Twitter has been around for quite some time now. And its popularity has been instrumental. The cute bird logo and the simple platform to share tweets with friends, colleagues and family have made it an effective social network. Twitter being a microblogging platform is well suited for todayâ??s faced paced life where people around the world complain of lack of time to blog or share information with their social circle.

The number of users who are switching to Twitter is on rise. People are moving from the conventional blogging or social networks like Facebook and MySpace to Twitterâ??s tweets. However, it is not only about sharing information with your friends. Twitter has a lot more to offer. Following are ten tips to extract best out of Twitter:

Keep it short and simple when it comes to tweets. It is a microblogging platform and condensed to 140 characters per tweet. To unfollow you is just a click away for your followers. Therefore tweet often and tweet only quality. Follow people strategically. Just donâ??t follow anyone to everyone. Especially when you are planning to explore the marketing possibilities through Twitter. Therefore establish a base of followers or start following others if they have share similar interests as yours. Twitter is not all about making money. It is an effective social media network that enables you to connect to people around the globe in no time. Do not post spam through your tweets. It is a big turn off for others. You can use tools like Tweet Later and others to manage your tweets when you are on the move. Through these you can save your tweets and set them accordingly to publish the tweet in future. Retweet to the tweets of your friends and followers. This helps in building rapport amongst them. They would only be interested in you if you are interested in their deeds. Donâ??t post too much. Concentrate on posting some quality content if you are trying to derive business benefits from Twitter. Make a complete profile. Make sure to include â??One line Bioâ?? and other details like interests and hobbies. Always follow an influential and innovative people. You can grow with them.

Twitter is just a social networking tool. If you are looking to explore business benefits through viral marketing or general marketing of your products and services, you have to spend more time on twitter. The time you need to spend would majorly involve in identifying a quality set of followers or people whom you can follow. Be patient as a newbie. Start to discover the features twitter can offer. It is important for you to understand how to leverage the reach of Twitter and use it accordingly to drive your business needs. So discover the business possibilities through Twitter!

Click Here Get  More  Earnings Through Twitter Tips

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Competitions used to be a fantastic way of alerting your customers to a new product or service that you are about to launch, however do they still work? Even though we are in the middle of a pretty devastating recession, it seems everyone has the latest gadget and can afford to buy the best plasma TV so what could you possibly give away that people would care about? Do people even bother with competitions anyway?

Well, it seems many people do and if you can add some value to it by giving something away that people actually want or is seen as valuable – you can really rope in the publicity and the customers. You can also be a little bit clever with your marketing and use new technology such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Many companies offer free gifts in return for doing something really simple, but what about giving away something with business value? Well, many small businesses are struggling at the moment and as we all know, when a business is on the ropes, the first thing the owners usually invest in is a new brand or logo, but would that actually \’sell\’?

I researched it and it appears it works – and how!

Competitions are won and lost by the value of the prizes, but value is very subjective and if you can offer something that a company would very likely have to spend a lot of money on then you are likely to create a \’buzz\’.

The service industry is an odd thing, it is intangible and most costs are invisible to the purchaser with the inevitable outcome that those with little knowledge think it is therefore extremely expensive. The news is littered with companies spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on re-brands, who can remember \’British Telecom\’ becoming \’BT\’?

And so it seems that a great way to deliver value is to deliver something that provides an intangible value. This might sound flippant, but there is another way to think about this. Let\’s take the \’BT/British Telecom\’ example. At the time is looked like a ridiculous waste of money, however there have been huge benefits in its ability to be a global brand.

Simply taking off the \’British\’ has actually allowed the company to thrive in countries other than the UK and it is now a global force rather than simply a national one.

So, if you\’re thinking of offering a competition prize, consider something that will last longer than your average MP3 player or DVD, think of something that can actually provide value to a company far greater than the perceived cost of the service you give.

But what about the method of delivery? What if you could reach all these new customers in a way other than the traditional \’write it on a postcard\’ style?

Well, new technology is really starting to kick in now and whereas most think that a mobile phone \’text-in\’ competition is cutting edge, there is a new type of customer that reacts to something else. If you want to be at the forefront you really need to use the latest technology and the very latest is the incredibly popular Twitter.

As with all competitions, it can be used as a way of gaining more popularity, or in Twitter terms, \’Followers\’. The reason being, the more people you have following you, the easier to market to those people. But you need to bear a few things in mind when doing it.

Be honest

Social networks hate it when people try to bend the rules. You really need to be totally honest with people and say “We are trying to gain more followers”. Don\’t try to explain it away as anything other than an attempt to help yourself. Sure, give people some benefit to joining and taking part in the competition, but don\’t make that the whole point of the message.

Give a decent prize

Nobody really wants an MP3 player, they\’ve all got them. Make it something that is low cost to you but has potential high cost to your customer. Intangible benefit usually comes with the greatest value.

Keep people in the loop

The problem with Twitter is that your message is sent and then it goes away. You need to keep \’tweeting\’ your message in different timezones so as many people as possible read it.

And there you go! Use these new technologies and you can vastly increase your reach, build a huge Twitter following and most importantly, sell more.

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Making money online has become easier because of many free social networking sites available for anyone who knows how to take advantage of their features. One of these sites is Twitter. Twitter a social medium that has become very popular all over the globe. It now has twenty million users and that number is still growing. Because of its popularity, many individuals, groups and companies have found ways to effectively use it to make money online.

How does twitter work?

Unlike other possible social networking media you can make money from that offers a number if features like photos, videos, games and applications, twitter is just a very simple social networking medium that only offers the ability to post one, two, or three lines of text up to a total of one hundred and forty characters in length. With this feature, one is able to post short and brief status updates or messages about themselves or post links to news, topics or information they are interested in or want to share to others. In order to view other people’s posts, you have to follow them on twitter and for them to be able to view your posts, they have to do the same thing. This results in a network of people “following” each other’s accounts and being able to relay or communicate with each other through twitter. Making money online requires people and traffic, and twitter can provide a network of people to help you be successful in your business.

So how can one use twitter to make money?
There are various ways to use twitter in making money online. These are fairly simple methods that have proven to be profitable businesses when applied using other mediums as well. One way to make money with twitter is through direct advertising. If you have a popular twitter account with a lot of followers, advertisers may be willing to pay you money to tweet about their products or services. If you have a product, brand or service of your own, then you can use your twitter account to market and advertise about them. Affiliate marketing is also a good business to make money from using twitter. Since twitter allows users to post messages up to a total of 140 characters, it’s perfect for post links and short descriptions to your affiliated products. The more exposure your product has, the more chances you have of making money with your affiliate products. Another possible way to make money with twitter is by tweeting or posting links from other sites or blogs. There are plenty of websites you can sign up with that offer monthly payouts for promoting their website contents though twitter. If you have your own website or blog that is making money online, you can use twitter as well to promote it better.

These are just some of the ways to use twitter to earn online. These methods are certainly not get rich quick schemes that can make you wealthy overnight, but these are proven ways that can help in making money online through twitter.

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About Twitter

Brevity might be the soul of wit, but it’s also the heart of social networking phenomenon Twitter.

The effect is similar to a page of nothing but Facebook status updates, where the author can share with the world their thoughts, feelings, links, products and just about anything in between…as long as each individual update sticks to the 140 character limit.

This seeming limitation is in fact its strength. It’s blogging for the time poor, the online equivalent of sending a text message rather than a lengthy phone call. Celebrities, CEO’s, Politicians and Journalists who might never have the time to maintain and update a traditional blog have embraced twitter and provide updates several times a day.

The fact that people can update their Twitter from their mobile phone has only added to its popularity and it’s not unusual for people to provide hourly updates.

Similarly, at only 140 characters long a tweet can convey a message to an audience of readers who would be unlikely to read a full blog post.

Essentially Twitter is fast, simple and easy real time communications tool, and one that’s proved overwhelmingly popular. 

Twitter is currently ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide, and is the third most popular social networking after stalwarts Facebook and Myspace.

