Twitter was started 2006 and over the past few years, it has shown phenomenal growth. In fact, in February of 2009, Twitter was ranked as the third most popular site on the internet, next to MySpace and Facebook. Many business owners are now using Twitter to promote their business. However, many don’t know how to maximize the site to their advantage.

For you Twitterers who own any kind of business, here are some excellent tips for you:

Set Up Your Twitter Account for Business

You must set up your own Twitter account first before you can use the site for business purposes. Luckily, that is very simple to do. Once your account is set up, you should create a profile page for your business.  You can also design your own backdrop, or have one created for you, and have your business data on the background image. Once you have your account, profile, and backdrop image in place, you can begin letting other Twitter users know about your business.

Use Twitter for Market Research

Twitter is a great internet site for market research. Every business has a target market. Through Twitter, you can easily connect with your target market and get pertinent feedback from them. Many of today’s business owners fail because they don’t understand the true needs of their market. With the help of Twitter, you can easily listen to the needs of your prospects, the issues they are currently facing, and discover the kind of help they want. You’ll just need to listen and ask questions.

Studying your target market is very important for your business success. Identify their wants and needs so that you can provide them answers. Remember, you must try to build trust and confidence. Twitter has jillions of users from all over the world. Just imagine how many of them you can get to visit your business. Gathering clients through Twitter is not as difficult as you might imagine.

Use Twitter to Build a List

Twitter is a natural list builder. People who are interested in your business services will seek you out and become your follower, and will read your Tweets. You can also find other like-minded Twitterers and follow them. A lot of them will return the follow. Some say that as many as 40% of those you follow will follow you back. These followers can be thought of as a list of sorts.

As your list begins to grow, you can, and should, share information with them. Some examples would be a straightaway Tweet asking them to opt-in to your newsletter, or offering them a free download. You don’t want to promote your business every single time you tweet to your target market, or you might be considered a spammer, but it’s perfectly ok to mention your business every once in a while.

Build Relationships with Your Followers

Whenever you meet someone on Twitter, try to establish a good relationship. You are a customer too. You buy from people who you trust and like. Your target market also behaves the same way. You must get to know your clients better and win their trust and confidence. Ninety percent of your Twitter updates should contain helpful information and try to limit your promotion. In this way, you can attract more prospects and later on they may become subscribers or customers.

Tweet Your Events

If you offer teleseminars or any other type of event, you should send out invitations to your followers through Twitter. It costs nothing and is immediate. Start early, and send out several invitations and reminders, interspersed with your other Tweets. The more of your followers who see your Tweet-invitations, the more you will be promoting your business.

Start A Blog

Your followers will need a place to visit to learn more about you and your business and the services or products it has to offer. In order to show authority in your business, a good blog or website is a must. You can easily set up a blog, or have one set up for you. There are many tools that can automatically check for any posts you have made to your blog and share them with your Twitter followers.

Once you have determined what your market wants or needs, you can write blog posts or write articles about those needs and wants. You can also create a new service to meet those needs or perhaps you can conduct a teleseminar on a topic that might interest your target market. Any blog posts, articles, teleseminar, videos or podcasts that you create will attract more leads to your site, both through normal channels like the search engines, and also through Twitter. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the number of visitors you will receive right after “Tweeting” about a new post.

Conclusion

Twitter asks you the question – What are you doing? You must answer this question, in 140 characters or less, so that you can let the entire world know about your business. After that, you can follow the helpful tips mentioned above.

Visit this site for more great articles and even more more detail on using Twitter for business,

Tags: Business, Marketing With Facebook, MySpace, Online Communities, Social Networking, Twitter, Web search engine, Website