This is my fifth post about Twitter for beginners. You can read the rest here, here, here, and here.

Mashable reports that 60% of Twitter users quit in the first month. My sense is that people will return to something if they see its value in their life or business. This statistic tells me that people are deciding that the return on their investment of Twitter time is not worthwhile.

Are you a Twitter quitter? If so, why?

I started using Twitter about a month after this blog launched. By early July, I still had only about 200 followers. Only a month later, I have more than 800. Of course, if you make Twitter a game of numbers, it is easy to get discouraged. Developing a following is important, but it is more important to make meaningful connections with the followers you have. If you are present on Twitter and relating to others, you will see your following grow. Just remember that even in its use for business, Twitter is about relationships.

Here are a few ideas about how to make your Twitter time worthwhile:

Try to tweet at least TEN times a day.

It is easy for tweets to get lost in the stream. To be memorable to your followers, you need to be saying something. Tweeting takes only a fraction of a minute. Retweeting takes even less time. So here’s an idea to get you started. Do a search on TweetDeck for a topic that interests you. Here’s a secret: it doesn’t even need to be related to your business. See what people are saying. If someone says something you like, retweet them. Or reply to them. Start a conversation.

Find some new people to follow.

If you’re new to Twitter and following a few people who aren’t tweeting much, you may not find your Twitter stream all that interesting. Find some new people to follow. Generally speaking, you don’t want to follow too many people at once. If I see a person who is following a lot of people but doesn’t have many followers,I am reluctant to return the follow. So try to keep your numbers in balance: follow about the same number of people who are following you.

Add Twitter to your daily online routine.

As I have written before, you don’t have to make a huge time investment. Commit five minutes a day, twice a day. But stick with it. Make visiting Twitter a regular habit. Unless you do, you will not be able to develop the meaningful relationships that will make a difference in your life and business.

This was originally posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk and is re-posted with permission.