Our Tweets Black Solutions Guide

Successful Twitter Tips For The Black Community A Complimentary Tool

Has Already Been Called..... “The most resourceful guide” By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Special Thanks To All Those Who Contributed By Sharing Information and Resources To Help Us Create This Guide. For The Best Viewing – Increase FONT Size on PDF to 125% By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Publishing: Free Helpful Black Tips Guide©

In This Guide You will find out.... Why Understanding “Our Cool Face” vs. “Our That's Not So Cool Face” Is So Important... What this guide can do for you.... What is Twitter? & What Black Celebrities Are On Here & Why should you be on here ...If Oprah is on here maybe you should be?!.... Why It's Better Than Myspace …. Is Twitter For Stalkers? …. Loads & Loads & Loads of Helpful Tips …. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Exhibit A: Cool Face

Cool Face = We like it! The Translation: Thumbs up Black Family! You should keep doing it People! We recommend This! That's a good thing! Keep it up – That's Real Big!

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Exhibit B: Oh That's Not Cool

The Translation: This isn't a good look! We don't think this is for you Black Family! Don't do that! Steer Clear! Danger! Danger! Watch out Sister! -Or- Watch out Brother! By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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“A formula for success = Your Human Capital (what you know) times Your Social Capital (who you know) times Your reputation

”

(who trusts you).

• This guide should help you understand our power in the Black community – We can connect to over 1,000,000+ people! • This guide should be used as a tool for first time users – but we have a lot of cool items for those who have been here before! • This guide can tell you how to interact and engage other influential people, brand and entities in the Black twitterverse! • This guide will help you find out the do's and don'ts and etiquette of Twitter! • This guide will help you understand the symbols and the codes and the shortcuts and cool tools! • We know that you are busy – so we will give you the “BROTHER MAN” face to illustrate what is GOOD and what ISN'T GOOD! Making this guide a quick and concise -straight to the point gem! {We must say so ourselves!} By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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If Oprah Winfrey is on twitter maybe we all should be? Note: http://www.twitter.com/oprah

We just struck an ...

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Forget Myspace for about 10 seconds... 1. Black People Love Community Driven Discussions... Twitter is more about the community. True, many of us thought myspace would help us out with our causes, our businesses, our products, our activities, our social lives – and sure- we became jaded because we realized that we wasted countless hours on myspace. But when we really think about it- myspace didn't dupe us. Myspace is pretty much about MY- space. The very premise is based on a “ME first” orientation. So no one is going to look at YOU, YOUR CAUSE,YOUR PRODUCTS, YOUR SERVICES – because they are too busy telling you to...

Look at ME! (them)

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Don't forget to look at: • • • • •

My My My My My

top friends songs status bulletin designs

So now WHY we are gravitating To Twitter?

2.We love to spread our word through the grapevine.... Well Black people have always been a community driven group(wedriven). We love sharing information, we love connecting with other people, furthermore we love learning about other people (our people) because we see very little of OUR people in the mainstream media. Myspace's “LOOK AT ME!” core culture and brand isn't similar to how we share information in our community and/or with community members. We've always tried to “look out” for one another because we knew that ultimately – EACH OTHER – is the only thing that we truly had.

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And because our community was isolated from the rest of the world, ostracized, discriminated against, inaccurately reported, and ultimately truly not given the same coverage by the Corporate Media we've always looked for alternative distribution channels and mediums to disperse information about our community. Historically, we couldn't openly discuss how we'd break away from slavery – we used coded conversations and alternative channels. We had to create community and Black citizen journalism to report our problems and ultimately our solutions. One person would spread the word and it would continue to spread via beauty salons, barbershops, churches and other places of worship, bookstores and etc – until the whole community became informed. You see Black people --- we've always been attracted to those individuals who provided content or something that could benefit our community. And twitter forces us to look at the content first.

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3.No more Bling Bling and Ego (Personality) Worshiping Here.... The Black Community is tired of the Bling-Bling culture. With the ushering in of President Barack Obama, the community is going through a self improvement and accountability phase. It's now even more cool to read or go to Harvard or to breakthrough barriers. Moreover, this recession has caused our community to modify spending: searching and purchasing the bare essentials and on a need only basis. The recession has helped us to identify and redefine what's IN for our community more explicitly. Now, if the concept and message is basic and simple AND genuine, then it is authentic and a practical product. Our community is really reexamining our icons (popular culture) and if these icons aren't By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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communicating in sync with us e.g. sharing our need to improve our circumstances – there has been an extreme backlash among the middle income bracket. The middle income bracket previously purchased what was massively produced and marketed without question – now this strict and critical examination has made the Black community re-assess what is IN, removing themselves from what is not resonating with the Obama Brand. The Me-Me-Me / Bling Bling Bling is no longer in for those in the middle income bracket. This has carried over to how we communicate online as well. The design of twitter requires us to look at a person's updates -INFORMATION- and small bio line BEFORE we decide to follow or accept a follow. Currently, the default photo is so small it doesn't cause us to have this personality worship that can emerge with Myspace or other social mediums. Although twitter's initial design and format was simply to update friends on their whereabouts and personal status, it has evolved tremendously. Now thought leaders are sharing words of wisdom, revolutionary concepts , new products, and community events. In fact, Twitter's content driven micro-blogging allows us to review thoughts and concepts on an hourly basis, with very invasions of Narcissistic self-promotion and endless endorsements. Relating to the content and information is more important with the Twitter culture and community. We believe that the Black community is faring much better with twitter as opposed to myspace because the concept of spreading the word in an unconventional manner has those historical connections that we mentioned – and was how we've communicated in the past. Don't believe us Brothers and Sisters??? Check out what this twitter guru has shared in his powerful article called the “Rise Of The MicroBy The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Influencer!” …...

“In the good old days-

celebrities were GODs. Underexposed, overpaid and timeless. The era of good old mass exposure lasted in its full glory for about 5 decades. And it made stars out of achievers in every field. Now Hang on. Before you think this is another one of those rants about mass media being traditional and obsolete- it is not. And no matter how ‘digitally partial’ I am, neither do I subscribe to the rhetoric that TV, print or radio is dead. Or will be in the foreseeable future. Movie stars and television actors with lead roles, popular rock stars, high-ranking politicians, national television reporters, television show hosts, supermodels, successful sports people and chart-topping pop musicians form the major chunk. But not just limited to the glamorous professions, newspaper editors, book writers and some humanitarian leaders such as Mother Teresa or Aung San Su Chi achieved recognition because of their imagination capturing work in the field of social upliftment. There are numerous other examples, but you get the idea. These celebrities had enormous power to influence perceptions and mould behaviors: James Dean making an entire generation swear by jeans to Beatles shaping the cultural revolution of the 60s to John McEnroe making attitude ‘the’ thing on the court. As the era came closer to the 21st century, a new breed of celebrities came up. These guys had international recognition, but were not the best in their chosen field. Think Anna Kournikova. They need not have been the best- but they had an appeal that captured the imagination of a certain sect of the society. Sometimes the presentation made them enjoy a following (think a doctor TV show host or a celebrity chef) They became celebrities in their own might. And that might not have had something to do with their original professions. The era changed- and then dawned the fastest growing and By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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extremely powerful era. The Digital Era. And in this era, celebrityism assumed a significantly micro role. Now, not only it might not have anything to do with your original profession- it might also not be dependent on the media owners. It might rather be a passion or hobby that makes a person recognized and alongside, the digital democracy also opened the doors to countless enthusiasts or followers pending the right content! Mass appeal due to profession magnified by mass media (Cinema actors and rock stars)-> mass appeal due to posturing beyond actual profession (sex appeal vs tennis proficiency)-> niche appeal due to content association and abundant accessibility (you) Not only is this “marketing game changing”, but it also has a sociocultural impact. Japan and Korea are the most wired countries in the world. Almost every one has a blog (and a broadband connection). Interestingly, they are also two immensely celebrity loving nations. They have always loved their celebrities and given them demi god status. But they also demand a lot from them. In this connected era, it is quite clear how this phenomenon of magnifying the actions of people in public eye impacts the society. The people who create content or are subject of content can quickly rise or ‘have a great fall’. They can make pariahs of their subjects or make others rise to the dizzying heights of fame. Think the ‘poo girl’ (not linking to the story lest it causes fresh trouble for the subjectafter years of that video) or the various open to public shame stories- bounced relentlessly - because they were picked up by someone of a certain authority at some stage. These guys are not celebrities. Oh well, not in the usual sense of the word. They are not the usual pop star glitzbash guys that you associate celebrity-ism with. But they do enjoy influence within their circles- their circle of influence. The hook is- all their circles are interconnected. And the collective ripple is stronger than the charming authority of a By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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cinema hero. The era has dawned. The era of the Micro-Celebrity. Sorry-

”

correction. The era of the Micro-Influencer.

