Put them on your Blog so your readers can find and follow you on Twitter.  Put them in your newsletter so your subscribers can find you on Twitter.  Put them on your Facebook profile and your Facebook Business Page so your followers and fans can find you on Twitter.

Twitter, along with other social media sites, is best leveraged when you integrate your sites. This allows people to find you on their platforms of choice.

Say for example one of your Blog readers loves to engage on Twitter….  by providing a Twitter button your reader can easily find you on Twitter. Everyone is very busy these days and it is much easier to click the Twitter button than it is to manually search for you on Twitter.

It is important to make it easy for people to find and connect with you.

I have compiled a list of ”free button resources” just for you!

Have fun! Some of these are really cute. For any men that may be here, cute may not be what you’re looking for so I’ve included some really nice “not cute”  buttons that won’t mess with your masculinity!

So here ya go……

TwitterIcon.com

Okay, for me this is by far my favorite. Lots to choose from and very cute! Sorry men, there’s that word cute again! Just go ahead and look anyway, okay? If you like golf, on page 15 there is a Twitter bird standing on a golf ball. If you are into blinking & animation they have some really fun icons! Note: I don’t recommended flashing or blinking icons for a business site unless your brand is less formal and all about fun

Design Reviver

Nice set of 6 designs for an assortment of social media platforms. I added these because I love the Twitter bird!

Vincent Abry

This site is in French. I am very impressed with these Twitter images, so I want to say, “Merci” to their creator! I crack myself up, I don’t really know French…I think I said, “Thank You.” If not, then I’m saying it now: “Thank you for these wonderful icons!” P.S. If you do a Google search for Vincent Abry and find the “31 Logos et boutons pour Twitter: link, right next to it, click on “translate this page.” You can then read the page in English.

Productive Dreams

Icons with a unique page peel look. They have done this particular design in several social network themes. The Twitter bird is different.

Iconspedia

Unusual block style Twitter birds. They also have many other icons that I thought would be fun to use for the holidays.

Limeshot Design

A few styles but a ton of colors to choose from.

Webdesign.fm

Take a peek at these very happy little birds. This site said you can use these for commercial projects but this icon set may not be distributed in any way including reselling, sub-licensing, renting, or transferring. Fair enough!

Graphic Leftovers

Enhance your blog or site with these fun Twitter eggs. Download the free PNGfiles or buy the vector file for just a $1. The vector file will allow you to customize your own eggs, change colors or add your own twitter link, text or graphics. Eggs! A very unique group of icons.

Smashing Magazine

This set was designed by the talented Mirjami Manninen, an illustrator from Finland. This set is available as a free download and can be used for any purpose without any restrictions whatsoever. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sub-licensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use.

Poetic Pixel

This is one good lookin’ bird…but it says you can only use it for personal use.  Take a look though, he’s cute!

Twitbuttons.com

This site has some nice hearts and a cute (yep, I said cute…. sorry guys!) little Twitter bird along with many other choices.  Be sure to read the fine read print at the bottom of the page if you use these.

If you plan on using these icons for commercial use, there could be a fee, or you may have to ask for permission to use them on your website. Just make sure you check around on each site for the fine print.

Thanks for taking the time to come here and smile. Come on, some were really cute. You just had to smile

If you know of some other great Twitter button, leave me a comment!  Or drop me an email and I will add them to this list!

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You have an offline business and you’ve been brainstorming, trying to think of ways to increase business. Twitter comes to mind. You say to yourself, “How can I utilize Twitter to help me market my offline business?”

Well, Twitter is not the magic marketing pill or a get rich quick fix. Having said that, Twitter can work wonders for some offline businesses when used in conjunction with your website, blog, and any other online real estate you may have developed.

7 Ways To Use Twitter To Boost Your Business

1. Build a targeted following on Twitter. This is very important. Twitter is not a numbers game no matter what some will tell you. The game is getting your customers and potential customers to listen to you. You need to build your following based on people who are potentially interested in your products/services and industry. Have a clear idea of who your potential market is and build your following accordingly. There are several tools and strategies business peeps use to locate their targeted customers (followers).

