A lot of people ask me about Twitter and its use. “Surely it’s just a lot of ‘noise’” they say but there are so many creative and innovative ways you can use Twitter, especially for business.

With Twitter, to a certain degree, you have to think out of the box.  The term ‘micro-blogging’ does makes it sound a little clinical, but when you open your mind to the wonders of what it can do for you and your business, then you really get an idea of why Twitter must be part of your online business profile.

Here are a few ways of using Twitter for business.

1. Mastermind Group – Set up your very own Mastermind group, the best of the best in your area of expertise, a great way to help and support each other.
2. Test Panel – If you have a virtual product why not create a Twitter test panel of a select number of your Twitter stream and ask your Twitter pals to download/read/look/share your product and give you honest feedback.
3. Customer Service – Why not use Twitter as a channel for your customer service and feedback. Add it as an extension of your customer service helpline or your call centre.
4. Support – Do you have a business that requires you to give support to your clients and customers?  Then why not use Twitter as your support helpdesk or at least an extra arm of it.  You can use an app called TwtFAQ to help with Twitter based support helpdesks.
5. Away/Busy Messages – Perhaps you need to know when certain people in your company are out of the office or busy, how about using Twitter as your messaging system, a lot cheaper than a pager or a mobile contract.
6. Recruitment – Need to hire someone new?  Advertise your position on Twitter yourself or use Twitter recruitment services such as TwitJobs which certainly embrace all things Twitter and recruitment.
7. Noticeboard – Have important announcements to send to your clients, customers, friends, staff?  Use Twitter as an online noticeboard.
8. Special Offers – Do you offer special offers, sales, discounts etc?  Shout about them on Twitter.   Why not even offer a Twitter only special offer just for your Twitter followers.
9. Network – Need to meet businesses in your local area then find them on Twitter using Twitter Search.
10. Intranet – You can set Twitter profiles to ‘private’ so that only approved Twitter users can see your profile and tweets.  By doing this you can easily create an internal intranet system for your company.
11. Surveys/Polls – If you need some extra feedback on something, whether serious or for fun, set up a Twitter survey or poll through Twtpoll.
12. Groups – By using Twubs and Twibes you can set up Twitter groups which can be used for a variety of topics.
13. Referrals/Testimonials – Send a glowing testimonial or referral to another person using Twitter, this allows others to see it and hopefully get in touch with that person.
14. Tweetup – A ‘Tweetup’ is a meet up of people with a common interest that has been arranged via Twitter.  You can use such tools as Twtvite or SchmapIT to organise your Tweetups.
15. Lead Pool – Do you have leads coming in that you do not have capacity for or perhaps are not in your industry area, then create a leads pool on Twitter and tweet out the leads.
16. Promote Blog Posts – If you write a blog post, tweet it (and the URL obviously!) and spread the word.
17. Newsletter Sign Ups – Just as you would your blog posts above, don’t forget to shout about your newsletter and ask for sign ups.
18. To Do List – Need to keep track of your tasks and ‘to do’s'?  Then use Twitter as a to do list and you can even use apps like Remember The Milk to tweet you when you need to do something.
19. Tweet Live – Are you running an event?  Then why not use Twitter as a live stream commentary.
20. Send Business Cards – Oh yes, believe it or not you can now even send your business details in a business card format via Twitter by using TwtBizCard.
21. Track Parcels – By using TrackThis you can track parcels being sent to you via FedEx, DHL, UPS and many more.
22. Set An Alarm – Need to set an alarm or alert for something urgent?  Create a Twitter alert using Timer, just send them a direct message and they will alert you when you need it.
23. Market Research – Ask your clients/customers, both existing and new questions via Twitter.
24. Hashtags – Create hashtags (e.g. #hashtag) for events, special offers or even slogans for your brand and help your business become viral.
25. LISTEN – Now this is the biggy.  Use Twitter to listen to what the world is saying about your business, use Twitter Search and other keyword search tools to see just what people are saying about you and your business.

We hope this gives you a few good ideas on just how many ways you can use Twitter in your business.  Are you not using Twitter yet for your business?  Well maybe it’s time you should.

I completely admit, that I love Firefox.  I know some people say it’s slow, others say it’s a bit clunky (technical term that!) but I love it.   But it is Firefox addons that enable me to do so much of my work efficiently without diving off to use other applications or software.

Here are my Top Firefox addons, some are ones I have mentioned before, but I think they should be mentioned again and some are new ones that I can’t wait to share with you!