4. Word of Mouth is still more authentic to us.... Twitter connects with the following core psychodemographic within our community: the grassroot activist, early adopter, connector and intellectual. That demographic relies solely and heavily on word of mouth content. And twitter also has a Barbershop and Beauty Salon – word of mouth feel to it. At any second you can see a tweet to get involved in a community event or help someone find their child or support a cause. And, everyone is into re-tweeting it (repeating it) because they are connecting to the intellectual component more than the ME component. Everyone is included in the conversation and people are more encouraged to re-tweet (or spread) your information on.

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SO WHAT CAN YOU DO? There is no catch 22 here... 22 Things You Can Do On Twitter.... 1. It helps to make Real Connections Twitter is one tool that will help you make connections with users that you will never have known before existed. You can get to know a whole different side of a person. You can know more about an individual by following them, rather than just reading their blog post or reading about them in the newspaper (celebrity). Twitter is the key to make another door of connection. You might not be able to ever get to know the celebrity or have me link to your post because I don’t know you, but twitter lets you do that. Twitter lets you talk to people. Think that you know Diddy? Follow @Iamdiddy – We found out that he is currently taking care of a son that is not his biological son, but you wouldn't know By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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that because he never makes an exception. His son tweeted a heartfelt thank you. You are able to see the intimate side of the celebrity that you aren't able to see on television (the fishbowl). “You should join Twitter to strengthen existing bonds, and make new ones.”

2. Quick Support With the speed twitter is growing, more and more businesses are creating their user accounts. They are even hiring a person who is on their twitter account tweeting back at their customers. So sometimes you might not even get a response through your email, but you will be able to hear back a response through twitter. This works if you want to connect with top bloggers and marketers as well. These guys have insane amount of emails to go through daily, so your email will be ignored, but tweets since they are only 140 characters, they will respond because it doesn’t take them very long. You can get quick support if you join twitter. “Twitter is a valuable and underestimated research tool; u can increase your “web of influence” & exchange with thought leaders” 3. Good Learning Tool You can never have too much knowledge. Specially if you are a designer like me. Half of the people that I am following are designers. I see so many great articles and resources that help me improve designing By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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skills daily. No matter what your niche is there is always someone there for your niche, and there is always resources for you. And if there is not, then man you are lucky because you can capitalize the zone, and take full benefit from the newcomers. “Why join twitter? B/c I learn so much from the 20 or so people I follow.” 4. To Keep UP – Breaking News & Citizen News No matter what you are trying to keep up with, twitter has the latest info of it. From technology to breaking news, you can find it all on twitter. Heck the earthquake in Italy was first reported on twitter before it was on CNN. You can follow the web trends, news, special sites, including OUR news... and more by being on twitter.

5. It’s the Next Big Thing I don’t know if you notice, but twitter is everywhere. It’s on the web, it’s on the news channels, it’s in commercials, it’s in paper media such as newspaper. It is taking over the world right now like facebook and myspace did at once. If you are one of those people who joins things because it is the next big thing, then this is your chance. Twitter is the next big thing that you should join because everyone is here. “You should join Twitter because it’s the next big thing.”

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6. It Helps Your Creativity Marketing is all about being creative. Creative campaigns are short and sticky. That is how your tweets are suppose to be also. 140 characters max. You have to get your point across and if you want others to read it, you got to make it interesting. Basically it is an ultimate practice for you to elevate your pitch. No one likes to read a whole page of boring proposals. The best proposals I have agreed to were short and they had very catchy headlines. Twitter is a practice for you to write better and creative headlines, so after a while you will be a better blogger due to twitter because it is helping your post titles. “You get pretty damn creative saying what’s on your mind in 140 char or less!” 7. You can Share Your Knowledge People join forums to share their expertise with those who are in the need of help. “For the opportunity to expand your knowledge and to share your expertise with others in ways that weren’t possible before.” 8. You can interact with your readers and get advice Everyone needs advice and suggestions. Well twitter is the best place to get these suggestions. You can interact with your readers ask them questions about your upcoming posts. Get suggestions and ideas from them about what they would like to see and so on. You can have them review your new product as a beta users. Twitter is the best way to get beta By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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testers also for free majorly. Your users would love to try beta testers, but you only want exclusive ones, well you know how each user is because you know them on twitter. So you can contact them exclusively if need be rather than sending out a mass email asking for testers. This way you make your reader feel that they are valued at your website or blog, and their opinion counts. Win Win for both ends. ALSO, the major Black bloggers who are journalists are also on twitter too! So if you have a new product or a new story or something that you want to share- once you connect with THEM ...more than likely they will respond to your product and service. But there is no direct pitching like MYSPACE. And we will tell you more on that later!

9. General Research / Surveys You can ask random questions. Open ended can be answered by anyone who sees it on twitter which makes your possibilites infinite. Twitter is a great tool for asking poll type questions. 10. To Get Jobs O you thought that sites like monster.com or newspapers were the only place you could get jobs? There are countless employers tweeting jobs now. 11. Get Traffic To Your Website Twitter is the best place to promote your product or website right now because it is hot. With so many new tools now, you can easily get your new blog posts or new products get acrossed to thousands of new people every day. “Great tool to network with others, market/advertise your By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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business/website, and there’s ton of info to learn about from followers.” 12. Get Social Media Benefits Even though twitter itself is a social media network, by posting your urls on twitter, you are increasing your article’s chances to be submitted to other social media sites like Digg or stumbleupon. 13. Big Search Engine Advantage Twitter gives you a big SEO Advantage because if you see almost all twitter pages rank really high for their keywords. 14. It Sparks New Ideas For an entrepreneur, an idea is worth millions. Well twitter is giving it to you for free. Often times, you will get ideas from the most irrelevant talks. Or maybe relevant talks. Thoughts can inspire thoughts. When you read another person’s thoughts on twitter, you can have your own creative ones, and one of them could be a million dollar idea that you have been waiting for. You should use twitter as a trend where web and society in general is shifting towards, and come up with ideas to target the most amount of users in a better way. This is the sole reason why alot of companies are joining twitter because they want to see what their audience think, and they want to keep up with the trend.

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15. Your Words Are Heard Around The World! Practically everyone has a mobile phone nowadays and Twitter entered just as the world is enamored with text messaging. Members can easily tweet via the mounting number of cell phone apps and mobile devices. Twitter can also be accessed online or offline from your desktop or web browser via any one of the numerous web applications and clients that utilize the Twitter API.

16. Your OWN Microphone and Loyal Community! Twitter has given each person their own personal microphone for which to broadcast to the entire world; thereby adding more weight and validity to the emergence and power of social media. The majority of Twitter users participate in discussions as well as engage in helping other members. Twitter provides an excellent medium for which to network and connect with others who share similar interests. Twitter suffered quite a few service outages and frequently slowed to a crawl during its infancy but the majority of users did not turn away.

