Twitter is DUMB … at least that’s what I hear from most when they are first introduced to the “mass confusion” known as Twitter.

At first, most just don’t get it. “I don’t have any followers”… “I don’t know what to say”… “How can you carry on a conversation 140 characters at a time?” I felt the same way when I started. But here’s the thing…

If Facebook is Growing At the Speed of Sound … Twitter is Growing at the Speed of LIGHT

According to a new survey from Nielsen, from February 2008 to February 2009,  Twitter grew a whopping 1,382%. Facebook grew by 228% percent in the same time period.

Also interesting to note:

• Twitter counts the 35-to-49 age demographic as its biggest
• In January 2009, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through their mobile phones.

There’s no debate that Twitter is a bona-fide online phenomenon. But the funny thing is that not even the creators of Twitter how figured out how to monetize it (they’re still running on  VC money). But that doesn’t mean YOU can’t money from Twitter…

The KEY Difference Between Facebook & Twitter That Makes Twitter  IDEAL for Marketers

I’m not sure when I stumbled on this little factoid, but it’s made ALL the difference in the world at how I view Twitter:

On Twitter, you can eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.

Think about that from a marketing perspective – say you are a real estate agent in Sarasota, Florida. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know when someone types into Twitter the phrases “sold my house in Sarasota”, “find a house to buy in Sarasota” or “looking for a condo in Sarasota”?

You betcha.

As opposed to Facebook, where you have to be “friends” with someone to get in on the conversation, Twitter allows you to “follow” as many as 2000 people and gain ongoing access to what they’re saying. So, in our real estate example, once you found these folks who are obviously in your target market, you would simply start following them.

But that’s only half the battle. You have to get them to follow YOU since they won’t see anything you say unless they’re following you. The good news is, it’s considered “courtesy” on Twitter when someone follows YOU to follow them BACK. In fact, there are many on Twitter who have it setup to where they “auto-follow” anyone who follows them.

So, back to our real estate example, chances are good that if you start following these folks, they’ll start following you back. That way, they can view your “tweets” (the 140-character phrases you enter into the ‘What are you doing’ area of Twitter Ok, now that you have targeted followers who are following you, what do you say?

A Scientifically Proven Formula For Making Your Tweets Go “Viral”

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is the ability for messages to spread FAST, regardless of who the originator of the message is. Twitter has  a built-in function to make this happen, called “retweeting”.  In other words, if someone likes what you have to say, with a single click, they can retweet your message to their entire list of followers. And chances are good that your message will be retweeted by their followers, and so on.

So how do you write a 140 character message that has the potential of going viral? Thanks to “Social & Viral Marketing Scientist”, Dan Zarrella (DanZarrella.com), there’s no guesswork to making your tweets go viral. In his great blog post entitled “5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter, by using historical data, Zarrella proves these 5 points:

• Say Please: “Please ReTweet”, “Please RT”, or “Plz RT” are commonly used in highly retweeted tweets.
• Watch Your Timing: Mon-Wed, around 2pm sees the most retweets
• Include a Link: over 70% of retweets contain a link
• Buddy up to Big Twitterers: if a Twitter user with 1000’s of followers retweets you, their followers are likely to follow suit
• Tweet Something Worthwhile: not surprisingly, the most retweeted tweets are How To’s, Instructional Content, breaking news, Warnings (scams,viruses), Freebies and Contests

If you’re not on Twitter, get started today. Just upload a decent photo of your face (preferably smiling). Go to http://search.twitter.com, look up a few of your key words,  start following people, and some will follow you back. Then — just say something!