Monday 30 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 8 ... meet the Boss

     The "boys" as someone affectionately called them were a strange bunch. A mix of nationalities and ages with people from Ireland, the US, UK, South Africa, Australia and even Zimbabwe. Altogether with me included there were 14 of us.

     Even though Dongying is as I said before a fishing village transformed only in the last decade or two into a city it had at the time the biggest Shane English school in China. The secret was oil. During the 80's oil was discovered nearby and since then the area has become the second largest oil field in China and as such bee catapulted into mega rich status.

     Villagers made rich is a pretty good description of the place actually and like all the locals who have flooded the city in recent years the foreigners too have come seeking riches and a good time. Even though I was going to be working with these guys and I had just had dinner with them Tony forbade me from going out on the town with them. When I asked him why he didn't seem too inclined to answer just telling me I "needed sleep".

     So after a brief round of hellos it was back off to my lonely little hotel room and an early start planned for the morning. The next day was going to be a big one with a talk from the manager, shopping for basic necessities with Tony and a tour of the school and city.

     After what turned out to be a surprisingly good sleep I headed out the next morning to meet my new, and so far rather mysterious, boss. So across the main road we went (a scary challenge for a novice) and into a rather nondescript building on the other side. The building we entered looked old but as I was to find out it wasn't really it seems buildings in Dongying just start to look old the second they are built.

     Up 4 flights of stairs and through a weird metal door into a tiny office space crammed with boxes and paper we went. Here in amongst all of the flashcards, books and cassettes (yes real honest to god cassettes) was Summer my manager. Summer turned out to be a short, petite middle aged woman with as I now recall the strongest grip I have ever felt.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Sunday 29 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 7 ... enter the other misfits

     I am still, to this day, not really sure what I was expecting when it came time to meet my fellow wanderers and misfits. I think somewhere I had the impression of them as people who just wanted to do something different. That maybe they would be tied together by the bond of choosing uncertainty and adventure over calm certainty.

     In some ways I was disappointed but in others I was pleasantly surprised. Nowhere to be seen, at least in that initial meeting, was the drive to see the world differently I had in some naive way hoped for. Instead what I found was a general joyous abandon. Also at this first dinner I saw some of the gluing together of people who under other circumstances would not have given each other the time of day.

     An odd bunch indeed. It is strange to recount that this was less than 5 years ago, but even so recently China was a different place, especially in a backwater like Dongying. This was before Chairman Xi came and started his war on corruption, before the real drive began to make it more difficult for foreigners to enter the country. I say that it has become more difficult because it has but perhaps suggesting that it has been made that way is wrong. Instead I should say that all of the little loopholes have been closed and all the blind eyes turned now stare unblinking.

     Going back to that I myself had at this time not come into the country on a work visa but instead a tourist one. Admittedly I never worked illegally on that visa but to be honest you aren't supposed to, and can't now, have these visas changed over in country. There was a brief stage where people would duck off to Hong Kong or even Thailand to get it changed but even that now has gone by the wayside as in a later tale I am sure I will complain bitterly about.

     I digress however. This veritable mix of humanity sitting before me were to be my new colleagues, friends and only "real" contact with the world for the foreseeable future.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Saturday 28 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 6 ...Chasing Smoke

   As I am sure most of you know sitting in a hotel in a foreign country with no-one to talk to and nowhere really to go is pretty high on the list of most lonely experiences on earth. Sitting there though I had time to reflect on the enormity of the leap I had made. Unable to sleep despite being exhausted I took a quick shower and decided to go and see what I could find in my new home.

   Slightly worried about getting lost in a new city where I knew no-one I decided to stay close by the hotel. Just across the alley was a supermarket, always a great place to get a feel for local culture. In I headed determined to find something to eat and hopefully a packet of cigarettes to boost my dwindling supply.

   It didn't take me long to realise that even the simple task of buying a packet of smokes was going to be a bit of a chore. In China you see supermarkets don't sell cigarettes the way I was used to. Instead of simply going to the counter, deciding what I wanted and paying I had to go through something of a wild goose chase. When you buy certain items in a Chinese supermarket you go to the counter and decide what you want as usual but from there it gets odd. Instead of paying and getting your stuff you are given a receipt and sent off to another desk to pay. Coming back with the receipt you have to hand that in at the first desk before you get what you paid for.

