If you’re new to Twitter, you may feel inundated by the tidbits of people’s lives streaming by (especially if you’ve found a number of folks to “follow” already). By now you’ve read lots of “Tweets” and clicked the various links people have posted, but you may be wondering what those hashtags are about. You know, the words or phrases smashed together after a # symbol.

Well here’s an explanation of the Twitter hashtags (no geek-speak used):

Essentially, they’re a way of organizing information and making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for on Twitter. It’s a bit like categorizing your recipe box #stews, #cookies, #cakes, #secretBBQsauces, etc. etc. etc. So if you see someone sticking #startrek at the end of their tweet, they’re just letting folks know their comment or link belongs in the Star Trek section of their Twitter “recipe box.”

Twitter hashtags that don’t make sense?

What if you see someone using a tag and can’t, for the life of you, figure out what it’s in reference to? You can either file it into the ‘how important can it be anyway?’ camp, or you can look it up to find out. Sites such as whatthetrend.com and tagal.us can show you what hashtags are being used (or have been used in the past) and what they mean.

Why would you want to use hashtags?

Ahh, the big question. What’s in it for you? Can’t you tweet on Twitter just fine without throwing hashtags into your already limited writing space? Sure you can. But just in case you want to try them out, here are a couple reasons:

Basically, hash tags make it easier for folks to find your tweets. There are all sorts of search sites out there that help connect Twitter users. Let’s say you’re a fantasy fiction fan who can’t get enough of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other speculative fiction novels, and you want to meet other Twitter users with the same interest. If you’ve ever tried to search for “fantasy” online, you know you’re as likely to get fantasy football sites as you are to find sites devoted to the genre (and we won’t even get into the other “fantasies” people talk about online). Now if you head over to a Twitter search engine such as twitterfall.com or search.twitter.com and type in #fantasy, as opposed to just “fantasy,” you’ll only get tweets from folks who have tagged their posts #fantasy. I can’t promise that you won’t still find some, uhm, questionable tweets that way, but I’ve had much better luck than by simply searching fantasy (the football people usually use the #football hash tag).

Also, if you were writing about Harry Potter books and it wasn’t natural to use the word fantasy in the sentence, you could tag it with the #fantasy hashtag at the end, and people could still find your tweet by searching for fantasy.

How to use Twitter hashtags

Okay, you’re sold on them now. Or at least, you’re thinking of trying hashtags once or twice. How do you use them?

It’s pretty easy. For obvious ones, just add #yourtag somewhere in the Tweet (people often put them at the end, but there are no rules). If you’re not sure what the most popular hashtag convention is, you can check the search sites I mentioned above to see what other people Tweeting in that area are using (since space is limited, people usually go for short tags).

You can also start your own. Perhaps you’re talking about a new event, meetup, convention, etc. and part of the reason you’re tweeting is to advertise it. You can announce it into existence to inform other folks from the event, meetup, etc. what the official hashtag is going to be.

i.e. on Twitter, you might post:

Portland Science Fiction Lovers Meetup members, let’s categorize our tweets with the #PdxSFMeet hashtag.

Easy peasy! Just play around on Twitter and with the search sites, and you’ll get the hang of hashtags in no time.

I have held a number of marketing leadership roles during my career and I am very comfortable with new technology. I have launched first mover products, started new business models and created totally new market segments within the technology industry. My point is I usually get things rather quickly, but I got to confess to you Twitter actually threw me for a loop for a while.

If you are starting to tweet, stick with it. It takes a little time to understand its purpose and value. From a business perspective, the benefits are not as obvious as Search Engine Marketing, using Facebook or blogging like I am doing now. Micro blogging on Twitter really is its own unique animal. Similar to advice I have provided before regarding Social Media, to get the hang of it you really need to just jump in and start doing it.

Twitter Etiquette: As with all the Social Media venues, there is a protocol and a set of etiquette you will want to be aware of and follow. The faster you pick these up the quicker you will grow a loyal following. It doesn’t matter what drum beat you march to, there is a group, a community and a Twitter feed for you. Don’t wait to get asked to the dance, just start dancing. It can become rather addicting and very rewarding when you start to see the benefits. Here are 10 tips I have learned that should be helpful in getting you started.

1. Ask topical questions: People on Twitter like to get engaged in back and forth conversations. Questions are a good thought starters and a great way to get a dialog going. It’s an easy way to get started and to test the water when you first start tweeting.
2. Post useful facts, tips and content: In addition to the short conversations, most people are on Twitter to find out information. It’s the whole “give to get” thing. Make sure you are giving value to the community and the people who are following you. Unless you are a famous person, you should focus on posting interesting facts, helpful tips and valuable free content.
3. Say thank you: It is common Twitter etiquette to say thank you when someone decides to follow you, adds you to a list or retweets one of your tweets. Do it frequently.
4. Acknowledge others: Retweeting other people’s tweets is a form of acknowledgment. You should also acknowledge the other person by adding a comment to your retweets, i.e., great tip, helpful info, thanks for sharing, etc.
5. Ask for Twitter help: Tell people what you are looking for or what you are interested in. It’s also OK to ask for help on how to best use Twitter and leverage the tools that area available. People on Twitter want to engage with you and they like to help.
6. Introduce yourself: When you gain followers send them a personal note and introduce yourself. Tell them something about yourself so they can connect with you. You can do this in a direct message or some people do it in the public Twitter feed.
7. Answer other people’s questions: Respond to other people’s questions that ask. Try to always add value by giving a thoughtful answer and maybe even give them a helpful link on the topic they have tweeted about. Be honest, real and show your personality.
8. Inform people when you add them to your Twitter list: Give your friends a shout-out to let them know when you add them to your Twitter lists. Another way to acknowledge them and to give them recognition.
9. When you get added to a list say thank you: When you get added to a list usually that means you share the same interests with them. Say thank you and tell them something about yourself. Make the connection and keep the conversation going.
10. Attend Twitter events: People following live events can be identified by the hashtag. If you decide to jump in on an event first introduce yourself. Follow up with a direct message to those you had similar interests with and that you valued their contributions.

Twitter for Business: Twitter like other forms of Social Media is all about giving to the community or in this case the crowd that follows you. Before you get accepted you need to first give value. If you are seen as only there to sell something (self interest), people will not respond to you. You should use it to showcase your thought leadership and to create brand differentiation by providing unique and valuable content. Customers want to buy from people they like and respect. Once they have an affinity for your expertise they will reward you. It’s OK to open up and show your personality. Social Media is based on trust and making connections that provide a mutual benefit. Like-minded people will follow you.

Given my background in technology, it is hard to acknowledge, as I bite my lip, that I was dumb founded at first with Twitter. Its value to business is not obvious. However, after several months of use and some trial and error I’ve got to tell you that it really is an amazing form of communications and it should be included as part of your Social Media playbook. Once you take the right steps you’ll get the swing of things and find your rhythm. Twitter is not difficult. No matter if you are a Boomer, Gen Xer, Gen Yer or part of the Lost Generation, if you understand some of the basic protocols, etiquette and ways to engage the crowd, you will soon find value in Twitter.

So what’s the deal with Twitter? Every company seems to be jumping into the Twitterverse, but can it really help your business? Absolutely yes! That is, if you use it right.

The first thing you want to remember is not to be afraid to establish your Twitter account and jump right in. You can use your name and photo and in your profile say you are the owner of such and such company. Or you can start a Twitter account in your company’s name and use the logo for the photo, either way, just get started.

In order for Twitter to help your business you need to have followers to hear your message. In the search bar on your Twitter home page type in a keyword that is relevant to your business. You will get a list of people and their tweets that contain the keyword you searched for. Now start following people that seem to have an interest in that keyword. For example, say your business is managing a bed and breakfast. You did a Twitter search for anniversary or travel or getaway or even bed and breakfast. What came up was a lot of people tweeting things like “Where should I go for my anniversary?” or “I need to getaway for my vacation,” or “Getting the itch to travel.”

These are people that may be potential customers for you in using Twitter for business. Follow them. Usually they will follow you in return. Next go to a directory of some sort like Twellow and list your Twitter profile there. It’s free to register. Find the category that best describes your business and list it there. You can also find people to follow by using this directory, but people will also be able to find you.

Now that you’ve got some followers, start tweeting. This is the trick in using Twitter for business growth. You want to tweet something that is interesting and valuable. NEVER spam your followers, that is the fastest way to lose them. Instead give them information. Maybe there is a huge Maple festival in your town and you are that bed and breakfast and so now you can paint this quaint little picture of this maple festival going on and the leaves turning red and how fluffy your comforters are on your beds. So tweet something like this “Done fluffing the comforters, leaves are falling and I’m headed to Maple Festival.” Or something along those lines, get descriptive with your 140 words. But doesn’t that sound more appealing than “Offering a 25 percent discount at our bed and breakfast?”

The important thing to remember is that you need to make your business seem like a person. No one on Twitter wants to socialize with a company or a corporation or logo. So don’t be afraid to include that human element when you use Twitter. Because it’s a business most people think they need to give off a professional image and that’s true but you can also show a softer side, a more human element and customers will relate to that. Tweet about what is going on in your company, tweet about what is going on in your industry and your thoughts about it, tweet about what’s happening outside your office window at that moment, tweet often, and stick with it, business will come.

Followers are the currency that social marketers promise to earn through any social media initiatives. The big question is how the accumulation of followers reflects on the business. How followers impact businesses in earning more dollars especially for small and medium-size business (SMB)?

When someone follows you on Twitter, you gain an opportunity to interact with that person over time. Not only has this but they also provided you access for private conversation through direct message (DM). As this is the golden opportunity for outreach and developing customer relationship. As followers learn more about your business and offerings through your tweets and messages they become more loyal. According to a survey done by Twitter, 73% of respondents say they feel more positive about an SMB after they follow that business and read its Tweets. They are more likely to take action on the shared information via Twitter than another mode of advertising.

Since followers are not acquired rather influenced therefore they tend to talk more about you and become your brand ambassador. This shows in their purchase behavior as well. If someone bought from your follower base they tend to purchase from you in future as well. Twitter reports in a survey done by its user that 60% of respondents say they’ve made a purchase from an SMB based on something they saw on Twitter and 86% say they plan to purchase in the future. Most importantly, 43% of respondents plan to make multiple purchases from SMBs they follow on Twitter.

Followers in Twitter are hard earned currency but unlike other social media platforms followers in Twitter stick with you. It’s common for followers of Twitter to stay followers, possibly because they develop an affinity toward your business. In my opinion, the brevity imposed by Twitter force the SMBs to be direct and to the point. This is appreciated by the users who don’t like to be bullied by verbose and on your face advertisement. Two-thirds (66%) of respondents have been following their favorite SMBs for at least six months and 56% have never unfollowed an SMB.

We suggest SMBs nurture their relationship with the customers through their company handle and reach out with personalized messages and offers. They need to understand social selling is not an add-on to sale channel. They need to be managed differently. This means creating great and targeted content for right kind of followers. Engage Influencer and convert them into your brand ambassador so that you can ride on their influence to make your message viral. Create “word-of-mouth” effect on the Internet for your products or services. Use social media, not just for sale or services but also to address the concerns and complaints of your customers.

In you’re interested in learning about Twitter marketing – specifically, about how to get Twitter marketing right – then you’re going to want to pay close attention to the information in this article. That’s because it’s going to introduce you three keys to Twitter marketing success, without which your best efforts will be doomed to failure.

It’s About The Numbers

It’s often been said that marketing is a numbers game, that if you have a big enough audience, sooner or later some of your messages are going to stick.

Twitter marketing is no different: you’re going to need to get a sufficient number of followers in order for your Twitter marketing efforts to succeed.

What is a “sufficient” number of followers? The answer depends on your conversion – of followers to visitors to your website and, ultimately, of visitors to buyers.

You’ll have to do some tracking to know what this is. You can use Google Analytics to set up conversion paths (using Twitter as the visitor source) and then “reverse engineer” the numbers based on your conversions for your Twittering marketing efforts.

Get Your Targeting Right

If you’re randomly following Twitter users – and getting randomly followed back – then you’re wasting a lot of time and effort. You’re also going to find that your conversions will be extremely low, meaning that you’ll really need to put the emphasis on the Twitter marketing “numbers game.”

If you want to get better results with less effort, then get your targeting right. This means identifying people who are likely to be interested in the types of products and services you offer based on their use of keywords (that are relevant to your business) in their profiles and in their Tweets. For some of you, it may also mean identifying people on the basis of location.

This kind of targeting is easy enough to do with free tools, such as Twitter’s own search facility – which you can find at search.twitter.com – or on sites such as twellow.com, which is, essentially, the Twitter equivalent to the Yellow Pages.

If you get your targeting right, you’ll find that your conversions will increase, which will mean that any additional marketing effort you put into building up your numbers will produce even greater returns.

Make Sure Your Activity Is Follower-Focused

When it comes to Twitter marketing success, activity is important. You can’t expect your followers to seek out what you offer. But it takes more than just “raw” activity to succeed at Twitter marketing. It takes “follower-focused” activity.

Follower-focused activity basically means listening first, adding value second, and then connecting what you’re hearing to what you offer.