Twitter for business

So what does this mean for business? According to Twitter’s own business guide, Twitter 101, businesses  ”can use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company”.

Already thousands of businesses have embraced Twitter as a way to communication with their customer base in a fun, fast and non-intrusive format.

The key here is communication. Twitter is not a one way street. Just as you can post your tweets, you also have the ability to follow other users and read and respond to their tweets, forming a relationship with your customers. 

The Twitter Business Guide site provides some good case studies of companies that have used Twitter to engage with their customers and grow their business and customer relationships.

Tasti D-lite tweeted the worker about their delivery services and adding signage about delivery at the ESB location, which led to increased awareness and sales and also framed Tasti D-lite as a company which makes a genuine effort to converse, not just communicate with its customers. 

Similarly Dell Computers uses Twitter to post coupons and special deals for their refurbished equipment division. Because Dell needs to turn over the inventory quickly it wasn’t considered viable to engage a costly ad agency. Instead, they used Twitter to advertise their specials and reach out to their potential customers direct.

The key here is that Dell and Tasti D-Lite monitored Twitter, engaged with people interested in their service or product and provided information that was of value. They didn’t just push something, they actually offered something, and in turn strengthened relationships with their customers. 

Twitter allows you to search by keyword. If your company has an unusual name, search Twitter and see what other people are saying about it. Maybe they’re giving your product rave reviews. Or maybe they’ve picked up faults and deficiencies you may have overlooked. Either way, it’s valuable feedback that can be used to strengthen and grow your business.

What not to do

It seems simple, but consider how your business uses Twitter carefully. The very thing that makes Twitter great, speed and global communication also means any miscalculated efforts on your part can come under critical review from the Twitter community, who at times aren’t slow at grabbing their ‘twitchforks’.

Amazon discovered the power of Twitter in March of this year when writer Mark Probst found his book ‘The Filly’ had lost it’s previous high sales ranking on online bookseller Amazon. Further investigation revealed The Filly was no longer showing up for key words on searches. The explanation? The Filly, a gay romance novel had been reclassified as ‘adult material’ and removed from the rating system.

This was not an isolated incident, with it soon coming to light that thousands of books has lost their rankings after reclassification, with books classed as “gay”, “lesbian”, “transgender” no longer showing up on search. For authors this meant potentially missing out sales, and for the wider internet community it was seen as an attempt by Amazon to censor homosexual content.

The backlash, led by Twitter users, was swift and concentrated, with thousands of outraged users employing the ‘amazonfail’ tag in their tweets.

The damage to Amazon’s reputation was immeasurable.  

Within hours Amazon’s reputation had plummeted amongst the online community who saw their categorization of gay and lesbian material as arbitrary and potentially discriminatory.

Amazon later stated the entire episode stemmed from an error with the coding used to sort search terms, and did not reflect an attempt to censor or suppress gay and lesbian literature. The damage was done however, with the episode demonstrating the power of Twitter as a new form of online protest, and one that can gather momentum with incredible speed.

While Amazon’s failure to communicate and engage with the Twitter community at the earliest opportunity may have helped fuel the backlash, another company found out that it’s no good trying to engage the Twitter community if you don’t do in the appropriate way.

Hashtags are ways to mark popular words within your tweets, to make it easier for people to search. For example, if I was present at the Ashes test match between England and Australia at Lords and I wanted to make it easier for people to find my tweet, I might tag it with the search term #ashes. Someone searching for information about the ashes would be more likely to find my tweet, and perhaps follow me.

Habitat UK committed the cardinal twitter sin of employing false or misleading hashtags to attempt drive traffic towards their tweets. The keywords they used included #iPhone and #Poh, a Materchef contestant. The most jarring misuse was the hashtag #MOUSAVI, in reference to the Iranian election candidate, which was seen in particularly poor taste given the tumultuous events surrounding the Iran elections.

Criticism from the Twitter community was swift and vitriolic, with Habitat’s actions seen at best as a misguided and lacking an understanding of twitter etiquette.

A spokesperson for Habitat UK later blamed the error on a rogue intern.

“The hashtags were uploaded without Habitat’s authorisation by an overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions,” a spokesman said.

“He is no longer associated with Habitat.”

It could be argued Habitat failed to use Twitter correctly not once but twice. There’s little doubt there use of hashtags was misguided and demonstrated a complete misreading of the situation. There are no shortcuts with social media.

The second error was in their apology. Rather than issue an official press statement blaming a subordinate, they could have sent direct messages to everyone who had posted critical tweets and attempted to clarify the situation.

It’s not only companies that have fallen victim to misuse of Twitter. Recently the English footballer Darren Bent and the Australian cricketer Phil Hughes both made comments on Twitter they later may have regretted.

Bent, tweeting about a potential transfer away from his currently club Tottenham Hotspur wrote “Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go stoke NO do I wanna go sunderland YES so stop f****** around levy .”

Levy is Daniel Levy, Tottenham chairman, who responded by reportedly fining Bent £80,000.  Bent’s comments did not endear him to supporters of Hull or Stoke, and also may have harmed his reputation with his current club.

Australian cricket player Phil Hughes made a similar error of judgement, when he revealed he’d been dropped from the Australian team via his twitter, before the decision had been officially announced by the Australian selectors.

“Disappointed not to be on the field with the lads today, will be supporting the guys, it’s a BIG test match 4 us. Thanks 4 all the support!”

A public space

Twitter is incredibly powerful if used correctly, but misuse can easily backfire. In many ways Twitter appears to be a very personal tool, but the reality, especially for a business or celebrity is that their every online move is public and open to scrutiny.  The key is to carefully consider your use, deal with your customers or potential stakeholders with respect, and offer value.

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Twitter is a ‘micro-blogging’ internet emerging website in the recent times. By using this service user can post short text messages up to 140 characters in length and which can cover whole followers and users can follow latest trends about a particular topic. Twitter is now turned three old emerging website around the globe in the recent times.

Twitter was launched a podcasting company Odeo, exactly three years ago. In a short span of Thirty-six months twitter got millions of users with ultimate popularity. Twitter has 4-5 million users as of Q4 2008. Main reason behind the twitter success is dominated of newer users everyday. 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008 Everyday 5-10 thousand new accounts are opened an estimated.

By using twitter we can

• Monitor conversations among the users about a brand
• We can promote new products and the latest company news
• We can keep in touch with followers
• We can update our knowledge
• We can announce live updates
• We can host a live event
• We can search the trends in real-time
• We can send direct messages to users
• Search For new Friends
• We can follow industry related people
• We can share live images
• Create community
• Post questions about assignments
• Respond and reply
• Don’t get too personal
• Be engaged
• Answers some questions

Powerful Twitter Marketing Secrets

• Create a Free Twitter Account
• Search for new Friends on Twitter
• Perform a Twitter Search to Find new Contacts
• Send frequent updates
• Respond to the updates
• Answers Questions

So marketing your brand through the Twitter Marketing is essential for all the upcoming businesses. By using latest internet marketing technologies like twitter marketing can increase your brand presence and awareness for getting new customers.

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Twitter is being used by many people worldwide in these days. Itâ??s a free social networking and micro-blogging service enabling its users to read and send messages. Because of its increasing popularity, Twitter has exerted its effort to stop attacks which includes spam, worms such as Mikeyy, and phishing. Twitter confirmed that the site was hacked last May where some individual account information were also leaked.

In regards to this, Kaspersky revealed a new tool named â??Krab Krawlerâ? . It will analyze million of tweets posted on Twitter every day and will block any malware associated with them.

Krab Krawler will:

â?¢ looks at every public post as it appears in on Twitter

â?¢ extracts any URLs in them and analyzes the web page they go to

â?¢ expands any URLs that have been shortened

Twitter scans almost 500,000 new unique URLs every day where there are about 100 to 1,000 malware attacks happen. Koobface virus has targeted Twitter by posting malicious links from infected usersâ?? accounts. Twenty-six (26) percent of the total Twitter posts contain URLs redirecting to spam sites which are marketing products or services and not considered Malware. Thousands of accounts post spam links created by bots. Most of the URLs redirect to online dating sites.

