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There are many attempts at social networking sites and services

but its rare that any ever take off. Facebook and Myspace are a few

of the wildly successful exceptions to the rule.

The newest social networking tool that is getting very popular is Twitter

(www.twitter.com).

The popularity is based around its simplicity. The site

helps people answer the question: "What are you doing now?"

On first impression the first thought may be "so what?". (At

least that was my initial reaction)...

But it turns out that

it can be interesting from the perspective of both reading

other people's tweets and also writing your own.

While blogs have been allowing people to answer that question

online as well, twitter is much more straight forward. It only

allows you to post entries up to 140 characters.

So instead of the pressure of having to spend a long time working

on the perfect blog post, instead think of Twitter as a "micro

blog".

People are using it to instantly send out short

messages (called tweets) about what they are doing and what

they are working on.

Other People's Tweets

By clicking to "follow" a person on twitter, you are notified

each time that they update a new message (post a tweet).

It can provie some interesting insight into what people of

interest are doing.

If you had a favoriate author or blog

personality, you can discover projects they are working on

or their thoughts or observations of the day. They may post

a new resource or perhaps a link to an interesting article

that they wish to share with people following them.

Because you are only allowed 140 characters, it challenges

people to be short, concise and interesting. If you aren't

then people are likely to lose interest.

If you do have some wisdom or interesting insights to share

however, then it starts to get very interesting from a

marketing perspective...

Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool

There are ways for people to search Twitter for topics of

interest. As you post your tweets, the words you use are

searchable. People finding your postings will often start

following your tweets as you are talking about things that

are of interest to them.

The interesting thing is when you start posting links back

to your site, blog or even new products that you are just

rolling out.

As your list of followers grows, you can instantly

start generating a rush of traffic with one simple Twitter

update.

The key to Twitter is to try to maintain the balance between

being overtly commercial vs. conversational with something

interesting to share. No one wants to be pitched to constantly

but if you have something important you are working on and

want some feedback, you can post a tweet asking for people's

opinion.

You will often get responses.

Real World Examples

Some real world examples of using Twitter.

Since Twitter is updated in real time as you post to it, you

can often get nearly instant feedback from people following

your Tweets.

I just got back from Las Vegas for a master mind group with some

Internet marketers. I saw several different examples of Twitter

being used. Some tweets sent out while I was there included:

"I'm in Vegas until Friday. Anyone interested in an informal

get together for lunch?"

"looking for good mood music for today's master mind session.

Anyone have suggestions?"

"I'm in Vegas with (big name person). I'll be doing a Q and A

interview. What questions do you have for him?"

"Just posted a new entry on my blog about our adventures in

Las Vegas last night: [link]"

These tweets were responded back to very quickly after being

posted. It was providing real time interaction with the marketers

base of people following him.

Think of it in the perspective of being like an instant email

newsletter but without the hassle and time committment of sending

one out.

Instead Twitter can be sent from a web enabled cellphone

or even dictated to using a voice to text service. Because it is

so easy to update and not a huge time committment, it allows for

a lot more spontaneous connections to potential customers or

clients.

What Are The Results

I talked to several people about this while I was in Vegas. They

had anywhere from a few hundred people "following" them to thousands.

They all agreed that a properly done short post (tweet) can

nearly instant drive a lot of traffic or responses.

One person

uses it to announce new updates to his blog and he stats show

hundreds of visits in a short amount of time every time he Twitters

about it.

Sharp marketers know the power of repetition of exposure to

potential customers. The benefits of having customers feeling

a stronger connection or repoire also helps build a more loyal

user base. Twitter is turning out to be a tool that can help out

with both of those.

Tips Getting the Most out of Twitter

Here's a few tips to get the most our of Twitter: