1. FriendorFollow

When I signed in to my twitter account this morning I realized that I could not follow 3 people who had recently followed me. Since I tend to follow folks back I had a problem with randomly selecting people from my list to make room for the new ones and I didn’t want to unfollow folks who follow me - this is where FriendorFollow comes in.

This service populates a list of the twitter users you’re following but are not currently following you.

2. WeFollow

If you’ve ever been looking for a way to target twitter users within your market or niche then you have to try out WeFollow it’s a user powered twitter directory where you can find new followers based on your inputted keyword.

3. Twitterless

Twitterless tells you who stops following you and graphs your follower history over time, making this info available in a variety of useful views.

4. Just Tweet It

Just Tweet It is a user directory for Twitter organized by genre to allow for users to easily find other Twitter users to connect with.

5.  MyCleenr

MyCleenr is a unique way to sort your friends by their last tweets. It allows you to get rid off all the inactive and useless accounts that you are following!

6. Nearby Tweets

Launched as an early–stage beta January 20th, 2009, the Nearby Tweets project was developed by Brian Cray to extend Twitter’s capabilities into its true potential: a geography–centric social tool for networking and a business tool for building customer relationships and monitoring real–time buzz. With Nearby Tweets’ sophisticated geographic layer on top of Twitter people and businesses will find Twitter more relevant, manageable, and fun!

7. Twitblocker

Are you being overwhelmed by twitter friends who can’t stop talking, but they’re like… still your friends? Install this greasmonkey script, then double clicking the chattering peeps will temporarily remove their tweets from your timeline. Restart your browser to get them back. Simple eh?

8. Tweepsearch

TweepSearch was created to allow people on Twitter to search their followers bio and location information. Twitter doesn’t currently have a bio search and as your Twitter network grows, it’s nice to be able to look through your tweeps.

9. Social WhoIs

This website is a proof of concept that a better Social Media can exist ; a social media based on interests and “personal relevancy” instead of popularity. And this, really is the next step in social media!
Here is what it can do for you:

• Help you decide whether to follow someone or not
• Help you find people who share your interests
• Start or participate in disucssions about your interests

10. UseQwitter

Qwitter e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter with a message.

Technorati Tags: Twitter Tools, Twitter Sites, Twitter Marketing Tools, Qwitter, SocialWhoIs, myClnnr

Do you hear them? the sounds of the waves in the ocean.

You’re sitting a the beach on the most relaxing chair you’ve ever sat on…you’re taking in the fresh ocean breeze as you think about how you were due for this vacation a long time ago. The wind is blowing on your face and as you look to your right hand side you notice an iced and cool bottle of beer next to your favorite cocktail waiting for you.  As you watch and take in the peaceful environment that surrounds you you notice the beautiful women and handsome men that surround your immediate area and they are all serving you. You realize that you’re here because of sponsored tweets and you’re very happy they chose you to to be the winner of the following contest…….

They’re calling all supatweeters or bloggers to participate in the contest and you can claim your prize assuming you’re eligible. It’s like they say when speaking of winning the lotto - you have to be in it, to win it.

Sponsored Tweets Referral Contest

From the Source: SponsoredTweets

The Challenge

• * Use your referral link inside Sponsored Tweets to sign up new Tweeters to the system. You can use the standard tweet, display ads or get creative and make something new.
• The challenge starts today and ends October 1st.
• The person with the most valid referrals during the contest period will win.
• Your referral Twitter accounts must be over 120 days old by contest end (you can’t just setup a bunch of Twitter accounts and refer yourself).
• Valid to U.S. Residents 18 years of age and older only. Void where prohibited by law.
• The winner will be announced at IZEAFest.

From the Source: SponsoredTweets

The Awesome Prize

• Round trip coach airfare for two to the Dominican Republicl
• 5 nights for two at the Excellence Punta Cana all-inclusive Resort
• Unlimited premium and domestic alcoholic beverages
• Unlimited natural fruit juices and soft drinks
• Full breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks each day
• 24-hour room service
• 2 giant swimming pools
• Daily activities and nightly entertainment
• Horseback riding (30 min. included per person per stay), bocce, aerobics & water aerobics, water polo, fitness, yoga, jogging, Spanish lessons, dancing lessons, cooking lessons, theme nights, beach volleyball, beach football, tennis, basketball, bicycles, squash, table tennis, darts, billiards, board games, archery, air rifle shooting

Read more about the contest here: http://sponsoredtweets.com/about/supatweeta-challenge/

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I’ve said it before, Twitter is a great branding tool and it’s important that your twitter background and theme match both your personality and your blogs design. You want to keep in mind that choosing a background that is consistent with the design of your blog is the ideal thing to do. Those of you landed on this page but are not using twitter for branding or business purposes you want your profile to say something about you and your personality and this article will walk you through the process of changing the look or theme of your twitter profile.

