According to www.marketingcharts.com Twitter only made up 1.41% of social media use in May 2009, far behind the #1 & #2 ranked MySpace and Facebook. Yet, Twitter is getting a lot of buzz of late and many people ask me what all the fuss is about.
Truth be told, I didn’t know about Twitter until February 2009 when communications strategist Nancy Spooner mentioned it in a committee meeting. And I shared that skepticism after I signed up. The tweet was elusive to me and the following/followers thing just seemed like yet another way to spam friends and colleagues. How wrong I was…
Today, Twitter is one of my main sources of information. I follow people and organizations of interest to me both personally and professionally. Why read the newspaper or wait for an RSS feed to tell you a new blog post is up when you can get links to things of interest on the fly pretty much in real time.
Unlike many social media sites, Twitter really blurs the line between business and pleasure. It’s ok to talk about your kids, your vacation, and your home renovations mixed in with your latest projects and interesting industry news.
I think one of Twitters main challenges right now is the sign up process. I appreciate that they want to make it simple … name, email, password and you’re good to go. But in truth, to harness Twitter’s full potential you want to spend a bit more time thoughtfully setting your profile to show who you are and share your interests. This includes a headshot, a 160 character bio and your website address. You then need to invest some time exploring people to follow and you must participate regularly.
Twitter is worth the effort. Tweet me @AngelaCrocker.