But in a side-by-side comparison, our new clients understand Facebook, but seem to still be befuddled by Twitter.

So today I am going to share my top 29 favorite Twitter tips with you — and if you like one or two, tweet me about it, or share it with your audience too. Just remember to include (via @jenniferbourn) at the end (it’s good Twitter etiquette) — Wait! I think that’s tip #30!

My 29 Favorite Twitter Tips

1. Don’t forget to invite people from off-Twitter to follow you on Twitter and Include your actual Twitter ID
2. Asking questions on Twitter makes for very interesting commentary and opinions for blog posts
3. Start thinking in 120 characters. Save 20 to accommodate Retweets
4. Promote the new/less followed more than the “names.”
5. Don’t become a glorified RSS service for the people you want to be like/businesses you worship. It makes you look lame
6. Use Seesmic or Tweetdeck or Hootsuite so you can see more
7. Make hashtags small and simple (leave room to tweet) and please don’t hashtag everything
8. Use Twitter as a personalized communication tool, not another blast tool
9. If software allows you to “post updates to Twitter” as well as to the app, don’t do that. It’s irritating
10. Don’t get hung up on the numbers, that’s not what matters. Its a case of who you know not how many you know
11. Retweet the good stuff from others. Sharing is caring
12. Short simple words go far and leave more room for content
13. A lot of @replies shows a lot of humanity/engagement
14. Don’t read EVERY tweet. It’s perfectly okay. You have permission
15. A non-standard background and an avatar showing your face makes us like you better
16. Follow anyone who follows you and unfollow spammers, trolls, meanies, and constant self-promoters
17. Use Twitter lists to more effectively manage your conversations and who you care about
18. Tweets sharing photos, video, or music are great ways to enhance the Twitter experience
19. Invite Twitter followers to your other social platforms, like LinkedIn or Facebook
20. Invite your customers to Twitter, then make it worth it for them
21. It’s okay to unfollow people. Unfollowing doesn’t always mean “I don’t like you.” Some just tweet too much
22. A complete bio is a must! We want to know who YOU are
23. If your link is an affiliate link or a client, say so (in parentheses)
24. Quality still trumps quantity
25. Leave the swear words for the bar and don’t tweet about anything you wouldn’t tell your mother. It’s just safer that way
26. If you’re using Twitter to send people to your blog, your website or information about you, make sure the link you’re using actually works
27. Give people a chance to get to know you, and then they’ll care about what you have to say
28. Taking other people’s tweets and using them as your own is plagiarism
29. Twitter accepts special “alt” characters. Find them at: http://thenextweb.com/2008/09/16/twitterkeys-enhance-your-twitter-conversations

I’ve been using the tool since last summer I believe and it is awesome! Manage Flitter is a Twitter Follower Management tool that allows you to review and evaluate the people that you are following on Twitter and enables you to follow or unfollow several people all at one time based on different sets of criteria.

For example, you can login to Manage Flitter and view all accounts you are following that are considered inactive — people who haven’t tweeted in one year, 6 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, etc. — and then you can unfollow those accounts.

Monitoring who you are following, especially in your have your account set to auto follow people back, or auto follow people by keyword, is great for getting rid of those spam accounts that sneak in there too!

If you’re already using Twitter, that’s great …

But have you noticed that as you follow more people, it gets harder and harder to manage?

That’s where Twitter lists come in to play.

Twitter lists help you manage and group the people you follow so you can, well, ignore those that you don’t really care about hearing from.

Here are a few things to remember about Twitter Lists:

• Each Twitter user can only create 20 lists
• List names can’t start with a number
• Lists can contain up to 500 Twitter accounts
• List names are limited to 25 characters

If you want some more information about Twitter lists, I wrote a HOW-TO article, How to Use Twitter Lists: Part 1, and posted it to the blog to show you (with screen shots) exactly how to create and use Twitter lists.

