10 Twitter Tips for Beginners

1. Create a profile convincing Twitter

Create a profile free of a short but interesting sales pitch. So many people take little or no time with their Twitter profile. The goal is to build relationships and network, not to sell to your followers.

2. Send a real photo of yourself

Upload a real photo to your profile. People want to know who is communicating with a person, not a company (or some fictional character). Make sure it is a fairly recent picture.

3. Add your blog to your Twitter profile

A blog is actually better than a website as you may have a side most "human" of your business -. If you are a company and use a website, link to a post on your site that gives people an idea of ​​what you 're about, perhaps the About page on your site. I have my clickable link to go to my blog first and a second, non-clickable you go to my website. I find people who click on my link blog more. If you have not started blogging, they decide to start a blog with Twitter and use it for maximum results.

4. Tweets initial

Yes, you want to sell yourself on Twitter. You are a business after all. But that's not the way to do it on social networking sites and especially not on Twitter. Many companies jump on Twitter and get started right away busily pushing their products. Avoid this.

Before you start marketing yourself, write messages of 10-15, or "tweets". Start communicating to let people know who you are or join the conversation. Give people a reason to follow you.

5. Following people

Follow the people that catch your interest and respond to their tweets, whenever relevant. Not have to follow everyone who follows you. Instead of pitching your site, discuss your interests, hobbies, and ideas and try to answer other people. You will get your name out there and build your followers.

6. Promotional Label

For every tweet "promotion", you should have many more "conversational" tweets including tweets do not necessarily about you. There are just too many self-promoters constantly pitching their products on Twitter - avoid being one of them. One thing I do is look for interesting information my followers might be interested, and in relation to my areas of expertise. I Tweet all my blog posts as well as activities that may be involved in, such as tele-seminars with colleagues in my field or related industries.

Remember, Twitter is more about building relationships, to join in the conversation that is already happening and the construction of exposure rather than overt selling.

7. Use a desktop or mobile Twitter

Once you get comfortable with the way Twitter works, use fixed or mobile phone applications to keep pace. Take a look at: Twhirl or TweetDeck for your computer, or Tweetie for iPhone. I use TweetDeck and UberTwitter. I rarely use the Twitter website - are the tools of desktop Twitter allow you to do more.

8. Keep track of the conversation

You know when people are talking about you? There are a number of tools that will alert you when someone tweets about you, your keywords, your blog post or something you said. Explore tools like TweetLater, or TweetBeep TweetTree.

9. Start or join the conversation

Ask questions, answer questions of others, or participate in conversations that are already underway. Soon enough, you can build your reputation and following.

10. Monitor the time to Twitter

No need to sit on Twitter 24 hours. If you have limited time to spend on line, trying to gain access for a set time each day for a certain amount of time and to ensure that the productive time. Twitter can be addictive, so plan how you'll use it so as not to waste the whole day. Have a plan on how you want to use Twitter and review how your doing against that plan.

If you're new to Twitter, by following these simple tips to get up to speed and make new connections in no time....