Twitter is a microblogging service that allows you to send short messages to your "followers." The format is very similar to text messaging, but you are able to send messages to thousands of people at once. The fact that Twitter is so easy to use and accessible by so many people makes it very easy to abuse. This guide is designed to help you increase your effectiveness without spamming.


1.
Step 1

Familiarize yourself with Twitter. Learn the interface. Get an understanding of how to reply to a follower, retweeting, hashtags, and following. Follow @clydeboom for continuous tweets on how to use Twitter.
2.
Step 2

Gain followers. Find your friends and celebrities to get the feel for how following works. Find your direct competitors and follow the people in their list. The more followers that you have, the more times your message will be received. If you blog about cars, find people who tweet about cars. The closer to your niche that your followers are, the more effective your tweets will be.

Add your Twitter url to your email signature and make it easily accessible on your blog.

Most people will follow you back if they feel you have something in common or can benefit them.
3.
Step 3

Be a part of the community. Offer your knowledge to your followers. If all you tweet about is your blog and what you have to sell, people will ignore you. Take part in the conversations and start relationships with your close followers. People trust people they know better than strangers. Add your insight on the topics that pertain closely to your blog, and use that as a point of reference if it has something to add to the conversation.
4.
Step 4

Don't spam! This is really step 3.5. With it being so easy to communicate directly with so many potential blog readers and customers, it can be very tempting to focus your conversations on yourself. Fight the urge! Don't do it!! All it takes is two clicks for someone to permanently ignore you.

Follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time build your relationships with your followers and the other 20% talk about your blog.
5.
Step 5

Use Twitter as an extension of your blog. A great way to spend your 20% is to tweet things that tie your blog posts into the larger conversation happening around you. For example, if your blog is about hot rods and someone tweets about the work they just did
6.
Step 6

Retweet for others. If someone writes something that aligns with your niche, retweet it. People really appreciate the gesture and are more likely to reciprocate the favor. Retweets are the key to blogs going viral.
7.
Step 7

Stick to your niche. If your follower base is related to your niche and your blog, they don't care what you're watching on TV or that your son got an A+ on his test. If you want to tweet about these types of things start a personal blog for yourself.