If you brushed once a week for a half hour, does it do any good?  What about once a day for 30 seconds?  A dentist friend of mine said if people brushed for a solid five minutes twice a day and flossed once a day, most dental problems would be solved.  Twitter is the same thing … it’s digital hygene for your brand or business.

The power of Twitter lies in the consistency of presence … and presence does not need to be a constant stream of new content.  It can be re-tweets, small commentary, and links to cool pages.

Like brushing your teeth, it’s simply a habit to form.  And like brushing your teeth once you get in the habit, if you ignore it for too long you start to feel strange.

How often should one be on Twitter?  There is no right answer.  It has everything to do with who you are, what you are saying, and how much you want to put into it.  However, here are some guidelines that I suggest:

• Hop onto Twitter in micro-bursts.  Jump in for five to fifteen minutes at a time, see what’s going on, retweet good content, and post some thoughts.
• Use these micro-bursts to stay connected in your network but not control your networking.  In other words, make use of the passive nature of Twitter effectively (“window shopping with commentary”).  Personally, I aim for one to four “bursts” a day.
• Be cognizant of when people you want to communicate with tend to be on Twitter.  There are many studies done to this effect, but roughly if you are using Twitter for business the early morning through afternoon shows more activity; if you are using it socially late afternoon to the evening tends to see more action. Mainly, don’t think micro-bursting at 2am is a good idea unless you’re bar-hopping.
• Realize that Twitter is an amazing source of chatter from a chosen group — the people you chose to follow.  Make use of it.
• Never forget: Anybody who tweets anything does it because they want to be heard.  If you show them you’re listening, your connection just grew stronger.