The key value can be found in the @mention box on the right hand side of the interface. If people are making mentions with your name, that appears in your @mention box. Every time that happens that is an invitation for you to "ask a question".
Ask enough questions and in short order you will establish a relationship with a prospect. Ask the right questions and you will convert that prospect to customer status.
If you do this right, and your honest with the account, i.e. your profile, your twit background, and your tweets openly publicize your business status, you will be rewarded with 5-10 new leads a day who are actively interested in what you offer.
That begins by carefully selecting who you follow. Don't follow more people in a day than you can actively interact with in a single day.
Don't ask questions that are leading. Always ask questions that require a reply.
Don't press anyone who isn't engaged in the answers.
Always acknowledge the answers.
Take your time. Be patient. Offer value when asked.
I tell clients to imagine you have entered a coffee shop and every table is taken. Find an empty seat near someone who has a profile you think would make for an interesting conversation.
Be polite. Ask for permission to sit down. Do not talk about yourself. Ask questions. Learn what you can about your table mate. At some point that person is going to become actively interested in who you are. They will visit your profile, look at your tweets, click through to your site. And if you are providing value at any of the touch points they see, your going to convert many to follower status, and some to customer status.
And the best thing about this approach is that you never spammed anyone. The entire cycle began with them talking to you.
The only part of this method i left out is the step where you get them to mention back to you. I will leave that to your imagination. And if your a bright cookie, you will find a quick answer to that.
For those of you who find this methodology tedious, and too hard to sustain, GOOD. That's better for me. The barrier to entry is hard work. Every day.
And a bit of imagination.
The whole point is that there is just too much of a learning curve with twitter for regular people. Unless you start actively using twitter, you have no incentive to learn it.
We aren't talking about active twitter users here. We are talking about a new person, who just created their twitter account. Of course someone who is active on twitter knows about @username.