2-minute Twitter guide for marketing

Twitter is currently one of the fastest growing communication tools available to organizations big and small. While origionally designed as a social networking/ chat tool, it is rapidly finding its way as a marketing and training tool.

Twitter is both a social and marketing tool – don’t abuse either approach. If your tweets are mainly business – tell people in your bio or DM (if you must). If its mainly personal declare it too – sure you many lose some followers in the short term, but gain in the long term.

Some simple rules to help you get the most out of this marketing tool:

* Don’t over-promote. Twitter is not just a marketing tool
* Send a key message a couple of times at different times of the day
* Don’t send the same message begging people to support your site 100s of times – let them choose to support or not
* Be helpful. Offer advice and useful links – not just to your site
* Don’t stay on Twitter all day. Treat it like a visit to the coffee machine
* ReTweet messages you think your followers will value
* ReTweet reciprocal tweets to blogs from your followers and they will do the same
* Ask questions, get involved in debates
* Be polite
* Be yourself. Never pretend to be someone else
* If you want to send something sensitive, send a direct message
* Never swear
* Never flame
* Have fun – lots of it

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