Using Twitter to Generate New Business 5 Twitter Rules Firms Should Never Break Dos and Don'ts for Using Twitter to Grow Business Twitter for Professional Services: How to Market Your Firm and Attract Clients

Editor's Note: The following article is adapted from David Meerman Scott's book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (Second Edition, Wiley, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0470547816).

Everyone is a-twitter about Twitter and its usage in creating both thoughtful and buyer-engaging content. I've had many conversations with organizations new to social networking sites such as Twitter, and often they are puzzled about the best way to use this new online communication as a marketing channel.

While I'll be writing about Twitter for this article, the basic tenets apply to all social networking sites. Always consider how your online actions are a reflection of your personal branding. As you no doubt know, people use Twitter to keep others updated on what they find interesting at the moment. Frequently when I'm asked about Twitter and its use in personal branding and marketing, people immediately dive into stuff like, "how often should I tweet," "what should I tweet about," "is it cool to DM (direct message) people," and other tweet-related details. While those questions are important, the vast majority of the people miss the most basic personal branding aspect of all:

What does your Twitter page look like?

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