I've just become a twitter - now what? Any experts to guide me?

53 replies
Hi

I'm trailing way behind the times when it comes to Twitter, stumbleupon and all those other well-known sites.

However, yesterday I finally got round to signing up with Twitter as it seems easy enough for me to understand. I'm not much of a tech wizard!!

I've put several links to article on my site and a few funny one-liners and that's about it so far.

I've just got my first visitor this morning - woo hoo!

Can anyone tell me how to get the most out of this for promoting and getting visitors to my site, rankings etc?

(My site and twitter is in a business name).

Best wishes

Mary
#expert #experts #guide #twitter
  • Profile picture of the author allb450
    Hi Mary - I would start by using twitter to build relationships. Not really all that techy, just need 2 rite n 140 charctrs or less.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    OK - thanks.

    I've already updated it 12 times so I'm getting content on it at least.

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
    Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

    Hi

    I'm trailing way behind the times when it comes to Twitter, stumbleupon and all those other well-known sites.

    However, yesterday I finally got round to signing up with Twitter as it seems easy enough for me to understand. I'm not much of a tech wizard!!

    I've put several links to article on my site and a few funny one-liners and that's about it so far.

    I've just got my first visitor this morning - woo hoo!

    Can anyone tell me how to get the most out of this for promoting and getting visitors to my site, rankings etc?

    (My site and twitter is in a business name).

    Best wishes

    Mary
    Mary,

    Twitter is great for building relationships and using those relationships to drive traffic to your site.

    Is your site a blog? If it is, go to twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter - post RSS to twitter automatically and sign up for a free account. Then add your blog RSS feed to your TwitterFeed account and everytime that you make a new blog post, it automatically tweets it for you!

    If you use FireFox as your web browser, get the Twitter Bar or the TwitterFox add-on and you can tweet right from your browser. TwitterFox also allows you to read your tweets, replies, and direct messages as well.

    Make people that follow you feel welcome by going to Schedule Future-Dated Twitter Tweets TweetLater.com and create a free account there as well. You can create a special, custom message that welcomes new followers for you and it tweets them for you automatically. You can even schedule tweets with this free service as well as other things. Anyone that follows me gets an automatic welcome message and I don't have to worry about it!

    You can also live-tweet what you're doing with services like TwitPic / Share photos on Twitter and Dial2Do - Home. TwitPic allows you to upload and tweet pictures from your cell phone and you can really share a lot of yourself and personality with this service.

    You can do the same with Dial2Do. Dial2Do is one of my favorite new services. You can sign up for a free account and you can literally phone in your tweets! It will transcribe your voice to text and send it to Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, texts, Gmail, and a lot more. It'll even read your last 10 tweets to you and you can respond to them as you listen to them! It's awesome and fun to use...and free!

    Well, anyway, those are the services that I use a lot and they help me have a lot of fun with Twitter. Dana is always wrestling her kiddos out of bed and Big Mike is always working on the next "big thing". Maybe they'll drop in here and give some advice as well.

    Hope that helps! Have fun!
    Signature

    Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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    • Profile picture of the author naonline
      Originally Posted by Chris Hunter View Post

      Mary,

      Twitter is great for building relationships and using those relationships to drive traffic to your site.

      Is your site a blog? If it is, go to twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter - post RSS to twitter automatically and sign up for a free account. Then add your blog RSS feed to your TwitterFeed account and everytime that you make a new blog post, it automatically tweets it for you!

      If you use FireFox as your web browser, get the Twitter Bar or the TwitterFox add-on and you can tweet right from your browser. TwitterFox also allows you to read your tweets, replies, and direct messages as well.

      Make people that follow you feel welcome by going to Schedule Future-Dated Twitter Tweets TweetLater.com and create a free account there as well. You can create a special, custom message that welcomes new followers for you and it tweets them for you automatically. You can even schedule tweets with this free service as well as other things. Anyone that follows me gets an automatic welcome message and I don't have to worry about it!

      You can also live-tweet what you're doing with services like TwitPic / Share photos on Twitter and Dial2Do - Home. TwitPic allows you to upload and tweet pictures from your cell phone and you can really share a lot of yourself and personality with this service.

      You can do the same with Dial2Do. Dial2Do is one of my favorite new services. You can sign up for a free account and you can literally phone in your tweets! It will transcribe your voice to text and send it to Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, texts, Gmail, and a lot more. It'll even read your last 10 tweets to you and you can respond to them as you listen to them! It's awesome and fun to use...and free!

      Well, anyway, those are the services that I use a lot and they help me have a lot of fun with Twitter. Dana is always wrestling her kiddos out of bed and Big Mike is always working on the next "big thing". Maybe they'll drop in here and give some advice as well.

