Someone sent me an e-mail this morning about “Twiends” and I thought it was very cool app – definitely worth sharing.
For those that are more video oriented, here’s a screencast I shot of me using it:
OK – so what is Twiends and why would I want it?
It’s a FREE web app that helps you build your Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans – which in turn will help build your social cred or authority.
Typically with Twitter you gain followers by following others. You follow them, they follow you (hopefully) – and if you’re lucky you wind up with pretty close to a 1:1 ratio of followers and people you follow.
But a 1:1 ratio doesn’t really give you that much authority – or street cred – now does it? I mean, if I’m following 250 people, but I only have 240 followers, well chances are I’m not really lighting anyone’s social fire – am I? 
And that’s roughly my current stat (I’m not the world’s biggest Touiterrer, but I can see Twiends changing that).
Let’s take a look at some folks that carry a bit more social weight:
Kelly Felix: 2,772 Followers – Following 35
Kris Mainieri: 12,690 Followers – Following 586
Conan O’Brien: 2,851,998 Followers – Following 1 
So when you see those stats, you know that people are bit more interested in what these folks have to say!
Twiends may not get you to 2 million Followers (well, not quickly at least), but it can easily help you boost your ratio and increase your credibility.
How does Twiends work?
Simple! It’s very much like SocialAddr in that it works on a credit system. For example, you follow someone and you earn 7 credits. Then someone follows you and it costs you 1 credit. In this manner, you would build a nice respectable 7:1 ratio.
What’s nice about Twiends is that it’s not just a completely random bunch of folks following each other. They give you the option to select your interests – say, SEO, Marketing, Weightloss, & Gummi Bears – and it will show you other users with the same interests. This lets you choose from people that you’re actually interested in following.
Even better, it means there’s a much higher chance that the people following you are actually interested in what YOU have to say as well! Which is great if you start marketing to your Followers.
In addition, you can view everyone’s mini profile – their interests, bio, latest tweet – simply by mousing over them before you decide to follow (and earn those credits). You can see it all in action in my screencast: http://youtu.be/jHBHdnSTVjA?hd=1
This really helps in choosing REAL people – and not just Twitter bots.
Twiends works the same way for getting Facebook Fans to Like your fanpages. You Like a page – you earn credits – in turn folks will Like YOUR fanpage.
It does the same for Youtube videos, but in my opinion, this piece isn’t as enticing. You have to sit through at least 90 seconds of the video to earn credits.. Not really worth it to me.
They DO offer you the ability to buy credits as well.
I wasn’t too big on that idea and so far I have stuck to just using the free credits. Although, halfway through recording my video I started talking myself into purchasing some credits. 
I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but you CAN purchase 10,000 credits for $150.
That could easily get you 5,000 – 10,000 Followers or Likes! Not too shabby, but I don’t know how those numbers compare to using shorttask.com or mturk. Not too mention which would have better quality.
But, it is a thought. An easy way to get 10,000 new Twitter Followers.
In the meantime, it is absolutely FREE to use Twiends, and well worth it if your social profile could use a bit of a boost (like mine!)
Give it a shot and let me know what you think of Twiends.
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Bring The Fresh? I expected to have brought it much sooner!! Looking at my last post (June 21st) I guess I can confirm that I’ve had a pretty busy month. The “real job” has kept me from jumping into any IM activities, but today I decided to take a pause and change that.
