As you would have noticed much of our writing begins with you, the reader, who approaches us in different ways. A new entrepreneur seeking guidance, a college student seeking more information, a business partner seeking knowledge, a marketing manager wanting a better internet marketing solution, a client who wants more ROI for his Digital Marketing Spends etc. This time around I am going to talk about twitter as a business promotion tool. Since the last couple of weeks many people have approached me with questions about twitter, some very basic and some which I felt were a bit complex for a new entrant in the growing Internet Medium. I decided to write a post about twitter for a businessman / entrepreneur seeking an internet marketing solution. My aim is to help you understand how twitter can help if used effectively as an online marketing tool.
Much has been written about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM – Adwords on google, yahoo, bing) and there is quite a bit already present about twitter and the different ways brands and organisations are leveraging it as part of their social media marketing strategy.
We all know that Twitter is a hot subject and has remained so during the last 2 years and as it continues to grow and create new records it is expected to be an important part of the Internet Marketing economy. Its shown some really crazy growth patterns and its ever increasing popularity and is somehow a mystery for many business owners who are struggling to find an effective way to encash this new phenomenon. Many believe and understand that should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand it and thus do not use it from a business perspective. I am hoping this blog post will help you to learn, use and benefit from twitter.
Like many of you I too was confused when I was introduced to twitter. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page can be a challenge. The home page is where the action is. It shows updates of posts from people who you are following (yes you will need to follow some people first and the learning begins 
). For many who follow favourites suggested by friends and colleagues you will realise soon enough that there can be too much to read and thus a lot of confusion. The first step is to create a of group those you follow, this ensure easy navigation of all that is happening.
Oooops, did I jump or move too fast? Let me make it simple, first you need to create a twitter id or handle as its popularly called. It like creating a new email or facebook account. Handles at twitter are the id’s, like your email and are written with a preceding @ symbol. For e.g. You can follows us @virtualsnipers and our handle is thus virtualsnipers. Given the growth of twitter the chances of getting an id you want may be difficult but make sure you try and get the best possible combination.
And next question is what do you like to read? This will define who must follow and if those you follow will be worth the time. For me, twitter became a great huge ever growing directory / dictornary / encyclopedia of information and latest updates and some really excellent and interesting people who I would have never connected with had it not been for twitter. I follow people in my industry who share their experiences and knowledge, and there are many who like us believe in sharing and provide links to new applications or point followers to an interesting article, video, or blog – places / websites which I would want to be on but may never have found them myself. Now that you have found those whom you want to follow its your turn to share and write about things you like and thus help others and generate followers for yourself. These followers could be people you follow too.
You will need to be actively engaged on twitter to decide whom to follow and whom to not called unfollow. On twitter you can get to know a person much better because what they write is a reflection of their true self. And this is something and every individual finds easy to connect.
So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for networking, linking with people, learning and sharing. Its a great means of guiding people to content on your website, articles you have written about your services / products, or by guiding people to a service you want to highlight – basically you drive traffic to your website in a cost effective manner and thus generate more visitors and increase chances of a sale and also publicity. And the best part is that Google indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can also appear in the organic search results alongwith your website. So that’s a piece of internet real estate you don’t want to miss as it increases the chances of finding you on search results. Write your profile well and you will have made a good beginning.
We will be continuing more on this topic on your next blog post, so stay tuned
