4 Helpful Tips to Grow Your Business Using Twitter

What is everyone tweeting about these days? Most often you will find reputable home businesses trying to connect with one another, cooking and baking enthusiasts searching for new content for their recipe and cooking websites, and some are just there for friendship. I see all kinds of people on Twitter every day. Twitter is one of the greatest forms of networking and word of mouth on the planet.

Considering Twitter to help promote your business further is a great idea. How do you go about doing this? Well, there are many right ways and wrong ways to network on Twitter. Let's take a look at the basics and see how they will benefit your business.

1) Profile - Fill it out! I see far too many people daily not sharing a single thing about themselves, their business, or why they are there. This is the most important thing you can do -- show everyone your name, your business, and some pertinent information about yourself. No need to get too personal, however, share enough that potential customers will get a feel for who you are and what your business has to offer. Share your credibility.

2) Photo - A photo of yourself shows your Twitter friends that you are a real person. It is a well known fact that profiles with pictures are sought after approximately 50% more than profiles that don't. Majority of fellow Tweeters will be more inclined to network with you and visit your website if you share a photo.

If you are not comfortable doing this, at the very least, put an image that relates to your business. However, do not just leave the default Twitter image there.

3) No Spam - Don't lurk on Twitter all day and send direct message spam links to your followers. This is not good Twitter etiquette. It is important to establish trust and build relationships. You can share business tips, ideas that are helpful to the market you are trying to reach, personal stories, etc.

It is a good idea to occasionally re-tweet other users who have informative tweets that may benefit your followers. They may return the favor!

For every 5 non business tweets, you can post one business tweet. However, you must be careful not to appear mechanical.

4) Daily Tweeting and Networking - You'll need to invest some time with your Twitter followers on a regular basis. Log in a couple of times a week to say, hi and how are you? You need to invest quality time and get to know your followers to build a reputable business presence.

The above tips are just the basics of using this ever-growing social network and word of mouth smorgasbord. Utilizing it wisely will only benefit your business.