We've all heard of Twitter, and lots of us are using it. What most of us are still missing, though, is Twitter's possibilities as an instrument for marketing websites for accountants and our larger businesses. Twitter is a different way to connect with each other. It can help us stay in touch with clients, friends, and prospects in an entirely new way. Here are a few tips on how you can do that successfully.

Use Your Tweets to Get Backlinks:

Don't make every post a link, but if your message is too long to squeeze into 140 characters, and many of them are, post the information on your website blog and use your tweet to link back to it. This will give you a search engine optimization (or "SEO") benefit. Search engines love this kind of "realtime" feedback on page relevance and over time these links will improve your website's ranking.

Post Manually:

There are lot's of shortcuts for posting on Twitter. For example one popular app, TwitterFeed, lets you post blog entries and links directly to Twitter. Sounds great, but do not do it! Your business's primary Twitter feed is to be hand-typed. If you auto post your feed will lose the personal touch that is one of the keys to Twitter's charm. It will take on the character of a faceless promotion and your followers will trickle away over time. Really try to engage people.

Know the Buzz:

Twitter is a great way to find out what people are talking about. Every time you log into twitter you'll get a quick update on what topics are trending. You can also hop onto a topic and find out what people are saying.

Respond to Mentions:

Reply to your tweets that mention you, when relevant. Don't be surprised if people talk about your practice as if it's a person. Actually, this is a pretty good sign that you're doing something right. This indicates that you've injected personality into your account and given people the feeling of engagement directly with your brand.

Let Everyone Throw In: Having a large staff can be a big advantage. You have a set pool of followers and they can really help you jump start tweets by "retweeting" them for you. A lot of companies have the whole social networking thing bass ackwards and many even block sites like Facebook and twitter at the router. Instead, try encouraging your staff and/or departments to set up individual accounts. This will not only get more interaction, but better SEO.

Promote:

Another way to engage people is to offer prizes or even just shout-outs to your followers. I'm a little dubious about making these prizes too promotional. Offer up some fun stuff like dinner or gift certificates. This will allow you to promote not only your own firm, but your clients, too. Use this strategy carefully. It's been known to backlash.

Plan it out: Don't try to wing it:

Twitter is a big place, and it's a lot of fun. If you don't go in with a plan it can be a terrible time sink. Spend your time wisely by setting aside a special time in the day just for Tweeting.

Keep Your Clients in Mind:

This is a key principle. Do not just talk about your firm, products, and services. Get involved with trending discussions. Above all else the Twitter experience should be fun. Most people are fed up with the amount advertising they have to muddle through every day. The whole idea behind using Twitter to promote websites for accountants is to make it look and feel less like advertising. Most customers want a company to have personality, to be understanding. A lot of customers want to hear what is best for them, what can you offer them as a company, how can you help them? Tell them about things like local specials and discounts. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be talking about takes and accounting. You certainly should, but do it with some panache. Make it fun and informative. Link to interesting or funny stories about accounting. This gives customers reasons to like and trust you. They will see that you are not only thinking about the company, but about them, as well.

As Twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research, send information to customers, and much more. Unlike traditional marketing and sales outlets social media offers a large audience for free. It's becoming important for accountants to learn the guidelines for Twitter and how it should be used. Like any tool there's a right way to use it. It can easily become a waste of time and money if you are not using it correctly.

Twitter remains a small player to marketing and there remain many prospects who don't take advantage of social media. Don't anticipate a miracle but these exciting new markets are developing rapidly. The sooner you get started the better off you'll be in the long run.