Mike Harvey explains why you should bother, for the Times Online.
What is Twitter?
At its simplest, Twitter is a mini-blog where you record your thoughts or what you are up to in 140 characters or less. The enforced brevity of the service keeps the chat pithy; users often highlight favourite stories on the web, post pictures or talk about news or TV shows.
My guide
- Sign up and make your first Tweet… “This is my first Tweet”. Everybody does.
- About 30 people will suddenly follow you.
- Wahay – you have followers – be prepared to lose between one and three days of your life telling these 30 strangers your every move (they are ‘follower spam’, but you won’t care, you’ll be in denial) .
- Start following Stephen Fry. Everybody does.
- After a short while, you’ll probably realise that nobody really cares that you have just read Truman Capote or had Lincolnshire sausages for breakfast (and you’ll probably realise you don’t care what Stephen Fry has had for breakfast either).
- You’ll then go back to what you were doing before.
The big ‘BUT’
If you have something interesting to say, something people will find useful, well that’s a whole different ballgame.
Search for a guru in your field, follow them and you’ll see why they bother. If you are a consultant, Twitter can be a very important part of building up ‘Me Inc.’
If you run a restaurant, tell people about that fantastic organic smallholding that is supplying you – tell them when to come in for the best leeks they have ever tasted.
If you run a tourist attraction, tell people about the special events, give some ‘locals only’ knowledge, give your followers special offers.
Keep it chatty, keep it informal, keep it interesting, make sure it’s valuable to someone, don’t sell – give, keep an eye on the effort you put in – and what you get back out of it.
Finally, brand up your Twitter page and find a way to publish your Tweets to your website or blog.
Just don’t post about your breakfast.
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