Twitter is another social networking platform that allows registered users to read and write 140- character messages called 'tweets'. It is available across all devices such as cell phones, desktops, laptops, and tablets.

History of Twitter

Jack Dorsey, an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using a message service to communicate with a small group. Twitter was launched as an SMS-based communication platform. Initially it was known as "twttr". On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet: "just setting up my twttr".

What is Twitter Marketing?

Twitter marketing is a powerful tool for companies of every size and structure to reach out to new customers, promote their brand, and connect with the rest of the companies. Users can find out if customers are talking about them, and the business can accordingly respond. Tweets create another instance for the business that shows up in the search engine results. Twitter serves as a solid foundation for your business to branch out into other social sites. Twitter is a great platform for projecting what your company is doing and accessing a large audience, where your Tweets can promote products and events.

How to Increase Followers on Twitter?

  • Grow your community by adding a follow button in your website and promote your username.
  • Get noticed with hash tags like #smallbiz etc.
  • Engage with your followers by collecting feedback to build a better business.
  • Sync your email contacts with Twitter.
  • Keep your bio updated with the events or the business campaign you are running.
  • Embed your best tweets and tweet to people every day.
  • You can promote your twitter account on any printed material, g., business cards.
  • Follow people who follow you.
  • Make sure you are engaging with your customers on twitter and not to your product.

What is Hash Tag?

The symbol hash tag (#) is used to mark keywords in a tweet. It was originally created by Twitter users. This symbol helps them to categorize the tweets and show them easily when people search for them. Hash tags can occur anywhere in a tweet – middle, end, or at the beginning. If you tweet with a hash tag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hash tag will find you. A hash tag is a way for people to search for tweets having a common topic.

Sponsored Tweets and Hash Tags

Sponsored tweets are advertising platforms that connect companies with tweeters. Sponsored tweets allow brands to tap into a Twitter user's followers to reach out to new customers. By giving companies access to your twitter stream, tweeters are compensated for each advertisement they accept. The only thing tweeters need to do is to write a tweet based on some simple guidelines provided by the advertiser.

Sponsored Hash Tags place the tag of a customer's choice among the list of trending topics that users see when they access the social network through the web.

Tools to Integrate Twitter on Your Blog or Website

  • Add the twitter widget to your site’s sidebar as it’s a great way to show your latest tweets on your website.
  • Choose from 40 different well-designed twitter buttons to quickly create a badge to promote your account.
  • TwitThis is a little button that can be placed in your HTML file or in your blog to allow your readers to quickly and easily share what they are reading with their twitter followers.
  • Chirrup is another solution for pulling Twitter comments across any platform. It allows you to display all the references from Twitter on a given webpage.
  • Aweber has an excellent feature for any newsletter marketer. Newsletter delivery service has actually created a way to convert RSS to email to tweet.
  • Twitterfeed is a pioneer of website and Twitter integration which allows you to automatically insert tweets into your Twitter from any RSS feed.

Twitter Automation Tools

Following are some of the twitter automation tools that make your profile look like an announcement board.

  • Twitterfeed is a service that allows you to set up RSS from your blog or website.
  • Social Oomph is a tool to create an automated direct message for new followers.
  • Tweet Old Post is a great plugin which allows you to connect a Twitter account with your blog and regularly tweet posts to your followers.
  • Hootsuite is a free tool that you can use if you have fewer than five social profiles to It offers an option to schedule updates to specific social media accounts.
  • Visibili is a free service that lets you create a custom sharing bar that goes with any links to share through their service.
  • Twitter Showdown is a tool that provides valuable insights on follower to-following ratio, level of Tweet engagement, tweet timing, and how two accounts compare.