Twitter – www.twitter.com , http://search.twitter.com
Twitter, in simple terms, is a bit like instant messaging on steroids. Twitter is not a toy. It is not aimless as is frequently reported. It is a powerful tool to build a community of followers and share targeted information. It is not all business. It is a social tool of course. Many people use it to create networks of like-minded or similarly interested people. Dell recently shared that they attribute $1 million in revenue through their Twitter accounts. It is for real.
How does it work? Create an account at www.twitter.com and then visit http://search.twitter.com to start searching for topics, people or keywords. The results will show you “tweets”, 140 character topics shared by users. If you like someone or something they are “tweeting”, you simply hit the follow button. No approval, confirmation or review. Click follow and they are broadcasting to you and all other followers about whatever they like. Most people on Twitter stick to some small range of topics to keep their followers interested, and to ensure their own relevance to their followers.
There are few rules outside of the good etiquette that is expected if you wish to keep these followers. Burn a bridge and it is unlikely you will be very successful. You are only one click away from being blocked or “un-followed” in Twiter speak.
Back to the Dell example. This will help you understand how/why Twitter is something more than sharing what you are cooking, where you are taking the kids on a Saturday or what you are pondering in your navel. These topics are fine if you have followers interested. For business, Twitter takes a few forms: straight push marketing of information a company wants interested followers to see, and community building with no direct “buy” model. Both work, both are great examples of how Twitter is growing as an effective business tool.
These are the basics.
Here are some experts who you can learn a great deal from by following
them. Some are social media experts and some are just celebrities that have big followings.
Don’t be discouraged by everyone who you follow, not following you. Notice that the examples I provided in some cases have a few thousand followers. It is impossible to follow everyone. There are tools such as TweetDeck that allow you to sort who you will follow more closely and by topic. This makes it reasonable to really use Twitter in its potential.
AS with all topics in this ebook, I will share with you how it all ties together at the end of the book. Read on.
