Twitter are you using it?

Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am

Always been someone that loves to get input from others and love using blogs to do it. Unfortunately sometimes it does not work. The subject of Twitter seems to be just one.

Last week I asked for input and was disappointed with the lack of it. Not a knock on my readers it just did not resonate. Now thinking about that made me do some searching. See even lack of much input does tell you something. It tells me that a lot of my readers are

either not using Twitter as much as they can with their blog
just not aware of the value of Twitter to their blog
or just don’t care

I know that my readers care so the third option was not the reason it must be one of the first two items. So….

Lets address them here. Today I will discuss using Twitter and why it can be important to your business. In the future I will discuss how to implement some of these things into your blog.

Twitter is a micro blog platform. You are limited to 140 characters per post. This forces you to be concise and keep each tweet (Twitter post) to just one topic.

The key though is Twitter is a conversation between people. It is about sharing information. It is not a sales platform.

If all you are planning to use Twitter for is as a platform to send out your links forget it now. Just like a blog you need to supply valuable information and build your reputation as a valuable resource.

Do that and when you occasionally recommend something people will be interested. Just send links and no one will continue to follow you.

It works like any type of networking. It is most valuable when you are sorting information about your niche for others. Just like a blog if you find valuable resources from others and let people know about it that is valuable to your readers on your blog or followers on Twitter.

Just like off line networking you don’t go to the local Chamber meeting and introduce your business. You talk to people there and ask about theirs. Have an idea that can help them – share it. Do that and you develop relationships that will help your business not because you pitched your business but because you became a valuable resource that others will recommend.

Twitter works the same way.

Twitter can also be very powerful in keeping in touch with what is new in your marketplace. Some of the tools can allow you to follow any topic easily.

So that is the value of Twitter next time I’ll talk about using it specifically in conjunction with your blogging efforts.

Mike Paetzold