It is true and even with all the suggestions you hear on how to use twitter, there are no set in stone rules. What you do need to do however is establish some goals or perhaps what you want to accomplish with twitter. When you first start looking at using twitter as a marketing tool, you need to sit down and take this list of “goals” and see what answers you come up with.

There are no rules, but you should set some goals

• What is it you really want to get out of or accomplish by using twitter? Do you want to use it for networking, marketing and/or business development. Or do you want to use it for a combination of all of those items. To be even broader thinking, do you want to use it for personal fun or business.
• What do you want to talk about on twitter? More specifically, do you want to concentrate on a particular narrow niche or topic. Or do you want to join in on a wide range of topics and conversations. For me, I like to use it to join in on many conversations.
• What value do you want to give those who are following you? What is it you want to give those who are following you. Do you want to be a source of information by taking advantage of all those things you can do on twitter. Provide links to items you are reading. Post your own new blog post to your twitter stream. Carry on conversations with those you follow and who follow you. Or do you want to retweet the tweets of those you are following. In my opinion, your best answer is all of that. You need to add value to your twitter stream and all of those activities would certainly do just that.
• Are you going to limit the number of people you follow and who follow you? This goal really fits well with the first one. And I think you need to decide on that one before you really can answer this question. For some, a few people in your twitter stream is enough and for some, their goal is to have 1000’s of followers. Both views work. It really depends on what you want to accomplish with twitter.

Like any good marketing plan, you need to set out some goals for yourself and determine how you are going to reach them. Twitter is no exception. I know there are other goals one should consider. So, leave your comments to this post so we can keep the conversation going.