More and more companies are seeing the advantages of being on Twitter, but what many aren’t realizing is that there is a difference between being on Twitter and being active on Twitter.

I understand the point of securing your name on Twitter. I’m not talking about that level of inactive. I’m referring to the companies who are all push and no pull. They push their product launches, blog posts and discounts/specials but don’t engage their audience. If I reply to one of their tweets, I do expect a reply back – especially if it’s regarding a product, asking a question or initiating a conversation.

I’m much more likely to talk about and recommend a company who values the conversation between it and its customers. You dont have to let me know every detail of your work day or reply to every single one of my tweets, but let your followers know about a cool link you’ve found or something funny that happened to you on the way to work. Twitter is a great platform to remind people that you’re real and not just a corporation.

A couple examples of companies/organizations who get it:

• DPZRAMON

• Threadless

• elischeesecake

The other day someone asked me how I sorted through my following/followers list on Twitter. I find that this can be quite a daunting process when you have numbers in the triple digits.

What I look at immediately: Profile picture, bio statement and number of updates/followers/following.

I start the sorting process the minute I am notified of a new follower. I always go to their profile and check their stats: how many followers do they have and how many times have they updated? If they’re following 100+, but only have 1-10 followers, it makes me feel a little odd about returning the follow. If they’re following 100+ and I can count the number of times they’ve updated on one hand, then I definitely don’t follow.

Twitter is not a numbers game. I look at Twitter as an opportunity for conversation. I can have a quality conversation with one or ten people. If you make it obvious you’re only after a number, I will block you.

I admit that sometimes it’s easy to fall behind on a busy day and not have time to check out each profile. In that case I look at my followers list and let my mouse scroll over a Twitter username. If a bio pops up, I’m more likely to click on your profile and follow you back. Sometimes, depending on your bio, I won’t even check the profile – I’ll just follow. If you don’t have a bio, or if your username looks like “jslihgisae,” more times than not I will check out your profile, but proceed to blocking you.

So how do I find new people to follow? One of my favorite Twitter tools is Mr. Tweet. You start out by following Mr. Tweet and within a few hours, you’ll receive a DM with a link for you to click on. This link will show you who you should be following, based on who your followers are following. You can also see who is following you, but you aren’t following back. This is also a great place to recommend tweeters for others to follow.

Another great tool is #followfriday. #followfriday is a way for tweeters to highlight some of their followers or people they’re following. Check out your followers picks and recommend a few of your own.

Don’t underestimate the awesomeness of a tweet-up. Many people ask if they should go. Do you have Twitter? Yes? Then you should go! A tweet-up is just a meet-up for folks on Twitter. If you’re in Chicago, check out Chicago Tweetups for a list of all the fun tweet-ups happening in and around Chicago (follow them on Twitter and Facebook, too!) Outside of Chicago? No problem. Check out Happin.in. It shows you what’s being talked about in your city, including tweet-ups.

Here’s a great post from Mashable: 9 Ways to Find Twitter Users in Your Town

How do you find new people to follow on Twitter?

New to Twitter and not sure who you should be following? Or maybe you’ve been using Twitter for a while and are looking for more people in your area.

Check out my guide highlighting some of Chicago’s top Twitter feeds. If you see anyone who’s missing, or even if you want to add yourself, just leave a comment on the guide!

With networking events scheduled up the wazoo & BlogHer ‘09 right around the corner, having business cards on hand at all times is important. My cards were printed last year for BlogHer and I left out one important piece of information: my twitter link.

So far I’ve been using the back to write @freeandflawed on it, but then I found these:

Etsy shop-owner Scribblemonkey prints adorable twitter business cards to make your life that much easier. Printed on thick white glossy cardstock, these cards cost only $19 for a pack of 50.

Check out the rest of goodies Scribblemonkey has to offer here.

First, I have to thank Jon Bishop for sharing his list of Twitter Tools we should be using. Without that post, I would have never stumbled upon TweetGrid or Tweetworks.

Twittergrid is similar to Twitter Feed in the way that you can view twitter feeds. It’s different because unlike Twitter Search, the feed automatically updates so you don’t have to hit refresh. The best part is that you can arrange multiple searches into a grid-like pattern to help track different conversations. Jon used this feature during Red Sox games to get a play-by-play as well as learn what others were saying about the game.

Tweetworks is fairly new. I’ve only discovered it today, but I can’t believe it’s taken this long. With threaded comments and organized conversation, how could I NOT love Tweetworks? The community is still on the small side, but I’m noticing many 20SBers over there. Definitely check it out.