This post was originally posted on April 18, 2008.

I really started Tweeting about two weeks ago, even though my account has been active for awhile. My early thoughts about it were probably not too dissimilar from yours. It felt like a very juvenile, time-wasting activity. So, I quickly dismissed it and moved on. Then, I decided to attend a Social Media Club meeting in Phoenix where everyone seemed to be on Twitter and loving it! It took some time for that to settle in on my mind, but it made me give it another try. This time I was less critical of the seemingly mindless Twittering and began to see it filling a void to express our humanity.

My company, Aidan Taylor, is a virtual company. We call ourselves "Location Independent Professionals". It's another way of saying, we can work from anywhere, but we primarily work from our homes. There is a blog dedicated to this way of life in the extreme (really working from anywhere). We gave up our physical office last October. We had found that we were beginning to do more from home and less from the office anyway. The reason I am telling you this is that as we saw less of each other physically we needed to supplement the lack of "Water Cooler" opportunities. We began keeping SKYPE connected all day. Mostly, we would just hear others breathing. Occasionally, someone tells a joke or asks a business related question, but mostly breathing! As more people work independently, the need to show we're human and see the humanity in others is going to increase. Twitter provides an outlet.

So great - but is there any economic benefit to Twitter. Quick answer: Absolutely! Here's the recipe I've been using:

1. If you know your target market, you need to find representatives from it on Twitter and begin "Following" them. I've been using a combination of TweetScan.com and profile surfing to identify those I need to "Follow". With TweetScan.com, I set up keyword searches and create RSS feeds so that I can use my Google Reader to see who's talking about concepts where I can be relevant. Everyday I check my reader to see the daily catch. Then, I begin following each of these people. Here are some other ways to find your target market on Twitter:

• Search for the authors of magazines/blogs, that your target market frequent, on Twitter - it won't hurt to have them follow you - you might become a source for a future article/post. If you find them, FOLLOW!
• Check for event parties on Flickr - many times the pictures are annotated with the names of those in attendance. Search for them on Twitter - then FOLLOW!
• When reading blogs/articles that interview members of your target market - search for them on Twitter, then FOLLOW!

2. Most people, not the Scobleizers of the world (he follows 21,129 and is followed by 19,926 people), follow several and are followed by a few. So when a new person shows interest in following them, they often reciprocate. If you're following me here (pardon the pun), your target market is now listening to what you have to say. Time for a rule:

Social Media follows the same protocol as Human Courtship or Dating. While you may have a very specific agenda, your progression toward your goal needs to be subtle and patient. Disobey this rule at your own peril!

3. One of the things you'll notice quickly is that this is an active community. These people are getting out and doing things, like attending conventions. A convention is a Twitter catalyst - they become junior reporters. So, by engaging those in attendance and asking smart questions about the content - you might build a little micro-buzz about your company (without the expense of being there). This week had the ad:tech conference in San Francisco. I asked a few of the people I follow who were attending if they had seen anything about "Semantic Marketing". They responded with "no" and indicated that they would keep an eye out for me. Later, I asked them if ad:tech would be a good fit for our Semanticator product. Now, I really wanted to know their opinion and at the same time I knew a by-product of our exchange is that they would have to educate themselves on Semanticator! The surprising thing is that other people that were attending ad:tech, outside of those who follow me, began visiting our website and requested additional information (an example Semantic Persona brief).

This is the current state of my experiment on Twitter. After a couple of weeks, it represents the number two source of referrals to http://www.semanticator.com, behind our most successful "Comment Marketing" campaign. So, if you want to grow your business, you might give Twitter a chance, or even a second chance!