I created a step by step video tutorial that you guys can follow to change your backgrounds. If you’re having sound issues or cannot view the video you can always scroll down and follow the written steps I’ve provided for you.

Where to find Proffesional & free Twitter Backgrounds? Follow the link below….

Custom Twitter Backgrounds

Step 1

Go to Twitter.com and sign in to your account.

Step 2

Once you’re signed, you will notice menu links on the top right hand side of the twitter home account home page. When you find this menu click on the “Settings” link.

Step 3

Once the settings page has opened, you will notice a few options in the submenu provided, you want to click on the “Design” link provided.

Step 4

In this step you will notice several pre-installed twitter background and themes, these are a bit boring and kind of played out but if you like them, all you have to do is click on them and save the changes. Those of you who have your own custom theme or custom background, scroll down and click on “Change Background Image”.

Step 5

Click on the browse button and look for the location of your background on your local hard drive. Once you find it, select it and you will notice that the location of the background image will display int he browse field.

Step 6

Click on Save changes, and your new background image will be displayed on your twitter profile.

Step 7

Click on the link “Change Design Colors” and you will have the option to change the text, background, sidebar, links and sidebar border to colors that blend well with the custom background image you have added to your profile. Once you’ve selected matching colors save the changes and your new background and theme have been installed.

Technorati Tags: How to change twitter background, how to change twitter theme, how to change look of twitter profile, my twitter profile, twitter, twitter backgrounds, twitter theme, twitter account theme

Twitter is a great networking tool, however, not if you’re annoying your followers. I’ve been wondering what the top reasons people unfollow an account would be and the ones below are the first 8 that popped in my head. I took a few minutes to research other opinions on this subject and found these reasons to be pretty consistent across the board.

Twitter is pretty new and the ethics of how you should behave on this social network are still developing but I feel that it’s no different than the way you would behave on facebook or Myspace. Think of the twitter stream as your Myspace bulletin board or your facebook wall. Whatever you would there to avoid being taken off a friends list is what you should do to avoid being unfollowed.

Here are the reasons:

The top 8 ways to Lose your Twitter Followers

1. Where’s your avatar?

It’s a pet peeve of mine to follow someone who does not have an avatar. I tend to accept and follow the faceless tweep back but when I go over the list a few days later and I’ve noticed you’re still a brown square with googly lines - you’re probably going to get unfollowed.

2. Over compulsive Tweet Disorder

I get that we use twitter to update our followers/friends with the things that are going on around us and in our lives but there is no need to tweet compulsively.There has to be a limit. When you do this you annoy me. I dont need to know that 5 minutes ago you went to the store, to read a tweet from you 2 minutes later telling me that you just walked in your house(um…you get the point).

3. Are you auto-responding?

If I follow you and the first direct message I get from your account reads something like: “Thanks for the follow, want to learn how to make 6 billion dollars in 2 weeks follow this link: http:abc.abc” - guess what you’ve been unfollowed. I’m not totally against the use of auto responders, however, if you’re auto responding to me with a sales pitch it turns me off and I probably will unfollow you right away.

4. You never reply or address your followers?

I understand that some folks have a hard time replying to messages because they may have about 100,000 followers or more, but eventually I would hope to see some sort of reaction to my message…if Chris Brogan can reply to tweets and he has close to 100,000 followers there is no excuse for the tweep that has 500.

5. Me, Me, Tweet Me

I log on to twitter and when I take a look at your twitter stream, it’s all about you - there is no engaging your twitter community. You never RT anyone’s messages but your own. Obviously you’re self centered and probably arrogant so I have no idea why I need to keep following you. Oh and another thing, stop asking for Re-Tweets…if folks appreciate what you’ve shared via the twitter stream, they will re-tweet on their own.

