13 Tips to Increase Twitter Followers - REPOST FROM March 2012

Great Tips Last Forever

I have been searching foe ideas to build your Twitter followers for Small Business... here are 13 ideas from Tiffany Monhollon at Social Media Today

Here they are:

On Twitter, in addition to people who share interesting, insightful information, there are many spammers and aggressive marketers that the typical consumer avoids following. To be a figure worth following, you don’t want get labeled as a spammer. So the first step in increasing your followers on the site is to make sure your account is worth following!  Here’s how to do it:

1) Make sure your Twitter profile is optimized with an original picture, bio, and links. Don’t make these newbie mistakes that keep people from following you.

2) Post interesting content often. Balance unique content (authored by you) and shared content (authored by others). Many experts say for each self-promotional tweet, you should share 5-10 tweets about something else.

3) Time your tweets so people see content during peak hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. You can use an automatic scheduling tool like su.pr, Hootsuite, or ReachCast to time your tweets throughout the day.

4) When someone follows you, follow them back. You can do this manually or use a service like Social Oomph to automate it. Since Twitter won’t let you follow an unlimited number of users, keep your following/follower ratio in check by using a tool like ManageFlitter.com to unfollow users who don’t follow you back.

5) Be social. Use the site as a way to connect  with others, not just to promote yourself. Unmarketingauthor Scott Stratten, who has built a successful blog and business from growing a large, dedicated Twitter following, says that over 75% of his tweets are @replies to other users.

Find and Follow Interesting Users

The next step to increasing followers is to find and follow people yourself. How will people know if you’re out there to follow unless you tell them?

6) Connect with connections first. Put your Twitter URL on business cards and in-store signage toencourage consumers to follow you online. See if people you’re already connected to are on by looking up contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL email accounts and linking your account to your LinkedIn profile under the “Find Friends” section of the “Find People” function on your account. Connect with those you’re already connected to first, because those are the people most likely to follow you online.

7) Connect with local consumers. You can find local tweeps to follow on Localtweeps.com andTrendsmap.com, or use Twitaholic.com or TwitterGrader.com to grade your Twitter profile and find local users with top scores in your market.

8) Follow people in your industry, niche, and topic area.  Who you follow may influence the content you will retweet and @reply to. Find topical users to follow on Wefollow.com, listorious.com, and twellow.com.

9) Follow From Users’ Twitter Lists and “Following” Links. Find people or organizations on Twitter with similar interests, and click the link labeled “following” from their profile page to see who they find worth following. Better yet, look at Twitter lists they may have created on certain topics to find hand-cultivated lists of people worth following. Just make sure to follow the individual users on a list and not just the list itself!

10) Tap into influential local circles. Who is influential in your market? Aside from grades on Twitter tools, which may or may not reflect true influence, it may be difficult to determine this at first. One tip is to find and follow local media outlets, businesses, and organizations. Then, look at lists they have created to find more important local figures to follow.

Invest in the Twitter Community 

Twitter is more than a marketing tool. It’s a community you cultivate for yourself. So, give back and invest in the community to build follow karma and increase not only the number of followers you have, but the number of lists you are mentioned in as well.  

11) Particiapte in #FollowFriday. Promote other people worth following by recommending followers on the popular #FollowFriday hashtag meme. Every Friday, just select someone you follow, write a short explanation of why, and tag it with #FollowFriday or the succinct #FF.

12) Create Twitter lists of interesting users, such as local and topical users and those you’ve met in different social circles. Adding users to lists not only allows you to watch a cultivated, topical stream of their tweets, it’s also a form of virtual endorsement, which may encourage the users on your lists to follow you back.

13)  Participate in Twitter chats. There are numerous special interest chats that anyone can chime in to to network, learn, and share. This is one of the best places to find like-minded Twitter users. So, find a chat for your industry, niche, or market, and join in! Use a tool like TweetGrid or TweetChat to help you keep up with the conversation on the chat’s hashtag, and follow users you meet there.

- See more at: http://waynemansfield.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/13-tips-to-increase-twitter-followers.html#sthash.MF6ssCDx.dpuf

5 unusual weight loss tips

Here are 5 tips to help you lose and keep off those extra kilos::

1. Dim the lights and lower the noise In a study  people who went to a fast food restaurant where the lighting was softer and the music was more soothing ate, on average, 175 fewer calories than those who ate in the same place with bright lights and blaring music.The researchers say two things happen when you dim the lights: you tend to eat slower and your food cools off.

