I believe that in the past couple of months, Twitter, the microblogging service, has been overexposed in the media. With that said, I’m aware that writing a blog post about Twitter creates an uncomfortable paradox. But I’m writing this post to ask myself a question: now what?

A recent TechCrunch article noted that Twitter’s global visitor count shot up to 19 million more last March. The number of active users, though, is the subject of speculation, since Twitter won’t release actual figures. Some say they have 5 to 10 million users, while others say there are 14 million users in the US alone. Many marketers – from the spammer to the sophisticated soft-sellers – are probably out there salivating at these statistics.

But using Twitter to get the word out – about your new blog, web site, product, or service – isn’t as simple as it seems. You’re not automatically going to reach those millions of new users. With the increasing number of users out there, it’s not enough to just have an account and post all you want. Since there’s more “noise” out there, increased effort is needed to show others that you’re broadcasting high quality “signal”. And how does one do that?

Meaning. I know it’s just 140-characters, but we shouldn’t equate brevity with lack of depth. Since there are many tweets out there competing for your audience’s attention, you need to find a way to stand out. You can only do that by delivering something unique, something they’ll truly want to hear. If they’re interested enough to visit your Twitter page regularly just to read anything they’ve missed, then you know you’re doing something right.

Measurement. The more activity there is in Twitter, the more we have to measure what works. Tim Ferriss wrote an extensive post on his blog, explaining how he measured the best time to publish his tweets, as well as which types of headlines are the most “clickable”. This is a smart move for anyone who is seriously considering Twitter as a marketing tool.

Mutuality. Twitter is not a megaphone, although it may give off that impression. If most users just publish tweets without replying to others, it’ll be more like a virtual soliloquy convention. Initiating conversation, no matter how short, is essential – especially if you want to convert your Twitter followers into business contacts or clients. I find that Twitter is the easiest way to establish rapport with someone if they’re outside your existing circle.

In an ideal world, everyone would tweet according to these 3 M’s. If that were the case, then the focus would be on high quality communication rather than high quantity. For now, though, I’ll be crossing my fingers in front of my TweetDeck, hoping for the best.