You’re probably also wondering what the point is of something that lets you write just 140 characters - and that’s certainly the most common reaction of newbie Twitterers. Over the past year, we’ve been experimenting with Twitter on a fairly extensive basis - you can “follow” me here >>>.

The key question that we’ve been trying to answer is this: Is Twitter a useful business tool?

And the conclusion? Twitter can be great for business, for the following purposes:

• To extend your online profile, brand and reputation
• To connect with colleagues, prospects, clients and more
• To act as a bridge that links up your other online profiles
• To gather instant feedback and responses to questions

There’s one thing we’ve learned however which is crucial to maximising the benefit and ROI of using Twitter…minimise and restrict the time you spend on Twitter.

Once you ‘get’ it, it is seriously addictive and spending 2-3 hours a day, reaps no more benefits from a business/positioning/marketing perspective than spending 30m-1 hour a day tweeting.

We keep our fingers on the pulse in a number of ways when it comes to useful apps and software - largely by keeping up with the latest trends and by taking part in the beta releases of some of the popular new services before they hit the mainstream.

We’ve identified a number of fantastic tools which we believe are more than just flash-in-the-pan, here today gone tomorrow solutions. To find out what they are and how they can help your business, join our mailing list over on the right >>>

It’s not hard to see why so many of the ‘with it’ software and technology companies are starting blogs - but what about the more ‘traditional’ companies?

Is it worth starting a blog to market your accounting business? Or what about your law firm? Or how about your consultancy business or private health care business? Can a blog help you?

What sort of things do you need to consider if you’re thinking of starting a blog for your business?

These are some of the key questions we ask Project Woodward clients when they come to us and ask about our blog packages…

Do you have the time to blog?
For a blog to be an effective marketing tool, it requires regular posts which means that you (or someone in your business) need to find the time to write the posts in order to stand a chance of using your blog as an effective marketing tool.

Do you understand what a blog can do for your business?
Many business owners have heard of blogging and decide to try it, only to give up when, after a few weeks of posting, they’ve had no response yet alone generated any new business. Understanding exactly what a blog can do for your business and how it should be used is vital to its success.

What do you plan to blog about? And will this provide value to your readers/prospects/target market?
Part of your blogging strategy (yes, like any good marketing plan, you need a strategy to implement it), should cover the topics you plan to blog about. Ideally you already know a fair bit about your target market and so you should have an idea about what topics they’re likely to want to read on your blog.

Will you have the time to also market your blog?
Like a website, simply launching a blog and expecting to attract thousands of visitors and readers is at best foolishly optimistic and at worst a complete waste of your time and money. A successful blog is underpinned by a successful marketing plan for that blog.

Starting a business blog to help market and promote your business could be one of the best things you’ve ever done; if you’re going to do it but know nothing about blogging, make sure you take the time to do it right and talk to someone who knows what to do before taking the plunge - it will potentially save you hours of wasted effort and hundreds of wasted dollars.