That’s helpful because when you rush through your meals, you usually consume more calories. And hot food is more appealing than cold food. Soggy cold French fries, for example? No thank you!

Selfie

2. Reduce the size of your plate  If you stick to a plate that is nine or 10 inches wide, however, it is said  you can cut about 23 percent off the amount you serve yourself (and eat.) “It’s a mindlessly easy way to cut things down,” he says.

Similarly, if you use a smaller serving spoon, you can serve yourself about 14 percent less at each meal. “Over a number of months, that can add up to a lot less food and weight loss.”

3. Announce your snacks This doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, but it’s very effective for some: “You can eat anything you want or snack as often as you want as long as you announce—out loud—‘I’m not hungry, but I’m gong to eat this anyway.’ The typical person who does this every day for a month loses 1.9 pounds.”
Why? “It breaks mindlessly negative eating behaviour,”

4. Weigh yourself.  A lot of people are in “fat denial.”  Getting on the scale can stop the denial. It may not help you lose weight, but may really stop you from gaining weight. To weigh yourself fairly, it is suggested
stepping on the scale in the morning after you've gone to the bathroom. Weigh yourself naked or wearing whatever you wear to bed. Do it exactly that way for seven days, recording your weight each day. Then, total the number and divide by seven. That will be your average (and most true) weight over the seven-day period. Based on that weight, you can then begin a weight loss plan or decide that you are happy where you are.

5. Keep a food journal Writing down what you eat every day keeps you honest and really makes you aware of how much you’re eating. “It’s one of the most important things you can do,” says Rubaum Keller. “Yet it’s one of the things that people really resist. They think it’s so hard, but it really only takes a few minutes.”
If you want a place to keep track online, Keller recommends Loseit.com.

So there you go... hope the tips help.

Go on PICK YOU!! only 627 pages to 250k page views

Wayne Mansfield

The world was built on a few have power over the many... BUT THAT HAS CHANGED!!

I will pass a milestone later today September 25th, 2013 when the 250,000 th reader stops by tis blog to read. Yes that's right, on just my http://www.waynemansfield.com ramblings, 250,000 have stopped by to see what I am writing about.

When I introduce myself to a new person or group my most effective opening line is: "I am from Margaret River before it was famous." It doesn't seem to matter where I travel people know Margaret River - it might be the world's best surfing waves, it's delightful wines, the amazing limestone caves or the 100m trees... but I immediately strike a cord when I say "I am from Margaret River."

Would that have helped me in my writing career?? Who knows but I do know there wasn't a GOD maker out there waiting fro me.

If I had waited for someone to pick me I am not sure I would have been picked!!

Emirates - now too big to care?

Just back from the optometrists and $850 lighter in the wallet.

Joanne left her reading glasses on EK06 London Heathrow to Dubai recently.

Immediately realising that she had left the glasses in the seat pocket, I approached the reception at the Business Lounge at Dubai airport. There was 2 hours between our landing and the flight to Perth.

However Emirates couldn't [or wouldn't] allow us to contact Lost and Found, and since they refused to communicate with us by email - "I was reprimanded by my boss last time I did that" the receptionist told us, and we have had NO contact from Emirates or their Perth contractor where we reported the loss on arrival in Perth.

Having flown Emirates a number of times, they have gone from being very responsive and "trying really hard" to a big uncaring bureaucratic monster.

If there are no hassles, everything is OK, but pity help you if something gores wrong.

Wayne R Mansfield Skywards Sliver EK 279 755 910

11 Tips for Better Battery Life in ios7

As always happens, as soon as a major change arrives for iPhone, it seems like I have a Everready battery installed and by the time I have checked my mail and gone for a short walk, the battery is FLAT!! Well, this time around I am not waiting for a Apple ios7 update to fix the battery drain, I am taking matters into my own hands.

Here are 11 tips about how to make your battery last longer.
1. Restore the phone as a new device The most certain way to solve any true battery life problem is by restoring your iPhone as a 'new phone'. Having to reinstall apps is a pain, but this move helps to solve all manner of performance and battery life issues. To factory reset the phone from the handset itself, go to Settings > General and scroll right down to the bottom, to the Reset item. There are options to reset all settings and reset the phone completely. The latter is more drastic, but is sure to flush out any gremlins.

