The growing topic on Twitter and the Blogosphere is how Online Marketers are becoming very bitter with the increase competition in Social Media Marketing.  You may have witnessed statements like “Everyone is a Social Media Expert” or “I hate how everyone thinks they are a Social Media Marketer”

Put Away The Social Media Hatorade

There seems to be a lot of animosity going on lately but the Top Social Media Strategists in the Web 2.0 world doesn’t seem to care to be affected by this battle.

The truth of the matter is this and its quite simple really.

“Social Media Marketing is the new standard and instead of fighting it, we must embrace it or be left behind”

Embracing Change

Remember back then in the DOT.COM boom where supposedly have a Dot.com business will make you MILLIONS & MILLIONS of money for everyone!!!  Well of course we found out the hard way just because we got online does not mean it’s instant cash.  Keep in mind everyone back then was gunning for a dot.com business, it was a race more or less.  Back then, entrepreneurs were hating on the competition and wanted to be the first to win the race.  However, the race and dot.com business bubbled and simmered down and now everyone is online.

The same concept applies to this day, who cares if everyone is using Social Media Marketing tactics.  Guess what, this is starting to become the normal practice and eventually everyone will use Social Media Marketing tactics in their business.

This is Business 101 folks, instead of being paranoid and bitter about competition.  Embrace competition and find ways to improve yourself and focus on how to be successful rather than pouting and complaining because your Mother is right, “It won’t do you any good”.

So what can we do while the Marketing Revolution shifts and starts conforming the entire world to this new change?  Instead of whining about the competition lets focus on these aspects, shall we:

• Start building your online presence in full affect to get a head start from your competition who hasn’t signed up on board with Social Media Marketing yet.  We are at an advantage while most people are afraid to embrace this new change, why not start building a great gap in your head start before your competition wises up and hops on the bandwagon.

• For your current competition who use Social Media Marketing now, constantly learn and read new things on how to improve your current marketing methods,  You can never learn too much.  Also, learn from the best even if it’s your direct competitor.  Just like Microsoft and the great painters in the world, they steal great ideas, upgrades it, and make it their own.  Sometimes to be successful you have to mirror the best but make it your own.

So let’s all put away the Social Media Hatorade and re-focus our efforts on how to be successful instead of focusing on things we can’t change.  Social Media Marketing is here to stay and we can either embrace it or be left behind.  Whats your decision?

Post from: Social Media Vision

Put Away The Social Media Hatorade

Support For Iran Election Crisis

These past 2 weeks have been crazy with the crisis over in Iran regarding a revolting Election.  Mashable has written a great timeline of events if you need to get caught up with all the Social Media hoopla regarding the Iran Crisis here.

A movement has been recently made to show support for the protesters in regards to the Iran Crisis, the movement is wearing or showing the color green for the democracy of Iran.  Many Athletes, Celebs and Social Media sites are incorporating this movement and is rapidly growing.

Below are 2 simple ways to make your Social Media icon turn green or showcase a green ribbon.

1.)  Go to http://helpiranelection.com/ this site will overlay your Twitter picture with a green overlay or a green ribbon.  You have to supply your username and password to do so but its real simple to get it done.  However if you are uneasy in giving out your password and username on this site you may want to try the other option (The site uses OAuth like many other sites that require login information)

or..

1. Go to http://www.picnik.com

2. Upload a picture to use

3. Click ‘create’ tab

4. Click ‘effects’

5. Select ‘Night Vision’

6. Or Click “Stickers”

7. Select “Awareness Ribbons”

6. Save

I like doing the picnik option because mainly I have always been a fan of the create on the fly site and because I like the flexibility of creating the avatar effects so you can use your avatar not only on Twitter but show support in all your Social Media Exposure like Facebook or AIM.

Whichever you decide to do, please let’s show our support in this crisis and hope it all ends with a solution.

Post from: Social Media Vision

How to turn your Social Media Avatar Green in Support for #Iran

The Blame Game

Over the years, there has been many articles written about how certain Social Networks were causes for certain events.

Below are a few examples:

• Mashable writes about how Facebook Can Get You Fired, Dumped, And Yes, Evicted
• Gawker explains how a bank intern gets fired because of Facebook.
• Another story of getting fired from Facebook is from Switched, a teen calls job “boring”
• Most recently, the famous story about how a would-be cisco employee would of got hired except Twitter got him fired.
• Americanshelflife talks about how she got dumped because of Facebook

Now noticed, all the articles have one thing in common and that is doing the blame game.  It seems like placing the blame of the bad news on the Social Network is more shocking than comparing it to a normal event without Social Media involved.

It appears with the new hype and phenomenon of Social Media taking place that these stories get hyped due to having the event take place on Social Media.  This maybe the case, but they are still all missing the main point and that’s being accountable for their own actions.

Social Media Are Just Communication Tools and Mediums

Twitter, Myspace and Facebook are just Social Networks.  They are communication tools that we use on a daily basis.  Although these are great sources for communication, they are just that and doesn’t force us to do anything  against our will.

If you ever heard the saying….

“Computers don’t make errors, people make errors”

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”

These sayings imply that to not blame the tools but to blame the users.

Be Accountable For Your Actions

There is a great movement and book out there if you haven’t heard it, it’s called QBQ – The Question Behind The Question and Personal Accountability.

That’s what this is all about, these users on these Social Networks need to stop blaming Social Media for their actions and take personal accountability for what they did.

It’s not Facebook’s fault that the users got fire for posting incriminating information…..

It’s not Twitters fault for displaying a users Tweet on his careless opinion about his future employer…

It’s not Myspace’s fault that you got dumped……

Let’s look at the cold hard facts.  These users are all soley responsible for their actions and just because they have the ability to showcase their information to the world they should have the common sense to be more careful in what they put out there on the net.

Just because you entertained the idea that you will never get caught because it’s Social Media, doesn’t make it right.  If you published your hatred opinion in a book instead of Facebook, don’t think you will not fall under the same consequences.  Doing something wrong is doing something wrong regardless if you get caught or not.

Bottom line is that Social Media is not to blame….the blame is upon yourself…take personal accountability for your actions and next time make better judgement calls before you go out and do something you will regret.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Don’t Blame Twitter, Myspace or Facebook; Blame Yourself

“Surrounding Yourself With Successful People” should be a familiar saying in the business world of successful entrepreneurs.  This goal is built up surrounding yourself with positive energy, wisdom and influences.  You learn from the best who are successful and you mimic or reflect that success when you position yourself in with them.

Whether you are trying to learn about Social Media, running your own business and just want to expand your network; Here are 7 strategies to help get you started.

1.)  Meetups

Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Meetups are a great way to find “LOCAL” successful people in your area.  This is a great change of pace of always being in celebrity awe online, now you can meet the true local successful people in your area through Meetups.

Many Twitter users are incorporating Tweetups in which its a meetup for Twitter users.

2.)  Join Groups/Associations

This may sound like common sense but people tend to join the wrong groups or don’t even join in the first place.

Join groups that provide value in your niche and show highly updated activities within the groups.  If your looking to connect with other Social Media experts, you would want to find groups with active members and are committed in helping other members.

By joining effective groups, you are gaining exposure and wisdom with other successful people in your group.  This will allow you to see what the experts are up to and what top new stories are being published right on your social network.

If you don’t know where to begin, start with the top with the most active members.

• Facebook Social Media Top Groups

Social Media Measurement

Social Media Marketing Mastermind

PRISM – The Secret Social Media Alliance

• LinkedIn Social Media Top Groups

Pro Marketers – For Marketing Professionals

Social Media Marketing

Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo

3.) Friend/Fan

Follow the top experts in your niche on the top social media sites out there.  It’s ok if they don’t follow you back or even engage conversations with you personally.  The point is to add these experts into your arsenal.   This is like a blogroll where people can view which powerhouse experts are associated with you providing you with more authority.

Go ahead and friend the experts on Digg, Myspace, Facebook & LinkedIN and Follow on Twitter.  It doesn’t matter if they friend or follow back, the point is that you added them to your knowledge rack and branded yourself with a power presence in your niche or field.

Who would you think has more authority as a Lawyer on Social Media, a user who has just personal friends and family or a user who has the top 50 Lawyers in the US along with personal and family friends?

Perception is key.

4.)  Subscribe to RSS Feeds

If you don’t know what a RSS feed is yet, I suggest you do so.  A RSS feed will replace your over abundance favorite websites and e-mail subscriptions.

Start subscribing to as many top expert’s sites and blogs out there in your niche.  The beautiful thing about RSS readers is that you can add many sites/blogs without sacrificing organization and value.

Get your dose of your updated daily wisdom in your niche with beautiful top stories of experts in your area. Below are sites to help get your started in searching for experts and successful people in your field to follow

http://alltop.com/ – Has great categories to help you find the top expert bloggers in that area.

http://popurls.com/ - Another great Buzz Aggregator

http://blogsearch.google.com/ – Google only uploads links in the blog search that have great value and authority.  An excellent place to find niches within the first 10 results.

Find a top successful blogger in your niche find out who’s on his blogroll and follow those people.

5.)  Build a comment community

Commenting on other blogs in your niche is not only a good way to build SEO backlinks and Google pagerank but is also a vital role in networking with your niche blogger community.

When you focus on your niche, for example Social Media and you just comment on the top Social Media blogs, you are gaining exposure, authority and building a great presence for new associates and friends that will come out of commenting on blogs.

This can go hand in hand with your RSS reader where you would have all your all star RSS feeds in your niche and just remember to comment as much as you can to start building that presence and surrounding yourself in successful environments.

6.)  Chat

Utilize the Chat tools like Instant Messenger, Ustream and Hashtag chats to find and follow some amazing people in your niches.

The most common rule in Social Media is to always have your contact information displayed so you can engage and connect effectively. Displaying your IM screen names on Social Sites can help you connect with some successful players in your field.

A good tip in how to become a Power User on Twitter is to actively engage the top Digg users via instant messenger.  IMs are fast and easy access to get advice and start building a great relationship with the top experts.

Another great method is to find Ustreams and like Vidcasts that are going on within your niche.  A great way to start is finding when the next big vidcast will begin on Social Networks like Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.

Vidcasts are great because not only you can really kick it up a notch in the engagement level but once again show your presence in building a stronger community with the top experts in your field.

Finally #Hashtag chats are found on Twitter.  These chats are formed on Twitter and are engaged on Twitter.  Once you determine which #hashtag chat to join, go to the Twitter search page http://search.twitter.com/ and start tracking the #hashtag in the timeline.  These are becoming more and more popular because anyone can join the fun at anytime.

7.)  Conferences/Shows, Seminars & Barcamps

This is no secret, the most active, enthusiastic and successful people in their niche follow shows, seminar and Barcamps to gain more knowledge and networking exposure.  The weakest links will not devote their time to join these events and this is a great avenue to find your successful associations.

Barcamps are community content driven workshops.   These organizations are largely formed on the web and exposed mainly in Social Media.  This is the underground hype you may not find out on the streets but only in web 2.0.

You don’t have to leave your house to join these events you can join Web conference calls as well.  Web conferences are excellent resources for events on the fly and ease of accessibility.

Focus

The secret of success is focusing on goals and visions of success.  Surround yourself with successful people to help influence and inspire you on this path of success.

Post from: Social Media Vision

7 Ways To Surround Yourself With Successful People In Social Media

Google PageRank

December 31st marked the day where Google updated the PageRank numbers for websites and blogs.

A PageRank is a metric measuring tool created by Google to measure reputation and importance content.  The last PageRank update occurred on September 2008 and usually occurs every 2-3 month intervals.  A wiki of PageRank can be found here.

There is however a lot of controversy over PageRank because webmasters are more focused on A search engine results page, or SERP.  The thing about Google is that they are very hush hush on the algorithms and formulas used behind their metrics including PageRank.  Webmasters have often experienced disappointment and frustration when determining PageRank and have often lashed out online with the results they have received.