      Hope that helps! Have fun!
      Great post Chris, this is info I was looking for too.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
        Originally Posted by naonline View Post

        Great post Chris, this is info I was looking for too.
        Great!

        Hope it helps!

        Twitter can be a lot of fun. Use it to get to know people. Not their marketing persona, but get to know *them*.

        The rest will fall in place and you'll have fun doing it!
        Signature

        Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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    • Profile picture of the author Ben_Curtis
      Chris,
      Can you tell us more about how to access Dial2Do? That sounds crazy!
      Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ben_Curtis
      Found it! Signed up! Thanks all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Doyle
    I use twitter to build relationships with prospects, and also to index my sites for SEO purposes. Its just like any other web 2.0 site that can help you boost your SERP ranking very quickly ... AND drive traffic if other people follow you on twitter.

    Its great and addictive, so people will check out what you're up to
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  • Profile picture of the author gdwebs
    Thanks for all the information people, i'm just starting to use similar sites so its all new to me to!
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Thanks everyone

    Next step - got to find out how to follow people :-)

    There's enough info there to keep me busy for 6 months :-)

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
    You can use it to ask others to syndicate your blog posts, Digg posts etc so that they get more traffic.

    Fabian
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    Mary,

    Be a person, not a dotcom. Use a profile photo (settings in the top right corner).

    Use the search link at the bottom of the page to search for others in your niche and follow them by clicking on their @name and then the grey "Follow" button. In turn, people will follow you back.

    Join the conversation.

    Best,

    Brian
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Thanks everyone - I'm glad this thread has been f helpt to others too!

    Brian - when I got to the sign up page I didn't know what to use as a user name. The name I use for my site is different to the one I use here - so, as I'm using twitter to promote the site as well, do I use the name I use on the site? People from here may find it confusing when they clcik my twitter link and not find Mary but someone else :-)

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
      Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

      Thanks everyone - I'm glad this thread has been f helpt to others too!

      Brian - when I got to the sign up page I didn't know what to use as a user name. The name I use for my site is different to the one I use here - so, as I'm using twitter to promote the site as well, do I use the name I use on the site? People from here may find it confusing when they clcik my twitter link and not find Mary but someone else :-)

      Mary
      Mary, go with the name of whatever you're promoting.

      You can make it a bit more personal by making your username something like
      "Maryat(BusinessName)" or "Mary@(BusinessName)".

      Just decide if you want it to be your personal Twitter or your business Twitter. Then go with that!
      Signature

      Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Thanks John - I'll go and check it now. Is there any particular way I should do it? I'm not always that hot on links :-(

    I still can't figure out how to get my twitter link in my contact info.

    Still working on all the other tips and advice that's been given.

    Thanks everyone.

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Jassa
      Mary, very likely you know this - and all of the rest of the world - but I couldn't work it out until Perry, our 'Mr. Video' very kindly twittered it to me:

      You can butt into other people's conversations, and when you want to reply to someone you put '@' followed directly by their username. I just learned this today, so just have to pass it on...

      BTW, it looks as though you and me are close neighbours...
      Signature


      "Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise" - George Gershwin
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    OK - got sig and contact sorted.

    Thanks Jassa for the tip - I've been wondering why the @ is there and why some posts have it and others haven't.

    Did you know there's a twitter social group here?

    Where abouts are you then?

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    When I started out I soon became an 'expert' on EA; then worked my way up to an 'advanced warrior' here and now - well, now I'm a 'TWIT'.

    Goodness, what's to become of me? :-)

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Marlow
      Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

      When I started out I soon became an 'expert' on EA; then worked my way up to an 'advanced warrior' here and now - well, now I'm a 'TWIT'.

      Goodness, what's to become of me? :-)

      Mary
      Lol Mary. You're hardly a TWIT. I'm glad you posted this thread. It has been very helpful for me too. Looks like were in the same twit-boat. Fun!

      Quick thanks to Chris for all the great info
      Signature

      Best wishes to you.
      Marlow

      My Blog: Effective Internet Marketing Help

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  • Profile picture of the author jasonvanorden
    Mary,

    The first thing I did on Twitter was to find any of my friend and contacts that had Twitter accounts and followed them.

    Then I went to the Twitter pages for people in my industry and my friends to see who they were following. I looked for interesting people and followed them.

    The interact with these people.

    This is a great way to get a kick start on building a Twitter following and getting the interaction flowing.

