Twitter Do's-and-Don'ts For Fun and Profit

You've heard about it from friends and all over the media...it's called Twitter. But what you may not have heard is just how handy it can be in telling the story about your business and hobby. So let me share with you briefly what it is, what it can do for you, what you do and why you really must take advantage of what Twitter offers you...all for free.

First What is Twitter?
Twitter is very simply the answer to the question, “What are you doing now?” After filling out a basic profile of information (optional,) in essence all you do is tell as many people as possible what the answer is to that previous question.

Twitter very efficiently places you or your business in front of the kind of people you want to get in touch with. Each time you post something new (called a tweet,) it displays in the public timeline, sort of like a scrolling record, every single tweet sent out by all the participants of Twitter.

What You Must Do...
People who are interested enough in what you say the opt-in to "follow you." To be a more interesting Twitterer, your followers are probabluy more interested in other things as well. Things such as asking and answering questions, or asking for advice. Some, more in line with using it for business are more interested in networking with other like minded people. with the intention of forming a business relationship later on.

These tweets are wisely limited to 140 characters. I say wisely because that's about how much information most people can handle comfortably since they may be seeing your tweets at work, or in between taking care of the kids, or doing sales calls. Bite-size tidbits are easier for followers to handle and remember.

As I mentioned people can follow you - and read what you are up to. In return, you can choose to follow them back. When you follow someone on Twitter, it allows you to see what they are “tweeting” about as well. It all shows up 20 tweets to a page. You can view your Twitter page anytime you like. Very convenient.

What Twitter Can Do For You...
The power in being able to to build up a Twitter network of followers really is in the ability to leverage that network. You never know who THAT follower knows or is following. It may bring you to a great new friend or amazing new busines contact or client. I use it for branding myself and even realize targeted traffic to my websites. It has opened doors for me, as it will you, to people who I frankly dont know how or when I ever would've had the opportunity to meet. Again, all for free. But let me share a juicy bit of business advice that'll help you build your Twitter following quicker and better.

Set Up Your Twitter Profile
Once you have your initial Twitter profile set up, the temptation is to just jump right in there and start tweeting and following... DON"T. Do yourself a big favor and read carefiully what I'm about to share with you next.

I like to automate things. I call it ETHICAL AUTOMATION. My desire is to make my efforts more efficient and more impactful. I also like low cost methods to accomplishing it as well. One way I accomplish this in Twitter is using a tool...a free tool called TweetLater. TweetLater is a free third party service that automates several Twitter functions - the ‘auto-follow’ and ‘auto-welcome’ features. Tweetlater will automatically send a direct Twitter message and an email message to everyone who follows you.
Your reply message can welcome them and/or thank them for following you. You can be efficient from the start, unlike what I did until I discovered this process where I'd spend hours doing the "grunt work."

Because of the ETHICAL AUTOMATION power that tools like TweetLater can bring you, you can spend more of your time on interacting with your followers, and using your network to brand yourself and increase traffic to your site. Gone are the days of wasting your time manually building your network of followers.

The success of this process is deciding ahead of time what you're going to say...what image do you want ot portray? Prethink out your tweets. Type some out ahead of time and put them in a spreadsheet or a simple text file in Notepad. Then all you do is copy and paste into your tweets. Our desire is to establish a relationship with our followers. Once they know you and trust you and like you they will be much much more likely to be prospects/customers.

How To Attract More Targeted Twitter Followers
Since all the people who follow you on Twitter will get your auto reply email (using TweetLater) you'll probably want to add lots of followers. How? Well the best way is to find connected people in your niche and follow who they follow and who follows them. Simply click the little follow button and up pops a list of their followers.

Interested in a certain topic? Go search at Twitter Search or discussions around your niche terms. As much as possible, you'll want to target people who share your common interests. Following the people others are following and the people they follow will help, especially if that person is someone well known in your niche field. There are many more sites you can use for targeting: Twitdir Search offers you a variety of topics and types, and Twello Search for Twitterers is just as helpful.

Don't forget that another way to target those niches is to use Google. All you do is do a Google search in this format -- “topic keyword or keyword phrase” www.twitter.com site:twitter.com.

Here are a few local search resources for successful Twittering:
Twellow Hood - Find and follow others based on your geographic location (tweighbors). Enter your location and you can view a list of Tweeple in your area to follow. TwellowHood also provides you with an extended bio of 2000 characters.
TwitterLocal - Search a specific location and/or the surrounding area. View and follow local twits or obtain the RSS feeds for an area.
Twitter Search - You can search for clients you already know by name and follow them. Enter a specific city name or neighborhood and view who’s talking about your market.
Tweetdeck- Download it and create groups based on locations or keywords. With Tweetdeck you can display several groups at once. For example, (1) all tweets, (2) local tweets/list of friends, (3) a specific location/city, (4) RE topic like craft shows...

Always put your Twitter link in the signature file at any forum you use, any email you send, have it on your blog and certainly any other social network you are a member of.

Closing Do's and Don'ts 
DO make sure to regularly log into your Twitter account and reply to any replies or direct messages sent to you.
DO ask questions and try to get interesting conversations related to your market going between the people in your network.
DO include URLs to helpful resources -people love resources they've never heard of that will truly be of help. 
DO remember the concept of ETHICAL AUTOMATION. Use desktop applications such as TweetDeck to streamline your Twitter networking and make more efficient use of your time.
DO remember that listening and helping others on Twitter can quickly brand you as the "must-follow" person in your niche. 
DO tweet links to resources - even if they are to someone else’s website - that could help or answer a question of someone in your network.
DO search the tweets of the people you are following to see if anyone in your network needs a hand or is looking for information you can provide. (Use http://search.twitter.com.)

DON’T make @ replies that aren’t relevant. It's obvious it's just for an excuse to post a link. 
DON’T make tweets about current ‘buzz’ topics just to try to get some attention to your profile.
DON’T include a promotional message or URL with every reply or direct message you send.
DON’T spend all your time logging into Twitter to try to stay on top of all the posts of people in your network. Use tools to leverage your time and ability.
DON’T forget that hard selling and blatantly marketing on Twitter will destroy you faster than you can  ever realize.
DON'T tweet your bathroom trips unless something truly remarkable is going to happen in there... in which case it's too much information.

G. Wayne Clayton is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Integerol LLC & SocialMarketingExpert.org. He’s a former newspaper publisher and investigative journalist. He has been read, seen and heard in The Toronto Star, CNN, Fox News Talk radio, and is a Guest Blogger on FastCompany.com. Watch for his next killer idea when he launches SocialBuzzMe.com - the only way to truly dominate the digial conversation.