To Tweet or Not To Tweet

  Twitter is losing momentum with the general population.  90% of people I talk to say Why would I care what someone is having for breakfast.  If you are writing that, then you do not get it anyway.

I am meeting and interacting with complete strangers more on Twitter than probably all of the other Social Media platforms combined.  Majority of my tightest new connections this year are because of Twitter and “tweet-ups”. 

A tweet up is basically a networking event for people of Twitter.  I have garnered my best results of attendance to my other networking events because of Twitter.  The reason for this is the foundation of interactivity and the ease of sharing information.

You have to go back to the days of word of mouth.  The way gossip was shared.  It required an person meeting or a phone call.  With the Internet, it is now the word of mouse.  Things can spread like wildfire in seconds.  If you had a 100 friends.  10 years ago it would take time to talk to each one of them and keep them in the loop, but now with status updates you can type 140 characters and push send and can tell 100 people, 1000 or 100,000 people. 

That is just where the power begins.  The next step is where the power extends.  It is even easier for your network to push that to their networks.  If you can get to that third ring, you can hit hundreds of thousand or even millions of people.  It as easy as a click of a mouse.  If it required a lot of effort, it would not happen.  If you had to mail out that same note to everyone…  It would not happen.  Lets face it, if your computer slows and takes 10 seconds to load, it probably will not happen.

You couple that with how easy it is to interact with people inside or outside your network.  It is not only acceptable it is encouraged.  This is a great way to meet new people. 

So take my advice, get out there, start following people, listen to the conversations and then stick your head in and get in the conversation.

Comments

[Bill Denmark]

I have spent a great deal of time studying Twitter. It has indeed created business opportunities for me and my industry.
That said it is a JOB. Somebody said it was a marathon not a race. Spamming is part of the deal - at least now hot chicks want me! Just ignore that part.
Look up Kogi Truck in CA for a working cash model from Twitter there are many.
I find LinkedIn to be a better quality social media network but it is 40 million so small. I have avoided Face-book as my interests are only business. I am going to do a fan page as soon as I force myself!

[Davina K. Brewer]

Twitter is a just tool, not the end-all-be-all for marketing, networking and/or social media. As you say, it's just where the power begins. You have to blog, work, network, participate and engage beyond Twitter. Like other endeavors, you get back what you put into it...over time. FWIW.

[Chris Glennon]

Chad, don't forget that Tweets are not bound to Twitter-Land. They can be accessed using API's provided by Twitter and used for product/service/event marketing. However, Twitter is not the only social network available, so an aggregate of all available social network information (blogs/RSS, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) is crucial to address a wide audience.

For example; A new book by a well know author has just been published.

People start to Tweet about it and discuss it on forums, the publisher, author and book itself all have separate blogs, FaceBook and MySpace accounts with relevant postings, etc.

Now the book is listed on Amazon.com for sale like thousands of others. However, this book listing includes the latest Tweets that reference the book or author, the latest blog/RSS, FaceBook and MySpace entries from the publisher, author and the book blog, etc.

Attaching the social network information to the actual product that they reference is the big breakthrough for the use of social networks.

Chris Glennon
SmartSymbols Interactive Technologies

[Jet Shah]

Hi Chad.Really thought provoking. I went to a meeting last night and the topic was Twitter. I am on Twitter but still learning about how it will benefit my business. I think its useful but still scepitical as some of the pepole who follow are selling unethical products and jut using it to spam people. How do you stop that apart from unfollow.I find Liknedin really powerfull but Twitter i am still not sure.

[Chad Rothschild]

Thanks for all the thoughts, insights and comments. I am writing a follow up piece to the article based on some thoughts in the stream.

Will post the link for you. Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Chad Rothschild
chadrothschild.com
Twitter - @chadrothschild

[Ellisa Harvey]

Thanks Chad. Have any of the connections you've made on Twitter generated revenue? Thanks

[Ashley E Tracey]

I would have to say that at first, I failed to see Twitters usefulness, but as Chad said, I began to see that benefits as tweet followers converted into facebook friends, blog followers, and inevitably, online customers. Facebook in particular has great statistical applications that allow you to track the cyber footprints of those who patronize your page. It's a great way to track the carry over from one social networking site to another, and hopefully over to your business website.

[Amy]

Point taken. Yes - there are people out there that tweet just to tweet. But folks let's remember that we have control over who is on our blog pages. We can follow and unfollow as we wish. You can also block unwanted tweets taht you feeel are wasteful of our precsious time. Like any other networking there are those who show up to events just for the free food...

[Jennifer Abernethy]

As America's Sales Stylist I can say Chad is correct. Twitter is a marketplace not to be ignored. 80% of the new eyes to my website have been from twitter consecutively over the past 3 months. Get on there try it out..be social, share you expertise and you will meet new connections that you would otherwise never have met.

Jennifer Abernethy

[nelson fox]

great insight Chad, thank you.
I'm borrowing this term "With the Internet, it is now the word of mouse."

[Linda Riley]

Chad, interesting piece, but can you give examples of using Twitter to further your business goals? Have you developed any new business, for example?

[Snorri H. Gudmundsson]

For some reason I first ended on an article about staff souping up sales. Made a comment about it that I can't find, so if someone stumbles across it, ignore it (or delete if you have the power to do so).

I'm still studying Twitter; seems like a neat gadget.

[Andrew Ballenthin]

Chad, great posting. What are some of the examples where you've used twitter? What advantages have you seen with this network over many of the others? Thanks.