Twitter is an incredibly useful and influential social media tool that is used worldwide and knowing how to use it effectively can have a huge effect on how well you keep in touch with your customer-base. There are simple steps and helpful tools that can help you get the most out of Twitter.

Follow people. Don’t wait for people to follow you. If you are already advertising your Twitter page then you will steadily start racking up the followers, but do a search for people who frequently tweet about things related to your business and follow them.

Keep tweets relevant. Assuming your Twitter stream is intended for customers, valuable contacts and those with overlapping interests, make sure each tweet is something that will appeal to your followers and potential followers. Important updates, interesting news, exclusive deals and responses to mentions will help keep your followers engaged.

Tweet regularly. Don’t overwhelm people by constantly updating throughout the day, but make sure to update at least a few times a day and—if there is something particularly interesting going on in your field—update more frequently! Your followers are there for a reason and they will be interested in knowing your take on relevant situations.

Use hashtags. This is like putting a big giant flag on your keywords and saying “index me!” People who search for this term will be able to find your tweets, making you more likely to gain more followers.

Use tools. As the number of followers you interact with continues to grow, managing everything through the Twitter website alone becomes unrealistic. Tools like Tweetdeck can help you manage every aspect of your Twitter account and there are several other tools available for managing specific aspects of your account if that’s what you need.

Despite being simple and helpful, Twitter can quickly become chaotic and overwhelming. Know the basics when you go in and take the time to discover what tool set works best for you. Using Twitter properly can help save time while boosting business.

Do you manage your Twitter account effectively? Do you even have a Twitter account for your business?