A whole bunch of people out there think Twitter is all about kids telling each other what they ate for breakfast (you one of them?).

It may surprise you to find out that 34% of all users are over the age of 25. Teenagers make up 31% with the young 20-somethings taking up the remaining 35%.

So there you have it  – according to Sysomos – 2/3 of all twitter users are over the age of 20 (that’s a few million) and a vast amount of these don’t tell each other what they had for breakfast.

What they actually do is share information and make new contacts.

And you should too. If you’re not on twitter already then I urge you to at least give it a shot.

The very worst you will get out of Twitter is obtaining a whole bunch of new contacts and new knowledge on topics you’re interested in.

The best you will get out of Twitter is all of the above but with new friends, business, and profits on top.

Here’s a working example : this whole post was kicked off by a weekly email I get of Alan Stevens.

Alan is a media coach who as worked with the biggest names in the business and I wouldn’t have known he even existed if it had not been for Twitter.

Alan’s emails to me are always full of useful content which is always up-to-date and I look forward to his emails because they teach me something new.

And as a result; if I, or one of my clients ever need the services of a media coach guess who I’d call first?

So there you go – with Twitter you can learn, connect and profit.

It’s also completely free.

So what are you waiting for?

You can go across to Twitter and sign-up right now and two great contacts for you to follow first are you’re truly – @richerimage and Alan Steven (@mediacoach)

I would also recommend you sign up to Alan’s weekly emails. It’s free and you can follow this link to sign up for the weekly media coach newsletter.

That’s all for now but stay tuned – I’ll be posting more of my experience with Twitter and how it can help you very soon.

Best way to do this is to subscribe here.

Twitter, we’ve all heard of it.

Some of you are on it, some of you aren’t.

This post is for those that don’t know what it is.

Twitter is a form of ‘micro-blogging’.  Users can post messages, information, announcements, links, etc.  The only stipulation is; they can only be a maximum of 140 characters in length.

Twitter is also (in my opinion) potentially the greatest business tool of this decade.

If your opinion of Twitter is another ‘fad’, something for kids, and only useful if you want to know when Stephen Fry is stuck in a lift – you really need to think again.

Like all tools, it’s down to how you use it and I will be issuing a ‘How-to Guide’ on this very subject shortly.

Speaking from personal experience, I have been on it for a short time (couple of weeks) and already I have done business with people in Los Angeles, Toronto and (subject to negotiation) 15 miles down the road in Sutton Coldfield.

Now, Twitter has not even begun to reach it’s potential.  I would say for a small business outside of America, right now, it does have some limitations.  However, I would not suspect this to be for too long.

Therefore, do yourself and your business a favour and start to use Twitter now.  Get a foothold, become the first in your niche to ‘tweet’.

Twitter is very easy to use on a basic level, and is absolutely free.

Here’s the link to get you started on Twitter, please register now – https://twitter.com

At the very least, just register your name and business name (you can have more than one account).  If you don’t believe me now, that’s fine, but please register your name as a contingency.  The last thing you want is to go to register in 6 – 12 months time only to find out your twitter domain has been taken.

Trust me on this one….

Here’s the link again – https://twitter.com

Finally, I’d love to be your first friend.  This is my twitter domain: twitter.com/richer_image

Thanks to hongkait.com for the free twitter icons.  One is shown on this post.

A few weeks ago I had a chat about what blogs can do for business with Dean Chudasama, the MD of a small new build developer called Damson Homes.

They where about to buy some land for a new development of three houses and I suggested he set up a blog to inform potential buyers and neighbours about the progress of the build.

They did.  I was happy he was open to the idea (so many builders are set in their ways).

They set up a basic, free blog with blogspot.  It has been running a few weeks and Dean has now given me some feedback.

The blog is performing really well for them.  It has generated interest and they have already sold two out of the three homes (they’re not even half built yet).

Comments they received about the blog included:

“It’ll be great to see the day by day, how my new home is being built”

“As a neighbour, I was naturally worried how the build would affect me.  It’s nice to see you care enough to inform people what you are doing”

The key to the success of this blog for them is the willingness to be open with the people interested in their product.

I’ve spent 10 years in the ‘new home’ business and one of the main grumbles buyers had against the builders was the lack of communication between the the buyer and the builder.

Many builders took an arrogant attitude.  They would say ‘thanks for your deposit, we’ll let you know when your house is finished.’  That’s it.

It’s fair to say, if you’re a buyer of a new property, getting to know exactly what stage of the build your new home is at is like getting blood from a stone.

Damson have knocked this particular brick wall down.  Now their clients can look behind the scenes.

This has a knock-on effect…

1. They (the buyers) get more more excited about their new home (they see it being build bit-by-bit, day-by-day)
2. They tell all their family & friends “They’re up to the second floor now already, I can’t believe it’s going up so quick!”
3. All their friends & family say “that blog’s a good idea, isn’t that nice..” – they then tell their family & friends
4. All of a sudden, (if Damson play this right), they can get themselves a little tribe going around saying how great they are and ‘how different’ they are to other builders.

This would create a local brand, to a community of say 500,000 (South Birmingham & Solihull, UK).  Using the 3% principal (3% of the average population has a need to move at any certain time) Damson can easily (and for practically free) get their message out to 15,000 people whom would want to buy their future products.

It just goes to show, even in a market as damaged at the UK property market is right now, success stories need not be fiction.

All Damson have done is created a good product, been open about how they are progressing (they even show pictures of each stage of the build so you can see what type of lintels they use, etc.), and have provided a platform where anyone and everyone can see what they’re doing.

There was not a hole in the market they’re in, the hole was in how the market markets itself.  This blog plugged that hole – http://pipersgardens.blogspot.com/