Here is another article in my Gratuitous, But Necessary Series on emerging social media best practices.  This time…let’s talk Twitter.  Here are some guidelines to follow if you want to make Twitter a successful channel for your business (now…if I can only find the time…)

1. Make sure your Twitter profile is complete, and rich with keywords relevant to your business.
2. Put your Twitter info on all your communications and marketing materials.  Put it in the signature line of your email.  Put a “Follow Me On Twitter” call to action on your website.  Put your Twitter URL on your biz cards.  Bake it on top of cupcakes.  Do whatever you can to expose your Twitter account to the world.
3. Ask your existing network to follow you on Twitter.  If you are reading this, you are almost certainly on Facebook.  Post your Twitter info to your Wall.  If you participate in online groups, advertise your Twitter handle there too.
4. Research Twitter directories.  There are a lot of them out there.  Look them up and get listed.
5. Have an opinion.  Don’t just tweet the headline to an interesting article (OK…so I’m bad at this one, but I’m getting better).  Your followers will see it when they click the link.  Say something insightful, while still giving some indication about what the link will lead them to.
6. Ask questions.  This is a great way to engage your audience and get a conversation going.  It also shows you are willing to listen.
7. Use keywords and hashtags relevant to your business and Twitter goals.  For more about hashtags, read this great article from Mashable.
8. Don’t “twam” (twitter spam).  Be engaging and build relationships.  Most of your Tweets should be focused on this.  Make only one in ten or twenty be marketing related.
9. Use effective words.  Words like “please,” “free,” “blog” and “you” have a high correlation to retweeting.  Use them where relevant.
10. Set a pace.   Test how often you should be tweeting by noting interactions with tweets (retweets, direct messages, clicks on embedded links, etc.).  This will help determine frequency.   As for “when”….the current thinking is that you should send tweets just before work hours and during lunch breaks.
11. Limit your characters to 100-120 (and you thought 140 was hard?).  This will allow for followers to retweet with comments.
12. Follow others.  I saved this for last because I’m not convinced that this is effective in generating followers.  However, you should follow people who might be influencers in your field and engage them.  If they reply to you, their followers will see you, and maybe follow you as well.  Search for them using the Twitter search function (http://search.twitter.com).