I joined the twitter universe a few months ago in order to spread the word about my business.
There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people doing the same.
There are many sites and helpful advice out there on how to use Twitter, but some advice is poor quality and misleading I have found.
Slowly I have built up a following by following many others to see what they are saying or doing.
I decided to use Twitter as a platform to inform people of my research, which they would probably not know about, therefore I tweet usually once or twice a week on inconsistent, superior and inferior managers, how to spot them etc.
By doing so it raises people's awareness of what is really going on in the workplace.
The challenge of Twitter Twitter forces you to write the story in 140 characters or less.
You have to cut the waffle to get at the heart of the communication.
It is similar to short story writing, you become involved in an activity that is to the point, hits the target of the idea in a few minutes rather than engaging in a process that takes hours to develop, to read or listen to.
Twitter is the short story version of the internet.
The challenge is creating messages that will be of interest in this extreme short timespan medium.
How not to Twitter This is going to sound judgmental and probably is (but I feel I have to express it) but I have found during the hours of being on Twitter, seeing people's tweets, is that the medium is used a lot by self-serving, ego-centric people.
However, I do understand why they do it.
There is currently vast unemployment, if you think the US and UK's unemployment rates are bad, take a look at the third world countries and you will see millions unemployed or employed at ridiculously low rates of pay.
In order to survive, to get food and shelter they are clutching at straws to promote their business in a medium of 140 characters.
Some bombard Twitter with tweets every few minutes, others use Twitter for nefarious reasons and hack Twitter to get your email address so that they can obtain income through spamming or spruiking non-existent goods or services.
However I do not want my Tweet feed to be clogged up by these 'Twerps'.
So I delete or report for spam if the account looks suspicious.
One good way to evaluate if your Twitter account has been abused is to use a different email address that you only use for your Twitter account.
That way you will know first hand that spamming is going on as suddenly that your email address attracts useless spam.
Review your followers I review every single person who follows me to see if they tweet.
A common sign that all is not well, is when you visit their Twitter profile, there are no tweets, yet mysteriously they have built up a following of their own.
At best, if you haven't got anything to say, don't use Twitter! Furthermore, if you have despicable intentions please do not use my followers as a source of mugs for your scam.
Decide on what you want to achieve After being advised that I must be on Twitter to market my business as part of my social marketing strategy I had to decide on my reasons for doing this.
What I realised is that I do not like repetition in other tweeting.
Neither do I enjoy 100 tweets an hour, which are generally machine based selling.
In addition, I do not care for the 'read-this-now!' link, which is a monotonous spiel about their business.
It's nice to see a quote now and then as it makes you think.
However, I did not want to do just quotes, there are enough people out there who do this in a much better way than me.
So I had to think hard on what I wanted to say that would strike up heartfelt conversations.
Sort out who you want to follow There are some that you have to follow, these are relevant professional organisations and thought leaders in your area of expertise.
I really enjoy looking through their list of whom they follow.
You will see some surprising twists and turns! If I feel that the person or company that they are following is relevant to me, then I follow.
I create a list of very interesting people that I would like to converse with.
I review and cull out any Twitter account about once a month to remove following those who had turned out to be not what I hoped.
Striking a heart-felt conversation My idea is that if I offer respect to the people I follow, and engage in heart to heart conversations, that the responses are more likely to be genuine.
My tweets get followed as I am giving information that is generally not available about what comprises of good management and what is poor management, (like much of my work on Ezine).
Many employees are unable to distinguish the two as myths surround the workplace supported by a hierarchical power structure,which acts against them.
I enjoy doing that and it spreads the message of knowledge and experience in the process.
Conclusion My proposal is that anyone can tweet their business on Twitter but we have to get good conversations developing within 140 characters.
The material has to be interesting, timely, helpful to others and shares your knowledge and experience.
Block or report the obvious spammers, follow the right people who may wish to participate with you and get rid of the dead wood which have proved to less interesting.
In this way we can improve our Twitter experience and yet still meet our marketing goals.