17. It will help you learn more about yourself Twitter is a chance for you to get to know other people. Scholars study culture and people, so by studying their culture, we get to know more about our own culture and ourselves. Twitter does the same thing. You get to know more about yourself because after tweeting for a while, you begin to see yourself through the eyes of your followers. You also get to learn about other cultures without By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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having to ask them questions. 18. Parents can stay updated with Colleges More and more colleges and professors are joining twitter, and they let their students follow them, and have creative discussions. This is a great way for the parent to learn about what their kid is doing. I know there are some parents who want to know everything their child is doing, or how is their performance in school. Well this is the way you can do it. Simply Join Twitter. 19. You can see what people think about you or your business You can see what people really think about you. Twitter is where people are. They are freely expressing their opinion. You can use the search feature on twitter to see what people are talking about each topic. You can write your own name and see what people are talking about you. Whether they are talking good stuff, or bad stuff. It is better than those customer evaluation sheets that Macys and JCPenny ask you to do because not everyone does it. So you never get the neutral view out of it. You either read reviews that are super good or super bad. This shows you the general view about yourself, or a product that you are looking for. “for businesses - to keep track of the reputation, so they can know when someone is saying something about them” 20. Twitter Can Save You Money There are companies that are on twitter that give out coupons for products on twitter.

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21. It is good for hosting a party Yes YES It is. If you are hosting a party and you want to meet more people in your area. Simply tweet it and add tags for the location. 22. K.I.S.S. - Keeping it short and simple ensures that Twitter is easy to use, it appeals to many, and because users are limited 140 characters, comments and replies are kept short and pithy. Perhaps nowhere else is practicing the KISS principle more appropriate and critically necessary than on the web. Visitors are quick to scan and leave your website if they do not like what they see, do not understand it, or they are not able to quickly and easily discover what they are looking for. Twitter not only accomplishes this with their service but also in their website’s design.

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The different types of people that you will meet on Twitter & that you should follow... 1. Love a Fan of: People that you love and want to have more of in your life; or feel you could love, if we had more of a connection. It can even include a handful of lovable people that you know entirely online or through their work. This group would make sense to nobody except for you: it's a pure, gut-level feeling. There's no "it would be useful to follow this person closely", or "I shouldn't file a client here". If you get a happy warm glow from thinking about this person, they're in. If I get an anxiety twinge, they're out. 2. Inspire: Thought leaders that feed you or inspire you. 3. Connect: People that you want to actually know. 4. Collaborate: People that you work with directly – and would like to share/sync projects. 5. Meet: People in your local area. Following locals is a good way of using Twitter to drive you to see people and participate in events in real life. 6. Learn: People that you don't know personally, but learn from by watching. 7. Apply: This is a group of people that you can use their software or their tools to apply in your work area or your every day life. 8. Help: This is for the group of people and organizations that you can serve or that you are trying to help. 9. Present: These are the people that you either want to attend their conferences or By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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you want to present to them at their conferences eg. conference organizers. 10.Inform: This is a group of twitter account that posts other immediate info like local news, events, weather. 11.Enjoy: There are comedians who are on twitter that will make you smile or give you positive energy. 12. Specific: Segments that connect to you specifically: If you are a mom, you might want to follow a group of moms. How you identify yourself is how you follow these groups. 13.Observe: These twitters show you examples of how other companies or organizations are using twitter.

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Twitter Tips to Increase Your Influence and Gain Followers 1. Interaction is Essential The most important tip you need to know if you want to have some influence and good reputation on twitter is that you need to interact. Twitter is not a monologue, so don’t just stop by to let people know what you are doing. Make sure that you respond to your friend’s tweets, and you answer people’s question. Twitter is like a big conversation between you and your friends/community. The more you participate the higher your influence will be because you will get noticed by others. Think of twitter like a forum, where if you don’t interact with others, you won’t be noticed. 2. Spark Interest in your Tweet with Creativity Creativity is all about simplicity, and that is what twitter is about. You need to make your tweets interesting. You can write: “Good morning”, or You can write: “Just saw the sunlight hitting my face through the window, I guess its fair to say good morning” So it is really up to you how you make your tweets interesting.

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3. Remember to be Yourself It is said in dating that you should never put on a fake front because you can’t keep it on forever. You need to be yourself from the start. Twitter is the same way if you want to increase your influence. Don’t try to be something that you are not. If you use ain’t and gonna and wanna, then feel free to use it because twitter is anything that you want it to be. This way you will get the right type of followers. The followers who are like you. Trust me, people don’t want to follow a suck up. They would rather follow a brother or sister who is himself or herself and speaks his or her mind when necessary.

4. Treat others with Respect You need to treat others with respect. Give them the same respect you would want to receive. Do not send everyone an automated “GET RICH” or “BUY MY PRODUCT” direct message when you follow them because that it is just disrespectful. Most of them sounds like: Hey Do you want to get 10,000 followers on twitter and make money – url [THAT'S A NO NO!]

Only Spammers love spammers. Same goes with twitterfeed plugin. It pushes out multiple feeds at one time. And it doesn't allow the flow or stream from others. 5. Be Considerate to Others If you are going to have a back to back conversation with someone on twitter it is better to send them a Direct Message and get their Instant Messenger ID. It turns off your new followers who was about to follow you. Also it turns down your current followers because on their homepage they are seeing you having a conversation with someone else which is not useful to them. So they will most likely unfollow you. 6. Post Useful Content You need to learn to post useful content for followers. People on twitter are looking for information. You can really increase your influence by posting By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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useful content. Because when you post something useful, you are bound to get other people to Retweet that. The more people retweet it, the more people will see your name. When alot of people see your name, you will indirectly get more followers. Now some keypoints to remember when posting content is that you must use your hashtags # effectively [More about Hashtags]. 7. Link to Your Own Posts/Articles Yes, Use twitter to your advantage. Link to your articles. But link to them in a creative way. Make a strong pitch. Remember that it must be useful to your friends and followers. The reason why I say that this builds your influence on the web is that when you link to something your own and it is good, people really start to take you seriously. Besides most people don’t have enough time to search for good links. If you have a good link which is yours then share it make sure you use hashtags though because Twitter’s Search feature will help you get more followers. 8. Share the Love You won’t get love back unless you share some. You need to Retweet if you find something good because it lets your friends and followers know that you are seeing their tweets. By retweeting you increase your influence because others will retweet your interesting tweets to return the favor. So this way you can really increase your influence across the twitter sphere. Also new followers like to see someone who retweets because they like to know that there is a human on the other side. 9. Balance Your Tweets The user which is most influential is the one who have a balanced profile. If you just self promote yourself all day then people will begin to ignore you. If you just blog about your life repeatedly then people will also ignore you. Retweeting is good, but if you retweet alot then you will also get unfollowed.

10. Solve Problems If you can help someone else solve a problem – help them! This will let others know that you are willing to help but they will also know that you have expertise in that industry.

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11. Tweet Regularly If you want to have influence in any social media networks, you need to be active. Same rule goes for twitter as well. You need to tweet regularly. Most people rarely follow a person whose last tweet was 3 days ago because they know this person is not going to add value to their life. So you need to tweet often. But remember to leave space in between your tweets, so you can see some reaction. This way you can evaluate your audience and see what type of tweets they really like. You must remember if you are tweeting every 1 minute, you might end up losing followers because most people don’t like having their screen filled with one user’s useless content. 12. Tweet in Peak Times Twitter is more active in sometimes than other. Obviously the service is global, so it is active 24 hours, but there are some peak hours. These hours are on EST. If you post around 8 a.m EST you are most likely to get more notice because people around the US can see you and people around other parts can see you as well such as Australia and so on. By peaking in these times, you are increasing the chance of retweets. 13. Link Your Profiles The most effective way to get more followers is that you link your profile from all your other profiles and blogs. Most people who are on twitter are on other social media networks as well. 14. Promote Your Profile in Person If you go to web conferences or meetings then feel free to let others know about your twitter profile. 15. Launch Contests If you are a company have a huge giveaway. Run contests on twitter if you want to increase followers. 16. Free Giveaways to get more followers Giveaways with anything works. People have been using giveaways to build their email list, you can use it to build your twitter followers.

