Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006.  It is a micro-blogging service that allows users to post their updates limited to 140 characters.  And can be posted through three methods: Web form, text message, or instant message.

 On March 21, 2006, @Jack sent the first tweet: “just setting up my twttr.”   Dom Sagolla (@Dom), in tweet 38, typed: “Oh, this is going to be addictive.”   And thus a communications revolution was born renowned for brevity

Since then Twitter has gained global popularity and is estimated to have over 200 million users, generating 200 million tweets a day and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It is sometimes described as the  “SMS” of the  Internet.

Twitter is essentially a real time news service and it is important if you have something value to share, and share it on a periodicity. Such as you can tweet to create awareness on environmental hazards or educate your followers on the topic of your expertise.  

If you are using Twitter for the first time, Create a customized background page and place your contact information………… 

• Write your introduction and a link to your website.  
• Find your target audience on twitter and start following them.
• Share links that would be of great interest to your target audience. 
• Don't talk too much about your company. If you want to share some of your company services/product, make sure it's only 25% of those that you will tweet.
• Initiate conversations. Talk to your market. Find out their interest and start conversations. 
• Initiate conversation about the links you've shared. Ask your followers or people you follow. 
• Start looking for keywords that might be relevant to your services/product in people's tweets. You never know if someone might have actual need of your services/product.  

Having said that Twitter should be used to Communicate Value; Create Accessibility; Demonstrate Credibility and  Create Brand Awareness.  For the business it’s important to know if your  customers are on Twitter.  And before you jump into it, use RapLeaf  [it help businesses  gain insight into their customers, engage them more meaningfully, and deliver the right message at the right time  ] or FlowTown to determine where your customers are on the social network.  Then, ask them, what their expectations are when they follow a brand on Twitter.  Studies find that followers look for coupons and special offers. How about your customers? When you know what purpose your Twitter campaign will fulfill, develop a strategy and success metrics. 

Lets share few powerful applications for Twitter. 

1. HootSuite: HootSuite helps organizations use the social web to launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages across multiple channels. 

2. Tweeter Karma:  formerly Twitter Karma makes up for its simple design by providing a quick solution to see all of your friends and followers sorted in a variety of ways. You can follow and unfollow quickly and easily among your friends, followers, and mutual friends.

3. WeFollow: is a user powered Twitter directory that simply lists which people are the most popular (followed) by category. 

4. Twitterel:  is a great way to find Twitter users with the same interests as you and is very easy to use. To get started you’ll need to enter your Twitter username and password. Once you do that, you can enter keywords based on your interests in order to start finding people. 

5. Just Tweet It is not only a directory for Twitter users but they’re THE directory for Twitter users!  Since the directory is organized by category, it’s the perfect way to find other Twitter users like you and with the same interests.    What I love most about Just Tweet; It is that they have quite a few feature spots on their homepage. There’s a spot for a Featured Tweeter, Newest Tweeters, Recent Blog Posts, and Latest News & Links. You also have the option to add your own name to the directory so that you can get found by other Twitter users like yourself. 

In conclusion would reiterate that Twitter has emerged a powerful tool that no business can ignore.  The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called “Explore” for external and third party tools that interact with Twitter and a new visualization tool called Twitter Blocks

Twitter provides unadulterated marketing information, what users across the globe or in a region are talking about?   What are they saying about your product and services ?  And this gives you the medium to engage  your customer’s decisions towards your products and services.   “TWITTER IS AN IDEA WHO’S TIME HAS COME AND NO BUSINESS CAN RISK TO IGNORE.”