Steve Mulder’s “5 Marketing Tips for Tackling Twitter” is one of the best Twitter-for-business posts yet. Like Chris Lynch writing about 4 business uses of Twitter in CIO, he breaks it into a simplified framework of five core ways businesses can engage.

He calls them “Marketing Tips” but that sells the piece short. I especially love that he starts with LISTENING; a universally valuable use of Twitter whether your business ever publishes there. Skeptical? Search your brand or keyword here, now.

1. Listen and learn. My favorite — and he backs it up with four very salient “found tweets” about Epson, Hertz and Applebee’s, among others.
2. Publish valuable news and information. His list of 5 types of existing content that you can publish through Twitter is an okay start, a feed with only those things would almost be worse than nonw. Fortunately he emphasizes cultivating an ear for Twitter first, and shows how @JetBlue and @WholeFoods push beyond “existing content” to engage their readers.
3. Distribute promotions. He cites @DellOutlet, the poster child for this, but also cautions brands to remember that “they’re interested in you because they want to engage with the brand in some way.” Put some fun, value and excitement into the way you deliver promotions. @DellOutlet followers know there are limited numbers and limited time. It’s appealing to bargain hunters, and fun.
4. Create or extend your brand personality. I love that instead of just saying “@@HRBlock, @Crocsinc and @Zappos do this well,” he shows specific examples of HOW they do it.
5. Engage in conversations and customer service. This is his best writeup yet, and again he backs up his point with illustrations of following others back (@barackobama vs @hillaryclinton), providing genuine, human replies (@jetblue, @netsolcares) and proactively engaging on the platform.