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17. Use An Interesting Username Believe it or not it does matter. If you are not the most creative person on the face of the earth, just use your name because that is the safest way to go. 18. Change Your Profile Picture If you think you are going to have any influence in the twitter community, you need to change your twitter picture than. People with the default profile picture shows others how lazy they are, and they will most likely be ignored. Because why should someone put an effort to follow you when you can’t put an effort to change your own profile picture? I say use your own picture, but if not use something cool. Something that represent your brand which is YOU! 19. Use Your Bio Effectively Do not leave your Bio Section Blank. That is one of the most important section on your page. How would anyone know initial info about you before they follow you? 20. Use Your Location Wisely This will help you get more followers and more targeted followers. Sometimes people will look specifically for people in your city or state. 21. Follow People You Know To increase followers, one way you can do is by following people you know because they are bound to follow you back. A good way to start out is by going to the Find People Tool on twitter and searching for people you know. 22. Look for Good Followers There is nothing wrong with you initiating the process of follow. You can find interesting people on your niche using the Twitter Search feature. 23. Follow the Top Brothers and Sisters By following the top brothers and sisters in your niche, you are increasing your chances of being followed by others. Reason is because most people look at the top celebrities and start following others in their list. So you might increase followers this way also. You can also learn a lot from the top guys and see what type of content they post. By seeing that you can see why they are By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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at the top. 24. Understand the Power of Quality over Quantity Twitter is not about the quantity, but is rather about the quality. You can have 15,000 useless followers which you added via an automated software, or you can have 1000 loyal and good followers who will. Re-tweet your tweets. Same goes for your updates. You can have 10 quality updates a day or 90 useless updates a day. Pick carefully. We support more influence over more followers. Don’t try to get more followers, try to get higher influence. Because when you have higher influence, you will get followers on your own. And how you get higher influence is by posting useful and informative content and basically by following the tips above.

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But whatever you do – Brothers & Sisters … DON'T DO THIS... These are the ULTIMATE- NO NO'S! 1: Do not use the following words in your bio, no matter how much you think they will attract followers: -Social Media Expert -I am a Big Deal -Guru -Make Money Online -Affiliate Marketing -Telling people this – I will “Increase your Followers” By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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People are mostly on Twitter to participate in dialog and build relationships. People who write those words in their bio are just like email spammers, and beyond the annoyance, and most of the people think that they are single handedly ruining Twitter. Remember to leave the arrogance on myspace. People want to follow leaders. And leaders usually remain humble. People can tell when you are only looking for money on twitter – or you are looking out for only your cause.

2: Do not ONLY answer the question “What Are You Doing” in your tweets: Maybe this is how Twitter started, but we can all agree that nobody wants to hear when you are eating, when you are going to sleep, and when (yes this has been tweeted on occasion) you are going to the bathroom. A guiding rule when tweeting is tweet things that would interest you if tweeted by others. In fact, I think it is time to change the Twitter box from “What are you Doing”? to possibly “What Can you Share”?

3: Do not ONLY promote your blog/business in your tweets: Once By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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again, the main word here in “only”. There is nothing wrong with sharing your blog posts with your followers. If they follow you, they are apparently interested in your thoughts, and your blog can be viewed as an extension of your tweets, so why not share it? However, just like everything else, all in moderation. If I come across someone’s Twitter timeline and all his tweets start with the word “New blog post”, can you guess what my first action would be?

4: Do not tweet the same thing more than twice in a day: There are some people on Twitter who people actually look up to and respect and feel it is OK to tweet the same article ten times throughout the day. Now, there is something to this technique. After all, the people reading it in the morning are generally not the same people reading it in the evening. This is true, but there is one little problem. When you tweet the same article or link many times throughout the day, you are not taking the heavy Twitter addicts into account. There are enough people who will see all those tweets and get annoyed fast. If you MUST tweet the same link more than twice, at least change the lead in sentence.

5: Do not tweet about your followers more than once a week: Do not say “I have 2999 followers, and I need to get to 3000 followers” more than once a week. And please don't ask anyone to re-tweet it. There is a different demographic on twitter. This demographic would like to be engaged and get to know you more than promote you. Once they get to know you-- then they will promote you.

6: Do not tweet exclusively in another language: We strongly believe that you need to speak the language that most people (your By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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followers) understand. We are not saying to NEVER tweet in your initial language, we are just saying to be considerate of your followers and the fact that as of today, there are still a lot of applications that only support English text. 7: Do not tweet sensitive/private information: Tweets now show up in Google searches and anyone can easily access your tweets. So if you want to keep something private, probably not the best idea to share it on the fastest growing social network on the Web. Twitter should be treated like a work place. Just like you would not share extreme political views, sexist, or offensive views of any kind at an office event, so to Twitter. It is all about sensitivity. 8: Do not Auto Follow: Unfortunately, there are too many bots, spam accounts, and just annoying people on Twitter. Just because someone follows you, does not necessarily mean you have to or want to follow them back. In fact, I would say that maybe 30%-40% of the people that followed me over the past month were real people, with quality tweets on topics that interest me. Follow people that interest you, otherwise you will end up with an uncontrollable amount of people in your stream, which will eventually detract from your ability to use Twitter effectively. 9: Do not consistently make spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes in your tweets: We have some real spell checkers on twitter and we have some real power players there. The world is watching. 10: Do not use Twitter like you use Facebook: It is an acceptable practice to check your Facebook once a day, week, or even month. Twitter needs more effort. It is true that you can use Twitter effectively even if you only tweet once a day. If you really want to maximize the tremendous potential that is Twitter, you need to keep By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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your audience on their toes. Keep your followers interested. 11: Do not expect people to respond to your every tweet, especially if they have more than 1000 followers: If someone has more than 1000 followers, don't take it personal – they may not have seen your tweet that day or simply couldn't reply during that time. Take into account twitter is an open stream of communication. Catch them next time and strike up a conversation or DM them privately.

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Twitter Language – Yes there is a language that you should know... Twitter Dictionary Twitter Feed A news-feed of Twitter messages by a respective user. Twitterer : A person who uses Twitter. Following : If you subscribe to another user’s Twitter feed you are “following” her or his messages. Followers : The users who decided to subscribe to your Twitter feed. RT: You will see this a lot RT in a tweet it means RE-TWEET and that someone is reposting a message that someone else sent but that is being reposted. Example: RT@Blacksolutions: {My Message} By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Typing d followed by a Twitterer's user name : sends a direct message to that person. You'll see the usual "What are you doing now?" tagline replaced with "Direct Message." Clicking on the reply arrow beside a tweet : will automatically populate the tweet field with @ and their user name. This alerts the person to the fact that you're addressing him or her directly. OH: preceding a post is accepted to mean that you're letting people know something funny or interesting that you overheard and not posting an original thought. "Hash tags" : are keywords preceded with the # symbol. If the symbol # (a “hash”) directly precedes terms in a Tweet, the term becomes a keyword (or “tag”). Hashtags are searchable and have become one of the most useful features on Twitter. They help you to put your messages in a larger context and enable other users interested in a specific topic or keyword to find all the relevant feeds. News Feed : A news feed is a collection of new messages. It shows new messages in chronological order. News Feeds are typically distributed through RSS (really simple syndication) and through a dedicated web page. Twitterverse : The realm of Tweets and Twitterers. It is comparable to the blogosphere, but in 140 characters.

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Free Twitter Tools Twittervision See where in the world people are submitting tweets from, real time. Twitter100 Just like in your personal start pages, this tool will allocate a box to each of the people you follow on a single page and display their latest tweets. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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TweetWire TweetWire grabs the freshest links posted on Twitter and displays them Yahoo News page style. Twitterator Twitterator enables you to follow a group of people at one go. We Follow Directory of tweeters by interests Tweetdeck Adobe AIR application that lets you view your replies and public tweets as well as group tweets at the same time. Hootsuite A Tweet Later Service that we (@blacksolutions) love. We schedule our tweets out and you don't have to be on the computer all day to get your message across. Twitter Digest This tool allows you to subscribe to a message stream from a Twitter user of a group of users on the web or through an atom feed. Twitterholic Shows the top users and accounts on Twitter. TweetSum Really cool follower management system with drag & drop making it much faster to decide on who you will follow back!

