This is especially true if the one hot link on your Twitter account sends people to your website. You don’t want to have a major disconnect between these two online locations.

Your Twitter account should be consistent with your website in these five important areas:

- Consistent headshot photo of you on your website and on Twitter.

This is especially important in terms of how old you appear to be in the photos. Imagine how disconcerting it can be for a website visitor to go from seeing a current photo of you on Twitter to a 10-year-old photo of you on your website? This disconnect does NOT inspire confidence in you.

- Consistent information on what you have on offer.

Let’s say you write in your 160-character (or less) bio on Twitter that you are interested in teaching people about web marketing. Then someone clicks through to your website, and your home page is all about weight loss products. The person who clicked through is very apt to be annoyed at this major switch of topics.

- Consistent tone to what you’ve written.

Have you ever read a bio on Twitter that sounds very friendly on a specific topic and then clicked through to the website only to be met by a hard sell? In this case the topic hasn’t changed, but the relationship “tone” is completely different. You probably didn’t follow that person on Twitter if you’ve had this unsettling experience.

- Consistent look at how you present yourself.

Your Twitter profile is uncluttered thanks to the strict parameters of what is allowed on your Twitter profile. Yet when people click through on your hot link are they subject to a barrage of information so overwhelming that they have no idea what to do first? Have you presented people with a clean foyer (Twitter portal) to a very messy living room (your website)?

- Consistent contact information.

While people can easily send you a reply message on Twitter (or a DM if you are following them), do they have to look all over your website to find your business email? Or is that information as clearly presented on your website as your Twitter username is on your Twitter account?

In conclusion, the 160-character (or less) limit for a bio and the clean Twitter profile parameters should serve as a template for your website home page. If you follow this format, your website and your Twitter account should be consistent. And if they are consistent, your website visitors who have clicked through from your Twitter account will feel comfortable that they have landed in the right place.

If you are not into this Twitter fad you might question why people take time to update their Twitter account once a day, every hour or even every minute. You can post unlimited tweets to your profile so you don’t have to worry about flooding your page.

Those people who signed up on Twitter are mostly celebrities, politician, internet marketer, businessmen and media. These Twitter users signed up for Twitter for one reason. It is to communicate with their fans, clients and potential customers. Twitter is a very interactive community. You can send your messages to anyone or someone as famous as Britney Spears and Oprah Winfrey. These celebrities take time to update their Twitter and if you get lucky they can reply to your message as well.

Businessmen are also taking over Twitter. Why? It is to promote their products and services and also to provide customer support. Big companies such as IBM and Dell have Twitter accounts set up for their customers. Customers can ask questions or send messages to these companies and in return these companies can address their concerns. Survey reveals that consumers who are planning to buy something rely to the internet by asking questions or by researching about the product they are planning to buy. This means that it is an advantage for any company to have Twitter account to help these consumers decide what to buy.

Also, another reason why people have Twitter accounts today is to promote their website. When you post a message on twitter, it will also allow you to post links with it. Most of the internet marketers post messages at the same time post a link that will lead to a specific website they are promoting that will add page impression. Twitter has millions of Twitter users and imagines 50% or even .05% of these users click to your link. This will really help a lot to give your website a higher rank.

So next time you check your Twitter account and you observe that a lot of the Twitter users you follow are making a lot of updates you already understand why.

Now, put your hand down again, if you have ever used Twitter to plug your line of work. (Be honest!)

Lastly, put your hand down if you have NOT read all the rules. (Again, be honest.)

Obviously this is a hypothetical scenario but my guess is, if you were to put these questions to a thousand Twitter users, by the time you had finished there would be very few hands remaining. Unfortunately, according to the rules of Twitter, this would mean you had a room full of spammers.

Before we go any further I should state that I did use Twitter until a few days ago when my account was suspended for spamming. I opened it to be greeted with this message;

This account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information.

Assuming this to be an easily fixable error, I looked into it further until I came to this message;

Your account was suspended for cross-posting duplicate tweets across multiple accounts, a violation of our terms of service and the Twitter Rules that we take very seriously. Your account will remain suspended for a minimum of one week; you may petition for reinstatement on or after August 17, 2009.

An obvious and blatant spamming tactic on my part, you may think, but the simple truth is; I only ever had one account. As frustrating as this situation may be for me, personally, it is nothing compared to the frustrations of Twitter, itself.

I have to admit that, according to the rules of twitter (which I have now read), I was not whiter than white when using it. In my short time as an account holder I came to the conclusion that most users (the ones that I was interested in following, at least) were tweeting, either from or about their work, personally posting links and pictures on their page that they believed their followers would be interested in. I followed suit believing this to be a good use of twitter as generally speaking, our work is what people would be most interested in. If Stephen Fry, for example, were to talk about the weather or the lovely cup of tea he was drinking (being extra careful not to mention the company who manufactured it) who would be interested? We want to know about his work because that is what is interesting about him. As for the rest of us mortals, because our jobs may not be as interesting to most as Mr. Fry’s, we look for people in a similar line of work to ourselves to banter with and share information. If we are not to discuss what we do, how are we to find these people?

