It wasn’t until TechEd 2012 that I became very active on Twitter. Until then, I had an account, but had not taken any conscious steps to “get into it”.
Since then, things have changed and I’m glad I made the decision to get more involved. Because of Twitter, I have had the opportunity to connect with fellow professionals in Australia and all over the world, something that I don’t get to do on a regular basis. One can argue that LinkedIn provides the same opportunity. I agree that LinkedIn is a great networking tool, but used in tandem with Twitter, so much more can be achieved, that is, if you use these tools the right way.
So that we are clear, I am only addressing the use of Twitter in a professional setting.
Twitter allows us to contact or “tweet” (to be accurate) just about anyone.
Getting a response depends on who you tweet and what you tweet about. If you’re tweeting a celebrity or politician or someone with a huge number of followers, don’t hold your breath as you wait for a response.
On the other hand, if you’re tweeting a fellow professional, chances of engaging with them in a meaningful exchange are pretty high.
Establishing these relationships take time and effort. If you share meaningful and useful content on a regular basis and are willing to share your knowledge and help others in the community, it’s only a matter of time before the community you are trying to engage with, responds to you and begin to connect with you and you begin to get “followers”.
I have had the privilege of meeting a lot of interesting and brilliant people, thanks to Twitter. I very much doubt that I would have ever met them in the conventional sense. Because of those I follow and those who follow me, I continue to learn new things, grow as a professional and stay informed of happenings around the world.
Twitter can be a distraction and ineffective to those who do not know how to harness it’s power. To those who are patient and don’t have an utterly selfish motive in becoming a part of this social network, it can be a blessing in many ways. When you begin to follow the right people and use the right hashtags to share your tweets, the benefits of being on Twitter is very apparent.
I encourage all professionals to join Twitter. It’s not the answer to everything nor is it meant to replace or eliminate face to face interaction (that thought should never cross your mind!). It is a great way to meet like minded individuals, ask questions, contribute answers/insights, have challenging exchanges and share the occasional jokes too 🙂
Thanks for reading!
@SrikanthNairPro (this my Twitter handle)
Thank Sri 🙂