Why Twitter?

“Why Twitter?”

I get this one a lot from clients, prospects, friends, and even my wife!

Answering the questions, “What is social media?” and “Why social media?”  was child’s play by comparison to this one.

The conversation has been running something like the following lately:

“OK, I get social media.

I get LinkedIn and Facebook.

I hear you even when you say I have to create my own original content.

But Twitter?”

Folks who appear befuddled by Twitter ask what can they be expected to do with only 140 characters.  (BTW, they’ll add, hashtags?)  They’ll say what’s the point because they’ll never be able to write messages that small anyway.  Then, there’s my favorite reason for not using Twitter, who are all these strangers following me?  Shouldn’t I be able to like them or something?

(For all those friends and family who have been wondering why I went into the social media services business, by now you should be seeing that there is a screaming need for my services!)

Well, today, I’m here to try and clear up some of the confusion.  (But, not about hashtags, I’m saving those for a later article.)

Twitter  is actually a very useful tool for business.  Combine it with other social media tools in a coordinated social media program and you have a very powerful force multiplier effect.   

I find the first immediate benefit of Twitter is learning and staying current in my field.  Yes, the secret’s out, I don’t know everything!  I get up every day and start out by trying to understand what’s new, changed, or broken in my areas of expertise.

Twitter permits me to identify thought leaders whom I can follow and stay current with on developing events.

This leads to the next benefit of Twitter, being able to develop a following.  People who look to you as a subject matter expert (SME) or influencer to interpret what’s going on in whatever your discipline is.

Don’t forget that each tweet is a separate searchable item for search engines like Google.  Your tweets can help establish your reputation.

The third benefit of Twitter I find is how it complements your other social media efforts.

Creating original content like this blog?  Tweet it out to your followers!  And, there’s nothing wrong with retweeting it yourself because not all your followers are on all the time just waiting to hear from you.  New followers are added daily (Or, at least they should be.)  They’ll have missed some of that great original content of yours.

Twitter works well with LinkedIn and Facebook to cross promote your content and to expand your brand’s presence.  (Just do me a favor, if you’re like me and tweet a lot on a daily basis don’t post it all over into LinkedIn.  That community sees it as more like spam.  I don’t post my tweets to LinkedIn.)

Also, by effectively using Twitter, you’re demonstrating to the world that you are a member of the “Twitterati.”  (Yes, I know.  I hate using made up words like that too but it works here and it’s in the Oxford Dictionary.)  You’re showing clients and prospects that you’re current and comfortable with the use of the latest technology.  Always a good thing!

Oh, and all those strangers who are following you?

That’s a good thing.

These are people who are interested in you for some reason.  Mainly, for what you tweet.  Yes, there are those who follow us trying to sell us followers.  (I hope you know not to buy from them and not to follow them.)  But, for the rest, follow them back!  You never know if they might become a client some day or help to retweet your content out.

I strongly recommend that you try Twitter for business purposes.

Yes, it requires discipline, application, time, and effort.  But, then don’t all good things in life?

Some argue that since ROI is difficult, if not impossible to calculate, then we should disregard it.  I disagree.  The ultimate measure of your success with Twitter will be your increasing revenues and number of customers.

Twitter’s a safe bet for me!

I’d also like to refer you to my recent review of Mark Schaefer’s recently revised and re-released The Tao of Twitter to help get you started in the Twitterverse!  (Sorry, just couldn’t resist!)  

That’s it for now!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have.  I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

Remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me.  Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.

I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.

My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.

Stay well!