How I'm Getting Followers on Twitter

So it seems like half of the free world is on Twitter these days. I keep waiting for Grandma to email and tell me she's made it. The other night I was at a Diamondbacks game here in Arizona. One of the stadium banners had a Twitter ad and there was another Twitter ad over the P.A. system. I guess Twitter is here to stay.

Twitter is an online community that's mixed with people trying to make a buck, share something profound, be completely useless or some combination of the three. But, most people seem to have one common theme, and that is to get lots of followers.

Recently, I've had some success growing my Twitter account. My account is growing at a rate of over 150+ per day. (Check out Twitter Counter for proof.) My total follower count is still retentively low, but if this trend continues, then I should be seeing massive growth soon! So let me give you a few hints & tips on how to grow your followers.

First, you really need to buy Twitter Traffic Machine. I can't begin to explain how valuable this is. Put it this way, when I started using Twitter Traffic Machine, I had about 1500 followers. A week later, I had 1,000 more! That brought my Twitter follower count to only 2,500. That's a 40% growth of followers in 1 week. Not bad. I can't stress it enough, buy Twitter Traffic Machine. If you want to have a bunch of followers, it's worth the small investment ($27.00)

Next, follow some sort of strategic schedule. My week goes something like this:

Sunday: Follow about 500 people (Below, I'll list ways to follow people easily without having to click on the follow button a million times)
Monday: Same, follow about 500 people
Tuesday: Follow about 500
Wednesday: Follow about 500
Thursday: Do not follow anyone! Just Tweet. have conversations with people. @reply to strategic people who are not following you, but you'd like them to. I also use Tweet Later and schedule Tweets to be sent during the upcoming week. This is a great way to put your marketing on auto-pilot.
Friday: Same as Thursday.
Saturday: Unfollow everyone who isn't following me. Here is the best tool I've found for that: Karma

Finally, there are tons of tools to use to help you be more effective with Twitter. Here are a few cool sites for you to try out. Use these well and you'll grow your own little Twitter Empire in no time!

Twitter Traffic Machine - Again, well work the investment. Get it!
Tweet Later - Easy to use system that will allow you to automate twitter. I suggest buying the professional package.
Easy Tweet
Twollow - Easy site to find followers within your niche.
Twellow - Good directory service. be sure to place yourself in all 10 categories allotted to you.
TwitSeeker - Another easy tool to find like minded Tweeters

Hope this all helps. Now it's your turn. What works for you? What tools do you use with Twitter?

Easy Tweets - Yes, it is easy

Just wanted to take a quick second today and tell you about anew service I've been trying. It's called Easy Tweets.

This is perhaps the best Twitter-organizer service out there. The companies slogan is to "Take Complete Control of Twitter." Here are a few of their highlights


It's very easy to use. The reporting tools are excellent. Very easy to incorporate RSS feeds and you can even use Google Analytics! Their Tweet Deck view will make you forget all about Tweet-Deck.

This program is cheap & easy. Try it today. You'll be happy you did! Click here to sign up.

4 Step Plan Every Entrepreneur Must Follow

There is a lot of flexibility in being an entrepreneur. That’s part of the thrill! But, there is one fact that every entrepreneur must live by. That is that Every Entrepreneur must have a plan!

Let me share with you a very simple method that will help you design, implement and stick with your plan.

I call this method the DNA of business. I call it that because this should be the core of every business you run and venture your pursue. I use this method to execute for my overall business plan, but also for specific projects to measure their effectiveness.

There are 4 simple steps:

1. Define Why – Why are you in business? What is your dream, vision, purpose, & mission? Why are you selling your product or providing your service? Why are you attempting this project?
2. Understanding What – This is where you will better understand your performance expectations. You will need to define your behaviors & start understanding their results. What do you hope to accomplish? What does success look like?
3. How is it measured – I find that entrepreneurs generally are very poor at this step. They have tons of ideas to try, but often do not do enough measure their success. To be successful, you must be able to accurately measure something’s effectiveness. In this step, define how you will know if you are successful or unsuccessful? What specific things can you measure to ensure that you are succeed and providing your why?
4. So What? – This is simply 2 if/then statements. If I am doing well, then what? If I am not doing well, then what? In other words, how will I adjust what I am doing?

Let’s give this a trial run to better prove my point. Let’s say you find a new product you’d like to promote & sell. Here is how I’d follow these steps to prepare me in promoting this product.

