Twitter is a micro-blogging site that has exploded over the past year. Its a fantastic social-networking site, but does it also have value for your business?

I believe it does, but the key is to harness it correctly. Twitter has some limitations including the amount of characters allowed per tweet (140). So there is a limitation to how much you can communicate to your followers at any given time.

One of the best uses I have seen for Twitter as a business model is the LA taco truck. This traveling taco vendor uses twitter to update its 50,000 followers on the location of the truck each day it is in service. Each time it parks it draws 300 to 800 people for tasty korean bbq tacos.

The key to Twitter is gathering a critical mass of followers and providing those followers with valuable periodic updates. The more valuable the content, the more likely you are to attract and keep followers. As with any other form of marketing communication, be careful not to over-saturate your followers or you risk becoming spammy and losing followers. If you eat at the taco truck regularly, or you want to find out if they are in your area, you will have no problem receiving regular updates on the trucks location.

I can see a lot of uses for this in the restaurant industry. Twittering daily specials or soups of the day may be enough to snag a few extra customers on a given day. Happy hour specials can be announced and updated regularly to attract additional store traffic. Be creative and make sure you advertise your presence on Twitter to your clients. Gather followers and keep them updated with changes, specials, or other valuable information.

Here is the other great thing about Twitter……….its free. It doesn’t cost anything to let your followers know that they can get Miller Lite for $.99 a bottle from 4-6pm tonight. Pretty cool. Don’t be afraid to advertise your presence on Twitter and find creative ways to use it and provide additional value for your customers.