amazon.

You Want Me To Write About What?!

by

 By Jael Strong

cooltext455576688_blogging

With today’s economy, it isn’t uncommon to hear people say, “I’ll take whatever job I can get!”  Let me say right from the start, that is not my attitude.  But still, the logic is sound.  We need money.  We provide a service.  We don’t have to like it, we just have to write about it.  In the end though, when you will write anything for a buck, it can start to feel a bit like literary prostitution.

There are many reasons why a person might not feel inclined to write about a certain topic.  A certain theme may clash with an individuals world view or moral code.  The topic may completely fall out of a writer’s realm of expertise.  Then there are those subjects that we find plain boring. 

If you are blogging strictly for yourself, even if money is an issue, the solution is simple:  Don’t write about anything that you do not feel inclined to write about.  If you are fairly good with public relations though you might get the drift that your readers want you to address a particular subject.  In that case you have a choice:  Please the readers or please yourself.  In the instance of blogging for an outside entity the choice is very similar, but there are the added strings of increased visibility and possible financial remuneration at stake.

So, how can you make a less than savory writing assignment more palatable?  If you feel less than qualified to write on a certain subject, but you don’t want to pass on a blogging opportunity, do some research.  Of course, most of us are not in the position to spend countless hours researching for a relatively small writing assignment. So, set the timer and do some digging for a set period of time.  In the end, you may discover that you know more than you did on the topic.  You may also discover that with a bit more effort, you could speak with a degree of authority on the topic.

This technique can also help you if you are simply not interested in the topic at issue.  It may be that you know just enough about the subject to hate it.  After a bit of research, you may actually find it intriguing.  

In the end, you may choose to pass on the assignment, but if your aching for visibility or  a little extra cash, don’t casually pass over potential.  If you love writing, you can put your added panache to any subject and make it come alive for yourself and for your readers.  

 
Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing