About nine months ago I was contacted by a customer who was excited about Twitter and all it had to offer. At the time, I must admit I knew very little about social media: Twitter was simply a name I had read in the paper but I was naive to all it had to offer. I felt like perhaps I had ignored one of the most important new marketing tools on offer and I put Twitter on my list of things to try in the very near future.  I was still a little unsure about tweeting and decided to first give it a go with something which was not business related: my karate club.  I am so happy I did and I am now using it daily in my own business as well. 

In my pre-Twitter days, I would keep in touch with my customers as often as possible but it was always a bit worrying that perhaps I was sending one too many e-shots or making a phone call too few. Those days of worry are over. You see, anyone that wants to get updated on what is new on offer simply needs to check out my Twitter page. Before Twitter, I would need to despatch e-shots, brochures etc. Now my information is already distributed! It is there for anyone that wants to read it when they want to read it. They simply need to visit my Twitter page to get up to date fast.

You might ask how this is different to visiting a company's own website. Can you not put updates there instead? Well, it is a lot different. You see, Twitter only allows you to write short statements of 140 characters or fewer, including a web page link. You need to make your messages short and to the point. This popular social media site is also interactive. I have much more regular contact with my customers, friends, suppliers and even competitors that was every before possible.

So how do you achieve success using Twitter? Try the following five suggestions and you will be well on your way.

Open your free account: This is easy. You simply need to visit http://www.twitter.com and fill in your details along with an email and password.

Look For People to Follow: Twitter has a 'people finder' in the top right corner. Look for companies or people you know and press the follow button. The more the merrier. Try to find and follow companies or people you would like to follow you and ultimately do business with you. If the businesses and people you follow are interested in your  products and services they will. This will help create a community of followers: a captive audience if you like of people that are interested in what you have to say. 

Make contact with those following you: When people begin to follow you, be sure to make contact with them. Thank them for following you and offer your details again. Something like: "Thank you for following (your company). If you require any information about (your product/s or services) please do not hesitate to contact me", will do just fine.

Tweet Regularly: Perhaps you could make a habit of tweeting your special of the day every morning with a link to the special on your website or you could introduce your customers to an article you just had published. Try not to make it all about business.  Take an interest in your Twitter community. Think of this as a way to make both business and casual conversation with your online community. If all you do is speak about business all the time, people will soon switch off and stop following you.

Spend time on Building Your Community: After only one month on Twitter, the Google Page Rank of my Twitter page had already gone to PR3. That is fast. The more people that follow you, the higher your Google Page Rank. Links pack to your site could become more significant.

Don't forget to Advertise You Are on Twitter: In your blogs, articles and of course on your website let the people that matter know where you are. You can also promote your Twitter page on any printed media you may send out. Make sure your customers know where to find you and to keep in touch.