Position2, By Mary Ann Johnson — Author and technologist Nicholas Carr says, “Twitter is the telegraph system of Web 2.0.” The New York Times has mentioned that Twitter is one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.

Only a few brands skimmed off profits from Twitter and others just tweeted about some direct marketing stuff. However, there are numerous ways you can leverage Twitter for your business and improve your bottom line. Here is the one-stop Twitter guide for business.

Get started with the Twitter Guide

1. Create a Twitter account

2. Make sure, that you have selected a unique vanity URL for your Twitter account

3. Upload an image and customize your profile image using this tool: Twitter Images

4. Include a link to your corporate website

5. Promote your Twitter presence on your corporate website, client emails, etc.

SEO juice – Recently, Google started indexing tweets; these tips could help you optimize your Twitter account.

6. Include your brand name as the title of your profile

7. Use the Google keywords tool and shortlist important keywords relevant to your products

8. Include those keywords in your bio

9. Use keywords in the first 30 characters of your tweets in order to be optimized by Google

10. Get re-tweeted and increase backlinks for your content

A “following” strategy – This will help you to connect with your target audience.

11. Identify your target audience based on their interests

12. Use hashtags “#” (Hashtags are a community-driven convention to add additional context and metadata to your tweets) to search for your target audience using this tool: Wefollow

13. Use more directories for search such as: Twellow etc.

14. Follow the influencers in your industry using this tool: Twitalyzer

Identify local Twitter users or tweeple – If you are a company that serves only a particular location, networking with local tweeple will add more value to your business.

15. Follow influencers in your location using this tool: Twitterholic This tool lists all the influencers on Twitter, based on the number of followers and location.

16. Enter keywords relevant to your product and use the “near this place” option in Twitter’s advanced search to identify tweeple who are interested in your product

17. Search for tweeple near your location using this tool: Tweepz

18. Network with local tweeple by searching for them with hashtags, using this tool: Localtweeps

How to make your tweets effective

19. If you prefer Web tweeting, use this tool: Twitzap for advanced features

20. Download Tweetdeck for more power tweeting from your desktop

21. You can add additional Twitter accounts in Tweetdeck and control them using a single application

22. Schedule important tweets in advance using this tool:Socialoomph

23. Use: Cotweet for collaborative tweeting

What to tweet on – Starting and joining the right conversation(s) will give you more exposure.

24. Post tweets based on the interests of your followers

25. Search for topics relevant to your product(s) and talk to influencers

26. Use hashtags to power the conversation

27. Post tweets about useful links and articles

28. Use: Happin to talk about the trends in your locality.

Twit research – Twitter is a good source for market data as prospective customers are present there.

29. Finalize the sample size of the search.

30. List hashtags relevant to your research objective

31. Get secondary data for your research based on hashtags by using this tool: Twubs

32. Analyze hashtags relevant to your research using this tool: Trendrr

Get feedback –As Twitter is a real-time medium, organizations use Twitter to get direct feedback from customers.

33. Get feedback from customers and other tweeple by replying and directly messaging them

34. Use hashtags to organize the feedback

35. Get feedback from local tweeple using this tool: NearbyTweets

36. Use: Twtpoll to conduct a simple survey in Twitter to get real-time feedback

37. Post new product screenshots in Twitpic and get instant feedback from your followers

Twit hiring – If you are looking to hire people for your organization, Twitter is another source to find the right talent.

38. Search for job seekers near your location using advanced search features in Twitter public search

39. Use hashtags in your tweets to reach active job seekers

40. Post tweets to announce benefits such as perks, allowances, etc. for the job(s) you offer

41. Use: Twitpic to share corporate events to show job seekers your organization’s work culture

42. You can also use Twitter to conduct background checks on employees by using the Twitter advanced public search.

Tweetup – “Is an organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter.” Tweetup is an excellent platform to promote products among local Tweeple.

43. Search for a Tweetup near your location using: NearbyTweets

44. Organize a Tweetup in your locality using this tool: Twtvite

45. Pitch for influencers in your location by attending Tweetups.

46. Give away promo codes to attendees in the Tweetup to spread your product virally.

Follow your competition – This can give you insights on what your competitors are working on.

