I don’t usually write about social networking tools – but Twitter, the latest social networking phenomena, is becoming increasingly popular among business users, so I decided that it warranted at least a good analysis.

I recently starting using Twitter, and have quickly not only found myself using it throughout the day, but I am also finding that many people successfully use it to promote their business.

Twitter started more as a social site – people would basically send short messages, 140 characters or less, about what they were doing throughout the day.  Actions, thoughts, dreams, desires – whatever came to mind.  More recently, twitter is becoming an avenue to spread information and news – related to just about anything you can think of.

People don’t use Twitter to directly advertise their business – that is considered rude, and you will get more than a few remarks about it if you try.

Where Twitter does shine for your business, however, is to let people know what is new with your business, what you are working on, what discoveries you made – things you can brag about, post news about, and alert people about.  It is great for sharing new information, new product launches, meetings, announcements, hiring – whatever social tidbits you can think of.

The postings, or “tweets”, as they are called, go out and are shown to your “followers”.  Where do you find followers?  Well, you start by following other people, and, most of the time, they follow you back.  At the bottom of your twitter home page, there is a search link.  You can search by keyword, and find people that have used that word in their bio or one of their tweets.  You can also import your address book, and twitter will tell you who is on twitter.

If you are new to twitter, there are many blogs out there describing how to best go about using it.  I subscribe to twitip.com – that blog has some great ideas about the world of twitter.

Social networking is becoming yet another important marketing tool for business – it could only help if used correctly and systematically.

Do you already use twitter?  Send me a comment and let me know how you use it for your business or for yourself!