It’s Twitter Tip Tuesday — every Tuesday we’ll focus on one Twitter Tip and show you how to integrate it into your social media strategy. This week we advise you that occasionally it’s okay to embrace the chaos on Twitter.

Although Twitter is a very powerful medium for your business, it can take a lot of work to keep on top of it all. Are you following the right people? Are you keep abreast of the latest trends and Twitter chats? Have you replied to every mention? As you follow more and more people on Twitter, your once manageable tweet stream may begin to resemble a fast-moving river, where it takes great focus and effort just to maintain your position, let alone advance upstream.

At this point in your Twitter evolution, you may be working so hard at it that you’re ready for a Twitter fast. Although that can be an effective strategy, it’s also completely acceptable to periodically relax your social media stance, go with the flow, and allow Twitter to take you wherever it leads.

The Best Discoveries Are Sometimes by Accident

Whether its penicillin or plastic, rubber or radioactivity, some of the world’s greatest and most prolific inventions were discovered by accident. While it’s certainly a great strategy to focus on your target audience, it’s okay to occasionally take a detour from your social media strategy on Twitter. You just never know where a slight deviation may lead, or what discoveries you may make as a result.

But like Louis Pasteur said, “chance favors the prepared mind.” Similarly, you might also say that chance favors a prepared Twitter account. Make sure that your profile is configured to maximize serendipitous connections. Make it easy for people who normally tweet outside your sphere of interests to know exactly what you’re about. Consider, even if temporarily, changing your Twitter bio to encourage these chance connections.

Don’t Stress the Small Stuff

Did you know that Twitter sends you an email every time someone follows you? Do you tend to get stressed out if these emails start to pile up in your inbox and you haven’t found the time to review them all? Don’t worry about it. Let the email alerts pile up for a while; you can always reconnect with your followers on an ad hoc basis, without having to know every last detail about each one.

Although you might have to be friends with someone in order to join in a conversation on Facebook, there’s no such barrier to entry on Twitter. If you see someone chatting about something that strikes your interest (even if it has nothing to do with your business or brand), give yourself permission to dive in and join the conversation already in progress.

Having a hard time keeping up with the most popular hashtags? We’ve got you covered — here’s a way to find the best hashtags that can potentially open up whole new worlds to you on Twitter.

Discover Gold

Of course, the fear of missing out on something important, may compel you to renew your focus on your target audience. If you want to work smarter — not harder — on building your Twitter presence, then perhaps it’s time to consider using a tool to help you out.

Our own social media management tool, Sprout Social, has a number of features that can help you make sense out of the chaos. Perhaps you’ve got a bunch of great ideas for tweets but you don’t want to send them out all at once. Queue your tweets to post at times that are optimized for your specific audience.

Thinking about how great it would be to go back in time to see how you began your relationship with a specific tweeter? Sprout Social can handle that too. There will always be a lot of moving parts to leverage Twitter for your business. But with a fearless attitude (and a great management tool) you can feel more secure about embracing the chaos and uncovering opportunities that are waiting to be discovered.

This article discusses Sprout Social, our social media management tool for businesses. To learn about our editorial ethics and our commitment to objective coverage of the social media space, visit our About page.

[Image credits: lofaesofa, ona Anglada Pujol, jimmiehomeschoolmom]