Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

Twitter is such a powerful tool – for those who understand how to use it effectively – that the third-party applications created for it grow by leaps and bounds.  And many of these applications are to automate a specific part of your Twitter activity.

It would be lovely if there were a magic formula that said what you should and should not automate to get the most bang for your buck (the most benefit from your time and effort on Twitter).  But there isn’t such a magic formula.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

You are a marketing manager at a small company and you have been trying to encourage your company to utilize the power of Twitter to connect with potential customers.  Your boss – head of her company – is resistant to understanding the value of social media sites.

Now you have come up with a way to explain Twitter that might get your boss’ attention.

Here is an imagined conversation to explain Twitter to your boss:

You:  I’d like to demonstrate how using Twitter could help us connect with our potential and current customers.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

Joining the microblogging platform of Twitter may seem so easy that you start right in answering the question “What’s happening?” without understanding what’s really happening on Twitter.

Of course, you see that big number 140 that counts down as you type in your tweet – until you reach 0 and then negative numbers if your tweet is too long.

Yet other than that, what’s the big deal about answering the question “What’s happening?”

The big deal depends on why you are on Twitter.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

The first step to protecting your Twitter reputation is to be careful what you retweet.  For example, you see a tweet with a headline that sounds so worthwhile to share with your followers that you are tempted to simply retweet without even clicking through to look at the post or article.

Okay, you may not have time to read the post or article now.  But you must click through to be sure that the article is actually about what has been tweeted and not, in fact, a sales page for some product that you do not want to appear to be promoting.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

How do you combine Twitter with Facebook and your website to create an effective online marketing strategy that is more than the sum of the parts?

Step 1 – Create a Twitter profile that connects to your business

If you have an Internet marketing business, for example, it is common sense that your Twitter profile and many of your tweets will have to do with sharing Internet marketing information.  You wouldn’t want to have your profile and your tweets only talk about your karate practice if you want to make potential business connections on Twitter.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

If you want to be a valuable member of the Twitter community, you should be sharing worthwhile information related to your brand, book or business in addition to sharing the links to your own blog posts and products/services.

Where can you easily find other content to share with your Twitter followers?

The answer is quite simple: everywhere.

Here are a few ideas to help you realize the possibilities of finding good content to share on Twitter:

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

Retweeting other people’s tweets on Twitter can be a powerful marketing strategy:

•    You can share with your followers valuable info from others

•    The people you re-tweet will be grateful that you repeated their message and gave them credit for the message.

And, of course, when it comes time for you to ask for a retweet of a specific tweet of yours, it is more likely that people will retweet you if they know that you are generous with retweeting others.

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

Thanks to public relations specialist Cathy Larkin at http://WebSavvyPR.com for sharing with me her Twitter lists strategies with permission to share these here.  (She’s @CathyWebSavvyPR on Twitter.)

First, some facts provided by Cathy:  You can have up to 20 lists, each list can have up to 500 people, and these lists can be private or public.  (There appears to be no limit to how many other people’s lists you can be on.)

Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Twitter Marketing Expert

I have discussed on this guest blog many aspects of using Twitter effectively on Twitter itself.  But what about how you are promoting your Twitter presence outside of Twitter?

Your email signature:

Do you include your Twitter username on your email signature?  Options include a Twitter image that can be clicked through to your account or the URL link in your signature block.

Blog comments:

When you leave a comment on a blog, do you put your Twitter username at the end of your comment?

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.