So it makes perfect sense that I would be trolling the Internet in search of recipes—and of course, interesting tidbits to share with my favorite blog readers before the weekend.

Naturally then, when I came across this witty little number from MichelleB at TopRankBlog.com, I was tempted to share it. So my hungry readers, set your stove accordingly and clean the dust out of your grandma’s casserole dish, the five ingredients for a perfect Twitter marketing recipe are the special on today’s lunch menu!

So what ingredients do you need for the perfect Twitter marketing recipe?

According to Michelle:

1. A hearty serving of relevant, informative content

2. Another generous scoop of useful, enlightening content from another industry expert

3. A few dashes of exciting product offers and promotions

4. Some natural (no-sodium, no preservative) customer service

5. Top it all off with a useful portion of entertaining retweets…

And you’re set for the weekend my friends.

Is your Twitter Marketing recipe pretty close to Michelle’s? Or have you added some of your own tried and true ingredients to the mix?

Well, according to the New York Times, Twitter mimics this connection digitally, putting a 97.91% of users within six degrees of connection to one another.

This data was studied and recorded by social media consulting firm, Sysomos, who also found that Twitter users are even more closely connected then their Facebook counterparts. For instance, on Facebook it takes users 5.73 visits to friends of friends to find their own familiar connections; whereas with Twitter, the degree of connection is closer at 3.32 visits.

What does this mean for marketers? It means that Twitter’s high-connection rate is an ideal platform for us to reach and connect with a variety of global users very easily.

Just three short weeks after starting his part-time business, Kimball asked a new customer in his line up how he found out about his cart. The stranger told him he’d read about it on Twitter. The power of Twitter’s digital word of mouth marketing was immediately apparent.

Today, Kimball works his cart full time (the success of his business meant he could quit his day job as a carpenter) and he uses Twitter to post his current location and flavors of the day to his over 5,400 Twitter followers.

Kimball’s is a good lesson for any small business with no marketing budget or a large business with a website in development.

Twitter offers the following benefits to businesses:

1.  It’s free

2. The service provides a sole means for marketing a mom and pop type shop

3. Twitter status is easier and faster to update than a webpage or even a blog

4. It’s ideal for a business on the go

5. It takes advantage of word of mouth marketing—Twitter culture urges people to spread news to others in their own social networks

6. It can spread word locally or nationally—depending on your business focus

7. It offers the ability to ask questions and share knowledge with other business owners

8. It allows businesses to talk directly to customers

Read more about how Curtis Kimball’s crème brulèe cart, a sushi restaurant, an antiques merchandiser, a bed and breakfast, a day spa and more businesses are using the power of Twitter’s digital word of mouth marketing from the New York Post.

Twitter is a free online forum that has almost 100 million users—which means you should be taking advantage of it if you’re not tweeting already. Even better, Kermit Pattison from The New York Times recently introduced his small business tips for using Twitter—including 11 prime examples of large-middle-and small businesses that are commendably taking advantage of Twitter and all it has to offer.

My advice, check out Pattison’s list—it includes the likes of large corporations like Rubbermaid, UPS and my favorite shoe king Zappos, as well as mid to smaller companies like Naked Pizza and Kiss My Bundt what the heck wouldn’t you?—for some 140-character examples of engaging tweeting.