Having just clocked one year and 10,000 followers on Twitter, I felt I should report my learnings.

At first I thought I’d just cover basic stuff (e.g. who to follow, how to list, behaviours to avoid).

Then I realised Twitter ‘truths’ were far more important than Twitter ‘tips’.

It seems impossible such a simple (and apparently frivolous) application could impart wisdom, but there it is.

So here I go.

1.   Be yourself.

Genuine humans thrive in Twitter. Fakers, flooders and floggers (though infuriating) do get smacked down in due course.

This isn’t obvious to the casual observer, who understandably concludes Twitter is crap.

Yet when you open yourself to a community and reveal true elements of your life and loves, everyone enjoys the exchange.

Being yourself is also easier than maintaining a fake persona. As Mark Twain said: ‘When you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything’.

2.   Be open.

I began Twitter to get more copywriting clients. I achieved that and gained a suite of handy contacts, fascinating colleagues and loyal friends from sectors, countries and professions I never thought I’d encounter.

Because I was open to these people, they named me in magazines, featured me on blogs, recommended me to others and sent me a truckload of free ideas and information.

This rich, unexpected education has been amazing. I’ve seen and done things way beyond my expertise and comfort zone.

I feel stronger, safer and more mature as a result.

3.  Choose quality.

A thousand nameless fans aren’t as fun, useful or interesting as one genuine contact. Yes, I have 10,000 followers. No, I can’t interact meaningfully with them all.

I can, however, pick the gems from the dross and build real relationships with a few dozen kind, clever cats.

4.   Be generous.

I’ve long been a fan of the saying ‘you can’t give good away’. Seth Godin says likewise in his latest freebook. Twitter has shown me time and again this is true.

Online, the Law of Mutual Reciprocity is SO powerful, it needs BIG metaphor:

It’s like spitting out the window of a 300 km/h bullet train. Before you can blink, it comes back at you in a thousand irresistible fragments. Try it! (Online, I mean.)

5.   Focus.

If you straddle several chairs you’ll probably fall between them. It’s the same with social media.

You can’t possibly be good at LinkedIn and Facebook and blogging and YouTube and Flickr and Twitter and all the others.

You’ll never see the sun!

Instead, check them all out, choose the one or two that feel right for you (and your clients) and spend time being open, genuine and generous there.

Twitter and blogging are my faves. The concerted effort I invest in these is well worth it.

That’s my story, anyway. How about you?

Are you Twitter friend or foe?

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

Paul has finally convinced me it’s time to make a more substantial appearance on this wonderful blog than in just the occasional comment.

Just as Santa reveals his mythical self at this time of year, I’m stepping from behind the admin dashboard to spread some festive cheer and thank you for your support over the past nine months – Paul and I are constantly bowled over by the generosity of spirit in our little community.

This is our first Christmas on SBO, and we thought we’d get into the mood by offering our loyal readers the chance to win a swish Christmas hamper full of lovely Yuletide delights, thanks to Glenda from Hobby Hampers (read her fab client gift ideas in Gift Rap).

All we ask in return is that you spread the SBO gospel as far and wide as you can.

To be in the running for Glenda’s hamper, we’re looking for you to sign up as many new email subscribers as possible between now and 11.59 pm on Tuesday 8 Dec (we originally said midnight, but there was too much debate over whether midnight is the beginning or end of the day )

Here’s how it works:

• The aim is to grow our email subscriber list (not RSS, because we can’t qualify them). Please don’t hold people at gunpoint – it makes Christmas dinner very awkward and we’d prefer it if you only sign up people who are genuinely interested in SBO and our subject matter.
• When you send your recruitment emails, make sure you put my email address megan.wilson@myob.com in the CC field – I’ll use this to match against new email subscribers.
• The person who successfully signs up the most new email subscriptions will win the prize
• In the event of a draw, the prize will be awarded on count-back to the person who signed up the new members first. For example, if two people each convert three subscribers, whoever’s third subscriber signed up first will win the prize.

We’ll announce the lucky winner in our regular post on 10 December.

We’d love to start 2010 with a flock of new readers to contribute to our growing community – Paul assures me that next year is going to be bigger and funnier than ever.

Hope you enjoyed my maiden post…Paul, you might’ve let the genie out of the bottle!

Megan from myBRC

Is Twitter relevant to your small business? Guest blogger Joanna Maxwell shares her experiences with the popular microblogging tool and explains how it’s helped her business.

It seems you can’t turn around these days without tripping over a reference to Twitter. Most people have at least a hazy idea that it has something to do with ‘microblogging in maximum 140 characters’.

I started my social media adventures with Facebook (which I only joined because my favourite online scrabble game went there).

After a while I got interested in social media for my own business and now I’m on Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn, Squidoo, Ning and more…

Twitter in particular has brought me contacts, ideas and information…it’s like a river flowing past my door, that I can dip into whenever I like.

