After the visit from our Twitter Birds. Thanks Marcy for being such a great adventurer during the show. We also love Betsy and Galina who helped us out day 2 and day 3. Way to be “Tweet”!

Another one of our favorites is Gary Vaynerchuk. Check out this debate on whether Twitter’s strategy to monitize and analytics makes sense. Watch the debate from CNBC here.

Remember, when you ask a question about whether or not something will work, the short and long answer is usually yes.

In the world of social media, remember to keep your message simple. We recommend crafting the message as if presenting it to a fifth grader. Just because we know everything there is to know about our product/ service, it doesn’t mean that our prospects needs to know all of it. Keep your ideal client in mind. Craft the message in a style that they would like to receive it, not the way you would like to receive it. Be sure to entice them into checking out your website or blog. Never deliberately sell in social media, just tease people.

Finally, be sure that your website has an email capture form above the fold on the home page. Make it easy for people to get your future information. Happy Tweeting!

You will want to check out the site screentweet.com. It’s a site that you can use to link photos, videos and pdf files into your tweets. Use your twitter username to sign in and give it a try. A neat feature is also the count of how many views your post has had…we met the company at the MCC Birthday Bash on Friday-if I were you, I’d give it a try.

How do I start?

It’s really easy. If you have a Twitter account then you already have a screentweet account. Simply enter your twitter account on the right and start sharing your videos, screen shots, photos & images. Also works with YouTube, Hulu and IgniteCAST. Show me how

Recent polls at InSights show that about half the people in the room at a local networking event have at least heard of twitter. The other half laugh at the word. You have to admit, at first it sounds kind of silly. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s start with what twitter is:

Now that you’ve seen the video, here are my top five tips to using twitter.

1. Identify the reasons you are going to twitter, once you have a goal, you can work out a twitter plan, otherwise you might use all of your time surfing and playing, without getting closer to your purpose
Are you hoping to connect with friends and family?
Do you want to promote your brand or blog?
Do you want to meet new people?
Use it for netwokring?
Keep tabs on your brand, image, or company?

All of the above, and more, are great reasons and uses for twitter.

2. Tweet
Jump in with both feet. You will build a great twitter network through your activity. If you post interesting things, people will be inclined to follow you. Share useful information, fun facts, and add some of your personality. That’s what it’s all about! Give people a reason to follow you. Be interesting, not overly shamlessly self promoting.

3. Follow other Twitter users. Follow people because of their interesing posts. Target conversations near you if you are looking to grow in your geographic area. Expand your reach if you have a futher reaching goal.

4. Reply, Retweet, and have those conversations!
Reach out, share information, and let others know that you find them interesting. Asking questions is a great way to get some answers! Respond to others. Use the reply feature or the @username to have those two sided conversations.

5. Practice restraint and Twitter Etiquitte
Avoid spam. Promote content that is interesting. Don’t bring in the band and banners declaring yourself the next best thing since sliced bread. Insert your personality, interests, and yes promote yourself, but do it in balance with everything else. Share other’s links and information. Be the person in the party that listens as well as they talk.

I could go on and on, but would love your opinion. What is your best advice for the next Twitter user?