Twitter 102 – Use Twitter to Build a Network
Welcome to Twitter, Part II. Earlier this week, I wrote about the basics of Twitter and how to get started with this social media phenomenon. If you’re following along, you’ve hopefully created an account (using your real name) and attached a photo to your profile. Now, it’s time to figure out how to effectively communicate and network via Twitter.
Decide how you want to use Twitter
Obviously there are tons of ways you can use Twitter – staying in touch with friends, promoting a corporation or small business, stalking celebrities, and making professional connections are a few examples. You celebrity stalkers out there can check out a list of the most popular twitter-ers, topped by Ashton Kutcher with almost four million followers. For everyone else, this blog post will focus on how to network and make promising connections via Twitter, as networking should be a crucial component of any young professional’s development (and Twitter is the latest – and perhaps greatest – tool to help you).
Your Twitter objective will guide what you say, how often you say it, and who your audience is. For example, my main goals with Twitter are to network with others and learn more about topics I’m interested in. I know I’m not going to post anything that I’d be embarrassed for my boss to read based on the goals I’ve outlined.
Build your network with Twitter connections
Your friends and family are the natural first connections to make on Twitter. Don’t forget that you can import connections via your Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL accounts. It’s also important to follow people that are tweeting about your industry, preferred niche, or any other topics or companies that interest you. Use the “find people” search function (located in the menu at the top of the Web page) to find twitter-ers to follow; here are some ways you can search:
- Type in your industry keywords (e.g., small business, travel, marketing, medicine, pilots, chefs, etc.)
- Search on your location (e.g., Miami, California, Midwest, etc.)
- Search for companies that you like or are interested in working for
You can also sign up for an account with Twellow, the Twitter Yellow Pages. You have to register, but the site has a few worthwhile features. It syncs with your Twitter account, pulls in your profile (assuming you set one up), recognizes keywords about you, and then automatically suggests people for you to follow based on those keywords. For example, I have the term “corporate strategy” in my profile, and Twellow has created a corporate strategy link for me that leads to a list of individuals in the same field that I might be interested in following. Pretty cool.
Once you start tweeting, it’s likely that a decent number of the twitter-ers that you follow will start following you! My final Twitter installment will cover how to interact with your audience, including what you should tweet about and how often to tweet. Until then…
By: Gale Bowman
11-06-2009
After graduating from Notre Dame over four years ago, Gale realized that young professionals need a source of reliable information as they face “real world” challenges. Gale manages WhatCollegeForgot.com and presents workshops to college students and recent grads.
