I am often asked about how to use Twitter effectively without spending a ton of time. While there are ways to automate some of your Twitter activity, an even better option is to participate strategically while you are there in order to get the maximum benefit in minimum time. 

The very first thing I advise my clients is to understand why you are even using Twitter.  What is your strategy and what is your end goal?  Are you trying to get more blog readers?  Build your newsletter list?  Find joint venture partners? Tweeting randomly and aimlessly isn't going to be very effective.

Second, you'll want to spend a good amount of time interacting. There is nothing wrong with letting others know what's going on with you or your business. Just be sure to intersperse your tweets with some two-way conversation. This builds community and keeps things balanced and interesting.  You don't want to be a "hit-and-run tweeter" who swoops in, tweets and leaves!

Third, I tell people to follow the "10/1 rule"--10 non-promotional tweets to every 1 promotional one.  You don't have to hit people over the head.  I saw a good example of this recently where a pet accessories seller regularly tweeted a "bizarre animal fact of the day."  It's a way of promoting indirectly while still providing your community with value and interesting (and memorable!) tidbits of info.

Fourth, you want to find and follow people in your target market so that they are able to hear your message. Twellow.com and Wefollow.com are Twitter directories you can search by category. They're essentially the Yellow Pages of Twitter.  If your business is local, a great way to find other local Twitter users is to use nearbytweets.com.  You can use this site to search by both location and keyword.  A lot of people like to use tools like this to set up "tweetups" which are basically local meetups of Twitter users in your area.  These can be great for networking.  Another technique if you are already following some people in your target market is using whoshouldifollow.com or mrtweet.com.  Both of these sites recommend you new people to follow based on whom you are following already.

Finally, don't let your fear that you have nothing interesting to say stop you from tweeting. People want transparency and authenticity. They want to connect with real people.  You probably have a lot more interesting things to say than you give yourself credit for.  If you are still stumped for what to tweet, here are some suggestions:

• Share links--some can be to your own stuff, but mostly link to others'
• Go to Twitthis.com and grab the bookmarklet to drag to your toolbar.  This allows you to share content that's on any site outside of Twitter and post it to Twitter without even having to login
• Ask and answer questions--this often triggers conversation and helps you engage with others
• Use Twitpic.com to upload a picture, Utterli.com to post an audio tweet, or 12seconds.tv to post a video clip--these types of tweets add variety
• Re-tweet others, thank someone for re-tweeting you, be supportive, tell a joke, share a fact, offer a tip, comment on someone's twitter picture or background, congratulate someone, live-tweet an event, invite others to an upcoming event of your own, share an inspiring quote, solicit for guest bloggers, suggest someone to follow on #followfriday, post a poll...you get the idea.

The list is endless!  At first glance, it may seem like this is a lot to do.  In reality, you could implement these strategies a couple times a day or even just a couple times a week.  It's the cumulative effect you're going for--which will pay off in the end!

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

Knowing who to follow on Twitter is important in your marketing efforts. You want to follow those who are of interest to you. You want to follow those who are of use to you and your business. Your hope is that they will in turn follow you back, if they aren’t already following you, thus opening up the lines of communication between your business and your audience.

There are several tools that can be used to make these efforts easier and more streamlined.

http://mrtweet.com/
Mr. Tweet - Show the influencers and followers you should follow and suggests you to enthusiastic users relevant to you.

http://justtweetit.com
Just Tweet It - A user directory for Twitter organized by genre to allow for users to easily find other Twitter users to connect with.

http://www.retweetrank.com
Retweet Rank - Retweetrank lets you find rank of any twitter user. With the rank, latest retweets of the user are shown and an RSS feed can also be grabbed for the same.

http://www.twellow.com/
Twellow - A directory of public Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people who matter to you.

http://twitterel.com/
TwitteRel - By using Twitterel.com you can make your life a lot more interesting, we thought of a way to connect to other twitter users who share the same interests as you do.

http://friendorfollow.com/
Friend or Follow - Who are you following that's not following you back? Who's following you that you're not following back?

