Twitter and Business Management? OK, I give in!

I started twittering today. You can sign up to follow me here: http://twitter.com/LisaHaneberg.I know that I am late to this party, and I have admittedly held out because I was not sure whether twittering (sending tweets and following people) would be a good use of my time.

Heck, I am still not sure.

But - a lot of talented people that I respect are twittering and so I am giving it a go.

To help folks like me and other folks curious about how Twitter works, there is a new book out called, Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm and Ken Burge. Here is a guest blog post from the book on what Twitter is:

What are you doing?
by Joel Comm,

You may be thinking, "What an odd way to start an article." But your answer to that question is a great way to begin building and expanding your influence and reach if you connect to Twitter.com and sign up for a free account. With thousands upon thousands of members, Twitter is an Internet phenomenon, which has taken social networking to its lowest common denominator by connecting people who share their everyday lives. Log in to Twitter and you are allocated 140 characters in which to tell the people in your circle what you are doing right now. You may be reading a book, playing Frisbee with your kids, exploring a new website or getting ready for bed. On Twitter, it's all good. In fact, the more you are willing to reveal your true self through your "tweets," the more likely you are to engage others and broaden your circle of influence.

Initially, no one will see your tweets. That is, until you begin "following" other people's tweets. This is accomplished quite simply by clicking a user name and then clicking the "follow" button that appears under the name. If you follow another member because you find their content interesting, they are more likely to follow you. If you reply to a member's tweet personally, the reciprocal follow becomes even more likely.

For example, I may write "Just fnished watchin' the 'Lost' season finale. Loved it! When will they return for the survivors?" Being a "Lost" fan, you may tweet back in this format . . . "@joelcomm wasn't it a great ending? I think the survivors never get off the island!" Because you have placed an "@" symbol before my username, I will see your reply and am more likely to follow you and engage in conversation. And so your circle grows. The more active you are and more you are willing to interact with others, the more followers you will acquire. The more interesting your tweets, the better!

This is why I call Twitter the water cooler of the 21st century. This is where people are going to meet and have ongoing discussions on the topics that interest them. Spend a few minutes watching the interactions that take place on Twitter and you will soon "get it."

As the owner of an online business, imagine the possibilities that exist for you to promote your products or services once you have people following you on Twitter! Once you have established relationships and people want to hear what you have to say, you have earned the right to occasionally share your business with them. On one day, my tweets might consist of "Upgrading to iPhone 2.0! Hope all goes well..." But the next day I might tweet "Heading to LA to speak at a Chris Howard event. Come see me for free on Sunday! http:// tinyurl.com/59necj" Yes, you can embed websites in your tweet, and your followers can instantly click to check them out! It's powerful stuff. You definitely want to leverage this tool to the fullest. I've written a 30-page report on Twitter and placed it in the member's site at the Top One Network. I invite you to log in now and download this report for free to expand your Twitter education. You'll discover software tools and websites that will make your Twitter experience even better. Be sure to follow me on Twitter. Simply go to  http://www.twitter.com/joelcomm

See you at the water cooler!

OK, so that's a wee bit about Twitter. Tomorrow, I will share another guest post with some basic etiquette. This is all so new, but I am interested in how Twitter can be used for team connections, training and development and business development. And I am interested to see how this tool helps me stay in touch with people. I mean, how deep can a conversation get when you are limited to 140 words? We shall see! Join me.

Comments

[Tanmay Vora]

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to Twitter - I have been a regular reader of your blog and it is great to have you on Twitter.

Like you, I was not very sure about joining Twitter but it has been a magical journey so far. 140 character limitation adds a lot of focus in the thought.

Integration of Twitter with LinkedIn, Blog and Facebook makes it even more interesting.

With so many tools available (Firefox plugins, applications for mobile to use twitter) tweeting becomes even more easy.

I wish you have a pleasant experience using Twitter and I look forward to some real "Return on Investment on Interaction (ROII)" as Rajesh Setty coins it.