Twitter is simple, and if used effectively and in a discretionary fashion, can be a really effective part of an integrated personal marketing and brand positioning plan for the uninitiated.
It is a social networking site through which users send and receive messages (tweets) that are text-based, up to 140 characters maximum. You can tweet on the website or on your phone.
Most smartphones have got a Twitter application which gives you free instant access. With other phones and updating via SMS, even though Twitter is free, in some cases your service provider will still charge for the SMS.
Originally Twitter received bad press as it was considered to be a mechanism for celebrities to allow their fans to follow the minutiae of their daily lives. While you can do this (please don’t!), Twitter is a great tool for getting quick instant messages about your brand to a broad spectrum of people.
Personally I use Twitter as a mechanism to direct people to my website, blog and other social media, because, as a woman of many words, I find it difficult to restrict myself to 140 characters.
I do however know the value of good headlines, so Twitter for me is a headline.
The incentive to become part of the social media communication network lies in the social aspect. If you do not yet know it, investigate it. The easiest way to start is to follow people who you believe are good role models and icons in your industry.
The tweets from the people you follow will update on to your home page and you can read their posts. You can also reply to a tweet or send a private message to a person. @mentions are very popular on Twitter, when you post a tweet and you want someone to be “cc’d” into your post, you will type @ and the name of the person. The more you tweet the more followers you will gain and so the network will begin to grow.
Remember a few golden rules:
* Care about your image.
* Choose how you want to be seen.
* Be careful and be clever in creating exposure in highly cluttered places.
* Be sure to hit those buttons, but before you do, read what you have written and carefully consider the impact of your message. It needs to focus on what people want to know, not merely what you want to say!
* Jenny Handley is a brand, high performance and leadership specialist who offers individual consultations and team workshops. For information on Jenny’s books and courses visit www.jennyhandley.co.za. Follow Jenny on Twitter: Jenny_Handley and Facebook: Jenny Handley Performance Management.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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