Using Twitter for Business

In research class we were asked to read 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business by Chris Brogan. This piece was very helpful because it gave me ideas of how I can engage myself into the social media world. Almost every high school and college student has set up or seen a MySpace or Facebook account, but really that is one small branch of social media. I feel that Twitter gives any person interested, a chance to belong to a community individuals, where you can discuss and learn from each other. From a business standpoint, it allows a company to follow, read and react to positive or negative images cast on the business. It also allows you to follow competitors.

Mr. Brogan split up the 50 ideas into sections. The first section discussed the steps to take in order to get started. Of the 10, I felt these were most important:

• Listening always comes first.
• Build an account and start searching for your name, your competitors names and words that relate to your space.
• Share links of things you or your followers may benefit from.

The next section gave ideas for things to tweet about.

• Instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?", answer the question, "What has your attention"?
• Ask questions. Twitter is a great place for opinions.
• Follow interesting people and see who they are following. Then follow those people as well.
• Re-tweet others material. If you thought it was useful, chances are someone else will too.
• When you do tweet your own material, make it useful by giving advice, posting blogs and offering pictures.

In every social media networking site you will find positives and negatives. You have to weigh both to see if they will benefit you. Here are a few positives Brogan discussed.

• Twitter can help organize meetings and can direct people's attention to good things.
• Twitter can break news faster than other sources.
• Twitter brings great minds together (depending on the people you follow) and gives you daily opportunities to learn.

Although many feel that twitter has no negatives, the naysayers of twitter feel that it takes time. People may feel twitter takes away from other productive work.

I thought this article really opened my eyes and made me think of twitter in a different way. When I was first introduced to the site, I felt it was a place that I would tell people I don't even know, what I am doing. It didn't really appeal to me until I realized all the other capabilities and learning opportunities it had to offer. If I can offer one piece of advice about twitter, it would be to sign up and search for stuff that interests you. Take a dive into the endless pool of knowledge and see what you find.