Kasperskyâ??s regular antivirus software can detect and block ninety-five (95) percent of the malware Twitter users are afraid of. Some antivirus companies focus protecting e-mail-borne viruses but also give more attention to social-media sites now. For now, Finjan offers SecureTweets to Twitter users. SecureTweets is a free browser plug-in that warns the users as they come upon a malicious URL in Twitter, also includes Blogger, Gmail, Google search, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and more sites.

Attackers are fond of hitting social-media sites because there are many people using them and trusting messages in there with their friends more than they do in e-mails. According to Kaspersky, Trojan-Clicker.HTMLIFrame is the most common piece of malware associated with Twitter. It is a malicious Javascript that can be transferred to computer when you visit a compromised web site.

If your PC gets infected while using Twitter and you need help, feel free to contact Techie NowTechie Now. Our virus removal services will be the solution you are looking for. We offer better services at a lower price. With Techie Now, your PC is at good hands.

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Entrepreneurs get ready! Here is the top 5 business ideas you have been looking for to promote on Twitter, the worlds most popular micro-blogging platform. Get ready now to face the competition for the favours of the Twitter people. These 5 business ideas will take off fast once introduced to the community. So what do you offer the Twitter crowd? Tough sell for sure, but check out these great ideas:

Spot on direct fact checking services:
People are always looking for answers to anything between heaven and earth and lets face it, most are to lazy to even bother Googling, especially when busy Twittering. Now Twitters do not have to suffer being away, but can tweet their questions straight to Mahalo.com and receive feedback and answers from a Yahoo Answers kind of site. The popular media site has just introduced this feature to Twitters. Similar to Yahoo, users can vote on the best answers and give comments.

Cure For Insomnia Business:
Twitter users are prime prospects for insomnia treatment, since most stay up until the wee hours tweeting to their hearts content and as we all know, it is not so easy to fall asleep once birds start singing outside or your neighbour is singing in the shower! Of course getting off Twitter may actually solve this problem, but would you really want to? Of course not. You get paid for sleeping on the job as well and in most jobs sleeping is not considered gross misconduct, so compensation is due if your services are no longer needed.

Hugging Business
Everyone needs a good hug once in a while and Twitter users need them more than any. Having a hug delivery service would serve all Twitter users well. There are actually organisations offering free hugs, but that would mean having to get out on the street and log off Twitter, essentially a no-go. Better have the hug delivered straight to your doorstep. There would have to be a good selection of huggers available of course, depending on what kind of hug you want, strong or soft, caring or dramatic!
Power Nap Businesses

Clearly loss of sleep due to Tweeting must be made back somewhere and work seems to be a good solution. Now if only there were a company that delivered a soft pillow and blanket on demand. What a massive success that would be to have a goose feather pillow delivered to you in the lunch break or during another “very important” evaluation meeting! Remember, science has already approved of power napping!

24 Hour Concierge
Twittering is an exhausting business. And with no refreshments how can you keep yourself ready and alert. 24 hour delivery of soft drinks and snack would take care of that problem. Macadamia nuts and lemon juice or your favourite candy bar, with no fuss and no disapproving looks from the others in supermarket line. Or your bellboy could take care of your business card printing service and hand them out to potential clients who can’t get in touch with you because you are “in a meeting”!

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Learning how to use Twitter for business purposes starts with first realizing it is a social networking site. With that said in order to accomplish anything one must first establish some type of relationship with other Twitter users. Having successfully established a comfortable rapport with other people on Twitter it becomes easier to use it for reasons other than socializing.

Businesses by and large both online and off are looking for more cost efficient means in which to develop and grow. A hugely popular social networking site such as Twitter with the enormous traffic potential it has is ripe fruit waiting to be picked.

Here is a look at 3 ways using Twitter can help to develop both your sales and business image if done correctly.

