Mark Twain said “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

The question is, can Twitter be the right kind of advertising?
It can be, as long as you follow some simple rules.

Start by creating quality relationships through tweeting GREAT content. This begins by attracting the right followers and following the right tweeters. It is easy to find a large amount of users to follow, but this can lead to your Twitter account getting twammed (that is spam for Twitter) and forcing your followers to sort through the bad content looking for the good content. With a couple thousand followers this can get very perplexing.

Publish more content than advertisement. Users should feel that you are contributing to the Twitter community, not just self-promoting. A good rule of thumb is for about every nine tweets, point one link back to your site. This shows that you are not just looking to drive traffic. A study by Pew Internet & American Life Project states “For many Twitter users, learning about and sharing relevant and recent nuggets of information is a primary utility of the service.”

Keep your followers ultra-targeted and your tweets product-specific. I am using the term “product” very loosely. It can be an actual product, service, information or whatever you are looking to promote.

Utilize Twitter to monitor what people are saying. Even bad comments can be good. Learn from what users are tweeting. Communicate with them, build relationships, treat them with respect and your followers will trust you and your tweets. Trust is the key.

Don’t look for immediate sells; rather look for loyal followers who will become loyal customers. These are some of the best customers; after all they are on a social media network to gain advice and research. This means there is a good chance they will tweet about their experience. Now you have reached out to that customer and all of their friends. Keep in mind that it is a ripple effect that can be both good and bad.

There is no doubt that Twitter is growing. 1 “As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others. Just a few weeks earlier, in November 2008, 9% of internet users used Twitter or updated their status online and in May of 2008, 6% of internet users responded yes to a slightly different question, where users were asked if they used ‘Twitter or another ‘microblogging’ service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others.’”

As marketers, consumers, and people with good old common sense, we know that we have to stay current in our efforts to make a connection with our prospects. If your business is not involved in some form of social media or microblogging, you are ignoring an increasingly more prominent group of consumers. Put yourself out there! Just remember the viral nature of online content, and be targeted in your efforts. Twitter is becoming more and more like a search engine, so when you publish content, ask yourself “what would I want to generate for a search involving my product or company?” By following a few simple guidelines, you’re jumping on a very powerful bandwagon and introducing yourself to whole new group of potential customers.

Notes:
1 Stats extracted from: Twitter and Status Updating Report by Pew Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/Experts/~/link.aspx?_id=2CB2AFA2A1484EFB9CE986F0A4F67EC5&_z=z