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!

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!

Twitter Assistant

Think of your bio as your opportunity to tell the world a little something about you that they may find interesting. The more interesting you sound to people who read your bio, the more likely they will be to follow you and be interested in your Tweets.

It’s a bit like window shopping. If you were window shopping for followers, what would entice YOU to follow you? What would make you interesting to YOU? You must consider that angle when creating your bio in order to get the best result possible.

That being said, here are a few practical tips to consider when creating your bio. Remember that you only get 160 characters to tell the world about you.

Those 160 characters should include a keyword or two relevant to your business that will help folks find you, as well as your name if your user name happens to be an alias. It should also include the URL to your quality website.

Remember to NOT use all caps when creating your bio, as in the on line world this is considered ’shouting’ and really tends to make your bio a bit difficult to read. Also, don’t try and fit more words in by runningallyourwordstogetherlikethis. Seriously this will completely turn off any potential followers and it does you no favors whatsoever.

Have a lot to say though and the 160 character limit just isn’t cutting it? There is a work around. Create an account at www.tweetspinner.com. It will allow you to create more than one bio and rotate them around on a periodic schedule. This way you can include even more cool facts about yourself to entice followers into becoming one of your Tweeps! Handy huh?

Some other things to keep in mind when creating your bio is to avoid flaunting your ego. Don’t boast as you will just look like a jerk and turn off potential followers. Be friendly, engaging, and interesting. Those are the magic 3 ingredients to the perfect bio, and I KNOW you have it in you.

Two final tips- If you don’t have a current quality blog or website set up to link to in your bio, use the opportunity to link to one of your other social network accounts, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. And finally, don’t forget to include your location. There are many local and off line connections to be made on Twitter, but they can only be made if people actually know where in the world you are. So make sure to include your city, and have a great time Twittering with all your Tweeps!

You’ve gone through all the steps, you have set up your Twitter account, your all logged in. NOW what? It’s easy fellow Tweep…get to Tweeting! Start having fun, and enjoying yourself on Twitter.

Remember that Twitter is primarily a social network, so the idea is to get out there and be social. That being said, here are a few tips to get you started with enjoying your Twitter experience.

The first tip is to make sure your Twitter name is easily searched and relevant to you or your business. If not, you can go into settings, and as long as the user name is available, you can change it. A great idea you can implement when choosing your user name, is check out www.KnowEm.com. This will search your user name across all of the social networks, and if it’s available you can then use their services to register that name all across the board. Then make sure you add a nice picture for your avatar, and a line for your bio telling Tweeps a bit about yourself.

Next, start following some folks that you find interesting. Chances are they will follow you back, and then you can get a conversation going. Start talking, and posting Tweets. You can start by saying hello and introducing yourself. Even if you don’t have many followers yet, you will have them, and people will peruse your time line to see if you actually ever Tweet or not.

It can feel a bit weird to post when there aren’t too many folks listening, but it’s a great time to just get familiar with Twitter, and using @replies and DM’s. Once your followers start to increase, it will get much more difficult to keep up, so take advantage of the calm before the storm to learn Twitter thoroughly!

Remember to use your @replies as well. If you don’t use them, you are just broadcasting into Twitter space, and not really connecting with anyone. And many new Tweeps never realize people may be talking back to them, because they don’t know to check their own @replies!

To gain followers you find interesting, click on friends profiles and follow some of their folks. Or do a search for profiles with similar interests, and follow them. Chances are they will follow you back and your Twibe will grow.

Also be careful with auto DM’s. And if you DO use auto DM’s, try and limit it to greeting new followers, and make it as friendly and ‘unautomated feeling’ as possible. When you hit your followers with a bunch of uninspired auto DM’s, they are just going to view you as a spammer, and we don’t want that.

Another great tip, especially with business, but with personal accounts as well, is don’t use the ‘private’ or ‘locked’ feature on your account. Very few folks will bother following you if they can’t see your Tweets. This is self defeating, so just don’t do it.

And finally, just have fun with it. The more you Tweet and follow others, the more your own followership will grow. Conversations will get bandied back and forth, and before you know it you will be a seasoned Tweep, and wonder what the heck life was ever like before you happened across the Twitterverse! Happy Tweeting Twitter Heads!