Do you understand Twitter yet? If you don’t, you are not alone. Understanding how 140 characters can be turned into a viable relationship series that in turn leads to great sales is not easy for most people. Still, once you start analyzing Twitter, you will find that it is actually a very easy proposition, which can be taken in a series of steps.

First, you need to understand why many people use Twitter. People often use Twitter to connect with those who follow or share their interests. Twitter is a great way to follow a live feed of news and information on those topics. Interesting links and news that the follower might not have found otherwise are readily available. They also use Twitter to find a quick way to make connections, sometimes for deeper relationships and sometimes for professional advice.

Twitter begins with your short bio and a web link. The web link should go ahead and point to your main business website. The short bio should tell people more about who you are and what you stand for. When people join you in a network marketing business, or any business, they are actually looking for leadership. They are looking for people to teach and guide them to achieve success.

You should then use the search function and start following people interested in your niche. Many of these people will review your profile and follow you successively. Some won’t, and that’s okay. Over time, this website will spread as others interested in the same niche will follow you because the people they are already following will follow you. It forms a very exponential effect that can, if you do your job well, eventually grow to a large following over time.

Publishing regular content on the web should be a regular part of your business strategy. Videos, articles, blog posts, guest blog posts, Squidoo lenses, and hubpages help you pre-sell your opportunity or product. So does the material you put on your website. Every time you update this content, you should use a tweet to inform your followers. They are following you specifically because they want to receive these types of alerts. This ensures a constant flow of traffic to this content, to your website and, over time, to you. That traffic can be turned into sales and network members that will ultimately support your financial success and freedom.

Now, you can’t do it for you, you, you all the time. Nobody likes that. So be sure to follow relevant industry blogs and tweet their work from time to time. Pay attention to what your followers are tweeting and “retweeting”. Also participate in #followfriday. That’s when you pick people and recommend them to the rest of your followers as good people to follow. Each recommendation should be followed with the hashtag #followfriday.

Twitter is also interactive. Sometimes you will receive @mentions (that is, tweets that mention you by username) and direct messages. You should always acknowledge the first and reply to the second, even if the latter appears to be an automated message that was sent to you because you followed someone. When you do this, you will start to draw people into a conversation with you. Since people do business with whom they know, like, and trust, this can lead to even higher conversions once these people take a look at the broader web offering.

Lastly, don’t forget that your followers see you in every business from time to time! While your followers won’t want to know about every sandwich you make, a tweet that talks about you as a person from time to time won’t hurt at all.