It does not mean what most Twitter marketers do, which is to spam their followers with an endless series of promotions. There’s no surer or faster way to get ignored or unfollowed.

You have to learn to listen and learn. Then offer something of genuine value – information, education, entertainment, and so forth – that costs your followers nothing more than their time to consume.

After you’ve established yourself as a trustworthy member of the Twitter community – that is, as someone who is perceived to be both competent and benevolent – it’s okay to periodically intersperse your conversations and Tweets with your offers.

Just make sure that when you do put a promotion out into the Twittersphere, you observe some basic Twitter marketing guidelines: disclose the fact that you’re promoting an offer (#sponsored or #promo or #aff link) and make sure that the offer is relevant to your followers (if you’ve done you’re targeting right, this, of course, should not be an issue).

Better still, rather than Tweeting a link to a promotion, consider adding your promotions to some useful or entertaining content that you have developed and Tweet the link to the content (provided that promotion is relevant to the content).

You’re likely find that your followers will be more responsive to a “contextualized” offer. And you know what that means: higher conversions.

There’s one more thing you should consider doing in order to maximize the return you’ll get on your Twitter marketing efforts…

Do you make any of the top 3 deadly Twitter marketing mistakes? Read on to discover these mistakes and what to do instead so you can become a Twitter Rock Star.

Twitter is a great way to use Social Media Marketing to build visibility, grow your list and make profits. But you gotta know how to do it right.

I see newbies and even experienced marketers alike making the same three deadly yet avoidable mistakes. Let’s take a closer look at these mistakes and what to do instead. If you see yourself in any of the 3 avoidable deadly mistakes, don’t panic. Be glad you discovered the mistake and what to do about it, and then change your course. Don’t sit around pining over your mistakes and get stuck there. Just change your strategies and move forward.

Mistake 1 – Begin with marketing – This applies to those who are just starting out on Twitter as well as how to start every day on Twitter. When you are just starting out, focus on relationships and building connections, as well as being visible. Think of it this way: you have to earn the right to market. You earn the right to market by being sociable. After you have spent time building relationships, then you can market, drive traffic, build your list and even make sales from Twitter. Always think relationship first.

Start out each day on Twitter by being sociable. How would you like it if your spouse started to market you first thing in the morning before ever saying good morning? Exactly.

Mistake 2 – Being serious all the time – I see so many people tweet like they are presenting a paper at an international conference. While you do want to be serious about what you do, you also want to add a little fun as well. Let your personality show. This goes a long way it helping people to know, like and trust you. Who do you like to be friends with? Those who are serious all the time or those that have an engaging personality and are not afraid to show it in any situation?

Mistake 3 – Don’t get involved in conversations/community – I call this being a “hit & run” tweeter. These folks come in, dump their message, (usually a marketing message) and then they are gone. Big mistake. Become involved in discussions, answer questions, become a recognized part of the community.

You can take about anything. Recently I used a quote from M*A*S*H and got into a coversation with someone about the characters from the show. Simple relationship building.

And you don’t have to get on a plane or drive across town to do it.

Twitter is the king of the hill in social media right now. Marketers around the world have been looking for ways to use Twitter for marketing and better leverage their time.

I was just listening to a phone interview with Joel Comm over at the List Building Club where he shared his 4 steps of making Twitter pay.

You can use these four steps to build both your online and offline business. They are basic and universal principles that have stood the test of time.

Know Me

The first step is to simply get acquainted. Be a good listener and ask appropriate questions. See what people are talking about and join in the conversation.

Like Me

As people get to know you, a relationship will develop and you will naturally be attracted to some more than others. The same thing will happen with your followers.

It’s OK that not everyone will like you. Millions of people on Twitter are looking for someone like you.

Trust Me

It takes time to build trust, so don’t expect it to happen overnight. When you start and build relationships, trust will build over time.

Pay Me

People don’t like to be sold to by strangers but they appreciate when a friend lets them know about a good deal. Focus on being that trusted friend and not the pushy salesman.

You may have heard of the 80/20 rule, well when you are starting out building your relationships on Twitter, I would recommend that you not do any marketing at all. Focus on the first three steps of getting people to know, like and trust you.

When that trust is established, make sure that you keep things at least 90% content and less than 10% marketing links.

Twitter Tip: When you do recommend a product or service, I have found that it is helpful to point to a blog post on the subject with your affiliate link, rather than putting your affiliate link directly on Twitter.

