When used successfully, Twitter can be a powerful tool for connecting with current and potential clients. It is also a great way to showcase your knowledge and position yourself as an expert in your field. In this article you will find ideas to help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.

What is Twitter exactly?

For those of you not familiar with Twitter, Twitter is a free, micro-blogging platform that allows you to read and send 140 character messages, known as “tweets.” These tweets can be made public or you can keep your tweets private and restrict readers to those whom you approve.

How to set up a Twitter Account.

Setting up an account with Twitter is quite simple and takes only a few minutes. Go to twitter.com and click on the “Sign up now” button. Fill in your full name, a username, password and email address. Type in the “CAPTCHA” words and then click the “Create my account” button. That’s it! Once you are registered you can fill in your personal profile, upload a picture, etc. at your leisure.

A note of caution: Choose your username carefully. Some people use a version of their names or business names. Some people create a username related to their interests. I usually recommend using your name or a version of your name because people want to connect with other people, not some faceless entity. However, there are reasons why someone would want to use his or her company name and it’s up to you to decide what will work best for you.

How to connect with others.

One of the first things you will want to think about when you start with Twitter is why you are on Twitter in the first place. What is your purpose? What do you want to get out of Twitter? Do you want to connect with friends and/or family? Share your hobbies or passions with others? Do you want to brand yourself as an expert in your field or connect with current and/or potential clients? All of the above?

Answering these questions is important. A lot of people, after they have been on Twitter for a while, become discouraged and/or bored with Twitter because they aren’t getting the results they expected. So, knowing what your purpose for using Twitter is will help you stay focused and enable you to gear your tweets to your target audience.

The next thing you will want to do is to start connecting with others. If you know people who are already on Twitter, you can follow them. You can also use the “people search” on the Twitter website or one of the many Twitter-based sites out there to look for and connect with people who share your interests, are in your geographical area or in your target market.

I encourage you to do this organically. If you follow 50 or 100 people all in one day and only have 3 or 4 people following you, you can be considered a spammer and people will block your tweets or your account can be suspended. It’s better to follow a few people, wait a couple of days, follow some more, etc.

On a practical level, it is super simple to follow others. all you have to do is click on the “follow” button on the person’s profile. You also have the option to block or report someone you believe to be a spammer using the drop-down menu.

Getting the most out of your Twitter experience.

The best way to get the most out of Twitter is to join in on the conversation. Or start your own conversation. Ask questions. Answer questions. Comment and/or re-tweet other people’s tweets. Show an interest in others and they will show an interest in you.

Don’t know what to tweet about? You can show off your expertise by posting tips that are relevant to your target market. Post quotes that are meaningful to you or helpful to others. You can share brief snippets of what you are doing for your clients during the day or link to websites that you find helpful or interesting. Attending or offering a great tele-seminar? Post about it. What you tweet about is only limited by your imagination.

Want to reply to someone who is not following you? All you have to do is simply put the @ sign before the person’s username. If the person is following you, then you have the option to reply or direct message them. Again, to reply, just put the @ sign before their username, and to direct message them, just click the direct message link on the right side of your Twitter stream.

Do keep in mind that It is important to tweet regularly. It only takes 10-15 minutes a day to keep up with your Twitter stream. You can also link your Twitter account with your blog and other social networking accounts, enabling you to easily and quickly broadcast your tweets. The more you tweet, the more you will be “seen.”

And finally, have fun! Twitter is, after all, just another social networking platform, allowing you to show off your talents and connect with others.

(P.S. This is a reprint of an article for Twitter beginners that I had published on ezinearticles.com.)