2. Turn it off and on again It’s a bit The IT Crowd, but it’s amazing how often we hear people complain about their iPhone misbehaving without even having tried to properly reset the thing. Rogue apps doing things they shouldn’t is a key reason for battery life issues in any phone, and a proper reset will fix this in many cases. iPhones aren’t really designed to be turned off all that often – and much as we expect you know how to do it, a long press on the power button (around three seconds) brings up a power off slider that turns the phone off properly. For a ‘hard’ software reset, press down on both the Home and power buttons until the screen goes black.

3. Use the quick function toggles, a lot Turning off additional features is the top tip of any frugal battery fiend. iOS 7 makes this much easier than ever before. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll bring up the Control Center. At the top of this pop-up is an array of five circular icons that toggle features on and off – Airplane mode, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb and auto-rotate. Most people barely use Bluetooth – switch that bad boy right off – and turn Wi-Fi off when out and about unless you really need it. iOS 7 intermittently searches for new Wi-Fi networks, which is a drain on the battery.

4. Turn down screen brightness, dummy As standard iPhones use automatic brightness, taking readings from an ambient light sensor on the phone’s front to determine how bright the IPS screen’s backlight need to be. However, you can still manually determine the base level of brightness while still using this clever sensor. You’ll find the slider (and the auto brightness toggle) in the Wallpapers & Brightness menu of Settings, and also in the Control Center menu, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

5. Turn off AirDrop AirDrop is one of iOS’s brand new features.  It lets iPhone and Macs talk to each other directly, using Wi-Fi Direct. It’s a neat idea, but it drains battery by searching for nearby iPhones. In iOS devices that support the feature, you’ll find an AirDrop toggle in the Control Center pop-up menu, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

6. Turn off elements of the Notifications menu Another new bit in iOS 7 is the pull-down notifications menu. As well as new emails, texts and so on, it can pull in stock market info. This requires the phone to pull it from the net, so it will drain a wee bit of battery. Plus, who really wants stock market info anyway? To turn off stock info within the Notifications bar, go to Settings > Notification Center. Here you’ll find toggles for calendar info, reminders and the stock ticker. 7. Ease up on Mail notifications Push email is one of the joys of the modern smartphone, but easing up on the frequency of email checks will reduce strain on the battery. For the best battery stamina of all, turn off push emails and make the iPhone only search for new data when you manually search. You’ll find these options in Settings > Mail > Fetch New Data. Alternatively, you can set iOS 7 to search for mail every hour, every 30 minutes or every 15 minutes. 8. Invest in a desk dock charger So simple it seems almost offensive to mention it, but charging your phone more often is a must with iOS

7. I recommend investing in a desk charger dock if you work in an office, as it’ll make keeping your phone charged much less of a pain.  Apple is likely to improve battery efficiency of iOS 7 in future updates. However, it does appear to be simply a more power-hungry than iOS 6, requiring a bit more careful use if you want your phone to last more than a day.
8. Disable auto app updates; manually update at your convenience iOS 7 will now update your apps in the background. As you're connected to Wi-Fi networks (or the cellular network), your apps will remain up-to-date without bugging you. But this consumes data and power, and should be restricted for when you're free to plug in your iPhone to charge. 

Tap the Settings icon, scroll down to iTunes & App Store and turn of the Updates and Apps settings. Another quick power (and data) saving tip, you can allow updates when you're on Wi-Fi only, by deselecting Use Cellular Data at the same time.

9. Turn off 'parallax' motion user interface If you slowly jiggle your iPhone in your hand, you may notice the "parallax" effect of three-dimensional icons sitting on top of your wallpaper. This effect uses internal hardware to sense the direction, speed, and motion of your movements. This, as you might expect, will drain the battery. Though flashy and visually quite cool, it's not wholly necessary if you're a power-user.

To disable the 'moving wallpaper' feature, head to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion, then flick the switch in the off position.

10.  Tame your notifications (and your backlit display) Notifications alone don't cause battery drainage, but the sheer act of activating the backlit display will. Applications use notifications to inform you of what's going on in the world, such as new email, text messages, reminders and who is responding to you on social networks. It's wise to set some notifications to "silent" mode, but this requires some tinkering about in the settings.