2. Post tweets using captivating copy that contain links to the bigger picture on your blog or website. Twitter is used to point your followers to the bigger picture.

3. Tweet links to other people’s information that is relevant to your targeted followers. This builds trust and demonstrates your willingness to share. People trust that you have their best interest at heart because you are willing to share other people’s valuable information as well. You’re giving them more value beyond what you can provide. There are more than enough clients or customers to go around, don’t horde your followers.

4. Tweet promotions and special offers only available to your followers. This is a great way to show them they are important and exclusive and you appreciate them. It’s a very powerful way to cherish your existing customers who have become your followers. This works very well for local offline retail and restaurants.

5. Ask questions. This keeps you in tune to your market and your followers. Asking questions can accomplish a couple of things. First, you will be able to identity your markets most pressing issues or concerns and address them in a timely manner. The second would be the advantage of having greater insight. The majority of your clients or potential clients do not realize why things are not working or that you can help them with a particular issue, so when you ask questions you can uncover the underlying issues or problems. These areas of concern can go unnoticed due to lack of communication. Something as simple as asking questions can unveil treasures and add tremendous value and overall impact to your business

6. Answer questions. By answering questions you are giving a voice to your company. By supplying answers and solutions you are revealing your knowledge which increases your credibility. Your followers will see that you really know what you are talking about. Once you have their attention and trust, you have your foot in the door. In turn, this gives you the opportunity to work on the rest of their issues as a paying client.  Use Twitter search to find the people who are asking questions.

7. Conduct market research. Surveys’ and polls are a perfect way to figure out what your followers need and want. Address those issues in future posts and tweets. People will come to see you as their solution provider.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, but you now have an idea as to how Twitter can realistically function for you. It is fast, free (unless you hire someone to manage your social marketing), efficient and powerful.

Share with me the ones you have used or if you have an idea not listed here!

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Most of us are aware of Spammers on Twitter. But did you know they could be harvesting your emails?

Type “email me at” or “contact me” or “gmail” into Twitter Search and see what turns up…

I ran the search and I was floored at the amount of people who actually put their email address in their tweets. Some even post their primary address. Once you tweet your email it becomes searchable forever.

Chris Crum’s post on WebProNews explains how easy it is for spammers to harvest email addresses from Twitter tweets by using a simple script. Chris advises that you shouldn’t throw your email address in your tweets unless you want it to be searchable.

Part of me did not want to mention this vulnerability because it gives unscrupulous spammers new ideas. I’m sure this is not new and probably has been going on for some time but I always hesitate to broadcast devious behavior for fear of spawning more copycat activity.

After performing the Twitter search myself and witnessing a lot of tweets containing email addresses I feel this issue is worth mentioning.

Sometimes what seems so obvious to some is not that way for others. If you don’t think like a spammer you might not have given this issue much thought until now.

Protect yourself by sending them to your website instead. They can ask you questions or send you information from your contact form on your website. If you are having a specific conversation and need to send your email address then I suggest you send them a direct message. Direct messages are not searchable.

Be aware that some people do not read their DM’s because they are littered with spam & false connections. If you are trying to get sensitive information to someone reply to your recipient using the required @username and tell them you sent a DM that contains the email address they need.

If you feel you absolutely want to leave an email in a tweet format it as: shelly at shellylodes dot com.

This isn’t a huge problem, but you should be aware….

Dedicated to your success,

Shelly Lodes

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For my daughters 4th birthday, I hired “Gus the Clown” to entertain her and her friends.

My 6 year old son was also present and feeling very grown up and superior to the younger group.   He insisted on finishing the clown’s jokes and telling the younger children exactly how the clown pulled off all of his tricks.

I took him aside and told him if he did not stop spoiling the surprises and revealing how the clown did his tricks, he would have to leave the party.  He promised he would stop, so I allowed him to rejoin the group.

