Set goals-and meet them.

Want more customers? To increase in-store transactions? To improve the perception of your brand? Set goals as the first step to develop more effective ways to engage your audience and grow your business.

Don't be afraid to ask.

Get proactive. Ask your customers if they are following you on Twitter and what they think about your Tweets. Find out if there's anything you can do differently that would make the experience better or more valuable for them.

Define metrics.

Do some thinking about how you'll measure your success. Will you track how many followers you get per week or how much your followers interact with your account daily? Here are some metrics to consider:

• Follower growthHow many new followers you get every day, week or month.
• Follower quality and engagementHow many users interact with your account.
• ReachHow many users favorite or retweet your Tweets.
• TrafficHow many users go to your site.
• ConversionHow many users sign up for your service or buy your product.