Take Advantage and really have fun with Twitter

I've been really having a lot of fun with Twitter lately, but I don't see many people from Fair Tax Nation tweeting anymore. So I thought I would help by sharing some of my secrets. I hope you will join me.

Twitter Following Limit: The 1st thing to understand is that Twitter puts a limit on the number of people you can follow ("Following"). That magic number is 2000. That doesn't mean you're limited to 2000, it just means that you cannot exceed 2000 without having (I believe) about 1900 followers. This is basically to prevent what is known as TwitterSpam. Try to keep your follower:following ratio within 300 people until you reach that 2000 limit. It took me well over a year to attain that.

Followers: The 2nd thing to understand with twitter is that you need followers in order to get the word out. Followers are the people who SEE your tweets, not those you follow. Here are some ways for you to gain more followers:

• Follow people you know will follow you back. Following all the senators, representatives, and businesses will do you little good, because they are less likely to follow you. Instead, try following some of the like-minded people who follow them.
• Strike up conversations and get to know the people you're tweeting with.
• Frequently retweet what others tweet (even if they don't follow you). This will often get them to retweeting your tweets and their friends will see you and connect with you.
• Use "#hashtags" when you tweet. What #hashtags are, are keywords that are used within Twitter. By adding the # (pound sign) to any single #word (or #CompoundedPhraseOfWords) you are essentially linking to others who use that same #hashtag. Other people often monitor these tags for activity and is a good way to be seen. Some common hashtags I use are:
  • #FairTax, #FairTaxNation, #FairTaxTime, #taxes, #taxreform, #taxme, #fairshare
  • #USSen, #GOP, #RNC, #Senate
  • #DCCC, #DEMS, #DNC, #TWISTERS, #TOPPROG, #SGP, #P2
• It is advantageous to follow everyone who follows you; with exceptions, of course. Like, spammers get blocked, I don't follow porn (unless they also talk taxes), and people who un-follow me, get un-followed right back.

Customization: You have to do the little things, like customize your profile pic, change your background, and edit your profile information. The little egg has got to be changed before you can expect to be seen as a real person and if people don't see you as a real person, you won't get many followers.

APPs: An APP is an application that improves your twitter experience. There are hundreds, probably 1000s of APPs out there to help you with Twitter, so if you can think of something, search for it and you will probably find it.

For instance, I thought to myself, it would be nice if I could frequently change my Twitter profile image. So I searched "rotate twitter profile image" and poof, I found: TwiBack, an APP that will rotate any number of images for me on a regular basis.

Other APPs I use are:

• TweetDeck - An all in one app that lets me manage my Twitter account.
• FriendOrFollow - To monitor who is not following me.
• TwitPic - to upload and manage my pictures on Twitter.
• CompeteTweet - To see how I compete with other FairTaxers.
• TwentyFeet - Aggregate Twitter Metrics.
• The Visitor Widget - Twitter Statistics
• Tweetvisor - Extends Twitter's meaning.
• Twitaholic - Twitter Popularity List.
• Twibs - a Twitter business portal.

If you know of any APPs or Tips that are good for our twitter users, please post them in a comment.