When a relationship management or “rainmaking” conversation turns to Twitter, I can always expect to hear at least 2 of the following 3 questions from folks who have just begun to seriously consider the possibilities Twitter presents for business development and building Rainmaking Relationships™.

• How do I increase my followers on Twitter?
• How do I generate business leads?
• How do I close more deals?

Below are a few of my favorite Twitter Tips for attracting followers, generating business leads and building relationships that leads to closed deals …

1. Use your real name, company name or other name for which you want to be identified as your “Twitter handle.”  Stay far away from letter/number combinations.   Twitter presents a great opportunity to develop brand awareness … do not waste it.
2. Use sites like www.exectweet.com and lextweets.com to identity key decision makers who use Twitter.  Pay attention (a.k.a.., listen) to the Twitter streams of thought-leaders and power brokers in your industry.
3. Complete your Twitter profile bio.  Include your areas of expertise plus a hobby, fun fact or favorite sports team.  You want to show that you are a credible person with “personality” and also inspiring interest and conversation.
4. Create a custom Twitter background that highlights your expertise, uses a dominate color and has vivid imagery (e.g., high quality photo or logo).
5. Use the URL link in your profile to direct your “Tweeple” to a custom Twitter page on your website just for your followers or link to your fully optimized LinkedIn profile.  If you don't have a fully optimized LinkedIn profile, make creating one a priority … regardless of your industry.  I have yet to find an industry for which LinkedIn is not useful.
6. Create several “top 10” lists of tips related to your industry and area of expertise – each tip 100 characters or less (allows 4 easy retweeting).  Schedule the delivery of your Tweets using www.Hootsuite.com.  Use a hashtag (i.e., pound sign + a keyword) to connect each “top 10” list for easy searching  via www.search.twitter.com or the Tweetdeck.com software.
7. After running one series of your “top 10” tips, start to follow the thought-leaders and decision makers you identified in #2.  Observe their twitter stream and look for opportunities to add value to the “conversation” in real- time. You can add value by tweeting tips, resources or ideas.
8. Use both industry jargon and plain English in your tweets.  You want to show that you have a deep knowledge of your industry and can also community effectively with folks who are not industry insiders.
9. Engage the tweeple you are following in conversation by using the @ symbol and their twitter handle.
10. Always stay away from profanity, gender based jokes or race-based jokes.
11. Take the conversation off-line.  Once you have engaged in conversation on Twitter, schedule a time to talk off-line by phone, Skype, in-person, etc.   Being intentional about having 1:1 conversations with your friends, fans and followers is how you turn social media connections into legitimate business contacts.  This is how you start to build meaningful relationships … rainmaking relationships …
12. BONUS   …  review #11 again and again and again … this is the real key to success on Twitter.

Your Twitter page and Twitter stream are powerful branding tools and resources for generating leads and building relationships.  Don't waste them.

I'd love to hear your top tips for generating business and building Rainmaking Relationships™ with Twitter.  Feel free to join the conversation in the comment section of this post.

To Taking UpwardAction®!

Coach TC
UpwardAction® CEO