Note Straight From Twitter: you don’t need to follow another user to add them to a list; if you want to read a user’s Tweets but not see their messages in your main timeline every day, lists allow you to do that. Similarly, following someone else’s list does not mean you follow all users in that list. Rather, you follow the list itself.

Each link I am showing below is an opportunity for you to LEAVE my website!
 

You work so hard to drive traffic to your website and get your audience to visit your website. Then, once they get there, you’re giving them multiple opportunities to leave your site – and if you’re selling something, each link to a social networking site is an opportunity to lose a sale.

Linking your website to social media sites provides the visitors you worked so hard to recruit multiple opportunities to leave without opting-in, signing up, or buying

Now I’m not saying the links shouldn’t be there at all… But I want to reinforce how important it is for you to think about where your social media links are on your website and how you use them.

You need to take into consideration the placement of your social networking and social media profile links…

On Your Blog:

Your blog is a place for education, conversation, engagement, and interaction with your audience. Your blog showcases who you are, and provides a place where you can share your opinion and build relationships with your readers. It’s a place on your website where people can get to know you. Displaying your social networking and social media profile links prominently on your blog pages is a natural fit because it encourages visitors to keep the conversation going on other platforms.

On Your Standard Website Pages:

Your standard web pages are pages like your Home page, About page, Contact Page, Testimonials Page, etc. These pages are necessary to communicate what it is that you do, who you are, and what they can expect. Links to your different social media profiles need to be present, but not as in your face as on your blog pages.

On Your Money Pages

Think twice before including your social networking links on any page of your website that makes a sales offer or has to do with you making money. You definitely do not want to distract the prospect with opportunities to abandon the sale or leave your site. This is why we commonly see plain sales pages used with no navigation and no links to leave the page. Remember, each link off your money pages is an opportunity to lose the sale.

When it comes to displaying social networking icons and links to your social media profiles, think about the goal of the web page. Does it make sense to have the link in the header or at the top of the sidebar? Or would it be better to include them at the bottom of the sidebar?

More often than not, a single sidebar isn’t good enough for the savvy marketer’s website. To create a site that provides the most flexibility, produces the results you want, and is still valuable for your audience, you will need at minimum two different sidebars and a full width template (with no sidebar).

While you can’t see all of them (some are for new sections we’re working on), our website is built to leverage ten different WordPress templates and five different sidebars.

If you have a WordPress website this can be done fairly simply. And, lucky for you, we can help you with that – As a custom WordPress website design company, multiple sidebars and a full width template come standard in all of our custom websites.

Now – what do you think of the idea of multiple sidebars and templates?
Share you thoughts and comments below!

Now, as soon as I created my new Twitter list, I shared it with the group. The only problem was that those who were brand new didn’t know what a Twitter List was or how to use it.

That got me thinking …

There are probably A LOT of people who have the same question, “What is a Twitter list and how do I use it?” If you are one of those people, I am writing this post (and creating these how-to screen shots) just for you!

The Problem with Twitter

As you begin to grow the number of people you follow on Twitter, it gets harder and harder to keep track of the tweets from the people you really care about and filter out all the stuff you don’t care about. Soon, you feel like you’re spending most of your time on Twitter scrolling through a sea of Tweets, only to find a few from your core network. (There are apps that help, but that’s for another post!)

The Twitter List Solution

Twitter lists are a way for you to organize the people you follow on Twitter. Lists are the way you can filter out all the fluff and see the tweets from the people you care about most quickly and easily, making the time you spend using Twitter more effective.

In this post you will learn, and see in the seven screen shots shown below, how to use Twitter Lists on the actual Twitter web platform.

I was going to write out instructions on how to use Twitter lists, but then I thought the best way to help you, would be to show you actual screen shots from Twitter with short how-to tips included with each one – that way, you can see exactly what I’m talking about! So… Enjoy!

I hope this post was helpful in explaining how to use Twitter lists on the Twitter web interface.

