So the world is becoming Twitter fanatics (including myself), following their favourite celebrities (I have to admit that I do this…@OllyOfficial), brands, latest news trends and of course tweeting for a response back, but how do you get so many followers?

It is obvious that celebrities or well established brands and individuals will gain a staggering amount of followers. We can all admit to watching X Factor at the weekend and in last night’s vote off show, Take That singer and the new ‘Simon Cowell’ X FACTOR judge, Gary Barlow sent out his first tweet in during the xtra Factor show and gained over 2000 new followers within seconds.

Gary’s tweet was sent out around 10pm last night (9^th October) and now has 287, 514 followers, in which I would like to contribute to!

Now, obviously, we can’t all achieve this in such a short space of time, but here are a few tips to help you get started!

• Share relevant information to your followers – who are trying to target? If you’re a business, tweet messages that are key to what you do.
• Tweet interesting messages and information that can gain a response and not pointless posts –

People don’t want to know this!

• Post fresh content including videos, images,  blogs, press releases etc… This can gain a response and will appear on the respondents Twitter feed, therefore give you more attention.
• Join in with conversations. You would in a normal everyday setting, why not online too? Getting yourself known is a good way to gain followers!
• Re-tweet relevant/ interesting articles, blogs and put a reply with it.

• Tell the world what you think about what has been said whether its industry news or any latest news.
• Get involved with #FollowFriday (#ff) and respond back to those who mention you in a #ff.
• Be witty and humorous with your tweets, keep your followers interested. They are more likely to respond back to you or re-tweet to their followers.
• Try keep the number of people you’re following below how many followers you have (shows you’re not too keen or desperate for followers).

Hope this helps to kick start your Twitter followers numbers!



The London riots are into its third night and spreading across UK cities such as, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham like a disease. But how did it get so out of control?

What began as a rioting protest in Tottenham, North London after a police shooting on Thursday 4^th August, killing Mark Duggan. Social Media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been strongly accused of spurring these riots into what can only be described by the nation as ‘Anarchy’. A Facebook page was created to remember the victim ‘R.I.P. Mark Duggan’, but certain posts were alerted.

“Please upload any pictures or video’s you may have from tonight in Tottenham. Share it with people to send the message out as to why this has blown into a riot.”

Twitter feeds began to publicly display where the rioters were heading next, whilst uploading photos and videos of looting and burning police cars. Could Twitter have been a warning to the public and police about these unsociable attacks on the Capital?

With the activity on Twitter being publically displayed, Blackberry Messenger became the popular option to communicate between rioters.  One BBM reading:

“Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!)…… Dead the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother… SALUT! if you see a fed… SHOOT!

Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Steve Kavangh argued that, Twitter held the primary blame for organising levels of ‘greed and criminality’.

With Twitter being blamed for this ‘war zone’, Scotland Yard tweeted that, over the next 24 hours, 13,000 police officers will be on duty in London. Controversial?

Editing tweets on Twitter is as serious as the recent phone hacking. One tweet read –

AshleysAR ‘I hear Tottenham’s going coco-bananas right now. Watch me roll’, after a top UK Newspaper had edited it, published by the BBC. It should have read -

‘I hear Tottenham’s going coco-bananas right now. Watch me roll up with a spud gun :/’. So how was Twitter to blame? It wasn’t. It was misleading. According to the BBC, experts fear the extent to which technology is to blame may have been overstated.

In fact, Twitter and Facebook has brought the nation together in supporting the victims and wanting to put a stop this indecent mayhem #prayforlondon #staysafe. Twitter account @riotcleanup has attracted over 18,000 followers and aiding to coordinate cleanups around the badly hit London areas. Other Twitter users were using the #riotcleanup to arrange meet ups and help clean the areas surrounding their homes. There is little evidence to suggest that these out of control riots were orchestrated by on Social Media public feeds.

The Metropolitan Police have uploaded recent photos from the London riot onto Flickr in an attempt to identify looters.

The public have been advised to contact the police or Crimestoppers if they know of anyone rioting on the streets, 0800 555 111.

Social Media is becoming more and more a part of day to day life. This is true for Social Media within business. Businesses are now finding more and more ways to make social media work for them.

Over the next 10 blog posts we will outline what we believe are the top 10 social media networks for businesses (in no particular order).
For any questions about how you can use social media for your business feel free to get in touch with us- marketing@11outof10.com

1. WordPress

2. Twitter

3. Technorati

4. Skype

5. LinkedIn

6. Foursquare

7. Flickr

8. Facebook

9. Delicious

10. Digg

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows its users to send and read other short messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page. Users can ‘follow’ each other to see what the other user is tweeting about if they find what they have to say particularly interesting. Users often include links in their tweets to pages or articles they find interesting, but they may also include links to pictures they have taken and wish to share with people. Twitter has a feature on it called Hashtags. Hashtags allow the user to put there Tweet into a category along with other Tweets that contain that hashtag. For example: if a user were to tweet saying “I like cake #food@”, there Tweet would be shown in a category with other tweets that contain the food hashtags. If a hashtag or phrase is used often enough then it starts to ‘trend’. This means that it will be shown to all users of Twitter as a popular topic, encouraging other Twitter users to contribute to it.

