Start making money on Twitter

Chris Brogran, President of New Marketing Labs, is one of the 'thought leaders' when it comes to social media.  If you follow him on his blog or through your Google Reader, you can't help but admire the effort that he puts into his work.  Chris writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum where there are many many excellent articles that you can read.  I hope you take advantage of the published content.

Chris wrote a piece on Twitter Search and Money that I wanted to re-publish to our members.  In essence, he outlines how to capture conversations that are happening on Twitter and how you can start to use those to your advantage.  Here are the steps he outlines; I've put together some screen shots for you to follow and compare notes.

Step 1: Start with Twitter Search.  You won't be able to determine what is being discussed through Twitter the conversation are too fluid and there are too many people -you need Twitter Search.  Through Twitter search, you can 'find out what is happening right now'.  

I ran a Twitter search on solar power and you can view the results below.  This is a popular topic as you would expect.

If your IT department has authorized you to load software directly onto your computer consider adding Seesmic of Tweetdeck.  The images I've posted below are from Tweetdeck.  

On the home page of Tweetdeck, you'll see the people that you're currently following on Twitter and a list of people that Tweetdeck recommends that you follow based on your current list - the homescreen is below.  

To add a search, just like you've done on www.search.twitter.com, click on the "+" at the top left hand corner of your screen.  The following image will appear

You can see that I've created a search for solar power.  

After you press enter a new column will appear on your Tweetdeck homescreen (column located on the far right).  

So, know you're probably asking yourself, "This is great, but what do I do now?"  After you have listened to the conversation for a while, noted the power users and have sufficient confidence consider answering questions and following the power users.  Remember the general rule of thumb is to contribute 12x more than you promote yourself.  

Good luck!