As a marketer, it is always a good idea to use any possible medium which could lead to more exposure to potential customers, as well as establish one’s own business image. Social networks has made the promotion and branding process very much possible to do simultaneously, without having to spend tons of money separately on advertising and public relations campaigns. Twitter, one of the marketing “tools” of the recent decade, has made it possible for marketers to seamlessly provide information to their potential customers, and establish relationships at the same time.

For those who may not be familiar with Twitter yet, it is a free website service that allows users to share short nuggets of information (called Tweets) to their network of friends. These Tweets or updates may be sent out towards an entire friend network in real time. While Twitter is made purely for social purposes, marketers can ethically take advantage of this free service in order to generate website traffic, promote products, send updates to customers, share information related to business, and build one’s image online as a merchant. Here are some tips that could help any online marketer generate more leads and traffic from Twitter:

1. Start by getting your first 100 followers. If you already have a Twitter account for your friends and family, I suggest you create another account which is devoted entirely for your business contacts, such as leads, customers and business partners. The reason for this is that you don’t want to bug your friends and family with marketing content. You want to make sure that your promotional Tweets will only be sent to people who have a built-in interest on your niche or industry. Once you create your account, I suggest that you refrain from sending out any promotional message unless you have at least 100 followers. There is really no Twitter power if you don’t have any followers. So build your follower base first, by promoting your Twitter link to your existing business contact list or customer database.

2. Let your blog and Twitter account work hand in hand. Each time you have a new blog post, send a Tweet to your Twitter followers, informing them of your new blog post. In your Tweet, you can insert a few sizzle words just before mentioning your blog post link so that readers will be curious enough to check it out. Needless to say, your blog must contain links that point out to your main website so that your readers will eventually end up on your sales letter or lead capture page.

3. Avoid exchanging follows. There are people on Twitter who will offer you something like, “Follow me and I’ll follow you”. Lots of online marketers fall for this trap, but usually it is counter-productive. The reason for this is that the followers you get from such “exchanges” are not truly interested about you and your marketing information. They simply exchanged follows because they want you to check their marketing content. Think about it. If you have five hundred of these “followers” on your Twitter account, you’ll be flooded with more marketing messages all day than you can handle! So stick with those who genuinely want to follow you because they like your content.