flokkaEtc

Flokka joined the twitter-verse a little while ago (BO = before Oprah) after much dragging of the chain. We had a light bulb moment and discovered there was more to twitter than telling the world what we had for dinner and if we were soaking in the bath.

You can follow us here: www.twitter.com/flokka. Our goal is to keep you alerted to quality content about blogging, business, online tools and women in business (and yes, twitter). As well as links to worthy information on the internet, we’ll also direct you back to flokka with links to our members fab blog posts or brilliant flokka posts and articles.

I’m still learning, but I’ve enjoyed a crash course in using twitter and while there’s zillions of blog posts already dedicated to ‘how-to-twitter’, here are some of my own gems:

- If nothing else, join twitter and grab your name and/or your business name before they’re snapped up. I belong to a Facebook group of Fiona Powell’s (was on a whim) - and surprisingly there are a lot of us in the world. My sister shares her name with a famous porn star (true story) and her name has already been snapped up on twitter by said star.

- Find a couple of people you admire, and follow them and see what and how they’re tweeting.

- Decide on the purpose of your tweeting; is it to build followers, be an information conduit or attract people to your blog or something else? In saying this, twitter is still quite fluid as we all discover the possibilities and potential.

- Download tweetdeck or twhirl to manage your replies, direct messages, tweets from the people you’re following and also to tweet (they include applications to add pictures to your message, and the ability to shorten long URL addresses - as there’s only 140 characters to say your bit)

- Build your ‘following’ list slowly with quality twitterers. Consider building a ‘profile’ of the people that would most likely share the information or contacts you’re looking for. For example, if I discover a great woman in business blog , then I’ll follow the author on twitter. I don’t always follow my followers - I’m not after quantity. Remember, if you’re following anyone and everybody, the quality ‘tweets’ will be lost amongst the ‘noise’. The simplest way when you’re starting out is to find someone who is in the same industry or who you admire and check out their followers, and follow them too.

- As with any PR, networking or social networking don’t do the hard sell, it’s a real turn off; offer your followers something of value instead and they will follow you, get to know you and maybe visit your blog or website.

- Download a twitter widget (available on twitter, or on your wordpress blog and lots of other places) to include in the side bar of your blog or website, so your readers can view your updates and follow you on twitter.

- And include your twitter address on your business cards, email signature, website (with an icon), blog, and flokka profile, so we can follow you!

- Spread your ‘tweets’ throughout the day to allow for followers in different time zones, so they don’t miss them.

- Have fun! Twitter seems to bring the world closer. For me, it’s a huge buzz to be connected with people, and to be in front of people, I admire from all over the world; from my office downunder in New Zealand.

There are lots of great blog posts about twitter online. I found these ones in particular helpful for twittering for business (I’m obviously a list kind of girl), so if you want to know more, check these out:

Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners 

Six ways to make Twitter useful

50 ideas on using twitter for business

How to get people to follow your business on twitter  

Top 10 reasons why your company shouldn’t tweet  

And a whole blog of twitter tips from problogger