7 Tips for Making Twitter Work for You and Your Business!

Your ultimate goal when using Twitter should be to network, it’s like an online social hour (or social 140 characters). And like in every networking organization it’s all about who you know, and in Twitter’s case, who you ”follow” and who “follows” you. The key to making Twitter work for you and your business is to weave the social aspects of your life in with your business.

So how do you do that?

Below, you will find 7 steps that will help you develop not only a loyal Twitter fan base but also reveal some dos and don’ts to making Twitter work for you.

First, you’ve got to find people! So, how do you do that?

1. Search for people you may know who are already using twitter via the “find people” link up at the top of Twitter. Once you click that link you can type in their name and see if they’re currently on Twitter so you can connect with them.

2. Using the same “find people” link up at the top and then clicking on “find on other networks” you can match up your current contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and MSN accounts with your contact’s twitter accounts and then follow them from there.

3. Use the twitter search! You can either search right from your Twitter homepage or go to http://search.twitter.com/. Search using the keywords for your industry and find people tweeting about specific topics in your industry and within your niche. From there you can follow them, and also follow their followers!
Now that you’re on your way to having followers, here are a couple of tips to maximize your “Tweets.”

4. Mix in your “social tweets” with your “business tweets.” Remember, people buy people, and that goes for Twitter too! Build a loyal fan base by allowing them to get to know you, like you, trust you and respect you and weave in the “I’ve written blog about social media, check it out at www.celebritysites.com” (of course, you would actually link to the blog post, but since I haven’t written that yet… which now I will… I just put our homepage in there for demonstration).

5. You can also use http://search.twitter.com/ to find other current tweets about your industry that you can comment on. If you find a tweet that interests you, you can respond directly to that person by using “@TheirName” in your tweet so they get your reply, ultimately contributing to the Twitter community, gaining more content for your own twitter account and participating socially with other users.

And finally, here are some of my favorite Twitter tools to make your life easier!

6. TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) allows you to manage your Twitter account in a much simpler way by separating your replies, direct messages as well as specified groups of people. TweetDeck also allows you to update your Facebook status automatically with your Tweets.

7. Tweet Later (http://www.tweetlater.com/) allows you to setup tweets to be sent out at a scheduled time, automatically follow anyone who follows you and send out auto-responders to anyone who follows you.

Remember, Twitter can be used for many different purposes including social networking, marketing a business, prospecting, research and new ideas, reconnecting with old friends, etc. Millions are tweeting every day including just about every TV show, radio personality, movie star, pop singer, rap artist, sportscaster and professional athlete. Although this concept may seem a little foreign to you, remember that email was once that way and now it’s second nature! Ultimately, what makes Twitter so popular is the ability to connect with not only friends, but likeminded people. Remember, people buy people!