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As competition heats up in this tough economy, one way to beat your online competitors is to go local. Even hyper-local.

Fortunately Twitter has the tools to let you do that.  Of course, you are using Twitter to build your brand and develop your relationships with other Tweeple, so you don’t want to overdo it.  But, if you have a product or service to sell, it’s helpful to remind your neighbors what it is.  For example, if you’re selling fresh baked bread, other Twitterers in your ‘hood are not likely to be getting that from Seattle or Chicago, unless they live there. So, your first step is to identify local Twitter users so you can reach out to them

Identifying Local Twitter Users

If you’re interested in local twitterers and happenings, 50 Useful Twitter Tools for Writers and Researchers lists these tools which will help connect you with nearby potential customers and you keep up to date with the local scene:

1. Nearby Tweets: Check out Nearby Tweets to seek out local Twitter users.
2. Atlas: Use Atlas to see tweets on a map.
3. GeoFollow: Using the GeoFollow directory, you’ll be able to find users in specific areas.
4. CityTweets: See real time Twitter activity for cities on CityTweets.
5. Twittervision: Check out Twittervision for real-time geographic tweets.
6. TwitterLocal: On TwitterLocal, you can find tweets in a designated location.
7. Localtweeps: Check out Localtweeps to find Twitter users near you.

These tools make it very simple to hone in on your nearest and possibly your best market.  Happy hunting!

David Spark (@dspark), a veteran tech journalist , founder of Spark Media Solutions, who blogs at The Spark Minute, has done a lot of research to see how people succeed at growing their social networks. He discovers the patterns and dishes the inside how to’s at 12 Inspiring Stories of Successful Social Networkers.  They are all interesting and helpful examples, but I particularly liked:

Seed Your Network

“For six months and with only 150 inactive members, the LinkToCharlotte LinkedIn group was languishing. LinkToCharlotte’s goal has always been to connect local businesses and people in the Charlotte, NC area. Founder Andrew Kaplan decided it was time to juice the membership of his group. In June 2008, he reached out to local influencers who could attract others to his local network.

Already having ties with professional sports teams, tourism, and political advisors, Kaplan sent out personal invites to their respective marketing departments to join the group. Quickly seeing the benefits of being part of Kaplan’s local industry network, they in turn sent invites from their lists to join his network as well. Today, LinkToCharlotte’s LinkedIn () group has grown to 2,000, plus it has expanded to include groups on the NING platform, Facebook (), and Twitter ().”

Take a look at how the LinkToCharlotte LinkedIn group , NING platform, Facebook (), and Twitter () all play off each other.  It’s a road map to creating and leveraging your social media assets.

Let me hear what you think if you’ve created or are creating something like this.

Explore the various sections of Nambu for OS X here, and click on the sections you are interested in learning more about.

Move between different possible views: single column, accounts with messages, or multiple columns.

Manually get new messages, or let Nambu adjust to grab them as quickly as possible.

Send a new message anytime without wasting space on a open window.

Extensive Twitter support: Mentions, Direct Messages, Favourites and more.

Separate people into special groups for distinct, more timely following.

Start a persistent Twitter search to track what people are saying.

Enter a live keyord filter to find that set of tweets you are looking for.

Act on any message with the operations menu: retweet, reply, and a lot more.

See actual website names for shared links to know where you will go.

Monitor your persistent searches for new entries or keep up the latest trends.

Robert Scoble about his joining Rackspace and working with small business on more ways to use social media.  One of the ways he mentioned was having a restaurant employee at the entrance, Twittering about what the restaurant was serving up today, what the specials were, who was passing through the door.

And so I was happy to see the following story to know that this was already being done successfully.

According to Teresa Garcia in South Bay pizzeria marketing itself with social media :
A South Bay business has now found an innovative way to use the hottest trend in social networking to help keep the business growing.

The Pizza Party parlor in Santa Clara has been spinning pizza pies in one shape or another since 1962.

