MY TWITTER JOURNEY

I’ve started using Twitter a few months ago and must admit I am fully addicted.

At first I did not get why I would “waste” my time recording what I was doing at a particular moment. However, once I started following a few colleagues of mine I understood that Twitter is much more than informing people that I was having coffee at a nearby Starbucks. Twitter allows me to be “connected” to so many folks who share my interests, who are willing to help when I have a question and who provide me with a daily dose of serendipity of seeing what’s being talked about among my Twitter friends on a particular day.

A few days ago I attended a meeting of a local IABC chapter where folks were discussing social media and their influence on corporate communications. Many communicators and media professionals in attendance were totally unaware of Twitter and many of them mentioned not understanding the concept behind it. Twitter might not be the right tool for everybody, but corporate communicators, customer care folks, crisis management teams – it’s time to take notice. There are conversations going on about your brands. You should be listening and joining in.

Thinking about trying Twitter?

Here is a list if things to do to get started.

• Set up an account on www.twitter.com. Make sure to include your picture and a meaningful description of who you are and what you are interested in. Remember, Twitter is about relationships and there is a no bigger turn-off than a generic thumbnail picture next to your account name. Here is a handy tutorial.
• Find people to follow. There are directories of Twitter users such as Twellow for you to review. Also, consider following Mr. Tweet. He will suggest people for you to follow.
• Search what’s being said on Twitter about you, your company or any keywords you care about at http://search.twitter.com/ Once you find somebody whose tweets you like follow him/her.
• Provide value with your tweets. Don’t limit your post to just answering the “what are you doing?” questions. Make sure you share, provide insight, comment and don’t be afraid to start a conversation by replying to others on Twitter.
• Keep it all organized. Once you feel overwhelmed with the amount of info. Twitter delivers consider downloading  TweetDeck, a desktop app to keep track of all your Twitter activities.
• No time to twitter on regular basis? Set up email alerts on tweetbeep.com to notify you once a given keyword is mentioned on Twitter.

I’ve compiled a list of Twitter resources for personal, professional and corporate use.
I want to single out Connie Bensen’s Twitter 101 articles and Barbara Gibson’s Twitter journey description that I found really helpful.

Enjoy and let’s connect on Twitter @anetah