What Is Twitter and Should I Be Using It In My Online Business?

There is a lot of talk about Twitter where ever you look. Using the same 140 character format that cell phones use for texting is what Twitter is all about. It's like texting to a very large group of people with your cell phone. You will find everything on twitter from the mundane, someone washing his or her hair, to the very useful, information on any subject. Should you be using Twitter and how should you?

There are estimates, Twitter is a private held company and does not release information, that there are over 26 million Twitter users, called tweeps. User send information in 140 packages that are called tweets. Twitter is where the hangs out and exchanges ideas and gossips. Not all that is tweeted is relevant. This is a perfect soapbox to declare your self an expert. People who are linked to you are called followers and they can see your tweets. You can see tweets from people you follow. Obviously you want loads of followers all watching what you say or tweet. You should strive ofr equal numbers of followers and following. You want to balance the number of followers and those that you follow. Keeping your ratios equal you stay out of the spammer label, something Twitter frowns upon and another readon is to demontrate to your Twitter community that you are here to build relationships.

You communicate on Twitter in two forms. One is through your tweets and another is your profile. People become aware of you through various services and the first place they will look is your profile. Your profile give the world a 140 character description of yourself and what you do. The picture is the first people will notice about your profile. People will draw a great deal about your picture - do not let Twitter put it generic brown double oo up. This is as much your brand as anything else. Many people including myself have made a choice to follow someone based on the photo alone. The description part of your profile can be as varied as the Internet. Your photo and your description will give everyoe who visits a peak into yourself. What are your likes or hobbies or interests; let people see the real your.

You need to focus on giving to the Twitter community. It is no different than any other social networking site - give value. Giving good content and advice and your will show yourself to be a leader. You will be awful lonely if all you want to do is lay your message on everyone every minute of everyday. No one will care and you will alienate the small amount of followers that you have. You search out a particular type of profiles and give them what they are looking for. Quotes or snipets of information is always a good tweet. You can't have one (followers) without the other (good tweets). Good tweets will be retweeted to other follower's network of followers who will se and follow it back to who sent it and possibly follow you.

You can let your followers know you are posting a new blog post or a link to information they find meaningful or tweet a great quote. All people can see about you is your picture and description in your profile and what you tweet everyday. You want followers like yourself so your message will resonate with them. You will have similar experiences. As large as Twitter is, you can't just blow it off. Your downline could be waiting there but build your relationships first. Be more concerned with giving then receiving and you will receive far more than you give.