# using twitter to promote your brand



## lburton3

Surprisingly, there are not very many threads about twitter, and the ones that do exist simply ask whether or not it is useful, for the most part. I'll discuss my personal experiences and I hope you will join me in the discussion.

Like many of you, I have a small (online) clothing company, which I started just a few months ago. I was desperate for exposure and fans at the time, so I created accounts for Myspace, Facebook, and twitter. I was most familiar with Myspace, so Facebook and twitter fell by the wayside. Now that things are finally slowing down, I figured it would be a great time to pump up social marketing again, so I decided to try out twitter.

Over the past few weeks, I have had few website sales, few mailing list signups, and generally 20-30 visitors a day. In just two days, twitter totally turned this around. My technique, which many consider to be "spamming", involved following hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people on twitter. I do not consider this spamming, because of the negative connotation, but simply organized mass-marketing. 

Here are a couple of thoughts on the subject:

1) I only follow people who have aligned interests. If somebody is following a big streetwear brand, for example, I assume that they are a fan of streetwear and could also be a fan of my brand as well. I will follow them, and they might follow me back. Since I am trying to build a local fanbase, I also follow people in my geographical area.

2) Some people don't like the idea of following hundreds of strangers, and they do not see any benefit. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. These "strangers" represent the potential market. By following them, you can get a feel for what they are into and what's hot in your target demographic. They will often post updates about what they like and what they do not like.

3) Sometimes it takes a little "push" for people to start recognizing your brand. You can't just sit around and hope the word spreads. You may have the best brand in the entire world, but it will inevitably fail if nobody knows about it. Tell the world. When you follow somebody, they will probably follow you back. This allows them to know what's going on with your brand, visit your website, check out your designs, etc.

4) Twitter is great for feedback. People like to answer questions. Earlier today, I posted the question "What do you think of my designs?" and got great responses - some negative, and some positive, but all helpful.

5) People tend to follow somebody if their friend is following them. This is sort of like internet "word-of-mouth" marketing. The more people that are following you, the more presence you have, and the greater potential for more fans.

6) If somebody sees your brand on twitter, they may check it out and write about it on their blog, facebook, etc. Their readers could become followers and potential fans of the brand as well. Once again, more presence = more potential.

The way I see it, it's all about getting the word out there. In the past few days, I have followed over 2,000 people, gained 400 followers and counting, connected with the target market, had 500 hits to my website (a little more than the average 20-30 a day), made numerous sales, and and many mailing list signups. On top of that, I've found lots of interesting people and new brands, and this is only the beginning.

These thoughts generally apply to brand with an online presence, but local shops and boutiques could use similar techniques to promote themselves.

What are your thoughts?


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## INKSCREENS

Hey, that's a great idea! I'm glad that it is working for you already.


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## oddTEE

I agree with you, and I have to add that I've using twitter (@OddFit) for a good three months now, maybe a little bit more; but so far I've been getting links to my site, like never before. Also , I already closed some deals with Businesses out of the state due to my presence on twitter.

But people have to understand that it's not that simple, there is a process you would have to learn and keep feeding people with your tweets in order for it to spread your words and your business.
http://www.twitter.com/OddFit


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## franceinshirts

Hi,

Any results of twitter network ? does it work ?
What about facebook ?

Rgds,
Christophe


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## balboa

excellent post Loren...weirdly i was also looking into Twitter as a marketing tool today.

While everyone is tightening their belts at the moment in all aspects of business, its time to sharpen up on marketing. while im doubleing my SEO budget, im also looking at Twitter as a marketing tool. 

done right (im still learning) i can see its essentially free advertising (bar the time taken to set up), but its pretty criminal to ignore IMO
Glad its working for you, and thanks again for posting!


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## lburton3

franceinshirts said:


> Hi,
> 
> Any results of twitter network ? does it work ?
> What about facebook ?
> 
> Rgds,
> Christophe


I'd say it works phenomenally! I've only been using it to its full potential for the past few days, and so far - so good.

Latest news: I was contacted by a reporter from the local news to do an interview about my brand... via TWITTER!

AMAZING!


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## eternalcraves

*Very good idea!!!! *
*Steffan*


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## EnMartian

I think your point number 1 is something a lot of people miss. It's not only about the quantity of people you follow, it is about the quality as well. You have to connect with people who want what you're offering. 

We use Twitter to publicize EnMart and it has been quite useful. The feedback you can get is so helpful and it's a great way to talk to your customer base.


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## SBEMedia

An often overlooked marketing site is StumbleUpon.com. It's been pretty amazing the amount of traffic I've seen over my various websites after I included it in my StumbleUpon profile


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## Rodney

*Thread note:* please note that some posts have been moved out of this thread. This purpose of this thread isn't promote your specific twitter account or to request that people follow you, it's to _educate_ and _share_ info about how to use twitter for business. *To connect with other T-ShirtForum members on Twitter, please see this thread in the lounge* ​


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## Pasquale

im having a hard time understanding twitter. is like a myspace and a ebay put together?


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## lburton3

Pasquale said:


> im having a hard time understanding twitter. is like a myspace and a ebay put together?


It's like neither. It is not directly related to the sale of any product in any way at all. There is no real profile (besides the short 140 character biography), or crazy photo database.

Simply put, twitter is based on the question "What are you doing right now?"

In the business sense, this is extremely valuable when you have fans that want to hear the latest and greatest about your cool brand. Twitter is an extremely fast, efficient, and simple way of getting that information to fans.


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## try change

Great information. I just started using twitter. I'm trying to get more people to read about my brand.


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## sjidohair

I also have been using twitter for a month or so, and have found it to be extremely valuable, in directing poeple to my site, to check it out,, 
I have been contacted by a contract garment designer, that embellshes, the highest of designer clothing lines, the names I can not say, but the only way in the past, i could wear these clothing lines were used lol
Anyway, I am now making Templates, and Rhinestone designs for these lines, and I believe they were directed thru Twitter. To my site,
If you arent tweeting, your missing out..
MMM
Sandy Jo


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## try change

Thanks for your comments.Much success with the Rhinestones!


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## SuperPro

Twitter, Myspace, Facebook.

This thread has left Myspace and Facebook in the dust. 

Which would you do next after Twitter?

Facebook or Myspace?


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## Solmu

SuperPro said:


> Which would you do next after Twitter?
> Facebook or Myspace?


It depends on your target demographic. For me it's absolutely no contest - Facebook.

If you Google around you'll find some interesting sociological studies about the breakdown of Facebook vs. Myspace users. The short version is that Facebook is more popular with adults, college students, people with college educations, and teens who _intend_ to get college educations. Myspace is more popular with high school students, and lower income demographics (obviously there are exceptions, but we're talking correlation here).

In other words, if you want to go where the money is go to Facebook.

The fact that Myspace has spent the last year trying to turn itself into Facebook should tell you everything you need to know.


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## balboa

For anyone using, or considering using Twitter I found this blog post about it that I found really useful;

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business | chrisbrogan.com

also, i would say that the latest Facebook update is modelled on Twitter. Facebook is now less about photo sharing and catching up with people, its focussed on status updates to your existing friends.


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## Q.

In short, Twitter completely *rules* for finding customers, connecting with customers, and keeping customers. I'd be on Twitter even if I didn't have a tee company, but being able to interact with 25,000+ followers is crucial to my business. I love it!

btw, i'm RizzoTees on Twitter


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## Q.

SuperPro said:


> Twitter, Myspace, Facebook.
> 
> This thread has left Myspace and Facebook in the dust.
> 
> Which would you do next after Twitter?
> 
> Facebook or Myspace?



Facebook


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## teamcdtees

I completely agree with everything that has been said...Though as of yet I do not have very many followers, the followers I do have have provided me with great information. This can be a great way to get easy, quick answers....

Also, I would agree that Facebook would be the next best thing. It's a great way to actually showcase your items....


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## try change

Thanks for the information. It's very useful


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## try change

Thanks. I will try some of the 50 ideas


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## europrint

lburton3 said:


> Surprisingly, there are not very many threads about twitter, and the ones that do exist simply ask whether or not it is useful, for the most part. I'll discuss my personal experiences and I hope you will join me in the discussion.
> 
> Like many of you, I have a small (online) clothing company, which I started just a few months ago. I was desperate for exposure and fans at the time, so I created accounts for Myspace, Facebook, and twitter. I was most familiar with Myspace, so Facebook and twitter fell by the wayside. Now that things are finally slowing down, I figured it would be a great time to pump up social marketing again, so I decided to try out twitter.
> 
> Over the past few weeks, I have had few website sales, few mailing list signups, and generally 20-30 visitors a day. In just two days, twitter totally turned this around. My technique, which many consider to be "spamming", involved following hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people on twitter. I do not consider this spamming, because of the negative connotation, but simply organized mass-marketing.
> 
> Here are a couple of thoughts on the subject:
> 
> 1) I only follow people who have aligned interests. If somebody is following a big streetwear brand, for example, I assume that they are a fan of streetwear and could also be a fan of my brand as well. I will follow them, and they might follow me back. Since I am trying to build a local fanbase, I also follow people in my geographical area.
> 
> 2) Some people don't like the idea of following hundreds of strangers, and they do not see any benefit. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. These "strangers" represent the potential market. By following them, you can get a feel for what they are into and what's hot in your target demographic. They will often post updates about what they like and what they do not like.
> 
> 3) Sometimes it takes a little "push" for people to start recognizing your brand. You can't just sit around and hope the word spreads. You may have the best brand in the entire world, but it will inevitably fail if nobody knows about it. Tell the world. When you follow somebody, they will probably follow you back. This allows them to know what's going on with your brand, visit your website, check out your designs, etc.
> 
> 4) Twitter is great for feedback. People like to answer questions. Earlier today, I posted the question "What do you think of my designs?" and got great responses - some negative, and some positive, but all helpful.
> 
> 5) People tend to follow somebody if their friend is following them. This is sort of like internet "word-of-mouth" marketing. The more people that are following you, the more presence you have, and the greater potential for more fans.
> 
> 6) If somebody sees your brand on twitter, they may check it out and write about it on their blog, facebook, etc. Their readers could become followers and potential fans of the brand as well. Once again, more presence = more potential.
> 
> The way I see it, it's all about getting the word out there. In the past few days, I have followed over 2,000 people, gained 400 followers and counting, connected with the target market, had 500 hits to my website (a little more than the average 20-30 a day), made numerous sales, and and many mailing list signups. On top of that, I've found lots of interesting people and new brands, and this is only the beginning.
> 
> These thoughts generally apply to brand with an online presence, but local shops and boutiques could use similar techniques to promote themselves.
> 
> What are your thoughts?


I am very excited to hear what you acheived. I have never used twitter but am going to investigate now -thanks for pointing in me a new idea and way to go.


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## try change

I totally agree with you. I started asking questions about my Try Change line and have received several responses back as well. I also came across (on twitter) a social event that was taking place at a store I'm trying to get into. I would never had heard about this event if I was not following them on Twitter.


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## MiNGLED

I've only been on Twitter for a few weeks now so I'm still learning what works and what doesn't. However I can see the potential for it but maybe also some pitfalls.


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## artchitectii

Twitter is a great resource if used correctly. People think they can only update their status to tell people what they are up to. Push the envelope a little bit. Use twitter to ask your target audience questions! Use it to give advice! People will be a lot more interested in following your twitter if it's different from other people's and you keep it interesting!


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## gorilladuck

Twitter etiquette question: Is it wrong to look at who is following other t-shirt brands and follow some of those people? I mean if their brand seems to cater to the same market, is OK to try to grab the attention of their followers?


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## Q.

gorilladuck said:


> Twitter etiquette question: Is it wrong to look at who is following other t-shirt brands and follow some of those people? I mean if their brand seems to cater to the same market, is OK to try to grab the attention of their followers?


