We’re talking about Twitter’s social media platform of course. In case you haven’t heard, and who hasn’t, there is a global conversation going on with or without you. But the question is how much or little should you join in? Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Digg. So many possibilities and so many roads to travel.

A recent report at mediapost.com reviewed 100 brands and found the companies who were the least active on social media saw their sales drop 6%.  To counteract Dell’s now paying a 40-person team to run social media for their company.

The report sorted companies according to four categories, with “mavens” being the most aggressive brands in social media and “wallflowers” sitting on the sidelines. In between are “butterflies” — companies that are spread too thin across social properties, and “selectives” — those that excel by focusing on just a few channels.

The TweetSheep word cloud above shows how our firm, MarketCues.com strategically followed specific groups:

– Social media strategists (to get the latest news)
– Marketing experts (for connections/latest news/conversation)
– Entrepreneurs (for connections / conversations / to promote MarketCues.com)
– Orlando businesses (for local connections / conversations)
– Marketing (to exchange tips / latest trends, news)

A useful website (http://twittersheep.com) provides an analysis of all of your Twitter follower’s (or “flock’s” – hence “sheep’s”) profiles. Using the keywords they use to describe themselves in their profiles. Based on that, TweetSheep creates this “word cloud” which I’m sure you’ve seen before. The bigger the word, the more emphasis or repetition, the smaller the word, the less often it comes up, etc.  It’s a good way to do a quick check and make sure you’re attracting the right set of Twitter Followers.

For MarketCues, our TweetSheep word cloud emphasizes marketing, our emphasis. For your company, you can determine the emphasis that will create the conversations you desire.