Twitter has become a world-wide phenomenon as both a social networking site and business-building tool. Incredibly, there are quite a few people who refuse to use it or are just turned off by the whole idea. From the standpoint of Internet Marketing, that's a mistake.When you are marketing anything online, you will have both your automated systems and your 'daily punch list' of things that you do (every day) in order to promote and grow your business. Twitter should be BOTH.
Once you have a decent-sized following, you should 'tweet' out a little, compelling message at least once a day - but not too often, because that annoys people.
If you're just getting started with Twitter or would like to begin using it, there are three things you should do first:
1) Use the Free service at twitbacks to dress up your profile and focus your up-front message to all who will follow you.
2) Use the Free service at SocialOomph to automate your Twitter 'follow' and 'unfollow' system.
3) Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/rustylshelton
Well, that last one is optional (smile), but you should follow people who are active with Internet Marketing because then your followers will be like-minded souls. There's no point in 'tweeting' business ideas or suggestions to someone who has no interest in Internet Marketing.
So how can you use Twitter on a daily basis to advance your business goals? First of all, you have to understand what Twitter is and what it isn't. It is NOT a group of opt-in subscribers who agree to be bombarded with your sales messages day and night. Remember, it's easy to follow someone and it's also easy to UN-follow somebody. If you go in there like a bulldozer, trying to 'dominate the page' with 15 tweets at a time selling this thing or the other, you won't make any friends and you'll lose your followers.
Think of Twitter as a form of safe-list that you have to be very gentle with, or even as a 'micro-blog'. It's definitely a community in which you can become a known personality - for better or worse.
Remember, its followers that you want. That's your goal. You need followers so that you can communicate with them. Put a 'follow me' badge on your blog and just promote your link everywhere that you can. Ultimately, a gigantic Twitter following is an invaluable treasure in this business.
If you haven't started building your following yet, then start... TODAY.
