*SNC*

When Twitter was first released, people couldn’t seem to get enough of tweeting. They began tweeting their every move to total strangers so they could feel important. But with most social media type items, someone somewhere quickly pointed out that Twitter was simply a waste of time. Unless of course you could figure out, how to make money with it.
You don’t have to be a large corporation to make money on Twitter. Small businesses and entrepreneurial types can and do make large incomes with their Twitter accounts, and lots and lots of followers.
Here are several ways to make money using Twitter.

Allow your Followers to Run the Show

– This would work for almost all types of businesses but especially for the creative kind such as t-shirt companies, promotional items and logo businesses and bakeries.
A business could solicit their Twitter followers for creative ideas for new products, new logos or new recipes. The business could either hold a contest for the best new idea, or offer a select amount of new ideas up to their Twitter followers to vote for a winner. The winner, no matter which way they are chosen would have their idea turned into a product to be featured at your store. They could also be awarded an awesome prize.
When your Twitter followers participate in helping your business with new ideas, they feel as if they are a part of your team, a part of something bigger than themselves. And your business will receive more product ideas, more followers on Twitter and more importantly, more paying customers.

Sell Something

– Your business doesn’t have to be a major competitor in whatever you are selling. You simply have to think like and act like your company is the biggest and the best, and one day, it will be.
The latest trend in online sales is businesses setting up a “limited supply only” sale of one item each day. The idea behind this type of sale is to entice buyers to get excited about a particular item, usually set at a great price, so they will want to buy it before the last one is sold.
Businesses who participate in this one sale item a day will typically start the sale every day at midnight. Because most people will bookmark a business’s website but forget to visit it with any regularity, the best way to remind customers of that day’s sale item is with a tweet.
Later in the day, when the supply of the one item sale is dwindling, it is a good idea to send out another tweet about the daily item and how sales are going. You could tell your Twitter followers exactly how many sale items are remaining, if sales have been going like gang-busters or slow as molasses. This second tweet about the sale item will help those sitting on the fence to make a purchase or wait until midnight for the next great item to be brought up for sale.

Use Your Twitter Account as a Commercial for Various Businesses

– This is not exactly a new concept, one of the first companies to offer Twitter users an opportunity to post short commercial type tweets began in August 2009.
Twitter users with larger lists of followers are encouraged to sign up with Sponsored Tweets. Once you have an account, you can set your per-tweet price and sit back and wait for an advertiser to offer you a “job” tweeting their ads. Some of the advertisers the Sponsored Tweets have worked with in the past include Kmart and other major department stores.
Sponsored Tweets allows the Twitter account holder to write their own tweet based on the advertisers guidelines, or the advertiser could provide a tweet for their new commercial tweeter.

Create and Sell Twitter Apps

– Many creative individuals have come up with different Twitter apps they have presented to Twitter. These Twitter apps help Twitter users save time. Once these apps are approved, Twitter places the new apps in their app store so millions of Twitter users could purchase and use the new Twitter app.

Retweeting 101

Just ask – Ask your Twitter followers to retweet your tweets, especially if they are tweets for sales. You can make a contest out of retweeting, for example, the individual who will retweet your tweet the most in a four hour span wins a free lunch or other prize. You will find your business has many new Twitter followers by the end of the day.
Keep it short – Twitter allows only 140 characters per Tweet, but when you want your followers to retweet something for you, keep it short. This allows someone to retweet your message and add their own little note afterwards.
The ideal tweet to insure a retweet is approximately 105 characters or less. Practice brevity whenever possible and you’ll find more and more retweets of your original tweet texts.