Just when you’ve got MySpace and Facebook figured out – carefully balancing “fun” with maintaining a professional image – comes Twitter, a micro-blogging platform that offers you the ability to send messages (tweets) of 140 characters -- not 140 words.
The idea is that you post a message on Twitter to let everyone who is “following” you know what you are doing. In other words, people choose to “follow” you and then get a news feed of your tweets.
In the last week I’ve gotten email newsletters from several internet marketers explaining how to use Twitter for business purposes. Trying to follow this advice, I’ve sent tweets about attending the two-day internet marketing seminar of John Kremer (www.bookmarket.com) as well as attending BookExpoAmerica. Last night I sent a tweet about reading the book “Problogger” by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett recommended by the BlogSquad (www.blogsquad.biz).
It’s important to consider how this new social phenomenon (it’s free – anyone can sign up at www.twitter.com) could help or hinder your professional image. If you sign up for this social network, ANYONE else who is on the network can “follow” you unless you check “Protect my updates.” (This lets only people whom you approve follow your updates.)
I’ve just put a Twitter link on both of my blogs. (I chose to have only one tweet appear rather than the five tweets that is the default setting.) And I actually don’t update through Twitter. I update through Ping.fm, which at this writing is still in beta.
And actually I don’t go to the Ping site to update. I go to my Facebook page, where I have the Ping application. There I can dash off a quick update that Ping sends to the sites I’ve indicated: Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. And, now apparently, Twitter then sends the update to my two blogs.
Okay, are you as confused as I am? And you want to know what’s the point of this post? One, you should know what Twitter and tweets are if someone asks you about this new phenomenon. Two, you should remember to follow all the “protect your brand” recommendations that I’ve given for other social media networks.
And because it is so easy to dash off a tweet, you may have to be especially careful to resist shooting off a risqué comment. Instead, if you decide to join Twitter, consider how you can positively impact your brand.
You know what? I’m going to send a tweet through Ping on my Facebook account that I’ve just blogged about Twitter.
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