Twitter has become omni-present.  A lifeline for Iranian protesters; kept open at the request of the Whitehouse.  Quoted on the Today programme.  Dropped into sitcoms to make them feel up to the minute.  Even my, 80-year-old, mum wants to know what it’s all about.

These days we’re constantly meeting bewildered people who feel under pressure to enter what, to them, looks like a geeky world of impenetrable #tags, re-tweets, and tiny urls.  They know that if they don’t join in, they’ll get left behind.

One recent tweet summed it all up: “Saying you don’t use Twitter is like saying you don’t use email.”

Inevitably as more people are tweeting, other people, with dollar signs in their eyes, are trying to harness Twitter for commercial (or charitable) gain.  Yet, despite the attentions of growing numbers of experts, it’s hard to isolate techniques that will guarantee success.

Twitter is frustratingly resistant to marketing.  And that’s part of the appeal to most of its users.  Even with it’s huge popularity, Twitter still feels guerrilla-like.  A bit underground.  I love the fact that it’s got so many marketeers stumped.

Of course, that doesn’t stop them trying.  Companies are springing up all over offering to tweet on behalf of their “too busy” clients.  Personally, I think that money spent in this way is wasted.  No-one is fooled by these corporate tweeters pushing a party line.  It’s a bit like charging into the middle of a private party and yelling: “BUY BUDGENS BISCUITS!!!”  You may interrupt the conversation for a moment but you’ll be ignored for the idiot that you are.

Sometimes, the consequences of this kind of disconnected tweeting are downright disastrous.  Habitat’s ‘social media agency’, noticing the trending discussion on Iran was attracting huge numbers, added keywords (with hashtags), like  ‘#Iran‘ and ‘#Mousavi‘ to its tweets, so people watching the twitterstream and discussing those subjects would see the firm’s marketing messages.  Result: mass offence was taken at such crassness.

Far from selling products, Habitat found itself at the receiving end of a consumer backlash.

Personality, emotion, authenticity – the sense that a real person is talking – these are the drivers at work on Twitter.  The paradox of Twitter is that it is a massive collection of private conversations being held in public (like a great big party). Be sensitive about how you join them.

Remember, it’s a social medium.  It offers the possibility for social alchemy – the right statement at the right moment, to the right group of people, with the right emotional ring to it can result in actions that become social gold.

If you want people to be interested in you, you need to give them a reason.  You need them to like you.  Marketing rules don’t apply here, more the rules of the schoolyard.