It is true Twitter can be time consuming and it is compelling to use or try any of the thousands of Twitter applications available to save yourself time, add followers quickly or automate your tweets.

Before you do, you may want to learn about Twitter’s best practices that help prevent your account from being removed from searches, or in some cases suspended. Twitter may automatically remove accounts engaging in what they consider aggressive behaviors in order to ensure the best experience for everyone.

Twitter cautions against aggressive behaviors and suggests that you stay away from:

1) Repeatedly posting duplicate or near-duplicate content (links or tweets) – Be kind to your followers, no one wants to see the same tweets repeatedly. If for example your trying to get traffic back to a new blog post change the content of your tweets so that they are fresh, and interesting. If you do try to tweet duplicate tweets, Twitter will actually prevent the tweet from posting. Therefore, you are automatically compelled to change the content.

2) Abusing trending topics or hashtags (topic words with a # sign) – This is not the way to promote your business or cause. Abusing hashtags or hijacking hashtags is not only annoying to followers, but it is a red flag to Twitter that you are not practicing good Twitter etiquette.

3) Sending automated tweets or replies – This seems like the easiest way to “set your Twitter account and forget it.” Many Twitter applications provide automated tweets and replies but you can guarantee that all your tweets will be removed from searches. Getting found is the point of social media and Twitter, without it you might as well be invisible. And consider this, if everyone is on automated tweeting, then who are you to “engage” with, and “build relationships” with?

4) Using bots or applications to post similar messages based on keywords – This is similar to automating your tweets, and if you are to be that disingenuous about your tweets, then your are not following the rules of social media.

5) Posting similar messages over multiple accounts – I see this in my Twitter stream all the time. How authentic are you if you are Tweeting from multiple accounts? I also noticed that these type of twitters most often are using an application to automate those tweets. This type of activity means you have no engagement, no trust, and followers will likely un-follow you quickly, like I do.

6) Aggressively following and un-following people – There are hundreds of applications offering mass following and un-following, not to mention the “How to get Follower’s Fast” spam tweets. No one needs that many followers overnight, in fact there is a movement to have 1000 or less followers. That is considered the magic number of loyal followers anyone needs to have a strong social media program. So do not worry about how many followers you can “get” overnight.

I hope that by learning these best practices I have saved you from being removed from searches, and potentially suspended from Twitter. You can learn more about Twitter best practices, and Twitter rules at the Twitter Help section.

According to  Mashable, there are over 56 million women using Facebook in the United States.  “For marketers this means one very important thing,” Brette Borow, the president and founder of Girls Guide To, the “ladies only” guide to life, wrote for Mashable. “If you have a brand, product or company that targets women, Facebook is the place to be. Unfortunately, unless you’re a brand that every woman knows or loves, then just being on Facebook is not enough.”

Brette offers these 10 tips for marketing to women on Facebook:

1- Quality counts
2- Create an emotional connection
3- Provide Utility
4- Give fans a voice
5- Listen
6- Complement her life, don’t complicate it.
7- Don’t be redundant
8- Keep the shopping seamless
9- Remember: she’s a social shopper
10- Keep your fans in the loop

Women’s clothing designer and online retailer Hayden Harnett have done an impressive job of building and maintaining a loyal fan base for their gorgeous products. For more then two years this team honed these tips Brette recommends and then some with their transparent, customer engaging, social networking, with no sales pitches.  My favorite is the stories and photos that customers share of their purchases. The entire product line is given proper names making it easy to personalize and have fun while creating a connection between the company and your wardrobe. If you want to find out more visit the Hayden-Harnett website, Twitter and Facebook.

Have tips or experiences for marketing to women online let us know, we would all love to hear them.

Sometimes the simplest ideas and smallest budgets create big things. In August 2009 creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors devised a Facebook campaign strategy to launch a new IKEA store in Malmö Sweden. The objective was to also promote IKEA beyond Malmö. The agency created a personal profile page for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Over a 2 week period 12 showroom images were uploaded to his photo album. The engagement with audiences started with a simple contest – the person who tagged their name on the products in the pictures first, won it. Of course once word got out (went viral) the demand for more IKEA pictures quickly grew. The pictures spread to thousands of people via profile pages, newsfeeds and links.

Instead of using a boring banner ad, IKEA engaged audiences and they became the advocates in promoting IKEA. This was all achieved by simply using Facebooks existing features of photo albums and tagging. The simplicity of this campaign strategy also makes you realize that social media reinforces the adage “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

What ideas does this inspire in you to create engagement and fun with your audiences to promote your business?

Do you have your customer incentive programs all set for Christmas? Are your landing pages in place? Then start sharing the savings on social media. According to a recent study by Neilsen, 60 percent of shoppers will be looking for discounts and sales this holiday season. 17 percent will be looking for specials and deals through social media.

“Consumers are trying to find any way possible to find value and being connected via social media is a new way to find these deals and the values of the season,” said Stacy Janiak, vice chairman and Deloitte’s U.S. retail leader.

Promote your customer incentives by posting on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as in your e-mail newsletters. Think creatively this holiday season to strengthen and foster relationships with your customers. The objective is to offer helpful solutions to alleviate your customers shopping anxiety. The social media incentive program works effectively for both your online and offline stores.

Top 4 effective consumer incentives to spur customer action and increase your overall revenue and profits:

1) BOGO – The buy-one-get-one free offer. An excellent sales promotion and an offer a bargain hunter can not pass up. The stipulation is the free item is of equal or lesser value then the purchased item. With this promotion the sales is increased when the consumer spends more to recieve the free item.

2) Gift with Purchase – This offer encourages the consumer to purchase items, in order to receive a free gift. The cosmetic industry has been successfully using this method for years. The value of the free gift is up to you, but it must be something people will desire. The cosmetic industry gives away a cosmetic bag with the purchase of $50 or more.

3) Discount Coupons – When implemented strategically coupons can not only increase revenues, but will provide lasting goodwill with your customers. Set a threshhold of $50 to $100 dollars to receive a discount of 15% or more. Remember the objective is encourage customers to spend more to save more.

4) Bundling – If you have inventory you would like to clear out, or have a new product that you want consumers to know about then consider creating a bundled gift package. You can increase the price overall and offer a unique gift idea.

Social media tips for promoting your incentives without looking like a spammer.

1) Craft your messages into 140 characters or less:
2) Include a “please retweet” or “send to a friend” in your message to encourage viral sharing.
3) Include a link to your website landing page with more details on the promotion. Make it handy for your customers to make a printout of your promotion that they can bring into your store.
4) Include promotion incentives during the online checkout process as a last minute impulse buy.

I encourage you to use social media this holiday season, not only will your customers appreciate the savings, I can guarantee you will have an advantage over your competitors.

Source: With Social Media, Who Needs Santa?.