Most people have
heard of Twitter with the recent media blitz on news programs etc. but don’t
quite know what it is or how to jump into the fray.  Twitter is a social networking tool that
allows the sharing of information on the micro-level.  That information, which is passed along as
“tweets” is limited to 140 characters.  Not used properly, one can easily be
overwhelmed by the information bombardment. But, with the proper tools, you can
sort your “Tweeples”, perform searches for pertinent information or
people to follow, and network efficiently. 
Twitter is one of the tools that should be in your social networking
toolbox.

To
start, I recommend visiting Lucas Black’s
The Quick Tweet Guide which gives a bulleted list of how to accomplish the
basics in Twitter.  The two programs I
use to manage Tweets & Tweeples are Tweetdeck and Flock 2.5.  Tweetdeck is an Adobe AIR program that allows you to stay in touch with what’s happening now,
connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck
shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up
to date.  It allows you to create
groups for your tweeples to make the information more manageable.  I would like to see the group feature become
shareable across computers.  That is, if
you structure groups on one computer, that you could share it with the rest of
your computers.  Flock is my favorite
internet browser and is a social-networking number one resource.  The newest edition of Flock incorporates a
Twitter search engine feature that allows you to type in any word and pull up
all tweets that contain that word.  As
such, you can easily find the topics and people you want to follow to grow your
business. Flock has many other fantastic features and incorporates numerous
social networks, blogging platforms, email etc.

Why Network
Socially?  Today, networking is not just
about handing out cards and getting business, it is about creating
relationships.  We do that by sharing a
little bit of ourselves and becoming a person, not just a name or a brand, to
our customers.  How much to share?
 Josh Camson in his blog post, “Are
You Keeping the Social in Social Networking” provides the following
breakdown from Diane Danielson of Downtown Women’s Club:

30%
about your own business/career.

30%
about someone else’s business (promoting/retweeting/fan pages)

30%
about your personal interests (your dog, the real housewives …, etc.)

10%
of just plain funny or thought-provoking ideas

Think before you
write is probably the best advice I can give you.  Try to step back and look at your possible
tweet and see how it would look from a customer’s point of view.  The drunk fest you had with the office on
Friday night might not give the right impression to a prospective investor
looking to have you handle a multi-million dollar deal.  Further, my personal pet peeve is quotes. There
are folks that all they do is post quote after quote.  I have a hard enough time sifting through all
the fluff and garbage than to have my TweetDeck muddled with quotes from famous
people.  If I wanted a quote, I would
google search it.

I hope this post
gives you a little insight into the world of Twitter and I hope you jump in and
start tweeting!  Don’t forget to follow
me KASesq94!

Some other great
resources:

52
Links on Twitter for Business

Twitter Business Cards

Simple Twitter Apps

The Twitter Yellow Pages

Tweetlater ( Schedule Tweets)

Using Twitter: Tools for Productivity (Pt 1)

Using Twitter: Tools for Productivity (Pt 2)

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