Content Development

By using twitter as a source of new content you can conduct ‘real time’ searches on what is currently popular with members. By taking these topics and expanding upon them you now have content you can use for websites, blog posting or article distribution. Being these topics are currently popular it is safe to assume that your content will attract readers and hopefully create a buzz around the internet.

Personal Branding

Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of allowing you to develop a certain ‘persona’ within the community while also associating yourself with a particular theme or niche. Establishing yourself as a casual personality helps to make you more attractive and approachable to others since after all it is a social site.

As the membership base of this site grows new twitter users will be drawn towards others who are already established within the community. This will serve to help to strengthen your position amongst other twitter users and further establish your brand.

Traffic Generation

Harnessing traffic off this site and diverting it into your sales funnel will require the ability to interact with other Twitter users in a socially acceptable manner. As mentioned previously this is a social networking site so members may be understandably ‘skittish’ with any hard sales approach.

Understanding how to use Twitter to help develop both your business image and sales can be an invaluable asset for you. Displaying a comfortable willingness to engage with other people on Twitter socially will be a key to your business success on this site. The benefit potential this site holds for any business is clearly displayed by the few examples as we reviewed above. By using Twitter correctly these avenues for business growth can be used by any business large or small. At this point it just simply a matter of picking the fruit that awaits you.

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Social media platforms have become the first choice of everyone. Freelancers are utilizing social media platforms to link and associate with people, friends, colleagues, clients, employees, companies etc. Social media platforms also offer great applications using which a freelancer can boost his productivity and credibility in the freelance market.

Here is a list of some great applications offered by some popular social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter etc.

LinkedIn

WordPress- This application can be used to sync WordPress blog posts with user profile. Once installed, a member can filter his posts with a special LinkedIn tag and even display his personal blog. This helps in updating connections about every new post uploaded on the profile to enhance readership.

Google Presentation- The connections would be updated about individuals profile and what he does? A freelancer can also upload his PowerPoint file or Google’s free online application to display the recent conversation / presentation, visual portfolio/ achievements, and a small description about work and experience.

Company Buzz- It is one the most essential add- on for small medium businesses.  It helps them in understanding their target audiences and target customer’s feedback on the company. It provides a freelancer with charts and graphs to track company buzz. It also allows taking note of some relevant keywords and tweets for the business.

Huddle Workspaces- Another useful application from Linkedin helps in creating different workspaces for groups of connections and provides information. It also enables the user to keep his documents private and secure and access them from anywhere and anytime.

FaceBook

a) Inside Job – Facebook offers some great business applications for freelancers. This application enables them to get inside story of potential client.  It also helps buyers find right talent for their work requirement.

b) Promotions- To promote business online and establish credibility in the market a facebook user can utilize this application for branded interactive promotions on facebook fan pages. He can easily create and launch interactive marketing campaigns such as contests, sweepstakes, coupons & giveaways etc.

c)Memorable Web Addresses – Another useful application for creating a short, easy and direct personal web address. This makes profile search easier for every user and connections. Sharing profile link with other networks, posting it on forums, using business cards etc. becomes easier with this application.

d) Coworkers- It is an important business networking application for freelancers, Small medium business and enterprises. This application helps in organizing professional contacts on Facebook. A user can easily find and connect with his past connections and business associates with this application.

Twitter

Twitter Search- This application from twitter helps in searching favorite topics or keywords and what people have to say about it from around the globe.

TweetDeck- It is one the most popular Twitter applications. It helps in creating columns to create a personal dashboard, creating groups, updating Facebook profile and easily sharing photos with connections.

Power twitter- This application adds features to the Twitter Web interface including
search and recent searches, status history on mouse rollover, Facebook status updates -inline YouTube, Flickr, TwitPic, Google Maps, song.ly, and more.

TweetChats- This application helps in having pre- arranged online conversations between a group of Twitter users. A user can easily enter the name of a specific topic, using a specific Twitter hashtag to identify the discussion, and then can start sending and receiving tweets solely to the users who are talking about that topic.

