I would recommend that you start using the following five tools to augment your Twitter communications online.

Hootsuite

This is my “bread and butter” application. As of this writing I manage dozens of of various Twitter accounts for myself and clients. Hootsuite allows me to manage all these accounts from one dashboard. Plus I am able to create unique logins for my staff or clients.

One of the best features of Hootsuite is the ability to schedule tweets. You can spend some time writing Tweets in advance and then have them auto post at a later time.

Hootsuite also has the ability to track URL clicks. You can monitor the popularity of your Twitter posts with this feature.

Echofon

If your business is serious about using Twitter and social media you’ll need to begin using a mobile device. If you are using an iPhone – I would recommend the free application Echofon. There are a bunch of iPhone apps for Twitter – but I like Echofon.

I use Echofon on on my iPhone to Twitter while away from my computer. I find that the best time to check my Twitter feed and respond to posts is during “downtime.” Standing in line at the bank, sitting in the doctors waiting room, or passing time during a boring meeting are some of the best times to Twitter. These are wasted moments that would pass by without any productive activity. Mobile devices have turned wasted time into productive time.

Tweetbeep

I use Tweetbeep for alerts. The alert feature is great for busy professionals who want to be part of the Twitter discussion without having to actually be on Twitter 24 hours a day.

You can set up hourly alerts that will email you a summary of all the people who have responded to your Twitter posts. Then when you get an alert you can log into Twitter and engage them in conversation.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is a desktop Twitter client that I use to keep informed of particular keywords and terms used on Twitter.

I use Tweetdeck to monitor predesignated search queries in Twitter. For example if you are a florist and you want to see all the recent Twitter posts mentioning flowers. You can set up a predetermined search in Tweetdeck to monitor the term “flowers.” Let’s say you read a post that says something like:

“My anniversary is tomorrow. I wish I could find a place to overnight flowers this late”

This tweet would show up in your search tab and you could respond immediately offering your special overnight rose delivery package.

Twittergadget for Gmail

TwitterGadget is the newest tool I’ve been using. Gmail allows third party gadgets to run inside their email client. I’ve found this useful for quick tweeting during the day. Since I live inside my inbox – this simple tool makes updating to Twitter effortless. It’s a one stop shop.

Of course – at the time of this writing – TwitterGadget only allows one Twitter account. So I only use this for my personal @joelmarkwitt Twitter and Hootsuite for clients and business.

These are the tools that have been working for me, our company, and our clients. Of course tools mean nothing unless you have a Twitter business plan to make use of them.

Are there tools that you would add to this list? Please feel free to comment below.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

A Folk Media insider John Lucchetti alerted us today about the new Twitter Business accounts. Apparently, Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone is talking up the idea of having paid business accounts featuring advanced tools like analytics and tracking.

Stone said, “This takes advantage of some of the commercial use of Twitter we’ve seen from businesses like airlines and big box stores… we want to present to them a layer of features that allows them to become better at Twitter, show them some of the analytics.”

“Twitter will still be free for everybody and we’ll still tell them to go crazy with it,” said Stone in an interview. “But we’ve identified a selection of things that businesses say are helping to make them more profit.”

If Twitter moves to empower businesses by offering paid accounts with metrics, I think we will see a huge growth and surge in business users.

My advice is for your business to begin using Twitter now while it is still in it’s massive growth phase. Plus, It is an easy way for your company to get onto the screens of the millions of mobile devices around the world.

As a business owner – would you pay for more features on Twitter?

Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

Why You Need A Plan

Plans help you stay focused

It is easy to get distracted on Twitter. Some people become addicted and lose their main objective: to position themselves as leaders in their industry. A plan can help you stay on course.

Having a plan can help you get others on board

Imagine a movie director showing up on set without a screenplay. How hard would it be to instruct the camera men where to place the tripod, show the lighting crew where to light the scene, and the give the actors their lines without any written script? Not to mention remembering the information. Having a screenplay covers the basics and gives the filmmaker freedom to be creative with everything else.

A Twitter plan will enable you to show others where you are going. It will give them a framework that can be measured against.

Your boss likes plans

Your executives or boss will love seeing a Twitter plan. They probably don’t get Twitter and a simple plan can help make it tangible and approachable for them.