1.  Page Tweets

Enables you to see what the twitterverse is saying about the current page in your browser in a neat sidebar to the left.

2.  HandyNote

Add notes, add categories and tags to manage, search, export in the sidebar of your Firefox without having to leave the page you are on or swapping to and from Notepad/Word etc, you can also synchronize data between different machines.   Fantastic for copywriting or jotting down colour codes etc.  I use it for loads of different types of notes every day.

3.  Save Session

This add-on will help the you save all the links opened to a session file and re-open session file (your browser with all the links you currently have open) any time later. Useful when you are investigating a topic and don’t want to loose all the good links you came across or painfully book mark everyone.

4.  Read It Later

Save pages to read later with just one click. When you have time, access your reading list from any computer or phone, even without an internet connection!

5.  Integrated Gmail

Gmail + Google Calendar + Google Reader + Gmail Labs = Integrated Gmail.  When you open your Gmail (or GoogleMail) all of your reader, calendar and labs show in the same place, very handy!

6.  RightToClick

Stops javascript annoyances such as forbidden right click, forbidden text selection or cascading dialog boxes.

7.  CheckFox

This enables quick check/uncheck of multiple checkboxes, handy for doing the equivalent of a ‘check all’.

8.  Hootsuite Hootlet

We call the Hootlet our secret weapon because it has the power to completely change how you use Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Want to share a link? Hit the Hootlet button, and automatically, the URL is shortened and text is grabbed from the site.

9.  Google Shortcuts

Display all of your Google Services as buttons just next to your address bar or anywhere you like it. I have all of my Google apps, mail and tools displayed directly under my address bar using this addon, it saves creating bookmarks and means you have everything you need right in front of you.  I use this countless times each day and certainly would not be without it.

10.  FireFTP

FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. I had been using FileZilla on my main laptop and PC since it started, however on discovering FireFTP this is now the only FTP I use on my netbook, and even on my laptop and PC it is fast becoming the only one I use.  I have the FireFTP button set up just under my address bar along side the Google Shortuts so again, everything is one place, great for a netbook, where space is limited. Along with transferring your files quickly and efficiently, FireFTP also includes more advanced features such as: directory comparison, syncing directories while navigating, SFTP, SSL encryption, search/filtering, integrity checks, remote editing, drag & drop, file hashing, and much more.

11.  Pixlr Grabber

Screen grabber and graphics program in one. Making screen grabs and pulling down images from the web easier as you can choose to edit, share, save or copy your final grabs. You also get the possibility to right-click any image or background to edit them.  Edit in Pixlr Editor or Express which the free graphics programs that come with it, share them to Pixlr imm.io (sharing facility) or save them directly to your desktop. This is a one-stop shop for screen grabs whether you want to select a section to grab or grab the entire page.  Excellent addon that I use every day.

12.  Web2PDF

Web2PDF converter converts web pages into PDF files directly from browser.  It doesn’t just take a screenshot of the amount of webpage you can currently see in your browser, it converts the whole web page into a PDF.  Very useful, especially as it has options for quality settings as well.

13.  WiseStamp

When I am out and about on my netbook, I do not have Outlook installed and I use my trusty old Gmail to send and receive emails.  However, one of my annoyances with Gmail is the lack of HTML signatures.  WiseStamp comes to the aid and allows you to create HTML email signatures to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL mail.  WiseStamp also allows you to add to your latest blog post, videos,  social media and messenger links to your email too.  It allows for multiple signatures and the ability to add logos and photos.  Great addon and another one I would not be without.

14.  Morning Coffee

Keeps track of daily routine websites and opens them in tabs automatically at the beginning of your first opening of Firefox of the day.  This extension lets you organise websites by day (weekly options also available) and open them up simultaneously as part of your daily routine. This is really handy if you read sites that update on a regular schedule (like webcomics, weekly columns, etc.).  I have mine set to open my email, Twitter, Hootsuite, Facebook, BBC news website etc all at the same time so everything I want to check first thing in the morning is ready and waiting for me as soon as I open Firefox.

15. HeadlinesTicker

This is such a simple idea and a simple addon but unlike most other RSS tickers it doesn’t take up room on my browser, therefore great for a netbook.  The ticker allows you to add unlimited RSS feeds to the right hand corner of your bottom status bar.  It doesn’t take up any extra room as it just uses the space that is already there on the status bar.  It works like a dream and is a great way for me to keep up with all the latest news, as it happens, when I am out and about.

