One of the undeniable players on the social-media marketing field has been Twitter—best described as a micro-blogging website. Considering Twitter has more than 200 million members and a growth rate comparable to Facebook, the system clearly lends itself to online marketing opportunities.

The site’s popularity alone is a good indication that it provides an opportunity to find customers, but I’ve discovered it is literally a virtual world of qualified customers waiting to be alerted to products and services. It is useful for sharing timely information with existing customers, broadcasting special promotions or even running online contests to create exposure for your business. Twitter is also being picked up by the major search engines and included in a special section of search results in Microsoft’s latest search tool, Bing.

Start it up
When considering a marketing plan for Twitter, determine if one account can cover your business in its entirety or if several accounts would be a better approach. One account is perfect for a big brand like Coca-Cola to speak to its enormous market. But a business that sells to a diverse audience and a variety of demographics will be better off targeting separate markets individually. Apply the logic that racing fans will follow racing tweets while golfers will follow tweets on that sport—in order to market successfully on Twitter, broadcast tweets to your target audiences accordingly.

If you decide to utilize multiple accounts, you will want to use HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com). HootSuite provides a dashboard where users can easily manage all accounts and tweet for each from a single location. HootSuite also affords the ability to add up to five RSS feeds to each Twitter account. This is great for automation. For example, a Twitter account targeting golfers could tie in a few RSS feeds from the popular golf websites (scores, news, podcasts, video) and send out links from those RSS feeds that are of interest to that list of followers on a regular basis. This strategy keeps the followers’ attention, generates even more followers and adds numerous keywords to a micro-blog. Throw in a few “human” tweets (that is, those not from an RSS feed) and watch that Twitter account become popular, generating a qualified list of followers (a.k.a. potential customers). You can also link the RSS feeds from your own blogs or websites for automatic posting.

HootSuite also allows its users to track statistics, so be sure to use links to your website, blog and other online areas of marketing to direct followers to your products and services. That also adds links to your micro-blog for search engine goodness. And finally, HootSuite has a feature that allows tweets to be set on timers for posting at a future date and time. Going out of town for a tradeshow? Take a few minutes to post a few tweets to be sent and leave Twitter on autopilot while you’re gone.

Though automatic tweets are certainly a time-saver, try and participate in some interactivity from time to time. Follow Friday is a popular term on Twitter for suggesting followers to other followers. Using “@Reply” (using tweets to respond to individual followers) lets your audience know you’re participating, and “ReTweets” (posting tweets that others have posted) are a great way to gain trust and acceptance while encouraging your followers to ReTweet your messages. Even if running multiple accounts, just a few minutes at the beginning and end of each day is all it takes to maintain a presence on Twitter and keep your followers interested and growing in number.

Follow me
There are some great tools available for getting a good list of followers started and maintained. One of my favorites is FlashTweet (www.flashtweet.com), a mass-follow tool that simplifies the process of adding Twitter followers. The site allows users to see the accounts that are following its tweets and compare them to who they are following. It also shows mass-follow users based on search terms and provides users the ability to un-follow multiple tweets at once. Using our earlier example of targeting golfers, you could simply follow all of those that are following pro golfers and golf magazines that are on Twitter. On average, about 30 to 40 percent will follow you back (particularly if you have tweets that interest them). You can then filter out the unqualified followers (you’ll be able to tell from their tweets) and start with a good number that will grow over time.

Don’t fall into the group that thinks having two million followers is the road to Twitter glory. Marketing to sheep is not a well thought-out plan. I’d rather broadcast a message about my great golf shirts to 500 followers who I know play golf rather than two million who may or may not like golf at all. Also, remember that no one would choose to watch a television station that had nothing but commercials running. Post personal tweets such as “I’m watching the PGA Tour at Joe’s Crab Shack” along with some items of interest (generated by the RSS feeds you choose) and sprinkle in your marketing messages in between.

You can also follow users by keyword, which I find to be a great way to grow a qualified list. If you mass followed everyone tweeting about golf once a week for a month, just imagine how many would follow you back over time.

Finally, be sure and let everyone know you’re on Twitter. Add links to your profile to your websites, blogs, Facebook pages and signature files. Before long you’ll be enjoying a short and easy way to connect with your target market, generating leads and sales.

Twitter 101
For those who’ve been too afraid to ask what it is, Twitter offers short, fast paced and to-the-point messages much like SMS (short message system) text messaging. Users have 140 characters or less to broadcast a micro-blog message to their followers online. While most users simply tweet about the fantastic sandwich they had for lunch or how bad traffic seems to be interrupting their day, Twitter is also used to follow people or businesses and brands of interest.  
Twitter is free and you can create an account(s) at www.twitter.com. Be sure to include keywords about your business in the short biography section of your profile, and use the online designer to create a colorful and interesting profile page (your micro-blog). One of the key ingredients to Twitter is a feeling of trust. Your followers want to rest assured they are following a real person and not a robot or snake-oil salesman, so it is a highly recommended to use a picture whether it is your company logo or an actual picture of yourself.