Social Networking Karma - Twitter

In my on-going series on Social Networking Karma I want to look at some specific techniques that you can use to promote others, build your business, and effectively promote your own shop. Today - Twitter!

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We hear all the time that Twitter is a powerful tool. I have to admit that I've gone back and forth on how I feel about this. There have been times where I've used twitter religiously, and times where I said "whatever" and ignored it. It's been a long, hard, road for me. Along the way I've learned some approaches that don't work, and quite a few things that do work! Here's my advice:

1. Don't feel like you have to read every tweet that every person you follow sends out.

While in an idea world you might see everything, the reality is that we are all balancing a variety of important things, and if you have a lot people you follow, seeing every tweet just isn't manageable. So what do you do? Well...

2. If you have unlimited texts - subscribe to mobile texts if you want to see every tweet a person sends out. Just remember that you will be overwhelmed if you do this for more than a few people! Another option is...

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3. Make a list of your top 20 people. These are the people that you want to check in on every day! When you log into twitter, use that list to dictate what you read first.

4. Use those lists for other things! Honestly, I don't utilize the power of lists the way I should, but I can see the potential! Feel free to use these lists to organize the people you follow however you want :)

5. Tweet and Retweet other people's work! This is the big one that I do. I may not be on twitter all the time, but when I am on there I try to retweet at least one person's tweet that I like. Ideally - two or three. This has lead to some great conversations and new friends! Also - when I see an item I really like, from a team mate or in a treasury, or just from browsing - I take a minute or so to tweet it! If you have that persons twitter address than include them in the tweet by doing "@their name." If not - send them a short message with a link to the tweet!

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There is a lot more that I could say about twitter - but I don't want this to get too long. So I'll just add one more thing. Do you know about hashtags? That's when you end your tweet with things like: #etsy, #artfire, and many, many more! These help people to find your tweets and can be really important. Trends occur when lots of people are using and searching these tags, and I'm trying to start a new trend! 

I'm using the hashtag #ArtistsTogether whenever I promote other artists. Why? It comes back to the whole concept of Social Networking Karma. Independent Artists find the best success when they work together. Hence - #ArtistsTogether! I have to admit one of my friends helped me come up with the tag and I can't for the life of me remember which one >_> 

My challenge to you is to promote other artists, as well as yourself, on your twitter! I'd love it if you'd join with me and use the #ArtistsTogether tag as well - thanks guys! 

One last thing - leave your twitter account in the comments! Mine is: www.twitter.com/rosewksjewelry

Watch me: How I promote HJC with Facebook

As you are aware, on top of having nice and beautiful creations, it requires a lot of effort in promoting your works online. For those who have just started out, you may feel a bit lost where to start after having your own website.



As Facebook has achieved trenmendous growth in the past few years, I would recommend you to start with facebook as most likely your friends and blog’s readers probably have Facebook profiles already. What you need to do is for you to set up a profile there and link up your blogs.

Here are some key actions for you:
1. Create a facebook profile if you do not already have one. Click here! Once you have set it up, you can link up your blog thru RSS using Notes. You will notice your friends get to see your blog post through your profile page.

2. Create a facebook group for your handmade jewelries. If you would like to find out how it looks like, you can visit HJC's group at http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=51682095329

3. Create a facebook page for your business. If you would like to find out how it looks like, you can visit HJC's page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Handmade-Jewelry-Jewellery-Club/49396535268

Facebook group and page are great viral marketing tool. Someone who join a group or a page may attract her other friends to join the same group or pages as well. Again, you can link up your blog post there thru RSS applications without much effort.

If you have some other tips, do share with us here. Cheers

Jane, www.diylessons.ning.com

Plurk VS Twitter

I know, I know, some of you are probably thinking, "Not ANOTHER social media site to keep up with!?!" But wait! Don't panic! Before you close this post thinking, "I just can't handle any more," I want to challenge you to at least read what I have to say, and THEN make your decision about wether Plurk might be a tool for you to use to grow your business. Ok?

www.plurk.com and www.twitter.com have a lot of similarites and a lot of differences. Similarities can be summed up as:

1. Both are Social Media Sites

2. Both provide you with a method to do "mini-blogging." IE - to share a short message about what's going on in your day.

3. Both have systems for finding and making "friends."

4. Both have systems for sending a direct or private message to an individual "friend."

Twitter has been around longer and is the one that I'm betting most of my readers are more familiar with. After all, even the stars are using twitter these days! I've been on twitter for awhile now, and I know many people who've found it very useful. I currently have 1,424 followers and I follow 1,377.

Now I know several people who've made sales that they can directly relate back to advertising on Twitter. I can say that I've gotten views on items, but no sales. I've built a few relationships, but with that many people feeding in to my twitter, building a relationship is hard!

When I first heard about Plurk my thought was, "Well isn't that just like Twitter? It's not like Twitter's really been that helpful for me..." I ignored the first few inventations I got to it, but then I noticed something. I was getting a LOT of invites for Plurk! So one day when I had some extra time I signed up...and fell in love pretty quickly.

Like Twitter, you post up short thoughts on Plurk. However, instead of having to go to your "replies" section to see if you've gotten any responses, Plurk creates a "thread" with each post that's put up so you and anyone else who's interested can follow the responses! This makes it much easier to form a connection and have a conversation with the people reading your plurks.

Plurk also updates you immediately when one of your friends puts up a new post or when someone replies. With Twitter you have to find and download a seperate program to get those features, but Plurk does it right there in your browser. I can't run the Twitter programs because I'm on a laptop and it slows down my processing speeds too much, but I can keep up with Plurk!

Now here's the kicker - I've only been on Plurk for a month or two (vs 8-10 months with Twitter) - and I've already had several sales as a result! Since all your replies to a post are right there and easy to view it's really easy to talk to potential customers. I've had several direct sales where I've posted about a new item and it's sold, and I've negotiated several custom orders via plurk.

Does that mean Twitter's all bad? Certainly not! Like I said, I know people who make sales from it! Plurk allows me to send all my posts over to Twitter so I still use my twitter. I check for responses through out the day and I still talk to people over there. I just vastly prefer Plurk!

If your interested in signing up for an account on plurk just follow this link: http://www.plurk.com/roseworksjewelry/invite