On Twitter, you are free to follow whomever you like. You can follow all 27,000 of my followers, if you like! Many tee companies share the same followers on Twitter - that's where I look for potential followers.  And tee companies help each other out on Twitter, too. The tee pie is big enough for everyone to get a bite, so we often work together.


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## 1Ali

Great thread Loren! I don't know if I'm proud of this but Twitter is our biggest referral to the site. I personally love Twitter and it takes up the lion's share of my time between MySpace (better for music or personal stuff) or Facebook (Definitely more of a reunite/personable networking site). Twitter's great!


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## gorilladuck

Thanks! Yeah, the way I see it, EVERYONE wears t-shirts of some sort. And most people wear more than one! There should be plenty of room for us all, so we might as well help each other. There's still more to learn about Twitter, but I guess practice makes perfect!


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## Q.

gorilladuck said:


> Thanks! Yeah, the way I see it, EVERYONE wears t-shirts of some sort. And most people wear more than one! There should be plenty of room for us all, so we might as well help each other. There's still more to learn about Twitter, but I guess practice makes perfect!


I am well-versed in the ways of Twitteronia LOL


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## artchitectii

1Ali, maybe you can list some of the techniques you use on twitter to get people to pay attention to your status or to get more people to follow you? What have you noticed that works best and what doesn't?


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## 1Ali

artchitectii said:


> 1Ali, maybe you can list some of the techniques you use on twitter to get people to pay attention to your status or to get more people to follow you? What have you noticed that works best and what doesn't?


I follow people that are following brands that are comparable to mine. I've had a pretty good conversion rate (them following us) by using this technique. I then send general tweets about blog updates, product updates, a little personal info like what I'm eating or doing etc etc. The key is to screen who you follow. It's like target marketing this way. If they like X Brand they may like yours! Works for me anyway. Hope this answers your query.


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## machocr

Hey thanks for sharing your experience with twitter. 
My site is at beta stage at this point but I have added twitter in two ways:

1. Allowing to users to go to my twiter page so the can follow me if they want.

2. Allowing user to publish a product or design page (link) with their own twiter account so they can share those links with their followers. 

I do the same with facebook, myspace, digg and flirckr.

I hope to share some numbers with you as soon as we be online in business.

Let me know if you nee more details.


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## lburton3

gorilladuck said:


> Twitter etiquette question: Is it wrong to look at who is following other t-shirt brands and follow some of those people? I mean if their brand seems to cater to the same market, is OK to try to grab the attention of their followers?


In my opinion, that's the best place to look! A common ground is a great way to start building a fan-base.



Q. said:


> On Twitter, you are free to follow whomever you like. You can follow all 27,000 of my followers, if you like!


Care to share any secrets you might have?! That's a HUGE number!



1Ali said:


> Great thread Loren! I don't know if I'm proud of this but Twitter is our biggest referral to the site.


Why thank you =) Ha, it's the biggest referral to my site too. Lot's of people don't realize the potential of twitter!


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## Artsplace-CBR

How do I go about advertising on Twitter?

Art


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## 1Ali

Artsplace-CBR said:


> How do I go about advertising on Twitter?
> 
> Art


Just follow people that you think will in turn follow you. Any updates you have to your line, tweet it! Always put your link on the message (http://example.com) with anything related to your site. But also tweet about regular everyday stuff like: what your listening to or watching, book your reading, interesting quote etc etc. I am not on there a lot but I have tweeted constantly on a couple different occasions and _coincidentally_ they were some of our best traffic days!! Just get on there and have fun cause it REALLY works to get people to your website!


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## Artsplace-CBR

I have never used Twitter, what do you mean by follow people?
How do find people to follow?

Thank you very much for your quick response.


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## 1Ali

find a company similar to yours and follow the people that's following them. You have to physically get on the site to understand. Just navigate through it ...it is rather user friendly. I can't really get into a "how to" on Twitter on this forum. Just google it if you REALLY have problems after logging in and creating an account. Chances are, you'll get it!


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## Artsplace-CBR

Thank you very much for all of your help.
Art


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## gorilladuck

Question: Should you use your real name, or use your business name. I assume your business name would be your user name, but I notice that some (Johnny Cupcakes, Linty Fresh) repeat their business name for their real name while some T-shirt companies use their real names, too. In imagining the pros and cons, I suppose the real name ads a human element, while not using the real name ads an element of branding. Any thoughts? And if real name, should you use both first and last?


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## lburton3

gorilladuck said:


> Question: Should you use your real name, or use your business name. I assume your business name would be your user name, but I notice that some (Johnny Cupcakes, Linty Fresh) repeat their business name for their real name while some T-shirt companies use their real names, too. In imagining the pros and cons, I suppose the real name ads a human element, while not using the real name ads an element of branding. Any thoughts? And if real name, should you use both first and last?


-------------
After reading your post again, I realized I totally did not answer your question. OOPS! Maybe I'll help somebody else, thought.
-------------

Are you talking about using real names on twitter?

*ABSOLUTELY USE YOUR BUSINESS NAME*

That's my opinion anyway, and as you can see - I feel pretty strongly about it. Haha. When you signup for twitter, you can enter a username and your real name. Your user name shows up just about everywhere, and cannot be changed. Your real name shows up alongside your username in some places, and can be changed at any time. Hope this clears things up.

On second thought, I guess it really depends on your brand. If you closely associate yourself closely with the brand (Johnny Cupcakes and Linty Fresh), and keep in touch with the fans by blogging etc, it would make sense to use a business name as a front, but tweet about a combination of personal and business aspects. This keeps things interesting, as people rarely ever want to hear strictly business. It's refreshing to tweet about personal things every once in a while.

On the other hand, if you have a larger business where you do not closely associate yourself with the business or relate to the customers very much, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to tweet about personal things. If this is the case, you should probably get a personal twitter account and keep it separate from the business account.

