With its informal style and direct access to decision-makers, Twitter is an ideal social platform for lead generation and rapport-building.

Follow & Engage: Following clients and prospects can alert you to sales opportunities and give you the chance to build rapport. Engage buyers by retweeting, favoriting and replying to their tweets. Relatedly, tweet out links to original content your clients and prospects create, such as blog posts, videos and even deals. Include their Twitter handles in such tweets.

Do Hashtag Research: Search hashtags related to clients, as well as industries and niches you consistently sell into. You’re likely to find interesting content that you can tweet to buyers. Plus, the knowledge you gain can help you build stronger relationships with clients/prospects and better understand their needs. You may also learn about events – think trade shows and conferences – for which buyers could require branded merchandise.

Organize Your Feed: Use Twitter lists to group together different people and companies you follow. Theme the lists as you see fit – by industry, top clients or top prospects. This segmentation empowers you to cut through the clutter and quickly focus on what’s most relevant from the most important people you follow.

Be Visual: Including images amplifies the impact of your tweets. Consider that tweets with images get 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets.

Present Yourself Well: Have a quality profile picture. Include a mini biography that features your value proposition, company Twitter handle, an insight or two, and key hashtags. Consider featuring a link to your LinkedIn profile.

Limit Direct Selling: From Twitter: “80% of your tweets should focus on driving interactions with your followers, such as retweets, replies and likes. Once you’ve built some rapport, you can mix in direct offers or promotions that get followers to take action, such as clicking on a link or making a purchase from your website.”

Promote Tweets: When you do tweet offers and promotions, consider paying to have them promoted, which can extend their reach. With promoted tweets, try to limit posts to 100 characters or less. Look to include a website card or rich media, such as photos or videos. Featuring these things boosts engagement.

Be Relevant: Share content that is interesting, entertaining and/or useful to your desired audience. Interject wit and humor. Share motivational and inspiring quotes.

Watch this “Twitter Business Hacks” video from social media ace Josh Coffy for tips on how to gain 20,000 followers on Twitter:

Check out these tips for getting the most reach and engagement through promoted tweets.