PSJ Business Booster #11

Welcome to this "Business Booster" from the Professional Speakers Journal (PSJ).

These notes will be kept short and sweet and only have two objectives:

1. Add value to your business giving you a 'heads up' on simple tips and techniques may not have heard about

2. Keep you informed about what's new in the Professional Speakers Journal

Tip of the week - why Twitter is good for your business

Part One: Getting Started   

Why's everybody all of a Twitter?

When it comes to Twitter the world seems to fragment into three distinct groups: 

• People who have no idea as to what it is, yet feel confident enough in their 'knowledge' (sic) to dismiss it as a passing fad and consequently ignore it. This group is the only group that isn't all of a Twitter and their number is dwindling.

• Tech-heads who'll jump at anything new, especially if it's another means of communicating with people -- or simply broadcasting to the world -- via a keyboard and screen. 

• Tech-savy business people who're always on the look out for cost effective means of tapping into markets -- not just prospective customers, but competition and new suppliers too (for example).

I'm a member of the third group -- and I would like you to be too, which is why I'm writing these two articles.

What is it?

Put simply, Twitter is a free service which allows anybody to broadcast messages up to 140 characters in length. The limitation of 140 characters led to Twitter being described as 'micro-blogging' service -- and if you're familiar with blogging, then I think the term 'micro-blog' is a pretty good description of what lies at the heart of Twitter. However, there's much more to Twitter than just being a micro-blog, at also has all the other features one associates with the other more established social media tools. The really exciting bit for me though is the growing community of developers creating new tools to bolt on alongside Twitter and enhance its usefulness in business.   

If you're not already using Twitter, then by now you maybe asking questions along the lines of, "So what?" and "Why should I be interested in this?"

Such questions are entirely reasonable and normally speaking, I'd provide an answer right here and now. However, on this particular occasion I'm going to suggest that you simply register for Twitter and get stuck in. Start using it and see what happens.

In Part Two of this article (next week's Business Booster) I'll give you some good business reasons for using Twitter -- and as you'll have had at least a week's worth of experience by then you'll be better able to judge the usefulness of the list.

How do I get started?

Registering for a free Twitter account is simplicity itself. Start by visiting…

https://www.twitter.com/signup

…and create your account, followed by your profile.

Why's my profile so important?

Some people skip the profile set-up stage with free, web-based services, so they can get to the action quicker. My advice: don't. Spend some time creating a decent profile -- tell the world a bit about who you are and what you do. Give a URL people can visit to find out more about you.

The reason you should do this is because one of the really useful features of Twitter is the ability to maintain a watching brief over the postings of fellow Twitter users. Given that this is a micro-blogging service, you really want to be able to determine whose posting to track -- and you achieve this by reading their profile (as well as their other postings).

Some Twitter terminology here:

Postings on Twitter are referred to as 'tweets' and maintaining that watching brief over another's postings is referred to as 'following' that particular user.  

At the end of this process you'll end up with your own Twitter 'home page', based on your account name. For example, mine is:

http://www.twitter.com/ChrisDavidsonUK

Using this page as base camp, you're ready to explore Twitter. You can post directly from your home page and also find others to follow.

Start now and see what happens.

What else?

A couple of additional points:

Twitter isn't just delivered through your PC. There is a text message front end for interaction via mobile phones. Personally, I've not used this and can't comment on its usefulness, reliability or capability.

Like many other social media systems there are many additional plug-ins being developed. It's a good idea to do a web search on Twitter just to keep in touch with some of the additional functions. Here's some that I consider to be useful:

http://twellow.com

A sort-of 'Yellow Pages' for the Twitter world.

http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/

Another useful directory -- and one that only started at end of January 2008. This is a wiki-based directory and (like twellow above) you can get yourself listed in this too.

http://search.twitter.com/

A search capability allowing you to find out what's being said about yourself, your competition, the industry -- in fact, anything you fancy searching on. A good way to find fellow Tweeters to follow.

Ok folks -- that's enough for this week. If you've yet to use Twitter, then just get stuck in and give it a go.

I'll be here again next week with useful business reasons as to why you ought to have acted on this Business Booster without delay.

If you have ideas for material you'd like covered in the Journal, please let me know.

Regards,

Chris Davidson

Editor@ProfessionalSpeakersJournal.com

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