Just my .02


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## Solmu

I think brand name for the username, but as for whether or not to use your real name in the name field... I think it really doesn't matter. Like you said, there are pros and cons for both.

With a brand like Johnny Cupcakes the brand is a nickname/pseudonym, so it wouldn't make sense to use his real name.

With some brands there are multiple people updating the one Twitter stream, so again it wouldn't make much sense using a real name.

So sometimes an obvious answer presents itself. But in general, I think it cancels out either way.


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## gorilladuck

So use my business name for both my user name and my "real name"? You seem to have your business name only as your user name, but you have your real name in the "real name space".


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## lburton3

gorilladuck said:


> So use my business name for both my user name and my "real name"? You seem to have your business name only as your user name, but you have your real name in the "real name space".


I personally chose to have my business name as my username, and "Loren makes shirts!" as my "real name". For the longest time, I just had it as "Loren". I don't want to use my full name because it makes it seem almost too professional - and twitter is supposed to be fun!


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## europrint

Hi

I like your thought processing. Maybe the boss of the biggest companies giving personal insights would work -if they are interesting. I have tried twitter and find it boring and confusing. I am needing to appreciate what people have to say. I like what you said!

Can you give more insights as to what is working for you?



lburton3 said:


> -------------
> After reading your post again, I realized I totally did not answer your question. OOPS! Maybe I'll help somebody else, thought.
> -------------
> 
> Are you talking about using real names on twitter?
> 
> *ABSOLUTELY USE YOUR BUSINESS NAME*
> 
> That's my opinion anyway, and as you can see - I feel pretty strongly about it. Haha. When you signup for twitter, you can enter a username and your real name. Your user name shows up just about everywhere, and cannot be changed. Your real name shows up alongside your username in some places, and can be changed at any time. Hope this clears things up.
> 
> On second thought, I guess it really depends on your brand. If you closely associate yourself closely with the brand (Johnny Cupcakes and Linty Fresh), and keep in touch with the fans by blogging etc, it would make sense to use a business name as a front, but tweet about a combination of personal and business aspects. This keeps things interesting, as people rarely ever want to hear strictly business. It's refreshing to tweet about personal things every once in a while.
> 
> On the other hand, if you have a larger business where you do not closely associate yourself with the business or relate to the customers very much, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to tweet about personal things. If this is the case, you should probably get a personal twitter account and keep it separate from the business account.
> 
> Just my .02


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## Solmu

europrint said:


> I have tried twitter and find it boring *and confusing.*


(emphasis added)

I find this interesting. 

In Australia at the moment, Twitter is an extremely popular target for those in the media business to ridicule. When you really think about it, an absolutely absurd amount of airtime is devoted to talking about this one website.

So I keep hearing people talk about it, and I keep hearing the same complaints.

The "boring" I can understand. Many twitter streams are. Even the ones that aren't, may not be your sort of thing.

But this isn't the first time I've heard "confusing" used to describe Twitter, and that I don't understand.

So: what is it about Twitter that is confusing? Maybe if those who like the site knew, we'd have more chance of converting those who don't.


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## FCruz420

oddTEE said:


> I agree with you, and I have to add that I've using twitter (@OddFit) for a good three months now, maybe a little bit more; but so far I've been getting links to my site, like never before. Also , I already closed some deals with Businesses out of the state due to my presence on twitter.
> 
> But people have to understand that it's not that simple, there is a process you would have to learn and keep feeding people with your tweets in order for it to spread your words and your business.
> http://www.twitter.com/OddFit



I totally agree with you. I feel its about networking and becoming "one" with followers and then you can essentially help the brand. Just my 2 cents as im learning its not that simple myself.


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## sjidohair

I agree on the postivies of twitter


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## FCruz420

Q. said:


> On Twitter, you are free to follow whomever you like. You can follow all 27,000 of my followers, if you like! Many tee companies share the same followers on Twitter - that's where I look for potential followers.  And tee companies help each other out on Twitter, too. The tee pie is big enough for everyone to get a bite, so we often work together.


Well Said Rizzotees and needless to say I'm working on my clothing line and its true Rizzo and myself have some of the same followers and we follow each other. The community is awesome and folks are there to help each other out. I must state this again, its all about building the network/relationships with your followers. =)
BTW my twitter and t-shirts forum handle are the same. =)


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## FCruz420

Here are my quick thoughts on gaining followers on twitter. 

1. As stated previous, follow people whom are interested in what you have to offer.

2. Screen the folks who are following you to ensure you stay within your target demographic.

3. You can use the search option in twitter to see what folks are "tweeting" about. If you produce car tees, search who are having conversations relating to car tees and follow them.

4. Build the network/relationship with your followers and also try to do the same for them. Meaning you must give a helping hand to receive a helping hand. (just my thoughts)

5. Stay connected and tweet about whats going on. Regarding your business, traveling, day/night life, personal info - just mix it up.

6. While staying connected you can post links, pics, ask questions and use hash tags. Surprisingly there are a lot of folks who search hash tags.

7. Finally you can stay connected with apps like tweetdeck, twitterberry etc... (not trying to promote - hopefully this is within guidelines) 

In short, I believe if you follow these steps you will gain followers whom are interested in you and your brand.


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## gorilladuck

What are "hash tags"?


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## Artsplace-CBR

Thank you very much.

Art


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## MiNGLED

gorilladuck said:


> What are "hash tags"?


Hash Tags (#) are a way of adding tags to a word when you twitter. It's just like adding tag words to a photo on flickr so that it makes it easier to find.


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## stove monkeys

We have just recently launched our website and have been marketing through Food Blogs. This has been successful although, twitter has been the biggest success. Through one person's tweet about us will create at least 200-500 hits on our website a day. Where a blog may only generate 50-100 a day.

Twitter is defintaley better then Facebook and Myspace.


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## gorilladuck

ok, thanks!


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## FCruz420

MiNGLED said:


> Hash Tags (#) are a way of adding tags to a word when you twitter. It's just like adding tag words to a photo on flickr so that it makes it easier to find.