Project: Quickly & Rapidly Grow Twitter Followers
Product: Twitter Traffic Machine (This is an actual product I suggest trying. Click here for more info)
Plan of action: Send the affiliate link to follow Tweeters who follow me. Add link to my website. Send mass email to email list

1. Define Why – I am doing this 1) Give value to others by teaching them a valuable tool. 2) Generate another stream of income. 3) Grow my twitter list.
2. Understanding what – I hope to double my Twitter followers in 30 days and generate $500 in affiliate money through this program.
3. How is it measured – I have 1,620 Twitter followers today. My goal is to have 3,240 by May 24, 2009. This will be measures by Twitter & Twitter Counter. Affiliate income will be tracked through my affiliate website.
4. So What? – If I meet both of these goals, then I will continue this program. If I exceed these goals by 25%, then I will increase my marketing of this. If I miss these goals by 25%, then I will discontinue this program.

It’s as easy as that! That plan took me about 5 minutes to write. But now I know why I want to attempt this new project. What I am going to do. How I will measure it. And what I will do based on those results.

Easy! Now try it! You’ll be glad you did.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. Please try this and tell me how it works for you.

The Curse of the Entrepreneur

Let me tell you a quick story that I hear time and time again. The main character changes, but the story remains the same. It goes something like this…..

I’m not sure that I know what I want to do when I grow up. So far, I’ve bounced from job to job, making just enough to support my family. However, I get bored easily with each job and start looking for the next best thing.

As a result, I’ve run though my life feeling unfulfilled. I don't really know what I want to do. I have lots of ideas, but I don't really know which one to pursue

I think I want to do something on my own. I may want to own my own business. I’d like to be my own boss. In my previous jobs, I’ve loved building something new within my role and I’d love to do that with my own company. But, that takes a lot of work and money. I don't really know how to do it or how to get started. I guess I'll keep looking for the perfect job for me.

The reality is that this person does know what they want to do when the grow up - THEY WANT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR!

Here's the really cool news about this......You can be an entrepreneur just by deciding that you are one. That's it! No school to complete, entrance exam to pass or interview to ace.

So, why do I call this a curse? Well, because frequently there is something holding wanna-be entrepreneurs back from pursing their dreams. For instance, you've got to support your family and yourself financially. Frequently when you stop working at your ‘regular’ job and start an entrepreneurial-venture there is a period of time where you make little to no money.

Or, it may be fear holding you back. The fear of failure, the fear of getting in over your head, or the fear of the unknown.

That's generally the curse.....money and/or fear. You're cursed because you want to be an entrepreneur, but are stuck in a job and can't be.

Personally, I don't believe in the curse. We live in the age of the entrepreneur! With the internet, it's easier than ever to follow your individual entrepreneur dream.

You’ve got to start somewhere. If you think you have the entrepreneur-spirit within you, then go for it! Decide that you are an entrepreneur and find a way to apply that to your life. Don’t go through life saying, I don’t really know what I want to do. The reality is that you do know…..you’re just afraid to try it.

Here are a few resources that I recommend to help you get started.

So let me ask you this, how do you cure this curse? How do you get started? How can you follow your dreams? In a few days, I'll add another post with some of my ideas. But, I'd like to hear from you.

If you are an entrepreneur, how did you get started? If you would like to be an entrepreneur, what's holding you back?

Getting Started with Twitter

I'm still not sure how or why, but Twitter-mania seems to be upon us. It's always amazing to me when something that seems so simple can simply explode in excitement.

So, because there are a lot of new Entrepreneurs starting on Twitter, I thought I'd take a few minutes to discuss how to get started, how to correctly grow your followers and even how to make a little money using Twitter!

Getting Started
Getting started is simple. Go to www.twitter.com. Then click on the Get Started - Join Icon
Simply, complete all requested information and your all set! Don't be afraid to use your real name as your user name. You may also want to use your company or nickname here. I prefer to keep it basic, but this is totally up to you. Once you've complete these steps you're registered.
Welcome to Twitterland!

Grow Your Follower List
There is much debate about followers. Some want to get as many followers as possible. Others only want to have a small group of followers whom they care about. This is totally up to you and why you are using Twitter. Who to follow will also depend on your strategy. I suggest only following those with similar interested to you. For example, my main interest is Entrepreneurship. Therefore, I look for people with entrepreneur topics in their tweets & bio.

You may also want to list yourself on a Twitter directory so other like-minded Tweeters can find you. I really like Twellow. (www.tweellow.com) This is an easy to use directory where you can list yourself in various categories. So, if you're interested in cooking, then you'd want to place yourself under the cooking, food, or even the health, etc.

Making Money
You can even make money using Twitter. I'll talk about this more later on exactly how, but essentially you can use Twitter to market products. They don't even have to be your products. You can easily market other peoples products and make a profit as an affiliate. We'll talk a lot more about this in later blog entries.

One word of caution, please do not SPAM people on Twitter. If all you are doing is selling something to others, people will stop following you. Instead, talk about yourself and what you are up to. Find good articles or blogs that interest you and tell others about that. Feel free to share a url to something you are selling, but don't simply join Twitter to just sell stuff. There are better ways to sell.

