The day I joined Twitter in April 2009 I felt like I was the new kid at school again. From my perspective, Twitter was the “already formed group of friends” that would never accept me. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is how everyone feels once they join, which is why most people don’t stick with it. Another reason most people don’t stick with Twitter is because they don’t know how to use it correctly.
As my first week passed as a new user, I tried extremely hard to “fit in.” It wasn’t working for me. This was when I took into account that Twitter was different from Facebook and all other social media platforms I was used to. I had to figure out the strategy of Twitter in order to survive on it. Businesses must do the same thing. Everyone’s strategy is different, and it takes time to figure it out. Once you figure out your strategy, you’re not done. You should always continue to evolve and get into different places.
For my personal Twitter account I like to tweet about social media news and converse with others on this. I also throw in a personal spin, such as tweeting about sports and the weather. One must realize though, Twitter isn’t to be used for status updates- my followers don’t care that I am painting my nails. If you feel you want to share that you are painting your nails though, tweet at a salon owner for their opinion on tones that work well with pale skin in the winter. You will likely get a response from a salon owner and other people that are following you with their advice and opinions. Another example is tweeting about NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL trades. You have the ability to converse with others on trades you agree with or disagree with and why. This also allows you to build your own community on Twitter.
So the next time you hear someone talking about how much they cannot stand Twitter, realize this: they cannot stand it because they either don’t know how to use it correctly or they are afraid of it. What are you doing still reading this- start tweeting!
-Lauren
Follow me on Twitter @LaurenBarber7
Written by: admin
The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in professional web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategy. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Very interesting entry. I for one felt the same way about Twitter, signing up for it to maintain a presence but was mostly flirting with it. For those who utilized Facebook and then went to Twitter, it was a huge cultural adaptation.
I love the functionality of the status update limiting the amount of characters one can post. What is even better and one in which I see a lot more people doing now instead of providing status is them “re-tweeting” existing content or articles. Media’s adoption of this allowing for sharing of this information through someone’s Twitter page allows for more optimized transfer of knowledge among a wider audience than what was originally targeted.
Lastly what is great now about Twitter is the API functionality that enables those posting updates or retweets to link to their LinkedIn page or even by using a a variety of different to sites to enable a user to post a status update to be used among several sites at one time, even allowing for the update in Twitter’s case to be customized to meet their specifications.
As amazing as the technological advances have been recently, I’m sure that in the coming months there will be even more especially on the mobile device area.
Thanks for the comment, Brian. Twitter was definitely a huge cultural adaption and still is to many people!
It is very interesting how media has adopted this form of sharing information (re-tweeting existing content or articles). You make a great point, it definitely allows for more optimized transfer of knowledge among a wider audience than first anticipated.
There are so many advances in technology that it is hard to keep up with! But I definitely have to agree with you that there will be even more advances in the mobile device area.