To add and example would be #tshirts or whatever word you would like to use.


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## lburton3

stove monkeys said:


> We have just recently launched our website and have been marketing through Food Blogs. This has been successful although, twitter has been the biggest success. Through one person's tweet about us will create at least 200-500 hits on our website a day. Where a blog may only generate 50-100 a day.
> 
> Twitter is defintaley better then Facebook and Myspace.


Wow, looks like you're getting some pretty solid traffic! Do popular people tweet about you?! I am able to rack up a couple hundred hits a day via twitter, but that's with a steady flow of tweets with links to my website (and about 1,700 followers). Sometimes I almost feel like I'm spamming, but I'm just trying to get the word out there! I try to switch it up and post interesting and cool things I find every so often.


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## QAuthoriTees

Thanks lburton3 for the tips, You said that you follow people who are into a certain streetbrand, could you give us tips on which keywords/people to follow?

I have put my site's feed onto Twitter, so far still waiting for somebody to notice.

Thanks!
____________________________
Joel K.
http://questionauthoritees.com/


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## Vink

these are some great tips for twitter. has anyone had a 3rd party marketing type biz handle their twitter and facebook side of the biz or are you handling it all by yourself? obviously there would be cost involved but if they were able to concentrate on it full time perhaps it would drum up even more biz to offset costs.


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## QAuthoriTees

@Vink, you can try using Twitterfeed, if your site has RSS feed, any update you have will automatically show up on Twitter. It will show the Title a small content of the original post and a short URL.


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## lburton3

QAuthoriTees said:


> Thanks lburton3 for the tips, You said that you follow people who are into a certain streetbrand, could you give us tips on which keywords/people to follow?
> 
> I have put my site's feed onto Twitter, so far still waiting for somebody to notice.


Joel, although searching keywords is an option, I have never really tried that method out. I prefer to check out other brands and "borrow" their followers. I try to find an even balance by checking out both bigger brands and smaller brands. A bigger brand would be Johnny Cupcakes, for example, with over 10,000 followers right now. A smaller brand would be Linty Fresh, who has just under 500 followers, I believe.

I reach out to the followers of both of these brands, because I know that many of them would much rather support an independent clothing brand than a huge corporate brand.

Hope this helps!

ps - I find that _waiting_ for somebody to notice could take a very, very, very long time. Personally, the more aggressive approach (as described in this thread) has allowed me to gain a large number of followers. The result:
1) most probably don't know or care what I do (as expected)
2) many know what I do and support my brand (motivationally and financially)
3) a few of them could even lead to connections and future business deals!
The way I see it, you just can't lose with lots of followers.


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## LushLoveTshirts

I guess it just takes time to promote the brand and therefore people are cheesed off =D


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## trytobecool

too many images & not much "text" or "content" is ruining site's SEO? I think lil bit of redesign will help to get going with search engine ranking. just my suggestion.



LushLoveTshirts said:


> I guess it just takes time to promote the brand and therefore people are cheesed off =D


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## BanTshirts

I'm using Twitter, it's going pretty well. Be warned though, it can become very addictive!


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## chrisf116

im addicted to twitter lol... that being said, its also an amazing networking tool


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## lburton3

BaySickClothing said:


> im addicted to twitter lol... that being said, its also an amazing networking tool


Yep, so very addicting! I don't tweet for a couple days and I feel like I've been gone FOREVER! haha


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## grimreaper

What is the world coming to? Doesn't anyone work anymore? With all this blogging and twittering and myspacing the world is going to hell in a handbasket.


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## Justwearart

Awesome post! I need to start twittering as soon as I get me first product out!


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## lburton3

grimreaper said:


> What is the world coming to? Doesn't anyone work anymore? With all this blogging and twittering and myspacing the world is going to hell in a handbasket.


of course people work!

blogging/twittering is done during free time, in my case anyway.

i sure wish i could make money just from blogging and twittering, but i doubt that'll happen any time soon.


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## ElevenOTwelve

Twitter's been good to me. no complaints..

Jon


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## dave1

Twitter is taking over and I agree with you 100%.
I started using it to days ago and I sold four Let It Be items yesterday. If your product is cool they will sell on Twitter.
Tip do a search on Twitter for t-shirts and post your there.
Yesterday I posted and to my surprise it said 40 more post have been made on the subject since your last post. Please it the refresh button here to view them. That just tells me that t-shirts is a hot item on twitter.


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## Q.

grimreaper said:


> What is the world coming to? Doesn't anyone work anymore? With all this blogging and twittering and myspacing the world is going to hell in a handbasket.


Hahahaaaaaaaaaa yer talkin right to me there


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## lburton3

dave1 said:


> Tip do a search on Twitter for t-shirts and post your there.
> Yesterday I posted and to my surprise it said 40 more post have been made on the subject since your last post. Please it the refresh button here to view them. That just tells me that t-shirts is a hot item on twitter.


Targeted tweets - GREAT TIP! I may have done this once or twice, but I'll definitely have to start doing it more often. Twitter is amazing if you know how to use it.


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## RM5

I don't know if I should thank you guys are curse you. I need one more web addiction like I need a hole in the head. I had been thinking about checking out Twitter for some time and never got around to it. Read this thread and registered for a Twitter account this weekend.

Anyway, thanks. Some really good info in this thread


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## Q.

RM5 said:


> I don't know if I should thank you guys are curse you. I need one more web addiction like I need a hole in the head. I had been thinking about checking out Twitter for some time and never got around to it. Read this thread and registered for a Twitter account this weekend.
> 
> Anyway, thanks. Some really good info in this thread


If you sell tees, spend time on Twitter. It will pay off


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## geekstar

You know, I was a bit of a skeptic on the whole Twitter thing at first, I'm generally wary of anything that the mainstream media latches onto as "the next big thing", but I figured I should check it out. First of all, I can definitely attest to how addictive it can be, if I go too long without tweeting I whip out my cell phone and tweet via text msg. Secondly, and more importantly, I've realized how powerful a tool it can actually be. We've managed to generate several confirmed sales as well as connect with peeps both within the t-shirt community as well as our target demographic. I honestly can't think of any other platform that would allow you to create so many connections so quickly and easily. It's a great sounding board and potential customer resource, providing you can sift through all the spam/garbage (seriously, who isn't a social media guru, at least according to Twitter?). My biggest problem is I hate feeling like I'm spamming people, even though I try to keep the ratio of marketing tweets to regular tweets reasonable.