Twitter is HUGE with an estimated 100 million people registered (though figures vary). If you haven’t discovered it yet, it’s probably time you did! We, well me anyway, tend to think that these social media sites are for the ‘young’ but only about 10% of Twitter users are in the 12-18 age group which leaves lots of scope for us! But it’s true to say that whilst Twitter says it’s worldwide, this actually means predominantly US! Traffic is heavier from UK than other European countries and although there are other language versions (for example, in French it’s fr.twitter.com) they aren’t used very much.

So Twitter is possibly going to be more useful if you are a freelance and want to attract people to your website or if you sell something online and want to create a following for your product. It is still worth looking at though as you never know who might find you.

Unlike LinkedIn, Twitter is not exclusively for business use so you need to be careful if you are serious job seeker not to post irrelevant messages (or ‘Tweets’ as they are called). We obviously can’t go into too many details here, but there are some key features of Twitter:

• You are restricted to 140 characters for each message (it was set up as a sort of online Text messaging platform)

• You can ‘follow’ and have ‘followers’ – take a look at the site and there are tutorials for you to learn more about this

• There’s a search feature for you to find people (but not everyone uses their real name)

Using Twitter to find a job

It is really easy to get caught up in ‘conversations’ on Twitter and waste an awful lot of time following what other people are saying. Here are some tips for jobseekers:

• Use your profile wisely (you only have 160 characters so if you are looking for a certain job, say so in the profile)

• Upload a professional looking photo (I suggest you use the same one you put on Linked In so you begin to establish your ‘brand’ across the web)

• Include a link in your profile to an online CV (this can be posted on your website if you have one, or your blog or use a ‘text hosting’ site where you can store your CV for free on the internet somewhere)

• Add a link to your Linked In profile too

• Tweet about your job search – for example “Looking for ways to get into advertising” or “looking for MD jobs in IT”

• Don’t tweet about irrelevancies like what you’re having for lunch or the fact that you’re just going to pick the kids up if you want to appear serious!

In any case, it’s a growing social phenomenon and you need to be up to date so go and have a look, play around with it and see what use you can make of it. You can set up an account for free and if you are just investigating I suggest you register under an assumed name (make up anything you like) so this gets you in. Later on if you think it’s useful to you, you can create another account under your real name where prospective recruiters can find you.

TOP TIP

You can use the search bar to put in the job you are looking for and look at the results you get. But be warned; the majority of jobs are in US or UK!

One key lesson in the Internet Marketing World of 2012 and beyond is that Less Means More. Don’t try too hard. Patience is a key asset in Social Media and Internet Marketing. But even with the best intentions of hard work, trial and your noble efforts for extension of knowledge, it’s easy to come unstuck. So let me share with you the lessons – and what NOT to do. No-one told me not to try a few things without reading five pages of rules and small-print. So this is what you need to know.

The Cardinal Rule Number One To Not Get Suspended From Twitter

Read their rules on aggressive following and how you cannot use affiliate links in programs.

The Cardinal Rule Number Two To Not Get Suspended From Twitter

Never use the @username reply to send a promotional message. They call it aggressive following and you can have your account suspended instantly. When you start a Twitter account this looks like a great way to message some high profile personalities, with High Following Numbers. But don’t even think about it – unless you have a really insightful reply on a theme that they seem to be tweeting passionately about. And when you reply to @username, jst don’t on any account, add any sort of promotional or affiliate link. You will be suspended for aggressive following before you can say ‘dead-in-the-water’!

Sometimes – on the same day that you set your account up – you may get an electronic ‘slap-on-the-wrists’ (that’s certainly what it feels like!) before you confirm the error of your ways and then they re-open your account. But the surest way to get de-activated and left in floating Twitter suspension land is to sent an unsolicited @username message with a promotional link.

Even worse, don’t upload tweets into a scheduler like Hootsuite or Socialoomph that are constructed in this way, with affiliate links – either shortened urls or the full affiliate coded ‘hoplinks’.

The Cardinal Rule Number Three To Not Get Suspended From Twitter

Working with affiliates looks very lucrative but beware of the biggest and most aggressive. They got there by scaling and promoting heavily. But often their links and landing pages have been blacklisted. Even if you use a URL shortener it doesn’t help. For some reason it often makes more affiliate links get bounced back and rejected. If you use it in a tweet – randomly when you get the moment to do it or formally through an upload scheduler – you can be suspended from Twitter in a heartbeat. Seriously. Then it can take you weeks, maybe months, of lobbying against automated email processes, to, jst occasionally get re-activated. But there seems no logic to How or When such a fortunate moment might happen. So heed the risk.

