One of the most frustrating things I found when I started to use Twitter was the chasm between what I read and how twitter actually worked in reality. There are lots of ‘experts’ , ‘gurus’ or specialists who have written about how people should use twitter and then you see that they don’t follow their own rules. I would like to name and shame, but this isn’t the place. However, what most people who are new to Twitter want to know is, “How does Twitter work in Reality?”

1. Raise awareness of your brand: Twitter is a great tool for being able to raise your brand to a far wider audience than is possible through any traditional marketing methods.

2. Opportunities for instant updates: Nothing can beat Twitter for instantly updating your customers on what is going on. Special offer, sales, vital information can all be done through Twitter.

3. Accept Twitter isn’t for everyone. This really needs to be said. I use it and use it successfully, but there are plenty of successful businesses that don’t use it. Explore the possibilities by all means but don’t let anyone make out that it is the be all and end all. Some marketers are very pro and some dismiss it. Like everything else in life you have to work out whether its right for you and your business.

4. You need a strategy. You need to decide where Twitter fits – as part of a marketing strategy or part of a general social media strategy, or a standalone strategy. Whatever the size of the business without a strategy you will waste time and money.

5. Twitter takes time. If you’re part of a large organisation then you may have several people who can implement a Twitter strategy and have people to keep it running. This is more problematic if you’re an SME (Small, Medium Enterprise) or a sole trader. Lots of people will say that you only need to spend ten minutes a day on Twitter. This may be true when you get up and running and have lots of followers, but even writing tweets is slow at the beginning when you try to write something useful in 140 characters.

6. Twitter is like any other networking. How does Twitter work in reality? Twitter can easily disappoint people when they first join, particularly if they’ve heard all sorts of stories about how it’s used. The fact is people use it for very different reasons. Some people are wonderful, generous and share lots of information. Some others are endless self-promoters and care very little for individuals and anything that doesn’t benefit them. There are people who tell you weird and wonderful things, those that make you laugh and those that make your blood boil. All these differences add to the richness of the Twitter experience, but it helps if you appreciate the very many differences that exists before you start out. You need to use it in the way that suits you and your business.

7. Ignore half of what is said. There’s a lot of pompous rubbish written about the way you should use Twitter. You will find some people saying you shouldn’t schedule tweets or you shouldn’t talk about anything that’s personal if you’re serious about your business and you should be subtle about self promotion. Well you’ll will see all these’ rules’ being broken. Some sole traders run a single account which promotes only their business and others have a personal account which they use for both their business and personal chat. Again you do what suits you.

How does Twitter work in reality? It provides wonderful opportunities to strengthen a company brand and keep you in touch with your customers and what they are saying about your business. If you decide that Twitter is right for your business, invest in training. Yes there is a lot of information out there and you can choose to teach yourself, but investing in the right training will ensure that you maximise your ROI (Return on Investment) of time and money.