Updating Your Twibs Account

Greetings from Twibs!

This week Twibs made some changes to the way you a) log in to your account and b) update your Twitter account information displayed on Twibs.com

Regarding logging in, Twitter.com has asked that ALL applications built upon Twitter switch to what is known as "oAuth" for logging in. We won't bore you with technical details, but know that this method is much safer for users in the Twitter ecosystem.

How logging in has changed
Previously, when you went to login to Twibs.com, you entered your username and password directly from Twibs.com. Now, you will need to click the button "Log in with Twitter", then you will be taken to Twitter.com where you enter your username and password, and will then be returned to Twibs.com where you can manage your account. The reason for this is to keep logging in happening at Twitter.com and no where else to reduce security vulnerabilities. So give it a try!


It's now easier to update your account.
Previously, Twibs.com updated your Twitter account information displayed on Twibs.com once a day, but as the system grew, and Twitter grew, many apps were not being updated regularly due to the number of updates our system had to process.

Now, EVERY TIME YOU LOG IN your account information will get updated. We will still do our best to keep your account up to date for you, but this gives you a way to manually update your information such as profile pic, follower count, etc without waiting for our automatic process to happen.

If you have any questions or comments, please email us at info@twibs.com

Thanks, and have a great day.

Add Your Products to Twibs!

We're always working on better ways to help people find your company! As a result from all of the great feedback, we have added a section called "manage products" where you can type in list of products that you sell. This is then indexed in our search and when people come along looking for your product, you now have another place to add information about what you sell!

How to add your list of products
Adding your list of products is easy! Just Login to twibs here, using your twitter username and password, and click on "manage products" from the gray links on the top middle portion of the page. Then, just type in the list of products that you sell, separated by a comma, and save. That's it! Then when you search for your product, you will see that it now shows your business in the search result.

Also, if you click onto your business profile page on twibs.com, you will notice there is now a "My Products" box on the right hand side that helps people to know what products you sell, without have to work to hard to find that information.

Please let us know what you think!

Regards,
Team Twibs

Watch Searches on Twibs - Real Time

As we are gearing up for our product search, we are excited to announce a new feature that lets businesses see what people are searching for on twibs.com in real time.

The feature, called twibsMonitor lets you see searchs on twibs as they are happening. This will help businesses know what exactly people are looking for and help them tweak information to match future searches.

To see twibsMonitor, simply Login to Twibs.com here and then click on twibsMonitor, one of the links in the gray area at the top of the page. There you can see Searches as they happen.

We are going to be adding a lot to this in the coming weeks to better deliver information to twibs users. Let us know what you think!

"Vote for Me on Twibs" Badges Now Available!

Many people have been asking for a "vote for me on twibs" badge they can add to their website or blog to help get more voted to get voted onto the twibs homepage, a great opportunity to get more followers!

We are happy to announce we have released the badge today! The example for twibs is shown below. Read below the badge on how to add yours!



Adding your badge is easy!
Just Login to Twibs here, using your twitter username and password, and on the right side of the page, just copy and paste the code snippet provided and paste into the HTML of your website or blog! It's that easy!

If you would like a custom badge to match your site look and feel, we'd be happy to make one for you. Just Just send us a tweet and we'll get back to right away.

Thanks,
Team Twibs

Add Your Business Name to Your Twibs Profile.

A lot of people have been asking about being able to add your business name to your twibs profile, so we added this a few days ago.

Basically, the prob has been that people's twitter username doesn't exactly match their business name, and their twitter name is usually their real name, leaving their business name outside of their profile. Then, when people come to search for their business name on twibs, if their username does not match, people wont find the business according to the name they know it by.

We have now added a placeholder for your real-world business name so that you can enter it in and when people search for it on twibs, they will find you.

How to do so:
Just login to twibs here and click 'manage links'. There you will see a field where you can add your business name, that will then show up in search and on your twibs profile.

Cheers!

5 Simple Ways to Get the Right Followers

A lot of people write to Twibs, asking for pointer on how they can find the "right" followers, meaning the people or businesses they can potentially engage with, and generate business from.

We compiled a brief list of methods we have observed to be successful, as well as practices we have employed in our own twittering that have helped us to meet the right people on twitter.

1. Share Good, Honest Information
Twitter is an open conversation and like real-world conversations, the most interesting people at the table are the ones talking about interesting, pertinent, topics that may or may not be about them. Moreover, these people divulge information that interested listeners will want to re-tell at the next opportunity. It does not have to mean that you have "top secret" information about how the space shuttle works, it just has to be nice fact, figure, or tid-bit that most people might not know about.

2. Show Your Passion
A big part of having only 140 characters to express a thought is that you have no room for "marketing speak", meaning this is not the place to use big words and overwhelm readers. Twitter is a place to be direct and conversational. Think of your followers as your friends and you have something important to tell them. It would be easy to just say it. The same is true for twitter.

3. Create Compelling Promotions
If you are going to try and sell something, make it worth someones time and energy to engage with you. For example, 5% off today only isn't going to really excite many people. Twitter is all about igniting the fire of users and getting the crowd to help you. Maggianos Italian Food http://twitter.com/maggianos recently offered a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to new followers and they had a lot of success. More importantly, unless you are a daily-discount site, you can't overload your users with a variety of sales and promotions. You have to know you have their attention and when you do make it an offer they can't refuse. You will get back every penny in marketing you miss out on at the register and will surely gain more long-term value with followers.

4. Be Active
Twibs did a study of the businesses we currently have in our index (at this time, we have over 6,000), and we took their total number of tweets divided by the number of followers they have. We found a very simple result: Over time, every tweet you send will get you 1 follower. Of course there are extremes and services that tweet A LOT of information, so the ratio does not apply, but for your typical business if you send 1,000 tweets over the next year, you will get 1,000 new followers.

5. Listen
Like any conversation, no one likes a person who just can't wait to talk and doesn't want to listen. The most successful entities on twitter are those who can listen to what people are saying at them and around them and can respond or share valuable information with the group. Twitter is an extremely valuable information loop. People will tell you everything you need to know about you, your competitors, your industry, and themselves. On Twitter, you have to be in the habit of digesting information, using it, and sharing it.

We hope that new businesses on twitter can use these techniques to be more successful on twitter. Twitter is a place to have fun, experiment, and learn from your actions. Twitter is a rapidly growing phenomenon and the sooner you learn what works for you, the greater success your business all achieve in the long-term.

Do you have success stories of your own? Send them to info@twibs.com and we'll publish them here!