While everyone is familiar with Twitter, many are unaware of its usefulness as a business tool. In my Technology TrendAlert newsletters, I’ve reported on how some retailers are making use of the platform, and mentioned that it can be used as a free mobile marketing system. But to create a successful program requires involvement on both the part of you, the grocer, and your customers.

To help you with the process, I put together a “how to” guide for you — and for your customers. Part I of this blog details the steps the retailer has to take to set up mobile marketing using Twitter. Part II covers the steps your customers will have to take to become part of the program. Please feel free to print out Part II and hand it to your shoppers as a guide.

So, here are the steps:

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Step 1: Set up a Twitter account for your business

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If you don’t already have a Twitter account, this is a fairly straightforward process. Go to Twitter’s home page and click the Get Started — Join button. Try an pick a name that is easily recognizeable for your store, one that’s easy for your shoppers to remember. I created an account called “sample grocer” as you can see in the above example.

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Step 2: Build a blog to host your mobile promotions.

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Since Twitter only allows users to enter updates (called “tweets”) up to 144 characters in length, you need to have a place online to host your promotions that your tweets can link to. I recommend using Blogger, even if you already have a blog, as this is specifically for mobile devices and regular blogs may be too complex to render properly on a cell phone. You want your blog for mobile marketing to be as simple as possible.

To set up your blog, visit Blogger and sign up for free. As with the twitter account, give your blog a recognizeable name, though the name is not as important as your Twitter account, as the URL will be replaced by one from a URL-shortening service, which you’ll see in a couple of steps.

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Step 3: Choose a blog template – simple is best

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When you reach the point where you choose your blog templatre, scroll down the selection of templates to the very bottom, and you’ll see the simple, one-column design pictured above. Select that one.

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Step 4: Go recruit Twitter followers!

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At this point you’re ready to start posting your promotions, then posting Tweets that link to them, so now it’s time to recruit your shoppers to begin following you, as the following steps — the actual Tweets that send updates to their mobile devices — require followers to receive them.

If you have an existing email list of shoppers who have agreed to receive emails from you, that’s the best way to start, as you can just email them the link to your Twitter page. To encourage them to sign up, you may want to tell them that mobile Twitter followers will receive exclusive discounts.

You can also promote the service via traditional marketing and advertising, as well. Make sure each cashier knows your Twitter address, so they can tell customers checking out, who can enter it directly into their mobile devices. Once you recruit a critical mass of followers (whatever number it is you feel will make the effort worthwhile), you’re ready to go to Step 5.

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Step 5: Post your mobile promotion

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Post your promotion using Blogger’s posting interface. If you are not familiar with html code, be sure to click the “Compose” tab at the top right corner of the text box, which will give you an editor much like a typical word processing application. Enter your promotion into the text box, but remember to keep it simple, so it is easy to read on a mobile device screen. Try to avoid images — plain text will work best on all mobile devices.

In my sample retailer blog, pictured above, I made the title of each promotion bold and underlines, then wrote the price on its own line. When you’re satisfied with your post, click the “Publish Post” button.

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Step 6: Review blog, copy link.

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This is what my sample retailer promotion looks like on a Web page. For the next step, highlight the Web address of the promotion page and copy it.

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Step 7: Create a tiny URL for your post for use on twitter.

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Twitter only allows you to post 144 characters, so URL-shortening services like Tiny URL take traditional URLs and associate them with a shorter Web address so that you have more room for your promotional blurb in your tweet. I used TinyURL to shorten mine. Simply paste your blog address, which you just copied, into the box and click the “Make TinyURL” button.

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Step 8: Your new URL.

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As you can see in the above image, even though my sample retailer blog URL is fairly short to begin with, Tiny URL shortened it to 25 characters. This is the address to include in your promo blurb that you’ll tweet.

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Step 9: Post a short promo blurb in your Twitter updates.

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This is the initial message that will reach your follower’s mobile device. Go to your Twitter home page and post your promo blurb in your Twitter update using the small URL. Once you click the update button, your Tweet will then be posted on your page, and will look like the example above.

That’s all there is to it. Your post will reach all of your followers, with a link to your promotion. And for those who have associated their mobile devices with their Twitter accounts and agreed to receive your updates by phone, you now have a free mobile marketing service!