By now virtually everyone knows that social networking needs to be a strategic part of marketing. Twitter is a quick and easy way to get started. You can get work leads, increase your customer base and enhance your reputation by better serving your existing customers, and connect with potential partners. But it’s not without its pitfalls.

When using any social media, the cardinal rule is: Don’t antagonize! Creating hostility is most decidedly NOT the way to brand yourself or market your services or products.

Below is a list of the most common practices that I see your followers may find objectionable:

1. Spamming

You may think that you’re not spamming, but if marketing is all you ever think about, you just might be perceived as a spammer. Even if your ultimate goal in using Twitter is to promote your business, you’ve got to shift your attitude. Stop marketing, stop pitching, stop selling. Customers want to interact with you and with each other—they don’t want to be sold. Instead, think about how you can be part of the community and benefit others. Refrain from tweeting too much about your company and the services you offer.

2. Using an inappropriate photo

I’m sure you already know that you must have a photo on your Twitter site or no one will take you seriously. It’s best to put up a picture of yourself rather than your pets or something abstract. (I confess that I have a picture of my cat on my Twitter site, but I’m promoting my cats, not myself.) Use a professionally taken, close-up photograph of yourself. I see too many pictures where I can barely make out the person. Is it a bird? A horse? A human?

You can also use your company logo as the icon instead of a personal photo if that’s what you’re promoting. If you want to add a personal touch, you can also put a picture of yourself on the sidebar. In fact, that’s a prime piece of real estate for including more details about yourself or your company.

For some examples of highly successful Twitterers, see: http://twitter.com/savvyauntie (about 12,300 followers) and http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan (some 123,233 followers).

3. Sending ho-hum tweets.

You don’t have to write scintillating prose, but you do want to your tweets to be interesting, fun, or valuable to your clients. If your tweets are consistently boring, people will tune you out.

How you tweet depends on whether you’re representing your company or trying to brand yourself. Either way, do use a distinctive voice. With Twitter, you can sound casual, even a bit playful or offbeat. But remember, even if your tweets sound light and spontaneous, don’t forget that anyone can read them.

4. Sending mostly one-way “broadcast” tweets.

Remember that you’re supposed to be engaging in conversations. I remember one amusing spoof video clip on Twitter that made the rounds a few years ago. It showed a young man traipsing up and down the streets yelling out his thoughts and opinions about everything, while completely ignoring everyone around him. It was amusing in that it’s exactly how some people behave on Twitter. Don’t be like him; don’t add to the noise. Listen to the conversations around you. See what people are interested in. Be a resource. Try to answer some questions in your field of expertise. Offer tips, useful information, and third-party links.

That doesn’t mean you can’t tweet promotions or information about your organization. You just have to make sure that you have a good mixture of tweets. Include occasional personal updates as well. Revealing little glimpses of yourself  helps people feel connected and authenticity to your voice.

5. Using the default Twitter background.

So this isn’t a cardinal sin. But surely you can do better than that. An extremely successful consultant I know uses one of the free backgrounds that Twitter offers. That’s enough to get you started. But there are so many options out there, why settle for that? Give your site a little pizzazz by customizing it. You can use free resources like Twitbacks.com and www.twitdom.com. Others, like www.twitterbackgrounds.com offer both free and custom-designed backgrounds.

“If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.” I can’t locate the originator of that quote; it’s been attributed to a few people. Nonetheless, consider this for a moment. There are new start-ups every day—businesses that are bringing new, different and improved services and products to the market. Have you checked on your competition lately, or asked your clients how they feel about your offerings? If you don’t want to lose your clients to the competition, you need to routinely evaluate your offerings. There is much continuous change in this world that provides opportunities for improvements and if you’re not making improvements and working to grow, your business is probably shrinking.

All businesses, regardless of size, length of existence and industry, need to continue their growth efforts—continuously. Constant change is too tumultuous and confusing, but do keep abreast of your clients’ needs and the competition’s activities and make changes over time, as it’s appropriate. Stay the same, and you’re stagnating. You’ll lose business.

Change and Growth:

A large part of growing your consulting business relies on staying in touch with your clients and reaching prospective clients within your target market. There are many methods and many reasons to communicate with your market. Growth and change provide excellent opportunities for just that.

Freshen up

Growing your consulting business doesn’t mean that you need to hire employees or add more square feet. However, it’s advisable to freshen up your business. Add new services and products and incorporate new ideas and technologies into your mix to intrigue return clients and new clients. You may modify or ‘package’ some of your current services based on client feedback or just plain common sense. You might become more efficient with new processes. You might also drop a few of those services or products that are outdated or rarely sell.

Put the Old Stuff on Sale

This is a good reason to keep in touch and drive some business. Put your “older” offerings at a deep discount sale price-for the LAST TIME. Create a clearance sale, a last chance to buy ebooks or ‘How-to’ CDs or DVDs, or last chance to experience one of your seminars before you end that offering.

Think of the retail clothing industry where there are at least four turns per year, aligning roughly with each of the four seasons. Their end of season sales provide opportunity to promote their store and the sale. They draw new and returning clients. Some of those customers who go to the store will buy the sale items, some also buy new items or maybe nothing. But they saw the notice, visited the store, saw what was available and took note. The chances of them returning are greater than if they hadn’t gotten the sale notice.

