You know you need to be active in social media networking to get more exposure for your business, so you’re all signed up with a brand spanking new Twitter account.

But now what?

With over a billion tweets sent every month, Twitter can be a rich source of information and networking, and the best place to start is by listening to what others are saying about the products, services, and issues in your field. You can do that by finding the leading voices in your niche to follow, and then watching the conversations they have with each other.

A simple way to grow your network is with one of Twitter’s built in tools: Twitter Search.

For example, if I was a local business, I would start with the nearby area. A framing store in Santa Fe, NM, would begin searching for Tweets about Santa Fe, then add in searches for Tweets mentioning both Santa Fe and art, and continue to drill down on keywords that are related to photography, art, or galleries, in the surrounding area. They would also use the advanced search engine to input location or further filter the results.

Businesses should also search using those same keyword terms without the location, as they’ll be farther ahead the larger their network is, even if they aren’t local customers. For a web-based business, you can skip the location searches and go straight to keywords that relate to your business, including as many longer tail keywords as you like.

Search, Subscribe, and Save:

When you find some searches that really hit home for your business, either subscribe to the RSS feed for those searches (top right hand side of search page), or if you search from your home page, save the search there. That way, you can easily tap into the results on a regular basis without setting up the original search again.

Follow or Filter:

Once you’re viewing the search results, click through to the listed users’ profiles and follow them if they are an interesting or influential voice (my rule of thumb). Higher numbers of followers doesn’t necessarily translate into an engaged network, so don’t get sucked into thinking that the best Twitter strategy is to follow massive amounts of people and to amass the most amount of followers. A smaller group of followers who are actually listening to you and responding to you is much more useful to you than those of most ‘mega-follower’ accounts.

Add Value:

If you have anything to add to their conversations, send them an @ reply with your view on the subject at hand. They’ll see it in their stream, and notice you, perhaps following you back as well. One especially important task in social media engagement is responding to questions or helping to solve an issue for them – the more you do that, the sooner you’ll begin to be seen as a resource for your industry.

When in Rome:

It certainly doesn’t hurt to just lurk and listen at first, especially if you don’t understand how others are using Twitter, but my advice is to simply start tweeting, regardless how many followers you have.

The temptation (and a big no-no for new users) is to just start broadcasting only links and information about your company, but that doesn’t help you to grow your network or to build relationships. A smarter strategy is to start sharing other people’s links and tweets, adding in some links to yours here and there, with the ratio staying heavily on helping other people out.

Rinse and Repeat:

If you’ve followed along so far, you should now be following a good-sized group of people that share information about the topics you’re interested in, and you will have the searches saved on the homepage or subscribed to with your RSS reader.  This is your base – something to build on a little each day.

You’ll scan the searches for potential conversations you can add value to, for new and interesting people to follow, and for ways to help others with their messaging. Use a Twitter scheduling application or a multiple Twitter user application to schedule these tweets throughout the day or to collaborate so that someone is always monitoring your niche. If you devote even a half an hour each day to these tactics, your network will grow larger every day, and it will be a focused network, not a general one.

Tip: If you find yourself closely following a smaller subset of people, start to filter those conversations by either putting them into a Twitter list, or using the ‘group’ feature found on many Twitter applications. You’ll be able to focus in easier on the people you need to pay attention to, and you won’t waste countless hours wading through the Tweet-stream looking for it.

[Derek Markham is a writer, a father, a WordPress addict, and social media butterfly who loves to share what's new and interesting in his world in under 140 characters. Hit him up with an @ reply anytime for help, advice, or just to say hey!]

Image: © Photosani – Fotolia.com

Twitter Definitions (I found some of these definitions here, and have tweaked them slightly):

• Following:  The term for “friending” on Twitter.  When you follow someone, their tweets will show up in the feed on your Twitter homepage.  When someone follows you, your tweets will show up in the feed on their Twitter homepage.  Following does not have to be reciprocal, someone can follow you without you following them back, and vice versa.  Your Twitter homepage will give you a count of the number of people you are following and the number that are following you.
• Regular tweets: This is when you speak to all your followers by typing news, links or other information into your status update bar.  These tweets can also be seen by people who aren’t your followers and even by people who don’t have a Twitter account.
• Retweets (RTs): This is when you repost something someone else has said so that your followers see it.  Do this by typing RT, then space, then @username, then copying their tweet in its entirety. This is considered a huge compliment in Twitter World. You can also add your own take if there is space.  In TweetFunnel, you can just hit the RT button.
• Direct Messages (DMs) : This is for when you want to speak to only one person, and only he/she can read this tweet.  You can DM on twitter.com by using the “Direct Message” button. It will give you a drop-down menu for names, then you can just type your tweet in the status.  You can only DM people if you are following them AND they are following you.  In TweetFunnel, You can also DM by typing “D” then space, then the person’s username followed by your message—this works both in Twitter and in TweetFunnel.
• “At Replies” (@reply): This is the friendliest form of tweeting. You are responding directly to one person, but every one of your followers (and anyone else) can read it and can jump into the conversation. Do this by typing @username, then space, then your tweet. You can also do @replies on twitter.com by scrolling over the right side of a tweet message and hitting the “flip-around-looking arrow” that appears.  In TweetFunnel, just hit Reply next to the tweet.
• #/hashtag: Hashtags are a bit more complicated.  A hashtag is the # symbol followed by a word (ex: #travel). These are used when you want to participate in or follow a discussion on a specific subject or event.  It’s a bit like making a separate “room” for a discussion.  You can access this “room” by searching for the hashtag using Twitter Search.  Remember that this isn’t a private chat “room.”  For more on hashtags, click here.