2 Weeks ago if you mentioned twitter to me I would of gone “oh yea, that thing, everyone keeps talking about it but its just so pointless…”. Which have been my thoughts of twitter ever since I heard about it over a year ago.

Now however my opinion has seriously taken a backflip, and I’ve started to realize just how powerful microblogging really is.

If you’ve never heard of twitter you can check it out at http://www.twitter.com. It is a web 2.0 service that allows you to post sms like messages which all your friends (and fans) can see. I like to think of it as a big permanent chatroom where you get to listen to who you want, and most posts are of great value, not simply spam messages or “OMG HI 2 U!!!” style messages.

What I really love about it is that it brings you and all your “Internet Idols” so to speak to the same level. I’ve been able to talk to a few of my Internet Marketing heroes (those that have helped take my businesses from barely getting by to thriving on the internet) one on one and realized that they are just normal fun people.

Not only this, it is excellent for finding great content, I’ve only been on twitter for a few weeks and have found 2-3 products as well as 5-6 blog posts of amazing quality that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.

Last of all its perfect for businesses and blogs, as you can announce anything you like, new products, new quality content and so on and all your fans can find out about it immediately without needing to visit your website. Note: Do interact with the community, if you simply go on to promote yourself without networking with others you’ll find yourself with no followers and no one wanting to talk to you.

My Twitter profile is at http://www.twitter.com/timjrobinson if you haven’t yet added me.

Finally, if I haven’t whetted your appetite for it enough, perhaps take a look at some of the other more influential bloggers talking about twitter and how much fun they’ve been having once they got onboard:

Probloggers 9 Benefits of twitter for bloggers: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/23/9-benefits-of-twitter-for-bloggers/

17 Ways you can use twitter by Dosh Dosh: http://www.doshdosh.com/ways-you-can-use-twitter/

Stevepavlina’s take on twitter: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/07/twitter/

The Friday Traffic Report on automated messaging on twitter: http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/reviews/how-to-send-notes-to-your-twitter-followers/

Twitter is an awesome source of blog traffic: http://davepress.net/2008/03/10/twitter-awesome-source-of-blog-traffic/

Cheers, Tim

So you want to have a fanatically popular blog right? The most visited and linked to website the Blogosphere? Perhaps you just want a powerful flood of visitors to your product page so you can quickly and easily make more money? Never underestimate the power of social proof. Having social proof will instantly empower all your content, giving it an effect of being pure gold even if you are discussing the merits of your mother’s Christmas pudding.

Ever wondered how the big blogs get so much power and influence? How they seem to grow exponentially while other blogs have just as many posts yet barely get by in terms of traffic? It’s the simple fact that people gravitate towards what other people like. Hence why 5% of the movies that come out in a year represent 95% of the profits, everyone goes for the blockbusters and everyone wants to see the latest movies so they can talk with their friends about them, share stories in their favourite forums and so on.

No one wants to go to that strange movie made by the weird guy in Russia that no one’s ever heard of, even if it is an amazing thought provoking movie, they’d much rather see spider man 3, because that’s what everyone else is doing. Same goes with your blog. Who would you trust more to make you money: A well known Internet Marketer who gets 10,000 visitors a day, or Joe Biggs, who has an audience of 15? They could even be writing exactly the same stuff, yet the well known guy will get thousands of people following his every move telling him he “spurts pure gold”, while Joe Biggs gets a handful of skimmers who leave his site within minutes.

The simple problem is: most people are sheep. Is it starting to click as to why the bigger blogs only seem to get bigger, while the smaller blogs seem to die out after many months or never really take off at all?

So how do you build this social proof? We’ll as a start don’t have anything on your blog/website that shows it’s unpopular, try and do the opposite and even if you only get 10 visitors a day, tell everyone that you get 300 visitors a month (which sounds like a lot more than 10 visitors a day) . Then report on your traffic increases with percentages, in the previous case, if you get 25 visits one day, report that you just got a MASSIVE 150% visitor increase literally overnight! You’re not lying, just presenting the truth in better light.

If your FeedBurner count is at 5, don’t put it on the site, as no one will want to subscribe to that, if it’s at 50 it’s a maybe and if it’s at 500 put it in easy sight of everyone, as many people will actually subscribe simply because 500 other people have already subscribed, even if they have no idea how good your site is…
The thing is people love to be in the “in” crowd and will do anything in their power to gravitate towards the masses. Whether unconsciously or consciously they see that FeedBurner number the first time they come onto your site and they’ll prejudge you based on how big that number is. If it’s at 5 they’ll think “oh another worthless blog” while when it’s at 500 it’s more like “Hey this blog MUST have some great content, if everyone else likes it…”

This goes true for comments too, if you aren’t getting many comments, encourage visitors to make them, make it as easy as possible to post a comment (don’t require logging in or anything), and even post your own comments under a variety of names to make the article look popular .

Same goes for Digg, if you have a Digg button but you don’t get many Diggs, don’t use one of those buttons that show’s how many Diggs you get or your visitors will think “oh well, this site isn’t getting voted much, must be bad quality” and from then on you’re on a downward spiral right before they have even read your content.

The pure and simple truth is that social proof will instantly improve the power, attention level and quality of your content without you needing to write, rewrite and write your articles again. Just like being in the “cool” group in high school meant you got attention no matter how cool you really were, being perceived to be a popular or “cool” blog on the net will attract instant attention to what you have to say and far more satisfied visitors.