    A lot of these people will follow you back. Make sure you have your bio, image, web site and other info filled out so that if people click to your page they will have an idea of who you are and will be more likely to follow you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jassa
      Hello again,

      Could you twitter experts give me an idea on the following: would twitter be a place where, apart from the fun aspect, interesting business contacts could be made for:

      a) someone who designs Formula One racetracks and
      b) someone who is in really high-end luxury property development - and while I'm about it for
      c) business Interior Design?

      In fact, I would like to know the complete scope of Twitter, what one could accomplish by using it and the range of people who use it?
      Signature


      "Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise" - George Gershwin
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Jason - I've got most of that done today. It's still my first full day today. I'm working my way through the list of warriors here as well.

    Jassa - it wasn't even the fun aspect that I joined for but as a traffic generation tool. It's turned out to be great fun though and I now even feel more of a community member here in the forum.

    You'll find all sorts on twitter, it's worth checking it out. I did a google search for twitter to find out a bit about it before I started.

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    LOL!!

    I have 'talked' to so many people today and I really feel as if I 'belong' in the forum now.

    It's so nice to see a friendly face on twitter. You need to tell me how to do the auto sig you mentioned.

    How do you get the time to twitter, use facebook, youtube, Myspace, this forum and work?

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Jassa
      Mary, how come you've made 900-odd posts and you still didn't feel you 'belonged' on the forum??!
      Signature


      "Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise" - George Gershwin
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    • Profile picture of the author Marlow
      Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

      LOL!!

      I have 'talked' to so many people today and I really feel as if I 'belong' in the forum now.

      It's so nice to see a friendly face on twitter. You need to tell me how to do the auto sig you mentioned.

      How do you get the time to twitter, use facebook, youtube, Myspace, this forum and work?

      Mary
      Thought I had that auto-sig figured out. But alas, I am a TWIT!

      I did get info on tweetlater.com and tweetbeep (also mentioned in this thread) and tweetlater seems to be functioning just great. It auto follows for me and sends a private "thank you" message to anyone new. Pretty cool.

      I do feel the scrambled brain scenario coming on again. It's all good! How about you?
      Signature

      Best wishes to you.
      Marlow

      My Blog: Effective Internet Marketing Help

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  • Profile picture of the author Pete Egeler
    Who is "Sue Baker" ?

    I'm getting real confused here.

    Iz you Sue, or iz you Mary?

    Inquiring minds want to know.

    Pete
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  • Profile picture of the author joblythe
    Pete

    Inquiring minds want to know.
    If you read Mary's (Sue's) OP and her subsequent posts - all will be revealed.

    I'll let you find out why!
    Signature

    Kind Regards
    Auntie Jo

    A PROSPEROUS 2009 TO EVERYONE!!
    Back Up Your Filez! or how about a . .PLR Pack! . . and an OTO Link Manager!
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  • Profile picture of the author TheVCF
    Mary,

    Have you Joined the Twitter Followers Group Here in the Warrior Forum yet?

    If not, and no one has already recommended this (?) ...

    I would Highly Recommend You:
    1) Join the Twitter Followers Group Here in the Warrior Forum
    2) Start Following other Members of the Twitter Followers Group
    ok?

    I may Post some other Twitter Groups elsewhere as soon/as I am able, ok?

    I hope this all helps and Have a Great Day!

    - Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Most people seem to do one of two things:

    1 - Just chat and find new people and have fun.

    2 - Automate link building messages and promotional messages and send them out all the time to see if people respond.

    I'll let you choose yours
    Signature

    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Pete - hope you found you're answer :-)

    Michael - Yes, am a member of the twitter followers group.

    Andy - my aim of joining twitter was for your second point. Is there a way I can automatically update twitter when I update my site?

    or, shall I post on twitter that I've updated my site?

    What I was doing yesterday was to post the title of an article and provide it's link. I was doing that regularly throughout the day and was planning on doing similar today.

    I also have a category for 'Humor' on my site with any fun stuff like jokes, silly diets etc and have been adding some of them bit by bit to twitter.

    ps. I like what you have in your sig :-)

    Best wishes to all

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
      You can get plugins for wordpress so that your posts get tweeted too - you can also set Aweber to tweet emails if you use that.

      You can also get wordpress to show your tweets.

      I use the wordpress to twitter plugins but I don't post too much on my blog as I always stop following people who just use twitter to auto post their blog entries, or if they're just posting affiliate links.
      Signature

      nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
    Mary, is your site a blog?
    Signature

    Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Chris - I use wordpress and never know whether I should call it a site or a blog!

    Thanks Andy - I'm looking at getting more plugins and widgets.

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
      Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

      Chris - I use wordpress and never know whether I should call it a site or a blog!

      Thanks Andy - I'm looking at getting more plugins and widgets.

