However, how you “tweet” really determines how successful the microblogging site will be for your home business. Here are some of the things that may get you unfollowed just as quickly as you were followed:

Constant Tweeting about your own business – Sure you are on Twitter to promote your home business but if all you ever tweet is “10% xxx for zz weeks” or “get your xxx here” then people will quickly become bored and hit the unfollow button. There is nothing wrong with promotional tweets but mix them in with actual interesting content people want to read.

Automatic Direct Messages – A bad way to get off on the right foot on a social media site. Someone is interested enough to follow you and all they get in return is a canned response? Not very friendly. With an application like Hootsuite it is easy to keep track of your new followers and it takes less than 30 seconds to just craft and send a quick, but personalized, hi message.

Just Links – Where does that bit.ly link actually lead? In an age where nasty spam and viruses are everywhere no one is going to click a link that may lead anywhere. Take the time to explain what the link is and why your readers should be interested.

Mixing Business with Pleasure in Public – When you make dinner plans on the phone or by email you only contact those who are actually invited. This logic seems to fall apart on Twitter with many people believing any communication on Twitter should be broadcast to the world.

You may have spent days, weeks even months building your home business website. Your analytics tell you it is receiving a steady amount of traffic, yet your actual sales are not going up too high. Before you blame the product look at the way your site is set up. You have no guarantee those who surfed to your site will ever return again, so you may have only one shot at capturing their long term interest in your company by grabbing their email address.

Every home business, whatever it is, can offer something for free. A white paper, a report, a fun little newsletter, the possibilities are endless. All a visitor to your website has to do is share their email address with you willingly to receive their freebie. Once you have this email you can morally send out further updates, product promotions and the like and you will not be spamming the consumer.

Follow up is a crucial element for any home business to be successful. For instance, say you run a home based bridal favors business. A woman surfs to your site because she is recently engaged, looking for ideas, but not ready to purchase anything for a few months yet. If you can persuade her to share with you her email address you can send her regular updates and interesting tidbits so that when she is ready to begin wedding planning in earnest the chances are that your company will still be in the forefront of her mind.

The same concept can be applied to almost any home business venture and the difference it can make to your bottom line can be incredible.

As usual, content is king – Before you begin creating the categories and topic areas for your new forum think carefully about what your target audience’s interests really are. Begin with the most pressing and popular issues then expand as your forum grows.

Look lively – Few people will post on to what looks like a “dead” forum, even though they may lurk around it.  Many internet entrepreneurs begin by seeding their own forums by creating multiple personas to get the conversation going. Such activity can be very successful but stop once real people begin to chime in.

Issue a press release – Issuing a well crafted press release about the launch of your new forum is another way to attract interest. There are a number of fairly good free press release services available online, many of which will let you target your news directly to your chosen audience demographic.

Make sure bots can find you – Some forum software requires the use of an additional plug in just to allow search engine bots to crawl and index the content.  In order to be a success your forum needs to be showing up in the search results so make sure that is going to happen before you get up and running.

Offer Incentives – Offer an incentive of some sort for users to sign up and participate rather than just browse and lurk. This can be as simple as a small competition or sweepstakes drawing and the “prizes” need not cost you a fortune.

Go Viral – Once you have active forum members talking to one another encourage them to tell their friends. Again, some kind of small incentive will work well especially since the power of viral marketing should never be underestimated.

Are slow sales inhibiting your business? Shift to Inbound/Permission Based Marketing Techniques when older methods do not work!

Is the economy slowing your sales and holding back your business? Then try newer Inbound/Permission Based Marketing Techniques if the older methods do not work!

Cold calling, telemarketing, e-mail campaigns, direct mail, etc., are known as Outbound or interruption based marketing. Bombarded and time challenged consumers and businesses fight back with their defensive do not disturb me mode. They use protective shields (spam filters, voice mail screening, etc.) and guard against your attack methods.

You must adopt to these change in buying patterns if you will survive these trying times. People search for information and answers to questions. People gather information when they are ready to and at times convenient to them. This is especially true of more affluent and higher educated people.

Consumers more and more turn to the WEB, for their answers. Why? Because it is open 24/7/365. Consumers scour Websites, blogs,forums, reviews and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Twitter and other broadcasting means send out information almost as fast as it happens.

Adopt to this newer Web success key. Use Inbound or permission based marketing, defined as being at the right place at the right time. Or, have information about your company, its products and services, ready for the next Web search query. Make it easier for your prospects to find you. Prepare your site for free results through Google searches. Then get your self recognized blogging, article marketing, video marketing, press releases, etc.

Michael Yublosky combines 30+ years of professional consultative sales experience coupled with sales and marketing management, training, coaching/mentoring experience. He also teaches at the adult education level. In addition, Michael is a do-it-yourself, self taught Web master and E-marketer. His latest accomplishment is sharing his knowledge for similarly minded business solopreneurs. Yublosky’s free information and tips can be viewed at his DIY Web E-Marketing site. Michael offers additional interesting tips at his E-Marketing blog.

With that out of the way, we can discuss how we get people on your email list. Your customers need a benefit for themselves before they will be willing to give you their email address. Depending on your business, that could be essentially anything. As an example for this article, let’s say you own a homemade candy shop.
On your website, you should display an important message for your potential customers, which could say something like this: “For our free weekly newsletter and to receive notifications of candy presentations, tastings or other exclusive events, please leave us your email address.”
People like to see the word “free” and to be spoken to in a conversational tone because they are people after all. They also like to be dazzled by special things they’ll receive, so be sure to explain this in your opt-in message. This message is important because after they take action, it will give you their consent to have their email and permission to send them things related to your business in the form of a newsletter.
Use a suitable email program. There are more than you can imagine that are available, but one of the most well-liked is called Constant Contact. It helps you to measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign by tracking the number and percentage of opened email, the number of forwarded emails, opt-outs, and clicks on interior links. Not only that, but there are quite a lot of different templates to choose from if you’d like to give your newsletter a polished, professional feel to it. Aweber is also up there in popularity. If you are interested in finding more programs to choose from, just Google “email marketing programs.”

With your email marketing approach, don’t bombard your customers with the “hard sell” mentality. This will start you off on the wrong foot. Instead, offer them something of value without asking for anything from them. Educate them on the history of your business, special discounts or even a free eBook related to your industry. Just think of some form of information that they may not know. Going back to the candy shop example, maybe you could send customers tips on storing certain candies or even a simple kid’s recipe for chocolate lollipops.
When they relate to your emails in a personal way, loyalty is born. With loyalty, increased sales AND profits can present themselves. Make them feel even more special by offering discounts to them since they are on your email list. This may also spark the possibility of having a long-term business relationship with them.

T I P:
In each of your newsletters, be sure to discuss new events happening in your business or a fresh product launching soon. You will gain trust from your audience and your customers will look to you as an expert on this business and topic. This is very valuable because you will be able to give out your newsletter which will have a specific product highlighted in it that they should purchase from you.

Some others to try:
Vertical Response

Template Zone

Infusion Soft

iContact