Do you really need a twitter strategy?

I was chatting with a client yesterday and somehow we got on to twitter. "I still haven't put together my twitter strategy" he said. And I thought... twitter strategy? Do I have a twitter strategy? Do I even need a twitter strategy?

So how about you? Do you have a twitter strategy for your business?

For those of you that haven't stumbled upon the delights of twitter yet, twitter provides you with the opportunity to connect, build relationships and share your expertise with millions of people out there in just 140 characters. It's a bit like a permanent Facebook status feed! 

Everyone has their own agenda when it comes to twitter. Some will use it to chat to their favourite celebrity (and I have to be honest, I'm not immune to the lure of chatting to the Home Show's George Clarke!), others use it to chat to friends and others use it for business. I have to say, I tend to use it for all three because my life is more than my business...

So if you're using twitter for business, do you need a strategy?

My gut reaction is absolutely not! But you do need to give it some consideration. There are those who think numbers are everything, who sign up to all manner of schemes to get followers. They then spend all of their time trying to "push" visitors to their site or get them to sign up for their "free reports". Now I have no objection to that in moderation - but I mean moderation! I'll tend to tweet about my workshops once or twice a month, the rest of the time I try to add value or actually interact with the people. Because it's all about the people for me.

I do consider what I tweet about because people will form an impression of me, and so I try to stick by the mantra "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". And I try and get a balance between work @fionahumberston the marketing and branding person (I'm loathe to use the word Guru or Expert: let's let the readers decide eh?) and @fionahumberston the mum of two, wife and jam making/ baking/ gardening enthusiast! Why? Because I'm a real, 3D person, not just a celeb hunter or a workaholic (although that said I am writing this on a saturday ;-( ). 

So I guess I do have a twitter strategy of sorts. But ask me for targets, plans, goals and a file on my laptop called "twitter strategy" and I can't give it to you. My twitter strategy is called "a spoonful of common sense". How about yours?