Today, I’d like to introduce you to our guest author, Harris Fellman. Harris recently launched CoupDeTwitter – a course on how to properly get started with twitter, get lots of followers, and turn those followers into cash.

He is by no means a Social Media Purist, but still he teaches what he considers the “right way” to interact on Twitter & other Social Media platforms (hint: it ain’t by spamming people with your offers). Harris has a number of years of success in the internet marketing realm and I feel very honored to have him as a guest author today.

With that … here’s Harris’ blog post entitled “How to Take Over Twitter”:

It’s everywhere. From blogs to newspapers to books at Barnes and Noble. And it’s loud. Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet.

It’s Twitter. And whether you like it or not (yet) it’s going to be around in some form or another for a long time I suspect. Might as well get used to it, right?

A couple of months ago I was in the same boat many of you might be in right now, wondering whether all this Twitter madness was of any use to me at all or whether it was just a bunch of noise, literally. But I started to hear a lot of Twitter related stories and talked to people that I personally know who were using it in ways that I hadn’t considered before.

And the lightbulb finally went off for me. There was some serious power in Twitter! People were not only using Twitter to make connections and network with others, they were making money too. Some of them making LOTS of it as I came to find out.

The biggest thing that stood out for me is this…

From a marketing perspective, Twitter = Listbuilding. Plain and simple. Proper listbuilding is all about building a list AND building relationships with the people on that list. And in many cases the people I was talking to confided in me that their Twitter contacts were more responsive than even their e-mail lists were. As a long time email marketer, I was pretty shocked. But I started doing research and I discovered several truths that I want to share with you.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about using Twitter, and some rules of thumb to keep in mind along the way. But there are several crucial steps you’ll want to take note of.

Here’s how this works:

1. Get followers.

Sounds simple right? But there’s a lot of stuff out there that will make you think you can just automate the process and be done with it. BEWARE, Twitter is watching. If you do it wrong, you’re sunk. Account Suspended. Tweet no more.

2. Build a relationship with your followers.

Yes, that’s right, you’re going to need to start talking with your followers! You want to treat them like you would anyone you might meet at any other social gathering, stipulating that you’re not at a professional wrestling event and everyone is already yelling at one another.

3. Get them Clicking & ReTweeting.

Once you build that relationship with them you want to encourage (gently) them to start clicking links you provide with items of interest and most of all to get them Retweeting your posts. Why? Because the *real* power of Twitter is NOT in your own list of followers. Nope. The real power is in the power of the exponent. If you give things of value to the Twitterverse, the Twitterverse will return the favor… Tenfold.

4. Make money.
Last but not least. You want to make money, right? Of course you do. Once you’ve completed steps one through three, there are a ton of ways that you can start to monetize your followers…their followers and their followers followers. But also beware: Twitter spam is on the rise and people are becoming wary of anyone who just jumps into the pool and starts shouting Marco Polo at the top of their lungs. You have to be very careful to craft your Tweets so that people are still getting maximum value from you.

Four seemingly simple steps, and they’re not rocket science, but they do take some finesse and time to do properly. If you’d like to learn more about how to properly implement these 4 steps, I welcome you to join me and my Coup De Twitter system. It will teach you how to do Twitter the RIGHT way as well as 7 easy ways to make money with it plus a handful of advanced tactics as well. Please visit Coup de Twitter to watch a free 35 minute video that I have prepared for you (no opt-in required).

Thanks for reading – if you liked this article, let me know on Twitter – my ID there is @harrisfellman.

Harris Fellman
CoupDeTwitter.com

If you’re anxious to build your list fast, this FREE report by Justin Michie provides the crucial steps you can take to see results quickly.

With years of marketing experience under his belt, he has discovered what works and what doesn’t for building a list. In his report, Unstoppable List Building, he shares his findings with you, along with tips on how to make some of the strategies work for maximum benefit.

This is a no-nonsense report that drives right to the core of what works, and gives you the real secrets to building your list. Justin tells you right from the start what to expect from this report and why he has chosen his approach.

It is presented with new marketers in mind, but is equally valuable to seasoned marketers. If you have limited experience, this report will help you to start building a quality, responsive list fast.

He is making this paid report FREE for a limited time, so grab your copy of Unstoppable List Building while you can: Unstoppable List Building

It covers how to use classified ads and social marketing to build your list quickly. It tells you when to use single opt-in and when to choose double opt-in, and why there’s a difference.

You’ll learn the difference between targeted and untargeted traffic and why you should care which type of traffic you drive to your squeeze page and onto your list. He lists the three things you need to get started, and where to get them easily without paying a huge price.