I became so fascinated that I recently wrote an article for the Australian Financial Review BOSS magazine called ‘Beyond Twitter’, May 2009 issue. 

So how do you get started on Twitter? Here’s five tips:

1. Joining is easy at the twitter website. Be careful when you choose a username, because it will appear on every post you make and can’t be changed. If you are joining for business reasons, choose your business name or at least something that won’t embarass you later! (I am on Twitter as @workincolour).

2. Follow a couple of people to start with. This means you will see a stream of their posts and also posts from others that they have retweeted (like forwarding). If any of these look interesting, follow them too. Feel free to follow me.

3. You can search for people here, or search for subjects that interest you here.

4. Stuck? Watch the ‘get started’ video here or find answers to FAQs. One of the best websites about social media is http://mashable.com/.

5. Once you have the look, download a twitter organiser like Tweetdeck which means you can highlight your favourite people and have easier access to all the twitter functions.

The best way to get the hang of Twitter is to jump in and see what you find.

Hope to see you in the twitterverse!

Joanna Maxwell, Owner, WorkInColour

Connect with Joanna on Twitter and LinkedIn

Part 2 of 2

So there I was, simultaneously promoting free T-shirts and $120/hr copywriting on the same Web 2.0 channels. Visitors to my websites must have felt like they’d entered a dentist’s surgery, only to find themselves in a jumping castle.

I ignored all I knew about conveying a constant, relevant and significant message to a target audience. I vainly chased the holy grail of passive income (which has been beautifully defined as ‘working 18 hours a day to make money while you sleep’).

Finally, I woke up and went back to my main game. The game I’d spent 22 years and two degrees honing. I started writing about copywriting, and sending people to my copywriting site.

I soon caught the eye of Anthony, a web template designer who was rebuilding his own website. When he questioned me about copywriting (and I didn’t try to flog him a T-shirt) he asked me to quote on optimising his words.

Anthony liked my proposal and gave me a trial job. Though it took several hours to get a grip on the open source world of Joomla and its bewildering jargon, I did the job to his satisfaction. He told me to bill him. He paid the next day. $363 cash. That’s a lot of T-shirts.

A few days later, Anthony asked if I’d like to do an interview for his onsite blog. No payment, just my logo and URL prominently displayed. Free from my monetarised mentality, I said yes.

The result is now seen by many daily visitors to Joomla Bamboo (prospects I’d not have encountered otherwise). Twitterers from Anthony’s world are now following me, and vice versa.

When Anthony asked for a second article, I put everything I had into it. The result was so pleasing, I asked if I could leverage it with MYOB. He said yes, myBRC was rapt and you can read it here.

Meanwhile, I used Digg to cross promote my other myBRC copywriting articles about audiences, mission statements and job ads.

I was back on song. Instead of spreading myself thin, I was making the same call on every channel. The web had ballooned, but I had my pin. My visitor statistics jumped so much, I realised it was time to upgrade my own website (stay tuned for that one).

Each day now connects me with more of the people I want to learn from and do business with. It’s only a matter of time until I gain my next paying client from Twitter. I’ve even been approached to tell my story in a significant print publication (stay tuned for THAT one).

If the open-handed approach isn’t popping your balloon, focus your energies on one point: the pin is indeed mightier than the broad. I’m so happy with my breakthrough, I designed this ace T-shirt!  

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, www.thefeistyempire.com

Part 1 of 2

It’s hard to pop a balloon with open hands; the force dissipates over too great an area. A pin in two fingers gives a dramatically superior result. When you focus all your energies on one point, you all but guarantee success.

This post and the next show me using both methods. As we go, you’ll see some Web 2.0 jargon – all of which I’ll explain in detail down the track. For now, just watch this crazy, new-fangled social media stuff in action.

Here’s me spreading myself too thin (i.e. using the open-hands balloon-popping method):

My ten Squidoo lenses are here.

When I started Twitter, I sent my followers to this lens in particular.

This was to create custom for my REMO T-shirt site.

I got some sign-ups and sales and was particularly happy to connect with a clairvoyant in Washington (I’m in Melbourne, Australia). She was attracted to my palmistry t-shirt. We’d never have ‘intermet’ otherwise.

Then, the founder of REMO joined Twitter. I gave him some tips. I followed him, he followed me.

He found my Squidoo lens, liked it, retweeted it, then made me Featured Customer in his weekly newsletter to 38,500 people in 125 countries!

I got traffic spikes galore.

I was so elated with all this action, I blogged about Twitter here and here.

Big smiles! Fantastic fun! Wall-to-wall warm fuzzies!

Alas, despite having spent hundreds of hours on these exciting, new activities, I didn’t make enough actual cash to buy one soy Frappuccino (even if I’d wanted to).

It was at this point that I began to wonder – to my wife’s profound relief – whether I should focus on my ‘real’ job of writer, editor and proofreader.

Harnessing the web’s fickle and elusive power to this specific activity (the ‘pin’) is the subject of my next post.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, www.thefeistyempire.com