6. Where’s your Bio?

If you follow me and I check your twitter page and find that you haven’t taken a few seconds to add a bio about who you are and what you’re interested in, you’re probably going to be unfollowed. It only takes a few seconds.

7 Are you political?

I’m all for having a political convo here and there, but political conversation is very controversial. Most people are sensitive about their political views & opinions and sometimes cannot handle a political tweet. Keep this to a minimum, in fact don’t do it all to avoid being unfollowed. Unless, that is your niche and that’s why people followed you in the first place.

8. Choose your twitter app’s wisely

A couple of months ago I signed up to SNODS - it’s a twitter game that can be somewhat entertaining, however, this game constantly tweets your gaming activity to your twitter followers. This will turn off your twitter followers and will get you unfollowed. Make sure this is not happening to you.

Technorati Tags: reasons to unfollow, 10 reasons to unfollow, list of reasons to be unfollowed, why were you unfollowed, lose your twitter followers, how to lose twitter followers

The idea behind sponsored tweets is getting your message,service or product in front of a large number of twitter users and in order to be successful in choosing the best sponsor it’s a good idea to understand the metrics and stats behind those sponsors. You don’t want to waste money by purchasing a sponsored tweet to find out that the reach and other factors weren’t all that you expected it to be.

Are they Active?

It’s also a good idea to learn what their follower growth rate is because this will help you to determine how active this sponsor is within the twitterverse. A consistent and strong growth rate means that this tweep is pretty active, regardless of the actual follower quantity. If the follower growth rate doesn’t convince you of how active this tweep may be then perhaps having a graph that displays the day to day interaction this tweep is having would be a good indication in determining your purchase.

Tell me who your friends with and I’ll tell you who you are

Another factor to consider is the circle of tweeps that the sponsor interacts with because this will help you to understand the relationships he’s built. It will help you to understand the social status of this twitter sponsor in addition to help you determine his or her credibility. Perhaps understanding this can also help you to find another sponsor that may be offering a lower price to tweet but is still within the target market you’re trying to reach.

Are your sponsors CelebriTwees?

It’s probably a good idea to purchase a tweet from celebritweeps because they will probably have a larger following and automatically a larger reach. Of course if your targeting the blogger audience, you’re not going to pay for a playboy bunny to tweet an offer about making money blogging because their followers are not the audience you’re trying to reach.

How do you determine if someone is a celebritwee?

There are several factors. One would be the most obvious which is the number of followers this particular twitter user has. It’s also good to note that there are a lot of robot made accounts or accounts not really managed by real users that have hundreds to thousands and thousands of followers so this concept or idea is not necessarily the strongest deciding factor on a user being a celebrity twitter user. The strongest point in figuring out the celebrity status of a twitter user is figuring out how many mentions he or she  gets on a particular day - if you notice this number to be pretty high, then you can guess that people are trying to get their attention and this is a clear sign of celeb status. Sometimes the mentions may be a re-tweet so it’s a good idea to learn how to figure out which of these mentions are unique and which are not.

How active are the followers?

It’s pretty clear by now that Twitter has thousands of inactive accounts, and the last thing an advertiser wants is to purchase a $300.00 tweet to find that the followers or most of those sponsors followers are inactive and the tweet will not have the reach or effect the advertiser is hoping for. How do you determine the follower activity, keep on reading and I’ll give you the answer soon.

How many of those followers are online at a particular time?

This is particularly great because if you find a pattern of online activity by the followers of your sponsor you can have a better idea of when would be the best time to broadcast that tweet. Obviously the more twitter users are online for the sponsors accounts at a particular time, then the better your reach. eh?

Wouldn’t it be great if all of the above can be found in one service? in marketing and advertising stats and metrics are extremely important in determining the value of the service being provided. If the above are points you’re concerned about or points that you agree are important to consider in the purchase of a sponsored tweet then let me present to you a service called “TwitterAnalyzer”.

I recently found it while Google’ing twitter analytics and I find it to be extremely useful, there are other services that provide similar stats but i believe TwitterAnalyzer to be the most complete and strongest of the twitnalytics services out there.