Head to Settings > Notification Center, then scroll down. Under each category of notifications that you would like to mute, such as low-priority features like Photos or Game Center, tap through to each setting. Under Alert Style, simply tap None (the left-most graphic). Repeat for each setting.

11.  Regularly close unused or dormant apps Some iPhone apps don't completely close when they're not longer being used. Instead they lie dormant in the background. When using memory or battery intensive applications, these are still churning up power in the background. It's suggested that when you no longer need to use an app, close it down completely.

In an unlocked state, double-press the Home button on your iPhone, and swipe up on any open app to close it. You can then return to your device by pressing the Home button again, or tapping the very first 'card'.

Summary... hope that helps. If you have any tricks let me know in the comments.

Seth Godin owes it to Zig...

When reading a collection of Seth Godin blog posts today, he keeps mentioning "Zig told me..." so I searched and founded this brilliant post by Seth in honour of Zig Ziglar

Celebrating Zig Ziglar
Zig saved the day. With his relentless generosity, corny stories and down-home wisdom, Zig Ziglar invented modern motivational speaking, and touched the world. He touched my world, that's for sure.

We have very different backgrounds, we're from different generations and we have very different styles, but I'm in his debt. In my dreams, I hope that I will help and inspire a small fraction of the millions of people that Zig has over his fifty year career.

Zig Ziglar

He contributed two giant tools to those of us in business: the notion of listening, over and over, to educational and motivational tapes, and the idea of writing down your goals, committing to them, in writing.

Twenty years ago, when my business was flatlining, Zig spoke up. For hours and hours every day in the car (on cassettes that literally melted from overuse), Zig poked and prodded and encouraged and mostly called my bluff. I remember the long drive home from yet another failed sales call, an hour or two that could have been spent planning on how I was going to quit--instead, Zig was helping me plan how I was going to stick it out.

Fifteen years later, in one of the highlights of my speaking career, he and I did a gig together in Milwaukee. It was Zig, me and Gerald Ford. I can now admit that backstage, the two of us ignored the President and just talked and talked. It's hard for me to overstate how much I owe him. How much so many of us do.

What a thrill, then, to publish a new version of his classic Performance Planner, updated for a new generation. You can buy the four-pack right here. We didn't print many copies, so I apologize if they don't last long...

Recently side-lined by an injury, Zig's no longer able to actively spread the ideas that have helped millions of people accomplish their goals. I'm privileged to be able to bring some of those ideas to you today. I hope you'll give the workbook a shot, and share the other three copies with your colleagues. If you do the work, if you actually write in this planner, the results will be significant.

Thank you for everything, Zig.

Originally Published as a Posted by Seth Godin on July 27, 2011

7 Steps to Getting Stuff Done

Step 1:  Grab 120 minutes a week of wasted time back... it can be done by stopping watching Television, ditch reading the newspaper, stop checking all your social media updates, limit time spent reading your email, making better time during your commute, going to fewer meetings or limiting the time in meetings to 17 minutes.

Step 2: Use those 120 minutes better. I suggest 30 minutes of exercises, start reading non fiction or business type books, replace television news with documentaries, ditch all but 1 social media application and refuse to go to meetings that are not schedule to start at 15 minutes before the hour and to finish on the hour.

Step 3:  Have a mind map of what is necessary to achieve your goal and do the first 5 things on the map list [ mind42.com is great for this...]

Step 4: Get out that pen, yes a PEN, and write 3 THANK YOU NOTES on real paper, put them in REAL envelopes and send them... that is an every day project. [ oh yes with REAL stamps.]

Thank You Thank You

Step 5: This weekend, and then every alternate weekend, commit to doing NOTHING to do with work. Veg out or chil out or work out... you will love yourself for it!

Step 6:  Decide for the next 30 days to cut out all unnecessary spending. Make yourself a flat white rather than grabbing one at the Coffee Club. Eat fresh fruit rather that buying a wrap. Read everything on a smart device rather than buying a hard copy. And use the saved money to reduce one of your high interest debts.

Step 7: Volunteer at a local group by doing or leading or managing... giving money is nice but it doesn't count. You need to give some of your self.

