Today, the ability to connect with people is easier than ever. Thanks to social media, all we have to do is Google a name and everything publically available will reveal itself—good and bad. Each search results offers a different way to explore and connect.
If you grew up in the 90’s or before, networking only happened if you “showed up.” That meant that the only way you could get to know people was to show up and talk to them…face to face.
I remember the first music industry party that I went to in 1997. I walked in, knew nobody and walked out, knowing nobody. The room was full of people that had pre-existing relationships and it proved extremely difficult to break into them.
Today, context is available for almost everybody.
Thanks to social media, blogs and more, you can find out a lot about someone you don’t even know. While this scares a lot of people, it can also become an incredible asset in building your personal network. Of course, you can also become that “creepy person” if you’re not careful.
Most have heard of Twitter, and likely have formed an opinion about the social network. On the good side, people love it; on the bad side, they assume that it’s just a bunch of people tweeting what they had for lunch. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Do you identify with any of these statements?
- I want to connect with likeminded people
- I want to think and do like the people you admire most.
- I want to connect with influencers
If said yes to any of the above statements, Twitter is definitely for you.
11 Reasons why it’s not too late to start using Twitter:
- Twitter is the most powerful social networking tool out there – No other platform has given celebrities real-time accessibility to their fans; no other platform allows you to connect and dialogue with people you care about in real-time; no other platform makes it easy to connect with people you do and don’t know.
- It’s about conversation. A tweet is the equivalent of a public text message. The person tweeting it is putting their thoughts out there for a reason, and while those reasons may vary, usually, they’re looking for some sort of response. Replying to the tweet is just like responding to a text message. While it’s true that not every tweet is replied to, many Twitter users will take the time to acknowledge and respond to people who reply to them.
- Stay Connected – Follow distant friends and family members and keep up on their interests and activities using Twitter. If you want to be notified of every post, you can set up Twitter to send an SMS notice to your phone with every friends new tweet.
- Discover new content – The easiest way to find content that you want to read is NOT by subscribing to a bunch of RSS feeds. Follow people who are thought leaders and innovators in your interests and read the links that they post. Most users regularly post links to articles that they enjoyed or appreciated.
- Meet new people – Recently, I walked into a coffee shop and recognized a couple of people that I had interacted with on Twitter a handful of times. I walked up, introduced myself and we immediately had a connection. Because of Twitter, we felt as if we knew each other.
- Twitter provides opportunities – From contests, to job leads, to sales leads, if you can imagine it, you can find a tribe of people talking about it on Twitter.
- Twitter has the best customer service – Have you ever tried sending out a tweet to a company or brand that you’re frustrated with? Trust me, it works all the time. I recently tweeted a picture of a very poorly crafted Papa Johns pizza. Along with it, I made a comment about my dissatisfaction. The very next day, I received a call from the manager of the store I had ordered from apologizing for the bad pizza. He invited me to try them again and placed a credit on my account. Now that’s customer service! (I have a lot of stories like this I could share)
- Twitter gets you free stuff – When you combine Twitter with social ranking sites like Klout.com, your rank could earn you free stuff. In the past year, I’ve received FREE Motorola Bluetooth headphones ($200 value), Sony Walkman ($80 value), clothing, gift certificates and more—easily a value over $500.
- Twitter gets you upgraded – There’s a hotel in New York City that will run their reservation list through a social media measurement. If you’re considered an influencer, you’ll automatically get upgraded.
- Twitter is the new water cooler for TV, Movies & Music Conversations – Have you ever seen a word with a pound sign (#) in front of it? That’s called a hashtag. Utilizing it within Twitter will include you in a global conversation about whatever your interests are. Curious? Give it a try. Click on one of these links and discover the power of Twitter hashtags: #music, #IfICouldFly, #glee … and the list could go on.
- Twitter saves lives – Don’t believe me? Read this.
Community Participation
Here’s where this gets fun….I posted this and other people started to come up with their own ideas. So, I’m going to do something different and turn this into a community built list…who knows how many we’ll end up with.
To contribute, leave a comment with your reason and don’t forget to give me a link to your Twitter URL.
Your Reasons
- Be amazed at what passes for a hashtags #imabeupinyofaceaboutthisallday – @susanisaacs
If you’ve haven’t fully embraced Twitter yet, I hope that something in this list inspires you to give it a try. If you do, I’d love to connect with you: @kylechowning