Now it's your turn. Why do you use Twitter? What do you like / dislike about it? What else would you like to learn about Twitter?

Twitter Grader Review - Worth Trying

Twitter Grader is one of the dozens of free tools available to help Twitter users. Like most Twitter tools, it's pretty easy to use and seems to be aimed at everyone's #1 goal on Twitter......GETTING LOTS OF FOLLOWERS! But, there is more to Twitter Grader than meets the eye.

Let's start with the basics. When you first go to www.twittergrader.com (or http://twitter.grader.com/) a very simple & clean looking interface is presented asking you to enter your Twitter username. Once you do, the grader is off and running a few few quirky, yet funny phrases while you wait. Once the 'grading' is complete, the following screen will appear.

Tons of information is returned to you. It's very easy to read & use. A few highlights:
Tweet Cloud: Located towards the middle of the screen. This shows commonly user words in your Tweets with the most commonly used in larger print. This is very beneficial because its a 2 second overview of your content. Good visual way to see what you're talking about most.

Suggest Followers: This is at the bottom of your profile screen. I'm not sure how they determine this, but for the most part the list seems to be of people with similar interests based on your Twitter profile.

Other cool features are:
TwitSnip - Nifty little tool the lives in your browser. It allows you to quickly tweet content from a web page you are currently on.
TweetIt Button Creator - Very easy to use tool to create Tweet-it links for web content. (See the Tweet it Link at the end of this article)
Badge - Tool that provides html code to show your Twitter Grade or your current followers. (See right hand column of this site)

One last feature is the Twitter Elite links at the top right of the screen. This shows top rated Tweeters and are organized by location. It's nice to see who is most active in different areas of the world. Also, if you want to be the best, you need to do what the best are doing. Here are the account this site feels are top rated on Twitter. Spend some time studying what they do.

A few negatives about the site.....The grading doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. There seems to be a world of difference between someone who ranks at 98.6 versus 99.0. It seems like they get as many people as close to 100 as possible. Perhaps this is by design. Also, it occasionally will take forever to load your Twitter Grade and other information. Sometimes, it will freeze my browser (Firefox.) Occasionally, the site wil not load.

All in all, I really like this site. Check it out and use what you learn from it to continue creating your own little Twitter Empire. Go ahead and check out my stats there as well.

Twitter Tools For Success

I've spent a good chunk of time recently playing with Twitter and the many free Twitter-related services that are out there. There are tons. I love the Twitter concept. Give everyone a few lines to share what's on their mind. I love even more that they have an open API and literally hundreds or Twitter related applications have been created as a result.

So, the question is, which ones should you use? If you Tweet at all (and if your an entrepreneur you certainly should) using applications can help you develop your brand & business. Here is a list of a few tools that will help you be organized, personal in your tweets & will help you grow your followers:

1. Twellow.com - This is a great directory to help you find fellow Twitter accounts of similar interests. Also is an excellent place to list yourself so you can be found. Can be used to tie together your other social media profiles as well.
2. TweetLater.com - Allows you to run tons of automation through Twitter. Things like, automatic following of individuals who follow you, write Tweets to be posted later, have @replies emailed to you and more. Great free version. I suggest buying the upgraded version.
3. TwitterCounter.com - Can't say it overly useful, but it's a fun tool to show how much your followers have grown.
4. Twitter Search - Very easy & powerful to use. Will search for any words recently Tweeted. Will show you who Tweeted the word or phrase and gives you an option to view their profile.
5. TwitterGetter.com - This is a new tool that I recently tried. Essentially it's a tool that will attempt to bring you tons of followers. Frankly, I can't make a recommendation on this because I haven't' sufficiently tested it.
6. TwitterGrader.com - I like this one. The tool will give you a score of your Twitterness (that's a word I just made up) Will also show you a word Cloud of recently used words. This is good way for you to see what you tweet about most. Also will show you a list of Tweeters to follow based on your Tweets. Really good tool. And Free!
7. TweetDeck - This is an application you download to your desktop. It's a tool that will organization your followers into customizable groups. A great way to stay organized and on top of your Tweets.

One final note, make sure you respect your followers by not posting too often and only promoting things in your tweets. Instead share things of interest & value. No one wants to be advertised to all day long.

Your turn......what tools do you use? Which do you like and dislike? Comment and tells us what works.

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The great American poet Robert Frost wrote these immortal lines 90 years ago:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

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About Me

About Me

Hi, I’m Scott Morrison and I write the Entrepreneur Toolkit blog to help entrepreneurs be successful. I am also a Small Business Coach for Infusionsoft. Daily, I coach Entrepreneurs on how to successfully grow their businesses. This site is about the stories I hear, the people I work with and will teach you how to be a successful Entrepreneur.

