Money Makes Cents: 5 Common Mistakes Using Twitter
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
5 Common Mistakes Using Twitter
As Twitter grows to encompass almost 200 million users and businesses display almost as many Twitter icons as Facebook icons on their websites, you’d think that companies are starting to figure out how to better utilize Twitter to inform and truly engage with the public.
5 Common Mistakes Your Business Makes on Twitter and Ideas on How to Improve Them
5 Common Mistakes Your Business Makes on Twitter and Ideas on How to Improve Them
1) Put a Human Face on Your Tweets
Let’s face it: Social media was made for people, not companies. This puts businesses at a distinct disadvantage in social media, in which Twitter is no exception. How best can you “humanize” your tweets coming from a business profile? How about put pictures of the faces of the people that are tweeting on behalf of your company on the Twitter background and have your employees use their initials at the end of each tweet? For a good example, albeit they use avatars instead of real photos, check out the Microsoft Support team page.
2) Are You Monitoring Your Following Versus Followers Ratio?
Your Twitter Following versus Followers ratio is an important indication of your willingness to be social. Let’s look at the following scenarios:
0 Following, 1,000,000 Followers – If you’re a movie star or famous music artist you can get away with this because your fans don’t expect you to acknowledge them anyway.
300,000 Following, 300,000 Followers – You are following back as many as follow you. If you’re not careful and auto follow back people, you might be following a lot of spam bots. But if I was to follow you, it would appear that you would reciprocate. You are displaying a willingness to be social and acknowledge my presence.
2,000 Following, 10 Followers – You’re obviously just trying to spam people on Twitter and only 10 people have found value in what you have to say.
If you really want to build up a relevant following, you have to follow people back. I am not advocating the auto following back of automated bots, but your following versus followers ratio says a lot about what your intentions are for using Twitter. Think about it and start following back real people who can potentially become brand advocates or even customers for you. Social media has leveled the playing field between businesses and consumers, and consumers feel empowered. Why you wouldn’t want to follow them back and acknowledge their presence is beyond me.
3) Tweet Strategically
Does your company even have a Twitter content strategy? Is your Community Manager deciding what content to share, and not your Content Marketing Czar? If you are confused by any of these questions or terms, your business probably isn’t tweeting strategically, and I find this is one of the most common mistakes your business is probably guilty of. Think about it: Twitter isn’t about you, it’s about them. What information and communication do they want to hear? Start tweeting it!
Twitter is not just about sharing information but also about communication, which has been displayed all too clearly in the recent political upheavals in Africa and the Middle East. Is your business truly being social and engaging with the public? One easy way of accomplishing this is to simply create a Twitter List of the people you want to engage with. You are allowed to create 20 lists, each with 500 members. You can create them for a variety of reasons, but I guarantee you that for every 500 people you put on a list, there will definitely be a few who thank you for list inclusion, assuming that you named the list in a way that would make them feel proud to be on. Once they are on your list, you have the additional benefit of being able to easily monitor their conversations and look for a chance to engage with them based on content that might not be picked up by your savvy social media monitoring software.
5) Create an Industry Chat
If you haven’t noticed the growth in Twitter chats, where have you been? Chats give you the ability to network with real people, many of whom are joining the conversation to learn about any given topic. I believe a Twitter chat can be an extension of your content strategy. In other words, if you are trying to be resourceful and share information about your industry, why don’t you take the extra step and create an industry chat to engage with other users while you share the information? Just one more way to attain thought leadership, grow your following, engage with social media users, and spread the word about your company. What’s stopping you from starting one?
There are so many other ideas I have in which businesses can be improving upon their presence, but hopefully the above 5 will get your business starting to think about tweeting the right way.
If you’re making the same old social media mistakes as everyone else, no one’s paying attention to you.
In fact, they probably forgot you were there. Ouch.
Live for the Day!
Pay For it Later;)
Andy
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
"IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!"
I've just hung up the phone on a good friend of mine,he seems to be despondent to say the least.Now when a friend phones you, you know it can only be about 2 things he's upset about,money or relationships.Why do we get ourselves into these situations?I lived my life doing all the safe things i got a job and worked hard at it for 15 years,then realising i wouldn't go anywhere, i decided to start my own company.I forgot to mention i got married too and travelled the globe.
Normally we all need a catalyst:) Mine is my wife she puts 2 elements together me and a job and wants a reaction,money lol!
Of course i had to do things the hard way so i started importing products from China with 2 of my own branded companies,i started a Trucking Spares distribution business and a panelbeating business.Wow i must have been crazy!I t was the most difficult one and a half years i had.
Now as we know when you swim with sugar in your pocket some is gonna melt.
So after a year i realised time to focus on the two biggest earners the spares and the panelbeating which were all linked,and i gave up on the other ventures due to time constraints and not enough funding as my Spares business was holding up nearly three million of my capital.
Bad mistake,now after my main client went under so did i, because i didn't have my plan B in place.
The biggest problem you have when you lose everything is motivation.You also feel angry and resentful as."It wasn't my fault."
To get your shit together and to climb out of that hole you dug takes a lot of will power.
Most of you guys in steady jobs realise you could be like me, and have nothing to fall back on if you get retrenched.
So i decided i have to get my mind right first as if you focus on the past you won't have a future.
I needed something to do that would give me my self respect back,so i started online marketing.
The main thing i wanted was to feel busy everyday so i wouldn't feel sorry for myself.At least the wife would think iam trying to get our llife back.
Strangely enough i realised i could actually do this.
I had a computer,commonsense and a credit card.Now it was time to find a business that would tick all my boxes.
1.Is it a scam?-no
2.Does it cost a lot to set up?-no
3.Is it reccession proof?-yes
4.Can i do it with my limited computer knowledge?-yes
5.Most importently:Is it fun?-Big Yes
Half the time all i'm doing is checking out social websites to generate new leads it has also brought me back to my childhood passion-Writing.
