How to Use Twitter for online Business and Marketing?

Good question. The most phenomenal use of Twitter I've seen is with existing customers. A local coffee shop and cupcake shop both send out "passwords" or "coupon codes" via tweets at some point during the day. They have a few hundred followers each who followed after seeing a sign about special offers via Twitter by the register. These folks jump at a well-timed tweet. The coffee shop, in particular, can bring in dozens and dozens of additional customers by sending out a tweet at the right time.

The next use is the "niche leader" on Twitter. The business creates an account and follows other people in a stream of related commerce. It's vital to interact with accounts and get to know people by demonstrating shared knowledge and viewpoint. Let me just clarify "stream of related commerce." I don't want businesses to exclusively follow other business who are direct competitors. It probably doesn't hurt to connect with your competition. Sometimes, they might send you a referral they think is beneath them or send you some work when they are overworked, but most of the time, they aren't likely to pay you money for doing what they do. The stream of related commerce comment -- a joke phrase I coined for sharing between lawyers-turned-internet-marketers -- means people who work to accomplish the same ultimate goals as you do. Let's say you are a freelance creative writer. You don't exclusively interact with other freelance writers, but you might interact with magazine publishers, writing fans, industry analysts, video game developers, etc. You should tweet about writing as it might be useful to other people and interact with specific people about writing within the context of their work. Basically, use Twitter to become known to a couple dozen or a couple of hundred people who matter in a circle you'd like to be part of by interacting with them briefly every now and then. While other models of success on Twitter might require kissing ass, selling, closing deals on Twitter, posting affiliate links, etc., this one does not. This is about the business being a player on Twitter and, eventually, that status might just translate to deals and such status "offline."