Once upon a time, your marketing efforts to connect with current and potential clients could be as simple as a newsletter each month. In 2009, there are so many options, new gadgets and widgets, it’s difficult to know what trend to follow and what to avoid!

Twitter is one to take part in. Over 2 million users and still growing, this social network allows you to share up to date news, 140 characters at a time.

Updates are called Tweets, and those reading them are called “followers”. You can also “follow” fellow Tweeters, but do not have to reciprocate. In fact, being in business, having a high number of followers is the ideal situation. You want to be able to quickly get out new information to a wide audience of potential or current clients. A powerful tool to have! If you can take time to respond to individual direct communication (or tweets), this gives an added personal touch.

Tweeters have a user name which is prefixed with the “@” symbol. This is how to refer to a person or group and tweet them directly, or make mention to them in your message.

There are many ways in which to read and send your tweets. Be careful, this can get addictive! Visiting the Twitter.com website is the first and original way. You log in with a user id and password, answer the question “what are you doing?” and then update! This method means logging into the website each time you want to share news or read updates from those you are following.

This is where an Application Programming Interface or API, comes in. There are many to choose from and some more effective than others. Tweetdeck, Twhirl and Twinja all do the same thing but each lends it’s own visual impact and unique functions. They enable you to complete searches, sort your tweets, and tweet to your hearts content!

To get a PDF version of this client library issue, click: Issue1

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