      Mary
      Ok. Good! WordPress is a blogging platform, so it's both, but more importantly (in this situation) it is a blog.

      Now back to what we were addressing...

      Go to twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter - post RSS to twitter automatically and register for a free account there. You'll have to create an OpenID account (which is free), but it's easy to do and there's a link directly to OpenID on TwitterFeed.com.

      Once you've created the TwitterFeed account, you can add your blog's RSS feed to this service. What this will do is scan your RSS feed every 30, 60, 90 minutes (whichever you select) and if it finds a new blog post on your RSS feed, it'll automatically tweet about it on your Twitter account with a link directly to your blog!

      It's easy to set up and implement and very customizable. You can setup a customizable intro message that says anything that you'd like. An example would be:

      "New Blog Post! (New blog post title here) (New blog post link here)"

      Of course, "New Blog Post!" is customizable and can be anything you'd like for it to be, but be sure to make it short because Twitter only allows 140 characters and you want to have space for your blog post title to be in the tweet along with the link.

      Here's an example from my Twitter - Twitter / Chris_Hunter: Go Read! Lesnar Doesn't Pu ...

      There is also a free WordPress plug-in that you can use called Twitter Tools that you can get from here - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/

      It's easy to use and the installation instructions are right here - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.../installation/

      Hope this helps!
      Signature

      Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Hi glorified777 - glad you found this thread useful, there's others that have as well.

    It's all about helping each other.

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author traces2757
    Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

    Hi

    I'm trailing way behind the times when it comes to Twitter, stumbleupon and all those other well-known sites.

    However, yesterday I finally got round to signing up with Twitter as it seems easy enough for me to understand. I'm not much of a tech wizard!!

    I've put several links to article on my site and a few funny one-liners and that's about it so far.

    I've just got my first visitor this morning - woo hoo!

    Can anyone tell me how to get the most out of this for promoting and getting visitors to my site, rankings etc?

    (My site and twitter is in a business name).

    Best wishes

    Mary
    Well first you build a following. I'm following you now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Forey
    I have a twitter related question

    what is the @ sign in a twet. It appear is is like a link to someone elses tweet. How do you do this?

    Thanks
    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
      Originally Posted by Michael Forey View Post

      I have a twitter related question

      what is the @ sign in a twet. It appear is is like a link to someone elses tweet. How do you do this?

      Thanks
      Michael
      No, that means you're responding to someone's tweet. That means that you replied to someone's tweet.

      That makes sense?
      Signature

      Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Marlow - send me a message on twitter to let me know how to do the auto follow.

    I still haven't figured out the wwtweet issue yet. I'm running between here, PMs, twitter and others. It's great exercise if nothing else! :-)

    traces2757 - thanks, I'm getting a following ... slowly. Thanks for following me I'm following you too.

    I've seen so many warriors on twitter - is nobody doing any work today??

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Hi Steve

    There's been a lot of really useful information in this thread, especially from Chris Hunter - thanks Chris.

    I found my first day on twitter absolutely manic while I was finding the ropes. Still haven't found them all yet, but that'll come in time.

    Yesterday I stepped back and mainly watched. Watched how other people used it and started to find my way round a bit better.

    Like you I find I can't get into a lot of the conversations. I'm also finding it very time consuming but maybe in time that will improve.

    By far my favourite place to interact in right here in the forum.

    I'll stick with it and see how it develops for fitting in with what I'm doing.

    Best wishes

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Thanks Chris You've given so much valuanle information to this thread.

    Ever thought of writing a book on how to get the best out of twitter? or How to use Twitter for IM?

    This is the first time I've had so many replies to one of my threads - it's great!!

    Best wishes.

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Jassa
      Thanks Chris. ...Mary's idea's a good one.
      Signature


      "Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise" - George Gershwin
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Hunter
      Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

      Thanks Chris You've given so much valuanle information to this thread.

      Ever thought of writing a book on how to get the best out of twitter? or How to use Twitter for IM?
      Now that you mention it...

      Keep an eye out. I've got something coming down the pipline.
      Signature

      Ok, sure. You can follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Chris_Hunter ;)

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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    Hey guys - just saw this thread.

    My best tip for Twitter is this: Write a helpful post that shows that you know what you are talking about in your field. Tweet with a teaser and a link to it i.e. I did "7 Ways To Use Press Releases To Boost Your Holiday Sales". Do that several times throughout the day, interspersed with personal tweets (you do it more than once because if you haven't tweeted in the past 15 20 minutes, a lot of your followers won't see it because so many other people are tweeting too.)

    This got me my best clients ever for ghostwriting, and now it's getting me clients for press release writing.
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