One question I’m often asked by those who are starting to tweet is ‘What do I tweet about?’ So I have written 30 Tweeting Top Tips.

Even the most experienced tweeters get twitter block sometimes. Here are a few ideas to keep you going. Incidentally many of these suggestions make good blog ideas too. I did write a post on Blog Ideas earlier.

If you are new to Twitter and are only just finding out about Social Media and what it can do for your business, why not book onto one of our Social Networking Training in Brighton, Sussex.

1. Write helpful Tweets

At least half of your tweets should be an answer, a response, or some kind of communication or dialogue. Remember it’s about relationships.

2. Create a tweet when you upload a new blog post

Let everyone know what you are writing about, and make the tag line snappy. Next time you are wondering which links to click on in twitter ask yourself why you chose them, make a note then use the same technique.

It seems like social media is accused of ruining the world on an almost daily basis in news and blogs across the web, for a multiplicity of reasons: it's causing the breakdown of relationships, breeding a culture of narcissistic and parasitic youths and shrinking our attention spans to the point that we can barely even finish a senten...

Awful joke aside, this is a serious barrage of allegations to be levelled against what is arguably one of the biggest communication technology developments there has ever been.

And it's just plain wrong. Social media is not ruining your life, my life or the world.

In a lot of ways, it's doing the exact opposite - it's making everything a whole lot better.

Although our Social Media Training focusses on the potential business and marketing uses of social media, it can be used for a whole lot more.

So let's take a look at some of the most often quoted reasons that social media is Satan in technological form and try to debunk these myths.

Social Media Marketing is now essential for brand reputation and for SEO. But, more than that, it’s an effective way of connecting with existing and prospective customers, and providing customer service.

It’s not enough to set up a Twitter account and post daily about your products or services – you need to maintain an online presence and engage with your followers – just one example of how businesses aren’t using social media to its full potential.

We offer a 2-day Social Media course which is jam packed with advice, guidance, strategic tips, what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos. The course is continually updated with the latest developments in the industry, and you leave ready to begin (or revamp) your business’s social media campaign.

For those who are thinking of coming on the course, or those who can’t make it to Brighton (although we’re happy to train you on site!), here’s our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing. We hope it helps!

Our #1 Ultimate Most Important Top Tip

The number one thing to be aware of is that social media marketing is not about you - it's about them ('them' being your followers, those who like your pages, your connections and your circles). Never forget to ask yourself what you want to see on social media from a business – and that constant self-promotion is the quickest way to put people off. I see examples of this happening every day.

With that in mind, I’ll take you through how to apply this principle to the various social networks.

We cover a variety of Social Media strategies in SEO Training, you can also learn more about online marketing on our Google Analytics courses in Brighton, Sussex.

Well, there has been a lot of fuss about Abs Man, Hunky Guy Old Spice man, and I can understand why. It has caused such a stir that I wrote about it earlier today. But wait there's more to this viral campaign that meets the eye.

In just a few short weeks the campaign can claim

• Nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter, including a host of celebrities.
• 100 million views and 100,000 subscribers on YouTube
• 666,000 fans on Facebook

So it's a great success yes? Well yes if your goal is to increase brand awareness, to put yourselves on the Facebook Map or become king of the twittersphere. But what about sales? What if your goal is to increase sales? What about your ROI?  These questions arrived in our comment box soon after posting - thanks Nicholas Butler for making me think and have to write a follow up!

Today, news breaks that Old Spice sales have dropped 7% since the campaign started and critics are out in force talking about how viral marketing doesn't equate to sales.

So before you invest in a massive marketing campaign you or your agency should be asking what your end goals are. The fact is, the highest ROI campaigns may not use Twitter, Facebook or hunky guys. It is important to have clear goals in order before you start a campaign. If the Old Spice wanted a campaign to increase the online buzz increase brand awareness, gain thousands of fans, build a network of advocates and reach a new audience with its product, while being brilliantly entertaining, then the campaign was an overwhelming success. If the goal was to increase sales then the campaign failed.

It would be interesting to know if sales would increase if the product itself were sexy Food for thought.

So you have your Twitter account, you can see who you are following, you can see who follows you and you can see which of those you are following are following you.

Great, but now you want to know:

• Who is not following you back?
• Who has recently stopped following you?
• What are your contacts tweeting about?
• Who is a useless twit?

Those interested in building up their online presence using social media may be interested in our one day Social Media course. There are loads of Twitter applications out there that can answer these questions for you, here are just a few of my favourites:

1. TwitterCounter: THE number 1 stats site for your Twitter account.
2. My Tweeple: My Tweeple lists your follower and those you follow with their bio snippet attached, this is really useful if you want to contact them outside of twitter as their website or LinkedIn account is usually listed.
3. FriendOrFollow: Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? A very concise and visual tool.
4. ChirpStats: To find out when someone has unfollowed you, simply follow @chirpstats on Twitter and then it will message you every time you are unfollowed.
5. Refollow - Allows you to filter out unimportant follows and group together different types of useful people you follow. It's a great way to manage your followers and friends.