Have fun with these!

One of my mantra’s for the past 6 months or so has been ‘Don’t compete, collaborate’.  It is something that I ‘bang on about’ at various events that I go to and some poor souls have heard it more than once ;) But to me it is such an important thing to remember, not only in business but also in life.

I work in an extremely ‘busy’ field.  We have social media experts and SEO gurus popping up on a daily basis.  WordPress is so widely used that loads of designers and developers do it.  So why am I not shaking in my boots worrying about competition?   Because I would rather work with them than compete against them.

It’s also about knowing your business inside out and knowing exactly who your target audience is, and as much as this sounds a tad strange, knowing your place.  For example, I work for a competitor, in fact I work for a couple of  competitors.  Do I see them as such though? No.  Technically they are because we all work in the same field, but we have different target audiences and we do things a different way and I would have no hesitation in recommending clients to them.  If you read my #FollowFridays (or #FF’s) on Twitter regularly enough you will see that I recommend them because I really do believe that they are some of the best.

Many of you will be reading this and thinking I am completely bonkers (OK that’s a given…) but look at it this way:  if there is something that Media Labs cannot do, for whatever reason, I would rather pass work to someone I know who is really good and will get the job done.  That way I do not lose my clients confidence and I know I’m helping the ‘competitor’ too.

Healthy competition is what every business needs to thrive, but when the threat of competition makes you react in way that is not ‘healthy’ then you need to look at why.  Look at your business, just who are you aiming at?  Is it really a direct competitor (i.e. offering the same service or products as you, within your same target audience) or is it someone who just works in the same field but doing it a different way and who promotes to a different audience altogether?

The VA (Virtual Assistant) world here in the UK has this theory buttoned down.   They all are direct competitors of one another but they all help and support one another too.   They even have their own support group just for all the VA’s to ‘pile into’ and help each other out.

Work with people in your field whether that be social media, mechanical engineering or jam making, whatever your field is, work with businesses within it or at least get to know them.  Why not start a project or a collaborative blog? Help each other out, become a network of suppliers (for the want of a better word) to your industry that you know can help ANY type of client.  Some people like working with B2B, some only deal with B2C, some like start ups, others like large corporate clients.  Don’t compete with the competition, collaborate with them.  It doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd or be the best in your field, nor does it mean that you can’t be (or your business can’t be) an individual, but it does mean that you will have a support network there if you need/want it, and that can only be a good thing.

p.s.  Keep an eye out for more news on the new ‘Don’t compete, collaborate’ book written by us ;) It’s all very exciting!

Well guys, as you probably know, this week has been all over the place for myself and my husband.  Colin was taken into hospital on Monday morning where originally they thought he’d had a mild stroke (he’s only 38, normally fit and healthy), well 5 days later and several tests etc. we are almost at a diagnosis of why his heart rate dropped so low and made him (and is still making him) feel ill.  The good news is that he is back home.

My clients and friends have been amazing, literally amazing.   Everyone pitched in, all work has been done and on time and it has made me reflect on the future and how I want to work.  Especially as my friend and colleague Claire Burdett has written this article recently for budding ‘Empire Builders’ about the importance of getting  the work/life balance right.

I love my job, there is no denying it, I am passionate about all things techy, but this week has made me realise that no matter how much you love your job and are committed to it, which I am, sometimes you need to pass over the reigns so you can concentrate on what is really important, i.e. your family.

I am extremely lucky to know the network of people that I do.  My business just couldn’t stop because my husband was in hospital, it had to continue because I have to work financially (and let’s face it, I’m love my work too and wouldn’t want it to stop), but who was going to answer my calls?  Who was going to make sure my clients were updated?  Who would sort out my invoices for me whilst I was out and about in various hospitals?   I called in the dream team and delegated.

All my calls were handled (and I have to say, perfectly) by Call Team.   I cannot thank them enough for how quickly it was all set up,  if you are in business, you need them, no matter whether you need them on a emergency basis or all of the time.  I would not be without them now.

My wonderful VA, Charlotte Burford, took care of my admin and updating people.  Charlotte has just made it to the final 3 nominees for the UK Outstanding VA Awards (hosted this weekend) and you can see why.   Charlotte even offered to keep an eye on my kids for me too, now that is beyond the call of duty, but made me feel so comforted knowing that she was there if I needed her.

So I learnt to delegate and use a larger network of service providers, and this will remain in place now as it works so well for my business, now I can concentrate on doing the bit of the job I really love, the geeky stuff.  All my admin and calls are taken care of now.  Fantastic!

Susan Odev on Skype and the phone was there for the support when I needed a virtual hug, as was Emma Warren, Sarah Bradley, Lyndsey McKendry and The Funky Girls.    Loads of other people were emailing me asking if there was anything they could do, not just friends but also clients.  How wonderful is that?  When your clients actually turn around and say to you, hang on, what can WE do for YOU?  Just proves what lovely clients we have and how well we get on.

The second point is about learning to walk away.  Going back to Claire’s article she makes 3 really good points which I have seriously been thinking about this week:  “Don’t try and do too much at once”, “Keep your friends and your health” and “Pace yourself”.

Last week I was offered an amazing opportunity with a leading marketing agency, it would have meant regular work with a regular income.  Yesterday I was offered another role in another agency which would have been almost triple the amount of money I am on now.  I turned both down wthout making it public knowledge, and the reason (no I am not mad!) is because I want to concentrate on what I do best:  working with small businesses and being a good mum.  I don’t want to be chained to my laptop for 12 hours a day, what parent does?  Nor do I want to be racing around half of London, doing large corporate meetings, full time 6 days a week, I want to be the very best I can be but on my own, and my clients, terms.

So, I need to take the advice from my family and friends (and Claire’s article) and walk away from some of the other, bigger projects I have been working on.   A hard decision, yes, but one that will make my life, and ultimately my own clients lives, much brighter.  I don’t have to work all the hours under the sun or in a way that I am not happy with, just to prove to the world that I can.   The only thing I need to do is to do my best for my clients and my family, and that is something I have always done here at Media Labs and that will continue.

Here’s to finding the balance, and to doing it right.  (Hurrah!)

Actually I am more of an ASDA’s girl myself but, I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s.

You may have seen a plethora of #loaf related blog posts running around on Twitter last night, if you didn’t, then you should have been watching ‘Socially Sally’ which is the online show we run fortnightly on a variety of topics. Last night we had a fun time discussing blogging.

‘OK so I am lost, what has blogging got to do with bread?’ I hear you cry. Everything!

One of my tips was to find your own writing style and to be yourself. Your blog is yours, you don’t have to put a ‘voice’ on when you type, you don’t have to try and be something you are not. Just be you, people come to read your blog because they want to read what YOU write.

We had loads of people (Well I think 24 people is loads! We all have to start somewhere!) at the show last night and Sarah Arrow said that we should all do a post about bread when we came off air last night.  This then became the show challenge and which is why there were so many ‘slices’ of virtual #loaf flying around Twitter last night.

So what did this challenge prove?  Many things:

1)  When people come together, amazing ideas pop out of nowhere.

2)  We can all write in a style that suits us personally, there is no law saying we can’t!

3)  The power of social media can be used for positive and happy things, OK so the whole #loaf thing was a bit of a giggle, but I bet many of you were smiling or giggling as you were blogging about your bread last night.

4)  People can collaborate on ideas, we don’t have to be in competition with one another, let’s just all help each other out.   The power of one is great, the power of a group is amazing.

5)  Sometimes the crazier the idea, the more it works, be brave, go for it!

I promised a list of #loaf posts from around the Twitterverse last night so here goes:

Sarah Arrow   – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Lyndsey McKendry – I’ve just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Babs Saul – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Charlotte Burford – I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Sarah Bradley – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Dee Uzoka – I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Susan Odev – I bought a loaf…

Susan Park – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Helen Lathrope – I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Karen Plane – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Douglas Wallace – Today I bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Colin Walker – I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

Jaye Nolan – I just bought a loaf of bread from Sainsbury’s

We had a great crowd last night and I would love to say a big thank you to everyone who came, we were aiming for 15 people to come and join in and in the end we had 24 so I was thrilled!  Although we may have to switch to Ustream next month though as Livestream decided that our #loaf talk was so tasty they ate our recording! A big thank you though to Digital Stationary who, after finding out that we lost our recording of the show, did a special blog post for us too!

It was great to see all of you last night and meet some new friends and put faces (well, messages) to Twitter names.  I hope you all had fun, I certainly did!  Don’t forget the next one is on Wednesday 9th June at 8pm and will be about Facebook, wonder what the challenge will be then? ;)

p.s. – if I have missed your #loaf post off the list, just let me know on Twitter and I’ll add it for you!