Hope these useful social media applications would help a freelancer in maintaining old and building new networks online. Please provide your suggestions and feedback on the same.

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Seeing as how Twitter is becoming more and more popular amongst businesses (even Walmart uses it!) we have decided to give you a quick over view of some Twitter best practises.

Top 10 Twitter Tips:

1)    Make objectives about what you want to achieve by using Twitter, and stick to them. You need to know what you want to achieve with Twitter. If there are too many things, create more than one account – each one should have its own agenda and credibility. Think about your user name. If you want to build up awareness for your own name brand, use your name, but if you want to build up your company name, you could try a mix of your name and the company name or just the company – depending on the length of your company name. E.G Leila_Interleado. You don’t want to use a name like superstar69 because it gives absolutely nothing away about you or your company and it doesn’t inspire any kind of credibility.

2)    When you add your avatar try not to add a picture of you wearing a giant silly hat, or you sitting in a boardroom. You want to be a human as well as professional. You also want to inspire confidence in your business capabilities and not look like a joker. Keep it simply you -and enforce your brand (whether it’s a personal brand, company brand, or your voice in the company brand).

3)    Add your URL and a small bio to your profile. People will have an online reference to learn about what you are offering them or what else there is to learn about you. Your profile reflects your brand.

4)    Twitter is like micro blogging. Your messages have a limit of 140 characters. Make them count.

5)    Twitter is no longer there just to tell people that your dog had 5 adorable puppies and you have decided to name them all Bob and Trudy. Now is the time to use Twitter to tell people about your business goals, your professional interests, to spread knowledge and offer customer support. Use your own ideas to spread the messages – be unique!

6)    That said, by no means is it deemed acceptable to spam your followers with “Tweets”* only concerning your company and how great it is. This is a sure fire way to either lose follower or not gain any. Add a human touch by passing on the link to an article you found funny or interesting. Tweet about issues you have online, things you found on your way to work, ask questions and reply to what other “Twits (or Tweeps)”** say. Offer customer support for example. Be useful but keep a balance.

7)    Add followers who you think you can learn from.  Hopefully they will think the same of you and follow you in return. It’s about building up a network here, the more useful all the connections are the better for you and everyone who networks with you. This means not automatically following people who follow you too. Depending on what you want to achieve, it seems logical that you would only follow people who have things to say that you find useful or interesting in any way. This is a chance to gain new blog readers, newsletter subscribers or software users. Again, this depends on what you want to achieve with Twitter.

8)    If you like what one of your followers  contributed, say so! By “Retweeting”*** what one of your followers or someone you are following says, you let them know that you found what they said interesting and that you are willing to share it with others . You could also reply to them or send a direct message and let them know. To retweet something, users typically type in “Retweeting” and the user name with an @ in front of it to show who posted it originally e.g. “Retweeting @LeilaPan” then paste the Tweet here. To reply to someone you type in the user name with an @ before it e.g. “@LeilaPan nice article!”. Users can be notified when they get these replies so they will know you replied to them or retweeted their message and may be more inclined to return the favour. Try to keep  a balance though, people can see when you are Tweeting your own messages or when you are replying or Retweeting – make sure you have your own voice.

9)    Use Twitter regularly. The more you use it, the more interaction people see. The more use people see in following you and the more followers you will receive!

10)    Twitter can give you insight you may not have had before. It can form part of your online reputation management. Track what people say about you or your company, or both! See if people are Tweeting your articles. By responding to what people say about your brand you build up your network and credibility.

Of course there are many Twitter tools and resources out there to help you use the application as best you can. It’s all about using it and finding out what works for you. You might also want to brush up on your Twitter lingo (you could even make up your own Twords! Twitter words…that one’s all mine.) Twittering can be fun, and keeps the communication lines with your target audience wide open.

The most important thing to remember is that this takes time, but it is becoming more and more widely accepted as a way to interact with existing and potential customers or even your niche heroes.

If you would like to follow some Interleado employees, you can follow me or Interleado’s CEO, Peter Cullen.

*Twitter posts

**Twitter users

***Reposting a Tweet

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