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Twitoria Twitoria tracks down followers that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can give them the kick! Twellow Twitter Yellow Pages - directory sorted by interests/occupation Twemes Follows Twitter.com tweets (messages) that have embedded tags that start with a # character. These are sometimes called hashtags but they like to use the term twemes. SayTweet Create a Twitter widget that integrates a photo of your choice Twitscoop Clever site that shows a constantly-updating cloud of popular terms (although not necessarily hashtags) that you can click on to get some more details. You can also grab a widget that creates a new cloud every time it is refreshed. Finally, there is trend tracking that gives you a constantly-refreshing list based on username, tag or keyword, plus a little graph on the popularity of the search term over time. Microplaza MicroPlaza looks at your Twitter network and displays all the links shared by the people you follow with associated tweets. We call these tiles. Tweetizen Tweetizen is a simple web-based tool designed to help you filter the daily influx of tweets, and easily find the ones that are relevant to you. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Tweetizen has a lot of power hidden behind its simple facade. There are two main types of groups that you can create, friends and interests. Friend groups are just that: friend groups. Add a bunch of your Twitter friends’ nicknames here and generate an instant stream with just their updates. Tweet Beep Find out who is talking about you or your website through keyword alerts Topfollowfriday Check the top #followfriday recommendations Serendipitwiterrous Search for tweets of a certain person using certain keywords Flaptor Trends Compare the trends of three keywords on Twitter

Twitter Spectrum Find out the dominant keywords via a tagcloud generated. TweetStats For the true Twitter junky, TweetStats provides all sorts of colorful graphs that show your Tweeting habits - Reply percentages, Interface used, aggregate daily Tweets, Aggregate hourly Tweets. It’s almost as addicting as Twitter itself.

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Twittertroll real-time Twitter search engine Twitturly Twitturly tracks the URLs flying around the Twitterverse and provides a quick, real-time view of what people are talking about on Twitter. Twitter Search Twitters won Search Engine.Keeping up with interesting news and people you care about is one dimension of Twitter, but what if you need to find out what’s happening in the world beyond your personal timeline? There is an undeniable need to search, filter, and otherwise interact with the volumes of news and information being transmitted to Twitter every second. Twitter Search helps you filter all the realtime information coursing through our service. Tinker Tinker is a simple way to discover events people are chattering about on Twitter. Twitalyzer Interesting stats package that’s social media oriented twendz twendz is a Twitter mining Web application that utilizes the power of Twitter Search, highlighting conversation themes and sentiment of the tweets that talk about topics you are interested in. As the conversation changes, so does twendz by evaluating up to 70 tweets at a time. When new tweets are posted, they are dynamically updated, minute by minute.

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Monitter Monitter gives you three fully-customizable keyword search waterfalls that are constantly updated with recent tweets. Each search, like with Tweetizen and Twitterfall, is passed directly to the search API so you can add advanced parameters to fine-tune your results. There is also support for regional tweets. Favotter Find out the most favored (saved to favorites) tweets TwittyTunes Allows you to post your currently playing songs to Twitter with a click. As a bonus, you can also post the websites you’re visiting, videos you’re watching and more! TwitKit TwitKit is a Twitter sidebar for Firefox. TwitKit has a 6-section interface, using tabs to separate content. You can view the Twitter public timeline, your user timeline, a list of your friends and their latest tweets, a list of your followers and their latest tweets, @replies made to you, and stats about your account.

TwitterFox TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets on Twitter. This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets. Also it has a small text input field to update your tweets. GroupTweet Allows you to post private message to a group of Twitter friends. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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Twideeo You can post videos to Twitter using this service that lets you upload the vid to their site and then generates a link to your video. Twitpic Share pictures on Twitter using Twitpic. Twitterrific Twitterrific is a fun application that lets you both read and publish posts or “tweets” to the Twitter community website. The application’s user interface is clean, concise and designed to take up a minimum of real estate on your Mac’s desktop. TinyTwitter Take Twitter on the go with TinyTwitter, a mini-client available for any mobile device that supports Java (including the BlackBerry) or Windows Mobile. Even though you can use Twitter via SMS, TinyTwitter is a great alternative for those who don’t have an unlimited text-message plan with their carrier. TwitterBerry Twitter built for various BlackBerry devices. Update and view timelines with ease. Twitter for iPhone We have scaled Twitter to work perfectly on your iPhone. We paid close attention to the details so the Twitter experience would be preserved. To use Twitter for iPhone you’ll need an iPhone and a Twitter account.

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We have researched the twitter universe and compiled a list of the most powerful and influential Blacks and have partnered with one of the best technology experts to build a database for US! So stay tuned! REMEMBER.... “A formula for success = your human capital (what you know) times your social capital (who you know) times your reputation (who trusts you).”

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PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS....

1. Twitter's website is http://www.twitter.com 2. Remember to add your picture/photo to the profile. It could be a logo or a theme. Make sure it's PROFESSIONAL! 3. Get your name listed with Twitter Directories such as By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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JustTweetIt, WeFollow and Twibes will increase your visibility and attract more followers. 4. When you follow us, let us know what industry you are in – so that we can direct you to some cool Brothers and Sisters to follow. We are listed @ http://www.twitter.com/blacksolutions 5. If you already have a blog, business, non profit organization, product, book, community action program Remember to Match your Twitter Theme with your Blog Theme and your Website Theme and your acebook, etc. It should match your brand !List all your info in the back ground. It may not be clickable but at lest it is listed! 6. Be PROactive! ReTweet interesting articles. Start conversations. Join conversations. But remember the PRO part of that- BE PROFESSIONAL! 7. Don't just post links to your site! Post links to other peoples sites. People tend to return the favor. However, Don't post links to sites you have not actually seen, this could assoicate you with poor content! 8. Add Widgets to your blog, MySpace, Facebook, etc with your feed. Make them show around 5 posts. People will see how much fun you are having and join you! 9. Put your twitter info in your e-mail signature and your signature everywhere including message boards! The more it is listed the better! 10. Add your Twitter info to your business card! I know this one is a no-brainer! People actually still use business cards!

FOR BROTHERS & SISTERS USING TWITTER FOR BUSINESS: Getting started 1.Twitter is half mini-blog, half conversation. Read what others are writing and respond...or retweet ("RT") inspiring/useful comments. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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2.Dive in by creating a personal account and following at least 50 people (you need at least that many to get a decent volume of content.) 3. Don't rely on Twitter's web interface. TweetDeck (a free app) transforms the Twitter experience by making it easy to follow conversations. 4.Watch, listen and learn before you post. See what kinds of updates feel appropriate for you...or like too much disclosure. Finding conversations 5.Read or contribute to a specific conversation by following a "hashtag" -- related messages grouped by including the #topicname. 6. Find people to follow via MrTweet. It suggests people to follow based on who you're already following. 7. Find hot conversations and hashtag topics on Twitscoop. It's a great place to start finding people to follow. 8.Find other interesting people on twitter. Watch and learn 9.search.twitter.com (or search from tweetdeck) helps you find who is writing about you, your industry or your customers. 10.Follow other businesses to see how they are using Twitter. Learn from your competitors, and from forward-thinking companies in other fields. 11.Follow your clients or potential clients. What problems are they working on? Offer to help, or develop services to address their needs. Building your presence 12.Use multiple Twitter accounts for different purposes. Use @yourcompanyname for business promotions, @yourpersonalname for networking. 13.Do more than brag. Share insights and useful tidbits that By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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create value or build your reputation. Generous and helpful beats self-absorbed. 14.Give people a reason to follow your company updates. Special promotions, contests and news updates (not too many!) provide tangible value. 15.Get your customers to do your marketing for you! Run a contest people enter by sending a tweet about your product to @yourcompanyname 16.Post updates when you write a new blog post, and include a shortened URL. You can set your blog to do this automatically. 17.Loosen up. Let people get to know your personality and interests...but keep it interesting. Nobody cares what you're eating for lunch. Recap for Black Business Owners... • Access information. As much as people like to broadcast their messages,

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one of the most useful ways to use Twitter is to access opinions, ideas, and other types of content by following other Twitterers and monitoring what’s being said about you or your customers. Become resourceful. Although Twitter is a partly a broadcasting service, people choose who they follow. Social media generally is about control. You can build your followers and deliver your messages, but being resourceful makes people want to follow you. While doing so, you automatically turn into an expert in the topic you tweet about. Convey your opinion. Again, no one will follow you unless you have proven to have something worth listening to. In any niche, twitterers may become thought leaders because of their fresh and new perspectives about something. Promote products or events. Generally it is not possible to use Twitter merely as a promotion medium unless you are able to provide unique deals that are on demand. Combining promotions with informational posts is the way to go. If you have loyal followers, your promotion is going to be just another resource / recommendation. Market research. With Twitter Search and other Twitter tools, it is now possible to tap into people’s mind through publicly available messages. By monitoring conversations, you are able to gain insights straight from

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your audience. • Extend your reach. Followers are not limited to end-users. They may also be influencers. As more people are actively using Twitter, it is becoming an effective online networking tool, just like a blog.

