Last week I was considering attending a trade seminar for owners of digital publishing businesses, in particular because Corey Perlman will be one of the speakers. Perlman is well known for his book eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques To Grow Your Business. He’s conducted more than 200 eBoot Camp workshops all over the world and is considered an expert at teaching small businesses owners how to effectively use the internet to market their goods and services.

Surely such an internet expert jumped on the Twitter bandwagon early and has been tweeting ever since, right? Wrong. When I checked on Twitter, he wasn’t listed.

I told this story to a new client who came to me in part because  he butted heads with his last business coach. That coach pushed this internationally known medical expert into doing daily postings on Twitter and Facebook, telling him “You must! All the experts do it.”

My client complained that he considered it a waste of time and an annoyance. “It puts me in a bad mood every time I stop to do it,” he complained. “And I can’t believe my business rests on something so inconsequential as tweeting.”

I told him I agreed. There’s simply no sense putting him in a bad mood once a day by forcing him to stop and tweet. Not when his time is so valuable.

I offered to put an assistant to work writing daily tweets for him, but this client is having none of it. He had Twitter shoved down his throat and now he’s through. And I’m fine with that.

As a business coach, my job is to find the most effective ways for each of my clients to market themselves on the internet.

With so many ways available, one tool or another isn’t going to make or break any business. I strive to guide self-employed people into using the tools they’ll enjoy most, because those are the tools they’ll use most often. And in marketing, persistence pays off.

If you’re forcing yourself to use Twitter because you’ve been told ALL the experts do it, give yourself a break. You don’t need to be Einstein to figure out that  if you don’t like using Twitter, it’s probably costing you more time and energy than it’s worth.

P.S. Perlman’s blog this week contained news that he’s now on Twitter. But I’ll be surprised if it’s the expert himself, and not an assistant, that’s texting in those tweets.

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Surevy says–"No!" Even if you’re out in space, working to repair the Hubble telescope that is traveling around the earth once every 90 minutes at a speed of  17,500 mph, you still only get 140 characters.

In fact Massimino says that’s what makes it great. "The whole Twitter experience has been great fun," he told reporters. "As astronauts, we look for ways to share the experience of what we do. The opportunity to use Twitter has been great because, by definition, it has to be short messages … and I can fit it in when I have free time."

The astronaut wasn’t using Twitter until two weeks ago when NASA’s public relations team suggested Massimino start Twittering about his training. He now has more than 282,000 followers at http://twitter.com/Astro_Mike

Now, tell me this-if NASA thinks Twittering is important enough to incorporate into a busy and dangerous space mission, don’t you think it might be worth a little of YOUR time?

NASA is merely acknowledging what many corporations, celebrities and big name marketers have come to know-Twitter is a great tool for connecting with people all around the globe. It’s a relationship-building tool. A place to meet and greet and start getting your name and message out.

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people, especially small business owners, that want to be more cretaive, make their own products and market on the internet. To join her, type your email into the subscribe form in the upper right corner. You’ll be glad you did!

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This frees you from having to type out hundreds or thousands of welcome messages, while still allowing you to greet each of your followers personally.

Right now, the majority of Twitter users do not send auto-welcome messages. That means doing so is an opportunity for you to stand out and make an impression!

If you’re already on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly received autoresponder messages from people you’ve elected to follow that say, in essence, "Thanks for following me. Now go to this sales page and buy something!" Do that and you’ll make an  impression all right–a bad one! People will make a mental note to tune you right out.

Instead, create a message that opens the door for further conversation and even friendship.  Twitter, after all, is about building a social network, so be sociable. When you craft you own welcome messge, keep this in mind:

1.    Keep it short and simple.

2.    It’s a welcome message, not a sales pitch.

3.    Open the converstaion with a messge that invites response.

My own welcome message is "Bonnie Boots says "Help yourself to my library of free and funny Twitter backgrounds!" followed by a link to the download page. The download is free and unencumbered. There’s no forced opt-in. No hard sell for anything else. My purpose is to introduce myself and make people smile when they next see my name.

One of the nicest welcomes messages I’ve received is "Woo Hoo! I have a new friend! Thank you – Can’t wait to get to know you better!" Now really, who wouldn’t want to know HER better?

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people that want to be more creative, make their own products and market on the internet.  Follow her here by filling out the subscribe form in the upper right corner. Follow her on Twitter @BonnieBoots

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• The Twitter Tutorial (slideshare.net)

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If you’re using Twitter, you’ll appreciate the convenience of using TweetDeck to manage your mini-blogging. Things you can do with TweetDeck include:

·   Tweet directly from TweetDeck

·    Stay up to date – view all new tweets in real-time

·    Use columns to create your personal dashboard

·    Create Groups to easily follow friends, colleagues or other interest groups

·    Update Facebook and follow your Facebook friends

·    Follow topics in real-time with saved searches

·    View @replies and direct messages and manage your conversations

·    Never miss an important tweet with notifications

·    Share your photos and videos with Twitpic and 12seconds

·    And many more Twitter favorites including Stocktwits, Twitscoop and all the most popular URL shortening services

When you have TweetDeck open it issues a chirpy little chime each time it updates, which is anytime anyone in your Twitter universe posts. If, like me, your work requires a good deal of quiet thought, you may want to turn this off. But it’s a nice option to have on when you’re socializing or doing work that doesn’t require your full attention.

Another snazzy feature is TweetDeck’s ability to interface with 12seconds TV. You can record 12seconds of web cam video and post it to your Twitter account  from within TweetDeck.

TweetDeck came out early in 2009, so it’s still being developed. You can download it here. It’s improving at a rapid pace, so don’t let the prospect of the occasional ( and so far quickly fixed) bug scare you off.  The developer seems dedicated to making TweetDeck a great application.

You can see his video walk-through of TweetDeck below: After installing TweetDEck, hop on over to a blog post by Pro blogger Darren Rowse and read "How to Follow A LOT of People on Twitter and Still be Engaging using TweetDeck." He gives great information, some shown in video,  on how to set up the filters in TweetDeck to customize your experience.

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people that want to be more creative, make stuff and market on the internet. You can join her universe by filing in the subscribe form in the upper right. Or join her Twitterverse by following her at http://twitter.com/BonnieBoots

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