There is no shortage of discussions about Twitter, which is ironic, as each tweet is at most 140 characters, the length of this sentence.

Yet most people wonder how—and even why—this so-called phenomenon is being used. Is there an ROI? Who has the time? If you are just getting into Twitter, or have been using it without much success, consider the following micro-blogging strategies.

Strategies to adopt

Strategic Sender: You send updates—usually self-centred—to let your clients, colleagues, and suppliers know about your important professional activities. You may do an update once or twice weekly—not more often, or your Tweets may look like spam. You may be a Reader as well—someone who quietly drops by blogs.

Trusted Guru: You are a person who is completely up-to-date in your area of expertise, and share this by tweeting links, short editorial comments, and other value-added content several times daily. You know that what your tweets say must meet ethical and regulatory requirements. And you rarely Tweet about your personal activities.

Asker: You are concerned about what your customers, prospects, and the Twitterverse thinks. Instead of telling the world something (e.g., “Just launched the Gizmo-212, find out more here.”), you ask people for their opinion (e.g., “Anyone using our new Gizmo-212? What do you think?) While it sounds like market research, it is really more about the conversation than the data collection.

Lurker: You are a consumer of information. You have followed a number of people (friends, family, colleagues, and a few experts), and they provide you with intelligence relevant to your work and personal life. You rarely Tweet yourself.

Searcher: You don’t follow many people, but you use the Twitter Search functionality to review trending topics and links to newly available resources. You don’t typically post much at all. Twitter search is your new version of Google.

Strategies to avoid

Spammer: Your main goal is to collect followers and then send links to a product or service sales page, often several times each day. In the same way that email spam is unappreciated, following this strategy is a quick way to get yourself “unfollowed.”

Time-Waster: You follow others who provide a steady stream of information that you find fascinating but is of low value. And in turn, you provide your followers with the minute details of whatever happens to be on your mind.

False Prophet: You try to establish authority by virtue of the quality of your posts, but where you have little or no real-world expertise. Unfortunately for everyone in the Twitterverse, real-life Trusted Gurus are often too busy to actually implement a Trusted Guru strategy, clearing the way for False Prophets.

Consider which strategies work for you and don’t waste your time doing things that don’t give you a good return on your time investment.