In some past posts, I’d covered the basics of using Twitter:  a brief overview, and how to converse with others.

Why am I hung up on all this Twitter mess?  It was frankly the stupidest thing I’d ever seen when I first happened upon the site about 2 1/2 years ago.  As if Hollywood didn’t have a big-enough collective ego…now the “look at me!” complex extended into essentially texts of everything going on in that person’s life…

…however, as the layers are peeled away from Twitter’s simplistic exterior, one realizes the power of connection that it can generate.  Connection creates relationships, relationships foster referrals, referrals turn to leads, and leads are potential sales.

So, let’s say you know how to follow people, you know how to get a tweet out there as well.  How can you build on the conversation?

When you follow someone and they follow you back, you have the option to DM (direct message) them.  From here, you still only have 140 characters to get your message across, but you’ve worked your way into a 1-to-1 conversation, allowing a more-tailored message.

For example (and I’m stealing an example for Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It! ).  Let’s say you work for an Aspirin company.  You notice in a Twitter Search for #headache (more on searching and hashtags in ”Twitter 104″) that someone says “man, I have a terrible headache today.”  So, you follow.  If you profile is interesting and honest enough, that person might follow back.  Once that happens, you can send a DM.  You send a message that says, “hey, can I send a sample of my product to you?  Might help the headaches.”  If they agree, you’ve generated a lead; you’ve put your product in front of a consumer; you’ve perhaps created a customer for life.

How could you use this strategy in the HVAC service industry?  Who knows the next time this tweet will come across your feed: