It seems to me that every company is on Twitter or talking about getting on Twitter. Everyone I tell that I work in social media asks if they should be on Twitter. So should you be on Twitter? First of all I’d say you have to understand what Twitter really is. Twitter is a medium, in the form of concise messages of 140 characters or less, to search for and share information and build relationships . The possibilities inside of that statement are more profound than they might appear at first glance. I also want to distinguish what Twitter really isn’t. Twitter isn’t JUST a place to post self-indulgent short messages that answer the question: what am I doing? If that’s all you think it really is please open your eyes and give it a chance; there is so much more to Twitter than the answer to that question.
Twitter provides tremendous value regardless of whether you ever choose to send a single tweet; Twitter is an amazing source of information. You could honestly never tweet or retweet a single thing and fall in love with Twitter. It’s a tremendous source of information provided you choose to follow the right users. As a means of getting information it has the benefit of encouraging succinct communications to most effectively deliver a message. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about Twitter is the 140 character limit. For that reason Twitter could very well replace your RSS reader. Twitter gets information out quickly, generally more quickly than traditional news channels. Furthermore, no matter what industry you are in there are people out there on Twitter, tweeting away about each and every topic you can imagine. And because Twitter gives you the capability to organize Twitter users into groups you can track all of your interests and filter out the noise.
The next thing I’m going to tell you about is where the real magic of Twitter comes out, building relationships. I know, I know, a few of you social media heads just rolled your eyes. Don’t worry I’m not going to throw out the word “conversation” 5 times in the next paragraph. I’m serious though, this is, in my opinion the best part of Twitter. First you gather information, then you organize it by interest, what you get is groups of individuals who all like the same thing. I follow a number of fantastic bloggers, designers and web heads. After following their Tweets for a while, I got to know what they talk about, what they do, and what their expertise is. Then when I had a question that falls into their area of expertise or noticed something that they posted of interest, I just @messaged them and started a conversation. I know have several people who I met through Twitter that have been valuable resources and are actually really nice people.
A few examples: I met Mark Aaron Murnahan (@murnahan) on Twitter nearly a year and a half ago. Since then we’ve talked on the phone and we share information with each other based on what we know about one another. I have a high level of professional respect for Mark and if I knew someone looking for SEO services he’d be one of my top picks as a recommendation. His blog is awesome and he’s a great example of someone who’s personality really comes through in his writing. Again, I met him through Twitter.
Someone else that I met via Twitter is Erika Napoletano. I now follow her blog and her Facebook Fan Page. I had been doing research work on Facebook Fan Pages and Erika does such a good job on hers that I tweeted her to ask for 15 minutes of her time to talk about how she runs her page. We talked and she was very helpful and forthcoming with her advice. I met her on Twitter.
So should you be on Twitter?
Yes but, if you do:
-Lose your Pre-conceived Ideas about mindless drivel.
-Don’t spam people.
-Don’t just follow celebrities and base you experience on that.
-Find something you are truly interested in and follow interesting people on that subject. Finally, don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation, most people on Twitter love to converse. Give it a shot.