I think many of us reefers have found out the Internet and various Social Media sites can really help connect with fellow hobbyists, vendors and a plethora of information. Especially with the power of forums from the broad to very niche topics, we often have a lot of outlets competing for our attention. This post is all about using Twitter and more importantly building relationships.

So what is Twitter? Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Limited to just 140 characters, you have to be creative and concise, but these little nuggets of info can be quite useful.

My day job is working in hi-tech media relations and am very involved in the whole “Web 2.0″ culture. I use Twitter a lot for both work and personal communications and have recently started my own Twitter stream for this blog where I send my updates and follow other reefers, aquariums, vendors and more. I have gotten lots of great breaking news and updates through this and am even turning on a lot more readers to the blog through my Twitter updates.

The owner of the agency I work for, Brian Solis, is a leader in Social Media and making it work both professionally and personally. He had a great post yesterday “Finding the Tweet Spot – Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships” that I thought I’d share some main points with you and tweak it to a more personal perspective.

Twitter is an incredible medium for listening, learning, and sharing. While there are no shortage of posts that offer tips and tricks to help you boost your Twitter followers, it is by no means a popularity contest. Remember the more people you follow, the more useless bits of information will be assaulting your Twitter account increasing the chance that you will miss something directed at you or that would interest and be quite useful. What you really want is a network of people and places that matter to you.

Twitter is a unique and vibrant community that thrives because of your participation and interaction. The Twitter culture evolves and matures though our daily interaction. If you share unique and valuable information and extend the conversation, you’ll be surprised how many new and fascinating individuals you will find on Twitter.

So, to give back to the Twitter community and invest in building more mutually beneficial relationships, here are the top tips to pay back and pay it forward on Twitter:

• Twitter asks what you are doing. Instead answer the question, What do you think we are better off knowing right now? Other questions to consider…What/who inspires you? What just happened? What am I missing? What did you learn today? What’s out on the Web worth sharing on Twitter?
• Share helpful and meaningful content. Offer perspective. You are unique and your ideas, opinions, and experience can help or offer value to those who are learning.
• The public should feel included in almost everything you share.
• Build a theme that complements who you are and what you do. Earn a reputation and authority based on the niche you establish for yourself, reinforced by the tweets your post and share.
• No the difference when using a public @message and a direct message (DM). Not everyone needs to follow your 1:1 dialog. Some things are just better left for a DM.
• Try to thank or acknowledge, in some way, those who RT your updates or promote your outside activity. Twitter is a magnificent forum for sparking conversations that pull responses from your friends as well as from friends of friends. Most vanish without closure or results. Share highlights and observations.
• Pay it forward. This is important. Remember, “Always Pay it Forward and Never Forget to Pay it Back…it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going.” This is just a good general way to go in life and especially this hobby.
• Find and follow everyone who can help you learn and and share your information with. Look at those who are in the hobby or companies sharing product news and information, these can be really valuable.
• Use tools like TweepSearch, a search engine that allows anyone to search and discover relevant Twitter bios and location information using keywords. It’s ideal for learning more about those following any given username as well.
• Mr. Tweet is your personal networking assistant on Twitter. It helps you easily build meaningful relationships by looking through your network and tweets. Mr. Tweet will then suggest new and relevant followers you should also follow.
• 120 is the new 140. Retweeting (RT) is one of the most valuable ways to expand your reach and network. Leave room in your tweets to make it easier for someone to RT and also add a short reaction or endorsement. The magic number seems to hover around 120 characters.
• Listen AND respond to those who offer insight tied to your interests. Follow conversations related what’s important to you. Make new friends. Offer value and insight to those conversations related to your interests. Give back to those seeking guidance.
• Don’t share anything you wouldn’t want a co-worker, your boss, friends, or family to see.
• Be helpful. Make this about conversations, sharing, and learning.
• Make sure you have a good bio, share who you are and what you do. Consider personally branding your Twitter background as well. Here’s how…
• If you witness a series of RT’s regarding a post that sings to you, consider following the source.
• Do you follow everyone who follows you back? Some say yes, some say no. It’s a personal choice and remember to ask, are you getting anything from this relationship? If it’s a real estate person from Dallas and you live in Seattle, what value do you get? Are they a hobbyist?

I hope you find something useful in this post and if you have any question, feel free to ask!