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## Rodney

Q. said:


> If you sell tees, spend time on Twitter. It will pay off


Rizzo is being modest in hist posts, but if you check out his twitter page (and about us page on his site), he does a great job of connecting with people on Twitter.

Not everyone will have the same amount of time he has, and not everyone can/should/wants to use Twitter the same way but it's definitely one example of a "successful" use of Twitter in my opinion.


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## Q.

Rodney said:


> Rizzo is being modest in hist posts, but if you check out his twitter page (and about us page on his site), he does a great job of connecting with people on Twitter.
> 
> Not everyone will have the same amount of time he has, and not everyone can/should/wants to use Twitter the same way but it's definitely one example of a "successful" use of Twitter in my opinion.



U are too kind, my friend.


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## Idakoos

I see everybody agrees about Twitter being a great tool to spread the voice of your business. I decided to open an account for our business. http://www.twitter.com/idakoos


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## Rodney

*Thread note:* please note that this thread is about the _discussion_ of the use of Twitter for t-shirt companies. 

If you want to share your Twitter link with other members, please use this other thread here. If you want a review/feedback, please post in the feedback section of the forum here. 

You can also edit your forum profile so that a link to your Twitter page shows up under your username next to each post you make here on the forums ​


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## mecheil

I've been tweeting our clothing store for several months already, but I can't see good results yet. Perhaps, it's because I'm following only a few. I'm glad this worked for you. Now you've given me an idea on how to make the most of tweeter. Thanks man!


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## RM5

Q. said:


> If you sell tees, spend time on Twitter. It will pay off


Rizzo,

Had a look at your Twitter page. Wow. 

This may be a naive question. But when you get a referral/visit from Twitter to your web site link. How does it show. I.E. when you receive a visitor to your site. Where it would normally show a big G, Bing or whatever referral. 

Thanks,
Richard


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## mothertongues

Wow Rizzo, you have an amazing # of followers! Congrats on what you have accomplished on Twitter!


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## jocari

I just got into twitter myself. I certainly had no clue what it was really good for. I do now! Preciate you sharing the knowledge.


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## Q.

RM5 said:


> Rizzo,
> 
> Had a look at your Twitter page. Wow.
> 
> This may be a naive question. But when you get a referral/visit from Twitter to your web site link. How does it show. I.E. when you receive a visitor to your site. Where it would normally show a big G, Bing or whatever referral.
> 
> Thanks,
> Richard


In Google Analytics, it shows Twitter as the traffic source. It does not show what Twitter user visisted - just a visit originating from Twitter


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## itsnotthatbad

Just wanted to say THANKS for this thread! I set up our twitter page a little over a week ago, but it's on the burner for at least another day or two. This thread got me very excited to get back to it.

I set up a facebook page about a week ago and we are about to break 1000 fans, which I think is super??? It's helped sales at the website -- we're just starting out.

And I am doing the facebook advertising, which I think is an awesome value if you can really target your market to some specific keywords.

I'd highly recommend it, esp if your market is pretty easily targetted by keyword.

Thanks again.

-Kristie


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## Q.

itsnotthatbad said:


> Just wanted to say THANKS for this thread! I set up our twitter page a little over a week ago, but it's on the burner for at least another day or two. This thread got me very excited to get back to it.
> 
> I set up a facebook page about a week ago and we are about to break 1000 fans, which I think is super??? It's helped sales at the website -- we're just starting out.
> 
> And I am doing the facebook advertising, which I think is an awesome value if you can really target your market to some specific keywords.
> 
> I'd highly recommend it, esp if your market is pretty easily targetted by keyword.
> 
> Thanks again.
> 
> -Kristie


How in the world  did you get to 1000 Facebook fans in a week's time?


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## itsnotthatbad

Q. said:


> How in the world  did you get to 1000 Facebook fans in a week's time?


I guess because it's about dogs... And people who love dogs... Well, they LOVE dogs... LOL

And we have a network of dogs friends and clients. I don't have a TON of fb friends, but 300 and that's a good amount. Maybe 200 of them are dog people... So that was a start and it went from there.

The "viral" thing is really true, though... We went from adding maybe 20-40 people a day and today I think we added almost 100... So it really does go viral. It's been interesting, and fun, to watch.

-K


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## itsnotthatbad

Q. said:


> How in the world  did you get to 1000 Facebook fans in a week's time?


HEEEEEyyyyy, it's nowhere near 34,000 tweeters!! I just became a FB fan on your page.


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## Q.

itsnotthatbad said:


> HEEEEEyyyyy, it's nowhere near 34,000 tweeters!! I just became a FB fan on your page.


Thank you!

I have a bit over 800 FB fans, and would love to increase that. I find it much easier to add Twitter followers than FB fans.


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## jocari

We've had a Facebook page setup for some time now. It just sits there. I have no idea what to do with it. NONE!


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## Q.

jocari said:


> We've had a Facebook page setup for some time now. It just sits there. I have no idea what to do with it. NONE!


You can promote it on Twitter. You can link to it from your tee site or blog. Just a coupla ideas!


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## itsnotthatbad

jocari said:


> We've had a Facebook page setup for some time now. It just sits there. I have no idea what to do with it. NONE!


Try a facebook ad. I believe it's a minimum of $2 a day and you can shut it off whenever you want. I have mine at $4/day right now just as an experiment. I have targeted my audience through keywords. You can target age groups and other demographics.

It's certainly worth a try if you have a few extra bucks to spend.


