I can reach in to a proverbial “hat” of web posts and pull out dozens about Twitter Best Practices. In an effort to prevent from having to repeat myself, I’ve linked to a few below written by trusted industry leaders (linkbait anyone). The idea behind using Twitter best practices is that you are a business or person who wants to create a community to share and improve your brand. Before you can do this you have to figure out who you are; The Leader, The Follower or The Zombie.

• The Art of Writing an Effective Twitter Profile by Zach Braiker
• Guy Kawasaki: Twitter As a Tool for Social Media by Lisa Barone
• How To Manage Twitter by Chris Brogan
• 20 Must Read Beginner Twitter Tips for Small Business Owners by Mark Hayward

A common question that always seems to come up among friends or colleagues is “You’re surrounded by zombies and you can choose only one weapon, what is it?” A lot of people go for the shotgun but you have to realize that you’re eventually going to run out of ammo. The next choice is usually a sword or machete. How does this apply to Twitter? Well…

In any chaotic post-apocalyptic world where citizens are threatened by brain eating zombies (social network), you have individuals who set themselves apart as authorities. These people lead us and motivate us to keep the community alive. Everyone else are followers or zombies. The follower should not carry a negative stereotype, however. Followers are good, with out followers we wouldn’t have leaders. Followers are the backbone of any community and should be considered extremely important. Zombies on the other hand are lifeless beings existing only to feed off everyone else. This is especially true on Twitter.

Let’s start by asking: “Why Are You On Twitter”. The answer is usually one of the following five answers.

1. Your friends, family or celebrity crush is on Twitter and you need to know what it’s all about
2. You’ve been on Twitter for a while, tweet about being bored in a doctor’s office or what crazy thing your kid is doing but haven’t really figured it all out yet
3. You’re a business owner or representative and are on Twitter to deliver important content, answer questions and increase reach to your customers or clients
4. You’re a professional and have something to offer to the world (or at least you think you do) and you want to be apart of a community of like minded tweeps
5. You’re a spammer and want to sell, drive traffic or eat brains

You’re probably not a 5 because I don’t think Zombies can read.

1′s and 2′s welcome to Twitter, I hope you enjoy your stay.

3′s and 4′s I want to tell you a secret. Being on Twitter or any social network isn’t about gaining as many followers, fans or friends as possible. It’s about creating a community where active users can be engaged and gain something of value you from you, share that information with their community and create advocates of your brand. I would choose to have a small number of active users with strength and authority in their community over 10′s of thousands of zombies following me.

This is a point I try to make to all my clients and students. Tweeps who are desperate to increase their followers by any means possible aren’t providing any value or substance to you or anyone else. They’re greedy and eager to reach a rather pointless goal, because they believe this is what makes you an authority. The truth is that anything worth doing is done over time with a lot of effort. These Zombies only act to create more zombies. By following them and countless others you lose sense of what’s real, start aimlessly wondering the universe and gain and give nothing.

There are of course exceptions to any rule. However I fear a Twitterverse where everyone is speaking and no one is listening.

So what’s your favorite Zombie weapon? I like http://topify.com they make it easy to kill zombie followers right from your email account. If @topify isn’t available for some reason I’m a big fan of a riding mower!

In the last 24 hours I have witnessed and participated in 3 online blogging contests. Contests are always fun but they are really powerful too. Lets take a look.

We all know the power of social media networking and it’s ability to go viral. We also know it’s not easy to get people talking and working for you. This is where contests come in. We can offer something of value in exchange for a little bit of work and interaction.

Mashable is having a contest right now giving away a free pass to Demo 09 worth $2,995. All they ask for you to participate is to post a comment, which finishes this sentence: “I’d like to attend the DEMO 09 emerging technology conference because…”

This is not particularly difficult. It requires you to spend a few moments being creative. Writing something intelligent with a mix of goofy and a bit of sucking up and poof you have a comment.

Melanie Nathan just opened the doors to her new blog, Canadian SEO. After introducing herself, the blog and talking a bit about what she does she offered up a small contest.

“And now, in the interest of keeping things er, interesting…. I’ll be picking one commenter below by end of day Friday, to receive a fun-filled Canadian themed prize package. Hmmm. What *ever* could it be???”

