Twitter really seems to be gathering pace lately and if your new to it or if you just want to increase your influence heres a few tips I have picked up: -

1. Use it
There is little point in expecting people to follow your tweets if you only log in once a week. It has to be part of your day to day.
“But I am too busy”
Stop whining its less time consuming that IM and forums and to be honest youll get more from it.

2. Dont be a robot
Whilst I do agree that using some automation is ok you need to make sure you keep it personal. Don’t set autoreplies, new follows shouldnt get a link promoting something.
Try not to announce a stream of crap that people arent interested in, new post announcements? fine but in moderation please.

3. Help people when they ask
If someone tweets a request for advice help them, they are far more likely to reach out to you with help or a follow if you do.

4. Be happy not aggressive
Personally I prefer to read people who post witty remarks and point to cool stuff rather than look at a torrent of tweets from someone with a grudge against the world.
“Found a great post on how to use Tweetdeck here”
Is better than: -
“On roof now with rifle, soon revenge will be mine”
“Voices in head telling me to shoot”

5. Use the tools to make life easier
Twitter via the web is pretty crappy, Tweetdeck is a far better tool that allows you to have a dedicated application running. I also suggest adding the people you really want to follow in a group in tweetdeck then just watching that group. Saves you from the chatter and therefore from the temptation to stop following people who tweet too much!

6. Follow those that use twitter well
Dont blindly follow someone who has 20,000 followers, youll be lost in the crowd. Follow those people who are in your industry and who retweet good things from their friends. They will hopefully do that for you one day too.

7. Be genuine and pay attention
If you really want to be followed make sure you pay attention to what those people say, participate in their sites, it has to be a two way thing.

8. Extend
Make sure you update your Facebook status from Twitter automatically, add your twitter profile link wherever you can. Make sure people know your on there, dont rely on them stumbling across you from a friend you follow.

9. Retweet
If someone tweets something great help them out and retweet it for them, its hardly effort is it? And its the nice helpful thing to do

10. Ask for help
Got a question - ask people. As long as its genuine people will help you and the more you connect the more you will benefit too.

Thats my 10 - have any more - add them in comments!

Just been pointed out to me that Syndk8 - everyones favourite blackhat SEO forum - and a place I used to spend an awful lot of time and where I still moderate - appear to be bidding on SEO names.

And its not just me, Dave Naylor and Esrun get ads too

But they dont seem to be bidding on people like Earl himself, Perk, Irishwonder, Bompa, Dianne88, TheKaptain, Vsloathe and many of the other high profile members.

I assume that this is another attempt to sell the Autopligg tool (Im not a big fan of that)

If it is its odd they arent after phrases like: -

Link spamming

Odd but made me chuckle - see if you can find anyone else I have missed.

Its been a great year and it looks like 2009 will be a year of change. Now is the time of year when every blog in the world does a predictions post but I am not doing that as I hate them….

So what I thought I would do is run through some of the people I have met for the first time or gotten to know better this year and explain why you should know them too: -

Dean Hunt
I have known Deano since before he was Dean Hunt Buzz Marketing Genius and this year we got back in touch again. I love the way Deans mind works. I know he has some big plans for 2009 and he is as always someone to follow closely

Read and subscribe to Deans blog and follow him on Twitter @deanhunt08

Julie Joyce
Mrs Jay Young and owner at Linkfish as well as an SEO-Chick and a guest blogger at SearchMarketingGurus.

Got to know Julie a bit better this year and she really makes me laugh, most Americans tend to miss interpret my British sense of humour but Julie gives as good as she gets.

Personally I think shes a bit of a crab sniffer, you would need to ask her why…

Follow her on Twitter @juliejoyce

Chris Angus
Chris is a quiet member of the SEO world but the more I have gotten to know him the more I am of the opinion that hes a great guy. Genuine, kind and really knows his stuff.
One of the main qualities I admire in people is the ability to be a ‘free thinker’ - someone who doesnt follow the crowd but has his own opinions and actually puts them into action.

I think the quote from Aaron Wall on this post is very apt

“He is a bit quiet compared to many ‘names,’ but when I have a question about searches, he is one of the first guys I ask.”

Chris writes at his blog Pingpongpie

Niall Harbison
I have followed Nialls cooking videos since he first posted ‘The perfect steak’ on Youtube and have watched as he turned that into the growing business that is iFoods.tv today. A great entreprenuer and a man who understands how new media can help him build a valuable brand.

Have a look at iFoods (Warning - it will make you very hungry!)
And follow Niall on twitter @niallharbison

The guys at Setfire Media
Had the chance to spend a little time with Ian Cowley, David Lindop and Sean Blanks when I was over at SEOroadshow and you couldnt meet nicer people. Sean has been a real gent helping me with some details on a forthcoming project and to spend some time over at their place was great, they have a really strong business by the looks of things.

Hop on over to Setfire and see what they are about

Other people I managed to get to know a little better were: -
@simonheseltine - Good at SEO bad at choosing a decent footy team
@storyspinner - Li is one of the nicest people I know
Ed and Mary Purkiss - You couldnt find a nicer couple - go on try - see!
Dr Karl, Ben and Stephen (@bonytoad) over at conversion rate experts - brilliant at what they do.

I hope you all have a great 2009 I know I will!

So as you may know I have done a fair few Gumtree experiments and one that I created some time ago still appears to be online.

Its a site called Picdating and it collects the photos of people looking for dates in the London area each day and shows them as a simple list of photos.

Simple enough and usually full of amusing photos.

However today someone pointed this pic out to me: -

Granted hes looking a little less polished than his normal press pics and you cant see the yellow shoes but….. LOL

Having just read the interview with Matt Daines of Twellow I decided to go check out the site.

Im not sure how useful the site it to be honest, it all seems a bit 1998 to me.

If you are looking for a way to find people who you should follow I still think that both seeing who your friends follow and using the excellent Mr Tweet service to find people who you should really pay attention to is better.

I was amused to see that they obviously used my profile to have their site guess what category I should be in. As an ‘Adsense Farmer’ I should obviously be in ‘Agriculture’