What’s Next Now

It wasn’t all that long ago, perhaps five months or so, that Twitter came into my life.  I had heard it mentioned a couple of times in passing conversation, but I hadn’t paid much attention.  It sounded like generation-Y stuff, not like something I might be interested in.  Then, in a Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce breakfast speech, Curtis Zimmerman of The Zimmerman Agency mentioned that he was using Twitter.

Whoa!  That got my attention!  I guy I respected in the business was talking about something I had dismissed out of hand.  What was I missing?

I’m an early-adopter who hates not being aware of all things new, so I decided to find out what was going on.  I joined Twitter.  And I posted. Mundane stuff.  At first I stuck to answering the question that Twitter suggests you ask yourself before posting: “What are you doing?”

Well, within a week or so, I was not only growing bored with sending out short, 140 character comments, but I was also getting a little peeved that nobody was following me (boo hoo).  Plus, my mind hadn’t made the proper connections to figure out how big this thing really is.  I also talked to several of my friends and learned none of them was using it… yet.

What was Zimmerman talking about?

“I’d better find out how people get followed, and figure out who I need to follow,” I thought.

And so I spent an hour or so Googling all things Twitter.  And gradually I saw the light.  This isn’t just kid stuff.  I’ve identified and follow several thought leaders I want to get to know, along with a small but growing cadre of Tallahassee Twitter Users.  Several of them are following me, too.

Having used it for a while, I know that for the uninitiated Twitter pretty much defies explanation. It just does. The only proof that I can offer is that I know the unique mode of communication that Twitter has tapped into is going to be something huge. Rather than try to explain why, here are three fictitious but already-have-happened business examples:

Example 1:

Joe has a little sandwich shop. One of his teenage employees spends her break time “tweeting” (Twitter posting) on her iPhone with friends. It comes up in conversation.

“All your friends are on it?” he asks.

“Yes, and I also follow my older brother who just graduated from college and all of his friends. It’s a great way to build relationships,” she says.

“Relationships?”  Joe asks.  “Tell me more.”

The next day Joe puts up a sign next to the cash register that says, “Follow Me on Twitter For Great Meal Deals” and includes his Twitter address. For the uninitiated, next to the sign he places a stack of instruction sheets explaining what Twitter is all about and how to sign up and follow him.

Soon, Joe has followers.  So, a couple days a week about an hour before lunch, he tweets out a daily special that begins: “Show this tweet for cheap eats!  Today’s special is…”

On rainy days, he sends out reminders about his delivery service.  Before holidays, he tweets about his party platters. Joe is a happy Twitterer.

Example 2:

Fred is in sales in a midsized Midwest town.  He reads blogs by the thought leaders in his industry.  He knows from experience about how long it takes for a new “next big thing” to work its way from New York or Boston or LA to his little burb.  Reading blogs has helped improve his sales but it’s also been very time-consuming.

One day he learns that some of his favorite bloggers are also using Twitter, so he gives it a try.  He starts following the people he’s been reading.  And then he starts following some of their followers.  Over a couple months, he builds a great base of social network friends in situations similar to his in different podunk towns across America and they all start sharing sales ideas that help him. While he didn’t comment often in the blogs, he finds it less difficult to initiate conversations with people who told him (and the rest of the world) what they had for breakfast.

Example 3:

Mary is the customer service manager for a large chain of small retail stores. Her son tells her that he was playing with Twitter search and put in her company name.  What people were saying mostly wasn’t very good.  So she sets up her own Twitter account, starts regularly searching for keywords related to her company, and when she learns of complaints she sends direct tweets to those with problems, takes the conversation off-line and resolves the issues.

The bottom line:

Twitter is about a lot more than just the everyday happenings in its users lives.  But it appears that those doses of personal texture and flavor facilitate types of connections among former strangers that don’t usually happen in the “real world.”

As for me, I’ll just have to get over not being like some of the hard core Twitterholics with ten gazillion followers… they’re in big cities.  I’m in the boonies.  My time will come.

Note: In later posts, I’ll cover some of the most popular Twitter web applications and real-life examples of how people are using Twitter to get wins in their businesses and careers.