When it comes to conveying the relevance of Twitter, it was never my bosses who needed the hard sell. It’s always been my family and friends. As professional 30-somethings they all asked the same question: Why should I care about something so trivial?
There’s been any number of articles written about why Twitter matters, how Twitter works and why it’s important. Those articles are all fine and well. But I generally get the most traction with my friends and family when I explain to them how I use Twitter, both in my professional and personal life.
I maintain two Twitter accounts on a regular basis: @websteru and @patrickjpowers. The former is professional, the latter is personal. Since I assume most people don’t get paid to tweet and re-tweet on behalf of their employer, I’ll focus on how I use my own personal account.
Who do you follow?
Generally, I use Twitter to follow people falling into one of three groups: personal friends, colleagues at other universities doing similar work (examples here, here and here), and everything/anything related to the St. Louis Cardinals.
It’s great to keep tabs on high school friends and I’m a sucker to read anything about Albert Pujols or Mark McGwire, but the bulk of those I follow are colleagues at other universities. They pass along interesting articles, post examples of great work, share ideas and generally make me laugh. I only hope the items I post can return the favor.
How do you find these people to follow?
I steal them. Well, that’s not exactly the best answer, but it’s pretty accurate. A simple Twitter search of key industry terms, i.e. highered, marketing, Twitter, will provide a great initial list of those talking about what you want to read. The next step is to examine who they’re following and follow them, too.
The lists features have provided a great way to help narrow down this search. For example, I’ve been “listed” 28 times. I didn’t compile any of those lists, but most of them focus on higher education and social media. These are the people I follow. So, ever so slowly, I work my way down the list and follow my fellow “listeees.”
How do you handle all the incoming tweets?
I relate this experience to attending a conference. There’s always a deluge of information and certainly moments of “what am I doing here?” Unfortunately, these moments make up the bulk of information I receive on Twitter. But the golden nuggets I find scattered among them moments make the endeavor worth it.
The trick is knowing where to find the nuggets.
Most of it comes with experience and the ability to scan. How do you know what stories to read in the newspaper? Spend a week on Twitter and you will quickly learn how to discern a quality tweet from an update on someone’s choice of breakfast cereal.
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Thanks for this. I’ll pass this on to my “need convincing” clients!