Before you start actively using Twitter, you need to create a  strategy of course as I have mentioned before you need to completely fill out your user profile with a photo or if not a photo of yourself a photo logo of your company. If your profile is personal and  looks legitimate you will stand a great chance to gain followers, very few people will have an inclination to follow a profile that doesn't look professional and legitimate. 

Systematically organize your websites and other profiles online                                                                                                                                                                                      Take a good look at your other websites and profiles and draft a Twitter bio to match the rest of your online branding. This is how people will find you and recognize you now and in the future, so be honest. Don’t brand yourself as an expert unless you already are one. Do brand yourself based on your passions and what you do know and are familiar with.

Create an eyecatching Twitter background                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Once you have your profile all filled out you should spend some time focusing on your Twitter background  which gives you the opportunity to extend your brand image on Twitter. It is a smart idea to create a Twitter background that resembles the colors format and logo of your personal or corporate  website. With pointers to contact information  more of your websites or information about products or services you sell. Sites that will help you develop good custom backgrounds are Twitpaper  which is 100% free or  Twitteimage which has a professional and free section the link will take you to the free section. 

Some creative techniques of branding yourself on Twitter:

How to lead with your Company  for example I am Dusty Crawford you can put your company name ahead of yourself by using @twitgurureview.com as an account name but I use my personal avatar in my bio. This way I am building my services brand name while associating my own name with this service this also gives my review a personality.

Mutual branding more and more companies are realizing that their employees are on Twitter  and that they can be tapped to help promote their initiatives. So some companies are using mutually branding twitter accounts so that the avatar has the persons picture and corporate logo.

100% Personal branding if you are trying to build a strong personal brand then of course focus your Twitter handle, avatar and bio information 100% on you instead of your company or product.

Become known as an expert                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, then I recommend using Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically.

For many people, Twitter has become a filter. Trusted experts are relied upon to send their followers interesting and relevant links. You can subscribe to blogs and keywords using Google.com/alerts, and then act as an arbiter for your topic, constantly pushing out the best content. Do you want to become known as a personal finance enthusiast? What about a search engine marketing consultant? The best thing you can do for your brand on Twitter is to take your current interests and activities and establish a feed on Twitter to deliver that content to your audience again and again.

Create a Twitter Marketing Plan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Just like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in place to acquire new followers.

Elements of a Twitter marketing plan:

• Email signature: You probably already place your blog or website URL and contact information in your email signature, so why not add your Twitter handle? It’s free promotion and every email you send can turn into a new follower.

• Personal/corporate website: If you already have a website for you and/or your company, then you have a platform on which you can promote your Twitter address to people who will probably be interested in following you.

• Blog homepage + posts: Your blog is a great place to promote your Twitter account because most people who read blogs know what Twitter is. You should take a two pronged approach. First, put your Twitter address in one of your sidebars and second, promote it discretely in posts every once in a while.

• Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that each email has a link to your account.

• Presentations: Do you do any public speaking? Why not include your Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and tell people that they can follow you on Twitter?

• Business Card: Try including your Twitter handle on your business card. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, did this with his card.

• Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a magazine, news website or guest post on a blog, try to include your Twitter handle in your byline.

• Networking on Twitter: By using the “@” symbol and either retweeting or communicating with other people, you’ll have some of them responding to you, thus promoting your Twitter account to many of their followers.

• Promotional products: Some people take Twitter promotion to the next level: Ted Murphy, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that have your Twitter handle.

Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the easier it is to grow your already existing community. Retweets and following other people are two essential ways to get new followers. However, content is king on Twitter, so it is vital to make sure you produce consistent, quality tweets.

Utilize third party applications

There are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few that can really help you build your personal brand. The apps below will help you stay in touch with your industry, find people you can network with, save you precious time, and push out your content.

            • Twellow(): Find people in your industry to follow and connect with using this Twitter yellow pages guide. You can find more Twitter directories here.

• Tweetbeep: Keep track of your brand reputation by getting alerts through email when your brand is mentioned on Twitter.

• Tweetmeme: Put a button on your blog that allows your readers to more easily retweet your posts.

• Hashdictionary: Keep track of conversations that include hashtags on Twitter.

• Ping.fm(): Save time by sending messages to all of your social networks at once.

• Twitter Grader: A site that ranks your influence in the Twitter world based on an algorithm. You can see where you stand in your town, city, state or country, as well.

• Tweetlater: Schedule tweets so that they are published automatically in the future. It’s a real time saver.

 Form a Twitter Mastermind group

• Grouptweet: This app lets users create groups and broadcast messages to each other via direct messages sent to the group’s Twitter account.

• Twitter Groups: This site allows you to tag your followers and place them into different groups. You can then send messages to those groups without needing to send them to each person individually.