By: Garin Kilpatrick

Twitter is a great way to connect with new people and to help swell your sphere of influence by thousands if you are so inclined. From my research from watching my Twitter Stream I have read many blog posts and come up with 5 tips that will help you on your way to becoming a Twitter Pro! Using these five Tips combined with working hard to connect with new people are the reasons why I now have over 24,000 followers and why I continue to connect with new people via Twitter every single day.

Twitter Tip #1 – Tweet Like a Pro

A great way to tweet like a pro is to tweet about the hottest stories on twitter.

TweetMeme.com is just one way to find the hottest topics, you can also search twitter for topics you are interested or you can jump in on Trending Topics. A history of all trending topics is tweeted about by @trendingtopics.

I find that there is usually at least one trending topic at any time that I can use to easily find something to tweet about.

Some people say that Hash Tags are dead but using the hashtag in the tweet above included my tweet in a common trending topic hashtag thread. If you don’t use a hash tag (#) when there is one beside the trending topic title (ie. #MichaelJackson) then your comment will not be included in the trending topic thread on Twitter or included in related websites like HashTags.org.

Write Re-Tweetable Tweets. You should try whenever possible to leave the length of your username so that if someone likes your tweet they will have enough space to retweet your name. My Username (@GarinKilpatrick) is 15 letters (16 with the @ symbol) so I subtract this from 140 and try and make all of my tweets under 124 so that they can be retweeted easily. If you are not completely sure about what re-tweeting is pay extra attention to this next tip.

Twitter Tip #2 – ReTweet Like a Pro

ReTweeting is the act of re-delivering a message of another Twitter user, and giving them credit.

So here is how to ReTweet.

The Tweet about this Blog Post: 5 Tips to Use Twitter like a Pro http://bit.ly/5twittertips

Is ReTweeted Properly like this:

@YourUsername: RT @GarinKilpatrick 5 Tips to Use Twitter like a Pro http://bit.ly/5twittertips

or @YourUsername: 5 Tips to Use Twitter like a Pro! http://bit.ly/5twittertips (via @GarinKilpatrick)

or @YourUsername: Your comments (great post!) RT @GarinKilpatrick 5 Tips to Use Twitter like a Pro! http://bit.ly/5twittertips

There is even a Retweeting News site called the Retweetist that tracks ReTweets and lists them in order.

One strategy that some people use to help spread the really important posts is by asking people to please retweet. For example since I really want people to know about this Blog post I will probably tweet this: 5 Tips to Use Twitter like a Professional http://bit.ly/5twittertips (Please RT!

Twitter Tip #3 – Use A Twitter Program li

A Twitter Program is software that you can download for free that works as an interface between you and Twitter. I like to use the Web Based version of Twitter in tandem with an Application, because the programs Seemsic Desktop, TweetDeck and Twhirl, offer unique tools that are not available through the browser.

Some of the unique features these programs offer:

• Seemsic Desktop imports your Facebook Stream, and has built in link shortening.

• Twhirl (Also owned by seesmic) provides a compact interface and also supports friendfeed integration.

• TweetDeck is the most popular twitter program right now. It supports facebook status posts, groups, translation, customization, and more.

All three of these programs are available for Windows or Mac.

My Recommendations. Right now TweetDeck is the most powerful program. Seesmic is doing a good job as competition with their Seesmic Desktop and Twhirl and they are certainly a company to look out for.

Twitter Tip #4 – Be a Twitter Pro on the Go

Life happens everywhere, not just when you are sitting down at your computer. Tweeting on the go is is fun, and there are many different mobile apps allow you to engage with Twitter on different mobile devices. Due to it’s text messaging style and strong mobile presence Twitter is probably the best way to get up to the minute breaking news, (or to spread it.)

Mobile Twitter Applications for the iPhone include TweetDeck and Tweetie, among others, and for the Blackberry my favorite app is TwitterBerry! There are so many apps out there for these devices that I have not had the time yet to investigate them all, so please share your favorites in the comments below!

Twitter Tip #5 – Link like a Pro

Twitter shortens long links automatically using the link shortening service bit.ly. To link like a pro I recommend you take 2 seconds and sign up for a bit.ly account. Once you are signed up you can create custom links as I am doing in the image below.

By entering “5twittertips” into the field above I was able to create the link http://bit.ly/5twittertips for this post. Since I have an account I am also able to keep track of how many visitors have visited each link. There is also a box beneath the custom name field (partially visible above) which allows you to tweet your newly created link to Twitter directly within bit.ly.

Bonus Tip: Want an even shorter link? Try using the “world smallest” url shortening service 3.ly.

And those are my 5 Twitter Tips! Make sure to check out my Ultimate Tweetdeck Tutorial and add a comment below!