   This doesn't seem all that difficult but when your understanding of the local language doesn't even reach to numbers it presents something of a challenge. Lots of hand gestures, scowls and a personal escort later I emerged feeling slightly dazed. At this point unbeknownst to me I was observed by my new boss, a woman who I was yet to meet. Seeing me wandering around slightly lost she quickly phoned Tony and sent him out to see if I needed any help.

   In response to this summons Tony, who always seemed short on time decided the best option was to deliver me into the hands of some of the resident foreigners and let them deal with me. So grabbing a cab we headed out to yet another restaurant to meet the rest of the guys.

  Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.  

Friday 27 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 5 ... and there was lunch

     There I was standing outside this "hole in the wall" restaurant after a journey that had at this point taken around 24 hours. Even though it was lunchtime locally and in fact was only mid afternoon in Australia I was feeling pretty washed out.

     Food and then a good sleep seemed like a great idea so in I wandered to find the by now almost mythical Tony. After sitting me down at a table in the back Tony proceeded to order what seemed like half the menu. Now I have eaten "Chinese" food in a few different countries but nothing quite prepared me for this. It took me a long time to find out most of the food available at restaurants in the west is not only southern style, which makes it very different from the food in the north, but that it is also changed to appeal to more western palates.

     Most of the dishes brought out were pretty good albeit slightly on the greasy side. Insects featured in one dish and a whole chicken, head still intact in another but I had eaten far worse and despite being stared at by a decapitated hen I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

     The discussion was kept light and Tony seemed to at least realize I was too worn out to care about getting down to business. Towards the end of the meal though he called the waitress over and ordered one more item. Now Baijiu (literally white alcohol) has a well deserved reputation amongst foreigners in China. I am sure at some point I will have an entire episode devoted to just that topic but for now just let me say that I will never, ever drink Baijiu again.

     In fact I have even gone so far as to tell people in China that I am allergic to alcohol just to avoid having to share a drink of the local brew. Perhaps this is the point too where I should state that if you don't drink or smoke, and you are a man, life can get complicated in China. On the other hand if you do and you are a woman it can be even worse.

     Needless to say I drank the stuff I was offered, a fact I would later regret. The fact that between us we managed to down an entire bottle of what turned out to be 40% alcohol (with no mixer) seemed to amuse Tony.

     Shortly after he took me across the street to the hotel I would be temporarily living out of until they found me an apartment. Grateful as I was I was still a little edgy about the place it wasn't for another couple of years that I would realize why. Only about 18 months after i stayed there the place was condemned and ripped down glad I was only there for a couple of days.

       Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Thursday 26 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 4 ... a journey into the unknown

     So there I was, I had wanted to get far away from my life in Australia a goal I think I had pretty much covered, despite possibly jumping in too far down the deep end.

     China is not, as many of my friends have since said, a completely different world but it really is unlike anywhere I had been before. Having done a fair amount of travel (I believe China was my 42nd country), I very quickly understood I had really gone out on a limb this time.

     If I had headed off to Beijing or Shanghai, or even along the southern coast I think the differences would have been mostly cosmetic. Instead I had chosen a "town" off the beaten track in Shandong in northern China. Now Dongying where I chose to live is not small, not by western standards anyway. In fact it is a bustling oil town of around two and a half million people. The thing to consider though is that not only is Shandong one of the oldest and most traditional of Chinese provinces but that Dongying itself had been a mere fishing village 20 years ago and to be honest in many ways it still is.

     Getting on a bus from Beijing to Dongying was, in a word, an experience. At this point I was surrounded by people who didn't speak a single word of English (beyond the ubiquitous "Hello"). To make matters just a little more stressful I had no contact with the outside world, no idea where I was and had not heard from Tony who was supposed to be picking me up.

     After a somewhat bewildering 6 hours or so I was dropped off at a dingy looking depot in a dirty looking city only to be picked up by a guy who's only real communication was "Tony tell me bring you". So, and I realize only now as I write this how stupid it sounds, I jumped in the back of his van and took my first real trip on inner city Chinese roads.

     Even being half asleep as I was at this point I believe I spent most of the trip white knuckled and sweating. Many people will tell you that the Chinese are scary drivers. As a nation though I have to say they are not that bad, they are very unpredictable but road rage seems basically non-existent beyond gratuitous use of horns and as a general rule they drive slower than many other countries.