The bottom line about PageRank is that its just another measurement tool used in the online world.  This may not be used to gain better search results but here is what it may be used for …

• A statistic used by Domain sellers & buyers.  Like it or not, domain buyers will want to know about your PageRank. 
• Can Deliver traffic based on PageRank worship and comment love.  Bloggers love finding high PageRanks to subscribe and leave comments on so that they can build their own backlinks through your PageRank Juice.  You will also gain traffic through un-marketed blogrolls, bloggers will more than likely list a high PageRank than a low PageRank.
• Google’s highly secretive search results formula still might be influenced by PageRank whether its a very small amount or a high amount.
• Overall PageRank is a measurement number widely viewed by the online world to determine rank.

So whether you like it or not, the best suggestion would to have a high PageRank anyways instead of complaining about it.  It’s best to have a good rank rather than be left in the dust and lose out on opportunities on a simple PageRank upkeep.

So below are tips and advice that I have done just in the matter of 1 month.  Social Media Vision opened up on 11-06-2008.  My other blogs based on Finance & Sales are all in the PR3 range and took many months to achieve that rank.  In the forum world people have also said to wait at least 1 year or so to even see a PR1 change, so I was very humbled and surprised when I see a Google PageRank 3 achieved in this PageRank.

Now there is no exact formula out there and guarantee due to the complex nature of Google but feel free to follow these tips below to help gain some tips on achieving a higher PageRank.

Google PageRank Tips

1. No BlackHat Advertisements

Google will penalize for unlawful selling or buying links.  Another blackhat ad trick is selling your posts on your blog for profit or Pay Per Post.  If you are going to do these ads on your site, use the “no-follow” code rel=nofollow.  This will allow Google to not track that you are following these ads or links.  I would suggest even using it on all your 125×125 Block ads.

2. Use Do-Follow Forums utilizing forum signatures

Forums are great resources for hidden promotion gems.  You can create a signature that displays your website/blog on ever comment you make in the forum.  I was commenting on forums that were in my niche “Social Media” like

• SitePoint forums, DigitalPoint forums and Warrior forums

You can use a do-follow search engine like DoFollow Forums to determine if the forum will give you PageRank juice with your signature links.  It won’t make any sense to start commenting like crazy expecting results if the forum is a no-follow forum.  

3.  Comment on Do-Follow blogs

Just like with forums, search and find Do-Follow blogs to comment on.  A good way to see if they follow a do-follow rule is look the blogger’s comments page and notice where the user will leave a website in the comment field, do a right click –> view source to look at the code to find the website of that commenter and if you see a no-follow code right next to the commenters website then that blog is a no-follow blog.  

There are many search engines out there that you can Google Do-Follow search.  I have found that commenting on the Do-Follow blogs has also upped my community experience too in getting to know my blogger niche community.

4.  Comment on Commentluv blogs

You may noticed my blog is commentluv enabled which allows my commenters a display of the last blog post they wrote if they opted to display their website link.  This is a great link love where you can gain great authority and new readers with commentluv.

5.  Find blogs with top commenter widgets

I have also found that finding blogs that display the Top Commenter widgets that show the top 5 or 10 commenters on the sidebar is another way to gain PR link juice.  Since this will be static in showcasing your site, the main website is giving your site a major boost in back-link juice.  I have found that major websites with high PR is very beneficial to get on the top commenter list even though it may be difficult to achieve.

6.  Submit site to directories

First rule is to develop content first within your website .  I wrote a good 10 articles before I started submitting to all the major blog and website directories out there.  It may be tedious but its worth it.

7.  Use social bookmarking

Social Bookmarking sites have really helped me with SERP and Google organic search results.  Use Social Bookmarking tools to get your blog indexed fast and start gaining authority in the Social Media world.

So even though you may hate PageRank and don’t think its worth it.  I highly suggest that you may reconsider and hopefully these tips/guidelines may help on your next PageRank update.  It’s only 2-3 month intervals so if you were disappointed on the last update, hold your head up and make a major bounce back.

Build rapport with a global audience and have your brand known, hire a social media agency today.

