Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

An effective Twitter marketing strategy requires numerous elements, many of which have been discussed on this blog.

This time I’d like to work in reverse, covering the top missed opportunities on Twitter.

These elements are what you should be doing. If you aren’t, you’re missing out on using Twitter effectively.

1. Having your real name in the name field (in settings) with a space between first and last names so your name is searchable on Twitter.
2. Including the link to any article or post you reference in a tweet.  (You can use a shortened URL application to track the clicks of your shortened link.)
3. Uploading a good headshot of yourself rather than a company logo.
4. Using your one hot link on Twitter to go to an information page rather than a sales page.
5. Including targeted bio information that could authentically encourage people to follow you.
6. Engaging in conversation on Twitter by replying to people rather than your only Twitter activity being sending your blog feeds automatically into your Twitter account.
7. Retweeting interesting information from others instead of only tweeting your own links.
8. Updating several times a day and several days a week.
9. Thanking people for retweeting your links – and including the retweeted links.
10. Thanking people for responding with information to the questions you tweet.
11. Using tweetbeep.com to track your name and your company name on Twitter. (Your username mentions can be seen in your reply tab.)
12. Participating in tweetchats on subjects of interest to your brand, book or business.
13. Using search functions to find people with similar interests and then following them.
14. Sharing interesting information links (from outside Twitter) with your Twitter followers.
15. Sending DM Twitter tips to people when you spot a missed opportunity with which you can help them.  (Never do this in a public tweet.  Thus, the person must be following you in order for you to DM that person regardless of whether you are following the person.)

Use this post as a checklist to see how many of these opportunities you are taking advantage of now.  And if you find any elements that you aren’t doing, fix these omissions as soon as possible.