I’m meeting with a client Friday to help her more effectively engage using online social media. She knows she needs to be on Twitter — and with Twitter’s exponential growth who shouldn’t be? But she’s smart to ask for advice before jumping on the bandwagon like so many other companies do. Twitter is like any other community you want to engage, you need to know the culture. As someone who has been addictively using Twitter everyday for the past three years, I thought I’d share some quick tips for Twitter success.

1) Don’t follow others simply for follow backs. Twitter users love to see their follower list grow, but we recognize spam when we see it. Many companies entering the Twittersphere will simply follow 2,000 random people (the limit before Twitter catches on that you are spamming) with the hope that some will follow back. This may seem like an easy way to get followers, but it is actually quite annoying to those of us who are using Twitter to genuinely engage with other community members. We recognize these faux-followers as clutter. Further, what is the point in following people who are not relevant stakeholders for your business? Just don’t do it.

2) Encourage your customers and stakeholders to follow you. Rather than looking for random followers on Twitter, inform your own customers and stakeholders that you have a Twitter account and ask them to follow you. Include your Twitter account on your website, blogs and e-mails. If you really want to drive followers to your account, consider doing a giveaway or offering special discounts and promo codes via Twitter. You also can offer rewards to people who tweet about your company.

3) Don’t over tweet. If you have something helpful or important to communicate, Twitter is a great medium for marketing. However, hourly tweets can be overkill. I’ve left a lot of people I was following simply because they were cluttering up my Twitter timeline. If you have a high volume of news that you want to communicate in real time, offer an RSS feed. Keep your tweets to no more than three to five per day and make them count.

4) Interact with followers. Follow your followers and interact with them using @replies. By following your stakeholders, you are able to learn more about their attitudes and opinions. This will help you better understand your target market and offer valuable feedback for product development.

5) Use Twitter as a tool for customer service. Use Summize to find out who is tweeting about you and what they are saying. Then, tweet them back. You may find someone is griping about customer service and that there is something you can do to remedy the problem. Or you may be happy to see someone is pleased with your company, in which case, a quick thank you reply goes a long way.