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!

Elsom Eldridge

I had the opportunity to do a presentation with incredible and gifted Elsom Eldridge Jr. last night on Twitter for Real Business, and what a delight it was! Requiring no introduction really, Elsom is President of The International Guild of Professional Consultants, an informative keynoter, seminar leader, author and business consultant.

Elsom made me feel right at home on the roughly one and a half hour interview and presentation, where  I took his listeners (and watchers) through a presentation on how to use Twitter to develop and explode local business the easy and cost-free way.

I met Elsom at the Ken McArthur’s Impact event in Orlando last week, and he had sat in on a workshop Susan Preston and I did on the same subject. I guess something resonated with him, because it was not long until Elsom and I sat down to lunch and arranged this webcast for his group.

The excitement was tangible, and the attendees took quite a bit away, including a copy of our latest tutorial called:

“The Savvy Tweeps Simple Guide to Market Reach & Branding”

It’s a handy guide that helps business owners get started on Twitter for business with confidence in an easy, no-bull step by step proven tutorial sure to make you a Twexpert (Twitter Expert) in the minimum time for maximum ROI.