What is the payoff. If you do this for 6 months, and RECORD what you have been doing in a HAND WRITTEN journal, you will be the fittest you have ever been, the best-rested, best-funded, and most motivated person you know. You will be better able to live life to your full potential... so, what is stopping you?

Have you googled yourself today!!

Today I did a Cold Calling for Scaredy Cats session in Perth... 23 people joined me and we had fun. [Well I certainly had fun and it seemed like most of my fellow seminar guests also left smiling.]

And we talked about the best way to change a COLD call into a WARM call... it is to google the person or company you intend to visit and see what google has to say about you. It actually doesn't matter what comes up... whatever you find can form the basis of a conversation.

How often should you indulge in "Googling..."? I say EVERY TIME you are going to meet someone, you should google them first.

And I always throw out the challenge to my audience... have you "googled" Wayne Mansfield. Rarely have they because they would find what wikipedia say as about me... and probably be unimpressed.

When will I publish the book

It would be a great book!!

There is a sign that stares at my from my book case... "The Maverick Spirit" published February 10th, 2011... yet it wasn't.

Have you got those projects sitting around just waiting for the "last little bit" to be done?? I must have 5 or 6 projects at that stage. With the Maverick Spirit we encountered some problems that haven't been resolved... and yet they could be if I just stopped my "life on a treadmill" long enough to get that last little bit done.

And there is 23 Steps to Social Media Domination DVD series and Twitter for Fun and Profit Kindle book also "just a couple of tweaks away" from finding their way to you.

So why am I sharing my shorting comings with an audience of 20 million or so?? Because I need some accountability in my life and also some closure. And by sharing with you maybe, just maybe, I will be compelled to finish the project... how about you check back in regularly and see how I go.

Warnie and Liz... is it all over?

Shurley on show!!

The Daily Telegraph in Sydney today's main headline was that Shane Warne and Liz Hurley's very public love match seems to have cooled... and I felt "All is well with the world" when that makes the front page....

For the last 3 years Australia's press has been dominated by political stories of back stabbing, back room deals, leadership treachery... and all of this year has been about the election so not much "good news" or "trash news" has been featured.

Even football has been engulfed in scandal - Essendon and the supplements episode - a match fixing scandal in soccer - and for rugby league a 7 tackle fiasco - so it has been hard to enjoy Friday night footy!!

So, with a new government we might be back to work for at least 3 years... and my advice to everyone is get going before your competitors!!

Green Coffee the Magic Drink??

Coffee Coffee my Love

Would you believe it?? Coffee is the new "instant diet pill"

According to today's The Daily Telegraph new research has shown green coffee beans contain Chlorogenic acid, a naturally occurring chemical that tricks the body into burning fat stores for energy.

Apparently a US study found participants who used green coffee bean extract lost an average 8kg each... or 16% of their body fat and this was despite eating a high-calories diet and engaging in VERY little exercises.

I am thinking if I can get some green coffee to taste good, and blend my own Merlot, I will have found the ideal lifesyle business...

Back home.... travellers remorse

Glaciers in Alaska on a summers day

Five weeks is the longest I have EVER been away from HOME... and I am not sure I am in any great hurry to repeat the experience.

Although the time in London was fabulous, I learnt that I wouldn't like to live in England. It has everything that you need... people, shops, great food and history BUT I wouldn't know who to barrack for when I went to the cricket. But I JUST LOVED that there were 12 Daily News papers and they still have Page Three girls!!

Canada was too nice... so clean, so many DIFFERENT bins... and mountains and gondola rides... and mountains, rivers and gondola rides... and so British!! Even thou we spent most of our time in British Columbia I am still confused about the identity of a Canadian... they are not Americans, they are not French, they are not British and Canadian seems so... well... NICE. And their daily newspapers must the the WORST in the world.

And my introduction to Alaska was by way of Holland America cruising... so fake towns selling fake jewells and everything was extra although the cruise was "all inclusive..."

Those poor salmon. Something you should know but until you see it, it doesn't really sink in. Salmon return to where they were spawned, they "do the deed" and then die!! What a life cycle.

Life's little mystery: Why is it that when you fly East to West your body adjusts for changes in time and you can function 100% the moment you hit the ground running. Yet when you travel West to East, it takes three days [or more] of LOTS of sleep before you return to normal?? Mmmm that is probably a first world problem!