     The guy I was unlucky enough to be picked up by though seemed to think he was on a racetrack somewhere not a crowded city street. Fortunately he did seem to know his stuff and after around 10, miraculously incident free, minutes he dropped me off outside a restaurant on a little side street off one of the main roads through town.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 3 ... don't try this at home

     The decision to up sticks and leave everything I had, not that it was much at that time, and head to China came in the end very quickly and as a shock even to me. I remember making the decision to get out of Oz but I never really decided where I was going to go.

     I went and did my TOEFL course and told my then boss I was getting ready to go. She was really good about it, in fact she was the best boss I've ever had in a lot of ways. I'd had some job offers mostly in Russia and South Korea but I had passed them up because as much as I like the sound of both I really just wanted to go completely off the beaten path.

     Coming home from work one night I got a call out of the blue. On the other end of a crackling line and in badly broken English there is a man offering me a job. Now most people, most sane people would have probably hung up at that point or at least been very, very wary. I however was apparently not having a sane day.

     After chatting with "Tony" for about 20 minutes not only had I agreed to take the job but I had promised to try and be in China within a week. Before I go any further I want to say that I really don't recommend trying this at home.

     Anyway a hectic 8 days later I was in China. Yes, I had literally taken a job sight unseen halfway across the world and headed out only a week later. A decision that would later prove to be both one of the best and one of the worst decisions of my life.

     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 2 ... the great escape

     So now you all know where I am, the question just remains as to how I got here. It is as with most strange stories a long one. So I am going to try and break it up a little. I also want to apologize in advance for the fact that I am probably not going to keep to any kind of chronological order.
Sometimes we need to express where we are before we get to how we got there and sometimes we can just explain the how without ever needing the where.

     The first part of our story I think needs to be a little bit about who I am, or at least what has made me the person I have come to be.

     I was born in Scotland, grew up in both Scotland and Australia and have traveled a fair bit in between. Most of that travel has been less a case of itchy feet and more a desperate attempt to find that hallowed place called home. Admittedly I have seen some amazing things in some even more amazing places and I wouldn't trade it now for the world but honestly at the time I wasn't out to see the world I was just looking for somewhere to settle down.

     Before I get cries of "but you are the luckiest person alive", I know that being allowed to live in Australia as well as the entirety of the EU is a blessing that many wish for. Australia is a wonderful country, equal measures of quirky and beautiful. The UK and especially my beautiful native land are safe, civilized and sane. All of that and more was open to me but strangely I never really felt at home.

     In fact only last year I had to return to Australia to get a work visa for China and spending a week in Melbourne made me more depressed than I had been in years. I don't want you to think this is the fault of Melbourne or of Australia as a whole. It is as the old line says "not you but me". For all it's charms and the wonderful people who make it their home Australia only holds old ghosts for me.

     Scotland too, for a long time brought with it memories I would rather have left buried. Nothing terrible, no deep dark secrets, just a spreading sense of unease. So I yearned for somewhere new because the grass is always greener.

     Eventually I simply decided I needed to go completely off the map. A decision which led me to China, the love of my life and some completely unforeseen events.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Give a man a marshmallow....

Recently a colleague of mine asked a very interesting question:

If you were offered a 30 day money back test drive of your dream car for just $30 would you take it? 

Of course I would was the obvious answer. Telling me, unsurprisingly, that everyone she had asked had leapt at the opportunity she then asked me if I would feel the same way about an educational program.

Unsure what she meant I asked her to explain. When discussing food, fast cars or fashion almost everyone she asked had wanted to try it out but when she posed the same question about education people started to hesitate.

Why is it she asked that when given an opportunity to improve yourself and your life, do people seem to be far less excited? Consider for a moment an opportunity to change the way you think about the world and even better an opportunity to step away from your 9-5 and start running your own life on your own schedule.

If you were given the opportunity to test for 30 days, with the money back guarantee still in place, a system that has the ability to free you from your desk why would any sane person hesitate? It seems the answer lies in the fact that all too many of us want instant gratification.

