The Lensmaster Lounge

thefluffanutta · 01/23/2008 5:29 am

I know several dozen Lensmasters with twitter accounts, but only a few actually use them effectively for promoting their lenses. Here are my top tips:

1. Build a network - if you don't have any followers, then your twitters will go un-noticed. The easiest way to do this is to start following other people that you know, and they will be notified and will (often) reciprocate. To find people you know, search for their forum names, or look at the friends of people you have already found and look for ones you recognise.

2. Post regularly - whenever you build a new lens, or do significant work on an existing on, twitter about it and include the URL. Keep the URLs nice and clean by using this format: www.squidoo.com/name-of-lens (i.e. no http://) - this will become a clickable link.

2b. Don't post too often, or you will loose followers - limit your posts to once every day or two, and only do the lenses that you feel are genuinely good (no spam!).

3. Use keywords - your twitter profile will be spidered and indexed by Google and other search engines, so make sure that your post includes a few related keywords. Keep the text natural and enticing though, so that your followers will be interested in what you write.

4. Stay Up-To-Date - visit your twitter page every day to see what other people are twittering. You can get these via RSS feed too, and add to your favourite feed reader.

5. Integrate your twitters elsewhere, for example your blog, facebook, phone, messenger, browser, desktop, etc. There a multitude of widgets and plugins that make twittering easier or replublish your posts to other non-twitter people.

If you're interested in following me, here's my twitter profile.

Important Note: Twitter is not a social bookmarking site - it's a place for communicating, sharing discoveries and making connections. Simply posting links to lenses is missing the point, and will ultimately lose you your audience.

Here is an excellent guide on Why Twitter Is So Great And How To Effectively Use It.

Last edited by thefluffanutta (04/08/2008 1:03 am)

thefluffanutta · 01/23/2008 7:07 am

Bonus Tip: If you link your twitter account into your mobile phone or IM client (for example, meebo), you can send the command "track squidoo" to get any twitter than mentions Squidoo. Another way to find interesting lenses, and new lensmasters to follow.

Unfortunately, this isn't availble via the web or RSS (yet).

Last edited by thefluffanutta (01/24/2008 12:47 am)

blujeanmomma · 01/23/2008 8:01 am

fluffanutta,
I know that twitter and the rest don't like blatant advertising so although I have a twitter account I have not really used it.
Do you have any suggestions as how to word a post so that it doesn't sound spammy? That's been my real hang up.

GypsyPirate · 01/23/2008 8:08 am

BlueJeanMomma: You and me both! Shall we try and dive in together? (what's your twitter name? I didn't see you in the list on Add Your Profile.)

Last edited by GypsyPirate (01/23/2008 8:21 am)

thefluffanutta · 01/23/2008 8:09 am

blujeanmomma wrote:
I know that twitter and the rest don't like blatant advertising so although I have a twitter account I have not really used it. Do you have any suggestions as how to word a post so that it doesn't sound spammy? That's been my real hang up.

I think that if you have an occasional twitter that is like "just created this new lens about such-and-such <url here>" it would be okay. This is a casual mentioning of a lens, rather than tag line aimed at getting sales. This is about communicating something that your friends might be interested in - other lensmasters are not your target audience anyway, and most won't even visit.

Avoid posting the same URL more than once, and don't write things like "click this" or "must see" or "guarenteed profits". Keep it low key and friendly. Imagine someone has just asked you "what have you been working on recently"...

Have a look at some of the posts from the more experienced twitters (though not all are necessarily good examples).

Last edited by thefluffanutta (01/23/2008 8:11 am)

KilnGoddess · 01/23/2008 5:01 pm

I joined twitter awhile ago and was kinda at a loss on how to use it. I'm kilngoddess there and have a total of one post a month ago and 4 follower...strange cause I only received notice of 2 followers....how can I find out who is following me so I can exchange the favor? How can I find other LMs to follow? Is there LMs that twitter group or something? kg

blujeanmomma · 01/23/2008 5:28 pm

Thanks for the extra fluffanutta!

GypsyPirate, I'm healthyideas on twitter, so I'm on the list.
When I started signing up for all these properties, I followed some recommendations that said to sign up with a different user mane for each one, now I've got tons of different names and since with some I already have a presence I don't want to change them now--but it's a big pain.

flicker · 01/23/2008 8:00 pm

Thanks for great tips, fluffanutta! That might inspire me to finally sign up for twitter.

GypsyPirate · 01/23/2008 8:04 pm

KilnGoddess wrote:
I joined twitter awhile ago and was kinda at a loss on how to use it. I'm kilngoddess there and have a total of one post a month ago and 4 follower...strange cause I only received notice of 2 followers....how can I find out who is following me so I can exchange the favor? How can I find other LMs to follow? Is there LMs that twitter group or something? kg

KilnGoddess: Think I found you there today and am following you know. Be sure you've left a trail at Add Your Profile, I always check there to make sure I'm not missing anything.

thefluffanutta · 01/25/2008 12:54 am

Here's an interesting article that Spud posted on Twitter: 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers. The fact I came across it on Twitter is quite interesting in of itself.

thefluffanutta · 02/07/2008 4:34 am

Any more twitters out there? I'm looking for some more followers...

GypsyPirate · 02/07/2008 10:18 am

TheFluffaNutta: You are quite the Pied Piper...

thefluffanutta · 02/28/2008 5:12 am

Heh.

I thought I'd mentioned this already, but obviously I haven't. You can use TwitterFeed to automatically twitter your latest blog entries, or even SquidCasts.

jeffwend · 03/11/2008 11:25 pm

Thanks for the tip on TwitterFeed. It has already brought some traffic.

spuds · 03/11/2008 11:56 pm

Good tips fluff. We are already following each other but I welcome others to follow me. See link in my signature.

lens4Him · 03/12/2008 6:02 am

I have had a twitter account for around a year now and at one time would 'tweet' quite regularly. Unfortunately over time I just got sick and tired of all the constant self promotion that some people do and even though I stopped following the worst offenders it didn't seem to help much.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind people doing some promoting, but when that's all they bring to the party it makes it a prety boring one.

Maybe I should dust my account off and start being active again.

JonitasKalimpo · 03/12/2008 6:17 am

great and tips, fluff

JohannTheDog · 03/12/2008 2:19 pm

I love twitter - once you find a 'like' community it can be really fun and a great way to share info...

lens4Him · 03/12/2008 7:16 pm

I just added fluff, spud and lewis to my twitter followings

thefluffanutta · 04/04/2008 4:05 am

You might also want to follow squidoonews and squidcasts too...

Last edited by thefluffanutta (04/04/2008 4:06 am)

lens4Him · 04/04/2008 8:14 am

Anybody who would like to follow me on twitter is welcome to do so Here

travelbizcash · 04/05/2008 3:33 pm

I too just started on twitter, how do I "follow you" thefluffanutta?
Or any of you for that matter

The major problem with all these social networks is.....HOW DO I USE them?

So after reading fluffa's twitter page, I see where we can actually link back to our squidoo page, right?

I just purchased an automation tool for Twitter.

thefluffanutta · 04/05/2008 4:42 pm

travelbizcash wrote:
I too just started on twitter, how do I "follow you" thefluffanutta?
Or any of you for that matter

If you are logged in to twitter, when you look at a profile (e.g. mine) there will be a button near the top marked 'Follow'. Click on it.

KimberlyDawnWells · 04/07/2008 8:32 am

fluff: you've been blogged!

http://blogs.squidoo.com/squidblog/

thefluffanutta · 04/07/2008 8:49 am

Thanks Kimberly

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