Social Media is the newest strategy to get new customers. Using new tools like Twitter, social media marketing has only become popular and effective.

Twitter is a social media tool that allows people to know what you are busy doing, and what the people you are following are doing at this very moment. Are you busy reading an article and find it interesting, are you going to the movies, are you attending a seminar or preparing a quotation? Put that on Twitter! There are no boundaries as to what you can put on Twitter. In Twitter, even the most mundane updates about your life can be pretty liberating.

Sounds simple, right? Perhaps, it is this simplicity that has made Twitter quite a sensation on the Internet. There is something amusing about knowing what other people are doing and letting them know your own business as well. This combination of fun and simplicity is what ultimately appeals to Twitter fans.

If you’re business-minded, then you probably already have more than a few ideas on how to make this social media marketing tool work for you. Having a Twitter account allows you to inform your clients and would-be clients the progress in your company. It's all about transparency. And if you business is transparent your business will be trusted more. And the biggest bonus is that you are not busy with annoying advertising. It is no longer Outbound advertising, but rather Inbound. You are sharing what is happening to your company’s products, people, tools, etc. in real time.

Twitter, unlike Linked-in, MySpace and Facebook, poses an advantage for new and advanced marketers. As an efficient social media marketing tool, Twitter allows you to build a giant list of followers. It allows your clients and subscribers to see what you’re doing right now. It gives them access to your immediate profile and permits you to share your ideas with other twitterers. All free of charge.

While many people have other purposes and values for the use of the free service, a business can use Twitter to jumpstart a list of followers that can grow into thousands. If you’re someone who sells books, you can use Twitter to attract members who are interested in books. When a new book comes out, you can use Twitter to announce this latest book. Or if you’re having a sale, you can use Twitter to let all your followers know about it.

This is the new best way to build your company brand. Your followers are the next best thing to customers. If they haven’t bought anything from you yet, then you can rest assured that they will be buying something soon. As long as you keep providing them something nice to look forward to, they will always be enticed to purchase something from your company. Twitter reaches about 6.1 million U.S. people every month. (quantcast.com).

No, despite the huge popularity of Twitter, it is not a disorganised system that doesn’t have any limits. For example, you can only send 1,000 updates, 100 API requests and send 250 direct messages each day. And while there is no limit to the people who can follow you, the same freedom doesn’t apply vice-versa. The maximum number of people you can follow is limited to 2,000. In Twitter-speak, to follow means to receive Twitter updates. This limit will only be lifted if you manage to attract more than 2,000 followers to your account. According to Twitter, this is done to prevent SPAM users from adding up into their system and to prevent abuse from all current members. It’s not that difficult to attract more followers into your account. But if you do not provide decent content, you will see your followers dropping fast. You have to be meaningfull to get meaningfull results.

The beauty at this stage is that once you are at such a level, it’s easier to attract new followers into your account. The benefits from taking such steps are acquiring your own list of eager followers (in which you can pitch your own products and services); and more importantly, gaining new business contacts.

There are other methods of social media marketing available for your use. Twitter isn’t the only way to enhance your business and get a constant flow of leads. You should not limit yourself to one thing. With the Internet as vast as it is, you should use every opportunity to make new contacts and establish yourself. Besides, think of all the new things you can learn from interacting with other people online! Leave comments on your choice blogs and participate in forum discussions that allow for signature files after every post. Make informative videos and upload them to video-sharing sites. Explode your list of contacts through social networking sites. Share your knowledge and be recognized as an authority by submitting your content to content-sharing sites.

Not only will these help you establish credibility, you probably won’t even have to worry or stress about making money in the future. And lastly on social media marketing, compared to many other online marketing methods, it only works if you work it!