Twitter is useful for a business as it allows them to appeal to another platform. They can use Twitter to post news and updates about their business that they wish to share with others, getting maximum exposure using hashtags. Hashtags can be particularly useful for a business who wishes to appeal to a certain location, for example a business who sells brushes to people from Stockport may include the hashtag #Stockport, to ensure that it directly appeals to people who are interested in Stockport. Businesses on Twitter can also follow other businesses in order to get information about them and how they deal, but also to show clearly what industry they are in. This can mean that the company that sells brushes will follow other Twitter users that make brushes or Twitterers that give advice on using brushes.

Our tip when using Twitter for your business is to use hashtags as often as possible to get more exposure. Also try following people that will follow you back, this will also help to boost the number of followers and therefore the amount of exposure your Twitter feed gets.

Should footballers be allowed on Twitter?

Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms around at the moment and because of this it has attracted the highest calibre of user in the form of some of Britain’s highest paid professional footballers. The likes of Rio Ferdinand, Cesc Fabregas and Robbie Savage are all frequent users and ‘tweeters’ on the site and have amassed thousands of followers each. Now not only do they have to manage their on the pitch behaviour they also have to be careful with what they say online. This was brought abruptly home to Ryan Babel in recent news.

After the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United the Liverpool player was obviously frustrated and posted an image of referee Howard Webb wearing a Man United shirt. This was the reaction to the loss of the game which, had it been done by any fan would have been seen as a joke and nothing more would of been thought of it. However due to the public position that footballers have on Twitter and in general, the FA felt the only suitable thing to do would be to fine Babel a £1,000 and warn him on his future conduct.

Twitter has however also been used to show the lighter side of some footballers. Rio Ferdinand often tweets about his family and jokes showing another side to the stereotypical playboy footballer.

It must be said that this problem is not just confined to footballers. Anybody can ‘misuse’ twitter, for instance some companies have been caught using inappropriate hashtags in order to get more exposure for their brand. The difference is that footballers are often seen as role models to younger people and need to carry themselves as such, something that is often forgotten when using social media.

This problem of footballers using social media and twitter in order to vent anger or frustration is something managers are struggling to contain. Managers are keen to control this problem as when a footballer speaks out it can often impact the image of the club. This is something Steve Cotteril is trying to combat at Portsmouth, where he has told players that he will fine them £1,000 every word they Tweet. This is excessive treatment perhaps but it may keep the players in line.

It is important to remember these things when using Twitter for anyone, as an impression you give on Twitter can have a huge impact on many things therefore it is key to think about any repercussions that your tweet could have for you and your employer.

Pick that one out of the net!

#Hashable

As social media spreads further and further a new development has come about that allows you to use social media to keep track of real world interactions using hashtags.

Hashable uses hashtags to allow you to keep track of what you have been doing but also allows you to describe interactions. This could come in the form of the #intro tag. This allows you to introduce two people. This would send an email to both of the parties or could notify them on Twitter telling them a connection has been made. For example “#Intro @MattOrmrod @SimonParsonage you two are both in the Manchester area.” This would introduce the two contacts to each other and allow them to start a dialogue. This is especially useful in the business world where it may be useful to introduce two contacts that both deal in the same field but are unaware of the assistance they could provide each other.

Other ways that the Hashable could be used could be to structure meetings. For example ‘ Heading to a #meeting with James’ would notify James that the user was heading towards a meeting with them but would also allow the user to look back on what they had been doing at that particular time.

Hashable will be a great tool in assisting people to add structure to and monitor their offline interactions. Much like the check-in tool on the Facebook application for mobile devices, it will allow people to inform others what they are doing and where they are while they are on the go.

Hashable will also soon support iPhone app connections allowing it to be used on the go. This could be useful for a professional if they are away from the office all day they would still be able to keep track of their interactions.

Users will be rewarded with points known as ‘Hashcred’ every time they interact such as making an introduction or attending a meeting etc. The users who have the most ‘Hashcred’ will be ranked in a leaderboard and superusers will be highlighted in the ‘top connectors’ section.

Twitter users already tweet about their interactions such as going for meals or having meetings. Hashables aim is to gather this information and structure the data for individual and global insight.

Growing trends in Social Media have prompted businesses to actively join social networks in an attempt to reach their customers and increase sales. As many companies have found it isn’t easy to make money from social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube if you don’t have a strong foundation and clear strategy. Most companies have joined the social media revolution without a clear strategy and goals for their campaigns.

A development in social media marketing will allow brands to market their products effectively on social media platforms with tangible results, this is called Social Commerce.
Social Commerce is the adaption of e-commerce functionality to social media platforms that encourages social interactions and sharing of online products or services.

The main benefits of making your products available on social media platforms are:

• Revenue generation – customer acquisition and customer retention.
• Product Development – develop your brand, products and services to your customers needs.
• Relative low cost – there is a relative low cost attached to social networking compared to the more conventional marketing methods.
• Gain Feedback – evaluate the success of services, marketing campaigns and promotions through poll’s and surveys.
• Identify brand advocates – find people who promote your brand or products online and reward them.
• Reputation management – protect and develop your brand reputation.
• Create a community – you can gather people who are interested in your brand, industry, etc.
• Sharing is caring – if customers are happy with your product or service they can share them with their own social network across many platforms.

Facebook is the strongest platform for social commerce growth at this stage due to its popularity and flexibility for developers. 11 Out Of 10 have developed a new innovation with e-commerce clients called a “Facebook Shop” that has proved popular for brands such as Faith in Nature. As you can see below the products are clearly displayed for the user to buy and share products with their network.

As technology continues to advance at an accelerated rate and social media platforms become more flexible and popular social commerce will undoubtedly grow as non threatening purchasing environment for on line consumers.