Understanding Twitter

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to understand the importance of Twitter in running my own business, and while the results are still to come, some things have become obvious.

I read an article (and even tweeted about it) last week that talked about tweeting as "building relationships and building business". It talked about how you can not just tweet "10% off" or "this months special" but how tweeting is just like dealing with people in the real world. Sure you talk business, but you also talk about the nature of your business, tips and tricks and even your personal interests

So by building relationships on twitter, by replying to tweets, by re-tweeting and by tweeting myself, I do see my number of followers slowly increasing. Where these new followers come from I'm not sure but I definitely can see it more clearly as building relationships. For example, I replied to a tweet from some magazine, and actually got an @mention thanking me for a great comment (building a relationship). Well now my name is spread out to an even bigger audience, so maybe someone else agrees about what a great comment that is and decides to visit my twitter page and likes what I'm sending out in the form of tweets, then suddenly I've got a new follower.

Now I try to keep the business end, specials or announcements, to a minimum, but it's obvious I'm a graphic designer for print and web, but maybe, just maybe one of these new followers will need me someday, and that's when the time spent on tweeting and building relationships pay off. Additionally with the more followers I have, the better the chance one of them is going to say "I need a web designer" and there I am, waiting to serve them. This is of course all speculation at the moment, but I think it has some merit and as I continue this experiment, time will tell.

Secondly what I like about twitter is following people, I like reading about Apple news, I like reading about the automotive industry news, Sharks hockey news and local news, so I make sure these are the people and companies I follow. So now instead of having to go hit up different sites for all of this information, it is all sent to me on my computer or on my iPhone. I get the headlines and if I want to know more, I click the link and read the full story.

So these are my thoughts on twitter, not the strange new technology that was mis-understood, but a friend that can help me in the long run.