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## Q.

itsnotthatbad said:


> Try a facebook ad. I believe it's a minimum of $2 a day and you can shut it off whenever you want. I have mine at $4/day right now just as an experiment. I have targeted my audience through keywords. You can target age groups and other demographics.
> 
> It's certainly worth a try if you have a few extra bucks to spend.


ajhhhhh so you can do an ad that pushes people to the fan page, instead of your main website. hmmmm....


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## itsnotthatbad

Q. said:


> ajhhhhh so you can do an ad that pushes people to the fan page, instead of your main website. hmmmm....


Yes, you can go either way...

Once the friends stop increasing exponentially, I'm going to change the ad up and have it go directly to the site... May try that here soon just for kicks... Or start another ad.

-K


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## RM5

Q. said:


> ajhhhhh so you can do an ad that pushes people to the fan page, instead of your main website. hmmmm....


Ok, I am getting tired of thanking you. Given it was just one sale and a small one. We had a sale that originated from Twitter directed to our web site. I can tell you when we first put up our web site 6 years or so ago. I certainly didn't have a web directed sale within the first 3 days. Site draws pretty fair traffic now. But I invested a lot more time then maybe the hour I have spent messing around with twitter.


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## Peter Benders

Twitter, facebook, orkut infact all community sites are good. Just looking at the snaps in the web pages many will place orders.


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## RM5

itsnotthatbad said:


> Yes, you can go either way...
> 
> Once the friends stop increasing exponentially, I'm going to change the ad up and have it go directly to the site... May try that here soon just for kicks... Or start another ad.
> 
> -K


Whatever, Guess there has been a touch up in the last couple of days between the lads The Associated Press: Top media execs wonder how Twitter will make money 

What do I know, not that much. I disagree with the link I fwded abv.


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## Idakoos

Thanks to this thread, we decided to start our Twitter profile, and have interesting results so far in terms of followers. But we still have a low percentage of people going from twitter to our site. Any ideas to increase this number?


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## Q.

Idakoos said:


> Thanks to this thread, we decided to start our Twitter profile, and have interesting results so far in terms of followers. But we still have a low percentage of people going from twitter to our site. Any ideas to increase this number?


Interact with anyone that's following you. Respond to their tweets, retweet their interesting tweets. You'll make friends, and attract new followers in the process.


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## bokeefe1226

Be careful with Twitter - people think it's easier than it is. You have to be really active with it for it to be successful - which is time consuming.


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## Relik Apparel

I am very new at tweeter, so I will not make a statement before spending a little more time analizing it. 

But, as of now , my impression is that there's more spam than people. Man , its spam , spam , spam.

Like I said I m still new and many experienced people on the forum recommend it. But i think its hard to promote your brand with so much spam going around.


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## ruch1v

i have to agree with Dee, i havnt really incorporated twitter into my marketing as of yet but i made the mistake of following 1 internet marketer, and that very same day i had 55 other internet marketers follow me! 55!to me it feels like more of an irritation than anything else, thats why i am a little wary of doing it myself


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## lucky23

WOW....great information you guys. tx a million. will surely use this.

lucky.


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## lordygb

ive always been very apprehensive as to whether or not sign up to the likes of ,MYSPACE, FACEBOOK,TWITTER as i feel a little exposed personally.I do feel encouraged though at the possible market from signing up and using these correctly. thanks for the info


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## miloumlx

Interesting article. thank you!


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## jocari

How does the Twitter "wefollow" thing work? I signed up. Do we just sign up and that's it?


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## Relik Apparel

Exactly, for example, I tried to follow 200 followers of a t-shirt company to try and see what approximate percentage would follow me back.

I had a quick turnaround of about 30% immediately. I have been posting several times a day and I have not yet posted a single adverisement, rather I have tried to keep it interesting for people to follow.

Now the bad news. I would say that 90-95% of my followers are spammers. Even the ones that randomly post "what they are doing" every 3-5 posts comes the spam. So that just tells me they are spammers/adveritsers trying to fool people into following them.

I personally think twitting is a great waste of time. "PLEASE I DONT MEAN TO OFFEND ANYONE THAT ENJOYS IT, THATS JUST HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT"

However, my ultimate goal would be to promote my brand, but under no sirumstances do I want to fall into the category of one of those "con-artist" that post a few times than hit you with the commercial.

I guess what I m trying to say is. I congratulate those of you who are making tweeter work for you. As of me, I am not going to give up just yet due to the incredible testimonies on this forum. 

But from my personal experience, spamming does not work. At least to me. As soon as I see an e-mail's subject "50% off, great offer, free stuff, etc, etc, etc..." I just delete it without even opening it. And I m doing the same thing on tweeter, as soon as somebody starts bombarding me with commercial after commercial, i just unfollow them.

I wish I could post a picture of what my Homepage on Tweeter looks like. Is like every post has a link to something! Even the ones that dont, usually have a link every so many post.

I dont mean to rant, like I said congrats to those that have made it work and hopefully i ll crack it and make work for me.


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## 2wicky

There's only one steadfast rule to tweeting that I've learned while on it.

Be genuine.

Even if it's a company twitter account people don't follow others just to get advertisements on a regular basis, this just. They want relevant info related to your world. Tweet about what interests you; be it funny links, tshirt news, retweeting others funny/interesting posts or even other tshirt companies you like as long as you post as yourself and aren't trying to sell people will respect that you are genuine and eventually look into you a bit more, where they then will check your site. 

There's nothing wrong with posting up new designs and doing contests, these are both viable posts to do just keep it genuine and connect with the people who actually are interested in reading what you have to say. You'll even find the people who enjoy your posts will market for you and RT your own posts!

People new to twitter will run into the spam accounts, they are getting quite ingenious in their content to make themselves look real but don't worry about follower numbers, you want other genuine people. These spam accounts use greasemonkey spam follow scripts to follow other spam lists so the more spammers you have in your list the more chance another one will follow you. When in doubt of the authenticity of someone following you just don't follow them back. In most cases the spammers will unfollow you after a couple weeks anyways (using the same script). All they want are numbers so don't give in.


