Brevity is good.

OK, I've always wanted to do that. But I do have some real advice for writing on Twitter.

I get a lot of of new Tweeple (That's Twitter slang for 'people'. See? You're already becoming One of Us.) asking me: "What should I write?" or "How should I write?"

Here are my quick guidelines:

Kill the adverbs. You don't need that "Obviously". That'll save you 9 characters! 10 if you include the comma. When you only have 140 characters to write, that's a lot of extra room.

Write in active voice. "I washed my car" is easier to read, and shorter, than "My car was washed by me". Twitter is no place for passive voice.

Use shorthand sparingly. OMG your last TWT had me ROTFL. If that made no sense, that means you still have a life. If it made sense, I'm sorry for you. Either way, avoid using too much shorthand, or your online BFFs may run away.

Notice how a lot of these tips are just good writing habits? It's almost like writing well makes you a better communicator. Makes ya think, doesn't it...

Use hashtags. Don't worry about what hashtags are in a technical sense. Consider them keywords or tags for your Tweets. Use them whenever possible. You can get a list of popular hashtags at Hashtags.org.

Be pithy. Don't write about your trip to the coffee shop, unless something profound happened. Answer a question someone asked you at work. Provide a brief tip in whatever field you work. Give an opinion on the day's events. Example: "Put your keywords first in the title tag. Search engines care about that stuff."

OR

Be amusing. Everyone appreciates it when you make them laugh. Example: "Did you know I'm 99% organic? I had no idea..."

OR

Be controversial. Use sparingly. No one likes a troll, and that's what you become if you constantly write outrageous stuff in a desperate plea for attention.

BUT

Don't be dull. There are enough of us on there writing stuff like "I'm tired. Going to bed." That's my line, OK? Don't steal it.

Variety is the spice of life. Mix it up. Be funny sometimes, pithy others.

Don't dig for ideas. Write if and when something springs to mind. That's the nature of Twitter and other 'microblogs' like it. You don't need to set a goal of writing 5 Tweets a day.

Promote sparingly. It's perfectly OK to post an occasional link to a blog post or a special deal on your site. However, if all I get from you is an endless stream of links to your web site, I'll click 'nofollow'. I will. I mean it.

Reply. If someone else wrote something you really liked, or really didn't, or that you just wanted to answer, then reply to their Tweet. Twitter is the world's largest chat room. So chat!

Moderate. Don't be mean on Twitter. Unless you're already famous and have 5,000+ followers, being mean only drives people away. After you have 5,000 followers it's apparently funny. For now, though, be nice.

Consider. Once you write a tweet, it's out there. You can't delete it. So consider how you'll feel when your boss/potential boss/spouse/mom/child reads about your latest debauchery.

Enjoy. If every second on Twitter is like being strapped over growing bamboo shoots, stop. Readers can tell when you hate your surroundings, and they don't like it. Unless they're sadists. So why suffer?

With that, I leave you to Twitter.

Don't take my word for it. Jakob Nielsen said it best in 2001.

Of course you can try a focus group. Do your design. Then put 10 strangers in a small box, give them free candy, point 10 cameras at them and start firing questions. Oh, and don't forget to make sure there's a painfully obvious slab of one-way glass on one wall so they know they're being observed.

You know you'll get their natural reaction in that situation...

Only very experienced internet marketers know the most important things to become successful online. Other, intermediate or wannabee marketers, don’t know or even have no clue as to what they need to know.

So, although I absolutely don’t want to underestimate your marketing capacities, chances are that you just NEED “Need to Know”.

And that’s what I’m going to sell to you!

Yes, I have to sell it to you, for two reasons.

The first one is, because, at this very moment…
…you may not WANT it… yet.

I know you NEED it, but right now you don’t realize you really WANT this.
Hence, I have to sell it to you.

Let’s, as an exception -this IS an exceptional product- do that backwards.
So let me start with a strong guarantee:

So, how about the price?

Well, that makes it a bit crazy. You see, actually there shouldn’t be a need to SELL this product. Know why?

Because it’s FREE!

All it ‘costs’ you, is an email address (hence my guarantee above, just 1 click to get rid of this product)!

Despite the fact, that this product is completely free, the other reason I have to sell this to you is, that…

It just looks like one of these ‘too good to be true’ offers.

With the exception that this ‘Need to Know’ offer IS true. Free, highest value!

Implementing the information in this product will allow you to become highly successful on the Net. Doesn’t matter in what niche or what model you use. It WILL happen. Just apply what’s in there and you’ll see.

Yes, you really want this, believe me.

So, what do you get with ‘Need to Know’?

TWO things:

1. Need to Know manual. There is a table of content listed on the product page, so no need to repeat that here.
2. A subscription to one of the most valuable newsletters (if not the most valuable one, but government rules don’t allow me to say that) available on the Net.