Look out later this week, for Part 2: How to Use Twitter Lists in Hootsuite and TweetDeck

Do you use Twitter lists? Going to start using Twitter lists now? Please leave a comment below and tell me about it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to take a quick moment and introduce you to a few Twitter friends that I am truly thankful for – and that I think you should know!

Each one of the people listed are friends who really understand what Twitter is all about – sharing valuable information, inspiring others, engaging in conversation, interacting with your followers, and building relationships. They understand that genuine, authentic conversation is the key to Twitter success.

So, let’s not delay… Here are my Twitter Recommendations and a quick description of who they are in their own words:

Jim Pelley | @JimPelley
Funny Speaker / Founding Organizer Folsom Lake Bank / Ride Folsom Bike Trails / working to be more green / Culinary Cowboy / Rotarian / RV♥r
 

Nika Stewart | @NikaStewart
Laptop Mom, helping moms create info-products (or ghostwriting for them). Serial entrepreneur. Coffee addict. Eternally optimistic, often sarcastic.
 

Jackie Dotson | @JackieDotson
Nothing changes until something moves! Counselor. Triathlete. Wine Enthusiast. Entrepreneur. ENTJ. Loves shoes and Elvis Costello too.
 

Lisa Larter | @LisaLarter
Entrepreneur, own Parlez Wireless and Lisa Larter Consulting, helping business owners maximize sales and grow their business using systems and technology.
 

Gina Bell | @GinaBell
Accelerate My Biz™ Coach #AMBtip; Founder IAWBO Int’l Assoc of Women in Business Online. I adore my a.m. coffee, scary movies & Grey’s Anatomy – Seriously!
 

Sherri Garrity | @SherriGarrity
Corporate fugitive and biz success coach helping others make the leap and thrive.
 

Michele DeKinder Smith | @JaneOutoftheBox
Marketing research expert and creator of Jane Out of the Box (and expert of the female entrepreneur)
 

Cathy Alessandra | @CathyAlessandra
Founder/President/WAHM of National Association of Entrepreneur Moms and Publisher of What’s Up For Kids Magazine
 

Alicia Forest | @aliciaforest
I mentor women entrepreneurs to break through to 6-figures (and beyond) so they can live the life they ache for…
 

Lisa Manyon | @WriteOnCreative
Wordsmith, press release magician, marketing maniac, wine lover, entrepreneur, player of Wii, blogger and so much more…You?
 

Pat Mussieux | @PatMussieux
Motivational speaker, Mindset and marketing mentor to women entrepreneurs, author, radio host
 

Barbara Lopez | @Brightfarm
People Person Extraordinaire who teaches professionals how to be effective networkers and to be their BRIGHTEST selves in every way.
 

Ryan Lundquist | @SacAppraiser
Husband, father of two boys, believer in neighborhoods, Certified Appraiser, Project 680, former coffee drinker, and a huge fan of the traditional porch.
 

Andrea Costantine | @andreacost
Writer ~ Author ~ Speaker ~ Trainer ~ Coach/Consultant ~ Service Enthusiast ~ Yoga Lover ~ Seeks New Adventures!
 

Oh, and if you’d like to connect with me on Twitter, you can do so at @jenniferbourn

Know any other great people we should connect with on Twitter?
Leave a comment and let me know!
 

Well, maybe it isn’t really mine. I have to confess, I just got to borrow it for 24 hours courtesy of Lisa Niello and the fabulous team at The Niello Company in Sacramento. The Niello Company showed their support of social media and the local community by generously loaning out hundreds of thousands of dollars in cars, including two BMWs, a Maserati, and a Mini Cooper for the top Tweeters who Tweeted about the Folsom Tweet Up event on Thursday, September 16, 2010 … and I was one of the lucky winners!

It only took me about 10-15 minutes to walk in and drive away from Niello BMW in this luxury sedan. The entire Niello team was friendly and really excited to get involved and be a part of the Folsom Tweet Up (planned by Jim Pelley of Laughter Works Seminars). It is a great example of how a local business can support a community event, while building their own brand visibility.