Post from: Social Media Vision

How I Got From Google Pagerank 0 To PR3 In 1 month

Online Branding

What is an Online Brand? A Brand is the association connected to product, service or person and an Online Brand is taking that same establishment but developing it for the Online world.

Branding is a way to be remembered and have impact upon perception.  It’s also another way to claim separate identities and claim ownership.  The best example of this is back in the day Cowboys would brand their herd with their own signature trademarks to claim as property and to establish from the rest of the packs out there.

So why would you need an online brand?  Well it’s quite simple you need to..

• Establish your Online Identity
• Set yourself apart
• Claim ownership of your Identity
• Build awareness and recognition
• Exposure

To get started in your online presence and branding the easiest way to begin is to claim your online identity first

Hey Zero Cool what is your handle?

You may of noticed with my Blog image header that its a picture from the movie Hackers.  Most notable was the Online Handle “Zero Cool” from the movie.

Hackers for example have a way of standing out or becoming known in the online world by their calling name or Online Handle.   An Online Handle is a username/nickname or online username that is used when referring to oneself other than their real name.

AOL is another big hit example where Screen Names took off and once again pushed online users to develop an online id other than their real names.  Screen Names took off with unique handles too during the Punter & Prog Age in claiming online territories.

Blogs, Social Media and Social Networks like Twitter all require a Username of some sort and by now more than likely you have a couple user names floating out there.  

The best way to develop a nice and consistent online branding is to have a conisstent user name throughout your Social Media sites out there.

Below is an Online Tool to check your Username throughout all Social Media websites.

Usernamecheck.com

Website usernamecheck.com is a simple site that searches over 65+ different Social Media websites out there to see if your online username has been taken or is available for use.

This is a great tool to seize the opportunity in shutting out your competition or claiming your online identity ownership.  After setting up your profiles in these Social Media websites, I would suggest in also staking your claims below

• E-Mail domains like Gmail, Yahoo & MSN
• Gamer Profiles like Second Life, MMORPGS
• Instant Message clients like AIM

Be creative –  Be unique.  You will find that it will be harder to claim ownership in online profiles if its a very common name and it will important more than ever to claim ownership early.

So go out there, develop an online identity and stake your claim in the digital world.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Social Media Online Branding & Establishing Presence With An Online Identity

Guest Blogger Tina Merritt

Tina is a good friend of mine who is a Real Estate Agent & Internet Marketing Trainer for Long & Foster Realtors, Founder of Wolkia a consulting company for Real Estate Agents embracing Technology, Activerain Blogger, Awesome Mother & a Virginia Tech Hokies fan.

I was honored to have her guest blog on my post with this re-blog below on Social Network Friendships.  Enjoy!

It seems every site nowadays gives you the opportunity to follow “friends”.

So, what type of “friends” are there?  Let’s take a look….

1. True friends.  People you personally know.  People you talk to at least once per month.  The people who probably know way too much about you.  The people who you would have to pay to be silent if you ever decided to run for public office.

2.  Business Associates.  Colleagues you do business with on a regular basis.  Maybe you work in the same office.  Maybe they have done your loans/home inspections/closings for the past 5 years.  People who know you personally, but probably don’t REALLY know you.

3.  Clients.  Past, present, future.  You handled a business transaction for them 3 years ago, haven’t talked to them since – but that doesn’t mean they don’t like you.

4.  Former classmates.  Gary the Geek, Popular Priscilla, Doug the Druggie, Wanda the Weirdo….you know what I mean.  The old boyfriend who is now married with 3 kids or your best friend from 7th grade.

5.  Social Networking friends.  This gets tricky.  People you have never met face to face but have watched on YouTube, read their blogs, subscribed to their feed, etc.  People you feel like you know – though you have never personally met.

6.  Acquaintances.  People you have heard of, or they have heard of you – though you really do not know much about them.

7.  Circle of Sphere.  People who know people you know.  You may or may not ever get to actually know them.

8.  Strangers.  The friend request you get that you accept and the person is some guy who builds skateboards out of his garage in Brazil.  You have absolutely nothing in common….and probably never will.

