I did it for you guys. Really. Yesterday in one of my more fickle moves, I decided to explore some of these various social networking sites and tools and conduct my own experiment. I want to answer these questions: What’s available and how does it work? How are people using social networking gadgets and sites to promote their businesses? Is it working for them? How much time do they spend tweeting or posting or responding to anything that isn’t work-related?
I’m starting with Twitter. I was totally against subjecting myself to yet another attention-grabbing technology as I mentioned not two posts ago, but thanks to a few posts here and a bit of research turning up ways to capitalize on Twitter, I bit the bullet. I promise to report in often on how it’s going and what value I’m finding in it, if any.
So far, it’s been an exercise in extreme patience as I learn the ropes and set myself on the right course. For instance, I want to follow friends, but I want to establish business connections as my primary goal. How? By linking to friends, of course. But also by reading and researching and doing a bit of Twitter searching for industry names and long-lost contacts.
I’ve connected with a few of you “Tweeple” already, so bear with me as I learn the ropes and bug the hell out of you for the sake of research. You’re going to get the lion’s share of my questions, so brace yourselves.
All this month (or until work picks up again) I will be exploring some of the more popular social networking sites and how they can benefit you (or not) as you attempt to raise your Internet profile and hopefully score more work. Are there any favorites you’d like me to look into?
I just wrote a whole post on Facebook! FASCINATING what/whom you can find!
Pass the bitin’ bullet, please. I’ve been putting off the whole Twitter thing, but know it’s coming soon. (Is this strange…my 19 y.o. daughter has never heard of it, and neither have about 5 random people I asked in a restaurant. She’s done FaceBook and MySpace for years, but accused me of insanity when I tried to describe Tweeting. Could it be this old woman is about to be ahead of the techno-curve? That can’t be.)
I love Twitter, though I’m a fairly active user.
Best piece of advice? Don’t think of it as microblogging, think of it as a new communications medium. Like email, cell phones, and faxes before it – twitter has it’s own rules and uses. However, it’s up to the user to determine how to take those rules and make them work.
Bradley, I’d LOVE to talk to you about this! I need some “insider” views – can you help a girl out?
If anyone would know, Lori, it would be Bradley! When you find out, please share it with me. If I understand Twitter correctly (and it’s highly likely that I don’t) I can’t for the life of me see why anybody would be interested in updates on my activities … or where I’d find the time to post them!
Georganna @ A Writer’s Edge
Twitter has plenty of good uses, but the least interesting or important thing you can do with it is use it to post what you’re doing at any given moment. Unfortunately, the field for entering Tweets appears under the words, “What are you doing?”
Look into third-party Twitter extensions. I use Tweet Grid (lets me follow a variety of topics simultaneously), Twhirl (better interface than Twitter, and will alert me when I get an incoming Tweet) and TwitterFeed (automatically tweets a link to each of my blog posts).
Lori, what is your handle on Twitter? I’m KirkPete …
I’ll find you, Kirk!
I have to agree. There’s an awful lot of “I’m tired” or “What did you eat?” tweeting going on. I saw one tweet where the “tweeter” was complaining about businesses using the technology to “bore” her. Her overactive ego issues aside, I’m concerned about the obvious imbalance that exists. If we bloggers have different motives, no big deal – we just gravitate toward those we’re in line with. If Twitter followers don’t have the same goals, is there more of a chance for offense or misunderstanding?
Oh geez! Now I hope I’m not offending people on Twitter. I talk about what I eat, what the kids are doing, and what projects I’m working on. I consider it all encompassing though and it sparks some great conversations I might not have had otherwise -with people I might not have met otherwise.
Lori, get in touch with me I’m Nikki_S on twitter. I’m reading all your social networking experiment posts now!