Twitter Newbies Should Consider the Flip Side of Twitter

Much has been written about how to find more followers and market yourself or your company on Twitter.  I’ve noticed that especially people who don’t have tons of experience with Twitter tend think of it as a digital megaphone, a place to shout out ideas and have them heard.  And naturally they decide that if they don’t have anything interesting to say, or if someone else at their company is taking care of the corporate Twitter activities, then Twitter is not for them.

Likewise, some people in the marketing industry seem to think that if they don’t have a zillion Twitter followers, then they should be ashamed.  Or at least they should actively try to grow the count.  And maybe they should. But the issue should be less about how many Twitter followers you have and more about how you use the tool.  Somewhere along the line, Twitter followers became a badge of honor.  I’m not knocking that but I also think it’s important for users to understand that you don’t have to have tons of followers to get a lot out of Twitter.

The flip side of Twitter is the listening. The vast majority of my Twitter activity falls into that category.  I use Seesmic Desktop where I have set up a variety of lists and searches that I periodically check for inspiration, business opportunity, and even RFPs.  The results that come back here are not limited to my followers.  They come from everyone that is on Twitter.  I often ask my Twitter for a stat to support a point I’m trying to make or for resources to educate me on a topic I’m interested in.  And since lots of people have standing searches that they check out too, if my question uses a keyword they are interested in, they will see my post and reply.  The genius of Twitter’s 140 character limit applies here.  If I see a post that interests me and I want to mention or direct message the author to get more info, my request can only be 140 characters and their reply can only be 140 characters.  In our time-starved world, this limitation makes conversing with a total stranger much more appealing since there’s no obligation to go in-depth with an answer.  Plenty of great business relationships have sparked through these tiny exchanges.  And I’ve found more interesting and entertaining content on the topics I care about (for business and for fun) this way than any other.

If I see something I like, I make a point to retweet it.  It’s a nice way to give the person who posted the content a pat on the back. But selfishly, it also posts the link in my own Twitter stream in case I want to reference it later.

And funny how Twitter works, the more of this kind of activity I perform, the more followers I get.

posted by julia in Just Plain Interesting | 1 Comment »
tags: Tags: twitter