Jack Dorsey, one of the founders and current CEO of social networking site Twitter, originally defined Twitter as “a short burst of inconsequential information”. What started as the simple sending and reading of 140 character ‘inconsequential’ tweets, has evolved frenetically into one of the largest microblogging platforms in the world, currently boasting over 300 million active users.

Twitter was created in 2006 with Dorsey publishing the first ‘tweet’ on March 21st entitled “just setting up my twttr”. While perhaps an uninspiring first tweet, since then the San Francisco company has grown exponentially to 25 offices and 3800 employees around the world.

Users access Twitter through mobile applications or websites seeking to engage in a vast array of media consumption. Reviewing news, engaging in conversations, undertaking self-promotion and performing social grooming are frequent Twitter interactions.

Twitter provides users the ability to send a tweet to a group of followers or directly to an individual, containing links, images, and videos. Bloggers utilize features such as hashtags to group posts by topic, retweets to forward favored messages, or likes to lend support to a post. Twitter usage tends to spike during prominent world events as enthusiasts turn to the platform encouraged by its reputation as an instant source of commentary and entertainment.

As a modern business, there are far-reaching implications of presence in a social media network such as Twitter. Notable business benefits of improving Twitter engagement include:

Increasing brand awareness - A well-executed Twitter strategy can increase the visibility of your brand online, as well as (perhaps strangely) providing a more human face to a corporate image.

Improve customer satisfaction - Take the opportunity to speak directly with customers, and improve service or support.

Promote blog content - Extend the reach of blog articles, videos, infographics or presentations. Create further opportunities for content engagement.

Increase website traffic - Twitter can drive a steady stream of incremental traffic to a website or online store through an effective content strategy. Equally critical, social signals are now a key component in search engine rankings. Improve Social, improve SEO.

Monitor trends and competitors - Watch a competitor’s every move and maintain tabs on emerging trends in your industry.

Customer Research - An engaged Twitter community can provide instant and valuable feedback on new products and services.

Freelancer.com is a global crowdsourcing marketplace that allows businesses to post jobs the freelancer community can bid to complete. If your social media management is in need of refinement, or you simply need to grow your Twitter following of prospective customers, then a freelancer skilled in social media is a cost-effective solution. You'll save your business the big bucks! Simply post a project (with a detailed description) and you'll start to receive bids within minutes. Alternatively, browse the freelancer directory, and hire freelancers directly from their profiles. It's that easy!

Freelancer.com is home to thousands of social media experts proficient in community growth, content creation, Twitter advertising, conversion rate optimization, design, and overall Twitter optimization. Improve your Twitter performance today! Post a project now.