TIP: Knowing that your boss and executives may not be web savvy – be sure to steer clear from any jargon in your Twitter plan. Leave out terms like tweet, retweet, DM, etc. Instead use language that your audience knows. For example: a tweet could be called a message or post. Retweet could be called a forwarded message. And a DM could be called a private Twitter message.

What Should Your Plan Look Like

Simple is good

The best plans are simple. They are easy enough for a 12-year-old to read and they lay out a step-by-step process for other people to follow. Your boss, colleagues, and employees will appreciate simplicity.

Short is good

In the same vein of keeping things simple – keep them short as well. Short is better than long. People will actually read your plan if it is short.

You need goals

Decide if you want to brand yourself or your organization, or both. Will you set up multiple accounts? These are questions you need to answer as you craft your plan.

Measure your goals

My recommendation is that you have multiple elements to your plan. First, It is important that you have a clear agenda. You need to measure how many followers you attract, the interaction you get from your followers, and how many people click on the link to visit your website. There are tools that you can use to measure these like Hootsuite and Tweetbeep.

Promote

The second part of your plan should involve how you will promote your Twitter stream. Placing it on your website, business cards and advertising is a great way to get the word out. But what else can you do?

Content

What content you provide and how you provide it will determine the success you have on Twitter. This should be a serious consideration in developing your plan.

Reach

Finally, you need to have a plan for who you will follow. Who will you not follow? Who will you block? For example, there are many pornographic websites that will follow your Twitter feed.

Our recommendation is that you block porn and spam accounts. When we discover a pornographic site has started following us, we block them immediately.

However, if you are an animal rights organization, and the NRA begins following your feed, you may want to allow them since you might draw in some people who are on the fence in regards to animal rights and welfare.

At the end of the day, you are the best person to judge your followers. It depends on your industry and business.

How To Plan The Plan

Selecting your Twitter niche – a few questions to ask

• Who is your niche target market?
• What type of content do you intend to provide them?
• How often will you publish this content?
• How will you provide value to your followers?
• What do you have to offer?
• Will you include photos, videos, and links?
• How will you stand out from others in your industry?
• How will you increase your already established credibility or develop new credibility?
• Will you be the one tweeting for your organization? Will there be more than one?

The 60/40 rule

As you work through these questions we recommend applying the 60/40 rule to your plan. Sixty percent of your time should be spent posting valuable and helpful links, tips, resources and advice. We call this “seeding the conversation.”

Then as people begin to interact with the content you’ve posted, begin follow up by discussing with them. Listen for discussion entry points and begin to engage your followers. You should then spend 40 percent of your time in conversation and discussion.

The real secret to saving time and making the 60/40 plan work for you

Lack of time is the biggest excuse people have for not using Twitter to market and promote their businesses. Here is a HUGE secret. All of your “60 percent” twitter posts can be planned and scheduled in advance. You can write your tweets in advance and then post them automatically. This will free up time to monitor and respond to your followers.

A Twitter plan is an important piece when using Twitter. It can set you up for success more than anything else you can do.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

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Get the book “21 Days To Twitter Leadership” The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Twitter, Get Twitter Followers And Position Yourself As The Leader In Your Industry In Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day.

Twitter is a unique and useful tool. Many businesses and organizations are using it to reach out to their customers, prospects, vendors, and donors. Here are five simple things you can do today to get started.

You will need to know a few terms and ways people communicate on Twitter. Assuming that you are already listening – here’s my five steps to getting your business on Twitter. Remember that I’m not talking about marketing, PR, or business strategy. I’m simply going over the basic mechanics of starting with Twitter.

Step 1 – Create an account

Go to http://www.twitter.com to sign up.

Step 2 – Start following interesting and valuable people

Might I suggest you start with @folkmedia as your first follow? Of course I’d love to have your follow us – but it’s up to you. My suggestion is to first follow those who add value to your business or life. After you get the hang of things you’ll want to reach out and begin following people strategically. But to start, pick about 25 people and begin. You can search for people you already know in the real world.