There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people doing the same.
There are many sites and helpful advice out there on how to use Twitter, but some advice is poor quality and misleading I have found.
Slowly I have built up a following by following many others to see what they are saying or doing.
I decided to use Twitter as a platform to inform people of my research, which they would probably not know about, therefore I tweet usually once or twice a week on inconsistent, superior and inferior managers, how to spot them etc.
By doing so it raises people's awareness of what is really going on in the workplace.
The challenge of Twitter Twitter forces you to write the story in 140 characters or less.
You have to cut the waffle to get at the heart of the communication.
It is similar to short story writing, you become involved in an activity that is to the point, hits the target of the idea in a few minutes rather than engaging in a process that takes hours to develop, to read or listen to.
Twitter is the short story version of the internet.
The challenge is creating messages that will be of interest in this extreme short timespan medium.
How not to Twitter This is going to sound judgmental and probably is (but I feel I have to express it) but I have found during the hours of being on Twitter, seeing people's tweets, is that the medium is used a lot by self-serving, ego-centric people.
However, I do understand why they do it.
There is currently vast unemployment, if you think the US and UK's unemployment rates are bad, take a look at the third world countries and you will see millions unemployed or employed at ridiculously low rates of pay.
In order to survive, to get food and shelter they are clutching at straws to promote their business in a medium of 140 characters.
Some bombard Twitter with tweets every few minutes, others use Twitter for nefarious reasons and hack Twitter to get your email address so that they can obtain income through spamming or spruiking non-existent goods or services.
However I do not want my Tweet feed to be clogged up by these 'Twerps'.
So I delete or report for spam if the account looks suspicious.
One good way to evaluate if your Twitter account has been abused is to use a different email address that you only use for your Twitter account.
That way you will know first hand that spamming is going on as suddenly that your email address attracts useless spam.
Review your followers I review every single person who follows me to see if they tweet.
A common sign that all is not well, is when you visit their Twitter profile, there are no tweets, yet mysteriously they have built up a following of their own.
At best, if you haven't got anything to say, don't use Twitter! Furthermore, if you have despicable intentions please do not use my followers as a source of mugs for your scam.
Decide on what you want to achieve After being advised that I must be on Twitter to market my business as part of my social marketing strategy I had to decide on my reasons for doing this.
What I realised is that I do not like repetition in other tweeting.
Neither do I enjoy 100 tweets an hour, which are generally machine based selling.
In addition, I do not care for the 'read-this-now!' link, which is a monotonous spiel about their business.
It's nice to see a quote now and then as it makes you think.
However, I did not want to do just quotes, there are enough people out there who do this in a much better way than me.
So I had to think hard on what I wanted to say that would strike up heartfelt conversations.
Sort out who you want to follow There are some that you have to follow, these are relevant professional organisations and thought leaders in your area of expertise.
I really enjoy looking through their list of whom they follow.
You will see some surprising twists and turns! If I feel that the person or company that they are following is relevant to me, then I follow.
I create a list of very interesting people that I would like to converse with.
I review and cull out any Twitter account about once a month to remove following those who had turned out to be not what I hoped.
Striking a heart-felt conversation My idea is that if I offer respect to the people I follow, and engage in heart to heart conversations, that the responses are more likely to be genuine.
My tweets get followed as I am giving information that is generally not available about what comprises of good management and what is poor management, (like much of my work on Ezine).
Many employees are unable to distinguish the two as myths surround the workplace supported by a hierarchical power structure,which acts against them.
I enjoy doing that and it spreads the message of knowledge and experience in the process.
Conclusion My proposal is that anyone can tweet their business on Twitter but we have to get good conversations developing within 140 characters.
The material has to be interesting, timely, helpful to others and shares your knowledge and experience.
Block or report the obvious spammers, follow the right people who may wish to participate with you and get rid of the dead wood which have proved to less interesting.
In this way we can improve our Twitter experience and yet still meet our marketing goals.
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