This could prove a difficult area for Twitter to police. Once you have read the rules on spamming, in particular, you realize that, if all of them were to be upheld to the letter, they would have very few users left indeed.

There is talk of Twitter Business, a service that will allow people to advertize what they do without fear of persecution. But will anyone use this as a social network? More likely, people will only use it if they are looking for a specific service. So, a search engine, then, which only allows the advertiser 140 characters to explain what they do in order to sell their wares. This will leave the advertiser with only one real option; to put up links to somewhere else where he can go into more detail about his product or service. The links would, more than likely, be to a website… Which has to beg the question; Why not cut out the middle man and just use a search engine instead?

This is probably the conclusion most people (and most spammers, for that matter) will come to once the hype dies down a little so lets hope that it is not the way Twitter plans to monetize itself or it will probably have a lot of disappointed paying advertisers on its hands.

So, if Twitter Business doesn’t seem likely to be viable in the long term, we are left with, plain old, Twitter; a social network where people are not allowed to publicize what they do for fear of being suspended.

It does go without saying that none of us enjoy receiving spam and that Twitter has to do something to prevent it, lest people will stop using the service. But, if it is to be trusted by its users, it cannot be suspending them for cross posting duplicate tweets across multiple accounts without first checking that these users are actually guilty of the infringement. If they continue to do so then the current suspension policy will ultimately achieve the opposite of its objective.

Though my Twitter account has now been reinstated, I now cannot escape the feeling that trying to rebuild my social network would be, at best, humiliating and at worst, just pointless, knowing, as I do, that Twitter could close it at any moment due to circumstances that are neither my fault nor within my control (if they actually exist in the first place). And so it is for these reasons, I will probably not use my account as much as used to and would certainly not have opened a new one had the original not been reinstated as I (and, I suspect, my erstwhile followers) would have seen this as an admission of guilt.

Much more importantly for Twitter, however; if I were a dyed-in-the-wool spammer, do you think the suspension of one account would offend so badly as to deter me from opening new ones? I would imagine that a real spammer would be back the very day after his first suspension with a virulent vengeance.

In short; the wrongfully convicted may never return whilst the genuine spammers will simply grow two new heads for each one that is severed.

Setting up on Twitter to have your own account is easy, but there are a few things that you should be aware of when organizing your account. This can apply even if you already have an existing account too, so consider these tips and it can improve your entire Twitter experience.

The first thing to do if you don’t have an account is go to http://www.twitter.com which is the Twitter home page. You will be asked to either login or register. If you don’t have an account, then of course you will need to register. So let’s go through the registration process and explain it all here.

Registration

The Twitter screen will ask you for your first name and last name and will then check this is entered correctly. A green tick will appear next to the box.

The next box asks you for a user name and this is where you need to give some thought to how you are going to represent yourself on Twitter. You should remember that you can set up more than one Twitter account, but you will need a different email address for each one.

Now this is where the thinking bit comes in. The first account you register should always be in your own name if you can get it. Naturally, common names like JohnSmith (there are no spaces in usernames) will already be taken. However it is possible to get variations on your own name such as John_Smith, or John_Smith23 or some variation like that. You can only use an underscore in a username. Hyphens are not permitted in the field.

It isn’t absolutely critical that you register your own name, but I would advise you do if you can, particularly if your name is an unusual one. I’m sure the last thing you want is someone else impersonating you on Twitter, or anywhere else for that matter.

If you wish to register a business name, then you can do that of course, but make your you use your own name in the sign up process so you are identifiable and connected with the business name you register. The concepts and reasons for operating under each type of registration will be discussed later.

You are now asked for your email address. Email addresses are linked to accounts and you will only be able to use your email address once. For every account you register, you will need a different email address.

The last thing to do is to fill in the Captcha letters and then click on Create My Account.

The next screen will ask if you want to add any of your friends from the popular web based email programs. You can do this later if you wish.

The next screen presents a short list of people who Twitter asks if you would like to follow. Choose some if you like, but I wouldn’t bother. I prefer to find my own Twitter friends.

When you click Finish, you will then be taken to your very own Twitter account. You are logged in and ready to go!

Your Settings

Next thing we are going to do is fill out our settings and this is very important on Twitter. You will find the access to this at the top right of the screen, fourth link from the left.

On this page you will notice there are some tabs across the top. For the moment we will concentrate on the Account tab.

The information you entered on joining is already entered here, but now it’s time to pad this out so people can find you on Twitter and you also make yourself an interesting person to be followed. People will use the information you enter here to make that decision, but much of what is entered is also searchable on Twitter and through various third party applications.

One thing to note is that you can change your username at any time on this screen. You just have to enter your password to do so. Although it can be done, it can confuse your follower base, so I wouldn’t recommend doing it on a weekly basis.

First of all change your time zone to your own and then move onto the one line bio.

