by Greg Voakes.

Silicon Valley superstar Marc Benioff recently stopped in Boston and pushed the idea of the social enterprise. The Salesforce CEO delivered a memorable keynote address at his 2011 Cloudforce event to drive home the message that businesses are increasingly becoming social. Marketing used to be a one-way street. Companies would push their advertising message to the masses and hope it stuck. Very recently social networking websites have opened the door for consumers to respond to the marketing messages with their own voice.

Twitter is one of the channels where consumers have become particularly vocal about their loved (or hated) brands and businesses. Many old school marketers and companies think it’s a cool medium but will have no effect on their bottom line. Wrong. The research shows that social media channels like Twitter can have a heavy impact on a business’ performance. We’ve established that your customers are on Twitter and what they say will affect your business; so how does a company get started on Twitter?

by Brad Hess.

Understanding the purpose of twitter and using it appropriately has been a source of confusion for many business professionals. I have run into many professionals who don’t believe they have any use for such a platform and I’ve also met others who know they need to use twitter but don’t understand how to do so appropriately. Using twitter is important in personal branding because, unlike blog marketing in which the reader must spend a few minutes to sift through your information, it only takes a few seconds for your reader to decide whether or not they have interest in your information and continue from that point.

It is also a great platform to push out highly valuable and viral information to a large amount of people in a short amount of time. With a basic understanding of the usefulness of twitter there are two important concepts to understand before commencing on your micro-blogging journey: The type of followers you need and the type of information you should tweet.

Read the rest of this article from Twitter Marketing Guidelines.

by Craig Mather.

There is no denying that more and more businesses are adopting Social Media at large as part of their overall marketing mix. There is also no denying the power of Twitter, not least when you think about GaGa’s 10.5m followers, or the recent premiership footballer scandal (what?).

Nevertheless, what is often scrutinized is how to properly utilise use Twitter in the corporate domain. Many companies are taking stabs in the dark without any real understanding of what they are (or should be) doing. So when we heard that Mark Shaw, part of the tweet elite and author of ‘Twitter Your Business’ was using our service, we couldn’t think of anyone better to turn to when Powwownow had a few questions of our own.

Powwownow: “Mark, you’re the man in the know – tell us, how on earth can a company look to monetize this maze of conversation otherwise known as Twitter?”

Read the rest of this article from PowWow.

by Leon Widrich.

Do you want to build a loyal and engaged Twitter following (a tribe if you will)? If so, this article is for you. It will show you how to find people and what to do to engage them.

Find the right people—build the right community.

This is a tricky headline. As if there’s something like the “right” community waiting for you out there. Yet focusing firmly on the people you want to interact with will pay off greatly. Following those who show a real connection to your niche is key to getting the return out of your Twitter conversations.

A fundamental question when creating your own tribe is to ask yourself, “Whom can I help on Twitter?”

That’s right, instead of saying “Who could help me?” or “What will I achieve?”, Twitter is a place to extend your reach by helping others. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about other people first. This is the most important lesson I ever learned.

Read the rest of this article from Social Media Examiner.

by Gabrielle Conde.

I’ve probably approached Twitter marketing in fifty different ways.

And in an attempt to find the best way to go forward with my own marketing efforts on Twitter, I recently realized that I’d collected a fairly valuable list of killer resources along the way.

Would you like to know how to start marketing your business on Twitter?

How about more advanced approaches to getting more retweets, more followers, and more prospects for your business?

If there are secrets and special formulas that can magically unlock the power of social media out there, I don’t know them.

What I do know, is exactly what the experts are doing — day in and day out.

And now, you will too …

Read the rest of this article from Copy Blogger.

by Jeff Herring and Maritza Parra.

Do you know how to use social media and social marketing for success in your business? You will when you read and use these seven universal laws.

There are lots of differing opinions about how to be successful with social media and social marketing, and whether it is worth it at all. To that end, here are the seven universal laws for social marketing success and profit:

- The Law of Relationship: This social media thing is all based on relationship. Gone are the days when you could just throw up a website, get some traffic and make sales, all while hiding behind your computer. If those days were ever really here at all. Social marketing is based on the relationship you have with your followers, prospects and customers.

by TwiBooklet.

With the sudden surge in popularity of Twitter, everyone seems to have a Twitter account. Go through your RSS feeds and the blogs you read – chances are, your favorite online writers also have Twitter accounts. The cool thing about following writers you already read is that they’ll refer you to new content sources on the topics you enjoy, since these writers will often link to articles and blogs that interest them.

There are plenty of people who try to immediately jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow thousands of people. Don’t be one of them. To experience the power of the service, you need to learn how to use it organically – not by just jumping in and befriending 10,000 people. People who jump into power-using Twitter often don’t understand the subtle rules of Twitter because they haven’t used it enough.

Read the rest of this article from Twibooklet.

by Lauren Fisher.

Linkedin is by far the biggest professional network in the world and a great place to forge B2B connections but far all it’s useful features it can feel a little restrictive at times so here is a list of useful features, hacks and tips that will help you get even more out of the social network.

Given that you are probably on Linkedin to get business, find work or network it’s important that you do something different that helps you to stand out which is exactly what this list of tips will help you do. Make sure you pimp your Linkedin profile today with some of these great hacks and tips…

Read the rest of this article from Simply Zesty.

by Rex Harris.

If you aren’t using Twitter for business, you’re missing out.  Twitter, in my opinion, is the second hottest traffic resource on the Internet, next only to Google.  Therefore, I believe that everyone should be utilizing it, especially people who are doing business online.  The more targeted traffic you can generate, the better.

Just about everyone is on Twitter these days.  Everyone is on Twitter because people follow people.  When people follow people that means they are watching.  They are watching for a reason.  It only makes sense, then, to develop a presence on Twitter for business purposes so you can take advantage of the exposure.

Read the rest of this article from Rex Harris.

by Ken Mueller.

Forget social media. Forget Twitter. Forget they exist.

Now think back to how you conducted business before social media. If you have a brick and mortar retail space or office, you relied on a variety of traditional marketing forms to get people through your door. These might include television, radio, yellow pages, print, and direct mail. Once you got them in the door, it was your job to make the sale and retain that customer. Over time you might build a relationship with that customer.

That is what Twitter is all about. Building relationships. And it doesn’t happen overnight.

Read the rest of this article from One Forty.