I have been using Twitter for almost two years now. For me it has been a great way to follow people in my industry and hear about new technologies as they are beginning to emerge. Also, by following people who are at the forefront in any industry, you can see how they market themselves and network with others in the industry. Another benefit is that they follow and talk about people who have something worth listening to or reading about.
Not surprisingly the early adopters of Twitter tended to be in the Information Technology industry. For this group, it is a great way to keep in touch with people they met at tech conferences. And it allows them to have meet-ups at these conferences by basically posting where they and others are at.
Within the past year Twitter has been going more mainstream. Major corporations, the media, and the general public have adopted twitter. It’s not for everyone, at first it is hard to see how this is of any benefit. Quick notes of 140 characters or less about any topic seems to be meaningless. But as people adopt the technology, they use it for purposes that fits in with their needs.
For small businesses, it can be used as a way to advertise to a group of regular customers on specials, sales, new inventory, etc. Major corporations can keep investors, suppliers, or anyone interested in the company apprised of corporate communications. And for individuals it is a easy way to give family and friends updates on what they are doing. All of these updates can be linked to Facebook or other social networking sites, and blogs and web sites.
Make sure you use your real name and picture on twitter. It makes it easier to find you on twitter and put a face to name if you attend conferences or networking events.
Twitter is easy to set up, but takes some effort to keep updating content. Like anything, keep it up-to-date as often as possible. But don’t post too often, it dilutes your postings….limit to at most 5 per day. You can see my twitter updates on the home page of this web site.