Step 3 – Join a conversation

Twitter can be used for blasting out one way messages to crowds of thousands. But the way to earn the trust and respect of thousands is to converse with people one at a time. When you see something interesting that someone posted, you can Twitter back to them with a simple @ symbol before their username. They will in turn will most likely Twitter back to you. These are how discussions work on Twitter.

Step 4 – Learn how to search

You’ll notice that I mention searching a lot in this article. There is a great Ad Age article that basically asks the question – “is Twitter the next Google?”

We all know the power of search. And we all know how Google has been rocketed to the stratosphere from selling contextual ads against that search. But Google searches what has been. Twitter search allows you to search what is being talked about right now. Talk about a powerful tool for your business. You get to see the pain points for customers and clients. Reporters are using Twitter to gather facts about breaking news from people on the ground.

Step 5 – Be real. Be helpful. Be timely

Twitter can end up being a very warm and personal medium. It allows for conversation. Use this to your advantage and engage your followers by posing questions, linking to helpful articles, and alerting them to special items. Be careful not to “tweet your own horn” all the time. A good rule of thumb is to tweet out about 10 times linking to other people’s work for each time you tweet out about yourself.

These are five tips that can help you get started using Twitter for business. It can be a powerful tool that can drive traffic to your website and create trust and “buy in” from your prospects, customers, or supporters. Stay tuned for more resources about how to use Twitter and other social media tools for your organization.

We are continuing to release more tips and advice on how to drive traffic to your blog or website. Let us know what particular topics would help you grow your business in the comments section or send us an email.

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Joel Mark Witt is a producer, speaker, and new media leader who writes about social media and its impact in the business world. He is also the Founding Director of Folk Media. Send him an email: joelmarkwitt (at) folkmedia.org or follow him on Twitter.

You may or may not have heard of Twitter yet. It exploded in popularity recently and now it seems like just about everyone is using it. I had it explained to me once, “It’s like micro-blogging. You could post about your bad day, or that you just got a mocha cappuccino at Starbucks and it was lukewarm!”… to which I promptly replied, “you disgust me; twitter disgusts me”. The idea of people posting 140 character entries throughout the day sounded just a little too egocentric to me. It wasn’t until I actually registered my own account out of curiosity and absorbed myself in its culture that I began to understand the niche Twitter fills. It was also about the same time I realized how horrible my friend is at explaining new ideas. So let me do my best to avoid his pitfalls and explain, simply, what Twitter is, why it’s fun, and how it can benefit your company.

Do not think of Twitter as a micro-blog. Think of it as an ongoing conversation at a party that never, ever ends. At this party are your friends, interesting people you’ve never met, and people you would do best to stay away from. Yes, there are people gathering to talk about why their day isn’t going so well, but there are also people talking about their favorite movies and books, sharing ideas, making connections, helping others, and marketing their business. The diversity is immense and can be overwhelming depending on your point of view. That’s why it’s important to keep in mind that Twitter is like a conversation at a party and not a collection of blogs. No one can party forever (Slurms McKenzie proved that) and that’s perfectly okay. No one expects you to keep up with every post (or “tweet”) they make. Just drop by for a little bit, share some thoughts or ideas, then drop out. See? It’s not overwhelming anymore, is it? With this mindset, Twitter is a very likable thing indeed. It’s a fascinating and wonderful new way to interact with people.

Now you may not have much interest in making new friends. You might already have too many, or, you may be in your computer room with the door locked avoiding some right now. Either way, I have some great news for you. Twitter is also a great way to market your business on the internet. Like many other forms of social media, it’s an easy way to create and nurture a community around your business – and we all know how important that is. It gives your business a face and a human touch. It’s also an easy way to update people about the latest news: You’re releasing a new product? Someone important interviewed you and you want to link to the article? You want some quick feedback about your business or website? You made a horrible mistake and want to explain your side of the story? Twitter is great for all of these things. If you don’t believe me, look around Twitter and in seconds you’ll find entrepreneurs and businesses tweeting day and night. The proof is in the pudding. And the pudding is good – even if you’re the last person to grab a bite.

Jordan Brauner is an audio and video producer, comic artist, and photographer with a deep passion for finding and telling great stories. Feel free to contact him at: jordan.brauner@folkmedia.org or follow him on twitter. Article images by Jordan Brauner.