Don't have to be good at something to enjoy it:)
I will try to give daily accounts of how iam setting up this new business and if you need help or advice,i can be reached anywhere.If you also want to give advice,then you are indeed a friend.
Have a good day!
Normally we all need a catalyst:) Mine is my wife she puts 2 elements together me and a job and wants a reaction,money lol!
Of course i had to do things the hard way so i started importing products from China with 2 of my own branded companies,i started a Trucking Spares distribution business and a panelbeating business.Wow i must have been crazy!I t was the most difficult one and a half years i had.
Now as we know when you swim with sugar in your pocket some is gonna melt.
So after a year i realised time to focus on the two biggest earners the spares and the panelbeating which were all linked,and i gave up on the other ventures due to time constraints and not enough funding as my Spares business was holding up nearly three million of my capital.
Bad mistake,now after my main client went under so did i, because i didn't have my plan B in place.
The biggest problem you have when you lose everything is motivation.You also feel angry and resentful as."It wasn't my fault."
To get your shit together and to climb out of that hole you dug takes a lot of will power.
Most of you guys in steady jobs realise you could be like me, and have nothing to fall back on if you get retrenched.
So i decided i have to get my mind right first as if you focus on the past you won't have a future.
I needed something to do that would give me my self respect back,so i started online marketing.
The main thing i wanted was to feel busy everyday so i wouldn't feel sorry for myself.At least the wife would think iam trying to get our llife back.
Strangely enough i realised i could actually do this.
I had a computer,commonsense and a credit card.Now it was time to find a business that would tick all my boxes.
1.Is it a scam?-no
2.Does it cost a lot to set up?-no
3.Is it reccession proof?-yes
4.Can i do it with my limited computer knowledge?-yes
5.Most importently:Is it fun?-Big Yes
Half the time all i'm doing is checking out social websites to generate new leads it has also brought me back to my childhood passion-Writing.
Don't have to be good at something to enjoy it:)
I will try to give daily accounts of how iam setting up this new business and if you need help or advice,i can be reached anywhere.If you also want to give advice,then you are indeed a friend.
Have a good day!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
DO GIRLS MAKE MORE CASH THAN BOYS ?
I guess i should have been more formal and stated.
Do Woman make more money than Men?
Statistically, women are paid less than men for the same jobs. But here's something I didn't realize—lesbian women are paid more than straight women.
Even when you control for factors like race, education, profession, location, and even number of children, lesbians still make about 6% more than straight gals. There are a lot of theories about why this happens (I, for one, am curious as to whether lesbians are more likely to negotiate for raises than straight women), but one theory centers around the idea that straight women expect to, eventually, be involved with a man. And they expect, just as reasonably, that that man will earn more than they do—and, thus, when it comes time to decide who will make career sacrifices, the women expect that they'll be the ones to take that hit. All those assumptions make sense—given what we know about American life—and they all lead to straight women investing less human capital in their careers. Anyway, that's the theory tested by a 2009 study explained by The Big Think blog:
A thought provocking article indeed.
So do'nt question it when your sister or girlfriend makes more than you do,ok!
Do Woman make more money than Men?
Statistically, women are paid less than men for the same jobs. But here's something I didn't realize—lesbian women are paid more than straight women.
Even when you control for factors like race, education, profession, location, and even number of children, lesbians still make about 6% more than straight gals. There are a lot of theories about why this happens (I, for one, am curious as to whether lesbians are more likely to negotiate for raises than straight women), but one theory centers around the idea that straight women expect to, eventually, be involved with a man. And they expect, just as reasonably, that that man will earn more than they do—and, thus, when it comes time to decide who will make career sacrifices, the women expect that they'll be the ones to take that hit. All those assumptions make sense—given what we know about American life—and they all lead to straight women investing less human capital in their careers. Anyway, that's the theory tested by a 2009 study explained by The Big Think blog:
A thought provocking article indeed.
So do'nt question it when your sister or girlfriend makes more than you do,ok!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
How To Make Money?
OR RATHER HOW NOT TO LOSE IT. Ok,so i may not know all the secrets yet,but i will tell you this,
How simple life would be if we could do business on trust alone.
I had 3 companies; now only 2.How?Well i put all my eggs in one basket and got taken for R3million.Protection for you company should be taught,or you will learn it the hard way like i did when my major client liqudated.
Some advice for business owners.
Do'nt rely soley on the golden goose.Do'nt sign personal sureties.Do'nt forget to sign a contract,if it seems too good to be true,it is!Do'nt allow your client to get more than one month behind in payments,then simply stop supplying.
Most business owners are scared of losing that one major client but just remember if they are worth doing business with then they will look after you.Only really big corporations might not care.
without it you will have to rely on love.
Marry rich or you will have to do what i'm doing and thats making it the old fashioned way.I started this blog to teach myself and others how to build stability into our difficult lives.I welcome posts from experienced bloggers and money makers.As they say in China. 'Don't let the eagle go until you see the rabbit!'In simple english it translates to.'I do'nt do business with you until i know you."How simple life would be if we could do business on trust alone.
I had 3 companies; now only 2.How?Well i put all my eggs in one basket and got taken for R3million.Protection for you company should be taught,or you will learn it the hard way like i did when my major client liqudated.
Some advice for business owners.
Do'nt rely soley on the golden goose.Do'nt sign personal sureties.Do'nt forget to sign a contract,if it seems too good to be true,it is!Do'nt allow your client to get more than one month behind in payments,then simply stop supplying.
Most business owners are scared of losing that one major client but just remember if they are worth doing business with then they will look after you.Only really big corporations might not care.
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