Twitter, You Complete Me

As a social media professional one of my biggest pet peeves is hearing people dis Twitter.

“Why do I need Facebook and Twitter?”

“What’s with the word limit?”

“How do I get followers?”

On one hand it’s a lot of whining, on the other hand, great questions.

My first response is, “Do you even have a Twitter account?” No? Well, then get one and then let’s talk.

You see, I’m what the industry refers to as an “early adopter,” which basically means when Facebook came out with their new timeline feature, I had to go all the way back to 2004 to check for embarrassing photos of myself to un-tag. It also means that I’m a pretty long-time user of social media.

My journey with Twitter began in 2008. I was at a blogging conference with a bunch of mommy bloggers who were a bit obsessed with Twitter. There was a huge screen in the front of the main conference room with a live Twitter feed that they all kept an eye on. Sick of the fact that a lot of these moms felt it okay to bring babies (who usually cried) to the educational sessions, I got a Twitter account and voiced my thoughts that way – on the big screen.

Now, I’m a sweet gal so it was all done tongue and check, but I felt better and I also fell in love with Twitter.

Fast forward nearly four years later and I’ve found a lot of uses for something I started just to voice my opinion. Of course, it’s still good for that, but oh, so much more.

So, about those questions.

“Why do I need a Facebook and a Twitter?”

I’ve addressed this before in this blog. But basically, there are key differences to the accounts. What I love about Twitter today (honestly, it changes daily)? Its PR power. In trying to get the word out about an upcoming event, I passed info around to some key Twitter players who in turn passed it onto their networks. All told close to 6,000 more people saw the information because I shared it on Twitter.

During the recent Christmas break I turned to Facebook when boredom struck, only to be bored further by people’s holiday photos, updates about all the great gifts they received, etc. And since I keep my Facebook relatively private and pared down, the amount of info I was seeing didn’t change much on an hourly basis.

Enter Twitter. Even when I wasn’t at work I was getting updates about what was happening in the world of marketing and PR, I  was linked into interesting articles courtesy of celebs, stores and more who I don’t interact with on Facebook.

So, bottom line – no matter how you use Twitter, it’s another social media tool that’s good for work and play.

“What’s with the word limit?”

First of all, it’s a character limit. Second of all, I’m long winded, so I quite like it. Along with the fact that I’m happy Twitter makes people edit themselves, I’m glad it makes me edit myself. My communication skills are stronger for it.

“How do I get followers?”

The same way you get friends on Facebook (and in real life). Be interesting. Be their friend first. It takes time. I don’t hold any records, but slowly and surly since 2008 my followers have increased.

If you haven’t already, make 2012 the year you discover the wonder that is Twitter.