Are You Curious About Twitter? Then Read This.

by Rick Carbone

I recently wrote this post for our Home Business Blog  and had a number of comments and email about the post so I though I would also post it here:

When I first heard of Twitter I had no idea what it was, but I was curious.  I looked into it and signed up only to get more information.  As near as I could tell everyone was Tweeting about the most mundane things.  It seemed that Twitter was not for me.  Some time went by and I started to get more email about Twitter apps and how people were using the service to enhance their online businesses.  But how?  I looked into it a little further and found that there were hundreds of categories that people were Tweeting about. Tweets are updates that you make that everyone who follows you gets.  A tweet can be no longer than 140 characters.  So a Tweet is short and sweet and gets right to the point.  Now here's what I love about the Internet.  Twitter has spawned an entire industry of Twitter related services and products, one being shortening your "Tweets" to 140 characters.

There are hundreds more but I won't go into them in this post suffice it to say that Twitter is growing in leaps and bounds.  To answer the next question on your lips, "how can Twitter help my online business?"  The most basic and simplistic answer is traffic.  You see The whole Twitter process is building a following of people that are interested in your topic of expertise or that they are interested in what you have to say.  If you are still lost, hang on I will make my point.  Tweeting on Twitter means that you are following interesting people and some, but not all of them are following you.  Each update or Tweet that you make is seen by all of your followers.  Now we are getting to the interesting part.  Let's say that you just wrote an interesting review, on your blog, about a new product or service that you are selling.  In between your regular Tweets you place an update about your  blog post with a shortened URL within your Tweet.  Many of your followers will click on that url and go to your blog post.  It's almost like having an Instant Messaging Service to thousands of potential customers.

There are rules however, no one likes to be constantly Tweeted with promotional stuff.  If you don't like someone your following you can remove them from your list of people you follow.  Likewise if you are not adding good information people will remove you from the people they follow.

The important message is that Twitter has opened a new communication technique in the form of a cross between Instant messaging and Blogging.  It's called micro-blogging and I think it's here to stay.  If you are a Twitter member and would like to follow me My Twitter ID is @HBRHomeBusiness.  If you want a crash course on Twitter try the Twitter Manifesto a great guide to monetizing Twitter and building a large following.