This social site is still going strong and is officially defined as a social networking and micro-blogging service. You can think of Twitter updates as mini blog posts written in 140 characters or less.

Twitter is a little different from any other form of social media, but at its heart it is essentially a communication tool.  When people first begin using it, it can seem a bit confusing.  You may wonder, how can I really type anything of substance in 140 characters or less—and how can I make the most of it once I’ve signed up?

I personally built a large part of my own business through Twitter and many of my clients and students also report great success with this social media site, so what exactly is it that we are doing to bring about such stellar results?

Upon really giving it some thought, I came up with six important steps you can follow to get the most out of your time on Twitter.

1. Set Yourself Up for Success. When you create your Twitter profile at twitter.com, be sure to use a real photo of yourself and list your location and website URL.  For your Twitter bio, you don’t get much room, so be sure to include a succinct description of what it is you do. Tip: Include keywords in your bio that reflect how you want to be found in a search.

2. Understand Twitter Lingo. Twitter has spawned a whole new world of vocabulary–some clever, some silly.  There are some basics you should be aware of, as you’ll surely come across them being used sooner or later.  Brush up on the meanings of terms like “re-tweet,” “direct message,” “hashtag” and more. Tip: Check out the “Twittonary.”

3. Build Your “Tribe.”  The more people you follow on Twitter, the more followers you’ll gain and the richer your experience will be.  Use directories like Twellow.com and Wefollow.com and Twitter’s own “find people” function to get started.  Look for people who fall into your ideal target market by searching by keyword and/or location.  Tip: Search everything on Twitter in real-time by using search.twitter.com.

4. Build Those Relationships.  This is where the rubber hits the road.  I always say that Twitter works if you work it. First, understand why you are there and what your goals are, engage in 2-way conversation (instead of just broadcasting and promoting your own stuff all the time), continually follow good people and use Twitter consistently—once every two to three weeks does not a consistent user make!  If you have made the decision to use Twitter as a marketing tool, then really use it.  Tip: Find key people to build relationships with by using Listorious to search Twitter lists by category.

5. Generate Valuable Tweets.  Getting stuck on what to tweet about is a common stumbling block.  Be sure to share links and resources that reinforce your expertise, ask and answer questions, re-tweet and acknowledge others and show some of your personality.  Tip: Use tools like stufftotweet.com and the twitthis button to make finding and spreading content super simple.

6. Manage Your Time and Your Strategy.  Use a productivity tool like Hootsuite, a desktop client like Seesmic or Tweetdeck, and utilize Twitter lists and a Facebook application such as Selective Tweets to automate, delegate and save you valuable time.  Tip: Check out this post on social media productivity tools to get you up to speed.

The biggest Twitter takeaways?

•    Understand why you are there and what you are trying to achieve;
•    Spend a good a good amount of time interacting and engaging with others;
•    Mind your manners: for every 1 promotional tweet, do roughly 10 non-promotional tweets;
•    Share valuable content—yours and others’;
•    Take advantage of the many tools and applications that can boost your productivity.

Follow my advice, and in no time, you’ll be tweeting like a pro.

About the Author

Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com

If you are interested in using online social networks to make new friends while also boosting your business traffic, here are 5 practices to avoid!

Promoting TOO Much

Remember that online social networks are there for people to ’socialize’ and not to be sold. With that said you will need to focus your initial efforts on developing relationships at these sites. If you go ’swaggering’ into these sites promoting like a gunslinger you will likely be ’shot down’ yourself.

Listening TOO Much

It is meant to be interactive and besides how are you to get noticed by being a ‘wall flower’ all the time? Pick out a conversation that you are comfortable with or interested in and start contributing to it. This is a great way to make ‘introductions’ and capture the attention of others.

Over Extending Yourself

This online marketing strategy is very effective but it can take some time to develop comfortable relationships with others. Plan on this and only try to work a few locations first in order to be most effective. As your time allows you can then increase the number of social communities you are working.

Lacking Subtly and Tact

Join in on conversations but do not try to force your opinions since this is no way to fit in and be accepted. You want to make good impressions and develop favorable opinions about yourself and being obnoxious is not the way to do it.

Losing Patience

Do not expect overnight results since this will lead to frustration and you ‘throwing in the towel’ prematurely and wasting all the efforts and time already invested. The best suggestion is to simply relax and focus on making new friends. That is not so bad is it?

