Twitter began to let users keep their friends and family aware of what was going on with their lives; it has now become one of the hottest new online hangouts to mingle and socialize on the web. While Twitter is still useful as a tool to update people about the latest happenings in one�s life, it is in the online marketing arena that Twitter enjoys immense possibilities borne out of a sheer magnitude of users, all swarming in one spot ready to lap up and spread interesting, unique and usable messages. Here are some steps you can follow to become a successful online marketer on Twitter.

1. The first step is to create a Twitter account, this is fairly easy process, and you will end up with a account for your marketing campaign at twitter like this: http://twitter.com/gtdguy. Remember to create separate accounts whose names are related to the product/service you are going to promote, even if you have a personal Twitter account. This will look more professional in the long run to have a dedicated following comprised exclusively of the target audience and will allow you to keep your personal account for your more quirky personal tweets (i.e., individual posts to Twitter).
2. Customize the profile. Once the account has been created, tweak the profile details to make it attractive to the target audience. Add an original logo, match the color of the profile with that of the logo, include keywords about the product/service to be promoted, add pictures and bits of information which are interesting and usable and fill in all the sidebar information.
3. Put badges on the website. Putting badges on the website and the web pages related to the promotion will allow the visitors to the website to follow you on Twitter. Twittercounter and Twittergrader badges are recommended for this purpose.
4. Seek followers. This is the most important aspect of Twitter, whether you are doing it for personal reasons or for a marketing advantage. Web marketers seek quality followers from the business vertical in which they are promoting their product or service. This can be done by going through the profiles and tweets posted by various followers and getting noticed by contributing to their conversations
5. Jump in and reply to interesting @-reply tweets, which are public conversations between two users. [If they expect a conversation to be private, they should be "direct messaging" (DM) each other instead.] Check out both parties and "follow" them if they interest you. If you follow someone with, say, 10,000 followers and reply to his/her posts meaningfully for long enough, chances are good that he/she will start to reply to you and start following you.
6. Retweet. Retweeting means forwarding someone else's tweet to your own follower list. Proper retweeting can go a long way in gaining invaluable followers who are very popular themselves.Credit your Tweet source by adding their @ tag; e.g., when GtdGuy, whom you follow, sends out, "Great new productivity site at http//plugin.com," retweet it to your list as "RT @GtdGuy: Great new productivity site at http//plugin.com." If you have characters to spare, you can spell out ReTweet. If someone with 10,000 followers retweets your posts, their followers may retweet your post and so on, with the potential for massive exposure.

1. Create buzz. Now you have got a sizable number of people following you and you have the power of replying and retweeting and you want to write a new post. But before actually writing the post, start creating a buzz through tweets.
2. Tweet your post. You have the retweet power, and you have created the buildup. It is time to tweet your post. So do it, make sure that it brings some value to your followers. Don't be repetitive or boring.
3. Tweet constant reminders. This is an important part of successful tweeting. Keep posting reminder tweets which are different from one another and lead to different aspects of the post. You should also time your reminders by gauging when the most of your followers are also posting, which indicates that they're also reading their own messages.

• Be Useful. Create value for the readers.
• Be Timely. Post when the most of your followers are online.
• Be Willing to Engage. Don�t create impersonal and vague tweets as if you're in an isolated bubble; rather, interact with the reader and with the world. Reply to individuals and join the public conversation.

• Don�t be a spammer. People do not want direct messaging to be used for promotion.
• You will gain followers if you post interesting tweets on a number of diverse topics and if you give credit to others when you retweet.

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