Twitter Applications I Really Do Use Every Day #3

As I was planning this series of posts, it occurred to me that most people will look at all these applications and think, "That's way more than I can handle!" or "There's no way someone would do all that!"Guess what friends, I will eventually show you how to manage it all without going bonkers. Today's post will help explain.

I really do use these applications every day, but that doesn't mean I actually have to do anything to use them. Get ready for the beauty of automation.

Today's application: SocialOomph (formerly Tweet Later)

On Twitter, it's common courtesy to follow someone back when they follow you. By the way, I just let you in on one of the most commonly known secrets about Twitter. Those people you see with 5 & 10 thousand followers got them by following lots of people in hopes that they would follow back (unless they're already famous). But who has the time to follow back all these people? SocialOomph lets you do that automatically & much more!

To recap the first steps for setting up Twitter:

1. Create your account with an effective username
2. Turn off notifications, fill in a creative bio & upload a picture
3. Publish your TwitBacks design

So have you made it this far? Great! Now go to http://www.socialoomph.com/ and click Register for a free account. Here you'll enter a username & password that can be different than what you have on Twitter. Fill in your basic information (leave out the stuff that looks unfamiliar), then retype those squiggly letters & you're in!

Now the fun part! Once your on your "dashboard," click the Accounts tab. Now click the Add Account subcategory, select Twitter (should be default) then continue. Here's where you enter your Twitter username & password (don't worry - it's safe) then more squiggly letters. You now scroll down to find you can send automated responses to your new followers. This is a VERY handy tool for someone promoting a business, but be careful. Twitter veterans are skeptical about these Direct Messages (DMs). My inbox fills up daily with "Thanks for following" messages, so try to be as creative here as you were with your bio. Here are some memorable auto DMs I've received:

• Fantastic! Thanks for the following. I will follow back and look forward to exchanging opportunities.
• We specialize in wedding ideas, planning and anything wedding (link to website)
• I like your profile and thanks for joining with us! This has become a place for great insight, wisdom and survival strategies for these hard economic times.

Keep in mind that many Twitter "experts" are advising against sending auto DMs. They see them as cheesy or cliche, but I can't think of a better way to welcome new followers while introducing your business & niche. Special note: Any time you list a website anywhere on Twitter (including your Auto DM), be sure to include the "http://" to make it clickable. The easiest way to do this is to copy it straight from your browser (right click, copy).

Below the auto DM box, you'll find the option to automatically follow people who follow you. Automated is good. This is the way to go if you want to accumulate thousands of followers. I understand if you have privacy issues, etc., but remember in my first post where I suggested to create two accounts (business & personal) you can leave the personal one off of this. Follow your friends & let them follow you. This is for business, and running a successful business requires you to broadcast your message as far & wide as possible. Twitter gives you a free platform to do that. If you do want thousands of followers, but still want to keep track of your friends, I'll show you how in a future post.

You're almost done with SocialOomph. Next is the vet followers option. I recommend against this because you won't have time to read all the posts by all the people you're going to follow anyway, so why are you worried about who you are following? Just follow everyone & leave this box unchecked. As I said earlier, I'll show you how to manage this later.

The next option is a good one though: Auto Unfollow. Twitter accounts are judged by ratios. If people see that you're following way more people than are following you, you'll look like you're out to rack up followers (which you are, but appearances matter on the web too). A good balance is to follow 200-300 more people than are following you. I'll show you later how to maintain this ratio. Go ahead & activate the Auto Unfollow feature. If someone changes their mind & doesn't want to follow you, let them go. There are over a million people on Twitter (or fish in the sea : ).

Finally, you have the option to get an email with a digest of your @replies (public messages sent to you through Twitter). You can choose this if you want, but when you get past 1,000 followers, you'll thank me for not recommending this. I get enough emails, so leave this box unchecked.

Once you click save, the program will activate in a day or so. You'll know when you see outbound messages in your DM box. If you decide to run multiple Twitter profiles, you can manage them all on the same SocialOomph account. Just click Accounts & Add New Account. I hope you're able to follow these tips. They shouldn't be too confusing because the sites are all set up in a "step-by-step" format. Of course you can contact me with questions or suggestions by visiting our "Tweet Your Business" Page.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff