Twitter is quickly becoming a trend amongst individuals, businesses and brands worldwide. However although millions are signing up to the social networking phenomenon, a disappointing trend is the retention rate of users.   Many people sign up, test the waters for a few days, and quickly find it to be of no use or value, and promptly abandon their accounts.  As we always say, it's not the tools, it's how you use them. To remedy this, I've outlined the common mistakes of new users and some ways to help stop you becoming one of the Twitter quitter statistics...

Don't just follow celebrities and brands

This is one way traffic. Celebrity tweets are simply there to push messages your way - unless you're extremely lucky, they won't respond directly to you.  Follow relevant discussion groups and get involved. Comment on other people's tweets in order to increase your own visibility.

Have something interesting to say

Be creative. Not everyone is interested to know what people are having for dinner. The most interesting people are those who aren't openly trying to sell their products or striving for web fame. Talk about relevant subjects and consider what you want to get out of it. If you talk to interesting, relevant people, you will immediately add value to your business through building a strong network of quality contacts who will give credence to your knowledge.

Get Mobile 

Having Twitter on your mobile allows you to remain up to date and tweet more frequently.  Tweeting once or twice a day won't give you much value.  In order to build up a strong following and increase your credibility, you need to be dedicated to your tweets.

To get you started, check out Twitter Mobile for the iPhone... http://www.twittermobile.co.uk/nbsp;

Twitter isn't for everyone, but if you fancy giving it a try, do so with a little bit of knowledge - you never know, you may just get something out of it other than knowing everyone else's plans for the evening...