Twitter

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent & Organization Development

I really am feeling my age. I'm not an early adopter but I'm usually far ahead of the Average Joe, but Twitter has me stumped. Why would anyone be interested in what I have to say this moment? However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I resisted Facebook for about six months. Even wrote a blog about why I liked LinkedIn better than Facebook. Truth be told, now I love them the same but for different reasons (much like you love your children equally but each has their unique strengths).

But back to Twitter... like a third child, can I love it too? I've learned never to say “never” but I have my doubts. Do I have time for all three? Can I justify the time for all three? I decided this time I will really try Twitter before making a final decision.

In a few days I have learned:

• Twitter is fast, real fast. Send out an update or “tweet” and someone will respond. Pretty surprising given that I only have three followers. Oh, I just checked and now it's four! Now it is six!

• Twitter is about broader networks than just friends or colleagues. Perfect strangers will follow you, conversely, you can follow anyone you like. I only know two of my followers and I'm still wondering why the rest have  followed me (and am I right to feel pressure to entertain them?).

• Still working on learning the lingo. So far I've learned # (use this to make your tag/term more searchable) and @ (precedes a username), RT (retweet, similar to forwarding email) and OH (overheard) are a few I'll need to practice using.

So I'll be testing Twitter further and evaluating Twitter for work, fun and family. I'd love to know how others are using it and do you have any tips!

Comments

[Pat Shaughnessy]

Colleen,
Like the Blog.
--twitter makes it easy to check things out quickly!

In fact, I found you and your blog on twitter!!!
Pat

[Brandy]

Check out Twitter lists for people that have interests that are similar to yours, ie: Inside Sales or Salesforce.com. You can cherry pick people to follow from these lists or just follow the whole list.

If possible, meet up with these people in person. I met a bunch of great Salesforce.com people at Dreamforce this year at a special 'Tweet-up'. Those relationships continue to grow, and are not only valuable professionally, but just plain fun.

Twitter makes it easy to nurture those relationships that might otherwise just die on the vine.

@forcedotmom