Are you using Twitter to help in your business building efforts? Twitter is great for connecting B2B, connecting with potential customers, and don’t forget it can also be used to learn many great business building tips & strategies.

Twitter allows you to broadcast text messages up to 140 characters in length, is fast becoming the place where a lot of information is being shared online. You probably already knew this, but, just in case you are new to all of this, I thought a very brief mention of what it is would help.

Who are the people on Twitter who regularly provide information by, about and for small businesses?

Twitter can be an excellent source of information by, about and for small businesses. This list was compiled first from a friends list of people to follow, then I added in more of my favorites. I already know this is a work in progress and that I have not added many that I regularly check on. In other words, this list will grow! Oh, and you may find a couple that really are not business, they are pure humor, but every once in a while, we all need a good laugh!

If you are an entrepreneur and wanting information and advice from credible sources, you should really check out the Twitter handles below.

@EntMagazineAmy
@TheEconomist
@mashable
@OPENForum
@BreakingNews
@NYTimesOnline
@google
@ZDNet
@aplusk
@JackHumphrey
@TheOnion
@aaronwall
@smallbiztweets
@andybeal
@sernovitz
@marketingprofs
@smallbiztrends
@wiredprworks
@barrymoltz
@batchblue
@BeckyMcCray
@BrentLeary
@copyblogger
@BrianMoran
@CameronHerold
@CarrieHill
@Chaitanya
@ChrisBrogan
@craigsutton
@whatworks
@danschawbel
@problogger
@DawnRiversBaker
@deanjones
@deniseoberry
@onstartups
@donnafenn
@indiebusiness
@ElisaC
@garyvee
@guykawasaki
@hollisthomases
@DIYMarketers
@jackiehuba
@jenniferlaycock
@jimblasingame
@jimconnolly
@jimkukral
@packagingdiva
@juntajoe
@FranchiseKing
@ducttape
@jonathanfields
@justinrfrench
@keithburtis
@startupprincess
@kkunlimited
@LaurelDelaney
@lizstrauss
@MackCollier
@andertoons
@winningwp
@mattcutts
@mattmcgee
@YFNCG
@SmallBizBee
@techcrunch
@mwrogers
@rapidbi
@myventurepad
@nikkipilkington
@entrep_thinking
@pamslim
@ramonray
@RhondaAbrams
@Rieva
@RobMcNealy
@smallbizanswers
@Scobleizer
@tweetbizbook
@scottallen
@Shama
@sreardon
@SmallBizTools
@smbzen
@spencertyler
@stacybrice
@SannWood
@stefantopfer
@smallbizlabs
@swoodruff
@susanreid
@tamar
@terra111
@timberry
@timboreid
@WarrenWhitlock
@eMom
@y2vonne
@zanesafrit
@ideablob
@DannyUrquia
@OnwardSmallBiz
@bbb_us
@bizfilings
@BizUnite
@bplans
@cparmele
@BusinessDotGov
@newentrepreneur
@BusinessZone
@ConstantContact
@CTCTHelp
@DellSmallBiz
@Kara_atDELL
@gowithabc
@AngelaAtHP
@tacanderson
@inc5000
@Infusionsoft
@intuitcommunity
@intuit
@IntuitPayroll
@kirasw
@rkeuretig
@SharnQuickBooks
@mainebusiness
@officelivegal
@officelivegirl
@shashib
@nfib
@RedWire
@erin_bury
@smallbizexpo
@smallbusiness
@richardbranson
@postsmallbiz
@DunkinDonuts
@Esquiremag
@NakedPizza

Follow Small Business Tipsters on Twitter! If you want to follow any or all of those on the list just click the button and you can decide which ones you want to follow.

Do you have other suggestions for this list?  Please leave them in the comments section below.

1. LinkReferral

It´s a hugely popular linking system, which lists registered members links according to subject categories. Each member has a chance to be reviewed and visited by others by providing a few reviews (and visits) in exchange. The system is simple and effective, especially if you are on tight budget. However, it´s not completely fair. For a fee of USD 35/month, you will be placed on top of all referred links – hence, gaining substantial traffic without having to spend time referring and visiting other sites.

2. Link Back Link

It´s a simple blog which promises to provide a link to your site in exchange for a backlink. It does not cost anything, plus the link comes with a brief review of your site.

3. Blogorator

It´s a little script that you can install in your sidebar. Visitors get a chance to rate your site. With higher ratings you get more visibility on blogorator. The tool seems not to have the same popularity as technorati (#1 for blogging promotion) or even zimbio, both reviewed earlier. However, due to its addictive and easy use, I predict that Blogorator has a nice future ahead.

I might add a few more free blog promotion tools to this blog in the future. If you are fond of some other alternatives, such as Blogrolling, leave a comment so that we could discuss it.

As an increasing number of businesses venture out into the realm of social media, an increasing number of platform options are begin developed for these businesses to choose from.  But with all of the options, how do you choose.  The key to this dilemma is fairly simple.  If you truly understand your target market, you can develop a tailored social media campaign around your user, thus choosing only the platforms that your users frequent.

The key to developing this tailored strategy is as I said earlier, “understanding your target market,” a concept that most companies think they know, but are often mistaken.  See if you can answer the following questions about your target market:

1. Who is your target audience?  Are the males or females or both?  What age range do the fall into?
2. What generation category do they fall under?  Millenials receive marketing messages a lot differently that Baby Boomers, and Gen Xers.
3. What does your target market like to do in their spare time?  Where do they spend their time on and off line?
4. When they are online, what websites or types of websites do they frequent?
5. What types of messaging do they respond the best to?  How do they preferred to be communicated with?
6. Why do they purchase your product/service?  What value can it bring to their life?
7. Why don’t they purchase your product/service?  Who do they go to instead?

If you can answer all of the questions above, then you are ready to begin to create a custom social media campaign for your business.  If you cannot answer one or more, of the questions above, you need to go back to the basics, and gather the appropriate amount of information needed to understand your target market.  Build our a demographic profile for each target market you chase after, and really try to understand who they are, and what they want from a company.

Once you fully understand your target market, use the answers to the questions above to guide you to the right social platform.  For example, if you are a company that targets college females, aged 18 to 25, then you want to look at platforms that speak to that demographic (i.e. facebook, twitter).

Lastly, the only way that you are going to learn about the platforms at your disposal, and which ones will fit your audience best, is to take the time to check out each platform on your own, research their demographic audience, and get to know their users.  Knowing and understanding the different platform options is just as important a knowing your audience, because if you don’t understand the platform you are using, all of your messaging could get lost in all of the “clutter” online.

I have recently found a great new tool that allows wordpress users to “ping” multiple search engines with updates about their blog/site, called Ping-o-Matic! “Pinging” these services notifies them that there has been an update to the blog that “pinged”. How each service handles the ping is different. Some simply create a list a recently updated blogs, others create connections between blogs.

Using ping-o-matic is simple. WordPress users automatically use ping-o-matic (ping-o-matic was created by two of the WordPress developers). On the Options/Writing tab on the Admin Screen, there is a field at the bottom labeled: Update Services. Inside this box the following URL is listed: http://rpc.pingomatic.com/. Keep that URL there and every time a new post is entered, all the above services will be notified.

The sites pinged by ping-o-matic include:

Weblogs.com
Blo.gs
Technorati
Feed Burner
Syndic8
NewsGator
Feedster
My Yahoo!
PubSub.com
Blogdigger
BlogRolling
BlogStreet
Moreover
Weblogalot
Audio.Weblogs
RubHub
A2B GeoLocation
BlogShares

Enjoy!!