Below I’ve listed a few of the main features they offer:

• How many followers are online right now, in real time? Probably think it can’t be done? Wrong, they have it.
• How many twitter users or readers have seen your message? Very important, no? Guess what they have it.
• Curious to know the tweet habits of your prospect sponsor? Of course and guess what they have it.
• Wondering how many retweets this sponsor has on average? Yep and they have it.
• You’re probably curious to learn of the follower growth rate, they have it.
• How popular is the sponsor? get it at twitter analyzer.
• What are the sponsors followers doing?

Hope you make the best of this service because with the evolution of twitter, it’s best we learn of services to support our twitter usage.

While you’re here, follow me on Twitter @RRicart

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Recession,Recession, Recession isn’t that all you’ve heard in the last few months? I know I have and I think it’s overdue for a vacation so I’m sending it away. I’m thinking an island in the Bahamas, a place where the sun can shine on it and maybe when it comes back, it will be so relaxed and positive that it wont continue to reak havoc on us.

Once it’s back in the states maybe we can utilize Twitter as a therapist to keep this animal under control. To do this it’s important that we understand twitter and how it will function in this regard on your behalf. Twitter is a social networking tool that may be utilized in a hundred different ways depending on who the user is. If you’re one of the users who has been affected by the recession wave and you’re blogging your way to the income you want, that’s totally okay but you have to remember that while you get there you need to make some money. It’s important to understand this because if you’re not making a significant amount of income from your blogging, then this lack of funds may have a negative effect on your strides to success.

I read somehwere that 73% of executives find jobs via social networks. I don’t know how accurate that number is but if you think of social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace & Facebook it’s definitely possible. These networks have served millions of users throughout the years and many companies have come on board to recruit members of these social networks and guess what Twitter is not far behind.

Twitter has been ranked as the number 3 social networking site by “Bloomberg” and after looking at it’s growth rate it’s only a matter of time before co-workers are talking about finding opportunities on Twitter as well. It’s actually already happening on a smaller scale and if you’re looking for a job then it’s time to think of using twitter as a resource.

Here are some general suggestions for the twitter job hunter:

What You do

When on social networks like Twitter it’s important that you post about your skills and what you can offer a company versus the fact that you’re looking for a job. Companies on twitter are not interested in personal whining, they want to hear why they should DM you with a great opportunity. Tweet about your skills.

Twitter Job Hunters, here is Who you should be following:

@SimplyHired
Simplyhired : A vertical search engine company based in Silicon Valley with one of the largest job database.

@Jobacle
Jobacle : Get useful 411, expert interviews and a forum to speak your mind on everything work related.  The blog is updated daily and the Working Podcast is produced at least twice a month.

@execSearches
Execsearches : A job board that has been serving the nonprofit, government, education and health sectors since 1999. Our goal is to be the most efficient, online source for connecting mission and talent.

These are only 3 of the accounts you should be following,the link below will give you a wider list of suggested tweeps: http://applicant.com/30-must-follow-twitter-profiles-and-sites-for-job-hunters/

Looking for a Job?

You may also want to check out:  Twitter Job Search, it’s a twitter real time Job Search Engine that pulls opportunities as they are posted in real time. This article shows you proof of several tweeps who’ve found jobs using Twitter, you can too.

These social networks offer you the chance to build a network of contacts that are relevant to your industry,interest and experience. Expand your network, follow these accounts and stay active on twitter - you never know if you will be the next tweep hired via the social network.

Technorati Tags: Twitter Jobs, Twitter Job Search, Twitter Careers, Twitter Job Recruiting, Twitter for Recruiters, Twitter for Head Hunters, job hunters, social networks, career and social networks

Twitter is believed to be a waste of time for The Average Joe or average user but most folks including me use it for business and in return we benefit from our use of this service. It’s not that difficult to figure twitter out if your interest lies beyond the idea of telling your friends what you’re up to every minute of the day.

Since the twitter launch, I’ve tried my best to play around with the service in every possible way, from keeping in touch with my friends, adver-tweeting to finding followers within my market and more. In this test mode I’ve learned that twitter can be used in business in more than one way. In this blog entry I’ll show you guys how freelancers, writers, web designers, and marketers are using twitter to gain business and make themselves some good money for their services.

Freelancers, Consultants, writers & Business’s need Twitter

Twitter Helps you to find customers, make that first sale and even improve your current sales.

What should I keep in mind when creating my twitter account?

When creating websites companies,freelancers,web designers and webmasters keep in mind that the domain name is very important for search engine optimization purposes. This means they want to please the search engines by choosing a domain name that is somewhat relevant to their market or business.

