Twitter – 2 cents from a Newbie

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Permalink Reply by dM, CEO on November 3, 2008 at 11:57am

Hi Tyrika,

Twitter is a weird animal. At first, I was baffled as well. Why would anyone care what I was doing in 140 characters or less? I'm still not 100% sure, but I know that I enjoy hearing about what others are doing.

The best part about Twitter is that it's an information powerhouse. If you sign on to the Twitter circles of people you have things in common with and want to learn from, so long as they are doing a good job of using Twitter, you will learn a lot. Usually, they'll post links to articles, blog posts, videos, pictures, etc., of interest. In this way, you get aggregated content - you don't have to search around the Web to find out about interesting things.

The bummer about Twitter comes when you sign on to "follow" people who just want to promote themselves, are spammers or are otherwise obnoxious. For example, I stopped following a guy who posted about 50 anti-Obama blurbs in a row this morning. Regardless of who I want to vote for (I already voted last week!), I don't want to be clobbered with this kind of information. It takes away from space that might be used by people who I want to hear from. I also un-followed a person who only Tweeted when he was posting his own blog posts. I don't want to sit at a table full of people and have one person there only opening his mouth when he's bragging about himself, never making any other conversation.

I love Twitter and will continue to use it to share information that I think helps others, as well as learn. And the cherry on top is that, it has resulted in some new business as well!

Indie Love,
dM

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Permalink Reply by Luci Weston on December 9, 2008 at 12:33pm

I, too, am new to Twitter. At first, I dismissed it as just one more thing to add to the list of "to-do's," but the more I visit it and learn about it, the more intrigued I become.

It seems fairly simple, and yet, I know I am missing how to use it to it's fullest potential.

Any good tips for another newbie?

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Permalink Reply by Janine on December 9, 2008 at 11:51pm

I've been using twitter for about 2 or 3 weeks now? Probably 2. What I have found is that similar businesses link to each other. What social media is, is allowing others to see who is behind the face. Socially interacting.

However, my website is just that. As I interact with my customers, that is
'social media', as it's done socially and thru internet media.

I find that using twitter doesn't build any solid relationships as it seems to me, people are each doing their own thing, or talking to people they already know or have already built relationships with, off of twitter.

From what I have been able to see, like follows like. Marketing types follow marketers, small business follows small business, etc.

For me, life is all about relationships. Which I do not see happening on twitter. It really can't in 140 characters though. I have found some neat places through twitter, like Ning.com and takerootandwrite.com.

Janine
www.BlueSageNaturals.com

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