Back in October 2010, I blogged about my scepticism on Twitter as a business tool. Basically, I dissed it. Since then I have had a bit of a rethink, and there is a place for it as part of the marketing mix.

Thing is, you have to be subtle about it. The quickest way to lose followers is to fill up their timeline with tweets about your marvellous product/services/articles etc. You need to be interactive too, and engage with Twitterland, talking about subject relevant to your area of expertise and nurturing a following that actually might just be interested in what you have to say and your offering.

It is also a great way of publicising your blogs to a wider audience. Don’t, however, just limit the notification of the new post to the auto – update on WordPress. It is worth remembering that folks’ tweeting habits differ and you may need to tweet notification of the blog over a couple of days (without spamming) to get the best coverage.

Twitter is a great way for folks to ask questions and isn’t it just great how many folks respond with cost of doing the thing? Well no actually.

In these instances, I believe that bit of free advice is better received. The funny thing is, it can and does lead to business or a new contact which in turn can lead to a new business opportunity, whereas the blatant “for £xxxx we can do for you” is a turn off.

The strength of social media is the potential to engage with your audience in a way that was not possible even 5 years ago. It is imperative, therefore, to embrace the medium, market to it sparingly and when you have something to say, people may listen and, you never know, may even use your services