You’ll discover some effective free and paid methods for attracting subscribers that many successful marketers are using to boost their lists, and much more, including building trust and making money on demand.

The meat of the report focuses on viral marketing. While this concept has been around for a very long time and is utilized by top marketers, Justin shares with you some details that will set you apart from the rest.

Viral marketing involves getting others to distribute your products that contain links to your offers. But Justin takes this one step further by giving you tips on how to encourage even more people to distribute your viral product. These are methods that have worked to literally explode his lists in record time.

To give you a clear look at the process, he spells out a typical scenario in 7 steps. You will see how this powerful strategy will spread your viral product and your promotions around the Internet like wildfire.

The 65-page report is chock full of valuable ideas that you can implement right away to start building your list, or to expand the one you have.

Grab your free copy of Unstoppable List Building while you can, before Justin takes it down:
Click here for your free “Unstoppable List Building” report

Everybody’s been talking about Twitter. You can’t get through a newscast these days without someone mentioning Twitter or Tweets. Barack Obama tweets. But what exactly is this new social marketing tool, and how can you use it to grow your business?

Twitter is like a blog on a microscopic scale; instead of writing whole posts and your mailing list being notified when a new post goes up, a tweet (what a Twitter post is called) can only be a maximum of 140 characters, and the people who are following you get your whole tweet at once, instead of having to go to your website.

Twitter has now become huge. Companies like Apple, Intel, H&R Block and Zappos are all on Twitter. As mentioned above, so is the new President of the United States.

So how do you leverage this phenomenon? You need to get up and running on Twitter, asap. And you need to build your list of followers. While that may sound like something out of a bad science fiction movie, its actually just building a list of people that want to receive your tweets, much like you built your mailing list for your blog.

1) Import Your Contacts
When you sign up for Twitter, make sure you import all of your contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, your address book and your mailing list.

2) Write Your Profile
Make sure that your profile is complete to make it easier for people to find you, and use the same keywords in your profile that you do on your website. Always include a link to your website (including the “http” to ensure that it’s clickable) – you’re trying to build your business, after all. You can also personalize the colors and the sidebar of your profile page.

3) Understand How Twitter Works
Twitter is not another marketing tool that you can out and out manipulate; it is a social marketing tool that will only be useful to you is you actually become part of the community. It is not a place to spam, and don’t actively promote yourself.

Build a standing in the community by replying to other tweets (retweeting), share cool stuff, and build trust, then direct your followers to a blog post, filled with useful information, and only then use that post to get followers to take action. Trying to take people out of Twitter right away and into a sales pitch will get you labeled as a scammer.

4) Build Your Audience
To build your audience above and beyond your initial contact list, you’ll need to look both inside and outside Twitter.

Outside of Twitter, you can put a link to “Follow me on Twitter” in your email signature, forum signature, website, blog posts, and any other way that you communicate with people (where appropriate, of course – I don’t think the IRS wants to follow you on Twitter.)

Inside of Twitter, it’s all about following people. You can find other users that you admire, and see who is following them; you can also see who is following your friends; use Twitter directories to find members who are likely to follow you; use the search feature to find profiles of people you want to follow – and follow all of them. They will, in turn, follow you.

5) But Watch How Much You’re Following
While you’re building your following, you still need to maintain a balance between people you follow and people that follow you. Follow too many, and you’ll be seen as a spammer; don’t follow enough, and you look elitist. You can do this by growing slowly; don’t add 500 new friends in one day. Add 50 at a time and give them time to start following you so the balance is maintained.

You can also use a tool like “Friend or Follow” to balance out your lists; it will tell you who is following you that you’re not following yet, and vice-versa. It will also let you keep track of those who follow you, so you follow them and then they stop following you. They’re most likely spammers; don’t use this tactic or you’ll get the same reputation.

6) Be Someone Worth Following
Be witty, and post useful information. If you’ve got a niche, make sure that you’re talking to them. If you have news, tweet it. You can also use the tools on Twitter to take your blog posts and automatically tweet them.

You can tell people what you do; always be upfront with people. You just have to avoid the obvious sell, people can see that coming from a mile away. You can promote your business and celebrate your victories (XXX is happy to get the YYY account!), but don’t try to sell anyone anything.

7) Follow Wisely
And, in this sense, ‘follow’ has a broader meaning. Look to the experts in your category who are also on Twitter, and learn from them. Find 10 to 20 users you admire that have more than 300 followers, and try to learn how they did it. Take their ideas and make them your own.