Mike Bitter

I have been using a service for several months now to follow/unfollow people.  It is a GREAT way to get to know a lot of people.  I have watched two companies change their business processes to keep up with Twitter’s changing rules.  I am seeing the third company go through it now.  Here’s what they said.  By the way, this is a great piece of software:

Why Buzzom is not working ? – Buzzom Update

Dear Buzzom Users,

Since April 17th, Saturday, 2010 Buzzom’s system is down and we are really sorry for the inconvenience.  We really want to be open about the case, hence we would like all our users to stay with us till the problem is resolved.

The main reason behind the shutdown of Buzzom’s system is Twitter’s new rules and regulations regarding Autmation. The new rules of Twitter doesn’t allow any automatic following and unfollowing, and there has been many news of twitter users getting suspended for aggressively following and unfollowing.

This case has brought Twitter’s attention to Buzzom which basically allows user to manage their twitter account. Initially, we had a bulk unfollow and follow option which is no longer running. It was removed as requested by Twitter.

But now, our one more feature of following 50 person in one GO has been questioned. As a result, Twitter has stopped responding authentication from Buzzom’s system. We are in close talk with Twitter to restart our service and bring new changes to the system so that it doesn’t violate any terms and conditions.

We have made all the required changes to the system and are eagerly waiting for response from Twitter. Once we get the Green signal, our services will be back on service.

We are indebt to all our users who have showed their interest and love to the service and we continue to serve better in future.

Thank You,

Deep Sherchan

Chief Marketing Officer, InRev Systems

_________________________________________

WOW!! How many days have we been talking about growing your Following? No matter your reasons for growing your following, have fun. Twitter is a great place to meet wonderful people. You’ll find lots of people who like the same things you do. The three steps are Reciprocate, Flush, then Grow. You cannot get too radical when you go through this process or Twitter will SHUT YOU DOWN!! Yep, I’ve been shut down three times. It took about two days to get my Twitter turned back on. The process we’ve talked about is a process that will cause your Twitter following to grow like it was on steroids.
Let me know if you have any questions or would like for us to put together a “How To” guide to growing your Twitter following. We don’t mind putting it together, but don’t want to do the work if there isn’t any interest.

Numbers are important in Twitterville. Think about it the next time you see someone with 5,000 or 10,000 people. Are you more likely to listen and/or follow someone with 200 or 300 followers or someone who has 5,000 or 10,000 followers? If you are a small business using Twitter to build a customer base (I do this every day for businesses), you should want to follow someone with 5,000 or 10,000 followers. The same will happen to you as you grow. More and more people will want to follow you, but don’t forget to remove people who don’t communicate. You are looking for communicators. Growing is important in Twitter because it shows you are being active. I am working with a client now that I built their Following from nothing to 700 in three weeks. Once you get over 1000 it gets much easier and the numbers move quicker. There are some stiff rules when you approach 2000 Followers that you need to be aware of or it will be very difficult to get past 2000. Twitter has some built in safeguards, but above all, keep building. After you pass 2000 Followers, there is not limit. Keep in mind, when you have 100 Followers and someone else has 10, they look up to you. When you have 1000 Followers and someone else has 100, they look up to you, and so on and so on. Keep it real. I’ll wrap this up tomorrow.

Would you be interested in a “How To” guide to building your Twitter Following? Jeff Boots and I are contemplating writing it…if there’s interest.
Wrap up tomorrow.

Yesterday we talked about Twitter 1, Reciprocating. There are three steps to growing your Twitter following

1. Reciprocating
2. Growing
3. Flushing

Reciprocate when you can. After reading yesterday’s blog you’ll know why I said Reciprocate

when you can

The next thing you’ll want to do is Flush. Clean out all the people who aren’t communicating. If you are serious about making Twitter a business application or you are ready to make your following EXPLODE, you have to clean out people who don’t communicate or won’t follow you. It is about ultimately growing your following. This happens at an incredible rate when you clean out “dead wood,” get rid of the people who won’t help you grow and keep looking for people who will help you grow. Tomorrow we will talk about the last and final step, Growing your following and then we’ll sum up what all this means to you.

By the way, let me know if a “How to Grow Your Twitter FOLLOWING on Steroids” would be useful. My business partner and I am thinking about putting a step by step guide together to walk people through the process. Let us know what you think. Tomorrow is Growing.

Growing your Twitter following is only half of the battle. You also have to know how to nourish and take care of your followers. People like to know other people and many spend time in the background just reading, watching and enjoying your company. Get to know the people who want to hear what you have to say. There are three steps to building your following

1. Reciprocate
2. Grow
3. Flush

First off you should always Reciprocate your followers. If someone is following you, you should follow them back……unless you don’t want to. I’ve found people on Twitter I’d rather not follow and that is alright. O.K., time for Twitter etiquette. Take a look at one of your personal habits and think about how hard it would be to break that habit. Keep that in mind when joining Twitterville. If you don’t like someone because of what they say, what they do, etc., UNFOLLOW them!! Don’t chew their butt and get them upset because you don’t like the way they are. Remember the habit you just thought about? If you can’t change a habit YOU have, how hard do you think it would be to change someone else? Don’t even try. Life is too short, UNFOLLOW THEM!! and go on!!. Anyway, always Reciprocate first. Tomorrow I’ll talk more about growing your following. In Twitter, numbers DO matter.

I’ve been thinking about building a Twitter program that teaches small businesses how to bulid their Twitter following. Perry Blecher taught me a way to grow my Twitter following that is like a Twitter Miracle Grow or Twitter growth on steroids. It is amazing. At one time I got a Tweet from a @robadvertising about how fast my follwing was growing. The fastest I’ve grown is 2400 in 6 days. Sound impossible? I’ve done it. The funny thing is I didn’t know I was doing it. WOW!! It was awesome. More tomorrow!!

Yesterday we talke about companies getting their money’s worth. If you can’t show that, you will soon be looking for work elsewhere. Let’s step this up a bit to showing the best value for the money. In our current economic times, people are asking “how much VALUE am I getting for my money. I am not saying just show value for the money you are being paid, I am talking about showing more value than your competitors. It does not matter if you are working for a company, or you are providing Social Media services to a company, YOU have to show the MOST value or the company will find someone else. To put this in perspective, if I am being paid $1000/mo by a client, I shoot for showing value of at least $1500-$2000. This will show added value and keep you ahead of your competition. Most of my competition show $1000 payback for every $1000 they are being paid. So who do you think will get the contract? Keep in mind I am not talking about doing 1 1/2 – 2 times more work. I am talking about being the best at what you do, being the most efficient and showing the greatest payback. Keep your head up, shoulders straight an you’ll do well.

As we’ve previously discussed, whenever you are doing work for a business, you HAVE TO show value. Numbers don’t lie and can show your value as an employee or contractor. Be sure you know what your numbers are showing BEFORE you show them. Although you may not think your numbers are what they should be, your boss may think otherwise. You have to keep showing value and improvement. If a company is paying you $1000/mo for your Social Media efforts, you need to show at least $1000/mo payback. I have never shown $1000/mo payback for being paid $1000. More about what I DO show in tomorrow’s posting.

Then you have to come to an Omaha Beef Game. If you don’t have, or can’t get tickets, you can register at

http://budurl.com/BeefTickets

Hurry, the contest ends Friday at noon cst.

This was during a recent Omaha Beef Football Game. This is GREAT!!