Tweet to Self: don’t try to fight the whole world for the attention of the whole world.
Welcome to part two of this chronicle of my attempts to get to grips with Twitter. You can find part one here. If you haven't read it, methinks you're trying to skip dinner and start with pudding. Go and read it first, you cheeky scapegrace.
Welcome back to part two of this introduction to Twitter! This week we're discussing joining groups: how to do it, and why the hell you should bother.
As far as I can discern, Twitter users can be divided into two broad categories.
One category of Twitterers consists of people who want an agile, fast moving and fun way to stay in touch with people they know.
This group also contains people who use Twitter to make friends. Personally, I’d no sooner try to make friends using Twitter as I would try to make friends by spray-painting my telephone number on the Chiswick flyover. But the key thing is that they’re in it for the social aspect. As for the other category -
The other category consists of Twitterers who want to be in touch with complete strangers. Strangers who might prove useful to them, either as sources of information or as members of their personal audience, or Twaudience.
There’s some overlap between the groups, of course (hand me that Venn diagram, Daphne). But generally speaking, this second gang is in it either to keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the world, or for business networking.
Now, there are plenty of people using Twitter for business networking, some of them very successfully. How do they do it? I have no idea. When I find out I'll let you know, if I'm not too busy driving around Monte Carlo in a sportscar purchased with my newfound Twitter wealth. But I do know - or strongly suspect - that all of the successful business Twitterers go through a phase of ignorance, followed by a glorious epiphany.
A moment of enlightenment, if you will.
They realise that most of the people to whom they are broadcasting are just like them.
They realise that while they’ve been struggling to win ‘followers’, and broadcasting their own tweets, and not reading anyone else’s tweets – their followers are doing exactly the same. Their followers have the same agenda: follow people in order to win them as followers, build an audience, tweet at them, repeat until they've built an empire (Twempire).
Having thousands of followers made them feel like they were playing to a vast audience, but in reality, the theatre was full of actors.
I'm guessing that if you don’t get out of the ‘I talk and everyone listens’ mentality, using Twitter for networking is like trying to win business contacts by driving around town with your head out of the car window, shouting at pedestrians.
That’s why it's probably best if we beginners start small…
In particular, I think it's probably best to start by joining groups of people with whom you share non-business interests. Start ‘following’ some of these attractive humans; a few of them will have the good manners to follow you back. Then start posting stuff that you think they might find interesting: links to useful information (use http://bit.ly/ to condense links), quotes, jokes, whatever.
Obviously, if you’re planning on using your Twitter account for hardcore wheeling and dealing, you might want to set up an alternative account if 'non business interests' for you means taxidermy, alien conspiracy theories, or Thelemic Satanism (hi guys!). But it’s better to join groups whose discussion-themes won’t be completely at odds with your business profile. You’d (presumably) be happy to put ‘Aikido’ on your Linkedin profile. You’d presumably be less happy telling business contacts that you have a thing for running through graveyards dressed as Sir Thomas More (hi guys!). Just use your noodle.
I’ll bet that many Twitter careers stall early because the Twit tried to fight the whole world for the attention of the whole world. They tried to follow everyone, thinking that networking is a numbers game. It is... but it's a game of exponentially growing numbers, so you can afford to start minuscule. The best approach is to court the attention of a few people, and listen to them as much as you expect them to listen. And the best way to do this is to start with people who you're genuinely interested in, and who'll be interested in you.
Anyway - some nuts and bolts:
There are numerous ways to join groups. As with everything designed to be simple, Twitter works best when you complicate things by using it in conjunction with a staggering array of other applications. Here are two such applications to add to your starship control panel, along with http://bit.ly/ and http://tweetmeme.com/ :
http://www.twellow.com/ - the ‘Twitter Yellow Pages’;
Visit, set up an account, join groups, make your own groups, and follow people you like the look of. It's all pretty self-explanatory. Remember to thank people who follow you, and to follow them back, unless they are clearly homicidal.
That’s all for today, fellow Twit-students. I'm off to take my own advice. And those fellow Thomas More-alikes don’t like me being away for too long.
Other twaddle:
the tweet of my pants - part one: a beginner's guide to twitter
linkedin vs. the recruitment industry: some glib reflections
the quickest £55k you never smelled
mush ado (or, why email is rubbish)
"the internet": the next big thing?
in the bloghouse (or, is blogging wrong?)
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