Success in Sweatpants

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I was dragged into Twitter kicking and screaming. Actually, I was resistant to the whole social media thing for quite some time. The buzz swirled around me, but I was cautious about opening up to a virtual group of hundreds or, unimaginably, thousand. I couldn’t see how spending time sending short (and hopefully witty) messages out into the ether was going to useful to me or anybody else.

Finally, about a year and a half ago, I opened m y Twitter account. I also established myself on Facebook and picked up the threads of my LinkedIn account. As of the day of this show, I have over 4,300 followers on Twitter, and I definitely get how it can be used in a business like mine.

• I have expanded my network much farther and faster than I would have done without Twitter. I’m not talking about numbers or warm bodies. I’m talking about people that I now have an ongoing dialog and relationship with.
• I have gained clients through Twitter, and have even negotiated the terms of a project there…on the private direct message channel.
• I have gotten the word out about upcoming programs and classes, and had that word repeated to others’ networks, so that I ended up with more participation than I would have otherwise.
• I’ve been introduced to new ideas and solutions through other peoples’ tweets.
• I’ve gotten daily laughs from messages in my twitstream as well as the photos and videos that people share.
• I have the experience of being part of a larger community, which, as a solo home business owner, makes a huge difference in my day.

You can probably tell from this short list of results I’ve seen that there’s more to Twitter than marketing and selling. There is a relationship aspect to Twiiter and other social media tools that is easily as valuable as the direct selling aspect. I believe that is a very important characteristic of Twitter and the rest—it works when we are being 3-dimensional in our participation.

Listen to the show to hear some tips and recommendations to get the best results from Twitter.