1. Attraction: What will initially attract followers are your tweets.So go post at least 5 to 10 updates before you go following anyone.We don’t want your new followers turning up to a blank page!Interestingly you will still get followers if your page is blank but they are probably the kinda followers you want to steer clear of.
2. Credibility: Sorry guys a picture of your pet gold fish and a name like MLM2009 just isn’t going to cut the mustard. You’re out there to socialize, so treat it like you would any offline’ social arena. When you go to a party, you don’t put a paper bag over your head and introduce yourself as MLM2009. I think you get my drift..
3. Relationships: As with the party scenario, if someone wanted to get to know you and asked what you do, you wouldn’t say ‘MLM expert’ or you would sound like a moron! You also wouldn’t answer with a blank stare. So the same thing applies to your bio. Fill it in and make it interesting.
3. Your Opportunity: Come on guys, sheesh EVERYONE including you hates spam. So why the heck would you go out onto a social networking site and spam it with your opportunity all day long. Do you really think people are sitting there just hoping that someone finally spams them with a good business opportunity!
4. Contribution: Unless your name is Paris Hilton or Barak Obama, people aren’t really that interested in the fact that you just made a piece of toast. Don’t get me wrong, if you really did just eat something fascinating or want to mention the restaurant you ate at, then that could be valuable content. Otherwise, leave the mundane activities out of your tweets and save those for when you want to direct message your friends. As far as what is considered ‘valuable’ to your followers, useful and interesting links are what’s hot.
5.Power Through Association:I got this tip from Guy Kawasaki.I’m going to call it the @guru tip!Send @ messages to the social media big dogs.These are the folks with a large number of followers and seem to be the opinion leaders (and perhaps even heros ) of Twitter.They probably won‘t answer you but that‘s ok.The aim is to appear‘ like you have a relationship with them to enhance your credibility.The theory is if she is tweeting @MrBigDog, she must be worth following .It‘s not who you know, it‘s who appears‘ to know you.Apparently! (BTW, when I sent a tweet to Guy Kawasaki, he replied! LOL)
6. Protected updates: Unless your pic suddenly showed up on the ‘Worlds most Wanted list or you’re hiding from the KGB, don’t activate this function.Come on, you’re not that special are you!
7. Etiquette:The greatest compliment you can pay anyone on Twitter is to RT (re-tweet) their Tweet.Do this when you have genuinely found someone‘s Tweet interesting, funny or valuable, not just because everyone else is re-tweeting.
8. Bankruptcy: Until you reach 2000 followers, don‘t go following more than about 100 people a day.Twitter changes the rules regularly so you don‘t want to trigger a ‘Mosey along now, this account has been suspended’!
9. The Terminator:This is possibly the most important piece of info you might read if you work for a company.Be careful what you Tweet. Tweeting My boss is so dumb he doesn‘t realize I‘m building my online empire while he‘s paying me to work! might not be the smartest move.Remember the Cisco fiasco where 1 tweet screwed up a potential high paying job: http://ciscofatty.com/
10. Who’s Who: My personal list of the top 10 ‘must follow’ on Twitter. 
GuyKawasaki Well his name speaks for himself plus I gotta recommend him considering I used his tip!
JoelComm Author of Twitter Power and a Social Media Evangelist
DaveEvans Social Media Consultant and author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day.
MariSmith Dubbed the Pied Piper of the Online World by Fastcompany. The ‘Queen’ of FaceBook.
PerryBelcher Seriously Bad Ass Marketer (his words) and also known as The ‘King’ of Youtube.
Mashable The hottest Twitter tips news and help around. Plus the best Social Media links online.
AskMrVideo Ask him any question on video production, literally.
RichSchefren Known as the ‘Guru’ to the internet guru’s. Seriously kick butt free manifestos for online entrepreneur’s.
Great Stuff Michaele,
I’ve fallen down on my Twitter presence and need to make it a habit to Tweet regularly. I think I need to clean house, so to speak and eliminate the business blasters and the nonsense mongers.
Can’t wait for the next post….great job.
Kim
Hi Michaele,
great information, I like it and very helpful for those that use twitter.
so many people are using it the wrong way.
keep up the good work.
Jean
It’s so nice when people post relevant interesting things to twitter. Many network marketers need to heed the reminder that spam will get you unfollowed faster than anything. Excellent article, keep up the good work.
I agree Bobby as I love Twitter for exactly that (relevant or interesting content). It’s a shame that people view it as a spam fest rather than an amazing opportunity to build relationships.
I LOVE THIS POST!!! I think I’ll go twitter about it. LOL. Seriously. Every person who uses twitter needs to read this. Great one Michaele.
