Maybe not the biggest grossing, but certainly the most interesting small businesses related to technology that are using Twitter and social media.

TechCrunch: @techcrunch
Michael Arrington provides a very interesting outsider’s view of the world tech entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area. His blog grew to a point where venture capitalists regularly read his blog to keep up to date on the happenings of tech start-ups. When he and his writers began to tweet, it took his small business blog into the mainstream – now at any tech start-up conference, people are reading their tweets as much as they are actually listening to the speakers.

Palo Alto Software: @timberry
With over 4,400 followers, there’s a lot of decision makers (read: potential customers) that read Tim Berry’s tweets. By following a philosophy of avoiding personal updates in favor of short, economically useful data and industry tidbits, Tim has created a virtual “lead machine” for his small business anytime someone needs his consulting services.

Scobleizer: @scobleizer
In 2004, some said that no one could possibly make $1M a year from blogging. But that’s exactly what Robert Scoble did with his blog, turning Twitter into a platform that took his blog from something static (people read it when they came to it) to a push-platform that notified any of his followers on Twitter anytime he had something useful to say about the tech industry. And as it turned out – he had a lot of useful things to say. A classic example of taking a good blog and taking its readership to the next level by using unique content and pushing it on Twitter.

SmallBizTechnology.com: @ramonray
There are a lot of websites that try and cover technology from both a user and vendor perspective. Small Biz Technology, however, defined a niche for themselves and focused on becoming good at only that “one thing” that separated them online. By only writing about technology as it applied to small business owners, they’ve leveraged their website content to create a Twitter following that is both loyal and, more importantly, full of business owners that have money to spend. Kudos to another great example of taking your expertise (even if its already on a website) and leveraging Twitter to create an “active subscriber base” that had singularity of focus.

Mashable: @mashable
Who says you can’t make a business talking about Twitter on, um, Twitter? Pete Cashmore has turned his thoughts and practical “training guides” about social media (namely Twitter) into a million dollar enterprise, acting as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies as well as large media companies on how to leverage social media outlets for advertising and PR. The new Mashable Twitter Guide Book for 2009 may be outdated after this December, but it’s a great example of how teaching others (even teaching people on Twitter how to best make use of Twitter) can make for a real business on the Internet.

BatchBlue: @batchblue
BatchBlue Software was created by a group of IT guys & girls who had experience in programming, web usability and project management. They use Twitter in a unique way that other companies have started to pick up on. Their Twitter account is a communication tool between them and their customers. Server running slow? Send out a tweet letting followers know. Customer having a problem with their software? Post to Twitter and BatchBlue will answer on Twitter. Have a complaint? They welcome Twitter posts so that they can quickly address the problem. A great side effect is that they have an archived list of bugs and solutions that can help other customers down the road.

DIYMarketers: @DIYMarketers
Marketing firms especially seem to really understand the power of Twitter. Take DIYMarketers, for instance. A group of six people who operate virtually to create quick marketing for their clients, DIYMarketers has built up their Twitter account to over 4,500 followers. They tweet tips and trends in marketing to give good advice to those who are looking for more info. They also tweet links to articles of interest they feel other might find valuable. The don’t post several times a day, but rather choose to post only when it is something that they think backs up their ideology on marketing adding even more legitimacy to their tweets.

Take a moment to check these tweeters out and see what they have to say. It is a great way for a small business to build their Twitter plan based on these seven great Twitter accounts. And you might even find a few you want to follow.

Twitter has become an essential customer service tool in today’s business world, and finding the right Twitter client can be a challenging process. Tweetdeck and Seismic are the most popular, but they don’t have the necessary features to support your social media efforts, so we put together a list of some of our favorite business-centric Twitter clients below. We hope this will help you keep track of your tweets!

1. CoTweet: CoTweet is a web-based Twitter client made especially with business owners in mind. The difference between CoTweet, and popular desktop clients like Seismic and Tweetdeck, is that it gives business owners the ability to add multiple users to one account (up to six), assign tweets to users for follow-up, see who’s on duty at all times, and track any escalated issues through notes and user names. The interface is very clean and simple so even a person who’s never used Twitter could understand how it works. Other notable features include integration with social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), message archiving, URL shortening, threaded conversations, and click-tracking stats. CoTweet is a free service already being used by big companies like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Starbucks.

2. HootSuite: Another professional web-based Twitter client on our radar is called HootSuite. The incredible Twitter client is a mix between TweetDeck and CoTweet in many ways so it’s a great way to transition into a more customer service oriented Twitter client. Like TweetDeck, HootSuite has a tabbed and multiple-column view that allows you to organize your streams by keywords, groups, or profile feeds. It also allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts, and even add multiple editors to select profiles if you wanted to. You can also schedule tweets, view threaded conversations, and generate embeddable columns for your website. Business owners will appreciate the ability to integrate their tweets with services such as Sales Force, Google Adsense, and social networks through Ping.FM. An iPhone application or desktop client are not available at this time, but this web-based service is free to use so give it a try if you’re looking for a more powerful Twitter management system. Companies using HootSuite include Dell, Fox, and National Geographic.

3. Twaitter: Less powerful than CoTweet and HootSuite, but if you’re more concerned about scheduling your daily tweets, then Twaitter is for you. This light app has a tabbed view of your @mentions, searches, groups and archives. The Tweet Calendar allows you to schedule out your tweets up to a month in advanced, and even lets you view a timeline of all your scheduled tweets. Multiple users can be assigned to one account, it includes a URL shortener, spell check tool, and language translation tool. Overall, the clean interface makes navigating through this Twitter client a pleasant experience.

The folks over at SEO Optimise have a comprehensive list of 30 Twitter tools for Business, so check those out and if you have any other suggestions, let us know in the comments below.