It’s been really interesting to watch how Twitter has evolved over the past 18 months as more and more businesses have started to use it as a marketing and community management tool. Some of them are doing a great job, following many of the guidelines posted here, but some are definitely missing the point.

I’ve been particularly interested in how companies are using Twitter in third-party applications. We recently launched CheapTweet, a site that aggregates tweets about retail deals, specials and sales. CheapTweet users can find, save and vote on deals. On Twitter, stores can post information about their deals, but only their Twitter followers see that information. With CheapTweet, a store’s deals are distributed to a much wider – and generally motivated – audience. It’s just one example of how Twitter can be extended beyond the simple post and reply model, which I think is happening more and more often.

CheapTweet is at http://cheaptweet.com

* It’s worth noting that a Great way to use twitter is as a mixture of Personal & Business/Promotional reasons.

* If you Only post links to promote OR Only post random thoughts, chances are most of the interesting people won’t follow you.

* BUT, if you mix it up a bit with both Personal thoughts & Business/Promotional tweets, You’ll come away with a fine blend and great results.

For those who are into data, go to the Center for Media Research blog section at http://www.mediapost.com/blogs. Create an account and log in to get access to a free study “Walking a Day in Subscribers’ Shoes,” on age groups and their media/marketing preferences.

Bottom line of the study is that there are some groups with a strong aversion to direct marketing in the SMS world so you might actually hurt yourself if you come on too strong.

They highlight six personas & how they interact with different media:
Wired Consumers
Young Homemakers
Retired
College Students
Teens
Established Professionals

@BarbChamberlain

I know this is like a year after your original post, but heck, I figured “why not?” Right?

Here’s a few more twitter tips to add to your helpful list:

#1.) Go grab a free account at http://www.twitterfeed.com and get it all setup to work with your blog. You can use this free service to AUTOMATICALLY post the title of every new blog post you make to your twitter profile, along with a link back to that blog post. It’s tremendously valuable.

#2.) Go grab a free account at http://www.tweetlater.com and setup an “auto-welcome direct message” by following the instructions. In that message say something like “Thanks for following me on Twitter. I appreciate the follow & you’re welcome to come check out my blog at http://www.ProFromGo.com/blog”

#3.) Post when you feel like it and just go on there to have fun, because you’ve already implemented two awesome tools that are going to take care of AUTOMATICALLY getting you traffic. By just going on there and exchanging thoughts & ideas with other users you’ll quickly attract new followers.

If you like these tips I have lots more that I included in a free report titled “The Twitter Report” along with some helpful videos too…

IT’S FREE, so you have nothing to lose. If anything it will save you time tinkering around with Twitter because we’ve already figured it all out for you & documented our recommendations in this helpful guide along with videos:

http://www.TwitterHints.com

Let me know what you think. I’m easy to get a hold of…

Sincerely,

Chris Vendilli