Not quite! Because of the nature of Twitter, the short answer is you really CAN’T monetize Twitter. At least not directly. Twitter is by nature a social beast. It’s about building relationships, and creating personal connections. When you go in and just start using it to try and make a buck, believe me your Twitter followers notice, and they will not like you very much. They will most likely even unfollow you.

Which begs the question, if you can’t make money on Twitter, what’s the point? Just because you can’t monetize Twitter directly, for example sending out mass links to products in the hopes of a sale, it doesn’t mean it can’t be monetized indirectly.

You are building a relationship with like minded individuals. If you use Twitter in the way that it was intended to be used, you will be establishing yourself to your followers as a real person just like them. You will be allowing them to relate to you on a personal level, and get to know YOU, not just your business or product.

Guess what that means the next time they are in the market for something you provide? You will be the first person they think of purchasing from! Your product or service will get first crack at providing them with the solution they are seeking, simply because they now feel they KNOW you and can TRUST you. Two key components in any successful business transaction.

Does that mean you can’t let your Twitter followers know about your products and services occasionally? Of course not. In fact, with all your Twitter efforts, all roads should lead back to you, your website, and your business. For every 10 – 15 retweets you send out of other followers stuff, you should send out one of your own related to your brand or business. And it should send folks back to your website.

Your Twitter profile should have a link back to your website. And if you are using your Twitwall appropriately, that too should lead back to your website or business. The key is to walk the fine line between promoting your business, and building those relationships. The relationships are paramount to success way more so than spamming your followers with ‘Buy This Product Now Links’. The relationships are what will increase your revenue in the long run.

So remember that sometimes it really is better to beat around the bush a bit. Build relationships, connect with people, provide value that doesn’t cost them anything. Direct marketing and sales is a flop on Twitter. Just don’t do it. Your followers will thank you and love you all the more for it!

Whether you like it or not, major companies are now using Twitter as a branding tool and to communicate with their customer base. Some of them don’t have a clue, and only Tweet their sales links, or promotions that serve only them. Others though, really ‘get’ it, and are using their Twitter profiles to really build a reputation for themselves and truly connect with their clients and customers.

Some of the best examples of major brands that use Twitter in a savvy manner are Starbucks and Dell. If you take a look at their updates, you will see that they truly interact with their followers. Answering questions, retweeting, ASKING questions, and just really engaging with their followers are all excellent ways to make them feel connected.

This is the very same thing you should be doing with your business when striving to brand yourself. Ask questions. Answer questions. Give feedback, offer insight, interact. Don’t just post random marketing messages, and links to your products. Don’t fill up the time line with a ton of links and nothing of value. And don’t forget to support your followers and their own endeavors by retweeting those things you find of interest, or valuable, or that you believe in.

Your followers will appreciate you for taking the time to help them promote their own stuff, or for mentioning them or something inspiring they said to your own follower base. It makes them feel good, and they will then return the favor for you. Think of the relationship between you and your followers similar to that of a family. What you give and put in, you get back ten fold.

Twitter is such an amazing way to build a name for yourself in your business or industry, when used properly. Take the time to study successful Tweeps who are using it in inspiring ways, and model your own efforts after them. You will soon be amazed at the results and response you get! Happy Tweeting!

Please join us for the Perpetual Learning Series – Ron Davies & Susan Preston

DATE & TIME: Monday, June 1st at 9:00pm Eastern

FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast)

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There are a number of ways you can use Twitter for business, both for branding purposes, as well as customer support and market research just to name a few.

Twitter allows you to be on the top of your game when monitoring your business and brand. It offers you a way to connect with other like minded individuals and business owners and exchange ideas. It allows you to monitor what is being said about you or your brand via handy applications like TweetBeep, which also allows you to dig up leads on Twitter as well. Sort of a multi handy application really!

Twitter is powerful in that it connects you with a steady flow of thoughts and ideas from all walks of life, and can build what’s known by some as ’social celebrity’ rather easily. When you achieve social celebrity it means that you or your business is being talked about and your products are being viewed by your followers. That’s a good thing, we call it creating a buzz!

There are so many ways to put Twitter to work for you that if you aren’t exploring them, you really harming your business. Just remember that if your using Twitter it’s because you believe there is value in human connections. So don’t just restrict your tweets to only business. Yes it’s OK to talk about yourself on Twitter, and talk about your business. It’s also OK to drop links to your blog posts or products.

Just don’t get carried away, and be sure that in between flaunting your own stuff you are generously spreading the word on other peoples stuff as well in the form of RT’s and recommendations. Also be sure to insert that human factor by tweeting about life in general, or sharing interesting or funny quotes, pictures, and links to cool articles.

Your followers want to know that there is a person on the other side of the Twitter avatar, not just an automated tweet or a sales pitch. If you can connect with your followers on a personal level, then it will be a natural impulse for them to then turn to you for their business needs. If you stop to think about it, what is the best sort of advertising a business can have? Word of mouth. Twitter is the ultimate tool for word of mouth advertising. Just make sure the words being spread around about you are good words!

There are a ton of reasons why social media is great for your business, and why Twitter is fast becoming one of the most popular social media platforms. Unfortunately, if you are new to Twitter, or to date have never bothered to try Twitter, you may just be wondering why the heck you should Tweet anyway!

So, to answer that question I have compiled the top 12 reasons you should be Twittering. Indeed why you should WANT to be Twittering!

1. Gain first hand social networking experience. There is no end to the possibilities of social networking and new technologies and unfortunately there are way too many people out there willing to jump on the bandwagon and declare themselves expert. Except for the minor little lack of having NO EXPERIENCE whatsoever in new technologies!

2. Twitter is faster than texting. Seriously it’s like a massive text messaging system, and a mass text is like your updates, and a private text is your DM’s. @replies are to specific people, but they show up in the universal time line. See? So really the only time you need to text someone is if you get a message outside of Twitter.

3. You’ll meet new people and make new friends. Whether it’s just exchanging Tweets, or you meet up with new friends for lunch and a coffee, your Tweeps can have an impact on your life in both big and small ways.

4. Speaking of friends, Twitter will allow you to see them in new ways as yet unexplored. Because of the ambient intimacy that Twitter sparks in people, it tends to ‘humanize’ them. On any given day you can see that one of your friends goes through periods of happiness, frustration, boredom, etc just like you and everyone else. That’s important because it makes us feel like we are not alone in this world!

5. You’ll become a better writer. Because of Twitters 140 character limit for Tweets, it forces you to get creative in what you say in order to get the message across. It also forces you to be concise and to the point, rather than throwing a lot of extraneous words around. This makes YOU a better writer and your readers very happy.

6. Twitter keeps you connected. It makes it fun and easy to stay in touch with family and friends, whether they live an hour away or halfway across the world. No matter how busy you are, there is always time to drop off a Tweet to your mom or a DM to your best friend in Thailand.

7. You can keep up on all the hottest trends and latest fashions in just about every category of merchandise. You can also keep up with what’s cool in the way of books, restaurants, and night life in a certain area, just to name a few. Because Twitter is real time, you are keeping up with what is hot and current RIGHT NOW, not what was hot and current two weeks ago when the magazine went to press.

8. Twitter can make you more thoughtful and aware of yourself and your life. When you answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ you are giving yourself a few moments to reflect on the answer. You start to see yourself through the eyes of your followers, which makes you that much more aware of yourself and what needs improvement.

9. Twitter doesn’t cost a dime. In terms of investment, the only requirement is a bit of time, and even that is fairly negotiable. You can devote just 10 minutes per day on Twitter, and still grow a nice following.

10. Brand yourself and your business with Twitter. Branding yourself happens by customer interaction and people seeing and hearing your name and associating it with your product. With Twitter, it is very easy to brand yourself and spread the word, building both your celebrity and your business at the same time.

11. Twitter can increase your blog or website traffic. Especially as you Tweet more and build your following, but also due to RT’s, Twitter is great for generating traffic and interest in your site. It has a bit of a viral effect, and since using Twitter myself, I have seen quite an increase in traffic to my site.

12. And finally? Twitter is just downright fun. Think of it as a sort of one big chat room, where you can talk with like-minded individuals, share creative ideas, read inspirational quotes, and just interact with fellow Tweeps on a very engaging level. Don’t believe me? Why not give it a try for yourself? I predict that before you know it, you yourself will be a member of Twitaholics Anonymous, and darn proud of it too!

Now, if you still don’t feel the need to tweet in spite of all the reasons above, well, get back to your x-box and zone out

Mr. Twit R. Muscle