You love it…you hateit….but you just can’t ignore it anymore….twitter is here to stay……..It isabsolutely the most happening thing in the social networking world…

Its phenomenal successis still going strong….

Even without acommercial model and not making any money, Twitter is the latest buzzword amongthe marketers.

Even in recessionhit times, Twitter is defying expectations with a 1,382 per cent growth in usernumbers in February, along with $35 million (£23m) in new venture capital thisyear.

With the hype of140 characters limit and an infatuated media, the micro blog has more than 17million users already.

From the point ofimportance for an online marketer, twitter opens up a new avenue for “easy,timely and open communications”. It is important to market yourself as competitivenessin the Internet marketing world increases by every second. It is very importantto be found and stand out.

Some brands havealready started using twitter for marketing purposes.

In an interviewwith Hashem Bajwa, a columnist in revolution magazine, Biz Stone, one of the cofounders of Twitter, says, “Comcast, JetBlue and WholeFoods use Twittereffectively by approaching the process as a hybrid between customer service andmarketing. The successful brands understand that every interaction with acustomer is an opportunity - even if they are initially unhappy.” He adds,“Engaging with followers using replies and being mindful or sparing when itcomes to self-promotion seems to be the way to go.”

Twitter can add realvalue to branding through online marketing. Mr. Stone says, “Twitter can bringan authentic voice to a brand in a timely manner. The trend toward openness incommunications extends to other areas. Twitter lowers the barrier of entry forbrands and companies and provides an intimate, immediate connection.”

Biz Stone furtheradded during the interview that they want to build on the quality of the brandbefore venturing into the profitable aspect of the enterprise. “We don't want to find success early onlyto fall apart later because we haven't grown up right,” explains Stone.

Even though thecommercial plan of twitter is vague and is yet to win the votes of the Internetmarketing gurus, but still there seems to be ample opportunity of subtlemarketing of your brands…..Just be to the point and get branded…

Time and tide waitsfor none. In the fast growing world of social networking, time is becoming themost important factor. Every late action from late response to your tweets ornot following the trends of the ever changing Internet marketing strategies tonot understanding the value of time while marketing on social network siteswould make you loose your efforts completely.

You need to be always onalert while working through SMM while not going crazy about doing it all thetime. Don’t get addicted…

You need to understandyour audience and their functions based on their GMT time. You have to timeyourself and work accordingly. You have to make sure they get your tweets whenit is relevant to them. Your networking should not be repetitive and should bein accordance to the moods of your targeted audience. By following the trendsas to when you get replies from your targeted visitors, you can get an ideawhen to be active on your space.

Never sit on an idea.Make them varied and don’t be too elaborate and always handle marketingsubtly…to avoid being black listed.

Always propose ideasin accordance to the present trends. Like if you are talking about FAO, learnabout what is new with financial services outsourcing, where will your targetedvisitors likely to be found and how can you enter their network. A timely entryon a targeted strategic networking circle can yield much result than spendinghours on planning elaborate marketing strategies.

The world of Internetmarketing has changed. Its no longer only getting your site optimized and waitfor strategic visitors to find you and ask for you. Now the trend is to findthe strategic visitors and make sure they ask for only you….Time is running…letsrun with it...if not ahead of it.

The Web 2.0revolutionizes in introducing people to social networking sites, blogs, wikisand video sharing sites. These new tools and technologies are now used for adeveloping concept of marketing called inbound marketing.

Inbound marketingstrategies focuses on the usage of Web 2.0 tools and techniques for marketingtheir products and services while socially interacting with their customers ortargeted audience. This marketing strategy use “SEO(search engine optimization) marketing, blogging, social networking sites andviral campaigns”. The popular inbound marketing techniques include “referralsand brand searches, free tools and trials, organic search engine optimization,blogging, email newsletters, webinars, pay-per-click advertising, sponsorships”.This strategy is “quick, efficient and result oriented”.

Lisa Almeida in her article, UnderstandingOutbound vs. Inbound Marketing, describes the advantages of aninbound marketing strategy.

“Not onlyis inbound marketing more polite, it produces better results because:

• The relationship factor leads to higher … client conversion
• The loyalty factor leads to more repeat sales
• The methods for implementing it are far less expensive than traditional outbound methods
• It’s highly track-able so you can easily adjust to improved results
• There are a lot of easy to use, ready-made tools for the technically challenged.”

As further discussed in an article inecrowds.com: 

“With reference to “Adam Needles’ blog"The InboundMarketing/Marketing Content Management Crowd – A Fourth Camp?,"the previously disparate worlds of managing web content, creating marketingmaterials, SEO optimization, and Web 2.0 communities are converging into whathe's dubbed the "fourth camp," an interactive, user inquiry-drivenmarketing realm where prospects come to YOU. This "fourth camp" ismarked by companies focused on offering solutions that are two-fold: creatingand managing dynamic site content, and optimizing that content to increase thelikelihood of interested and relevant prospects finding it.”

Gone are the days when just followingprotocol was all that was needed for a job to be done… It is now a world whereyou have to make opportunities come your way to take a lead and win the race…Itis now a world of “connecting to people”….