Blog Building: The potential networking value of Twitter

There’s a surprise contender in the social media portion of our blog building scheme. It’s a site you may have scoffed at before. I admit to having done so myself. It’s Twitter: the site that has users create an account and then post – in 140 characters or less – the minutia of what they’re doing at that very instant.

Why do I think it has value? Well, first it makes it easy to define your audience. Other social media sites that we’ve used (Small Business Brief, I’m looking at you), feel like pushing content out into a void. Who reads it? I don’t know. Probably no one, unless you’re an entrenched user of the site and are adept at creating posts that appeal to that specific audience. (I was going to give an example of an absurdly titled post on Small Business Brief that nonetheless ranks highly, but will defer to better judgment. Suffice it to say, that most businesses don’t have the time it takes to create the site-specific presence necessary to get folks to read anything they post, no matter how absurdly titled.)

Twitter is much more personal at the outset than other social media sites. You can follow individuals, which puts their posts in your Twitter inbox. When you request to follow a person, they get notification that you’re doing so and may follow you in return. There’s a connection. Who are the leaders in your industry? Are they on Twitter? In certain industries I’d bet they are. Reach out to them, follow them, make a connection with them.

Because the things you post to Twitter are smaller and – by definition – very specific to what you’re doing, it’s easy (almost addictive) to become invested in the site. Plus, it’s fun.

Who knows if Twitter will actually work for us in our blog building mission? We’ll start off cautiously, trying to get the lay of the land. Because the site is so personal in nature, I don’t want to hard sell anything. But I’m optimistic about it. Want to join us? Follow us at http://twitter.com/jjhill_library.   

(Note: Also, Twitter can be less professional. For example, see our tweet about Hill blogger Allen, and his baby born Tuesday!)