Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Stoke the Twitter Fire

Twitter can make sense IF you let it.

Twitter is misunderstood many times. Naysayers (you know who you are) believe that it is just a way to promote your daily rants to a group of followers that you may or may not know.

Twitter is so much more if you allow it to be and here's how.  

First ask yourself these questions to figure out where you stand in the twitter sphere:
1. Do you want to hear what's going on out there?
2. Do you want to be heard?

If you answered yes to the first question and just want to hear the buzz - then you should be on twitter and become a follower of those you are most influenced by (friends, companies, colleagues, professors, authors, leaders etc.) Pretty simple. Try it and see if it works for you.

If you answered yes to the second question and want to be heard - twitter is your wing man. But you need to stoke the twitter fire in order for it to become an effective marketing tool for you. BTW, answering yes to question 2 also by default answers yes to question 1 (that's just common sense!)

We are all brands. We all represent something. We all stand for something.  Twitter has become a critical part of marketing strategy for the largest brands on this planet. It comes down to this - write a good enough one liner tweet and you'll get the followers who will soon convert into customers. Much easier said than done given a tweet needs to be 140 characters or less. The main point is to make short impactful brand impressions over time. This requires a bit of posting strategy though so keep that in mind if you are a big brand.

But most of us aren't big brands. We are representing ourselves and our message. Here's how twitter is helping me on a day to day basis:

1. Networking: It helps me connect with leaders and influencers that I would normally not have the opportunity to do so with.
2. Knowledge: It sheds light on what influencers are reading and what is shaping their knowledge.
3. Sharing: It allows me to share my thoughts with folks that I would normally not directly market (thank you retweet).

These are just a few reasons why I'm a fan of twitter - there are many more out there. I'm not saying everyone needs to be on twitter but there sure is a lot to be learned by it. But just to reiterate - you need to stoke the twitter fire to make it work for you, if you don't, it will fizzle out.

Time Magazine recently posted the 140 Best Twitter Feeds. The list is broken up by categories including companies, JetBlue and Amazon are on there, find out why. The list is comprised of all the folks leading the conversation around the world. Worth taking note.

As for me - well you can follow my tweets @PSCommonSense - I'm still more of a follower than contributor at this point :) You have to start somewhere right?

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

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