Krista
.-= Krista Abbott´s last blog ..The Importance of Debriefing…or for Internet Marketers AB testing. =-.
Hey Krista,
Nice to receive a comment on what I think was my very first blog post.
You know that one that you think you might look back in horror on in 12 months time lol.
Great post Michaele! Forgive me for focusing in on number 2 here, but you mean to tell me that my “MLM_ROX_TODAY” name with my picture of my long haired dachshund isnt ok?
Well at least you told me about it before I did something stupid. :)
Seriously…
Thanks for the info. I think everyone should be required to read this post before they are allowed to create a twitter account.
Warmest Regards,
Justin
.-= Justin Glover´s last blog ..How To Update All Of Your Facebook Fans At The Same Time =-.
You crack me up Justin!
I think you misread my post…
Your MLM_ROX_TODAY username is fine, as long as you use a goldfish instead of your long haired dachshund.
I find goldfish are a lot easier to build powerful relationships with :)
Hi Michaele
Another terrific post full of excellent tips :)
I would also like to add something (regarding etiquette) that I believe more people should do:
Nobody likes to be embarrassed or made feel “silly” by anyone, including me! I hate seeing people being sent potentially embarrassing or critical messages via an @ message, because everyone can see it.
I’ve had it done to me (only once, some months ago) and while the person sending it may not have thought about it (I can be a bit of a softie at times!), I had actually done them the courtesy of sending a DM only to have them reply via an @ message.
As you know, I do a lot of editing and proofreading work, hence, typographical and grammatical errors just “jump out at me”, so to speak. Whenever I notice an error (not regarding content or anything like that, purely typographical or grammatical) on a post, I send the person a Direct Message with the details (purely to help them out), but THEN I send them an @ message letting them know that I’ve sent them a DM that I would like them to read.
** If I have their email, I will actually email them in favour of using Twitter, but often I don’t have their email **
I believe this to be something that more people should be conscious of when tweeting others.
~ Kylie ~
.-= Kylie Doak´s last blog ..Are You Focusing on What You Can’t Do, Rather Than What You Can? =-.
Hey Kylie,
You are absolutely right about DM’s. They were created for a reason, that being the ability to speak privately.
It’s pretty thoughtless to send potentially embarrassing @ replies.
On the other hand, they are useful when people are spamming you and you actually want the public to see :)
I do the same thing you do in regards to DM’ing people about typos and broken links etc.
Funny how even detailed people seem to miss their own typos though.
On that note, given your awesome skill-set, don’t ever be afraid no give me a shout when you see any typos here!
Great tips but have to say Guy Kawasaki is a terrific guy – helped get my twitter followers to 2000 by shouting out to his followers and he did respond back when I thanked him also…
Hey Faith,
I agree, Guy has some awesome tips to offer! He was one of the first people on Twitter that I was really impressed with.
Michaelé
This was so great and so detailed! And I loved the funny video! Thank you for detailing each step for everyone, including me as I am still pretty new to Twitter.
Aloha<3
.-= Kellie Hosaka´s last blog ..Linchpin – Are You Indispensable? =-.
Hi Kellie,
I’m glad you liked it and yes that is one of my favorite little videos too!
Michaelé
Wow Michaele, this is the BEST outlined description of how to use Twitter I have ever seen. Of course I will be re tweeting this but even more I will be using the principles that you have shared. The only reason I came to Twitter in the first place is to LEARN how to use it, lol. And I am so glad I came across your tweets. Thanks!
Hey Brandon,
Gosh thank you for your wonderful comment. I think this post was one of my first ever when I started my blog!
Nice to see someone finding my ‘old stuff’ useful lol.
Michaelé
This is so powerful! Thanks for breaking it down and making it simple for people to act upon. I think people usually get excited about a new, ‘hot’ thing and want to participate. Unfortnately, few people actually take the time to figure out what the rules are so that their participation is welcomed by the rest of the community. I hope lots of folks see this and adjust their twitter presence accordingly.
Have a POWERFUL week, Allegra
Hey Allegra,
I think this must have been one of the first blog posts I ever wrote so I’m glad to hear you’ve found it valuable.
If only more people like yourself took the time to learn about etiquette on the social sites.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Michaelé
Thanks Michelle I really suck at twitter – just never seem to understand how to get it up and running. Or to stop it from distracting me from work during the day with meaningless updates like – brushing my teeth now.
Hey Zed,
There should be no reason to suck at Twitter after reading this post don’t you think? Agreed it can be distracting, although no where near as bad as the darn Facebook ticker!
If you plan to continue with Twitter, focus on sending Tweets that people would want to read or find valuable enough to want to Retweet. I doubt you’ll get any RT’s for updating that you’re brushing your teeth :)
Thanks for stopping by.
Michaelé