If you're a small business owner, you're probably like most of my SEO clients and are scratching your head saying, "What is this Twitter business all about?  Why is Twitter important for me?" On top of that, you may just flat our refuse to believe that Twitter and other types of social media marketing could actually benefit your business.  In most cases, using Twitter to market your business will work miracles - if done correctly.

Here are 5 of the most important ideas to keep in mind with working with Twitter.

1. Get TweetDeck!

This is probably the most important step in marketing with Twitter.  Download TweetDeck, which is a free program that lets you see and interact with other users' Tweets and activity.  This is the most important step in starting your Twitter marketing - listening.

A couple weeks ago, I attended SES West in San Diego and had the opportunity to have lunch with the Product Manager for Microsoft AdCenter - the head honcho of Bing's PPC program.  Sitting between myself and Saleel was a very obnoxious SEO who worked at some sort of online car dealership website. I was stoked that I could sit down with Saleel and learn a lot from him - I was excited to learn about Microsoft and AdCenter in a way I've never had the chance before.  I wanted to listen to what Saleel had to say and learn from him and his experience.

But Sal wouldn't shut his mouth for 2 seconds.

He spent the entire time talking about himself, his company, his SEO work, blah, blah, blah.  I was about 5 seconds away from saying, "Shut up, Sal, we have a great opportunity to learn from a very experienced guy here.  Shut your mouth and listen!"  I held my tongue though, and fortunately did get some great information from Saleel, including some insight into Bing's new Intellectual Property Rights policy.

One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make on Twitter is having a failure to listen.

2. Use Tweetdeck to always have an ear out for potential customers - listen to them.

I've seen some wildly successful businesses use some great Twitter marketing techniques - from Zappos to Amazon.com, and one of my favorites - GovLiquidation.  They have a great Twitter campaign.  (And I just love that site and all the neat stuff you can buy cheap!)  Every successful Twitter campaign has one thing in common - its starts with listening first.

Twitter is a huge conversation of hundreds of thousands of people at one time.  There are business owners, consumers, men, women, teens - any demographic you could think of. More importantly, your demographic and target market is using Twitter right now.

To monitor the conversation, use your TweetDeck desktop application to add a new column using the "+" (plus) sign at the top.  From there, enter some terms you think your target market would be talking about on Twitter.  For instance, one of my clients sells grand opening kits, which can be grand opening balloons and other types of inflatable outdoor advertising products.  To listen to his target market, he could add a column in TweetDeck and listen in for people who use the phrase, "my grand opening" our "our grand opening."  Then they might see some Tweets like the image below.

From there, GiantPromotions could start following some of these people and track their success.  Listening to your customers is the first step to marketing your business with Twitter.

3. Chime in the conversation when it's appropriate.  Don't butt in.

Continuing to use GiantPromotions as an example, they have an excellent opportunity to chime in the conversation with some of these Twitter users.  Remember - they're starting to follow some of their core target customers (businesses that are going to have a grand opening soon) and can really provide some value.

Here's what GiantPromotions should try to stay away from - see the image below.

No person on Twitter is ever going to see these links or click them because no person on Twitter has a reason to click this links.  They're not providing value, and they're not connecting with customers.  Instead of just tossing out links on Twitter, like businesses have been doing lately, let's take a more relational approach.  Instead, let's talk with our customers.  Connect with our customers.  Build relationships with our customers and show them you care - and add value.  People are relational, and they want you to care about them.

In this case, a great Tweet response for GiantPromotions would be, "@Cloudnineathens good luck with your Grand Opening! We  wrote an article that might help you http://bit.ly/fVeb81 Can we help?"

See what we're doing?

• We're participating in the conversation
• We're adding value by suggesting an article that might help, not just spamming
• We're sending them directly to the link they might be interested in

I'd also suggest following @Cloudnineathens to see how their Grand Opening goes, and maybe even making a note to reach out to them on March 5th or 6th to see how it goes.  If possible, also send them a little card in the mail and congratulate them on their grand opening, and ask them to follow you on Twitter.  Now that's interacting with your clients.

4. Don't always post a link in your Tweets.

Again, Twitter is all about a conversation.  It's a fluid, live, conversation between tons and tons of people.  Act on Twitter as you would in real life - there are times when its appropriate to play show and tell with someone you're talking to, and there are times when its not appropriate.  Sometimes, its also relevant to show a link to a website that doesn't even belong to you - just to participate in the conversation and strengthen the relationship between you and your users..

5. Re-Tweet often.

By re-Tweeting some Tweets on occasion, you show more and more relevance with your users.  Remember - your marketing isn't about you and your business, its all about your customers, and the community in general.  Building a community is all about building relationships - which eventually leads to Twitter followers, and ultimately, more business and customer awareness.