When deciding who to “friend”, keep this in mind…..what is the purpose of the site you are on and who are you trying to connect with?  Very often, your “friends” will take a look at the others you have “befriended”.  Be careful here….if you are using Facebook for business, do you want Boobalicious Brenda or Boozing Bernie to show up in your friend feed? Also, periodically check out your “friends” – you may be surprised what their new profile picture looks like and how it can reflect back on you.

Tina in Virginia

Post from: Social Media Vision

Boobalicious Brenda – Who Are Your 8 Types Of Online Friends ?

Comment Vanity

What is comment vanity you may ask? Comment Vanity is the condition in which a Blogger has excessive pride in receiving comments, a constant need to check to see if their post has comments and to make sure that their post has a lot of comments.

Comments are an excellent measure on your reeaders feedback but don’t believe that’s the sole answer if your post is good or not. Below are the 4 stages of the commenter.

The Normal Commenter – This is your normal avera Joe commenter.  He/She comments because they found the post to be interesting and of value and wishes to express opinion or praise on your post.

The Backlink Leecher – This is your typical commenter who have found that your blog is either ranked high in PageRank, Organic Rank, or a Do-Follow blog that gives the commenter Google Juice.  The commenter solely just comments for his/her own selfish ambition.

The Blogger Friendship – The Blogger friendship commenter may not mean any harm but simply just comments back or comments on their friend’s blog out of courtesy, respect and because they feel obligated to comment on their friends blog.

The Spammer/Splogger – This commenter is the most hated commenter, which most of the time is not even human and is mainly automated in trying to scrape a blog’s content in order to use in their own site or even promoting an unwanted link, thank heaven for Akismet.

So if you are measuring your results solely on comment love you may find some irregularities within your results due to the above.

You shouldn’t worry about measuring your posts with comments.  There have been many quality posts that have little or no comments.  Great posts shouldn’t be overlooked just because there are no comments on it.  Your view count from Google Analytics can measure viewable results which shouldn’t be compared to quality.

Your posts already has a great value to it once posts and that’s exposure to the online world.

Planting You Digital Seeds

Worry less on how many views and comments you receive and worry more on the quality you put forth out there in the online world.  The whole main concept is planting your Digital Seeds.  

You may not have many comments now or many views now but your post is out there in cyberspace and you may get sleeper success in which a viewer may not have to comment on your blog in order to like it or promote it.  Also just because there is nothing there now doesn’t mean there will be nothing in the future.  

My Grandfather is a wise man and has always said, Don’t measure your success in how many things you have.  Measure your success how valuable the things you have.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Planting Your Digital Seeds Overides Comment Vanity

The NoFollow Comment Rule

Back in 2005, Google implemented the code of [rel="nofollow"] attribute on links found in the comments section of websites and blogs.  The idea behind this is to prevent comment spammers trying to  increase his page rank and exposure to his website.  The  nofollow code has been widely accepted since then and almost all  platforms use this code on almost all comment sections.

Another reason to use the nofollow code is to prevent being penalized on “Paid Links”.  Paid links are against Google’s guidelines and will penalize you if you do not add the nofollow code to tell the search engines that is is a paid advertisement.  The guidelines state that you can not buy and sell links only for advertising purposes and the only way to tell the difference is with the no follow code.

Currently there are highly advanced security measures like Askimet plugins that prevent the comment spammers from ever appearing on your blog in the first place.  Captcha word verifications are also very popular and effective in preventing spam.  This should of opened the flood gates with the dofollow rules again but unfortunately the nofollow rule is still very much a major factor still till this day.

Spreading Link Love

Your blog and website is a hub for your online readers to interact and engage with you and other readers.  The best way to show your appreciation back to your readers is have a follow back based on your readers comments, showing common web 2.0 courtesy and respect.

Below are 2 ways that I have implemented on my website to show my
support in the Spread the Link Love movement.

