Twitter continues to grow – but what will make it thrive? Like any growing thing, it needs the right combination of nourishment to be strong, and Twitter’s nourishment comes from the various types of people that use Twitter. John Taylor, at Inc.com provides his insights on the types of Tweeters he believes makes Twitter work.  Below we have a summary of Taylor’s post, or read the whole thing here.

Which style describes you? Are we missing any?

___   The Customer Support Rep: This person is focused on watching for and responding to customer service questions, and sometimes will actually help resolve issues.

___   The Publisher: People and companies will often use Twitter as a way to simply feed followers information about their area of influence. A lot of news is now breaking on Twitter before it hits major publications.

___  The Promotion Channel: Both spammers and e-commerce sites fit into this category, but the e-commerce sites use Twitter in interesting ways to do promotion and inform customers about products they are interested in. Contests, Twitter-only discount codes, and free giveaways are all part of the promotion channel arsenal.

___  The Conversationalist: Many of the most popular tweeters are those who actively engage with several posts per day for their followers. It can be very time consuming, but the rewards are high in terms of building a loyal following and truly connecting.

___ The Curious: These people don’t post to Twitter. Instead, they use it as an information resource, watching the Twitter trending topics to crowd source their news or follow people they find interesting or informative.

___  The Personality: This applies both to actual celebrities, and people who are building a brand that can be clearly defined as having a “voice,” people like Oprah Winfrey and Tony Hsieh of Zappos. People follow these feeds for a variety of reasons but mainly because they receive something emotionally satisfying from the postings.

___  The Guide: This is typically a person or people assigned to seek out messages posted by people with questions related to a certain topic, products or services they have expertise in.

___  The Brand Watchdog: This is someone proactively seeking out mentions of their company name or product name and responding personally to each post. Companies can win big brownie points by having very senior staff members respond to customer service questions.

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From 8 Types of People That Belong on Twitter, by John Taylor at Inc.com

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Open Forum.com has compiled their list of the top small business Twitterers to follow. If you’re just figuring out Twitter, or if you’re a pro, these are some good folks to follow to see how they’re capturing the energy of the internet in 140 characters or less.

http://bit.ly/SmallBusTwitterers

Not on the list this year? The 60SecondTweets from us here at The 60 Second Marketer. Well…it gives us a goal to reach for….

http://twitter.com/60SecondTweets

Mark reveals that bloggers and website owners have a real opportunity to grow their exposure by using Twitter to their advantage. Providing links from Twitter to your website, and providing a link from the website to your Twitter page, gives readers more places to interact. Here are four ways Mark has found the Twitter/website synergy to be a good one:

1. Twitter-Improved Traffic: Readers of your Twitter feed will be more likely to read your website, AND readers of your website who like it will re-tweet, driving even more readers back to the website.

2. Twitter-Improved Reader Engagement: Many website owners have measured reader’s engagement by the following means. What Mark found was an increased engagement from Twitter users:

1. Time on Page: Readers driven from Twitter are more likely to spend more time reading the website.

2. Page Views per Reader: Twitter readers have an increase number of pages read, which would indicate a higher interest in your targeted industry.

3. Blog Comment Volume and Quality: Twitter users are already committed to the focus of your Twitter page and are already involved in a conversation about it. Blogs are a place where more in-depth conversations can be shared around more detailed information.

3. Twitter-Improved Search Engine Optimization: As more people use Twitter Search to find information, using Twitter will help many people to find your information. Then, the likelihood of a particular tweet being listed in other search engines referencing a Twitter tweet or one of the many other Twitter-related applications along with your link are improved. Readers can find your blog, and further improve your chances of being found in search engines.

4. Twitter-Improved Call to Action: You get to know your Twitter followers, and they get to know you. This means a personal relationship has been formed, which can be further enhanced through blog readership, inbound phone calls, and outbound phone calls. More relationships, more likely a response to your call to action.

Twitter is growing exponentially. Wouldn’t it be nice to gain some of that growth for your own website?

1. Check out Mark Murnahan’s book, Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends, and get more tips.

2. Start a Twitter account if you haven’t yet. http://twitter.com/

3. Use your Twitter account, a lot.

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Mark Murnahan has been involved in social media marketing mid-1990’s. Follow Mark Murnahan at  http://twitter.com/murnahan

Here’s the secret: You wouldn’t start a new billboard campaign without careful planning, would you? Of course not. Yet many companies seem to jump right in to a social media campaign without giving this type of marketing the careful consideration that other types get. Why? It is a new medium to many, and we’re still learning the ropes. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others can be very effective – if done with a little planning.

