Scientists speculate that black holes with gravitational fields so powerful that nothing can escape their pull (not even light!) do exist in the vastness of the universe. Closer to home, there’s another type of black hole, one that can suck you in just as quickly with little chance for escape: the black hole that is the Twitterverse.

Twitter, a microblogging platform, has become increasingly popular with people wanting to connect with others quickly and easily without putting much effort into it. With a limit of just 140 characters per post, users can update the Twitterverse about what’s on their minds and then move on. So, what’s wrong with that? Nothing. However, if you want to get the most out of Twitter, you must be careful not to get sucked in. Time management can make the difference between being productive on Twitter or wasting precious time.

For example, if you’re a business professional who is using Twitter to market a product or service, ask yourself how much time you should devote to this particular task? Ten minutes per day or six hours per day? Just as you wouldn’t spend six hours on a typical sales call, you shouldn’t spend the bulk of your day bantering with others on Twitter.

To avoid getting too absorbed in the tweets of your friends, colleagues, and random tweeters, create a plan for how you will use Twitter. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. In fact, your plan might look something like this:

• No more than 20 minutes of Twitter per day
• No more than five tweets per day
• One tweet per day directing traffic to the company Web site
• One tweet per day with helpful hints relevant to the industry
• One retweet per day on a relevant topic
• One reply per day
• One personal anecdote or insight per day

Buy an inexpensive timer or use a software countdown tool to set your time limit – and then stick to it! When your time is up, it’s up. The first few times, you may come up short but with practice, you’ll soon become more efficient at managing your time on Twitter. However, make sure to schedule your tweets throughout the day. Followers frown on seeing tweet after tweet from the same person. Many third party Twitter applications and Web sites, such as HootSuite or Twuffer, have scheduling features.

It’s also helpful to create a list of tweetables beforehand and then use a Twitter scheduling tool to schedule your tweets. By creating your tweetables ahead of time, you’ll find that one tweet may naturally lead to another which leads to less time spent wondering what to tweet about. In fact, you might even want to create a theme for each week and then write your tweets for the entire week in one sitting.

If you’re in the dog grooming business and following the basic plan outlined above, you might have a theme for one week covering fleas and one the following week covering nail trimming.
Once you have a theme in mind, you will know which pages of your Web site to promote as well as what topics to search for and retweet, and you’ll be better able to quickly brainstorm five to seven useful tweets on the topic. For example if your theme is fleas, you could tweet about flea collars, natural flea repellents, controlling fleas in the home, how to prepare flea dip, how often dogs should be treated, and so forth. These tweets should be helpful to your followers, not self-serving or promotional.

Replying to others and retweeting your followers’ tweets shows that you want to engage with your followers, so make sure to include replies and retweets in your daily plan. Staying on topic is preferred so that you won’t alienate others who are on the outside of the conversation.

Likewise, keep your personal anecdotes and insights on topic. Your followers want to get to know your professional persona not necessarily your role as a mother, father, or betrayed lover. If you’re in the dog grooming business, a personal tweet should still be related to your profession. For example, a tweet saying, “I just talked a lady out of giving her Old English Sheepdog a Mohawk” will give your followers an insight into you the person while maintaining the professional persona.

If you find yourself getting sucked into the black hole of the Twitterverse, coming up with a daily tweet plan and sticking to it will quickly get you back on firm ground while also giving you a stronger, more professional presence.