For whom Twitter is useful for ranges, but for the purposes of this blog aticle I'll focus on uses for small business, and social-profit organizations, who can both stand to benefit from this service as a marketing tool.

The secret to Twitter's usefulness is, oddly enough, in it's limitations of message length. It doesn't take long to create a new message that will go out to all of your followers, and it forces you to be both creative and get the point simultaneously.

I'll walk you through some things to keep in mind when creating an account, what you can and can't do, some common conventions used by twitterers, and some basic advice on how to use the service to your benefit.

Choosing an Account Name

Recently it's been estimated that 300,000 new users sign up every day. This means that, just like the .com rush, names are disappearing quickly. Even if you don't currently plan on ever using Twitter, it might be prudent to sign up for an account just to reserve your business name there.

Account names follow a fairly simple convention: @user_name. No spaces, just letter, numbers, and underscores (much like email, capital letters are optional). While your name can be up to 15 characters long, shorter is better for recognisability and for not using up too many characters every time someone mentions you.

What You Can Do, Explained in 140 Characters or Less

Each tweet can be up to 140 characters total. This means all your letters, numbers, and spaces counted together cannot be more than 140.

Within your message you can mention another user by adding their @username in the message.

You can also add web links by just adding the full URL to the message, such as http://www.cartanova.ca/.

But maybe your URL is very long and might use up all your character limit, so use an URL-shortening service like http://owl.ly/.

D @cartanovadesign This tweet is a direct message, meaning only the user it is sent sees it. This is the only form of privacy on Twitter.

You can create custom feed lists. This is best for those you don't want to follow, but want to check up on once and a while.

What You Can't Do

You can't go over 140 characters. You could break it down into multiple tweets, though this is generally frowned upon. You also can't make proper links without the http:// prefix – without it Twitter.com, Twitter applications, and cell phones wouldn't know what's a link and what isn't., so don't try and cheat by dropping http:// just to get 7 more characters.

Some Common Lingo You Might See and Use

Ever since the birth of Twitter, users have been creatively working around the limits of Twitter, creating conventions you're likely to see there all the time. Here are a few:

RT @cartanovadesign We have just launched a new website! http://blahblah.co/blah

"RT" means "ReTweet", meaning you're resending a message someone else sent. It has since become an official function of Twitter, so now all your have to do to is hit the "Retweet" button which is shown on every message on Twitter as an option. You will then broadcast this message in your feed too.

This is a tweet about #green #solar #technology.

"#" is used to indicate something called hashtags, used to help follow others talking about the same topic. The tweet example above would show up on feeds related to the keywords "green", "solar", and "technology".

Some keywords are simple, some are more cryptic to prevent two topics with similar names being confused. For example, in Hamilton, Ontario where we are based out of, the tag #cyhm has become the standard tag, because #Hamilton is used to follow tweets about a race-car driver with the last name Hamilton. The airport codes of major cities tend to be letter codes not seen in many tweets in other contexts, so Hamilton's secondary airport code, CYHM was decided upon by the community. (The primary airport code, YHM was already in use for something else oddly enough. You can look up tags at TagDef.com or hashtags.org)

Some Quick Tweet Tips

Every once and a while, retweet messages by others that are of interest to you and your business. Others will reciprocate in kind.

Follow those users who are both interesting to you, and are run by human beings. Add bot-feeds to one of your lists instead.

You don't need to follow everyone that follows you. It's okay to have a one-sided relationship on Twitter.

Aim to make your tweets "retweetable"; short enough that adding "RT @yourusername:" is still under 140.

So, really this means your real limit length for tweets should be 140, minus the length of your username, minus 4.

Sound human! Write in your own voice. Be unique. A bot-feed can put an article title and link, a human can make it more interesting.

Be positive where possible, critical where not. But don't gripe too much or too harshly or people may "unfollow" you.

Post regularly, even if it's only once a week sometimes. Much like a stale website, a stale feed gives the impression of absence.

There is such thing as tweeting too often. Some people use schedulers, and spam out a hundred tweets a day. Don't do that.

Don't repeat yourself too often, and avoid repeating your own tweets word-for-word. Give a new angle to a link or idea each time.

Even though Twitter has its roots in cell phone text messages texters, avoid using "txt" abbreviations.

If you'd like to schedule tweets for certain times, use a service like http://hootsuite.com/. This is what we use.

In the near future we'll have a follow up article, focusing on utilizing third-party tools like Hoot Suite, unique ways of promoting your business through tweets, and how to get more followers. Meanwhile, you can follow us on Twitter as @cartanovadesign. Feel free to ask questions if you happen to see us do something in a tweet you don't understand.