FOR BROTHERS & SISTERS USING TWITTER FOR COMMUNITY ACTIVISM 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Spread the Word Campaigns Coordinating Collective Action Crowdsourcing Personal Security

Twitter is an amazing way to engage donors and potential donors. One of the hardest things to do as a fundraiser is to maintain relationships. You are so often stuck to your desk rather than getting out to where your supporters are. Twitter allows you to do that…right in the midst of your normal every day routine. 1.You get to meet people all over the world that might be interested in your cause. 2.You get to hear what people are really thinking about a wide variety of issues. 3.You can follow other fundraisers and get great real-time advice. 4.You can even promote traffic to your website or those of your friends. Better still, if you can make your comments effectively understood in 140 characters, think about how all your fundraising writing will improve! You are forced to be succinct and understandable! Check out: Vote For A Cause to see how the other non profit organizations are doing it! http://www.twittacause.com/vote-for-a-cause.php Here is how the OTHER SIDE fundraises (study their tactics) By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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National Wildlife Federation - tips for energy conservation, interesting animal facts, links to opportunities to participate in advocacy etc... AIDG - a lot of links to interesting videos that showcase the work that they do Adler Planetarium - some great quick facts about things to look for in the sky as well as info about upcoming special events at the planetarium Chicago Public Radio and other public media sites - links to news reports and interesting features American Public Health Association - links to public health news and to interesting facts and polls. There's a link to a pop quiz to name the top 10 public health achievements, a survey asking if you got a flu shot, and more...

Brothers & Sisters Who Are Musicians Using Twitter... Since you want to use Twitter to advance your music, your label or other music related business, look for fellow music types. Music fans, journalists , artists, labels, etc - these are the people you want to follow you.

Twitter Updates should NOT be about pitching your music … Here are some COOL twitter update tips • Updates from the studio when recording • Updates on the manufacturing process (announce when artwork is finished, when the master has been approved, when finished copies are delivered, etc) By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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• Updates from the road when you're on tour – your experience • News about deals it's ok to talk about (for instance -"just arranged digital distribution with such and such company") • Day to day work news (e.g., "just signed off on ad copy for magazine") • Comment On The News and Current Events as it pertains to your audience • Remember to offer insight into life in the band or as a musician or artist. It has to be something extra beyond the music. • Reply to fans' messages using @username replies. It shows that you value their input. • Post regularly. People may 'un-follow' you if you don't post for a while. Being active attracts more followers. • Don't spam fans or followers with gig listings and links to your music. Use the links sparingly. People can find those things via the link on your profile page, or a simple Google search. • Good Examples of an artist that engages their fans is: @fatbellybella & @questlove & @solangeknowles & @QtipTheAbstract You can also be a DJ for your music and track how people receive your music via various search engines. We recommend Blip.fm if you want to be a DJ. Top Cool Search Twitter Engines for Music.... The sites that are self-explanatory we've simply added their links below. But those sites that need defining we've added the definition By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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for you Brothers & Sisters! Twisten.fm Musebin.ws This seems almost so simple it can appear tricky, but all you do here is enter an artist's name that you are looking for. "#musicmonday": Every Monday, a group of Twittering music fans post their songs of the day, appending the #musicmonday tag so people can find them easily. "blip.fm" HypeM "Imeem": Imeem’s custom Twitter integration makes it easy for people to tweet what they’re listening to on imeem, making this a good search term to include. Song.ly Twit.FM Twiturm

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW...... & Follow How The Other Side Lives... For Those Looking For Work

…. • ConnectTweet – See what is going on inside the doors of a potential company, through the Tweets of their employees. ConnectTweet allows individuals at the front lines of the company to add a #tag to their company relevant tweets, those tagged tweets are then filtered and posted to the companies @org’s Twitter account, allowing the By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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company’s followers to clearly see the human voices on the inside. • TwitterJobCast – A local job search that allows you to see who is hiring on Twitter by browsing for jobs by city, state or zip code. It works by making requests to the Twitter API. Additionally, the Yahoo! Maps API is used to translate locations into geocodes for use with the Twitter API. • TwitterJobSearch – An open source search engine for jobs posted on Twitter, TwitterJobSearch has posted 44,165 new jobs in the last 7 days. Many of the jobs listed are tech related jobs, but through their search you can look for the position you want in the city you want. • Twellow – Also know as the Yellow Pages for Twitter it allows you to cut through the clutter Twitter sometimes creates. It enables you to find real people who really matter. The Twellow service grabs publically available messages from Twitter, analyzes and then categorizes the tweets into categories. By using this service you can narrow your searching to specific niches and find who you are looking for, that way you can follow specific Tweeters and network your heart away. • TweetBeep – “TweetBeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter” TweetBeep is very simple, you signup for an account, confirm your email and set up alerts to be delivered to your email. Want to know whenever someone posts a job for a Java Dev? Set up and alert for that and you will be notified through email on a daily or hourly basis. • HashDictionary - #Hashtags are a way on Twitter to group certain conversations about a particular subject. If you want your Tweet to be included in a special grouping put the group’s #hashtag somewhere in your Tweet and it will be grouped with other updates using the same hashtag. HashDictionary.com is a community based dictionary for hashtags on Twitter. Hash tags have been described as collective digital bookmarks and are widely used throughout Twitter. If you want to you can also search the most popular hashtags at #hashtags.org or Tagal • JobMotel – Allows you to search web developer jobs listed on Twitter. From what I can tell JobMotel mines Twitter for web dev related jobs and rss feeds them onto their site. • TweetDeck – One of the more popular Twitter 3rd party application, Tweetdeck is a desktop application that acts as your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening by connecting you with your contacts on Twitter. With TweetDeck you are able to create groups from Twitter users and have all those tweets filtered into one screen. It also lets you do a search for a specific topic and get a live feed every time someone Tweets about that topic. It helps out with your job search because you can create a filter for the companies you are interested in, see what the Twitterverse is saying about them and be aware when they post open jobs. • TweetMyJobs – TweetMyJobs is a service that brings recruiters, hiring managers and job seekers together on Twitter. They create Twitter Channels for major cities and job types, and an easy-to-use interface to subscribe to those channels. You will get instant notification of any new jobs as a text message on your cell phone. In your job search all you have to do it create an account on Twitter and TweetMyJobs, subscribe to the desired Job Channels, and have any new openings automatically sent to your By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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cell phone as a text message via Twitter. You can also access job openings on the web at TweetMyJOBS or Twitter. VisualCV – Not quite a Twitter Application, but you can create your online resume on VisualCV and include a link to your resume in your Twitter Bio. TwitterSearch – You can find job information on Twitter Search. Type in the keywords that are important to you it will display results with all tweets that have those keywords, you can either view all the tweets and follow the users or create a RSS feed to read the results later. Other Twitter Search applications are Just Tweet It and TwitterTroll . NearByTweets – Search Twitter by Keyword and Location – find out if there are any jobs available in your area or the area you want to work. Twollo – Twollo allows you to automatically follow users that have similar interests as you. You tell the application what you like or what you are interested in and the program will generate tweeters for you to follow that have similar interests as you. Twitscoop – Find out what is being talked about on Twitter right now. You can search by keyword, allowing you to see real time info on jobs and networking events.

JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs @indeed - One search. All jobs. @jobshouts – General job postings @simplyhired - Job search site @StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies @twithire - Job board service MORE JOBS........................ @ATTjobs - AT & T Job News @RecruitingWhiz Talent Attraction Manager for AT & T @TheRecruiterGuy Chris Hoyt - Talent Attraction Manager for AT & T @jobsblog - Microsoft Recruiters Blog @mtvnetworksjobs - MTV Networks career opportunities @MTVGamesJobs - MTV Gaming Network is Hiring Now ! @JobsatIntel - Jobs at Intel @DOScareers - Careers in Foreign Affairs @IBMUKcareers - IBM UK Career Opportunities @odesk - oDesk is the marketplace for online workteams @Raytheon_Jobs - Raytheon currently has over 2000 Job openings @Kellyjobs - Kelly Services - your employment connection to the world’s most respected companies, when and where you need to work. @Manpower - Manpower Temporary and Permanent Jobs around the world @VerizonCareers - Career News and Opportunities at Verizon Wireless By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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@biotechjobs - Biotech/Pharmaceutical Job and Recruiting News @AllstateCareers - Job Opportunites with Allstate Insurance @HersheyCompany - Follow the Talent Solutions Team from The Hershey Company to find out about their Career opportunities in Marketing, Sales, and other disciplines. @SodexoCareers - Kerry Noone, Marketing Communications Manager for Sodexo’s Talent Acquisition Group @ADPCareers - ADP is a market leader in HR Solutions as well as the #1 Dealer Management provider in the world. @Hyattcareers - Learn about Hyatt News and Career Opportunities @Accenture_Jobs Accenture Career News for the U.S. Tweets by the Accenture US Recruitment Marketing team. @freelance_jobs - If you want to post or find a freelance job, this is the link to follow. @sfmobilejobs Jobs for the Mobile Web and Digital Media in Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA and NYC. @1984Jobs - Find Apple related Job Opportunities @TwitJobSearch - Twitter Job Search Engine @Jobsearchnews - Job Search News Tweets @media_pros - Jobs for Media Pros @journalism_jobs Follow this link to post your journalism, editorial, PR, and media sales vacancies @CareerRealism - Sponsors of the Twitter Advice Project (T.A.P. into CAREEREALISM) - Get FREE Advice From Top Career Experts on Twitter Here! @thatpassionguy - Brett from Jobbing.com (Job Board Account) @prsajobcenter - Follow @prsajobcenter for public relations and corporate communication jobs. @WSJCareers - Wall Street Journal Career News and Opportunities @NYTimesCareers - New York Times Careers and Opportunities @AJCJobs Atlanta Journal Jobs Tweets @onlineresume - Follow for Resume and Job Search Tips and Trends @ResumeBear - Follow for the latest news on Job openings, Resume tips and Career Opportunities @Dawnbugni - Certified Professional Resume Writer @careertips - Follow Career Tips for Career tips and advice. Career Tips from Career Opportunities Podcast @Tweet_My_Jobs - Follow to have access to the latest job postings. @WorkInSports - Sports Jobs, Sports Internships, Sports Careers… Make your passion your career! @JobAngels - If you have a job opening or need a job - they are great to follow! @TweetResume - If you would like to have your resume tweeted to 100’s of corporate recruiters send @tweetresume your online resume link. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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How The Other Side Lives...Writers & Journalists Want to know the top journalists on twitter? (Thanks to Tech Crunch) @problogger (Darren Rowse): Full time Blogger, Author, Social Media Participant. Sharing Blogging and Twitter Tips (and a little life). Why we follow him: If you haven’t read his blog, Problogger, check it out. He offers excellent tips for writers and people aspiring to be professional bloggers. @skinnyjeans (Stephanie Quilao): Deliciously creative blogger of Everyday Tweet. Founder. I share stuff I think is awesome and helpful. Healthy living, Work, Food, Design, Photography, Twitter. Why we follow her: Her documented journey to becoming a professional blogger on her website, The Everyday Blogger. @daivrawks (Daiv Russell): Super-caffeinated Ninja-Nerd, Foodie, SEO/Copywriter, Husband, Project Mangler, Vegetarian, Software Process junkie, and Org Psych, Marketing & Statistics Why we follow him: With a blog named Ninja Nerd, how could we not? Plus, he’s got great SEO writing tips on his blog. @copyblogger (Brian Clark): I create new media content for fun and profit. Why we follow him: He offers great writing tips on his blog, Copyblogger, from how to write catchy titles to how to overcome writer’s block. @thedomesticdiva (Heather): Freelance Writer. Professional Mommy Blogger. Graphic Designer. Photographer. I’ve participated in the Sony Mommy Blogger Event and Walmart’s ElevenMoms. Why we follow her: Her blog, Domestic Diva, is fun…but we love her videos even more. @paulabrett (Paula Brett): Marketer, Web Host, Writer, Blogger, Actor, Singer, Footy mum, Voddie Glugger, Legend in My Own Lunchtime Why we follow her: Her tweets range from professional to, “People who say they never let little things bother them have never slept in a room with a mosquito!” and she shares tips for bloggers on her own blog. @writingspirit (Julie Isaac): Tips to unleash your writing genius and rock your world with twitter. Host of #WriteChat Sundays 12-3pm PST. Soon to unveil Twitter Made Easy. Why we follow her: Writers can get lots of great tips and chat with other writers on #WriteChat (on Twitter). @sarahprout (Sarah Prout): Author, entrepreneur, online socialite, publisher, passionate advocate of the Law of Attraction and mother of 2 little darlings. Why we follow her: She’s the founder of Sprout Publishing and helps aspiring authors get their works published in compilation books along with celebrity contributors. By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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@thedailyblonde (Cheryl): Blogger,Writer,Commentator on Bullcrap, Funny Girl, Single Mom to 5 Awesome Kiddos. I’m A Left Handed Polish Chick & I’m NEVER Growing Up! Why we follow her: Because she “lives without a filter on her mouth” and she’s just plain funny. @conniegreen (Connie Green): I teach new entrepreneurs how to use online writing and technology to build a profitable business. Why we follow her: She has great tips on her blog, Ebook Writing and Marketing Secrets, for business bloggers and marketing yourself as a business. @hakicoma (Hans): Blogger, Blogging tips, Social Media lover and Internet Marketer. I really enjoy meeting new people… contact me! Why we follow him: He has tons of great writing tips for bloggers at his blog, Catch The Posts. @linnetwoods (Linnet Woods): I live aboard a schooner with my man and a cat… I’m a freelance writer and web mangler… Why we follow her: She’s very active on Twitter and her daily “Twitterhood” trivia quizzes are fun. @redhotcopy (Lorrie Ferrero): Copywriter, speaker, internet marketer, mother, wife Why we follow her: She’s fun on Twitter and her blog, Red Hot Blog, often has useful tips like this video for book authors on how to get celebrity endorsements. @mike_stelzner (Mike Stelzner): Author of book, ‘Writing White Papers,’ organizer of large summits and a dad Why we follow him: He has lots of useful information on writing white papers on his blog, Writing White Papers, along with great videos like this one on how to prevent the “feast or famine” cycle we’ve all run into at one point or another as freelancers. @jonfmerz (Jon F Merz): Novelist (the Lawson Vampire books, Rogue Angel), screenwriter, non-fic author, TV dude (THE FIXER), partner at New Ronin Productions, Bujinkan Ninjutsu 5th dan Why we follow him: Because there aren’t enough fiction novelists on Twitter, let alone ones who are as active as he is! You can also check out his blog, Boston Nocturne, for direct ebook downloads. @remarkablogger (Michael Martine): Blog consultant and coach Why we follow him: He has great writing tips on his site, Remarkablogger, as well as catchy titles like: How to Write an Ebook that Doesn’t Suck @thecreativepenn (Joanna Penn): Author, speaker and coach - writing, selfpublishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion for your book Why we follow her: She has great tips for self-published authors at her blog, The Creative Penn.