Here’s a 10 point road map to help you plan to make the most effective use of a social media campaign, taken from a recent webinar presented by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer. Already using social media? Review to see if there’s a new idea for you.

1. Competitive Assessment: What are your competitors doing in this space already? What can you borrow from them?

2. Internal Situation Analysis: How much awareness is there of social media within your company? Is there an understanding that it can be measured and create a positive ROI?

3. Major Objectives: What are you trying to accomplish with your social media campaign?

4. Consumer Thought Process: What is the typical sales cycle for your product? How much trust do you need to build before you can make a sale? (Hint: The more expensive the product, the more trust needs to be built.)

5. Key Strategies: What approach are you going to take in order to have a successful program?

6. Brand Essence: What is your brand essence and how are you going to communicate that using social media?

7. Positioning: How is your brand currently positioned in the marketplace? Where do you want it to be positioned as a result of your social media campaign?

8. Essential Message: What is the essential take-away you want consumers and prospects to have after engaging with your brand via social media?

9. Tactical Plan Overview: Which social media platforms are you going to use for your program? Which tools are you going to use to measure the success of your program?

10. Executional Roadmap: What are your SMART Goals for this plan? How are you going to be held accountable for them?

Careful planning will make the time spent well worth it, and make you look like the whiz that you are. Just don’t forget to have fun and be creative with your campaign. You may be the next trend setter, with competitors following your example!

Website Magazine shares the following from their August 21 online post about where Tweets are coming from:

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A study from Rapleaf on the popularity of Twitter clients has revealed some interesting information – namely that 65% of all tweets are sent from computers on the official Twitter site and about 20% of tweets are sent from mobile devices.

- Two-thirds of tweets are updated using a computer connected to the Web
- Mobile phone texting is the second most popular client but only account for 1/10 as many tweets
- The top five clients account for 82% of tweets; the top 10 account for over 90% of tweets
- Tweets are sent from over 1900 Twitter clients

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In the November 2009 magazine issue, Website Magazine found the following to be the Top 10 Popular Twitter Clients:

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By Zaki Usman, Marketing Director, Severa Corp.

Before the start of summer, I had ordered over 300 branded beach balls to be used for some promotional offer with Severa Corp. While I was sweating out the heat wave with my colleagues in Severa’s Headquarters in Eastern Finland, a light bulb went off…“Hey, how about we use those beach balls to get more Twitter followers?”  We got busy to launch “Follow us on Twitter and win a beach ball campaign.”

We had some inspiring results.

Doubled Follower Count:

By the ninth day after the program was launched, we doubled our Follower count from 4,700 to 9,400.

We have increased the following:

• Meaningful conversations through direct messages
• Frequency of our ReTweets
• Higher website traffic referred from Twitter

And not only that, we started getting genuine followers who contribute to our social network.

Increased Relevant Traffic:

In fact, here are some of our website traffic stats on unique visitors that were referred from Twitter:

In the first week, we had more Twitter traffic than in the last 2 months. With this increase, we also had a slight raise in bounced traffic – which is understandable since we get more “passer bys.”

Raised Conversion Rate:

What’s most interesting is that, people who do stay, end up on our site for 5 minutes (2 minutes longer than before.) This means they are genuinely interested in our offering and that also explains why our conversion rates are higher now as well.

Over all, the Beach ball for Twitter follow has been a successful campaign thanks to my marketing team. Within 9 days we doubled our follower count, we increased relevant traffic and we raised our conversion rate. This really was a good idea to kick start our summer!

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If you want you can follow Severa on Twitter too – perhaps, you may win a beach ball. Also visit TargetInfoLabs and Severa.

The problem is, some people who follow you on Twitter won’t take well to the idea that your company is using Twitter to push sales of your product. Some people think it’s contrary to the idea of the internet. Other people believe that it’s okay to use Twitter to drive business, but that you have to do it carefully.

Dell Computer has done a great job using Twitter to drive sales. The word on the street is that they generated an incremental $1 million in revenue last year by promoting special offers via Twitter.

But not everybody has the resources that Dell has to launch a robust Twitter program (remember, doing what Dell did requires more than just doing Tweets — it requires inventory management, marketing, IT development and other things to make it work.)

But if you’re a small- to medium-sized business, you can still make it work. A great example of this is to do what WineGlobe does. Instead of pushing out Tweets that exclusively promote sales of their product, they do Tweets that help create a community around their culture (Wine) and their brand (WineGlobe).

Interested in learning where the word “toast” comes from? Find the answer by clicking through on one of their Tweets. True or False: Red wine gets its color from the red grapes used to make it. You can find the answer to that question via their Twitter account, too.

If you’re interested in using Twitter for business, you should take a look at how the folks at the 60 Second Marketer break down the different types of Twitterers:

1. The Self-Promoter: This is the business, typically a one-person consultant, who exclusively promotes their own eBooks, webinars, services or products. Don’t be this guy.
2. The Newbie: This is someone who really doesn’t get the idea of Twitter. They Tweet about the weather, their dog, their girlfriend and their mood. Don’t be this guy, either.
3. The Retailer: This is a company, like Dell, who uses certain Twitter accounts to promote discounts on their products or services. It’s okay to be this guy if you don’t mind having short-term followers who will jump ship once they’ve bought your product.
4. The Community Builder: This is who you want to be. Offer news, tips, insights and information via Twitter. Occasionally send out information on your own products and services that would be helpful to your followers. Most of all, create a conversation that builds on itself and helps you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Twitter is still in its youth and it’ll evolve a great deal over the next few years. But right now, if you’re thinking about how to use Twitter for business, use the Community Builder approach. That’s what WineGlobe has done and it’s what you should do, too.

P.S. If you aren’t already following us on Twitter, you can do so by clicking 60 Second Twitter.

But there’s a problem with Twitter: It can be a big, huge waste of time.

This isn’t a criticism of Twitter. On the contrary, we believe Twitter is a valuable tool for people interested in staying connected with their customers and their customer prospects. But we also feel that Twitter can gobble up inordinate amounts of valuable time.

The bottom line is this — if you let Twitter get a hold of you, it’ll suck up a lot of energy that can and should be used elsewhere. It’s surprisingly easy to get caught up in the back-and-forth that’s part of the Twitter environment.

The challenge is figuring out how to stay engaged with Twitter without getting sucked into the meaningless (and time-consuming) Tweets that make up about 30% to 50% of all the chatter that happens on Twitter.

Any suggestions or thoughts? Anybody see paralells between Twitter and Blackberry?

Do tell.

This chart highlights the global spread of Twitter. The U.S. is the most Twitter-ific (sorry, very corny) nation on the planet followed closely by Japan, Spain (Spain? Really?), and the U.K.

What makes Twitter such a hot application? It’s the next step in the democratization of the web. By leveraging the power of social communities everywhere, Twitter has grown in influence and authority.

Will it become the next YouTube or Facebook success story? Well, yeah, it kind of already is.

Will it be monetizable? That remains to be seen. YouTube, Facebook and MySpace continue to struggle with the monetization of their sites. That’s not to say they aren’t hugely successful, it’s just to say that they’re still in that early growth curve (just like Amazon was) where they haven’t started generating all of the profits they have the potential of generating.

Here are Kyle’s easy tips on how to sign up for Twitter:

To find the Twitter homepage, you can either click here or type http://www.twitter.com directly into your browser. Once there, click the big green button that says “Get Started – Join!”

The first thing you’ll have to do when signing up for a Twitter account is to think of a username. Many names are already taken, but luckily Twitter provides you with instant notification of username availability.

After filling in a unique password and providing a valid email address, you’ll have to create the account. Make sure to use an email address that you monitor regularly, as many actions taken in Twitter will be sent directly to your email as notifications.

Finding people you know on Twitter seems like a daunting task, but Twitter has made it easy by allowing you to search through your web email contacts. Using your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, or MSN account, you can search for every person you are connected with in any of your email accounts. Twitter promises that they don’t store your passwords, but if you are cautious about your email accounts you might want to skip this step. Personally I’ve never had a problem with handing out my email and password, but you can never be too careful.

One of the first things you will see after your account creation is the question “What are you doing?” Feel free to send out your first Twitter message, or Tweet, before setting up your profile. You’ll quickly want to head to the top navigation and follow the Settings link to fill in some of your personal information.

Tweeting is a lot like blogging — your best bet is to provide interesting, useful content to your followers. That said, it’s also acceptable to let your followers know what’s going on in the non-professional side of your life, too.

If you’d like to follow The 60 Second Marketer team on Twitter, feel free to sign up on The 60 Second Twitter Page, which can be found at http://www.Twitter.com/60SecondTwitter.