If you’ve been thinking about a new car, I highly recommend you go test drive one of these babies! While I do love my Mercedes E350, this car was gorgeous inside and out. The design was intuitive to the driver’s needs, it was roomy, and really comfortable. I tested out the bluetooth, the navigation system, the stereo, the i-drive system, and more. And, I have to admit, everywhere I went, people were checking out the car – especially at Starbucks!

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that this turbo charged car was FAST! I’d totally be lying if said that I didn’t really test that out on the back roads to and from the event at Lava Cap Winery. I could pass other cars on the road like lightning and it was more than a little fun.

This Folsom Tweet Up was at Lava Cap Winery, which was a beautiful surprise. The family-owned 150 acre winery is an absolute treasure hidden among the apple orchards at Apple Hill. The Folsom Tweet Up attendees noshed on fruit, cheese, breads, and other goodies, and sampled an impressive wine list. Certified Wine Professional and Sacramento Bee writer Rick Kushman took the group on a vineyard tour and spoke about the harvest.

If you’re a wine lover, a trip to Lava Cap Winery is an absolute must – I bought a couple bottles of wine that night and I know I’ll be heading back there with Brian very soon!

Whether you use Twitter or not, If you’ve never been to a Tweet Up, I recommend you stop on by and check one out, we have several locally in Sacramento… and there are hundreds around the world!

You know the kind of day I am talking about. The kind of day where you sit down in the morning to start your work day and then you look up to finally take a breath and it is 5:00. The kind of day where you realize you forgot to take a lunch break and you’re starving. The kind of day, that at the end, you realize you haven’t spoken to another adult all day.

On one hand, these days make me feel awesome. I know I was totally focused, in a groove, in flow, and making a lot of progress and headway on my open projects.

But on the other hand, these days also remind me of how much I sometimes miss the corporate water cooler and the interruptions of co-workers stopping my my cube or office (depending on the job) to say hello, talk shop, or chat about the weekend!

I was talking to my husband the other day, explaining to him why I ALWAYS have TweetDeck open and he said something that I think represents much of what Twitter is.

Twitter is the Internet Water Cooler.

Twitter is that quick burst of instant connection and conversation that fills a break when you’ve got a creative block, a few minutes between meetings, a lunch break, or even a lazy unmotivated afternoon.

Whether you’re interested in dishing about the latest episodes of Heroes or So You Think You Can Dance, hashing out the latest Obama political news story, or sharing some business tips, resources, or links, Twitter provides the ability to have a quick Internet Water Cooler conversation with people all over the world instantly and in real time.

And, not only can you connect and chat with people all over the world on Twitter, You can build even stronger relationships by attending LIVE Tweetups – Twitter’s version of the Meetup group – to meet your Tweeps in person. Last week I went to the monthly SacTweetUp to hang with others from my Twitterverse at MIX in Downtown Sacramento.

In honor of my promise to not clog my followers streams with meaningless Tweets packed full of Twitter Handles, My #FollowFriday recommendations this week go out to those Sacramento Area Tweeps from this month’s #SacTweetUp.

Here goes my #FollowFriday recommendations for this week:

