About Chris Voss (@chrisvoss) Business Consultant

Over time I have come to respect Chris for his knowledge regarding social media and his desire to help people.

Chris Voss has been a CEO, built, managed and invested in over 22 Corporations in differing fields of industry for over 20 years.

His experience of Business Ownership and Controlling Interest Investments range from: Mortgage, Real Estate, Stock Markets, Investing, Mall Retailing, Computers, Clothing Lines, Talent Agencies, Courier Companies, Personnel Companies, Telemarketing Call Centers, Construction, Pay Per Call Industry, Club Promotions, Social Media, etc.

At 18, he started his first company. In 1992, with a mere $2000, he started his first Multi-Million Dollar producing company, that ran for over 13 years. A year later, with $4000, he started his second Multi-Million Dollar company that still operates today. After that he oversaw 3 Companies simultaneously, while building and investing in over 22 different companies.

He is proficient in most all aspects of Business Management, Operations, Start-Ups, Sales, Motivation, Training and overseeing thousands of Employees. He brings Vision to a Business.in his ability to "think outside the box."He can innovate outside the paradigms of a company's self-limiting belief systems. Given his breadth of diversity he can assimilate a business quickly and assess its good and weak points. In one case, he took over a company going into bankruptcy, turned it around, saved it from bankruptcy.

A successful Entrepreneur of Multi-Million Dollar Companies, he's consulted people and business' alike on a wide range of Business and Personal Life issues. On Twitter his advice is followed by over 100,000 people and growing. He is in the 1200 of the Top Twitter people followed out of and estimated 20+ million users daily He has become the Social Media Marketing Expert other "experts' call for help.

He currently writes a blog, The Chris Voss Show, in which many of his market predictions come into play. He predicted the current recession in 2007 and that it would be the worst since the Great Depression.

A Statement from Chris:

I want to reach out to all the new people on Twitter and those who follow only a few people. This is a post for you.

Twitter is a tremendous resource of information, that is amazing and interesting. Personally, Twitter has changed mine and other peoples worlds. I’ve found amazing programs and information that has helped me and my business’. Since the information comes to me, I can pick and choose my interests or search for them. Unfortunately, many people leave Twitter in the first 30 days, because many of people dont “get” Twitter.

“David Martin, vice president of primary research for research analyst firm Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog that Twitter has a retention rate of around 40 percent, which means that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stop using the service a month after joining in.”

I like many joined, left and came back. Heres the thing, to really enjoy Twitter and its vast resources: YOU NEED TO FOLLOW AT LEAST 2000 PEOPLE. Now I know that sounds like a lot of work, but with my training resources (see below) you can be following 2000 people in 48 hours, taking only 15 minutes of your day. Like any great tool you need an owners guide to help you, otherwise your just clawing in the dark wondering why you dont understand Twitter.

The challenge with only following a small smattering of people is you miss out on most of the great resources. Big fish that chat alot like me, seem to take up alot of your small stream, even though it is some of the best you can find on Twitter. I lose alot of small accounts because I become the 800 lb gorilla on their stream. If they would more people, they would enjoy twitter more and not notice my chat as much even though its filled with great stuff to help you enjoy Twitter.

The other way to enjoy Twitter is to go out and make friends search out people with similar resources to your own and add them as followers.

The bottom line is its tough to really enjoy Twitter unless you get a few thousand followers. I want to offer my resources to you so please feel free to email me with questions you have and I will try to help you along. you can also Tweet me a question in my stream and I’ll try to answer it. My Email is Chrisvoss11@gmail.com

Be sure to check out my training resources below – Twitter is super popular and will continue to be trendy, don't be “that person” who doesn't get it. Enjoy it now.

• One on One Training for Twitter / Social Media
• Click here to check out: My Webinar & Video Series
• Click here to check out: My Latest E-Books & Videos
• My PERSONAL System to TWITTER Mass Followers &
• Semi-Automating Social Media! VIDEO & E-BOOKS:

Social Media – how to grow your following and friends!

Social Media – how to grow your following/friends!

I have gotten many questions especially on twitter about how do you build a big following. The answer is simple – know why you are using the form of social media. While this material is applicable to most any form of social media this particular post focuses on twitter.

People often get frustrated because they start out and do not have hundred of people following them and as a result some quit, some get frustrated and others become negative and yet the answer is sort of simple – looking are your material – would you follow yourself?

So you want a big following – here is the first thing you here?

Is it

• To learn about different people and cultures around the world?
• To promote your business or personal brand?
• To share what is going on in your life with your friends?
• To problem solve with your peers?
• To keep track of the news and politics?
• Other?

Once that question is answered you can build a simple strategy around it
Lets assume you are here to build your business brand.

• What is your business?
• Who is talking about the things of interest to you?
• Are you tweeting them?
• Are you following them?
• When they share something profound are you retweeting them?
• Do you share new and current events that you find interesting and that impact your business?
• What would other people gain by following you?
• Are you communicating well?

A dynamic to consider is twitter is global and fully democratic – people can opt to or not to follow you based on if they personally feel you bring them value. This value is determined by the follower be it your style, conversation or information you share. Next combine that with the fact that you have 100s of countries and thus different cultures and languages. While Tweetdeck and others programs allow you to translate you should still have a working understanding of that language and as well as the culture to ensure you what you communicate is received as intended.

So, here is a simple step by step

1. sign up for the social networking site – like twitter
2. search for people who have similar interests and engage them
3. Follow or connect with those people
4. Retweet or share information that they provide that you find interesting because others may also
5. Respond to those who make a direct quest of you
6. Use tools to like truetwit.com or what ever works for you to cut down on robots and spam followers
7. Listen and pay attention to what the people communicating with you are saying
8. Conduct yourself in a manner to respect those you interact with
9. Repeat steps 2-8

Granted they are people who simply say follow or indicate these people but the question is why would anyone want to. On twitter I would tell anyone feel free to follow 99% of my followers because each has something unique to offer ranging from business insights, cultural insights, food, motivation, wellness and health, community development, poetry, spoken word – it all depends on what you are looking for.

Here are some tools that will help you along with some background on my stream to help you along
http://search.twitter.com/ - Twitter search
http://seesmic.com/ - Seemeic
http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ - Tweet Deck
http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup - blackberry twitter clients
http://theappleblog.com/2008/12/03/12-twitter-apps-for-the-iphone/ - iPhone twitter clients

Here are some sample search results
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=social+media – Social Media
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=health - Health
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=relationships - Relationships
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=marketing - Marketing
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=business – Business
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=poetry – Poetry
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=movies - Movies

As for what I base this post on or if I am even qualified to offer suggestions – simply review my stats and decide for yourself these suggestion have merit
http://twittercounter.com/lspearmanii
http://twitter.grader.com/lspearmanii
http://twitteranalyzer.com/ms.aspx?userId=lspearmanii
http://mrtweet.com/lspearmanii?me=

Here is a link to various tools to help - http://mashable.com/2008/05/24/14-more-twitter-tools/ - Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

On Dec 20, 2008 I had 149 followers and I think I can safely say I consistently have more than 1000 now. Each followed me for different reasons – reasons as unique as they are and I respect each one of then. Also I learn a little something everyday from each of them so it is not

Granted could have posted trick and other strategies to build a large following but that is not a secure one – you want people who have a genuine interest in you. In summary – you have to answer why you are doing what you are doing and then set a plan in motion and your following will grow.

As for my followers - I recommend 99% of them - they discuss topics ranging from community development, poety, technology, business, politics, law, ethics, motivation, spoken word and a myrid of other interesting topis.

If you have any questions or need further detail feel free to contact me directly

What are the Twitter Elite?

These users have earned respect and admiration for having the highest Twitter Grade. Their power and reach in the twitter community is a whole lot of awesomeness.

By the way, you can also see the twitter elite in a specific location

Twitter is all the rage as illustrated in this report on the State of the Twittersphere report.  The information in this report is based on data from Twitter Grader.

Twitter Grader is a tool that measures the authority and reach of a twitter user.  It has really taken off since it’s introduction a few months ago.  The software has now graded over 900,000 individual twitter accounts and gets used over 20,000 times a day.  The Twitter Grade is a score from 0–100 based on the power and authority of a twitter user.  It is used to build the Twitter Elite list — a compilation of the top twitter users.  (We also generate a list of the top twitter users by keyword and by geographic location).

The Twitter Grader algorithm has withstood a fair degree of scrutiny — exacerbated by the fact that the rankings generated don’t always agree with some other “top user” lists that rank purely on the number of followers.  But, one factor in the algorithm that has generated some debate is the reduction in grade that occurs when a given twitter user has a low follower:following ratio.  This is when (on a relative basis) a user has a lower (or equal) number of followers than the number of people they are following.  Stated different, on average, users who are following a bunch of people get a lower grade (all other things being equal).  The common complaint about this is “why would you penalize users that are following other users — doesn’t that go against the spirit of social media sites like twitter?”.  This is a fair question.  And, I have a reasonably fair answer:  One of the surest signals of a low-authority twitter account is that it has a very low follower/following ratio.  Using the follower:following ratio in the algorithm works great — except when it doesn’t.  Like when power users  like Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) don’t make it into the Top 100 list.  Clearly, there was something wrong with the algorithm.  Guy’s a highly connected, highly engaged, highly authoritative twitter user (and I’d say that even if I wasn’t a raving fan, which I am).

The problem is, it can be a bit difficult to tell the difference between a spammy twitter account that is using automated follows and a high quality, authoritative account.  It took some near-sleepless nights, but, I think I’ve finally figured it out.  Finally, the Twitter Grader algorithm has been improved.  Significantly.  In addition to the existing factors, Twitter Grader now looks at the degree of engagement a given twitter user has.  It looks at how well a given user is fostering conversations in the twitter community.  Clearly, Guy is really, really good at fostering conversations.  So, Guy is back on the Twitter Grader elite list of top 100 twitter users, where he belongs.  So are a bunch of other powerful twitter users — and a few new surprises. 

If you’re a power user on twitter and think your grade and ranking was too low before, please try it again.  And, if you’ve got ideas for how we might improve the software and make it more useful, please leave a comment. And, if you’re looking for me , you can find me @onstartups.  (Oh, and for the record, my Twitter Grade dropped a lot after this algorithm update — which is also as it should be).