There are several different schools of thought when it comes to Twitter.  Some people believe you should follow as many “targeted” Twitter users as possible, because there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back.  But, even though that user looks like someone with similar interests, they might be a horrible Twitter user.  My philosophy for building a following is to let your content do the work.  If you consistently engage in conversation, post relevant links, and Re-tweet relevant information about what interests you most, people will follow you.  But, what about the people you follow?

It’s very tough to start conversations, re-tweet meaningful information, and participate in what other people are talking about if your Twitter stream is filled with a bunch of garbage.  There are two ways to solve this issue.

Set Up A Group

If you want to follow anyone and everyone in hopes of building a bigger following for yourself, you could always set up a group in a third-party Twitter client such as HootSuite or Seesmic.  Simply start a group called “Most Important” or something similar and specifically pick out the people that you want to follow closely.  This will give you a separate column to see their tweets separate from your regular Twitter stream filled with spammers and other annoying people.

Use TwitCleaner

I just used TwitCleaner for my personal Twitter account and a couple of corporate accounts that I manage.  Visit the site, and log in with the Twitter ID that you want to clean out.  The TwitCleaner will run a report and DM you a link to your account.  Go to the DM and click on the link.  You’ll then see a break down of all potentially annoying and spamming Tweeters that you follow.  It breaks it down into categories such as people who only tweet links, only tweet the same links, have been dormant for over a month, and so on.  You can uncheck all of the Twitter accounts that you want to keep, and the rest get mass unfollowed.  The beauty with this application is that they don’t just do a mass unfollow right away.  They spread out the unfollow over a period of time so it doesn’t trigger a warning flag with Twitter about your account.  You’re going to lose some followers of your own when you do this, but it’s worth it.  You’ll have a much cleaner Twitter stream, and it’ll make it easier to bring quality back to your account.

My advice for small business owners looking to get into the world of Twitter and start doing some marketing on Twitter is to be careful with who you follow.  If you don’t keep guidelines on who you follow, your account will become less about quality, and you’ll end up only pushing out promotions instead of participating in the conversation going on by your customers.  Only follow customers and other industry related Twitter accounts, and this will allow you to post more quality content over the long-term.

It’s no surprise that small businesses are following suit by marketing their products and services on Twitter. Twitter makes it so easy for small businesses to update their customers on upcoming events, sales, promotions, and new merchandise. However, there’s a huge difference between simply having a presence on Twitter and using to effectively market your business. Twitter has already been flooded with a lot of noise, so it’s tougher and tougher to stand out be heard amongst all of the noise and bull crap that is on Twitter. Here are a few strategies to help you market effectlvely on Twitter.

Make use of hash tags

When running a giveaway or a contest on Twitter as part of a marketing strategy for a client, I almost always incorporate a hash tag that I made up. First of all, it’s much easier to track participants of the contest/giveaway, and it easily allows Twitter users filter out the noise from what they want to read. For instance, I ran a contest on the popular Mac blog, Cult of Mac, and to enter the giveaway the readers had to tweet or re-tweet a certain phrase with the hash tag #cultofmac.

Prompt customers to participate

Don’t just give something away on Twitter to the first person that responds to you. Make them for it a little bit. If it’s a giveaway, make followers post a photo on Twitter or answer a question as their entry. If it’s a contest, make it somethig that could go viral like a short video or photo contest.

Host a Twitter Chat

A great way to make use of hash tags on Twitter is to host a Twitter chat. A great example of this is #greenchat and #bp. I started Green Chat for RezHub.comfor people to join in on green living and travel discussion on Twitter. Craig Kessler from Budget Pulse knew that the personal finance community was huge on Twitter, so he stated a Twitter chat about personal finance. So, on Wednesday nights at 7pm if you follow the hash tag #bp, you’ll see a running conversation from people around Twitter talking about personal finance. It’s great for spreading brand awareness and becoming an authority in your industry.

Don’t spam followers

Use the 4 to 1 rule. For every 1 marketing tweet you send out, make sure you send out 4 more tweets that are relational or conversational. If your Twitter account looks just like a billboard or newsletter about what’s going on at your business with no conversation or interaction happening, followers will get annoyed and bored by your Twitter account.

If you have questions about Twitter Marketing and wonder if it’s right for your business, please visit my company’s website, Presence Media Group. You can check out our portfolio and contact us with your company’s info and your marketing needs.