• @successfool – Organizer of #SacTweetUp, inspiring speaker and entrepreneur, and truly cares about helping people succeed
• @sierrafriend – Organizer of #SacTweetUp, WordPress & StudioPress Diva, and great connector of people
• @jerrykennedy – Sales trainer and motivational sales expert, speaker, and totally authentic friend
• @meghanwood – Because she is a rockstar, just got married, and knows that Twitter is where it’s at
• @SacComedy – Because I am having a blast following you and the first time I met you, you invited to to join your party.
• @bradasbury – Because knows his biz, networks in my circle and is just a nice guy
• @Nachhi – We finally got to meet in person for the first time and I so enojyed meeting you face to face!
• @rosevillerocklin – A fun and funky lady who doubles as a designer and a one-woman realtor support team!
• @ashleegadd and @Lesley3fold – Awesome ladies I would love to get to know more about!
• @JeffMarmins – for teaching people how to be effective with social networking and social media
• @JimPelley – Because we share the same birthday and he is an amazing wealth of great information
• @joshunfried – Because he is totally committed to helping mompreneurs have a voice, make a difference and grow their businesses
• @LuxxLimo – for donating the limos for the #ScavengerTweetup for #SacTweetUp
• @Johnnie_O – for being another cool designer who gets the importance of networking and relationship building
• @KatrinaSawa – Because she helps entrepreneurs think big and play even bigger!
• I also had a blast meeting @cakegrrl @julieMarg @drjared @juniperjames and @SuzHOPkins @rbiv @John_M_Ross @JenKleinSac

And, if you’d like you can follow me too at @jenniferbourn

BAD #followfriday Tweet:

#followfriday @bizauthor @jerrykennedy @toddlay @TheTimeTamer @KeithHuggett @CAwealthadvisor @spinhead @SueAwesome @joyklepac @mickeyobrien

One of the people I love following on Twitter is @EricaMueller and she wrote the fantastic blog post “4 Ways to Improve Your #FollowFriday Recommendations” that you need to check out if you’re on Twitter.

From now on, I will be doing my #FollowFriday due diligence as a blog post instead of in my Twitter stream. I’ll also be recommending some of the great people I follow with Mr. Tweet, which helps them gain more visibility on Twitter as well.

My #FollowFriday recommendations for September 11, 2009 are going to the fabulous members of the Sacramento Speakers’ Network that I am so fortunate to hang with on te first Wednesday of every month.

1. Follow author, speaker, and publisher @bizauthor because she can help you get your book done and use it to grow your business.
2. Follow sales and motivation guru @jerrykennedy because he is totally authentic and cares more about your success and his own.
3. Follow outsourcing and delegation king @toddlay because he can take the stuff you don’t want to do and shouldn’t be doing off your plate.
4. Follow systems, processes and profits expert @TheTimeTamer because she can help you get more done more efficiently – after all, she is The Time Tamer.
5. Follow CPA @KeithHuggett because he helps you keep more of the money your earn.
6. Follow author and copywriter @karincarter because she is kind and easy going and can help you make your website copy, brochure copy, press release or article more effective.
7. Follow financial advisor @CAwealthadvisor because he loves to join me for cocktails and cheeseburgers and talk serious business and financial strategy.
8. Follow personal finance consultant and mompreneur @kristilegue because she is Your Financial Diva.
9. Follow business smarty pants @spinhead for real word commentary and business insights.
10. Follow virtual assistant @SueAwesome because she helps authors and speakers run their businesses with less stress.
11. Follow entrepreneur business coach @mickeyobrien who is wacky and silly and likes to have a good time while guiding his clients on goal setting, action, and achieving your vision.
12. Follow professional organizer @asimpleplan because she is an amazing individual who helps your clear the clutter.
13. Follow sales trainer @rickcooper because he knows what is talking about when it comes to making sales and attracting new clients.
14. Follow women’s business coach @joyklepac who has a huge heart and big mind.

Is there anyone I forgot, or are you a member and want to add yourself to this list? Please elt me know!

Both apply to each other because they are both extensions of your brand, they both thrive off engagement and interaction with readers, and they are used to promote each other. For example, many bloggers are using their blog to promote their Twitter account and gain new followers and they are using their Twitter account to promote new blog posts. Today I thought I’d share some questions I have been asked recently and provide some answers.

Blogging

Should I have my blog on my site or should it be separate?
I say do what is best and easiest for you. The benefit to having it on your site (as long as you’re posting regularly) is that is will help drive traffic to your site and increase your search engine rankings. The benefit to having it in a blogging community is that there is more visibility in that community and it then becomes another website of value (active blogs are viewed as high-value by the search egines) that is linking to your main website.

I have a blog that is separate from my website. How to use my site and my blog together?
First, make sure you avoid any disconnect with your visitors by making sure the design of your blog is complimentary to your website. Make sure the theme, color scheme and imagery on your blog are consistent with your branding on your site. They should not be exactly the same, but they should clearly be identified as elements of the same brand. Link them together and talk about your blog on your site and in your newsletter and talk about or reference resources on your site in your blog. For example you could have a feed of recent blog posts on your website, and a list of resources available on your website in a widget on your blog.

What domain should I use for my blog?
Make sure the web address of your blog matches your site address. If it is on your website, use www.mydomain.com/blog. Don’t use a blog address with wordpress, blogger, blogspot etc. in the address if it is separate from your website – it is unprofessional. Get your blog on a custom domain. For example if your site is www.freejewelry.com, then your blog could be www.freejewelryblog.com or www.blog.freejewelry.com. Hosting your blog on www.yourname.com is also a popular solution for many entrepreneurs because it is their thoughts, expertise and insights being shared.

Can I put my opt-in box on my blog?
YES! You can put your opt-in on your blog, you can link your social networking profiles, you can add recommended resources, pretty much anything you want to add, you can. Some may just take a little more time to integrate than others. WordPress in particular has a huge variety of plugins available that gives you a huge amount of flexibility to customize your blog.

Tweeting (My handle: @jenniferbourn):

What is Tweeting?
Tweeting is the action you take on the social media site Twitter. What is Twitter? If you use Facebook, Twitter can best be described at status updates. When you post an update on Twitter, it is called a Tweet and it must be less than 140 characters long. Although, if you want other people to retweet (forward) your tweet (post), you should keep your tweet to about 120 characters in length to allow room for their twitter handle (user name) to be added. Twitter is a quick and easy way to get out a message, tip, trick, quote, link, message etc. Twitter is being used by many entrepreneurs to foster new relationships, share information, and learn new infomation as well. Instead of friends, on Twitter you have followers. If you sign up to follow them, you are signing up to receive their tweets

What else can Twitter do?
The cool thing here is that people can reply to your tweet, retweet (forward) your tweet to their followers, send direct (private) messages to specific people and more. You can send in your tweets from a variety of third party sites, by SMS on your mobile phone or right on the Twitter website. Twitter is being used for market research, surveys, quick feedback on an idea, customer service, crisis communications, publica relations, marketing, social enjoyment, and learning.

How do you brand twitter?
Well there are a few ways to do this. First, you can customize your Twitter profile page design. A designer can create a background for your profile that represents your brand, matches your website and blog, includes your photo, website links, info about you, and more. Second, you can stay on topic (for the most part) of what service and product. You can tweet valuable content and links, reinforcing your expert status. You can also group tweets using a hashtag (#). For example #Designtips could be a hashtag I’d use. If I did, I would put that tag (#Designtips) in each tweet I send out with a design tip. Other Twitter users can then do a search on your hashtag and see all of the Tweets you have posted.

How to I manage all this social networking stuff?
Third party applications baby! Here are my three favorites:

• With Tweetdeck using Twitter is a breeze. Download the app onto your desktop and get Twitter organized! It breaks up all of the tweets into categories, like tweets, replies, direct messages, popular topics and more, making it easier to tweet and connect. TweetDeck will also notify you when someone you follow has posted a new tweet or someone has sent you a reply or direct message.
• At Ping.fm you can create an account and link it to all of your social networks – facebook, linkedin, plaxo, twitter, etc. The idea is that you can log into Ping.fm and post one status update/post/feed and it will automatically broadcast that post to your social networks. So When I post to Ping.fm, it updates my facebook status, my linked in status, my plaxo update, and my Twitter tweets.
• Hootsuite allows you to track multiple Twitter accounts, preschedule tweets, search keywords, and more. You can also link your Ping.fm account to Hootsuite with your Ping.fm API key, making it easy to preschedule your posts to hit all of your social networks.