the savvy online marketer

I know I have blogged about Twitter a few times, but I can't help but get excited about the tools that make it soooo much easier. The most often question people ask is "how much time will it take me to do social media"? The truth is - it can be a time sucker if you don't have a clear plan for how you will use it, and what you are using it for.

There are twitter tools that can automate following and unfollowing so you don't have to spend more than 1/2 an hour gaining your following to multiple thousands. You can target keywords, and gurus just to name a few highlights of these tools.

One of the most popular Twitter tools on the market is Humingbird. It is a one time fee for software that interacts on your twitter account. You tell it what to do, and it quickly goes to work for you in a short period of time. What might have taken you a half hour to an hour can take you 5-7 minutes. It is worthwhile if you are a serious tweeter, and are looking for a big following. Click on this link to learn more about it.>>> http://hummingbird2.com/

Twitter is the social media phenomenon of the day. It is clear that everyone on twitter is there for one thing - to tweet their goods, and services. Some people tweet the same thing over and over. Some people just tweet what they have to sell. And the good tweeters provide value, offering quotes, articles, blog posts, and occasionally posting a link to their services or product.

You can drive traffic to your offer, especially if you are a giver and not a spammer. What does a spammer look like? A spammer will post a link to their goods more often than providing value, and letting a person get to know them. An excellent tweeter will do this. Consider 10 posts - only 2 out of 10 should be related to your offer. The other 8 should be value.

If you have a large group who is following you on Twitter, you will have to make a lot of posts to be seen. One way to do this in productive 15 minute time block is to use socialoomph.com. You can use a FREE version that posts scheduled tweets exactly when you want them to your twitter account. They also have a paid version that will allow you to post to other social media accounts. If your approach is to build up a large followers/ following - you will need to use tools that will help you stay on target. If you only have a small group of followers, and you are not following a large group, you may not need to tweet as often and use a tool like this. It depends on your approach.

Just make sure no matter how you approach it, you can make it a productive experience that helps your business. Spamming, and spending hours on it will do nothing but hurt you.

Social media can be a great way to drive traffic. Here is a tip that will help you understand your power. You can use great sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube to start. But where it really starts to pay off is in the power of you HELPING AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. That is when you will attract those who need your services and or products. The social media platform is a two way conversation that is open for serious conversations. If you look closely at the people who have mastered this idea, they are HELPING, not spamming people. So, who can you help today? What forum can you join to provide good solutions for people? People want answers to their problems, can you help them? Think of social media as a tool to help others, and your increased income will follow. It is proven, it works.

Everyone knows that Twitter and Facebook are the social media sites that everyone is on. For those of you posting and tweeting, and using it to it's maximum - go and set your account with Ping. It will let you write a post and then send it to Facebook and Twitter all in one swoop. It's FREE! Don't forget to use best practices when applying social media marketing. Provide value, and insight, and newsworthy information that people really want to know about - it will keep people interested so when you do mention what you have to offer (sparingly) they will listen. Go to Ping.fm to get going.