This is a brief post, for the benefit of my Meetup group, that talks about Twitter.

Twitter is a very popular website with millions of registered users. Businesses, celebrities, aspiring superstars, and just "average" folk are on Twitter and making "tweets."

So there is a huge potential customer base for your goods and services. But because Twitter is a social site, people using it may not necessarily be in a buying mode.

In fact, they probably are turned off by overt promotions.

That should not deter you, however. I propose that you still sign up for two Twitter accounts: One for your personal use and one for your business use.

Here's why.

First, people want engagement. They want interactivity. They want to find out things about you and your business. They also want the "in" on special deals you may be offering.

So, set up that personal account and surround yourself with "followers" (the equivalent of friends on Facebook). Then, set up an account for your business. Use your business name, if possible. Follow your business with your personal account. Then start tweeting on both accounts.

Tweet and retweet–cross post. For example, if you have a promotion going on (it is 4th of July weekend), tell the world about it on your business account. Then, go to your personal account, find the post, and "re-tweet" it (this means, pass it along).

Twitter is a "micro blogging" platform, so you use it like a regular blog–only you are limited to "posts" of 140 characters or less. So your copywriting skills come into play: Say more with less. Your posts have to have impact and brevity.

Follow industry leaders and peers with your business Twitter persona. You will find that some of the people you follow will follow you back; they will also begin to re-tweet your messages.

Now, here's the big secret. Don't oversell. Content is still king. Engagement matters. Give people useful but incomplete information. And make those "content Tweets" in a ratio of about 8 to 1 (content versus promotions) or more.

By useful but incomplete, I mean give your followers some good information but then tell them where to go to get more. An example of this might be:

Backlinks matter for search rankings. Here's how to get dozens of high-quality backlinks from a single blog post http://u-like.us/92-r9

What I did there was give a fact, followed by how to go find out more. I led my follower back to my website.

In fact, I almost always try to lead my followers back to my website

I want to engage you, but lead you back to a property that I control (my website) versus keeping them on a website that I don't control.

Give Twiter a try. I think you'll reap some benefits if you follow the advice in this post. Enjoy!