Twitter is an excellent tool for anyone seeking to promote a product or service online.
But many people who are new to the site do little more than follow other users in the hope that they follow back, then post links to whatever it is they're trying to promote.
If you do this you won't get much out of Twitter, and you may even get your account suspended.
It's much better if you interact and communicate with other users as much as possible.
This is a lot more fun and it will raise your profile considerably, thereby increasing your following naturally.
Also, these followers will tend to be more interested in what you are promoting.
The two main ways to interact with other "tweeps" are by replying to and retweeting their tweets.
They will definitely notice you if you do this since tweeps are forever looking at their interactions.
They may well follow you as a result, particularly if you have already followed them.
The more active you are on the site, the higher you and your tweets will rank in Twitter searches for the keywords you focus on.
Consequently you will get found by more and more people looking to follow others.
Interacting with other Twitter users can be a little awkward at first.
You have to find tweets that you really want to respond to, and get used to the fact that you've got only those 140 characters in which to reply.
One way is to search Twitter for a keyword you are interested in.
Lots of tweeps will be posting links to articles about it.
Find one you like, then simply thank the user who shared it, including your thoughts in the reply.
Every now and then you'll get a response.
Sometimes it's just a thank-you back, but it might be another comment or a question you can respond to further.
The more such interchanges happen, the better.
Not only are you making connections, you're also increasing your presence on the site and leaving more tweets to be found by others.
Sometimes you can find yourself on a roll with these interactions.
But you can hit a wall pretty easily too -- particularly if you do a keyword search and the results are all very similar.
You might be a blogger, for example.
If you search for "blogging" you tend to see countless tweets about how to improve your blog, get more traffic, attract more comments and so on.
There's only so much you can say in response to these.
That's why it's important to get really specific.
Instead of just typing in that word on its own, try adding some other keywords such as "news" or "latest.
" You might find that there's been some big new development that you hadn't heard of.
With tweets containing new and specific information, you'll be more likely to want to reply to them.
You should also remember that Twitter is immediate.
So if many members are searching for a particular subject, issue, or news story at the same time and you tweet about it, you're likely to get a much bigger response.
This is why you should keep an eye on trending topics.
If one or more of them appeals to you, tweet about it.
Being aware of what's happening on TV is recommended, too.
Some shows have huge Twitter followings, often with their own hash tags.
Thousands of people watch with their iPhones, iPads and laptops at the ready, tweeting like crazy about every little aspect of them.
Write something memorable about one of these shows at the right time and you can find yourself with a torrent of reactions.