Twitter, for those of you just getting started in social media, is a fast growing micro-blogging social media platform that gives you 140 characters to express yourself. The folks at Twitter define themselves like this:
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
What … Who … Where are You Doing?
The question, “What are you doing?“, is a bit deceptive it’s more like what, or who or where, are you…
- Reading
- Browsing
- Creating
- Visiting
- Using
- Passionate about
- Connecting to
- Promoting
- Hearing
- Meeting with
- Watching
- Clicking on
- Laughing at (LOL @paulapoundstone)
And, believe me, the list goes on limited only by 140 characters and enhanced by your use of links and pictures to share your world, vision, opportunities and self with a very large and very social world.
“But,” some of you are saying, “isn’t Twitter that service where people mind-numbingly report on what they just ate, where they scratched or, my, ‘I just yawned.’” Yep, that’s the space but the beauty of Twitter is that you choose who you follow. Which means you can follow your friends, thought & industry leaders in your field (@garyvee, @guykawasaki), the musicians who make you wanna Shout… (@coldplay, @johntesh 
, e-tailers (@steepandcheap)even the President (@barackobama). Right now Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites on the network and definitely one of the most vibrant. Chances are if the people, personally and professionally, who you care about aren’t tweeting (the term for posting on Twitter; I use tweet and post interchangeably), they will be…
What to Post on Twitter
My view, if you keep the following 3 guidelines in mind, you will be a Twitter superstar in no time…
- Value. The social web is based on conversation and the more value you bring to the conversation, the more conversations you’re invited to join and the more influence you gather … By the way, it doesn’t have to be of value to everyone, just those that matter to you and it doesn’t (actually shouldn’t) be all about you. One of the beauties of Twitter is the ease with which you can promote fellow tweeters (using Retweets) or anyone for that matter (more on this below).
- Passion. Years ago I read a book called “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow”. On Twitter this is expressed as “Tweet about what you love and the Twitter users will follow!”.
Participation. This means two things. First, Twitter is not something you should dip into from time to time, it’s an instrument you should engage on an ongoing basis, not continuous mind you, ongoing. That’s not as hard as you think. Twitter’s like the radio playing in the background. Most of the time you aren’t really paying attention but it’s there when you find something (or do something) of interest (value) that you’d like to dash off a quick tweet about. Believe me, composing 140 characters (about 20 words) is a heckuvalot easier than updating your website, Facebook page, blog or newsletter – it’s even easier than writing your grandma although you seldom get cookies for your tweets!The second facet of Participation is using Replies (@twitteruser) and Retweets (RT or Retweet @twitteruser) to join in or spread the conversation. Replying simply allows you to respond directly to someone else’s post while retweeting is a means to rebroadcast a tweet from someone you’re following to your own network. It’s the highest form of Twitter Love and the best compliment you can pay a twitter user. In essence you’re saying, “Not only did I find what you had to say of interest but I think it’s so valuable that everyone I know (i.e., follow) needs to see it.”The caveat on retweeting, be discreet. Don’t just retweet in a pathetic (just kidding grab for attention or to suckup to a member of the Twitter Elite but use the same criteria as with your own tweets; does this post bear value?
A Very Small Example of Spreading Twitter Love
To end what’s turned out to be a much longer guest post (thanks for the soapbox, Sally! hmmm, Soapbox Sally…) I’d like to share an experience I had this morning using Twitter…
One of my favorite artists in the world is a talented painter in Chicago, IL, named Sandra Dawson. Sandy is well known in Chicago circles but the world would definitely be a better place if her artistic vision was more widely broadcast. Anyway, Sandy sent me an email with a picture of one of her favorite works – recently sold by the way – and I thought that Twitter would be a great way to share my passion for Sandy’s work to my pals (er… followers) on Twitter. I posted the following:
You’ll notice I included a couple of links. The first was a link to the Oak Park Public Library where Sandy’s work had recently been on display while the second was to the image that Sandy had emailed me. I uploaded the image to a Twitter utility site called TwitPic which allows you to easily store and add your pictures to your Twitter posts.
The interesting part? Twitpic shows you how many times the image you posted has been viewed. This screen capture was taken 4 minutes after I’d posted Sandy’s art…
Now my network isn’t that large (yet) plus it was 5 a.m. MST. Pretty early. (Tip: to get more exposure it’s perfectly fine to repost your tweets after several hours…). Yet, in under 4 minutes, 21 people had viewed her picture. In other words, based on my reputation alone, 21 people clicked through to view Sandy’s art. Now imagine if I was driving Guy Kawasaki’s 50,000+ network and imagine that this wasn’t just a link to TwitPic but to the gallery where you can buy original Sandra Dawson works.
Imagine that! … and go put Twitter to work broadcasting the value and passion of what you and those you know do and don’t forget; participate!
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Social Media Maven to Interview Social Media Visionary: Tune in & Get Turned on to the Benefits of Social Media Networking
I’m excited about being interviewed by Dr. Sally (Social Media Maven Extraordinare) on Blog Talk Radio to be broadcast live at 2:00 PM EST/January 20, 2009. If you can’t make the live event then be sure to tune into the archives!
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