“We have so many different varieties,” said co-owner Bear Silber, who joined the restaurant in the last six months, but is already diving head in to modernize this nearly half century old business.

“You can find us on Facebook; we’re on Twitter,” said Silber.

This is a sign of the next generation of marketing.

“I’m young. I’m only 26, and I use the Internet everyday anyways,” said Silber.

Silber swears by using online social networking tools, like Twitter and Facebook, as a fresh, free, and fast way to market his small business.

“Immediately when I have an idea, I can tweet it,” said Silber.

Pizza Party already has more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and Silber sends them instant messages about different meal deals and other incentives to come in.

“On Super Bowl Sunday, whoever came in wearing their team’s jersey got free pizza,” said Silber. “Sharks games, same thing,. I’ll do the same thing. I’ll put those out on my Twitter.”.

It has become a marketing and advertising tool that is beginning to help increase business, especially critical during this rocky economy.

Silber says social media can be useful for many types of businesses. The challenge is to think, and act, outside-the-box.

“Especially within the traditional mom and pop pizza parlor, they’re so used to Yellow Page ads, doorbell hangers. These old, old marketing things that in my mind aren’t successful,” said Silber.

But it’s not just Twitter and Facebook that has catapulted Pizza Party into the 21st century. Silber has even developed a way for customers to connect by iPhone.

“We actually have an icon here. It’s its own app. It’s an iPhone app,” said Silber.

And if you really want to feel connected with your pizza, visit www.pizzapartyonline.comfrom a computer or a mobile phone, and you can watch your pizza being made live on three different cameras. Now that is one modern way to get your customers drooling.

For more information:

• www.pizzapartyonline.com
• Or Twitter: Pizza_Party

Twitter your way into a job!  Yes, you can.

• Twitter alone offers jobshouts.com (job openings are “tweeted” to users)
• twitterjobsearch.com, a search engine that searches Twitter for jobs that match key words you enter
• JobAngels (twitter.com/jobangels), a kind of one-on-one online mentoring program.

Pete Cashmore, CEO at Mashable, a social media company, and one of the most followed Tweeters on the Net at 319,528
Followers explains #followfriday at Mashable on Tumblr – How #FollowFriday and Hashtags Work. :

Since a lot of people are asking me about hashtags, and a Tweet isn’t enough space to explain, a few quick lines on how hashtags and #followfriday work:

1. Hashtags are used to identify a topic on Twitter. Add # to the front of a word to make it a topic. Example: #followfriday

2. #followfriday is a game in which people suggest who to follow on Twitter. It helps everyone find interesting Tweeps. You list the users you recommend following and add “#followfriday” so people can find your tweet. My suggestions: #followfriday @adamostrow @sharonfeder @jbruin @adamhirsch

3. You can find everyone’s #followfriday suggestions here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23followfriday

Hope that helps.

PS. Pete had nothing to do with the invention of #followfriday. You can thank @micah for that!

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• TwitterAnalyzer.com – Analyzing Your Twitter Friends (killerstartups.com)

• Name: Blellow

  Quick Pitch: Blellow is a social network allowing freelancers and professionals to collaborate, find work, and solve problems through a friendly, familiar micro-blog interface by answering the question: “What are you working on?”

  Genius Idea: One of the reasons that people are embracing Twitter with open arms is the quality of people and networking opportunities that arise from the 140 character community. With Twitter trending towards the mainstream, however, conversations are becoming more social, so freelancers using the popular microblog to find clients and projects might start to feel like a small fish in an expansive sea.

  For niche networking with a professional purpose and Twitter-like feel, we can now turn to Blellow, a more focused microblogging site to join groups, find projects, check the job board, and meetup with other Blellow members.

  

  The Twitter-similar site launched at SXSW and asks users, “What are you working on?” to foster professional conversations and create networking or project-related conversations. Members can update their status, seek advice when stuck on tasks, share files, give and receive kudos for peer-to-peer help, engage in threaded conversations, and join public or private or groups. Kudos are like credibility, so each time you receive kudos for a job well done, you’ll rank higher in Blellow search results, which could expose you to new clients and more work opportunities.