We all know about retail therapy having that shiny new car in your drive or pretty new dress in your closet makes you feel good. That rush though is short lived. The chance to work your way into a position where you can feel that glow for the rest of your life just doesn't have the same immediacy.

If however you can avoid the desperate need for that passing pleasure in the now, you can set yourself up to have as much of it as you want in the future. Remembering a famous Psych test done on adults and kids alike, involving marshmallows, I had to agree with her.

People were left in a room with a plate of marshmallows and were told that the researcher would be right back and they'd bring more marshmallows the subjects were asked not to touch the plate. Somewhat amazingly many of the subjects just couldn't help themselves they had to get their sugar fix right now even if it meant less pleasure in the long run.

That is why we are looking for the ones with self control, the people who can see past the little pile of marshmallows to the life supply of sugary treats on the other side. So I want to ask you again. Would you be prepared to spend $30 on a 30 day money back opportunity to change your life?

Monday 23 November 2015

Wandering Misfit: Part 1 or where it all started

     I am not famous and I am definitely not special, many other people have similar stories and quirky lives. In fact it is the very fact that I really am no one special that makes me want to share my journey. You see all to often we follow the lives of celebrities or we gush over the quotes and tidbits of the wildly successful. It makes sense we want to rub shoulders with those giants, we hope that a little bit of their "magic" will rub off on us.

     What we must never forget though is that our journeys and our stories are just as important. We, far more than the famous and the infamous, make up the world we live in. We all have a story somewhere that can inspire or can move people to action and in a way it is our duty to do just that.

     To explain why I want to lay bare my sometimes embarrassing journey to where I am today I need first to explain where I am. I am a 29 year old who has only just found their place in life. I didn't go to university, I floated around the world and I wasted my twenties on making plans for my thirties.

     Many of my friends are settled with kids, a lifelong job and a mortgage and for a long time I felt kind of left out. It as some of you I am sure know can be hard being the odd one out. Being embarrassed at parties when people ask how's work, and do you have kids yet?

     Recently though I started to realize that maybe the joke was on them. Working 9-5 to pay back the bank for a house that they will be lucky to own by the time they retire. Slaving away in a cubicle or in the case of many of my school friends working their fingers to the bone in manual labour.

     I know that a desk job is important and many need the security. Believe me I've been there. In fact only about a year ago I was craving the very same thing. I promised myself if I could find a halfway decent desk job in a quiet office I'd be a good boy and settle in for the long term.

     All I can say about that now is thank god I didn't find that job.

     What I found instead has made all that wasted time all that jumping from place to place worthwhile. You see not long ago (about 3 months) I found something to be truly passionate about. Even though I am "under educated" by modern standards I am passionate about education. I have for most of the last 10 years been involved with education in one form or another and what I found Online was an education that finally opened the doors I had thought were locked.

     Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Thursday 19 November 2015

The Next Era Of Digital Life

With ever moving technology, and a world that has become almost entirely connected, now is the time to look to the future.

Being given the opportunity to receive news, information and even products at unprecedented speeds also places us in the unique position of having a responsibility to use this golden opportunity properly.

So many people have already been bitten by scams and by spam marketing around the net. So many people have become jaded and have chosen to hide themselves away from the choices and chances the internet holds out to us all.

As digital marketers, social media experts and representatives of our various online businesses the time has come for us to step up to the plate. The time has come for us to fight back, to give back and to provide value to enrich our followers rather than seeking only to enrich ourselves.
So many of us now owe everything we are and everything we have to those who had faith. We owe our livelihood to all the people who took the risk and trusted us to deliver on our promises. Let us not forget those promises. Let us not offer false hope. Instead let us offer only solutions to problems. Let us provide the same level of service and excellence we would like to receive ourselves.

Every time someone gets scammed, every time someone is sold a product that fails to meet it's sales pitch we lose another chance to enrich both our own lives and someone else's life. As an industry we owe it both to ourselves and to our various clients and customers to take a stand and defend the right of everyone to build, to grow and to buy without fear.

So, how many of us will stand by our products? How many of us will choose honesty over a quick buck? Can you say you would buy your own product? Are you proud of who you are and what you have to offer?

If you are all these things it is time to turn it all around. It is time to show the whole world that not only the lucky few can live a better, freer life.

Starting out can be hard, but don't despair

One of the biggest challenges to starting out in the social media or digital marketing world is the difficulty of getting your foot in the door.

