I am continuing to poke my toe into the waters of social networking for business development. The newest experiment is with Twitter. This is an extremely fast paced site where thousands of users are repeatedly just answering the question “What are you doing?” Oh, and all your posts must be 140 characters or less (characters, not words!). Simple concept, but it really is powerful because it is a quick way to develop relationships and connect with many people you would otherwise not come into contact with. Many people that I know have been achieving quick success in gaining new partners, projects and even clients from these conversations.
I highly recommend doing some research and studying before jumping into this pool. The best resource I have found is a great, free ebook called the Twitter Handbook. Written by Deborah Micek and Warren Whitlock, it is a complete guide for what Twitter is, how it can help you and how to get started. I am trying to follow some of the suggestions in the book and have begun to make my own posts – called tweets. If you are already tweeting, I hope you will follow me @janetslack. You can also find me at http://twitter.com/janetslack. Come join the conversation!
