Today the online world is atwitter with article after article insisting you must be on Twitter, have a presence on Facebook, and a profile on LinkedIn, not to mention have a blog and a YouTube channel and whatever other social media platforms are currently hot.

What’s the bottom line?  What do you really need to do/have?

Here’s my multi-part answer:

First, one size does NOT fit all.  Your reasons for being on social media – to make friends, to network with potential clients, to create relationships with potential customers – and what “business” you are in – are you promoting a brand, book, cause or business? – have a great deal to do with which social media platforms would be best for you.

Second, there’s the question of your personality.  I’m a writer, so blogging comes naturally to me.  But I actually believe in “less is more” when it comes to writing. Thus I love the 140-character limit of a tweet on Twitter for communicating certain information.

Plus I’m disciplined – I have my Twitter strategy down to a system WITHOUT using any automated applications to “follow back,” for example.  Other people I know set a timer so that they don’t get sucked into the tweet world for longer than a set amount of time.

Third, in terms of time, which social media activities are you most likely to keep up consistently and continually?  For example, when I’m deciding whether to follow someone back on Twitter, I look at the person’s tweets.  If he/she has only tweeted once every other month, I know that person is not a committed Twitter participant and I won’t follow back.

In other words, it is better to only be active on one or two social media platforms – and truly contribute to the communities there – than to dip your toe into everything online but not add value to any of these communities.

Look, I know that certain social media platforms can be intimidating even though they appear “easy.”  I clearly remember two years ago when a guru I trusted recommended Twitter.  I came to the join page (recently changed) which said something like “Let your friends and family know what you are doing.”  And I thought to myself, “Why would I do that?  Why would they care?”

Luckily a few days later I returned to the join page and actually joined.  And then I learned that the question posed on the join page is NOT really what using Twitter effectively is all about.

What Twitter is all about is connecting with like-minded people and sharing information with these people and learning from them at the same time.  Yes, I use Twitter as my news feed (who has time to look at my Google Reader and see all the blog post feeds I signed up for and don’t read?)

Instead, when I glance at my Twitter feed and see a tweet from someone I trust about a topic that interests me – I click through the provided link.  (And if the info seems valuable I usually print it out to read later rather than read it right then.)

Now I admit that people are fooled when they think Twitter is “simple.”  This results in people on Twitter doing all kinds of ineffective and incorrect things.

(Please, please, if I could convince everyone reading this guest post to NOT do one thing, I’d be a very happy guest blogger: Do NOT choose a dark color for your Twitter profile sidebar background. The 160-character-limit bio you then include is NOT readable by people who aren’t wearing night vision goggles – and maybe not even then.  If you want people to read your bio in order to connect with you, make sure they can actually READ the bio.)

The answer to using Twitter – and other social media platforms – effectively and correctly?

Read every free blog post or article you can in order to learn the best practices of Twitter.  (I’m on my fourth three-ring binder of the most valuable Twitter info I’ve read over the past two years and that doesn’t count the physical books I’ve bought and read.)

FYI – Sometimes the experts disagree.  My policy then is to figure out “where those differing experts are coming from” and then adjust the conflicting recommendations for my own social media marketing perspective and strategies.

In conclusion, social media marketing opportunities are growing by leaps and bounds.  Facebook, for one, makes changes so frequently that it is often very difficult to keep up.  But, remember, you don’t need to know everything.  You do need to keep an open mind and be willing to learn from others.

And then one day you, too, may have the Twitter epiphany that people who commit to learning how to use Twitter effectively often have: “My heavens, 140 characters can be the most powerful marketing on the web.  How did I ever get along without it?”

Guest Author: Phyllis Zimber Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.  Grab her FREE report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3” at www.millermosaicllc.com/power-of-3/.