Twitter wants to know: What are you doing?

Today's the day.  Are you ready to get started with social networking?  Let's start up your very own Twitter account!  Click past the break to see how easy it is.

Go ahead, click the Twitter logo to get started.  Ready?

Ok, now click that green button, the one that says "Get Started - Join!" and fill out the information.  If you're planning to use this for your business, enter your company name for your name and username so people can find you more easily.  It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.  And there you go.  You're on Twitter.

Now What?

Ok, you've made the leap.  You're ready to make your first tweet, make some contacts, and start communicating in 140 characters or less.  Twitter, like most social networks, is so flexible that it will become whatever you choose to make of it.  Here are some ideas:

• Use it for company news and status updates. Feed your tweets to your home page via RSS as a quick way to update your customers. (tweet example: "New Sitepro CMS released today. Be sure to try it out and let us know what you think.")
• Get your staff using it to let each other know what they're working on right now. Distribute the feed group to clients so they can see updates of their project status. (tweet example: "Finishing up with Client A's order. After that, it's on to Project B!")
• Set up links on your site to your Twitter feed to serve as a fast way for users to get replies to common questions. (tweet example: "@Expo Question: Expo presentation Tuesday at 3:30. Here's a link to more info.")

Ultimately the use of your Twitter account is entirely up to you and how you feel it fits into your business. Regardless, it's a great way to start your social network. Over time, your business will build a subscriber list of people who like and use your products or services, which gives you an free and instant platform to market to a large group of people. Aren't you glad you started your account today?