One thing that many people on Twitter tend to do a lot is tweet wisdom quotes from famous writers, thinkers and philosophers. It's a good tactic because these nuggets are obviously high quality content. And they fit very nicely within that 140 character limit.

Many to choose from

The fact that you don't have to come up with them yourself is another big bonus, of course. So if you find a good source of such quotes and tweet them from time it's a very good way of keeping your stream flowing.

For these reasons it's not surprising that quite a high proportion of really popular and influential Twitter users employ this tactic. When you're getting established on the site yourself, these are obviously good people to follow and make yourself known to. So here's a way to use their reliance on wisdom quotes to your own advantage:

Good to retweet and engage with

Wait until you see a quote that you like and retweet it to show your appreciation. Then reply to the user who sent it, adding a complementary observation of your own. You could also add a bit of humour. That always goes down well on Twitter.

You could also try the controversial approach and disagree with it, saying why. This probably won't offend the user because it's not his own original thought. So the chances of it putting him offside are not great.

A quick, effective tactic

This is a good tactic because it's quick. It's not like responding to an article or blog post that the user links to because they always take a bit of time to read.

Needless to say, they will appreciate the retweet. And the follow up reply will make you stand out some more. Sometimes they'll follow you if they haven't already. Or they'll reply to your tweet about the quote or retweet it, thereby exposing your handle to many more people.

If you want to market something on Twitter, it's crucial that you engage with other users. One tactic I've focused on recently has been to tweet questions related to my blogging niche. It definitely works well.

They are good ice breakers

There's no mystery about why it does get results, of course. You're basically breaking the ice and inviting responses from other members. Copywriters might say that a question has an implicit "call to action". Also, considering that so many tweeps are just tweeting links and quotes and the like, question marks tend to stand out in their streams.

They attract experts

Not only is it a good way of connecting with people generally, I think it's effective for engaging with particularly helpful and knowledgeable tweeps. These are the kind of people who will be willing show their expertise about a subject by answering it, after all. So it's a good idea to keep your questions closely related to your niche and specific in nature if you can.

Results vary according to niche

I've been using this tactic occasionally across different accounts. I have noticed quite a difference in its effectiveness between them. For example, when I'm logged into my SEO and social media related account and ask a question, I get the odd answer here and there. And the tweeps who do respond tend to give me their answer and that's about it.

But if I do the same thing when logged into my politically themed account, I get many more responses. And these connections tend to develop into muti-tweet discussions or arguments. I think the reason for this is because politics engages the emotions a lot more than than subjects like social media use do.

Related ebook: Twitter Marketing Tips to Help You Make Money with Twitter.

Twitter is like a universe in itself. And it has stimulated the creation of a whole bunch of other sites to help people use and analyze it more effectively. One of these is Twopcharts.

You can utilize this site in many ways. But it's particularly good for people who are new to Twitter and hoping to connect with quality local tweeps. This is because you can search Twopcharts by location and see who the top tweeps in each city are. Having found all the best local "influencers" you can decide whether you want to follow them or not. You can also check their lists of followers to find others to follow.

Because it's got a really straightforward interface, you can see the progress of certain people over several months and get a better idea about what they're like.

For example, I was checking out the top tweeps in Perth, where I live. I noticed that one of them had unfollowed heaps of people over a couple of months. Looking through his history I saw that this guy was using a churning method to beef up his follower numbers.

That is, he was following large numbers of people, so they would follow back, then dumping them when he had the chance. Not a good look in my opinion. And that made him someone to avoid.

Related ebook: How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business.