So, what’s the point? The whole point of social media is to find your satisfied customers and encourage them to recommend you to their friends and relatives. In social media terminology, this is called finding product evangelists.

Yesterday, we covered some tidbits regarding Facebook. Today, we’ll briefly focus on Twitter.

Brad Sugars, founder of Action Coach, has referred to Facebook as the equivalent of TV commercials, and Twitter as the equivalent of a radio commercial. I think that sums it up fairly.

Much like a text message, Twitter is short, conscise, and to the point, capping your post at 140 characters. That may not leave much for details. But it is great for links to your blog and/or site.

In the end, everything you should be doing is marketing…knowing, liking, and trusting. Twitter is a great tool for marketing.

On your twitter page, you can post unique “Twitter only promotions and sales” as a reward for people following you. You can tell them about your latest update to your website, or latest entry to your blog. You can tell them about new products, features, or additions to your company. Of course, all with links back to your blog or website.

As an example, and I’m not sure if they are still doing it, I remember a while back Southwest Airlines used to give away a free round-trip ticket to their Twitter followers.

There are lots of creative things you can do that will increase your online visibility, and increase your business opportunities for virtually nothing.

One cool feature to Twitter are all of the apps. Just Google “Twitter Apps” and watch all of the stuff come up. Two that Texstar Web.com employs are www.hootsuite.com and www.tweetdeck.com.

These programs are fascinating because they put you in control of your online brand. If someone on a social media site is talking about your business, you’ll know it. And, you’ll have the ability to engage them.

Dell Computers, again not sure if they still do this but they should be if they are not, monitored tweets using a program like TweetDeck. When people made comments (positive or negative) a rep would re-tweet them with 15-30 seconds. When positive, they would thank the tweeter and offer them a link with a coupon. When negative, they would address the issue and attempt to resolve it, and again post a coupon link.

What a great way to connect with people. Twitter is a great tool for this use!

Don’t forget, Twitter is a great tool for Search Engine Optimization. It can have a profound impact on your site’s Google ranking.

This is just some of the many ways you can use Twitter.

That’s it for now.

Don