I had never opted-in to a Twitter ad service…that is until Sponsored Tweets. I read up on it, cause hey, I figured if I’m gonna tweet as much as I do, wouldn’t it be great if I got paid for it? The key feature that led me to sign up is the fact that the final copy that will be tweeted is ALWAYS written directly by you the person whose account it is tweeted from.

Here is a quick overview of how the system works:

1. Login at Sponsored Tweets using your Twitter login details and fill in a short survey. This helps them figure out what demographic you most speak to when you tweet. It also helps them find ads that are authentic as possible to your voice. In my experience this has worked – I’ve tweeted ads about social media (international) and a kitchen makeover contest (geared at Canadian mothers).  Once you’ve signed up -  sit back and wait to hear from Sponsored Tweets.

2. You get a DM from Sponsored Tweets saying that you have 3 days to review an opportunity in your account.

3. You login in with your Twitter details to the site and check out the service/product you would be tweeting about, how much it pays, and the link you would be using and where it would take your followers should they click. If anything about the product, service, sales page or squeeze page is not your style, you do not have to accept the job, if it is – move onto step 4.

4. Here’s your chance to play admaker – having looked through the information, you now get to write your own compelling tweet. That’s right, you write it. The only rules are that you include the link supplied along with a method of disclosing that it is in fact an ad. This can be hashtagging the tweet #ad, adding “sponsored by” or “brought to you by” to the tweet – there are alist of disclosing methods supplied and it is up to you to chose the one you are most comfortable with. So there is no fooling your followers, I like that.

5. You submit your tweet to Sponsored Tweets for a final check, they then tweet it out for you. Their are opportunities to have your tweet go out up to 3 times (and make more money) if the first tweet was very successful – but they do not hijack your account and send out spam willy nilly. In fact once they send out the first tweet, they DM you to let you know.

If you have any questions about how it has worked for me so far, don’t hesitate to leave me a message. Have you tried Sponsored Tweets? What has been your experience?

If you do sign up though my referal link, make sure to email me at ghada at realsocialgirl dot com and let me know or leave a message here.

Happy Tweeting!

The Matchmaking Flight, a world’s first, is set to take off in 3 weeks. North Americans will be flying on a special party flight on Air New Zealand from LAX and arriving in Auckland where they will be greeted by Single Kiwis. As part of my role of making sure the online community keeps in contact leading up to the trip and beyond, I have created a beginner’s guide to Twitter for travelers. The target audience is Twitter noobs…the added tips are to help plan and enjoy your travels using Twitter.

Is this course for me?

If you have never touched Twitter or tried to but didn’t understand it, this course is for you. Their is added information about how people who travel can use Twitter. Even if you are not a traveler, you can still use the travel related tips to help you in your local search for business, colleagues, Twitter friends.

The course is set up so that you will receive 5 short emails over 5 days. I’ve had rave reviews about a basic Twitter course that I did in the same format months ago. It allows complete newbies to absorb information in bite size chunks and not get overwhelmed by all that Twitter has to offer.You receive one course a day that should take you no longer than 10-15 minutes to go through. You get action steps for each day while building your Twitter following. By the end of the course you will be well on your way to really getting the hang of Twitter.

Travel related information includes:

- performing local Twitter searches

- How to find out what’s going on where you are

- How to find travel experts

- How to find other travellers

This mini course is free. All you have to do is sign up with your name and email below to receive the course. Once you have entered your name and email, you will need to click on a link in an email from ghada at realsocialgirl dot com in order to confirm your subscription. Enjoy!

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What’s happening in the lounge this month?
We’re sharing tips on keeping warm and energized through winter. Do you have any special tips? Bring them along if you do cause we could all use them.

When does the fun start?

Thursday, June 25 from 8-9.30 pm.

You can access the party room by going to #RSG Twitter Lounge , login in with your Twitter username and password and tweet away! You don’t have to worry about adding the #RSG hashtag to your tweets, its already there.

What are the Prizes?
Party sponsor Floozy is giving away  a fantastic prize that EVERY woman needs. The VIP (Very Intelligent Pocket) is the key to an organised handbag, it makes it easy to change essentials from one bag to another as all you have to do is pull the VIP out of your bag and transfer to another. THE perfect accessory for the girl with many handbags or a mother switching from nappy bag to purse all the time. With the VIP you never have to worry about leaving anything behind. Kate from the decadent handbag and accessory online store Floozy is giving away one in black.

Also up for grabs is a Linden Leaves gift box of winter treats.

All you have to do is sign up for the Twitter party over at girlstoys and then be there on the night as the winner will be announced live.

See you then!

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Send your question to ghada [at] girlstoys [dot] co [dot] nz

Todays’ question is:

I have joined up to Twitter and am really starting to enjoy the interaction with people all around the world. Problem is, I have started following so many people and have such an information overload that I’m not sure how to keep track of everything! What is your best suggestion for managing my Twitter account?

I have been asked this question time and time again and I always answer with 2 simple words DOWNLOAD SEESMIC! To me this is the ultimate Twitter management tool. Not only is it easy on my Macbook’s memory, but the team at Seesmic are continually improving the app keeping Twitter enjoyable for anyone with just a handful of followers to a few thousand.

The latest addition to Seesmic is the integration of Facebook. What this means is that you can add Facebook status updates direct from Seesmic. All you have to do is setup your Facebook account details at the same time that you setup your Twitter details. You can check status updates for Twitter and Facebook all in one place – neat, eh? But it gets better, you can also update to Facebook from Seesmic, and I don’t mean sending ALL your Twitter updates to Seesmic – cause let’s face it, that’s annoying. What you want to do is send only a selection of your Twitter updates to FAcebook, and with Selective Twitter Status* you can do just that. It is an app that will install directly to your Facebook account – all you have to do is enter your Twitter username and whammo bammo its done! Then, whenever you make a Twitter update that you want to appear in Facebook as well, you tag it with #fb at the end. See what I mean, easy and helpful!

Other great features of Seesmic include:

• Saved searches: Use the search bar in the top right hand corner to search for terms of interest (great for both business and personal use) so that you have an ongoing stream of tweets in one column whenever someone mentions the search term. This can be a great way to monitor your brand (save a search with your company name) or a topic of interest (if you have a love for all things Mac, like me! Save the search term “mac” or “apple” or “iPhone” and engage with people who show up in the stream created from this search).
• Integrated picture and link sharing (soon will also have video support)
• Ability to create userlists stacked in colums alongside tweets from all the people you follow and all your @replies. People in the same time zone, friends and family, business contacts, whatever you want. The userlist columns can be docked, so save a few and open them up when needed. Creating userlists is the best way to minimize the information overload and keep track of who is talking directly with you.

Seesmic is very easy to setup. But if you are at a lost or get stuck, you can always follow these very helpful videos from John Haydon. He has 3 separate videos to take you through the setup and how to get more out of Seesmic’s various features. I’ve embedded the first video below to take you through the setup. To view the others, just go to John’s Viddler account.

BTW, I am not a paid employee of Seesmic’s. When I like something, I like talking about it. Simple.
Hope you have learnt something from this first installment and don’t forget to keep sending your questions in. If you thought this was helpful, why not tweet about it

* Props go to @andreawong_nz for the heads up on Selective Twitter Status

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please visit girlstoys for now or send me an email  if you want to be alerted when RSG is live or to find out more about my services. ghada [at] girlstoys [dot] co [dot] nz

Cheers
Gx