So exactly what is Twitter?

Wikipedia describes Twitter as “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”

That’s a pretty good way to explain it. I think I would also add that it is more like a text based telephone than a micro-blog. Of course it is a telephone conversation that anyone can listen to. But I think this is the power of Twitter. And Twitter for business can be very powerful.

Twitter gives you an opportunity to be transparent as a business allowing you to build a case for yourself or your company through dialogue.

My friend Lee from Common Craft made this short video explaining Twitter in everyday language.  This is ” Twitter In Plain English. ”

My experience with Twitter

I thought Twitter was really stupid until I gave it a try. And then I still thought it was stupid.

My problem was misunderstanding how it can be used as a tool for business and communications. But I’ve really changed my mind on this. And now Twitter has become indispensable to me and our business.

The tipping point personally came when I was recently speaking at a conference in Las Vegas. If you’ve ever been to the Las Vegas Convention Center, you’ll appreciate the fact that even a smart guy like me was able to get lost. The building is a small city and navigation can at times be very difficult. In order to find my way around I pulled up Twitter on my cell phone and tweeted out a quick message asking for directions. Within moments I had an answer from a stranger who was following me and was able to easily find my way to the conference hall.

The tipping point for my business came when clients began contacting me from seeing Tweets. I decided right then and there to begin taking this Twitter thing seriously and have developed some strategies for how we are using Twitter in our own company.

Things your company can do with Twitter

Twitter for business?

Yes.

While Twitter can  be used for actual business communications, it is important to remember that this tool isn’t for everyone. It should be used wisely like any tool online. I would say that about 80% of businesses can use Twitter to:

• Listen to what people are talking about in your market or industry
• Break news related to your industry or customers
• Link to insightful articles that will help your clients
• Offer quick tips to help people with particular problems
• Conduct surveys to get instant feedback
• Spread knowledge by re-tweeting other’s posts
• Ask for customer service feedback and engage those folks

Twitter is one of the most interesting and fastest growing online applications for personal and business communications. Even if you decide Twitter isn’t for you,  at least give it a try and do some experimentation. There are a lot of opportunities to harness Twitter for your business.

Joel Mark Witt is a producer, speaker, and new media leader who writes about social media and its impact in the business world. He is also the Founding Director of Folk Media. Send him an email: joelmarkwitt (at) folkmedia.org or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by seyDoggie

1. Use http://tinyurl.com to shorten your log URLs when you post them into Twitter. Otherwise it may run over 140 characters

2. It’s good to have more than one person in your company posting to Twitter. But I would recommend still having the faces behind the account.

3. How to use Twitter for your business. Great advice from @copyblogger http://short.to/l4s

4. As a business Tweet about other people and their businesses. Spread the love – it will come back to help you in the end.

5. A lot of people new to Twitter try to read every post. Impossible. Don’t even try. Treat it like a stream and dip in and out when you can.

6. If you really want to dig into Twitter use the search feature (http://search.twitter.com) Look up your biz – you might be surprised.

7. Tweets make it possible to have your thoughts go viral. People will spread your ideas across the web. Very #ideavirus.

8. RT means Retweet / @ is how you reply to someone / using a # is called a “hashtag” and puts metadata to tweets.

9. When using Twitter for business – Twitter works great as an instant opinion or survey poll.

10. The power of Twitter is in the listening and searching.

11. Twitter is a great place to get real time insights into questions you ask. It’s like instant market research.

12. Twitter Quick Tip: Two great desktop Twitter Apps: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta and http://www.twhirl.org

13. Twitter is a good way to drive traffic to your site. Build a special landing page specifically for Twitter traffic.

14. “Twitter is not about making money, it is about building relationships.” – Shawna Coronado.

15. Twitter is simply a tool. Don’t get bogged bown by it. Only use it if it makes sense for your company. Not all tools are the best choice for every situation.

Joel Mark Witt is a producer, speaker, and new media leader who writes about social media and its impact in the business world. He is also the Founding Director of Folk Media. Send him an email: joelmarkwitt (at) folkmedia.org or follow him on Twitter.

*Photo by Dvortygirl