Continuing my little expose on how I’m doing in wally world as a WAHM, I’m going to further expound on my adventures in Twitterville.
First, I’m going to say this work-at-home Gram from Dysfunction Junction, CT is finding it’s a ton of fun ~ I enjoy getting the little pop-ups on Twitterfox, and getting to know the personalities of all my Tweeps. While working late at night, I haven’t had the opportunity to watch the Olympics. However, there’s one gal who updates regularly, every 10 minutes or so, on what exactly has been going on! She’s so entertaining (besides being the author of a terrific blog, Send Chocolate, that I suggested last night that she bottle all the commentary on the Olympics into an eBook!
But I digress. Seriously, Twitter is an excellent platform for micro-blogging and marketing your product, be it a blog, service, eBay store or mission.
If you find yourself in a position that you need to understand your target customer as well as keep up with various ways of marketing to those potential customers, Twitter is one of the most powerful and popular tools out there right now! This new type of network communication has been taken up by companies and individuals alike in recent months and for good reason.
To get a better understanding of Twitter, let’s first take a look at the format. Essentially, Twitter is a program that allows you to make very small, public posts. Because these posts are so limited (they max out at 140 characters) they can easily be sent to a number of different locations all at once. When you have written a Twitter, it can appear on the twitter website, on short message services, instant messaging sites or even on third-party applications like Facebook or Twitterific. Folks can even add a script to their blog or website to show their most recent posts and the posts of others! I have a blue widget box on my right sidebar. Your Twitter messages, also known tweets, will appear to anyone who has chosen to follow your updates.
There are several advantages to this type of communication. The first thing that you’ll discover is that it allows for a much more immediate relay of information. The shortness of the message forces you to be very brief, and this alone can create interest in those reading. Because tweets are so short, they often lead to frequent posting, which is excellent when you’re looking to communicate with people and to get to know them. While Twitter is, by default, public, you can restrict the people who see your material with the ease of checking a box in your profile.
Actually, although I rarely have to do this, last night and so far tonight have been the exception. I believe it’s a full-moon this week, and true to form, the crazies are coming out of the walls. I, along with a few of my fellow Tweeps, have had to block several people. If these folks have a trillion people that they’re following, and only 1 or 2 followers of their own and no website listed - that’s a sure sign of a Spammer or bored teen, and an instant BLOCK. But don’t let that discourage you. It happens in e-mail programs too.
You’ll find that not only can you post tweets, you can also receive them. Once again, the immediate nature of this service lends greatly to its appeal. Want to follow someone’s updates and see what they are up to with their business or life in general? Simply sign into your Twitter account, type in their Twitter address or username and click the “Follow” button. That’s all there is to it!
The amount of time that’s spent reading the messages is very short, and you can be in contact with people a great deal more than you otherwise might be. In essence, you can get to know each other much more quickly than if you were just reading each others blogs or profiles. The look and feel of an instant messaging service helps add to this ability. Think about it for a minute, do you feel more connected to those on your messenger list than the blogs you read? Twitter is the same way.
I used Twitter extensively this week with my website designer for my Virtual Assistant website. We both are on Twitter and when I sent her an e-mail either responding to her design questions, or making suggestions on the site design myself, I sent her a Tweet to let her know that ‘you’ve got e-mail.’ Simple!
For many, whether they’re looking for friends, clients, or someone to help them out with a problem or workload, getting in touch with others is important. With Twitter it’s never been easier!
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