I started this blog to help other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Starting a business can be overwhelming, but it is also very rewarding! I want to help. My goal is to help you be successful!

To contact me, please email smorrison00@gmail.com. I welcome all thoughts, ideas & feedback.



Testimonials

“Scott is a great people person. He's fun to work with and he takes his work seriously but not too seriously. He's been Support Manager, Customer Care Manager and will be moving into a new role as Small Business Coach. He is adaptable, but the one thing he has in common is that he's great working with customers. I give Scott a strong recommendation for any customer-facing role. Clate” June 25, 2009

Clate Mask , CEO , Infusionsoft

“Scott came into a small business to manage the Technical Support Team at Infusion. This team was struggling under several diverse demands, like any contact center. Scott, took charge, and in just 3 weeks made major improvements to the team's still level, service level and quality of outputs to Infusion customers. He works tirelessly to help his team, and fix the issues that directly impact customers. He does not sleep until everyone is handled- correctly. He can be counted on, in any situation, to do the right thing and do it well! Great job Scott!” March 25, 2008

Kelly Roy (Maret) , VP Operations , Infusion Software

“Scott Morrison is a full-time entrepreneur with a part-time job of being awesome. Scott Morrison is a fellow who is able to make sound business decisions in favor of customers so it becomes a win-win-win situation for all parties involved. He's a great negotiator and is a valuable asset to any organization. He has tremendous flexibility to adjust to the needs of a growing company at a whim and continues to share his entrepreneurial wisdom and focus with everyone who he interacts with.” August 10, 2009

Joseph Manna, Online Community Manager, Infusionsoft

“While I worked with our largest business partners in the field, I had to hear the good and the bad. Scott always wanted to take a hands on approach and worked with me from the ground up to understand customer needs and issues from the horses mouth. Scott was an amazing resource in getting to the bottom of customer issues and finding the right solutions to get them fixed. He made my life much easier!” July 7, 2009

Colin Daymude , Strategic Alliance Manager/Coach , Infusion Software

“Scott is a very balanced manager. He cares about and makes it a priority to equip his team and to facilitate excellent teamwork and communication within the group that he manages. I worked with Scott closely when I was assigned a special project at Infusionsoft. Even though he was occupied with his new role in my department, he encouraged and provided feedback, and in doing so helped me achieve my goals. Scott is also very metric oriented, analyzing numerical data, interpreting the underlying business causes, and offering practical solutions. He focuses his efforts on providing win / win solutions that are good for the company and good for the customer.” June 29, 2009

Dee Allomong , Infusionsoft Consultant , Infusionsoft

“Some of the toughest issues that I had to resolve with our clients, at Infusionsoft, were resolved by Scott through his professionalism and tact. He is an asset to our company and to our clients.” July 31, 2009

Kirk Masters, Small Business Consultant, Infusionsoft

“Scott Morrison exemplifies hard work and integrity! He is willing to help out in any capacity and never loses his cool. He is a joy to work with and I'm sure he will succeed in his new position at Infusionsoft.” August 4, 2009

Marianne Franco, Implementation Manager, Infusion Software

“I have been a colleague of Scott for over a year now, I find him to be consistently pleasant, tackling all assignments with dedication and a smile! Besides being a joy to work with, Scott is a take-charge person who is able to present creative ideas and communicate the benefits. He has successfully implemented several strategic plans for our company that have resulted in increased revenue and customer support. Though he is an asset to customer support efforts, Scott is also extraordinarily helpful in other areas and departments of the company!” May 29, 2008

JR Keene , Business Systems Analyst , Infusion Software

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Here's a Shocker: Jordan Elected to Hall of Fame

In not so stunning news today, Michael Jordan was elected to the basketball Hall of Fame. Jordan was joined by fellow legendary players John Stockton & David Robinson.

This was the I grew up in. Jordan/Pippen versus the likes of Stockton/Malone, Robinson/Elliott or the end of the Magic/Worthy era. That was basketballs Hay-Day in my mind. of course, I'm sure I'm biased. I grew up in Chicago in the nineties. I grew up watching Michael Jordan and assumed that was how basketball was always played. Admittedly, I miss that era of basketball. But Kobe, Lebron & D-Wade are great and I think the future of the NBA is pretty bright.

I have fond memories of going to games in the old Chicago stadium and getting goose-bumps when they'd turn out the lights and announce the starting line ups.

I know MJ has had a few issues since retiring, but he's still easily my favorite player. I know this certainly isn't a shock that he was elected into the Hall of Fame, but I'm still really happy for him.

Congrats MJ!

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