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## hiGH

I did not know you could do all of that on twitter. Great info. Thanks


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## MiNGLED

I don't think spammers are too much of a problem on twitter.99% of them are pretty obvious so you can easily tell who not too follow and if they follow you then there's no harm. Then again I usually only get a couple of new followers a day so can easily filter them out, if you're getting dozens of followers it may be a bit more time consuming.


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## Relik Apparel

2wicky said:


> There's only one steadfast rule to tweeting that I've learned while on it.
> 
> Be genuine.


I completely agree with you. I m sure if you know how to use it well AND DEDICATE A *"LOT OF TIME*" TO IT, Twitter is a great tool.

Once again emphasis on TIME!! It probably is a great marketing tool. But is definitely not a tool to reach a large audience immediately.

Also, with so much spam going around and so many links to funny post or interesting posts, it is very difficult to make your mark on that market.


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## 2wicky

A local radio DJ here in Vancouver posted up a very concise way for businesses to operate on Twitter. I fully agree with what he says as he lays out the fact that it's not about the number of followers you have but the number of followers who WANT to follow you for a genuine reason. This is just a link to an article, not promoting anything. 

Organic Farming Is The Way For Business To Grow Twitter Followers | cyberbuzz


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## RM5

2wicky said:


> A local radio DJ here in Vancouver posted up a very concise way for businesses to operate on Twitter. I fully agree with what he says as he lays out the fact that it's not about the number of followers you have but the number of followers who WANT to follow you for a genuine reason. This is just a link to an article, not promoting anything.
> 
> Organic Farming Is The Way For Business To Grow Twitter Followers | cyberbuzz


Thanks, useful article. I am by no means a Twitter expert. Just started messing around with it 2 or 3 weeks ago. I am thinking about putting a link from our web site which draws pretty fair traffic to Twitter then show back links to specific specials/new products. 

My one issue with Twitter is time. Time spent on it is time I am not spending working on other things. I also get easily distracted by just about anything. So, all the sudden an hour has passed and I am still following tweets about something for which I have suddenly developed a fascination.

Btw, I just followed you on twitter.


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## Artsplace-CBR

lburton3 said:


> Surprisingly, there are not very many threads about twitter, and the ones that do exist simply ask whether or not it is useful, for the most part. I'll discuss my personal experiences and I hope you will join me in the discussion.
> 
> Like many of you, I have a small (online) clothing company, which I started just a few months ago. I was desperate for exposure and fans at the time, so I created accounts for Myspace, Facebook, and twitter. I was most familiar with Myspace, so Facebook and twitter fell by the wayside. Now that things are finally slowing down, I figured it would be a great time to pump up social marketing again, so I decided to try out twitter.
> 
> Over the past few weeks, I have had few website sales, few mailing list signups, and generally 20-30 visitors a day. In just two days, twitter totally turned this around. My technique, which many consider to be "spamming", involved following hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people on twitter. I do not consider this spamming, because of the negative connotation, but simply organized mass-marketing.
> 
> Here are a couple of thoughts on the subject:
> 
> 1) I only follow people who have aligned interests. If somebody is following a big streetwear brand, for example, I assume that they are a fan of streetwear and could also be a fan of my brand as well. I will follow them, and they might follow me back. Since I am trying to build a local fanbase, I also follow people in my geographical area.
> 
> 2) Some people don't like the idea of following hundreds of strangers, and they do not see any benefit. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. These "strangers" represent the potential market. By following them, you can get a feel for what they are into and what's hot in your target demographic. They will often post updates about what they like and what they do not like.
> 
> 3) Sometimes it takes a little "push" for people to start recognizing your brand. You can't just sit around and hope the word spreads. You may have the best brand in the entire world, but it will inevitably fail if nobody knows about it. Tell the world. When you follow somebody, they will probably follow you back. This allows them to know what's going on with your brand, visit your website, check out your designs, etc.
> 
> 4) Twitter is great for feedback. People like to answer questions. Earlier today, I posted the question "What do you think of my designs?" and got great responses - some negative, and some positive, but all helpful.
> 
> 5) People tend to follow somebody if their friend is following them. This is sort of like internet "word-of-mouth" marketing. The more people that are following you, the more presence you have, and the greater potential for more fans.
> 
> 6) If somebody sees your brand on twitter, they may check it out and write about it on their blog, facebook, etc. Their readers could become followers and potential fans of the brand as well. Once again, more presence = more potential.
> 
> The way I see it, it's all about getting the word out there. In the past few days, I have followed over 2,000 people, gained 400 followers and counting, connected with the target market, had 500 hits to my website (a little more than the average 20-30 a day), made numerous sales, and and many mailing list signups. On top of that, I've found lots of interesting people and new brands, and this is only the beginning.
> 
> These thoughts generally apply to brand with an online presence, but local shops and boutiques could use similar techniques to promote themselves.
> 
> What are your thoughts?


How do you know if the person you are following has an interest in your type of products?


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## Dan247

Facebook is another great way to create a fan base / establish your brand, and your able to have a store front right on your facebook page..


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## Dan247

here is an article on 1800-flowers the first Facebook store...

1-800-Flowers debuts the first online store on Facebook | InternetRetailer.com - Daily News


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## Artsplace-CBR

Dan247 said:


> here is an article on 1800-flowers the first Facebook store...
> 
> 1-800-Flowers debuts the first online store on Facebook | InternetRetailer.com - Daily News


Thank you for the help.

Art


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## SHIROINEKO

I like twitter as much as facebook.


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## thepeachdesign

Great post! I always believe in Twitter even though my friends are not using it so much. (compare to FB) I am currently stuck though at certain number of followers and your tips enlightened me 

Feel free to follow me on twitter: Peach (peachananr) on Twitter
I usually tweet about designs and tech.


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## Cloak

I've been thinking of starting up a twitter page specifically for designs, and shirts we do. Reading this, I think I'll jump right on it.


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