This “relevant name concept” is also important to remember when creating your twitter account. I suggest that you choose a username that says something about you or your business (like your business name) or something that pertains to the market (like bloggingtips,domesticabuseplan,writerstips,financialnuggets etc..).

Twitter Sign Up Page

I already have a twitter username, can I change it?

If you’ve already created your account and you don’t want to start all over, not too worry. Unlike the other social networks twitter allows you to change your username without impacting your tweets, followers,direct messages or replies. If this is you, then make sure to notify your followers or friends of the change so they don’t continue to tweet or direct message you at a twitter account that is no longer existent.

I’ve chosen the username, what now?

You’ve already started your twitter road trip by creating your account and choosing a name that is relevant to your market. Now that you’ve done this you are almost done with the set up stages. Make sure that you complete all of the required forms where you are asked your name,web address,location and online bio. This is your main selling point, because this is where your followers get to know you.

Twitter Form Fields

Some bloggers or twitter users decide to create a unique page on their websites that is specific to twitter traffic. Meaning that whomever clicks on the twitter bio link will end up on a page that says something like:

“Hi, you’re here because you clicked on my twitter bio link.
Here is a bit more information on who I am and what I do”.

This is where you need to include all of your credentials, bio, background, or anything you may deem important to your business or audience. If you have them follow a link to your blog home page, they may be somewhat lost and

I filled the forms, chose a good username now what?

Now you sit back and wait for the customers to roll in. {WRONG!!!!} You’re not done yet, now that you’ve done the above, you have to start following other twitter users. Twitter will typically recommend some accounts to follow upon sign up but I personally do not like doing this because these accounts are not targeted towards your niche or market, so it’s kind of useless traffic (in a sense).

When you’re ready to start following users, you need to use the “Twitter Search Engine” to find the users that you’re interested in. If you’re into web design, then type #web #design into the search engine box and scroll down through the results you get back.

Twitter Search Results Screen Shot

After you scroll down, you need to profile these users by reading what they tweeted about in regards to web design then follow the ones you think will be beneficial to your twitter usage. These are your potential customers, business partners or prospects.

Turning Tweeters into Customers

When I first signed up to twitter, I was playing around with the service and before I understood it’s value I figured that it would be a waste of my time. I thought to myself  “I don’t have time to tweet about where I am every minute of the day” (does this sound familiar?).

I moved on, and continued to spend my time writing for my blog. It was not until one day that I thought of providing advertising services via Trucker Hats in New York City that I realized what twitter could do. I wrote an article for the blog and titled it “Want to Reach a New York audience,for free?”. At the time I had the Twitter Tools plugin installed, therefore it automatically tweeted the title of the article to all of my twitter followers. (This is the key)

This is when I truly realized the twitter potential as one of of my follwers thought it was a cool idea and Retweet’d the link to all of their followers, his followers retweet’d to their followers and before I knew it the idea was virally spreading through twitter. A few weeks later I started receiving daily shipments of Trucker Hats to my front door for my Trucker Hat Tuesdays Marketing Events.

This is just one of the many ways to gain customers on twitter, you can also gain customers as twitter users visit your profiles and follow the link to the special page you will create on your sites or blogs.

Networking and Twitter

I’m into blogging and online marketing, this is my niche and twitter has helped me in the networking stages of my business. Twitter grants you the opportunity of direct messaging other twitter accounts and if you’re providing something of value this tool lends you the opportunity of contacting those top profile tweeters within your niche or market allowing you the opportunity of making a positive impact ony our business.

If you got something good to offer or say, this is the way and it’s the start of a great networking relationship.

Technorati Tags: Twitter and freelancers, twitter and business, twitter and sales, using twitter for business, writers and twitter, bloggers and twitter, business and twitter, twitter business, twitter profile, twitter blog page

I just had to post this for you guys to enjoy, it’s a cartoon based on guy’s ignorance of twitter and peer pressure to tweet his worries away.

This cartoon is from “Super News” they’ve created an animated sketch comedy which airs on Current_tv. I know some folks have already seen this but for those that have not, i know you will enjoy this and get some quick laughs..

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Comedy, twitter Sketch, Twitter Funniest Video, Super News Twitter Video, Twitter pressure