Twitter is all the rage these days for online business and marketing.

If you don’t know what Twitter is, then let me do my best to explain it to you:

Twitter is a mixture between an instant messenger and a forum that only allows you to type 140 characters at a time. You can log on to your Twitter account at any time and find people chatting amongst themselves, ‘tweeting’ out inspiring messages, ‘retweeting’ cool stuff or linking out to interesting websites.

So great stuff, right? You’ve probably heard that Twitter is a great way to build relationships and your business, and you’re also probably wondering just how to promote your website on it.

Twitter-marketing is all about building relationships. When you give first, you’re setting yourself up for success on this social media site. So with that in mind here are some of my best tips for promoting your website with tweets:

1. Don’t Auto-DM!
A DM is a direct message. Beyond the actual public tweeting there are private direct messages that get sent to the receivers email address. Some people think it’s a good idea to automate their social media marketing by sending automatic DMs that do things like:
– thank people for following
– ask the new follower a question
– invite the follower to visit their website
– etc

It’s just bad form and most people find it extremely annoying.

2. DO be YOU
Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Be you and be proud! Twitter works best if you just let your own personality shine through. You are the only 100% original thing about your business and you are your best asset. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust and they can’t do that if they don’t know you. Let them in.

Being you doesn’t mean you have to post what you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There’s a fine line between being social and being too personal and it’s up to you to decide where that is.

3. Give Before Taking
Absolutely you should be promoting yourself on Twitter if that’s something you choose to do. But don’t go and tweet ‘buy this’, ‘click here now’, ‘sign up here’ every time or you’ll promptly be ignored and/or blocked.

A great way to give first is to find genuinely useful information or websites and tweet it out. Start following a lot of quality people and retweet their good tweets. Start conversations and provide value where you see the opportunity.

Overall using Twitter to promote your website means using common sense and acting like you would in any social setting. Consider Twitter like a social event where you’re there to mix and mingle, to find people with like interests and to make some great connections.

Remember that marketing your website and your business on Twitter starts with marketing yourself. It’s a website all about connecting with others – do that well and you’ll see success to follow.