One of the most asked questions I hear from clients and in my Twitter Stream is how much should I be Tweeting every day?

Every time I tell them a story, that always helps them understand my suggested number of daily Tweets.

A number of years ago, my kids would mumble about our ‘aimless excursions to no-where’.  We would get in the car and drive perhaps aimlessly across the country trunk roads in rural Wisconsin, simply exploring, taking in the scenery and fall colors.

After a time, we would get hungry and begin the search for road signs for the next restaurant.  On many occasion, we would come across an ad for a diner or restaurant, and started to think about what we would eat.  Only when we pulled into the parking lot, there were no other cars parked there.  To many of us, the sign of an empty parking lot is an indication that the food or service there was not good enough for other people to be eating there at lunchtime.

I want you to think about the tweets on your Twitter.com page; they are your parking lot.  People will come across your page looking for information or knowledge to consume to solve their problems.  If you are not Tweeting consistently, they will take this as a sign that there is nothing good here and will continue their excursion across the Twitterverse to find answers to their questions and needs.

In my eBook, Master the Twitterverse, I share the importance of filling your tweet stream with good tweets before you begin to follow others.

To expand on this idea, think about all those people driving by your Twitter page and not seeing consistent daily messages.  Would you like them to stay and check out your messages, and begin creating a relationship with them thru those messages that will invite them to read more of your tweets and click the follow button?

In just 15 minutes, twice a day – you’ll fill up your tweet stream and turn on the follow magnets.

I suggest that a new Tweeter with a purpose of building their community and business post 20 messages a day.  It is really much simpler than you think.

* First from your list of great tweeters, industry leaders, authors, etc – scan thru and find 5 to 10 messages to ReTweet (RT).

* Next in your Mentions, under the Connections tab, scan thru to find tweets from people who’ve commented to you about a previous tweet, or who are reaching out to connect with you. Answer all these each and every day.

* Pick up to 5 people a day to reach out and start a conversation with. Go to their Twitter page, web site and learn something about them, and begin your conversations complimenting them on something you discovered.

* Subscribe to services such as: Ezine Articles or Stumble Upon to find and share articles of topics of interest to your community.

* Once a week share your blog posts, and remember it takes time to build rapport and trust on Twitter, so don’t try to sell anything until 2K tweets & followers (more info on this in Master the Twitterverse eBook).

These are just a few of many possible methods of creating 20 tweets a day.

By doing so, you’ll show the people you follow and who stop by your page that you are on Twitter to connect with others and provide value – all of which invites them to stay and want to learn more.  There are far too many accounts that have been neglected or look abandoned – keep your tweet activity consistently consistent, and in time your following and engagement will dramatically increase.