It can often feel when you are first starting out that you have an insurmountable job ahead of you. The fact of the matter is no matter what you have been promised it is a long, often difficult journey to success.

The internet no more offers instant success or success for little to no work than any other industry does. So if you want a chance at instant cash while you do nothing to gain your goals then you are best to try the lottery.

If on the other hand you really do put the work in, do your research and keep your eyes on the prize then there is no reason at all that you can't make it big online.

The keys to digital marketing are really no different from more traditional industries, in fact the only real difference is in the amazing array of choices that going digital opens up to you.
Make sure you get the right information. Make sure you get the right tools for the job. Understand your market and get help from those that have gone before.

Remember even if you want to change the world you need to start by knowing how the world works now.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Just Let Me Ask...

If you have a quick look around you while you sit at your desk how many people do you see loving their lives? How many people do you see making a real difference to the lives of everyday people on the street?

I bet if you are honest the answer is not many.

If you are like me you have a feeling somewhere deep inside that tells you that even if you are working hard everyday you are just spinning your wheels. I'm not talking about money and I'm not talking about success. A lot of people have money and a lot of people have success however you choose to measure it. All of these people though tend to fail in one very important way. They don't actively make people's lives better.

I am proud to say that no matter how high the ladder you climb and no matter how many awards you win I still think I do better. I have almost never been promoted, I have almost never made much more money than I need to survive. Knowing all of this though I still feel good looking myself in the mirror every morning. I feel good because every day when I get up I have the chance to help someone. I get to take ordinary people and turn them into extraordinary people.

How do I do that? I know you hear a lot of promises and a lot of bragging about how much money YOU can make, but that is not really the issue. The issue is I know every person I introduce to the guys over at SFM has the chance to go from a worker ant to an entrepreneur. Granted not everyone does, a lot of people stumble, a lot of people fail and a lot of people are too scared to really take the first step into something new.

I wanted you to let me ask you a question way back at the beginning of this post so now let me ask: Do you think you have the will and the vision to make a start on changing how you see the world and how you live your life?

If you are not serious and if you have no interest then please turn back now. Go back to your T.V. show or the report you have due tomorrow and forget I asked. If you are interested though and if you want to hear some more of what I get to do everyday then put your email in the box and we will send you out a free week of videos that ought to give you a better idea of what I do and what SFM does.

So, are you interested? Get the videos here.

What Kind Of Education Do You Want?

We have all heard that information is money, but do we really understand what that means? Why is it that some people seem to make money at everything they do and the rest of us seem to simply stumble along making enough to pay rent or the mortgage?

The answer is information. Those we think of as entrepreneurs are not any smarter, nor are they any luckier than the rest of us but they do have something most of us don't. They seek information. They drink in new knowledge. They open their minds to the changing economy and society around them.
Ask any successful entrepreneur what sets them apart and I am sure several words will come up again and again. Words like drive, passion, need and determination. While all of these words describe the personality of the successful they still could not become successful without the knowing how to.

Education is an often forgotten side to entrepreneurship. Many of the greatest successes in our history have been made by people we could well think of as "under-educated" but that is I believe an unfair label. It is true that people such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson and many others including those as far back as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie were not what would traditionally be called well educated. That however depends on what education means to you.

The traditional school and especially university education systems are proving incapable of keeping up with technology. They do not seem to be capable of teaching the skills and mindsets needed for this digital age.

When many young people are putting themselves into crippling debt to pay for an education that not only doesn't guarantee them a good job, but which actually now almost guarantees them a bad one* we know we are in troubled times.

So what is the solution? How do great entrepreneurs make it big? They still make sure they are educated they just choose a different more hands on form of education. They learn to use the tools they need to make themselves great. Take for example an online learning course such as this one. It costs no more than a college degree but instead of four years learning something that will have little impact on your job in the future it teaches you a wide range of skills you can apply to an even wider range of possible income streams.

I believe Alan Watts said it best:



You see the internet should offer us more choice not less. We should be broadening our horizons and seeking to better ourselves not plodding along blindly at the same desk job we hate for years. We should be making the future better doing what we love and sharing what interests us.