And that’s all you really need (to know!).

If online marketing hasn’t worked out for you yet, if you’re still looking for that one secret to become successful online, or if you want to make it big, download this product and subscribe to the newsletter.

Believe me, you’ll definitely want this product!
It’s one of the best available right now.

The reason this is one of the best, if not ‘the best’ newsletters online is the no-hype, in-depth, crystal clear explanation of the processes that selling anything on the Net exists of.
As the author, Paul Myers says: “It’s all about clarity.”

This newsletter is in its twelfth year of existence now. You don’t publish a newsletter that long if it wouldn’t contain valuable information.

For example, in the latest newsletter issue -if you’re not subscribed yet, you’ve missed that one- explained “Why Johnny Can’t Sell”. Another splendid, 40+ page guide on why you’re not selling and how to change that.
It’s just an example of the high value that comes with this newsletter subscription.

And if you think that doesn’t apply to you because you’re doing all right, then closely examine this headline from that guide:

“If You’re Doing Okay, You’re Not Selling Well”

Honestly, you WANT this!

Here’s another argument.
Reading the best self improvement pages on the Net, we’ll nod our heads if we read something like “All it takes to accomplish something is a little willpower”, right?
Not according to Myers.
“Willpower is the least efficient, and most difficult, tool you can use to accomplish anything. It is very rarely more than a waste of time.”
It takes a power, but a different one. If you only read through the very first chapter, Becoming Unstoppable, you’ll know more about yourself and your self improvement options than you can learn anywhere online.

Do you fear selling? No problem, Myers takes care of that too. As a former sales instructor and mentor, he knows better than anyone else how to handle fears and how to overcome objections.

Yes, you definitely WANT this!

There are many more examples, but it’s decision time.
Find out yourself about the high quality and the value this newsletter delivers.
Get your copy now.
It’s free!

Let me close this post with my headline:

Either Learn What You NEED to Know
Or You’re Nuts!

Yes, I realize, more than you can imagine, I’m biased. Cause I’m a great fan of this newsletter.
But YES, you’re absolutely nuts if you don’t take this offer.

(Climbing of the soap box to watch your comments.
Tell me how much you enjoyed Need to Know!)

PS
Just got an email from Paul Myers, and he allows me to distribute his outstanding “Why Johnny Can’t Sell” report, mentioned above.

To get your copy, just do this:
1. Sign up for Need to Know and the newsletter and then

2. download “Why Johnny Can’t Sell“.

Let me know if you agree about the quality!

This is a post from Affordable Internet Marketing, http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com by Case Stevens.

Internet Marketers: Do You Know What You Need To Know?

If you've read the new Web Marketing All In One Desk Reference for Dummies, please review it here.

Thanks!

Twitter is the web's water cooler. Lots of people hang out and chat. I'll talk about the business uses another time. For now, understand this: Twitter is insane. Get a few hundred friends and their tweets racing past you like ants heading for a picnic.

There are a lot of tools out there to help you manage the flood of information. My personal favorite is TweetDeck. It's got a multi-column format that lets me organize my twitter friends, their messages and other stuff:

Here's how you set up:

Download and Install Tweetdeck

Download Tweetdeck and install it. When prompted, enter your Twitter username and password. Phew. That was hard.

The Buttons

Once you run Tweetdeck, you may just see a single column, like this:

Click this button at the upper-right-hand corner of the window:

Voila! You've got more columns. Each of those columns can give you a different view of Twitter's data.

Remove columns you don't want by clicking the 'x' at the upper-right of each column:

Set Up Your Desktop

Then add the columns you need. I'd definitely start with these four:

All friends shows the tweets of everyone you currently follow.

Replies shows you all tweets replying to you.

Groups is invaluable. Use it to break up your hundreds of friends into smaller, more manageable groups, like 'Twitterati' and 'Rock stars'.

Twitter search lets you constantly monitor search results for a specific keyword. For example, you might monitor search results for your brand name, or your favorite food:

Try All The Buttons

There are other cool features. You can list all direct messages, for example. The buttons at the bottom of each column let you filter that column by keywords, mark 'em as stuff you've already seen and other fun things.

Tweetdeck is super-versatile, and I'm no longer part of the Twitter Elite. If you find other cool tricks, be sure to leave a comment.

Got any questions? You can always follow me on Twitter: I'm @portentint.

Update. Just found a great post that lists 12 Twitter Tools you need. Diane's list is comprehensive. So I won't have to write one.

Why I Wrote This I've made fun of Twitter. I've promised not to write about it. But if you know me you know that I'm (A) Easily bribed, (B) A lightweight, (C) Fickle.

I just had dinner with two great clients who shall remain nameless. They plied me with booze, asked me about Twitter and said I should write it down. Now I'm buzzed on Diet Coke, slightly tipsy from one whole beer and there you go.