If you're still scratching your head about Twitter and wondering how you can use it to benefit your online business and not just as one big waste of time, hopefully I can help you see the light about how Twitter is a pretty cool tool.
It's hard to explain to people how Twitter can be of benefit if you don't actually use it, that’s mainly because I think the benefit is best seen in the experience. I've only just begun figuring out the benefits of using Twitter myself, but I will say that it’s not a time waster. I’ve gotten some great exposure and made some pretty unique connections.
Twitter works by helping you find people with like interests and knowledge but can also help you find people that are looking for specific knowledge or information on topics.
Remember social media tools like Twitter are about creating community, finding friends and ultimately building trust. If you know how to use Twitter to get in front of the people most interested in what you have to say, you'll be light years ahead of everyone else.
Here are some things I've learned about how twitter works and some of the tools that make it a great.
Twhirl
This is a twitter desktop client much like Yahoo or MSN's instant messenger. It requires adobe AIR, which is an easy free download. Once installed it sits on your desktop and you can send and receive Twitter messages easily. This is a nice alternative to logging directly into your twitter account. Twhirl has an interface for both windows and Mac. There are tons of cool features that make Twhirl a cool little tool. It's easy to configure and fun to use.
Tweetdeck
This is another Twitter desktop application by Adobe air that is similar to Twirl but has a bunch more functionality.
For example, instead of displaying just tweets, it displays tweets, your replies and direct messages as well and displays them in divider columns. Also because Tweetdeck is database driven you can continue twittering even when offline, Tweets and direct messages are queued and then sent automatically when back online. Pretty cool!
Here's more on what you can do with Tweetdeck
- Catch up with overnight global twitterings as TweetDeck stores all updates whilst running
- Continual status updates of TweetDeck and Twitter
- Resize TweetDeck as either an unobtrusive column, full screen or anything in between
- Especially useful running full screen on a separate monitor
- Filter tweets up to 48 hours using the Timeframe bar
- Auto updates from the Twitter API
Here's where you can download Tweetdeck
Twitter search
There are several twitter search engines, many that no longer seem to work, so I've been using Twitter search. It helps you find information you are looking for on twitter. For example, let's say you've got some info to share about dog breeding; you can type in 'dog breeders ?' (no quotes) and you'll get results of people asking questions relating to dog breeding.
Or how about this, you can find out what tweets have been sent to a specific user by typing in 'to:username', or likewise you can type in 'from:username' and find out what messages were sent from that person. There are several more Twitter operators you can use on twitter search as well.
One of the nice features of twitter is it can be interfaced with things like your iphone, facebook and your blog.
Some Usage Tips & Observations
From using Twitter these past few months, here are a few observations and tips:
- If you want to address a user specifically use the @ sign in front of your message, for example @username message. Additionally if someone @replies you - note, this means they start a tweet with @yourusername—you will see that in your main timeline if you follow the person. But you'll see it in your replies tab, whether you follow them or not (unless you've blocked them)
- Don't use twitter to promote your stuff. If you have something free or you want to invite someone to a webinar or forum discussion that's ok, however the idea is to make friends and help promote yourself by means of allowing others to get to know you and what you are all about, not push yourself on anyone, that's a sure way to lose friends.
- Follow who you want to follow you back. For me those would be people that I think have an interesting website or have creative and original ideas, but also I want followers that I think may be interested in what I'm about. Don't automatically follow someone because they follow you, review profiles and websites and take a careful look first.
- When I learn that someone is following me I like to send them a brief message to thank them and ask them to visit my forum. Don't ever push products or make sales pitches, this is an introduction so you want to make a good impression.
To send a follower a twitter email, log into your twitter account and find the person following you, (if you get an email notification that someone is following you just click on the link), then look to the right of the persons profile and click on 'actions', this brings up a window where you can compose a 140 character message.
A final thought
A lot of tweets can be just simple ramblings and spontaneous thoughts …and that's ok, the idea is to keep yourself in front of your audience as often as you can, but I think that if you keep your tweets interactive, ask poignant questions, spark a little controversy or site a news clip now and then you're likely to get a lot more attention. I do occasionally take a break and tweet about how my day is going or what kind of mood I'm in, but entries posted that are interesting and thought provoking are what get my attention the most, so if I want to grab the attention of others, it makes sense that I do the same.
Please feel free to add your favoite Twitter tools and comments…
Happy Tweeting! 
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