First Looks At Buffer from Rob Cairns on Vimeo.

This Week In Review Jan 30, 2011 from Rob Cairns on Vimeo.

This Week In Review Jan 23 2011 from Rob Cairns on Vimeo.

A User’s Twitter Page

The following is a screen shot of my good friend John Lusher’s Twitter page. Notice the more streamlined look of the page. Their is still room for your customized background as John has on the left of his Twitter page. I like the look on the right hand side as well.

From Twitter Page

My Main Twitter Page

The following is my Main Twitter Page. I really do like the way the right hand side is organized and laid out. Items are sorted in groups. Note that Direct Messages are called messages on this page.

From Twitter Page

Messages Page

The messages page is where we can see the direct messages that you received. Note that the page tells how long ago you received the message. Their is also a count of how many direct messages you have been received since you turned the new Twitter page on.

From Twitter Page

My Profile page

My Profile page shows the new look. My Tweets are on the left and the information about me is showing streamlined on the right.

From Twitter Page

What do you think?

Twitter Following Explained

Twitter allows you to follow as many followers as you can up to the first 2,000 followers. One you hit the first 2,000 the you fall into what is called the the Twitter 20% rule. This means you can only follow 20% more then the people who follow you. This is important to keep in mind as your Twitter numbers grow.

Twitter Lists

I also use Twitter lists. I keep lists to keep track of what certain groups of people are saying. It is easier to create a list and then use programs like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to display the list in one of your columns. This makes it easier to find out what that list of people are saying and it helps you manage what various groups of people are saying and how you interact with those people.

I use Twitter lists to keep track of the key people I talk to as well as groups of people – for example media outlets that I want to find efficiently and quickly. It should be noted that you do not need to be following someone for them to be in one of your Twitter lists. Keep this note in mind because it will help you manage the 20% rule.

How Do I Know I Can Not Follow More People?

Twitter will tell you that you can not follow anymore people. This tell you the user that you have hit Twitter Jail and it is time to clean up your account. The question is how do you now do it?

How To Clean up your Twitter Account

The question is how do you know clean up your Twitter account. The following is a screen cast and a step by step list on how I do un-following:

1. Go over to Friend or Follow and generate a list of who you are following that is not following you. This web site will then allow you to export the list it creates as a .csv file. Export your .csv and you are ready to go.

2. Take the .csv file that you exported and load it into your favorite Spreadsheet program. In my case I use Excel on Windows 7.

3. Delete all the columns in your Spreadsheet that you do not need. You only need the one on the far left which is the screen name column.

4. I then save my spreadsheet so I am ready go.

5. Using your Web Browser, open up the Twitter home page.

6. In your web browser key in Twitter.com/username

7. When the Twitter page for the user comes up, you can un follow him.

8. A little tip is if you want to see what this user is doing but he is not following you – add the Twitter user to a list and that way he will not affect your 20% ratio that Twitter requires you to keep. Then unfollow the user. Remember a Twitter user can be listed in a Twitter list without to following them.

These are some tips that I use to maintain my Twitter account. How to do you maintain yours?

Twitter Resources:

1. Hootsuite - I use Hootsuite as my Twitter client from any web browser as well as on my Iphone.
2. Trendistic – See twitter tends.
3. Twit Longer – post long Tweets.
4. Tweepmp – Share groups of Twitter users.
6. How Long Have you Been On Twitter.
7. Twitter Icons and Twitter Backgrounds.
8. What is in a Hash Tag?
9. Listorious – Lists of Twitter People
10. TwEllow – The Twitter Yellow Pages.- Search Twitter users by city.
11. Twit Pic- Post pictures from your mobile phone on Twitter.

These Twitter tools make my Twitter experience much better and easier to manage. Which Twitter tools do you use?

Let’s start of on what engaging is. Engaging is getting to know someone and building a relationship. The relationship can be around social media, a product or even a sports event. part of engaging is getting to know someone, listening,sharing, assisting, having fun and adding value to someone’s life. Engaging is a two way street. For it to work properly it takes at least two people if not more.

Let’s take a good example. I have two real good friends @JohnLusher and @Marty0518. We talk about social media, twitter the Iphone, our lives with each other and even sports(Go Cowboys Boys!). When one of us needs to vent, we are always their or even to lend a hand. That is what social media is all about. If you want two great people to follow make sure you follow Marty and John especially if you are a Cowboys fan.

How do you engage on Twitter. The first way is to listen before you post. If you enjoy someone’s post retweet it and give credit to the individual. If another follower has a question and you can help them, please assist them. They would appreciate it very much. Show people that you care about them. Help them out. Do not be known on Twitter as a taker but also as a giver.

Now that we have talked about engaging, let’s talk about the white noise of Twitter. That is spam. Spam usually takes two forms on Twitter. One is in a direct message and the other is in a @ reply otherwise known as a mention. Spam is really unwanted messages use to pic a product that someone has without having a relationship with your first. I get mentions all the time with a tiny url link telling me to buy a product. These are the people I Un-follow faster then saying Shazam.

The key is to develop a great relationship first. Everything else will come after you are engaging. How do you feel about being engaging on Twitter? Please share you thoughts as a comment to this blog entry.