This is a 10 minute guide to Twitter for newbies. If you still haven’t figured out what is Twitter and why you should use Twitter then you can start with this post.

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Yesterday, Twitter released Twitter 101 for Business, a guide for getting started and establishing your business using Twitter. It covers all basics of Twitter, how to get started, terms, keywords, and includes case studies. Here is what Twitter says about their business guide:

Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.

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Twitter background images have become an important part of user profiles. Background images really help users build their own brand. On limited platform like twitter, backgrounds are the best way to communicate a little out of the box.

Twitter also offers some delicate simple background designs for all user profiles. But if you are to establish your personal brand, add some more contact info, personal expressions, pictures, and other important links to your profile then creating your own Twitter background image is the best way. Read the full story

Twitter has updated their pages with some new cool features. These pages, which you get to by clicking following/follower counts on any any user profile now show more details about other Twitter users.

A much needed functionality, to check who is following you is available. Twitter now shows a check mark of the people you follow back. There’s a drop-down menu that includes options for direct message, sending them an @ mention, following them or blocking them. Read the full story

Another scam to attempt to steal our social networking passwords is underway this week. This time the target is Twitter, and this scam invovles fake Twitter blogs.

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A few days earlier twitter has announced in their blog that all twitter users now can only follow 1000 other users each day. This dicision is based upon the regular scam spread on twitter these days.

This dicision may not matter to normal users who just use twitter to get in touch with their family and friends but it will definately matter to marekters or self-promoters to rapidly increase their Twitter follower count by following many people.  Because the strategy of following excessive number of users does matter really. Unlike many may expect people do follow you back which is a positive sign for marketers.

People among who follow such methods are social media enthusiasts or consultants, some are internet marketers or bloggers. All of them are people who want to get something in return. Major focus of all such people are the following things:

1. Money. The goal is to monetize Twitter users by linking and recommending products or services, either their own or others if they are an affiliate. They do this by tweeting out links and sending automated direct messages with the same offers when someone follows them back.
2. Build their Name/Brand. Such followers aim to improve their reputation and build their brand. If you have thousands of followers on twitter that also gives the impression that you or your theme is popular. People tend to follow such people more.  They also use their followers to boost their prominence on other social arenas like Digg or Facebook.
3. Get more visitors. Followers = Visitors, more visitors means more subscribers, readers and contributors to your website. Once you have all these things, you do have a successfull website and more money.

It’s a simple strategy. The more followers you have, the more people listen to you, and the easier it is to spread your messages.

But do you really need a large number of followers to promote yourself successfully on Twitter? The answer is no. Not at all. But many people still persist in mass following users. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you don’t need to use this marketing tactic.

More to Follow ……..