I have talked a lot about building a strong Twitter community many times, I even wrote Twitter Dummy Guide around this concept.

If you follow me @JohnAguiar you have seen or will see that I do my best to do that everyday.  I have built a strong twitter community that I am happy with, my followers are supportive and responsive and just awesome

Showing your appreciation to your followers is such a simple thing with a huge return, Learn my tips on showing appreciation to my followers. 

Build That Community Now

But now that Google is ranking tweets in real time search, building a strong twitter community has never been more important.

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<p>I was inspired to share my thoughts on social media by my friend @annaobrien and her post  Look at me  I’m Engaging!!

It’s funny to me that all anyone talks about is social media and that social media is supposed to bring people closer, communicate, and build stronger relationships.

But in reality it’s doing the opposite!!

Don’t believe me?  When was the last time someone said hi to you on twitter or facebook and you TRULY believed that they JUST wanted to be friends?  Or did you think, “ok what’s he selling”.

Chat Rooms True Relationship Builders

I made more friends, and built stronger relationships with people online back in the olds days with chat rooms! Yes, you remember chat rooms right? lol

Where people actually communicated together in a group of up to 20-30 people?  Everyday you go to the same chat you have a mix of regulars and some new people all talking.

You could even choose chat rooms for any topic you were interested in.  You like cats?  Great, find a chat about cats and you know what?  They actually talked about CATS!  Crazy thought right? Lol

Also when you came back to a chat that you visit a lot, everyone in it would welcome you and say hi.  When was the last time you signed into Myspace, Twitter or Facebook and your friends/followers all said hi?  Umm for me I can say NEVER!..LOL

Chat rooms were more of a community,  you had regulars and newbie visitors that were all there for the same reason, to talk about whatever that chat room was about.

Doesn’t get anymore social then throwing 30 people in a room to talk about the same topic.

Facebook Can Be A Huge Time Waster

On Facebook I have over 1500 friends yet I talk to MAYBE 30 of those friends on and off each day.  I spend more time removing people off my wall that annoy me with their every 2 min updates.

Oh, since we are talking about facebook, when did it become cool or a great way to meet people for grown ass men to send me hugs, Farm animals etc?…  OMG! This needs to stop..lol

I Love Twitter..But…

Look at Twitter, Twitter was developed around a very simple idea.. “What Are You Doing?” Basically you share what your doing or what you like or dislike with friends family and new found friends online…pretty simple right?

Yet today not many people follow this,  and some “twitter experts”  tell you that sharing what your doing thru out the day, is a negative thing to d, and a great way to lose tour followers..

If you look on Twitter the past few days you will see a lot of bloggers tweeting about the Blog World Expo in Vegas, now I think keeping the content on your blog and getting comments and conversating (i know i made it u..lol) about is a lot better as far as communicating, engaging and building that relationship  with your readers.

Yes people may RT your post, but that does not really help you build relationships, does it?

But John Don’t You Post On Twitter Too?

Yes I do!  I love Twitter! I’m on Twitter here everyday!  To help me grow those relationship on Twitter I make every effort to say Thank You or reply to any @ comment I get which helps to build that relationship, but if it was up to me, I would rather see this happen on my blog where it is much more personal and easier to keep the communication going.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think Social Media is an important part of any business’s marketing efforts, I will continue to use it to promote myself and my business.

I think all the focus you see now on social media and the ROI you are getting from your efforts will slowly have people seeing that social media is not the be all end all in building your brand or business.

What do you think?  Is Social Media really helping your communicate better? Build stronger relationships?

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 Twitter Bird says “Please RT John’s Post, He Is Tweet-Tastic”

Just  Click Here To Add To Twitter and RT…Thank You!

Oh Yea! Go to My Twitter account and Add me to a List!…Thanks!

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Make Money Online With Social Bookmarking

Here is my list of the Top Social Networking and Social Bookmarking sites you should use to make money online.

You should be using social bookmarking and social networks to promote your sites, posts, videos and articles. Also you should building a community of friends and followers to connect and share with.

I won’t get into this to deep since you will these skills from Perry Belcher who has been killin it in monetizing social media marketing

What Is Social Networking?

Using social networking, people can connect with online and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create real–life friendships through similar interests or groups.

Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other like–minded members by joining groups and forums.

Most social networking websites also offer additional features. In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality.

Facebook.com

MySpace.com

Twitter.com

Linkedin.com

Friendster.com

Orkut.com

Classmates.com

Great Video that explains Social Networking from guys at CommonCraft

What Is Social Bookmarking?