47. Follow your competitors on Twitter.

48. Use Twitter public search to get more insights on competitors’ activities

49. Analyze their Twitter account and follower patterns using: Tweetstats

50. Compare your network statistics with competitors using: Twitterfriends
Twit coupons

51. Increase sales for your business by giving exclusive coupons to your followers

52. Use Twtqpon to distribute coupons via Twitter

53. Get your tweets indexed in Cheaptweet by using cheaptweet hashtag and increase exposure for your deals

Twitter promotion

54. Now you can run sweepstakes offers via Twitter to create brand awareness, increase sales, etc.

55. Set the objective for Twitter promotion

56. Make sure that there is no bias in your promotion and be transparent in what you offer

57. To participate in the offer, ask users to include hashtags in their tweets

58. Track the performance of your campaign using this trend-tracking tool: Trendrr

59. Make sure that you do not spam your followers and avoid sending too many tweets about your sweepstakes offers

60. Calculate the ROI of the campaign by breaking it down into: Number of new followers gained, products sold, new visitors to the websites, etc.

Blog sync

61. Increase traffic to your blog by using this auto-feed tool, Twitterfeed

62. Tweet the comments in your blog using this wordpress plug-in: Comment Writer

63. Include your Twitter conversations in your blog using this wordpress plug-in: Twitter Conversations

64. Include a retweet button in your blog to spread it virally using Twitter. You can install the retweet button from here: Tweetmeme

Facebook sync

65. A Facebook page is a marketing channel for most brands. A marriage between Facebook and Twitter will initiate greater engagement and conversations

66. Integrate your Facebook page with Twitter using this Facebook application: Facebook Apps.

67. Avoid spamming your fans in your Facebook page with too many Twitter updates

68. Use this application: Facebook App. to post selective Twitter updates

Press Release Optimization

69. Get more exposure for your Press Releases (PR) by sharing them on Twitter

70. Use keywords in the first 30 characters of your PR tweet for SEO

71. Ask your followers to retweet your PRs to spread them virally

72. Use hashtags to track the PRs

73. Deliver your PRs to top journalists on Twitter using this paid service: Press Releases

74. Analyze the number of tweets your PR receives using: Trendrr

Direct messages (DM) for direct marketing – DM’s are new way to market your product via Twitter

75. Avoid sending DMs to all of your followers

76. Analyze the interests of your followers before sending them DMs

77. Customize your offering in DM based on followers’ demographics

78. Avoid using automated tools for sending DM’s

79. Always maintain a human touch while sending DMs

Brand monitoring

80. Monitor real-time conversations about your brand in Twitter to understand customers’ linguistics

81. To start with, use a simple tool like Twitter public search

82. Monitor various keywords associated with your brand using this tool: Monitter

83. Manage multiple Twitter accounts and brand monitoring using one single tool: Splitweet

84. Paid tools like Radian6 provide many insights along with real-time brand monitoring

Customer support

85. Sometimes your brand will get punk’d in Twitter and customer support plays a vital role to protect your brand from crisis

86. Monitor your brand in real-time and respond to various customer tweets before a brand crisis occurs

87. Assign different queries to employees in concerned departments using: Cotweet

88. Set up a 24/7 automated response for customers’ tweets by using this tool: Localbunny

89. Analyze the number of issues solved via Twitter to measure ROI

Twitter Insights

90. Measure your Twitter performance using parameters like retweet rank, Click Through Rate (CTR) of your tweets, follower count etc.

91. Find your retweet rank using: RetweetRank

92. Track the CTR of your tweets by using short URL services like: http://bit.ly/

93. Analyze your web traffic from Twitter by adding UTM parameters in each tweet link using this tool: UTM-Google Analytics
94. Analyze your follower count at: TwitterCounter

95. Find which tweets help you gain or lose followers, using: TweetEffect

96. Measure your share of voice by using tools like Radian6

Security tips

97. Never use third party Twitter applications that do not support Oath authentication

98. Use strong passwords to protect your account from hackers. Use this tool: Strong Password Generator to generate strong passwords

99. If any security lapses occur on Twitter, change your password immediately

100. Do not click any links in DMs from strangers.

About Position2 — Position2 is a leading Search & Social Media Marketing firm that delivers continuous growth for its customers through its proprietary “Surround & Intent Marketing” methodology. The company’s adaptive technology solutions are customizable to customers’ evolving marketing needs.

It delivers integrated Search & Social Media Marketing solutions that engages prospects at multiple touch-points in the online environment.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/position2 – Website: http://www.Position2.com

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Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you’ll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful.

It’s important that you don’t abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you’ll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag.

Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promo. It acts sort of like a mass emailíng blast to your house email list, but it’s a heck of a lot easier and faster. This is the power of Twitter.

One thing that I’ve noticed with Twitter is that it can seem overwhelming at times. The sheer information on Twitter, the ‘how-to’s’, tutorials and all the other ubiquitous advice on how to use and take advantage of it can seem hard to understand and implement. So here’s an easy-to-understand list of the top ten ways in which you can use Twitter to market yourself, your business and your website.

The Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter for Marketing:

1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter usewww.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)

2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you’ll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.

3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?

• You’ll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they’re selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?

• Since every link has ‘http’ in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.

4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your house email list. Invite these people to join.

5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter.

Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.

Get The Full Story and (5) Additional Ways Here, Enjoy

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Howell Marketing, By Amy Howell — I have written often about all the reasons I use Twitter—and the list continues to grow. The most important way I use Twitter is in the strategy of who I follow and what I keep up with. For example, I follow the national and local media on Twitter, other professionals in my industry and most importantly my clients and thought leaders in my clients’ industries. Not a day goes by that I don’t get the “ROI” (return on investment) question.

My perspective on this as it relates to Twitter is based on the understanding that for me, Twitter is all about getting real time, great information as well as communicating with those that can add value to your life and business. So often I come back with this question: How can you measure the ROI of conversation? Isn’t that what’s at the “heart” of social media? Don’t we all use conversation to generate revenue in most businesses?

As I work with clients in the traditional space of PR and marketing we are increasingly applying social media strategies mainly to their communications and PR efforts. Through this dynamic and rapidly changing process, I often find myself doubting, questioning my own opinions and challenging my brain to think differently—as a skeptic of social media. That is a difficult thing for someone who loves “conversation.”

More important, as a communicator and advocate of using social media for business, I am committed to think seriously about the other side of the coin and—by doing so—I am becoming better at my pitch and persuasion tactics. One thing I will tell you for sure is that the internet is not going away and as social media will continue to evolve, but today I read that 42 million women use social media and they are the consumers most corporations need to reach!

So here are the ‘Top’ skeptical comments brought straight to you by real life experience:

Skeptic 1: “Twitter is a Time Waster”

My Common Response: It certainly can be, but it can also be a time saver as it will help you organize information and easily sort out what you want to see, find what you need and monitor what your customers are doing. (Ah-ha! That will start the questions)

Skeptic 2: “I mean, who cares what you are drinking, eating, going to…I mean I don’t even care what other people do! Who wants to know that stuff?”

My Common Response: Absolutely true! You should only follow those that give you information you want. (Huh? This usually results in raising of eyebrows, scratching of head, more spamming of questions) People who say this obviously are not on Twitter and have no idea how much information (information + communication = profit) that can be derived from being on Twitter.

Skeptic 3: “I don’t even have time to answer all my e-mail much less Twitter!”

My Common Response: You can answer 10,000 people at one time. Can’t pay for that kind of word of mouth advertising, huh?

Skeptic 4: “That chatter out there is too noisy and I have no idea what I’d say”

My Common Response: How about finding 500 of your best clients, friends and prospects and saying what you know is great about your business? (hmmm…they are thinking about all the money they spent on print advertising maybe)

Skeptic 5: “Nobody can measure the ROI of social media”

My Common Response: Do you value communication and efficiency in mass spreading of information for your business?

Skeptic 6: “Most companies aren’t using social media and many are opting out of it”

My Common Response: Thanks to Twitter, I can show you many examples of those that are using social media successfully and I can get you real time stats on what corporations are doing right now in the social media space (Did I mention Twitter is my CIO—Chief Information Officer)

Skeptic 7: “It’s a fad like all other technology”

My Common Response: The internet is not a fad. Then I whip out the latest article in the NYTimes about growing trends in social media (amazing how quoting the NYTimes can help with persuasion: Oh and I just saw on Twitter that they now have over 2 million followers!)

Skeptic 8: “I don’t have time”

My Common Response: Neither do I

Skeptic 9: “I don’t like people knowing so much about me”

My Common Response: Control your message (As I say all the time, be careful what you post on the internet. Comments are 3 things: Global, Permanent, and Discoverable—as in a court of law).

Skeptic 10: “I don’t get it and I don’t want to”

My Common Response: OK, let’s find you somebody who does (often times if we can find a social media champion, we can at least get businesses to monitor what’s going on).

If Twitter is anything to me and my clients, it’s easily a monitoring tool and, for me, it’s information that I use daily: news, trends, best practices, great blogs by smart people, statistics, great resources, etc. It’s like having your own Chief Information Officer!

For more helpful insights, tips and ‘Breaking New’ you can reach Amy here:

Amy Howell, President and CEO, Howell Marketing Strategies, LLC

408 S. Front Street, Suite 104 Memphis, TN 38103

(901) 521-1453 office – (901) 351-7186 cell

Web: http://www.Howell-Marketing.com – Twitter: hhttp://twitter.com/HowellMarketing

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