That’s also why you will notice, on the most spammy of emails from supposed ‘gurus’, they use intermediate connecting links through an autoresponder or hosting company.

The Cardinal Rule Number Four To Not Get Banned By Google AdWords

You guessed it. Avoid those aggressive links in your Pay Per Click Advertising Campaigns. If anything, you will find that Google are more unreachable and unyielding on this than Twitter are. Use a blacklisted link to an aggressive affiliate and Google AdWords will not just block it. They will stop your account. Even if you are running several completely innocent and compliant advertising campaigns. Then their auto email systems will drive you crazy.

Google even say that because you used a blacklisted affiliate link, then you are somehow associated with the company behind it. So they tell you to get that affiliate to make their landing page compliant, even though you clearly have absolutely no control over the affiliate’s company or their web activities!

So stay very patient. Keep your web promotional activity passive and conservative. Check all the affiliate and promotional links that you are using with real diligence before you jeopardize your relationship with those Web Giants that you cannot do without.

I started using Twitter in earnest in January 2012. Since that time, I’ve learned a few tips that I have found very helpful. Hopefully, you will find some of these useful as well.

RE-TWEET (RT)

There is nothing more flattering than someone re-tweeting what you’ve tweeted. It fact, the more re-tweets you receive for a particular tweet, the better you feel. This is the case for others as well. I recommend that you pick a good category and look at tweets from others there. Then, re-tweet (RT) tweets that are particularly interesting to you. For example, I like to look at what people are saying under the category of “leadership.” So, I regularly do a search for #leadership in Twitter. This lets me see all the tweets that include #leadership. I then RT the ones I like. The tweet shows up in my “stream” and it lets the individual know that I re-tweeted their tweet. It is an easy way to get started. Searching on #leadership allows me to RT people whom I may not currently be following or who may not be following me. By re-tweeting people I’m not following, I occasionally pick up new followers or I start to follow new people because I like their tweets. I usually pick one day a week to do my RTs. I only do about 2 or 3 max a day, separated by a few hours.

HASHTAGS (#) ARE YOUR FRIEND

The hashtag (#) is an awesome feature in Twitter. Whenever you do a tweet, try to include a category you would like your tweet to show up under. Sticking with my example from above, I regularly tweet about leadership and management. So, my tweets include #leadership or #management or both. This allows my tweets to show up whenever people search on these hashtags. Remember, this allows people to see your tweets even if they are not following you. I pick up about 20 to 30 new followers a week because people read my tweets in these categories. During the 2012 presidential election, I tweeted a couple of non-partisan tweets about presidential leadership and included a hashtag similar to #2012presidential. I tried to be as neutral as possible so as not to offend anyone from either party, as my intent was to share my thoughts on leadership in general. My tweet was viewed by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, because that category was greatly watched at the time. So, hashtags, if used properly, can be a powerful friend and get your tweets viewed by many.

TWEET LINKS TO ARTICLES YOU ARE READING ONLINE

This is very easy. As you read articles online, there is a Twitter “tweet” button that allows you to tweet the article, including a link. This is by far the easiest, possibly most effective way to tweet about things that are meaningful to you and others. Pressing the Twitter tweet button as you read online articles automatically formats the tweet so that it is 140 characters or less. I then add my hashtag or hashtags (e.g., #leadership, #management, #quotes, etc.) and I’m done.

QUOTES

I like to tweet quotes about 2 to 3 times a week. You can find good quotes under #quotes (or by using Google). I like to tweet original quotes every so often. This gives me a good sense for how a particular topic will resonate with people before I write an article or blog about it.

TRY NOT TO SPAM YOUR FOLLOWERS WITH TOO MANY TWEETS AT A TIME

Try not to do more than one tweet per 3 to 4 hours. I was once following a person who tweeted 8 to 10 tweets back-to-back multiple times a day. I finally had to stop following the person because the tweets were more like spam.

BECOME AN EXPERT IN A CATEGORY OR TWO

I recommend tweeting about something you are passionate about and then including a hashtag for that category. Over time, people will see that you are regularly showing up under that category and before you know it, you are considered an expert.

IN GENERAL, HAVE FUN

Lastly, have fun. Twitter is an amazing social networking tool and I have so much fun with it. I don’t take myself too seriously and that keeps it fun. Don’t worry if some followers stop following you, because people do that for various reasons. Others will follow you – especially if you stay true and passionate about a subject matter.