An aside here is that a key to this contact is the customers’ experience. Is it pleasant and enjoyable? Does the contact offer assistance and leave a warm friendly feeling? We don’t want pressure, only an offer–an “I’m here if you need me.” We want them to remember that connection in an emotionally positive way so they will return.

Promote the New Stuff

The second part of freshening up is adding something new or improved—thus another opportunity to connect and drive business. Give your clients a reason to notice you again.

Have you added a new service? Is there a new technology available that you now include in your repertoire, such as creating or writing blogs? Do you now offer information about or provide the process for marketing on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter?

What have you added to one of your seminars, workshops or webinars? Is there a new section regarding the latest technology or new business opportunities? Do you provide some or more practical aspects about your topic? Are there new chapters in your ebook?

Maybe you have new credentials. You have completed your coaching course and now coach clients through certain niche aspects of a business. Have you added a partner so that you’ve doubled your capabilities or offerings?

Do Something Good

Another “change and grow” opportunity is to have or sponsor an annual charity event. We all know how busy the holidays are, so aim for a different time of year if possible. A slower time in your related industry would be a great time to incorporate something new. To increase your visibility and success, you can partner with other, similarly focused businesses.

The opportunities for this are pretty much endless. Businesses and charity organizations collect shoes, sneakers, coats, old cell phones, books, school supplies, foods, blankets, hats, gloves, or scarves, for example. The collections can be scheduled over a month, week, week-end, or whatever is appropriate. You could also include in the mix a business that provides an activity during a live event or offers some type of gift or return to people who show up such as a discount coupon for a future purchase or a promotional item that reminds them of the charity event or businesses.

For example, if you’re in the pet sitting business, you might partner with a groomer, a veterinarian, a pet store and a pet shelter or adoption agency. For that shelter, you can collect items that they need such as used blankets, towels and sheets or used kennels, dishes, leashes and collars for when the pets go to their new home. Post notices at each of those businesses and any other location where your target market visits—online and offline. When it’s over, you have the success story to submit to assorted medias. Voila!

Your visibility comes from your opportunity to promote the event (using each of the participating business’ names) through various medias and methods and then to report the great results to your clients and the media.

Bottom Line:

A service business like consulting needs to create its own news and make sure that the news reaches the right people. Grow, change, announce your changes and events to your target market, and ask them to spread the word. Ask clients how you’re doing and make changes based on their feedback. Clean house now and then and make that another reason to contact your client base and prospects. Create new reasons for promotional communications. Let them know you’re still there—for them!

As an independent consultant, I know that marketing and selling is a big part of my life and livelihood, but they haven’t been naturals for me. That’s why I like to watch and learn from the pros.

This is a true story about a guy I know. I’ll call him “Ray” because he’s like a ray of sunshine in every way. We all can take a page or two from the book he endorses and lives. (At the end of this blog I’ll tell you the title — you may be surprised.)

Ray is one of the best examples I know of a successful business person. He’s a top-selling pharmaceutical rep for one of the world’s largest pharma companies. What’s more, he’s a top seller even though he doesn’t have a particularly good territory. While other reps get Manhattan or Los Angeles, Ray has to travel long distances around a large, sparsely-settled Midwestern state to serve his physician clients. Yet two years in a row, Ray was the top oncology sales rep for his corporation. If you know anything about how sales goals are set, you know it’s tough to be # 1 in the first year – but nearly impossible the second because the bar is raised significantly.

I couldn’t resist asking Ray how he managed it. A generous person, he willingly shared three things.

#1: Ray knows his company’s products, his competitor’s products, the industry, and the field of medicine in general. Learning has to be ongoing because the flow of new discoveries and new drugs is constant. This alone, however, isn’t the answer.

#2: Ray is a true consultant. That means real problem-solving even when it may mean losing some immediate business. He partners with his physician clients to help them figure out the best solutions for individual cancer patients. He will even recommend a competitor’s drug if he thinks it’s more suitable in a particular case. Clients see him as collaborator rather than salesperson, and trust is built. But this isn’t the only answer, either.

#3: Here’s the secret sauce. Ray truly cares about people. He understands that clients don’t buy products and services as much as they buy an experience – from people they can relate to. In answer to my question about his selling skills, Ray said (and I quote): “I don’t try to make sales; I try to make friends.” For him, that means relating to clients on a personal level first. It isn’t fake; he truly appreciates and respects others. He went on to tell me that his daily guide is Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” It has been a best-selling business book since 1936. Some of the examples are dated, but the information and techniques are still “right on.” Ray told me that he re-reads it annually. I had a copy on my bookshelf, so I read it again – and there was Ray on every page. As one who is privileged to know this outstanding human being, I can assure you he doesn’t just turn the pages, he turns the advice into action.

By the way, Ray is a 30-something guy with a loving family and hundreds of adoring friends and associates. He’s an all-around success because he practices the same solid people principles in private as he does in business.

It’s not hard to find a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” The investment is small, and the payoff can be gigantic. Just ask Ray.