Like so many, I am relatively new to the world of Twitter. Before signing up though I wanted to know “if anyone has received business from Twitter.” I posted that question on various sites to see what others experience has been. The general consensus was that no one has received business (directly) from Twitter. So if you are looking to get more business from a new source, you will have to look elsewhere.

That being said, if you are looking for a tool to get the word out about your company, your product or your service, Twitter is IT! Twitter is a great way to talk about what is important in your area of specialty. It also makes you think, because you have to use smaller phrases and words that will entice your follows to read what you write and hopefully re-tweet your tweet.

So what are things that will interest your followers and help you get results? Notice the fine print—get you results! Whether you advertise, use social media or network the goal for any of that is to drive business results. So what are you looking to get out of Twitter? That will drive how you tweet. Do you want to increase visibility, have someone read that blog you spend all that time posting to, or drive people to your website because your conversion rate once they are there will take care of the rest? How about practice conveying value to prospects or the idea you had for an article but forget where you were going with it? Twitter is great for all of those things.

Like anything else out there, Twitter has a learning curve. There are a ton of acronyms, it makes you aware of the length of your URLs and you cannot assume that your followers will read every message you tweet. Because of this, your messages have to be true to your brand, but simple enough that they make sense individually.

Another thing to take into account is mixing business and personal. If your objective is to use Twitter as a business tool, then leave off the comments about how you are working in bed, eating a jelly donut, or just got over a cold—we don’t care and you really are not that important. So get over yourself!

Ahh I forgot to mention the challenge in being able to tweet 24/7. Like you, I have other things I need to do. Therefore, tweeting live is not always an option. A great tool to assist you with your tweeting is TweetLater.com. You create an account with them and can schedule ahead of time your tweets. How wonderful is that? TweetLater gives me the benefits of tweeting, but still allows me to get the real work done that I need to.

So take the good with the bad and make the most of the service. There is a lot of talk about changes that Twitter may be making in the future. We will see. For me they sound good, so I am looking forward to them. Follow me @MelDePaoli.

Podcasts and webinars are a great way to receive information and not interfere with your day. Those who are capable can listen to them and still get work done. However, here is my problem with them. Have you noticed that the majority of people who podcast or on webinars sound simply put, stupid? Yes I did just say that.

I cannot tell you how many podcasts I have listened to that I get so annoyed I just shut it off. I have even stopped listening to webinars that I have paid for because the people conducting them are horrible! Technology is a blessing, do not get me wrong. People’s abuse of how the technology is being used is beyond irritating.

From a marketing perspective a podcast is a great way to show prospective clients that you really do know what you are talking about. But what about those people that sound like they are talking to a class of Kindergarten kids during their podcast? Do you really think that is going to help your business? Is that really going to help how people perceive you or your company?

What about those people that pretend they are giving a keynote or a speech and have PowerPoint slides to accompany their webinar? Oh and don’t forget the preconceived questions that the host is clearly reading off of a sheet of paper! If you are going to blend the concepts of a speech with the technologies of a webinar, you need to make sure you are doing it right. Utilize the various forms of media for their strengths not just because it is the cheapest way you can come up with.

Webinars, podcasts, blogging, video blogs and any other means you can come up with all have their purpose and strengthens. Use them for that and only that—if you are qualified. Just like any other means of marketing or doing business, they can (and will hurt you) just as much as they can help you.

Great examples of this are radio disc jockeys and TV anchors. Believe it or not, those are not jobs that just anyone can do. You have to have a certain voice to be on the radio and you have to know how to control it as well. Television anchors have to have the looks and be able to multitask. They need to take cues from the production team, read prompts (without looking like they are) and be in the moment all at the same time. These are two very different breeds of people and rarely will you see one doing the other.

This being said, take cues and learn tricks from these professions before you do anymore podcasting, webinars or video blogs! You can learn a lot from them.  Learning to speak properly is also a good idea.