Business on Twitter Because Twitter’s not just for twits ;)

A Guest Blog By Christopher Sherrod.

In the early days of Twitter you could do anything and get away with it. Well, not anymore. Twitter has gotten pretty aggressive about certain techniques to get large number of followers.

I talked to consulting client of mine that bought a course on twitter (not mine). And his twitter account was suspended permanently.

So I asked him some questions on how he used twitter.

What I learned clearly shows why his account was suspended permanently.

Some Automation Is Not Good

1.  He totally automated all his tweets using RSS feeds and didn’t choose anything he tweeted. I’m all for automation but that is going too far. Twitter hates accounts that do that and will ban them. Be real with people. Tweet things you really like and want to share. Use automation tools like HootSuite.com to schedule your real tweets and TweetDeck with Twitter liststo look at your twitter people. But, be real first most.

2.  He followed and unfollowed people aggressively. Twitter hates this as well. If you follow someone they may follow you back. Repeating this can get you more followers, but if you are very aggressive about it, it will lead to your account being banned. Selective follow people and unfollow people that after a period of time don’t follow you back and who you don’t want to follow if they are not following you.

Buying An Existing Twitter Account

If this leads you to think you should buy an existing twitter account instead of starting from scratch think again.

1. Twitter is aggressively suing anyone that sells accounts. And the buyer’s account is suspended. For example, Twitteraccountsforsale.com got a cease and desist letter from twitter and they chose to shut down instead of getting sued.

2. People only follow real people and if you buy an account it is starting out all wrong.

Don’t Be A Robot

I was talking to another high follower twitter user here in Austin the other day. And we both had noticed all the twitter account robots that have sprang up.

You don’t want to follow robots because they are never going to look at your tweets.

Here are some ways to notice robots:

1. They twitter username is a set of random characters. Like WOJULXW or numbers 1010001592

2. They don’t have a profile picture. True a lot of people new to twitter don’t do this, but most do it very quickly.

3. They tweet the same thing all the time or nearly all the time. And it is a link to a product. This is social media not spam. Tweet other people’s stuff and cool stuff 90% of the time and 10% of the time links to your stuff.

4. They don’t have their name in Twitter. Your Twitter username can me fun like mine is EagleChris. In fact I have a page that explains my username. http://www.abundanceunlimited.com/contact/who-is-eaglechris/ There is also another Twitter field call name where you put your real name. Mine is Christoper Sherrod.

5. Their twitter username has something to do with getting tons of twitter followers. For example, twitincrease92, twitincrease93, etc.

Social Media Is A Cocktail Party

It’s Social Media Marketing not Business Marketing. Be real, be yourself and help others. Share and share some more. Have fun. Social media is like a cocktail party. You won’t hand your business card out to people first thing at a party. You would only do it if asked or something big just happened and you’re super excited about it.

About the author

Christopher Sherrod is the author of Play Prosperity Games a collection of fun games to create new business ideas based on what you love. He is also founder and designer of AbundanceUnlimited.com, a company that helps Entreprenuers and business get online with their websites, branding and social media campaigns. His Twitter name is EagleChris.

Tags: christopher sherrod, guest, guest blog, guest post, twitter

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 9:36 am and is filed under Guest Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.