http://twitoria.com/
Twitoria - Twitoria is a web app that tidies up your Twitter friends list by revealing inactive friends that haven't tweeted in a long time so you can unfollow them.

http://topify.com/
Topify - Twitter application that improves Twitter's email notification and allows to follow and reply to direct messages by email.

http://tweepler.com/
Tweepler - A Twitter application that allows you to organize followers.

http://twimailer.com/
Twimailer - Tired of shallow e-mails from Twitter when someone follows you? Want to know more about the people who are following you? Twimailer is a free service that delivers that information right to your inbox!

http://www.tweetertags.com/tags
TweeterTags - Get the most out of Twitter by finding the right people to share the conversation: Tweeter Tags makes it easy to declare your interests and find new, like-minded friends.

Have a question you need answering? Find relevant people on Twitter to ask.

If you've done any reading on the Twitter marketing, you probably realize that tweeting can be an effective, cost-free or low-cost solution for marketing your business. All too often, however, we may be left wondering what to tweet about our businesses. We are under the mistaken impression that we simply have nothing worthy of sharing.

A good tweet can not only inform your followers about new developments in your company, but it can also educate, inform, or entertain them. .Once you achieve visibility, both your company profile and your client prospect levels will rise. The word of mouth that can come from a particularly intelligent tweet or series of tweets can result in hundreds or thousands of dollars in free advertising.

If you provide tweets that appeals to your followers, you'll gain credibility and be on your way to forming a valuable relationship. This can be very powerful from a marketing point of view.

If you’re looking for things to tweet about in relation to your business, consider some of these ideas. This is a list of 19 reasons to tweet about your business and help you get started today in utilizing this amazing promotional strategy for your business:

• Starting a new business
• Celebrating a company anniversary
• Publishing of a new article or series of articles
• Publishing of a new blog post related to your business
• Publishing of a book or ebook
• Promote a book signing
• Receiving an award
• Announcement a partnership
• Promote a specific product, service, event, contest or fundraiser
• Promote a product or service that is holiday themed
• Promote a sale or holiday sale
• Promote a campaign using your company products that promotes a cause or creates awareness about something important
• Announce that you're available to speak on particular subjects of interest
• Promote a public appearance on television, radio or in person
• Launching of a website or blog
• Website or blog anniversary
• Announce free information or resources are available
• Sponsoring a workshop, seminar, conference or tele-seminar
• Announcement of a new strategic partnership or alliance

While there are many other reasons to tweet, these ideas should help you jumpstart your creativity.

The Internet is an amazing tool for many people but it is not necessarily easy to decipher. A virtual assistant with the skills to dig out relevant information from the rest of the jumble can specialize in research. Internet researchers are in great demand for all sorts of clients.

In school they teach students to pick out the theme of a paragraph or story. After reading it is the job of the student to figure out what is the most important part of what they have read. As a researcher, that is what you will do for others who do not have the time or the skill to find it themselves. Compiling information that is useful to others is a part of your business.

The Market

The Internet provides access to a massive amount of information. Experts in different fields post their knowledge in articles and blog posts. Governments, agencies and professional organizations have digitized their databases and directories for use on the Internet by anyone who desires the information.

With so much information it is easy to see how the average person or business owner may get lost in the sauce, so to speak. Who uses that information? Businesses use the Internet to compile statistics and to learn about their competition. Writers, book authors, journalists and television professionals use information from the Internet for their work. With their busy jobs, they don’t have time to research.

Conducting research can be a lengthy process. On the Internet, it begins with knowing how search engines work and the best way to find exactly what you are looking for from them. Most people use Yahoo!, Google or MSN but there are plenty of other search engines that the average person doesn’t know about. An Internet researcher is familiar with all of them and uses the one that will yield the greatest harvest of useful information.

Virtual assistants who want to niche into Internet research provide some of these services to their clients:

• Compiling current statistical data
• Knowledge of all relevant databases and search engines
• Uses proven methods for information gathering (relevant use of keywords)
• Spreadsheet and Word document expertise for presenting information in useful manner
• General and specific knowledge of client subject matter

Writers may ask for research on specific subjects like snake venom or 18th century London for their next novel. A business client may want statistics on auto maker revenue in the last ten years. Each is a different subject, but methods of researching are similar.