Have you ever e-mailed a friend or family member and sent them a link to a website you thought they might find interesting?  Basically that is social bookmarking.

When you save a website and saving it for later. Instead of saving them to your web browser, you are saving them to the web. And, because your bookmarks are online, you can easily share them with friends.

Not only can you save your favorite websites and send them to your friends, but you can also look at what other people have found interesting enough to tag.

digg.com

Yahoo! Buzz

StumbleUpon.com

reddit.com

Technorati.com

del.icio.us

kaboodle.com

mixx.com

Propeller.com

Great Video that explains Social Bookmarking from guys at CommonCraft

Last month, Facebook finally announced that they would allow users to pick out custom usernames for use in vanity URLs that read www.facebook.com/username.

I got mine www.Facebook.com/JohnPaulAguiar

Users were advised to “choose wisely” because the username they selected would be stuck with them for life.

We all have seen some funny and sad usernames that people have chosen. Anyone that is having second thoughts about their choice, they’ll be happy to know they now have the option to select a username yet again.

Looks like Facebook has launched a new option in the settings area called “username” where you have the option to change your Facebook username.

To find this option, go to “Settings” at the top-right of the Facebook page and then click on “Account Settings.”

The second option from the top is “Username.” Press “Change” to enter in your new username and then click “Confirm” when you’re ready to set it.

Since there’s no official announcement from Facebook at this time, it’s hard to know why they’ve decided to give users another chance to pick their names.

But for whatever reason, those wanting a fix with their FB usernames, now have the opportunity for a re-do.

Just know that you only have one chance to “fix”..Facebook “Choose your new username carefully.

So Think Twice and Change Once!

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LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK | LEAVE A COMMENT.

PLEASE RETWEET | Just Copy & Paste The Line Below and Tweet It.  Thank You!

RT: @JohnAguiar  Facebook Let’s You Fix Your Username – http://ow.ly/hZC2

I got mine, and it was thqat hard. The security of your page is the same, peoople still need to add you as a friend before they can see your page.

Just makes things easier when you try to give someone your face page, and this way they know they have YOUR page not a fake.

The best part is you don’t have to change any of your old url’s on other pages or on anybuttons you have on your site, which is HUGE,,lol

Go to facebook.com/username and log into Facebook. You’ll see a tool like the one below to pick a permanent Facebook URL:

When Facebook let its 200-million-plus members reserve customized URLs on Saturday at 12:01 AM Eastern. 200,000 user names were reserved in a matter of three minutes, according to Twitter posts from Facebook employees.

The whole thing was so hyped up. My Twitter feed was covered with  people proudly announcing their new URLs, but iwho really cares?

For me it makes things a little bit easier, but in reality  I have functioned with my old Facebook url for a year..so not a big deal.

John Paul

Why YOU need to be using Social Marketing sites like MySpace!

You might be saying to yourself, if these sites are so powerful how come I haven’t heard about people I know  making large sums of cash?

Well that’s a great question and the answer is very simple. Money is being generated on these sites every single day it’s  just that most people don’t understand how to do it.

What if you could establish a relationship with your buyer before they even bought from you?

You’d have a buyer for life! THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU WILL LEARN!!

Use Social Sites to have Leads chase you instead of you chasing them!

I’ve learned in my experience of becoming a successful online marketer that People Buy You and Not The Product.

Have you ever gone into a shoe store when you was just window shopping, and had a pushy sales person attacking you and you told them you was just looking.

Then another sales person comes to you respectfully and calmly and asks if you need help with the shoes your looking at and told you much they enjoy the same shows,  and you ended up buying 2 pairs in different colors?

What changed?  Did the shoe change? Did the price change? So what changed?

The person changed!   People buy the person selling the product not the product 99% of the time, this is why we have celebrities in commercials, because Big Companies have known this for years.

So you might be saying to yourself… this is all great, but how does this help me make money on these sites?

Well if you want to make money on the Internet period, you must learn to Effectively Brand Yourself.   You can do that with your story.

Make your Story personal, informational, and be your self!

Here’s my MySpace,   FaceBook,   Tagged

This wasn’t easy for me, to be so open, I’m normally a very private guy, but if you want people to connect with you and “buy you” you will need to be open and let people into your life.

Make your profile shine, spend the time to connect with people on a daily basis, share articles, tips, anything to show why they need to buy YOU, Trust Me, your business will benefit.