Angela from Melbourne asks:
    
    "Is there a tool that I can use to direct message new follows on Twitter and follow them back?"
    Hi Angela,
    Absolutely! I use www.socialoomph.com It's FREE, really easy to use and allows you to:
    
    1. Send direct messages to new Twitter followers - you can even rotate the messages so that you are not sending the same message to every new follower.
    2. Follow back - however I generally recommend AGAINST this.
      
    Why?



You will end up with a huge mass of tweets to deal with - many of them of ABSOLUTELY no interest and a lot of them literally SPAM. Many people are only following in order to get followers back - not the kind of people you want to be following. You might as well get rid of them quickly by not following them in the first place. Even though you can group your followers to only see the Tweets that you are interested in - why make work having to sort out the wheat from the chaff?
    
I recommend only following people you are GENUINELY REALLY interested in... and classify them into the following five groups:

Personal

• Group 1 - your friends - obviously.
• Group 2- People who Tweet about things that you are personally interested in (news, celebrities, hobbies, personal interests etc - whatever you want to be kept posted on.)
  

Business

• Group 1 - your clients, leads and business associates - that way you can see what they are talking about and stay involved in the conversation.
• Group 2- Gurus in your industry (or closely related industries or topics) .. keep up with what is going on and join in the conversation .. be seen as a Guru too (which of course you are!)
• Group 3 - General business Gurus that you particularly admire that you want to follow and engage in the conversation...

Make sure that you get on top of creating groups as soon as possible so that you don't end up with a huge mess to clean up.  (Spoken from the bitter experience of over 3,000 followers in one big pool!)
    
Social Oomph also allows you to schedule Tweets in advance.. very useful to be able to set and forget things like daily hints and tips and the like.

However remember the key to success on Twitter is engaging in the conversation at least once or twice a day and making sure that you watch out for what other people are saying about you and responding to it. (The bad as well as the good.)
    
If you would like more help with Twitter or other social media strategies check out www.networkingworld.net.au/social_media
    
Hope that helps.
    
Warm regards,
The SMART Business Networker