As a virtual assistant Internet researcher you may find that you have a niche subject in mind for your business. Maybe statistical information gathering and analysis are your forte. You can build a client base around just that for small and large corporate-type businesses. It is not easy to perform research and your clients will want the best.

As a virtual assistant, you know how important it is to have an online presence. Making yourself visible in as many places as possible is important for anyone in business. If you have the skills, you can be an Internet marketer and help others.

If you have never been on the Internet you are living in the Stone Age. The cyber world is filled with businesses with virtual storefronts, advertising and people talking on forums and in real-time. Those businesses want to know what those people are talking about so they can tailor their advertising to bring in sales. That is where you come in as an Internet marketer.

The Market

Every online business needs a marketing plan. The plan is designed to get the products or services in front of the millions of people surfing the Web each day. Unless people know about the product and its advantages, they will buy from someone else. Implementing a marketing plan takes time and effort that many business owners just don’t have with all of the other jobs on their plate.

There are no easy shortcuts to Internet marketing success. Most business owners use the trial and error method to see what works. With the help of an expert Internet marketer, that process gets a whole lot easier. As a virtual assistant Internet marketer, you can make the difference between creating a powerful new brand and obscurity.

Virtual assistants who can function as Internet marketing experts are in high demand. You take the pressure off of companies both small and large that want to concentrate on their product or service. It is your job to draw the traffic to the site to see the products.

Some of the tasks you can perform as an Internet Marketing VA include, but are not limited to:

• Article marketing
• Pay per click advertising (PPC)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Email campaigns
• Direct mailing campaign
• Keyword research
• Social networking
• Link building

Your clients may have an idea of where they want to start with their marketing plan or they may not. It takes a combination of marketing tools to increase the visibility of a business online and off. For the business owner who doesn’t have time to explore and learn each one, the virtual assistant Internet marketer (that’s you) already possesses these expertise and can hit the ground running with a plan to get the business going online.

Each of these areas is a part of Internet marketing but you don’t have to offer each service. You may be interested in email campaigns or search engine optimization. You can further niche into these areas to build foolproof campaigns no business can ignore.

Build your business by bringing business to others as a virtual assistant Internet marketer. As the industry grows, you will profit from being on the forefront of technology and an expert in your field.

Keeping the books organized is a major battle for most small businesses. Sure, the business receives money from clients and pays for equipment but as far as the bookkeeping goes, it may be a drawer in the office with tons of paper receipts. The virtual assistant bookkeeper sorts through these papers to sort out the books.

Someone has to do record keeping. In a small online business, that person is the owner. If they don’t have time during the day, then after they have dealt with other issues, it is time to record some numbers. That makes for a long day – every day.

The Market

More than one business has ended up bankrupt because of bad bookkeeping. One day, the owner looks up and sees that they have sucked their resources dry. Not keeping accurate records can lead to problems with the IRS and no one wants that.

When a business owner doesn’t possess a certain expertise, they hire someone to do it for them. For small businesses, hiring a bookkeeper is not just interviewing and choosing one from many. An employer has to pay for health insurance and other particulars for each employee and that means money they don’t have.

Another solution is a virtual assistant like you. With a virtual assistant, businesses don’t pay for space, insurance or sick time. They pay for services rendered and that is it. In today’s economy, that is a smart business move.

You might say that a virtual assistant bookkeeper is a hot commodity. You provide a needed service for small and large businesses. Keeping on top of business accounts is easy for someone with the knowledge.

Some of the services you might offer are:

• Payroll
• Reconciling accounts
• Daily record keeping
• Entering transactions in the proper ledgers
• Month-end statements
• Software bookkeeping management

Think of all of the time and energy you will save each business owner? Clients can depend on you to record receipts and let them know how much cash they have on hand. Bookkeepers invoice account holders for work to be done and finished jobs.

