A month ago, I joined twitter at last… I did it because it is one of the social media marketing sites that I have not been a part off and I felt a little out of the new era. I head a lot of buzz about the social media marketing network especially from FOX news and even CNN. So one night, I gave in and did it.

So to give a short introduction to all who doesn’t know what Twitter is…

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform (where you can only blog for 125 characters at a time). It lets you inform the whole world what you are up to in any given time. There are millions of Twitter-addicts all over the world, and the number of active users has increased by 900% in the past year (that is a lot!). Companies can also use it to promote themselves.

On Twitter you will have people “following” you, and you will be “following” others. “Following” is being updated every time a new post is added to one of your contacts’ profiles. Being followed is the same; every time you have something to add, all your “followers” will be updated. The more people that follow you, the more exposure your business will get.

So below are some of my suggestions to be a successful business marketer on Twitter:

Step 1: Import Your Contacts
Twitter allows you to to import contacts from Gmail, Hotmail and your own address book. Do it.

Step 2: Study the Structure of Twitter
Twitter is a social tool, not a classifieds site. These are some tips that will help you to get followers:

• **Don’t spam others about your specials
• **Follow other users
• **Be active in the community (tweet and post comments about others’ tweets often)
• **Only post useful and relevant information
• **Don’t tweet every 10 minutes. It becomes annoying.
• **Engage in conversations. Retweet (reply to others’ tweets) often
• **Don’t promote your company directly. Do it the smart way. For example, if you sell widgets, write a buyer’s guide about the kind of widgets that you sell and tweet about that blog post. That is useful information. Avoid tweets like “Great Widgets On Sale – Starting at $9.99!”

Step 3: Build Your Followers Base

There are many things that you can do to build your followers base:

• **Put a link to “Follow Me on Twitter” everywhere (your email signature, forums, website, and business cards)
• **Every time you post on your blog, invite people to follow you on Twitter
• **Search for Twitter users whose followers base you would love to have for yourself. See who is following them and follow those users. They will follow you back.See who is following your friends and follow them.
• **There are Twitter directories that are great to find members who are likely to follow you. Examples include Just Tweet It and Twellow.
• **Use Twitter’s search feature to find profiles that interest you. Use Twitter’s RSS feed to be notified every time a tweet containing a certain keyword is made.

Step 4: Balance Your Followers/Following Ratio

Try to have a balance between people you follow and people that follow you. If a lot of people follow you and you don’t follow them, they will stop following you. If you are following plenty of people but just a few are following you, you’ll be seen as a spammer trying to grow your follower base as quickly as possible.

These are some ideas to keep both numbers balanced:

• Grow slow. Instead of adding 200 new friends all of a sudden, add maybe 50 and wait for them to follow you back. Then follow another 50.
• Use tools like Friend or Follow. This tool lets you check who is following you whom you are not following. It also allows you to see who you are following who are not following you. This is the best way to balance your ratio in just a few minutes.
• Avoid following others so they follow you, only to stop following them once they are on board following you. If you do this, you will be seen as a spammer.

Step 5: Make it Worthwhile to Follow You

Tweet interesting stuff. Every time you are about to post something, ask yourself “Is this something I would be interested in?” If the answer is no, chances are that your followers will feel the same way.

Done right, Twitter Marketing can lead to positive exposure for your business. Companies have been known to make tens of thousands of dollars from customers that found them through a Twitter account. Depending on your business, Twitter could be one of the most successful weapons in your Internet Marketing arsenal.

Related posts:

1. Twitter Tools Our previous post from last month outlined how Twitter can...
2. Helpful Twitter Tools From my previous post, I outlined how Twitter can help...
3. Google Page Rank Toolbar update - Confirmed For those avid users of the Google Toolbar like...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.