Your Bio You have 160 characters here to “sell” yourself. Take some time over it and do it well. Don’t simply enter a bunch of keywords as they appear totally uninteresting to people, although they may get you found. Use keywords by all means, but start your Bio with the words “I am” and then describe yourself.

So you might put for example:-

I am a keen gardener and hiker who also has a passion for the outdoors, internet marketing and affiliate marketing who also loves social media.

Now that description is only 143 characters, so you could still get some more keywords in the bio. No doubt you can see the ones that are there which are gardener, hiker, internet marketing, affiliate marketing and social media. Using these terms in your bio will have you coming up in search results when people are looking for other like minded individuals to follow. As you can see, it is worth taking some time to get the bio right.

Balance of Screen Enter your web site name or blog here if you have one. Make sure you include the http:// prefix to the address.

Your location is next and is also important so people can search and find others in their same area. It will also be important to you if you are chasing rankings on Twitter as users are ranking by their locations.

Protect Updates This is included if you want to have a private account and you have to approve followers. NEVER turn this on if you intend to use Twitter to meet new people. They just couldn’t be bothered requesting permission to follow you unless they know you personally.

You can now save your settings, but note here that there is also a link to delete your account should you ever wish to do so.

Devices

How to set up Twitter mobile? You can enter your mobile phone number here if you want Twitter updates to your phone. Personally, I can’t think of anything worse, particularly if you have a couple of thousand followers.

Notices

You can have Twitter “nudge” you with a text to your mobile phone if you haven’t updated in 24 hours. What a pain!

The Replies function is an interesting one and will determine what tweets you see that are prefixed with the @ symbol. This is how you direct a tweet to a particular individual. There is a great help screen explanation on this, so go there to make your decision.

The rest of the notices are self explanatory. It is worth noting that the Direct Messages possibly needs a bit of explanation though as to what they are if you are new to Twitter. If you are following someone and they are following you, Direct Messages can be sent that won’t appear in the Twitter timeline. They are essentially private messages between two people. If you are an infrequent user of Twitter, it may be worthwhile to switch on receiving notifications by email so you can respond. Otherwise leave it off as it will just fill up your mail box with more clutter.

Likewise, the notifications that you have a new follower just adds to your email and I would leave it off unless you like the buzz of being told someone new has followed you.

If you enjoy using Social Media Websites chances are that you would have a Facebook account as well as a Twitter account. Both of these allow you to make updates to your status. By creating a connection between these two accounts you only need to write your message once as it will be posted to the other one automatically.

There are two ways of creating the connection between Facebook and Twitter. You can link your Twitter account to your personal Facebook account; or you can link your Facebook Page to your Twitter account.  In the first option the message goes from Twitter to Facebook and in the second option it goes from Facebook to Twitter. For instance if you use Twitter regularly just write your message on your Twitter account and it will be posted automatically on your Facebook account. You will see it on your Facebook profile page and it will appear on the Facebook News Feed. Here is how you can do that in just a few simple teps.

Connecting Your Twitter Account to Your Personal Facebook Account

In this connection when you write a message on your Twitter account it gets automatically posted into your Facebook status and Wall. Here are 5 simple steps how you can make that connection. You need to be logged into your Facebook account in order to do this.

Step 1 – Locate the Twitter Application

The Twitter application as well as many other cool applications are stored in the Facebook Applications area.You can access it directly at the following URL:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

Once you have located the application click the blue ‘Go to Application’ -button.

Step2 – Allow Access

By clicking the ‘Allow’ –button you will authorise Twitter and Facebook create the connection needed. Go ahead and … click.

Step 3 – Log on to Twitter

Next you will need to log in to your Twitter account to make the connection happen.

Since we are creating a connection to your personal Facebook account you should use your personal Twitter account here as well.

Step 4 – Allow Twitter updates

In order to get the automatic update from your Twitter account to show up on your Facebook status you need to click the ‘+ Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status’ –button.

This enables the connection and sends you to the next screen.

Step 5 – Authorisation

This is a bit unnecessary step but you need to click the blue ‘Allow Status Updates’ –button to finalise the operation.

The only good thing about this page is that it gives you the page URL where you can change the settings of this Twitter application as well as your other Facebook applications. Here is the direct link to that page: http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php

Once you click the button you will be back on the previous screen. From this screen you can also update your Facebook status. This will be posted automatically to you Twitter account as well. Please note that when you update your status on your Facebook profile page as you would do normally, it does not post to your Twitter account.

… Congratulations! You’re done!

You have now connected your Twitter account with your personal Facebook account. Everytime you  write a new Twitter post it will now automatically show up on your Facebook Profile. Next time we will have a look how to connect your Facebook Business Page to your Twitter business account.

Linking Facebook and Twitter Step-By-Step GuideThis article is Part 2 of the illustrated bonus guide ‘Linking Facebook and Twitter‘ which you can get free by ordering the Facebook Advertising Guide.

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Big Is The New Small – 111 Twitter Tools

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Big Is The New Small – 111 Twitter Tools