Are you new to Twitter? Here’s a list of tips for you to get started the right way:

• Create your profile to be short but interesting, avoiding a sales pitch.  Your objective is to build a network of new relationships.  Don’t do the mistake most people do in creating their Twitter profile: spending little or no time on it.
• Your profile should be uploaded with a real, recent photo of yours. People will want to know they’re contacting a real person, not a fictional entity or company.
• Add a blog to your profile on Twitter. A blog is better than a website in the sense that it presents the human aspect of a business.  If your company has a website, place a link on your blog to the About Us page of your website, so that people will get to know more about you and your business. If you don’t have a blog, start it now with Twitter and utilize it to obtain maximum results.
• You’re a business person and you want to sell through Twitter. Many business people jump on the Twitter bandwagon and start their marketing then and there.  Don’t do this; rather start with some ‘tweets’ or messages through which people can get to know who you are.  Take part in a conversation and let the people follow you.
• Follow the people who interest you and reply to their tweets wherever necessary, you need not follow all the people who follow you.  Rather than promoting your website, discuss your hobbies, interests and ideas, and continue to respond to people.  You will soon get your name known and will have your own followers.
• For one promotional tweet, there should be several conversational tweets including those not about you. Already there are so many persistent self-promoters on Twitter, and you need not be one among that crowd.  You can look for information that would be interesting to your followers and that relevant to your field of operation.
• Keep In mind that Twitter is more concerned about building new relationships, joining in present conversation, and creating online exposure, rather than proclaimed selling.
• Once you’re acquainted with Twitter, you can start using their desktop or cellphone applications such as TweetDeck and Twhirl for your computer or Tweetie for your iPhone.  These Twitter tools give you more flexibility.
• Stay alert! There are several tools which will alert you whenever someone tweets about your blog post, your keywords, or anything you’ve mentioned.  Some of them are the TweetBeep, TweetTree and TweetLater.
• You can ask questions, answer to the questions of other Tweeters, and join in the present conversation.  Soon you will build your reputation and your following.
• You need sit on Twitter all the time.  If you have time constraints, try to login at a specified time of the day for specified time duration and try to make that time useful.  Twitter tends to be addictive, so it’s necessary to plan your use of it so that it doesn’t get in the way of your other commitments.

As a Twitter beginner, you will find that following these guidelines will help in building new relationships in a relatively short time which will ultimately benefit your business too.