• Do-Follow Plug-ins - An easy way to remove and disable the nofollow code on your blog or website is by installing a Do-Follow plug-in.  This is a simple and easy way to solve this problem
  right away.  A good WordPress plug-in I am currently using is Semiologic’s Plugin

• CommentLuv - Is another plug-in that enables you to reward your readers by auto-populating the reader’s last blog post they have written in your comments section. The idea is basically the same as implementing a do-follow site, but CommentLuv move a step further by rewarding the commentators a link back to their latest post as well. 

CommentLuv currently runs as a WordPress or Drupal plugin, but they promised they will expand it to other blog host such as Blogger. You may click on the following link to visit CommentLuv’s website: http://www.commentluv.com/

The “I Follow” Movement

Yes, today I joined the “I follow” movement in helping spread the word in getting back the dofollow code back in the mainstream of thing.  I have installed both plug-ins on my website and have included the badges on my sidebar.  If you want a great badge too, follow the poster-child of the movement, Randy Clay at his website here to grab a great looking badge.

Please feel free in testing out the CommentLuv and the Open Do-Follow comment section below.  Please keep in mind I sill monitor my comments and will delete any spam if deemed necessary.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Showing Link Love with CommentLuv and Do-Follow Plug-ins

What is a Twitter SeeSaw

A Twitter SeeSaw is when you have a lop-side count of either Following or Followers.  This affect tends to happen due to these four stages.

1. Twitter Rockstar
2. Twitter Peoples Champ
3. Twitter Spam Follow
4. Twitter Snob

The most known Twitter SeeSaw reason is the Twitter RockStars or the Twitter Celebrities.  The most notorious Twitter Celeb right now besides Barack Obama is Kevin Rose; founder of Digg.com.

As you can see Kevin has a high Follower count compared to his Following count.  Now I don’t know 100% why Kevin chose not to follow people back but most famous Twitter profiles choose not to follow back due to a high demand of people following them. 

The Twitter People’s Champ is when you have a good balance ratio of Followers and Following.  Most famous example of this scenario is Guy kawasaki; Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures.  Guy exemplifies fantastic Twitter Balance and Recriprocation.  His ratio is almost a dead even 50/50 ratio with room to spare of not following Spammers.  This status shows Follow-back love and openness to interaction.

This Stage is the very best stage to have on Twitter due to the power of connection and engagement of Social Media.  This is what Social Media is all about, without interaction then it’s like just reading the news on a website with no social interaction.  This stage is highly encouraged to practice and will reap the best rewards.  This does not mean follow back everyone who follows you, still weed out the scammers, spammers and fake profiles to maximize effectiveness.

The Twitter Spam Follow is a no brainer where they become lopsided in trying to follow as many Twitter accounts as possible in trying to gain a follow back.  Twitter had recently put a cap on the follow limit you could have in a short time frame without having a the same number of follow backs; 2,000 is the ceiling limit.  Now the Spammer have found a way around this by doing a mass follow, relying on Twitter to notify you by e-mail that you have a new follower, the spammer will then mass remove follow to stay under the 2,000 limit.

The Twitter Snob stage goes hand in hand with the Twitter Rockstar.  You may not be a Twitter Rockstar but you may have more Followers than Following.  This is due to the reason because you don’t want to clutter your Twitter stream with an overload of Tweets of people you may not know too well so therefore you a become very selective in choosing who to follow so your Twitter stream will always be filled with the Tweets you want to see.

You may not want to clutter your Twitter stream but there are better reason whys to have a great follow back ratio.  The main reason is due to the power of utilizing Social Media effectively. Another reason is because you can still have a clean Twitter stream by using great Twitter tools to organize groups where you can focus on the ones you want without sacrificing your Following.  

My suggestion would be to use TweetDeck when your on a personal computer and an application like Tiny Twitter for your Mobile connection.  Both Applications are very good in organizing your points of focus so that way you can still keep track of your main Followers while still keeping tabs of the Twitter world.

TweetDeck is great because you can create a group where you can follow only the Twitter people you want to follow and organization is key which should solve the problem of the Twitter RockStar and Twitter Snob.

Post from: Social Media Vision

The 4 Stages Of The Twitter SeeSaw