There are a number of ways to conduct your business. Local clients can mail their receipts to you for your expert help. All of the information can be organized using bookkeeping software and sent as an attachment to your clients. For online clients, you can reconcile the software that they use with their account records.

A virtual assistant bookkeeper can feel good about the job that they do for businesses. Staying ahead in financial matters is at the crux of business success. Your management of the books gives them one less thing to worry about.

Audio and video media are becoming commonplace in online business. It is easier to record this way for later use. Businesses will need the services of a virtual assistant to turn the recorded media into print.

Medical professionals have used Dictaphone and dictating services for a long time. Doctors later have their notes transcribed for patient and hospital records. The same goes for legal proceedings. It is more convenient to use a recording device and later create a written copy.

The Market

Online businesses have found ways to market their products with audio and video. Tutorials, how-tos and interviews are uploaded to websites for viewing and hearing. But, we all know that sometimes you can’t always understand what is being said. That requires the need for a transcribed record of the recording.

Just like movies, audio and video can be translated into other languages to increase your marketing efforts. Many business owners would like to do that but they don’t know how to transcribe or translate. They need the help of a professional like a virtual assistant well versed in transcription and translation.

Transcribing recordings is not as easy as you might think. As a virtual assistant transcriptionist your clients will not have to struggle with this issue. Using your transcription software you will be able to handle all sorts of recordings for them using the format that they choose for the written copy.

Some of your services can include:

• Medical Transcription
• Legal Transcription
• Video Transcription
• Podcast Transcription
• Transcription Translation
• Audio transcription for business meetings

Clients can email their work to you as audio or video files according to what file extensions you accept. They may even want to mail CDs or tapes for non-rush jobs. Depending on their needs, you can provide verbatim transcription or cleaned-up transcription that is grammatically correct.

For the virtual assistant transcriptionist who is also fluent in another language, you can offer translation services to your clients. This gives them the opportunity to expand their customer base with products for non-English speaking customers. Each area of transcription can become a sub-niche if you want to specialize further. Medical or legal transcription alone can turn into a lucrative business.

Transcription services are one area that a virtual assistant can specialize in as a business idea. As more and more online businesses use other media as marketing tools, they will need the skill of a transcriptionist and even a translator for their work.

Businesses are all about the client and the product. There are files for clients and files for products. With so much paperwork, it is hard to keep everything organized. Businesses, especially smaller ones, need a virtual assistant database manager.

It would be nice for business owners if they could just talk about and sell their products or services all day long. Unfortunately there is more to it than that. Nowadays, businesses live and die on statistical analysis and other reports. In order to generate these reports you need the data to back them up.

Poorly organized data can weaken a company. For instance, how would a business ever know how their products are doing in certain areas of the country? What about customer feedback?

The Market

A business captures data in order to grow. They would never discover their strong areas, weak areas or whether marketing campaigns were a success. Information is king in the business world.

To that end, it is important to manage data in an organized fashion. Customer names and information need to be logged, reports need to be generated about product demographic, customer surveys and profits to name just a few important areas.

Database management is another area that small business owners especially don’t have time to look after. It takes time to organize this information and that takes away from the business of promoting and creating new products. It is a catch-22 that a virtual assistant can help with.

Do you have expertise in the area of setting up databases in different formats? You can assist online and offline businesses. Each business keeps records of customer names, demographic data, product inventory, monthly revenue and other vital information.

Virtual assistants, who specialize in database setup and management, provide such services as:

• Database design and maintenance
• Data entry of customer names and information
• Create data spreadsheets from compiled records
• Process new data
• Create reports for clients
• Create graphs and other visuals
• Tech support for clients using new databases

Databases allow your client’s employees to retrieve information that they need to do their jobs. With a little training by you, everyone can learn to access the databases that you create. The business of information gathering is streamlined for greater efficiency.

The basic infrastructure of the company’s records is in your hands. A small business can go from a desk full of loose papers with information to a well-organized database that can be updated in a few keystrokes thanks to you. Any information that the client needs right away, you can access with ease.

Businesses thrive on information and as a virtual assistant database manager; you are a major part of that winning equation. If you like working with data and are good at organization, this might be the niche for you.