Again all you have to do is post a comment. This prize package is probably not valued at $3,000 like the Mashable contest but it still invokes a challenge in us. It’s fun and interesting and I want to be apart of it. Even if all I get is a mini Canadian flag and some maple syrup.

The third contest was by SuccessFool to name his company. You get to create the company name and suggest the domain name to be purchased. The rules ask you to submit by commenting on the site like the other two. The prize is free consulting and free access to a $997 Coaching Program.

We have a competition ingrained in every fiber of our being. We want to compete, we want a challenge and we want to WIN! These contests are a simple way to motivate people to travel to your site, learn something and commit to an otherwise daunting task of getting them to interact.

Commenting is by far the most important form of interaction a user can perform on your site. The comments area of your post is the outlet for discussion and the spreading of your “word”. This is especially important when you have a new business, site or project.

SuccessFool is creating interest in his SEO business before it’s even started. Melanie has immediate new visitors to her site. Mashable, while well established will be gaining new visitors and new discussions about their site.

The benefits are clear, new readership, discussions, spreading the word, increasing brand recognition, motivating and sparking interest in your users, it goes on and on. Lets talk about taking it to a new level.

As we’ve seen contests have the power to spark new interest in your site. What about link building and community building?

Motivating users to join your site and social networks can be difficult. If you are offering a great product, quality content or a premiere service you will gain a following, eventually. What if I want followers and I want them now?

An idea that has been implemented with success is a competition where you award the individual with the best social networking, link building and content sharing abilities.

For this example lets offer a free $1,000 gift certificate to whatever product you sell. Ask users to become a member of your site to join the contest. As a member you can participate by gaining points, each point is equal to 1 digital raffle ticket. Obviously the more points you get the more likely you are to win. Here’s the fun part, you gain points by joining a facebook group, talking about the site on twitter, writing a post on your blog, etc… Different items will have different point values. Joining a group might be worth 1 point but writing a post with a link could be worth 10 points.

This is just one type of contest. There are several others out there going on right now. The guys from IM Broadcast have a competition going on for a free seat to IM Spring Break. Where you write a post on your blog about why you want to attend IM Spring Break followed by a list of linkbacks to other sites. This is a meme and a great idea!

Do you have any fun contest ideas, if so lets hear them below.

We all know that Twitter has a ton of uses whether it’s an RSS Feed, IM client, Email Service, or a Chat Room. Recently I was able to use Twitter to take out a Classified to fill a position at Neal Advertising.

@professor – Looking for a strong designer with a good flash background. If you live in RI you’ll be able to telecommute. Great opportunity great Co. 8:14 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web

6 minutes later…

@jasonnarciso – @professor This is interesting… care to elaborate? 8:20 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web in reply to professor

20 minutes later…

@professor – @jasonnarciso My company is looking for a designer w/ flash experience To design sites and develop monthly flash sites. Great co to work for 8:39 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to jasonnarciso

2 days later…

@professor – On my way to conduct an interview and then teach my night class. 3:39 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

@professor – I’m at Blakes in downtown Providence waiting for a 5:30 appointment if you are near by come join me for a beer. 4:31 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

After 2 weeks notice…

@jasonnarciso – Just returned from an Apple store trip for new home office accessories. As if I really needed an excuse. 3:57 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from web

Neal Advertising is located in Danvers, MA about 2 hours away from my home office in Warwick, RI. I was looking for someone to fill a web designer position. If they lived near Danvers they’d work in the office other wise I wanted that person close to me in RI to work from home. Jason Narciso a.k.a. @jasonnarciso was the first response I received about the position. I had received a few others and my original tweet had been RT’d a few times as well. Jason was the perfect fit for the job and it didn’t take long to figure that out.

Jason and I knew each other from mutual friends but never had the pleasure to work together. We met for our Interview at a bar in Providence, RI. After seeing Jason’s work I knew he was the right guy for the job but I had to make sure he would fit into the Neal Advertising culture. Soon after our interview he went up to Danvers to meet the rest of the crew and have an additional interview. I joined the meeting via Skype. Jason was hired with in days and joined us after his 2 weeks notice. Jason has made a great addition to the team and continues to do great work.

Thanks Twitter!!!