  

  Blellow also has three important features for freelancers looking for gigs: a job board, project listings, and a meetup page. The job board is a community-generated list of full-time and freelance jobs that Blellow users can peruse for work, while the projects page lists paid and pro bono deliverables which include the available budget for the project. Plus, if you’re looking for professional face time with other Blellow members, you can check out upcoming meetups or create your own.

  

  Blellow would be a killer app if it offered a better way to find friends. Currently the site limits users to inviting friends or searching for existing users, but it would be beneficial to see the TwitterTwitter reviews friends and email contacts shared in common with the Blellow user base. Blellow, however, does make it easy to self-identify yourself with groups based on your specialties or interests. Group conversations abound using the % + group name tag, and updates of that nature typically get quality replies. For $5/mo or $10/mo, Blellow users can create private groups with 1 gig and 10 gigs of space, respectively.

  Since Blellow is so new, its Achilles heel right now is the sparsity of people, jobs, and projects, but the site does serve freelancers, Web workers, and information seekers extremely well with the groups feature. So, Blellow’s survival will depend of whether we Twitterers will find enough value in creating and maintaining another microblogging profile.

  For a quick tutorial on the site, watch this video:

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• Blellow: A New Kind of Career Site (lifehack.org)

This is a time many of  us need to broadcast our resume in the smartest and most socially connected way possible.  Luckily, these tools and viral networks are out humming and reaching an ever broader, but very targeted audience, just when we need them most.  And if we need a guide to tell us how to put our best foot forward in the most effective way, Dan Schawbel is just the man to do that. He is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Dan says :” Creating the perfect resume is not easy. Luckily, there are a number of online resources dedicated to helping you create outstanding traditional and social media resumes. Here are 10 great social sites with unique features that let you create your own resume-like profile, edit your resume online, get it reviewed by experts, print it, share it on social networks, and much more.Remember, building a strong profile can help serve as a great marketing tool to help you get the job you’re looking for.
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1.  Razume
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Razume is a service that enables job seekers to complete their resumes and polish them up with feedback from reviewers in the community.  The resume you create using this service is exactly like traditional resumes you may have created in the past, but this service allows you to improve your resume so you’re more likely to better your chances at landing your next job. Users are able to search for jobs on Razume and will soon be able to apply for them through the site itself.
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2.  LinkedIn
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LinkedIn seems to be on all of my job lists and for good reason.  LinkedIn is a combination of a resume, cover letter, reference document and a moving database of your contacts. The resume portion is quite standard, with fields asking for your education and work experience.  The cover letter piece is the summary you get to have at the beginning, where you can position yourself for a particular job, based on your qualifications, awards and an explanation of what type of job you’re looking for.
As you accelerate in your career, your network can easily observe your change in jobs or positions.  You can also update your status bar, just like in FacebookFacebook reviews or on TwitterTwitter reviews, with the type of job you’re looking for.  Your LinkedIn “resume” will be perceived as noteworthy when you fill it out completely, acquire endorsements for your work, join groups related to your interests, and add applications (such as your blog).
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3.  VisualCV
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VisualCV is a website that provides users with a virtual resume, as well as a database of job openings and networking opportunities.  Whether you’re a job seeker, entrepreneur, consultant, student or manager, VisualCV lets you display all of your credentials in an easy to read format, with multimedia integration.  For example, you can upload or embed a video resume or a podcast of you being interviewed.
The latest capabilities that they offer allow job seekers to integrate their resume with social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, to share their qualifications with friends and colleagues.  When you update your resume, it can be shared through websites such as DiggDigg reviews and StumbleUponStumbleUpon reviews.  Your resume, or VisualCV, can combine other elements, such as images, charts, awards and recommendations, in addition to traditional resume fields such as “work experience.”
Disclosure: VisualCV sponsors my blog and magazine.
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4.  Emurse