Social network marketing can be a great source of online traffic to your business if you conduct yourself properly while ‘working’ on these sites. The fact of the matter is that this online marketing strategy hold tremendous traffic potential, but only if you ‘participate’ in an accepted manner. Online social networking is ‘centered’ in socializing with other sites members. To overlook certain basics socialization skills will result in you being overlooked and disregarded by site members, therefore remember it is all about ‘connecting’ first! The 5 practices you will definitely want to avoid when using any of the online social networks are reviewed above. By avoiding these social ‘hiccups’ and taking the time to build relationships/friendships with others, you stand a much better chance of gaining both new traffic and friends!

About the Author

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. To learn more about social network marketing and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques simply visit:http://blogbrawn.com/

Here are the advantages that can be more than enough for you to want to join in.

Low Costs

Definitely, it’s cheaper to use online social networking for both personal and business use because most of it is usually free. While personal use is rather simple for anyone, the business functions are underestimated by many. By scouting out potential customers and target markets with just a few clicks and keystrokes, you can add a boost to your usual advertisements and promotional strategies. It lets you learn about their likes and dislikes, which is tremendous. Whether on a budget or not it makes no difference, if you want to fine tune your business then this is the way to go.

Builds Credibility

You definitely can gain the customers’ confidence if you can connect to them on both a personal and professional level. It definitely pays off as you can be tapped for an offer if someone catches wind of your products or services, but you will have a bit of work todo. As long as you don’t pursue them too aggressively, you will do well here.

Connections

You are friends with people who have other friends, and so on. There is huge potential in such a common situation. By using a social networking site, you can do what you can and get connected with these people to form a web of connections that can give you leverage if you play your cards right. It is important to give as well as you recieve, then they will most likely stick with you. These connections will turn out to be very valuable in the long run.

That definitely sounds enticing. However, there are some disadvantages though?

Lack of Anonymity

You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in.

Scams and Harassment

There is a potential for failure of security in both personal and business context. While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these cases of harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity theft to an absolute minimum, you still may never know.

Time Consuming

If this is not your kind of thing, that it would just be a waste of time for you. Even if you are doing this for business purposes of just doing it for kicks, the key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who don’t see the point. For them, it can be a disadvantage.

Now there’s something to really think about. Nothing is without a blemish, but those of social networking shouldn’t really be that much of a concern regarding your safety. Everything will go well as long as you go along without making any big mistakes. You can take advantage of the Internet phenomenon that continues up to this day.

Once you understand the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, then you can cruise through without fail.

Now I was on LinkedIn and had my 30 connections, my 4 groups and I thought I was done. Then I asked myself: “What next?” I already know the 30 people I added to the network I don’t need them to contact them. So what’s the value of this? What’s the difference between this and Facebook, or MySpace, or Hi5? What’s the buzz on LinkedIn?  Can you use Linkedin for marketing?

For months I did nothing, thinking this was a place to socialize with people you already know. One day I was looking on Google the keywords “Venture Capital” as I was advising one of my customers get some funding. I then visited LinkedIn and logged in. Then I did a search on Venture Capital once more. Wow, 50,000 + came up. Quickly I noticed that these where not just company names, I was getting the name and many times email and phone number of actual people, with photo, title, interests, hobbies, all what you would wish for.

The downside of my Venture Capital search is that none of them where connected to me directly so I could not contact them as in LinkedIn it is considered Spam. It is now clear that LinkedIn is the best social network for sales. Imagine if of these 50,000 I could have a few hundred connected to me directly. One of the things we can do is call people and ask them for their advice. I could email them and see if they are interested in my project or ask them to point me in the right direction. Now the task was connecting to them and network.

I found a handful of third level connections in my search. This means that I know someone that knows someone that knew lot’s of people in Venture Capital. This one contact was my friend Tony. My friend is an engineer and one of his clients is a Venture Capitalist. That one person connected me with 300 people at a third level. If I really wanted to speak with one of those 300 people I could ask Gustavo for an introduction through his customer; but that was not my idea, I did not want just one connection, I wanted hundreds, or thousands.

I played more with the software and did more targeted searches by clicking on “Advanced Search”. I searched by zip code to see the closest contacts to me and therefore the ones I could contact in person. Some other words I searched included “energy drinks” and “bottled water”. For every search I got great contacts. I thought this could turn out to be my very own private rolodex.

Jorge Olson is an author, speaker and entrepreneur.  You can find his latest book on self promotion and marketing “The Unselfish Guide to Self Promotion” on Amazon.com  You can read more about how to use social media and social networking from his books and blogs.