Twitter can be used to market most any type of business. I market for several small businesses as well as for myself, and can tell you that it works for plumbers, insurance agents, real estate professionals, handymen, dentists, and more.

No matter if you have a brick and mortar business or work exclusively on the Internet, put Twitter to work for you and see what happens.

Get started right away by clicking on the settings tab in the upper right of your screen. You need to choose a name when you are first getting set up. I recommend branding your own name, so see if it is available.

You may have to include a middle initial or full middle name, but make sure it is a name people will be able to recognize as being you. Once you add your picture there should be no doubt that this is you.

Fill out your one line bio completely, describing who you are and what you do within the 160 characters allowed. Everyone has the same amount of room, so include what you can fit into that small amount of space.

Include a link to your blog or other site in the area given for your more info URL.

For location be sure to choose the city that best represents where you do business. My city contains numerous smaller towns, but I use the name of the overall location to attract people from a wider geographical area. Many businesses now understand the power of reaching out to others who live and work close by.

The last choice you have is whether or not to protect your tweets. You do NOT want to check this box if you are on Twitter for marketing and business. Leave the box unchecked so your timeline will be visible to everyone.

Now it is time to tweet. You have 140 characters to say what you are doing. Every morning I like to say hello with something about the weather or what I will be doing at some point during the day. I might write something like:

Good morning all! Meeting with the editor of Santa Clarita Tidbits magazine @JudithCassis at noon - join us at Starbucks on Bouquet Canyon

This tweet is 138 characters long, so it will work nicely for marketing myself and networking in my local city. You can write about your daily activities, meetings you will attend, and people you will be meeting with.

When I met Judith, the lady from my example above, we both took a moment to send out a tweet on our phones before we began talking. This is becoming acceptable practice for small businesses that understand the power of leveraging the Internet to reach their target market online.

Spend some time with this and see how powerful it can be for your small business.