No matter what you want to sell, no matter what you are interested in someone else will be too so why not make yourself and the world a more vibrant knowledgeable place?
It is up to us to choose our future, and you only get one life, so make it count.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

10 Things You Really Need To Know: Twitter Edition.



1. Your First Tweet:
     One of the first things people often worry about when starting a twitter account, whether it is a personal or a business account, is what their opening message will be. Honestly though unless you have bought followers or have been lurking and following for a while (see below) you should realise that really very few people will be listening. If you have something snappy to say go for it otherwise why not simply introduce yourself or say hello to the world that is Twitter.

2. Lurking is not a sin:
     No matter how or what you do on Twitter it is often best to watch and listen before you speak. Spend a little time seeing how others do it and getting a feeling for the kind of things you like to see and the kind of things you don't . Remember when marketing, or even when just looking to be social, you are looking to attract like minded people. Even once you've dipped your toes in the murky depths don't feel beholden to answer every tweet or comment on every passing piece of news. There is simply too much going on and making a few well considered and well aimed comments is usually far more rewarding than blasting and trolling your way to a bigger audience.

3. If you like it Retweet it:
     As they say sharing is caring and on Twitter a retweet can be a golden gift. Many feel that retweeting things especially when tweeting for business is akin to giving the competition a hand up but if the content or the message is good it can gain you just as much as the OP (original poster). Retweeting also goes a long way to building  a lasting and profitable relationship whether with followers or with competitors. Remember Twitter loves Karma and if you scratch someone's back they may very well scratch yours. Remember with such a huge audience visibility is key.

4. Following people doesn't make you a stalker:
     Really the whole point of Twitter, and one of it's major plusses when used for business, is that it allows people to listen to what they like to hear. This goes for you as much as anyone else and even if you don't know who someone is if you like what they say or they inspire you don't hesitate to follow them. Besides following someone is something of a compliment and if you think about it you want people, even people you don't know, following you don't you? The same goes for everyone being followed isn't creepy it just means you are doing it right.

5. Follows are just an introduction:
     When you follow someone you are telling them you like what they have to say or you are interested in their take on the world. What it doesn't mean though is that you are suddenly BFFs. Think about the fact that most people on Twitter are following and are followed by thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of people. Following someone gives you access to their tweets and being followed means someone is keeping an ear out for you but that's it. Don't go hunting your followers and hounding them and don't be expecting special treatment or recognition from someone else just because you followed them.

6. Your followers want to hear you:
     Having said all of the above most of your followers, if you have gathered them in the right ways, do want to hear what you are saying and do want to get involved. Keep them interested and keep them on the hook. The best way to do this is by providing them with great content, something to get involved with you about and above all keep it real. Good followers, the ones you really want, followed you because they feel the way you do about key topics so be honest and be yourself. Never go out of your way to avoid contentious subjects but at the same time don't go out of your way to be "edgy" or extremist either.

7. People will judge you but don't let it worry you:
     Just like in real life people are going to pass judgment on you. Whether they dislike something you said or disagree with a cause you have championed they can and often will start an argument or make a comment about you. If you are being true to yourself and to your followers though this really shouldn't stress you out too much. As they say any publicity is good publicity and you'd be surprised how willing like minded souls are to come to your rescue. besides the fact that it makes for great visibility when it happens it opens the door to great discussions and helps people to really get to know what you stand for.

8. You can't please all the people all the time:
     Following on from the above point people are going to unfollow you. It is going to happen. Sometimes they forget why they followed you, sometimes they dislike something you say and sometimes they just feel like it. Don't stress though unfollows are a natural part of Twitter and you will always find you gain more followers than unfollowers if you keep going and keep providing people with a reason to listen.

9. Share the success of others:
     Giving someone a pat on the back by telling them (and all your own followers) that you like what they did or what they said goes a ong way to making your account "real". A whole lot of people simply spam their own ideas and business material or retweet everything, but making personal, thoughtful and helpful comments single you out as a real person with real views and that makes you much, much more approachable.

10. Bring it to Twitter:
     Adding to that again, if you see something you like elsewhere on the internet bring it back to Twitter to share and don't forget to thank the author if you can find their account. Things that make for great sharing on Twitter are videos, blogs and great webpages. Gathering all of these resources on your own Twitter feed is a great way to engage whoever created them as well as a way to provide value to your own followers too.