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@joefinder (Joe Finder): NYT bestselling thriller writer, Dad, Red Sox fan Why we follow him: Not only is he a New York Times best-selling author who’s active on Twitter, but he also has occasional writing tips on his blog, Joseph Finder’s Blog. @jennipps (Jen Nipps): Freelance writer/editor specializing in creativity, writing, fashion, health, & general interest. Update frequently. I’m sorry, but I can’t follow everyone Why we follow her: She always has great tips for writers (and freelancers in general) at her blog, TutorialBlog. @menwithpens (James C): A Canadian freelance writer with a pen mightier than a sword Why we follow him: His blog, Men With Pens, is another excellent resource for freelance writers. @kathleenfuller (Kathleen Fuller): Novelist, freelance writer, author of upcoming Amish novel series Hearts of Middlefield Why we follow her: She tweets and re-tweets a lot of useful articles for freelance writers. @angee (Angela Booth): Want to write, have fun and make money? Join me in this incredible new media journey to make good old-fashioned cash. I’m a copywriter and author. Why we follow her: Great tips for writers on her blog, Angela Booth’s Writing Blog. @joner (Linda Jones): Director of Passionate Media, journalist and author. Mum of twins, blogging at www.gotyourhandsfull.com Why we follow her: Her blog, Freelance Writing Tips, contains lots of great writing tips and book reviews. @chafkin (Max Chafkin): I write for Inc. magazine. I live in Brooklyn. Why we follow him: We like when he says things like this, “Beg for followers? Ewww. Twitter needs less of that. More conversation please.” @kathrynvercillo (Kathryn Vercillo): Blogger/Writer. Always pushing the boundaries of my creative experience. Why we follow her: Aside from the fact that we think more people should follow her, she publishes some great articles on her blog, Real Words, like Being Productive When Working from Home.

Twitters & CEOs who have the most followers... By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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100,000+ Followers 1. BarackObama 2. DowningStreet 3. TheOnion 4. Ashton Kutcher

50,000-100,000 Followers 1. GuyKawasaki 2. Starbucks 3. Scobleizer 4. BigRichB 5. Astronautics 6. CaseyWright 7. PerryBelcher 8. AlohaArleen 9. Nansen 10.TheBusyBrain 11.RobMcNealy 12.MichaeMillman 13.Zaibatsu 14.WBAustin

40,000-50,000 Followers 1. Jonathan360 2. HashTags 3. TheDigitalLife 4. Andrew303 5. ESPN 6. MrSocial 7. ChrisPirillo 8. Stejules 9. DaveMalby 10.Eleesha

30,000-40,000 Followers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

CraigTeich StephenKruiser Jerell BradHoward Foodimentary ScotMcKay EdStivala

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8. RockingJude 9. ShannonSeek 10.RadioBlogger 11.MikeKlingler 12.RonnieWilson 13.DanTanner 14.MikePFS 15.TechXav 16.SocialMediaClub 17.FLWBooks 18.Kamper 19.AndrewWindham

20,000-30,000 Followers 1. Oliver_Turner 2. _SamJones 3. KMesiab 4. Mark33 5. StanleyTang 6. Barefoot_Exec 7. JackBastide 8. NicheTitans 9. MarketingZap 10.PragueBob 11.Twitter_Tips 12.TwitPic 13.00Joe 14.JeanetteJoy 15.OHHDLInfo 16.MariaAndros 17.JeanLucR 18.TMaduri 19.TwitLive 20.ImogenHeap 21.NewMediaJim 22.MarkDavidson 23.OpenZine 24.BryantSmith 25.TYSONtheQUICK 26.DrJeffersnBoggs 27.JayOatway 28.Upicks 29.Gemstars 30.MichDdot 31.SethSimonds By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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32.JesseNewhart 33.Zefrank 34.RichCurrie 35.KarlRove 36.SitePointdotcom 37.iPodiums 38.AlexKaris 39.HoleInHisEye 40.Pistachio 41.OudiAntebi 42.DSMPublishing 43.PeterSantilli 44.Orrin_Woodward 45.QueenoftheClick 46.StockTwits 47.MarketingProfs 48.MariSmith

10,000-20,000 Followers 1. MarcWarnke 2. Debbas 3. SteveWeber 4. TUAW 5. KikiValdes 6. WayneMansfield 7. USBargains 8. Rex7 9. CoffeeTweet 10.LarryLanier 11.JulieRoy 12.JamesRivers 13.MikeFilsaime 14.Montaignejns 15.SeanMalarkey 16.WebAddict 17.LarryBrauner 18.Leplan 19.AaronMartirano 20.JeffPulver 21.Teedubya 22.DCRBlogs 23.ShawnRobinson 24.KonaEndurance 25.TradingGoddess By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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26.JohnReese 27.InfadelsAreCool 28.Techhie 29.Nabbit 30.DiyanaAlcheva 31.Unmarketing 32.Meteorit 33.TrafficGen 34.StaffInSeconds 35.PeterDrew 36.LittleQuiz 37.TeddyShabba 38.DawudMiracle 39.RightWingNews 40.OutsideMyBrain 41.Dollars5 42.MediaBistro 43.Adnagam 44.COasis 45.NicholasPatten 46.AlexisNeely 47.EverywhereTrip 48.E_Stampede 49.ChristianFea 50.MojoJuju 51.eMom 52.RizzoTees 53.Anexemines 54.AmericanElement 55.TravisGreenlee 56.RickySantos 57.PawLuxury 58.KrisColvin 59.PinkElephantPun 60.JasonFinch 61.LonnieHodge 62.JanSimpson 63.Stickham 64.DaveLawrence 65.CaliDeals 66.JamesByers 67.JeffHerring 68.Linc4Justice 69.GSpowart 70.HowardBienstock 71.Peter_R_Casey By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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72.BettyDraper 73.MichaelEmlong 74.Dexin 75.The_Gman 76.BobCallahan 77.TrendTracker 78.TylerTorment 79.GarinKilpatrick 80.Jim_Turner 81.Ann_Sieg 82.Ken_Cosgrove 83.Frostfire 84.Pat_Lorna 85.WineTwits 86.BradFallon 87.TimJensen 88.PhotoCanvas 89.JasonMitchener 90.Bill_Romanos 91.MikeMayhew 92.HawaiiRealty 93.9Miles 94.Sotero_Garcia 95.Loyalty360 96.WeirdChina 97.MarkRMatthews 98.SteveOuch 99.Socrates_Soc 100.Comcastcares 101.ChrisMoreschi 102.CoffeeCupNews 103.WillieCrawford 104.LouieBaur 105.Coolsi 106.Nicolane 107.NixTheNews 108.EzineArticles 109.Hubpages 110.ChrisSpagnuolo 111.FredaMooncotch 112.SheriTingle 113.JustingLover 114.ShortAwards 115.Flap 116.SuggestionBox 117.JimDeMint By The Black Solution Think Tank©

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118.TweetStats 119.theBilly 120.ThaPaparazza 121.WritingHannah 122.0Boy 123.ThinkGeek 124.LanceScoular 125.MayhemStudios 126.TraderAdvice 127.Dana_Willhoit 128.JimmySmithTrain 129.JoelDrapper 130.Kidscash 131.KellyShibari 132.SteveGarfield 133.JasonTryfon 134.DanSchawbel 135.LookCook 136.JudyRey 137.MJBerry 138.EdwardMoore 139.BlackBottoms 140.DougH 141.CrumCake 142.ProsperityGal 143.Lotay 144.JudyRey

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CEOS @jobing Aaron Matos, Founder and CEO of Jobing.com. @kevinrose Kevin Rose, Founder and CEO of Digg.com @zappos Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com @techcrunch Michael Arrington, CEO of Techcrunch.com @SunCEOBlog , CEO of Sun Microsystems @gcolony, CEO of Forrester Research @livestrongceo, CEO of Livestrong Foundation @finkd, Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook @stevecase, Co-Founder of AOL @richardbranson, Chairman of Virgin Group @biz, Co-Founder of Twitter @ev, CEO of Twitter @colneedham, Founder of IMBd @jailchandra, CEO of Technorati @jeffbooth, CEO of BuildDirect.com @4thegiant, CEO of The Giants Den Firm

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ANNOUNCEMENT If you believe that you are influential or a thought leader in the Black community, please feel free to email us (via gmail) at: [email protected] with your bio, website or background. We are still archiving and adding the most influential black leaders on twitter.

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Twitter Sign on : _____________________________________ Twitter Password: ____________________________________ Notes:

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Twitter Guide Produced By: The Black Solutions Think Tank We are on twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/blacksolutions Twitter Thank Yous! Other Sources: @syedbalkhi @hilzfuld Alexandra Samuel http://www.digiactive.org http://socialnewswatch.com/ Beth Kanter @thatpassionguy.

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