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Emurse allows you to create, share and store your resume for free online.  Their resume builder is job seeker friendly, allowing you to create and maintain a professional resume which can be downloaded in any format, such as PDF.  Just like LinkedIn, your resume can have a unique URL linked to your name and the ability to view employers who have seen your resume in the past.
You also get statistics and graphs to aid in resume distribution. In addition, Emurse lets you keep track of your contacts, invite contacts and always access their latest information, similar to LinkedIn.  Just like GoogleGoogle reviews does with AdSense, you get job postings in your local area that are relevant to your resume.  There is also a job search area and organizer, similar to Monster.com’s, where you can keep track of the resumes you submit over time.
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5.  Xing
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Xing is a social network with over 7 million business professionals globally, and is read in 16 languages.  Aside from being able to create a profile, the networking part of this site is what shines.  There are over 22,000 groups and networking events from London to Beijing advertised.
Xing offers many of the same services as LinkedIn, and like LinkedIn, can serve as your online resume and cover letter. The standard service lets you create a professional profile page, search for people by name and industry, and join groups and events.  When you login, you’ll see jobs that might interest you, new members, visitors to your profile and much more.
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6.  ResumeBucket
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ResumeBucket is a service that enables you to post a resume quickly online.  The site provides you with a unique URL for your resume and enables you to promote your resume on your website or blog with embeddable ResumeBucket badges. In addition, resumes are shareable via popular social bookmarking and social networking sites.
If you’re currently employed and would like to keep your resume private, you can. ResumeBucket also provides you with sample resumes and cover letters as best practices to help you when you build your own.  And if you need assistance, they have a resume writing service where their professional writers can help you along the way.
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7.  ResumeSocial
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ResumeSocial is a social resume community, where you can post your resume online and get feedback, just like Razume.  Registered users can build a resume through feedback and comments from other users who have similar job experience.  You can also be a resume expert and become a valuable member of the community by providing others with resume assistance.
There is also an area for sharing cover letters and follow-up letters, which are very important as well.  When someone finds your resume on this site, they can print it, quote it, favorite it and email it to other people.  There is also a job search area, a blog and a career area, which gives you advice for putting resumes together.
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8.  Gigtide
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Gigtide is a website that lets you create, publish, manage and track your resumes, contacts and cover letters online.  You can store unlimited resumes, contacts and cover letters and there are professional resume templates to help you.  You also have the option of creating a social media resume, which includes images, video, direct links and sharing functionality. Another interesting feature is a direct employer contact form, where employers can contact you directly through your resume.
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9.  Howtowritearesume
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Howtowritearesume gives you an easy way to build a professional resume, without being an expert.  You get their phrase builder technology, which helps you build compelling headlines, qualifications, achievement statement and more.  Then there is “one-click formatting,” which automatically reformats your resume and makes it easy to choose the best layout.  Your resume is stored online and is accessible by potential employers.  The templates are all predefined, so filling in the blanks is really easy.  You can change the font and margins and preview the changes instantly before printing or saving it.
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10. Ziggs
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Ziggs is designed to help you market yourself and manage your personal brand on the web. The service lets you create a profile and manage your online identity, and alerts you each time a recruiter views your profile and resume. You can discuss topics, ask people for advice or referrals, and search for jobs.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, peepo

I don’t know about you, but I’m still learning all the best tools for Twitter, learning to tweet and need all the best help I can get.  I found this pretty useful and hope you will too.

GissiSim.com | How to Tweet Deck like a PRO.

How to Tweet Deck like a PRO

People have been asking me for more tips about how I use my Tweet Deck. I was sort of wanting to give twitter a little rest. However the response has been overwhelming, so here we are. I’m personally under the impression that there is no other client worth using. Yes it’s not the prettiest client around. At first it can be awkward to use. However once you learn how to use it like a power user, you’ll never know how you tweeted without it!

First time

When you first start your tweet deck up, you’ll be greeted with 3 columns. All Friends, Replies, Direct Messages, and there might be a TwitScoop column all the way at the right. If TwitScoop column is there, close it quickly with the X in top right. Also close the Replies column. What you want to do first is click on the Search button in the toolbar in the top left, it’s the magnifying glass icon =) Now you’ll get a nice search box popping up. Write your twitter username into it. This is the column that will replace the replies one we closed earlier. The reason we do this is because sometimes people forget to add the @, also you’re own tweets come in there so you can remember what people are replying to =) Now use the arrow at the bottom of your new column to move it to where the old replies column was.

Settings

Something that is worth getting out of the way quickly. There are a few things you want to change right away. Start by turning off the annoying noise tweet deck does every time new tweets come in. Select the Narrow column view, lets you fit more columns in. You can uncheck the “Include All Friends Notifications” since it’s not a very informative notification. I personally prefer the Tweet Window at the bottom, try it out for yourself and see. One other thing that is optional is to Open profiles in web page, it’s good if you are big on looking at profiles since looking at them takes API calls. You only get 100 API calls an hour. I actually have this selected at work. Here is what your general tab might look like: You can play with the Colors/Font tab all you want, I’m not going to give you any pro tips on that =) However the API tab is something you need to look into. It’s hard for me to tell you exactly what is best in your situation, so here is a screenshot of how I have mine set.

Buddies

Once you reach a certain number of people that you follow, your going to want to set up a group. Click on the group button in the top toolbar. In my case I only have one group set up. This group is for my close friends and family, people who’s tweets I don’t want to miss at all. I have very few people in this group just so it doesn’t get over crowded. I’m sure that once people have even more followers it will be nice to set up a few different groups for different groups of people. One for professionals, one for co workers, etc etc. Now there are a few ways to add people to your newly created group. However I find the best way to do this is by mousing over their profile image, click on the more icon. You’ll get a dropdown where you can choose to add them to any group that you would like. Looking at this menu you will see a lot of very useful features. One that I actually use on this list is the Translate one. Sometimes the people I’m following will write one and one tweet in a different language, and instead of unfollowing them like some people do, I just translate the tweet =) Once you reach this point you should have a window that looks something like this:

Search and Filter

Now it’s on to what makes twitter so powerful. I’ve learned to use this to watch how my blog articles are traveling. See what people are talking about on a certain subject. You name it, the search functionality can do it. I’m sure I’m not using it for everything it can be used for yet, however it’s been very useful with how I’m using it as is. You’ve seen how to do a search with your username and replies, so you achieve this in the same way. What I like to write in there is the name of a blog article that I’m promoting at the moment, since people that tweet about it rarely include my name in it anymore. Also this way I can find new people that like my articles and webpage, in return following them or get to know them. If your blog article is long enough it should be enough to just write it as is, however sometimes you might want to put quotes around it “How to blog like a pro” that way you get those words in exactly that order. Another thing I like to do is have a open search on something I’m interested in like Sharepoint, Apple, CMS, PHP, WordPress etc. This way if I see someone write anything interesting about something I’m INTERESTED in, I can add them =) So here is an example of how my TweetDeck is now: Now there is really one more thing left to talk about and that is the filter. I’ve talked about this before in an earlier article, however I want to include it here as well. At the bottom of every column there is a filtering button. Like I’ve talked about here you can write things like http and RT @ to get some of the best of what your friends are talking about. You can filter more things than just for text, you can filter by User, by Time, and by Service they entered the tweet. So another thing I like to do is select services and write blip to get some good music people are talking about =) One last thing about filtering before I wrap up this article is that you can also select to filter things MINUS a specific word, or time, or person etc etc. Can be very useful if someone is tweet spamming, or however you would like to use it =)

If you have some more tips or hint on how to best use Tweek Deck, please add a comment or Tweet me.  Thanks.