After the clown performed a few more tricks, I began to relax. No more wise cracks were leaving my son’s mouth. I did notice he was not smiling, but I attributed that to the scolding I just gave him.

Suddenly, out of the blue, my son pipes up loud and clear, “Boooooooooriiiiiiiiiing!”  The clown looked at me as if I had spawned the devil himself! I was mortified!

Obviously, my son did not think the clown was very remarkable.

I want to talk about a short but very succinct blog post by Seth Godin that I came across the other day.

He suggested that we should strive to be interesting, noteworthy and yes, even remarkable.

Twitter gives us the perfect opportunity to do just that!

Being interesting on Twitter (and other social media sites as well)  requires you stay relevant in your tweets. Tweeting information that your followers are interested in means giving them what they came to you for in the first place. Stay on track with your brand message.

Be Noteworthy by providing value. Tweet helpful, current information. Give them real meat to chew on, not a bunch of fluff. There is Google Alerts, along with other tools, that you can utilize to help you stay ahead of the pack by providing up to date information on leading edge trends and activities associated with your message.

Be remarkable. Don’t follow the herd, lead the heard. Learn great copy writing, capture your followers’ attention with intriguing titles, and don’t be afraid to be you. Show your readers a part of your remarkable life. Captivate them. We all love reality shows because we get to peek inside other peoples’ lives. Be your followers’ reality show and be remarkable!

Make it a great day!

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The first account you register should ideally be your own name if you can get it.

Less than 15 characters would be best.

It isn’t absolutely critical that you register your own name, but I would advise you to if it is available, particularly if your name is an unusual one. I’m sure the last thing you want is someone else impersonating you on Twitter, or anywhere else for that matter.

On a side note: I discovered an insider secret (on Twitter of course!) on how to claim your brand username across all of the various social media networks. This User name Discovery Tool can help you keep your brand continuity across all of the social media sites. It’s a useful tool created to assist you with expanding your brand visibility.

All you need to do is perform your search and then proceed to set up any or all sites. You could pay for it to be done for you if you choose. It is not an automated service either, because that would violate many of the sites policy. They do not retain your password information and they send you a confirmation email when each site is registered. If it were me, I’d supply them a common password and then go back in upon confirmation, click on the link in the email and change my password for each one. That would guarantee your security. Simple!

Okay back to your user name…Many people do not use spaces but they do capitalize the first letter of the first and last name. Naturally, common names like JohnSmith will already be taken. However it is possible to get variations on your own name such as John_Smith, or John_Smith23 or some variation like that. You can only use an underscore in a username. Hyphens are not permitted.

If you wish to register a business name, then you can do that of course.  It all depends on your brand.  Another way to brand yourself would be to combine part of your real name with your business. Remember, this is how you will be identified on Twitter. Then be sure to use your real name where it asks in the sign up process. This will keep you connected and identifiable with the business name you register.  I prefer to keep my  brand consistent across all of the social media platforms so keep this in mind when choosing your name.

If your name was Bob Smith and your blog was about business, a great username could be @BobsBizBlog. That user name would be displayed next to his avatar like mine is in the example below. Bob’s real name would be displayed on his twitter page in the upper right hand corner where it says Name: right above the Location, Web & Bio information. My business name and real name just happen to be the same.  My user name next to my avatar does not contain a space between my first and last name.  Where you see my real name you will notice there IS a space.

lf someone where to view Bob in there follower or following list it would look like: Bob’sBizBlog / Bob Smith. (If you click anyone’s follower or following tabs you will see the user name and their real names, or least what they entered in under the guise of their real name.) It’s always advisable to make it memorable and if possible, easy to spell. For those of you using Twitter to communicate with a local market think how memorable @AmyBestPhotos would be. If Amy sent helpful, relevant tweets and demonstrated why her photography is the best, who would you think of when your family is ready for that Christmas portrait?

I guess you got 2 tips in 1 from this post

Dedicated to your success!

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