I’m planning a Twitter workshop for some of my BabyBoomer friends, who are finally getting the idea that Twitter isn’t going away — and maybe they ought to jump aboard sooner rather than later.
There’s a whole lot of confusion out there: note the “Digital Divide” that Janis Johnson and I discussed in my last post Social Media has a PR problem.
How often do I tweet?
When do I tweet?
What do I tweet — business? personal?
HELP!
And, of course, the “help” abounds all over the Internet. I like my two posts
A recent “tutorial” brought to my attention by my student and colleague Zahid Lilani was a video featuring Social Media Thought Leader Chris Brogan discussing Social Media 101
In the last few minutes devoted entirely to Twitter, Chris describes his own Tweeting strategy:
- He promotes other people’s stuff 12 times for every once he does his own.
- He replies to Everyone [I think he says more than 80% of his Tweets are replies.]
- And you should mix Business AND Personal.
Chris Brogan Shares Social Media Tips from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.
Chris called Twitter “His Serendipity Engine” through which he’s met scores of people he’d never have met any other way.
NOTE: Super Tech Geek Robert Scoble said yesterday that Chris does Twitter wrong simply because he talks so much about other things and other people, and Robert wanted to read more about Chris.
But my post has had a “secret” agenda, which is now going to be revealed:
I wanted to mix personal with business.
So here are the latest photos of my “Buckeye Family”:
After all, People prefer to do business with People — when they have the chance.
Responding
I will check that out.
One thing that should become clearer to people as we go along is that if you want your “updates” whether on blog comments or tweets or even emails, then you always should provide some context . . . unless, of course, it is “live,” i.e. going on one-to-one — but, then you lose the long term value. Does that make sense to you?
Thanks for clearing that out for me, that was what I meant. It is never good to put out private business to the world. It would not be a very smart idea to do and it wouldn’t be private anymore, since everyone would be able to read about it on a blog. Yes, that is right. First you would need to do business with a person before doing any other kind of important business.
See my comment to Jake, where I suggest that we all be more “Deliberate” with what we post!
Since I am new to twitter, I wanted to learn more about what people tweet and what should not be tweeted. After reading that it is okay to tweet personal information with business, it makes me feel that maybe it shows people that it is not always just about business but that a person has many other things going on in their personal life. This just goes to show that you may have a similar life to those people who you follow on twitter. What one can get from following someone on twitter is that they could learn something new as quick and just reading some ones blog. Its a new way that society can get in touch with one another but in a way that they know almost every move they might make you feel like you are there with the person you follow. Since twitter has no real boundaries other then having to write a certain amount of characters then you are free to do what you please, well that’s what I read on some of the links. Well I have a lot to learn about twitter and I hope I understand it all after reading more of these blogs.
Stephanie, two things come immediately to mind:
1) “Personal” is NOT the same as “Private”
Personal is OK online; Private never is.
2) In today’s world, People do business with people, NOT organizations.
🙂
Mixing personal life and business life together could be harmful sometimes. Keep it professional!
This is the similar to the work I do for a few Real Estate brokers: maintain their ‘personal’ Facebook pages. I do things like list open houses along with posting photo albums of family cayaking trips. It’s all about maintaining the online identity they want but don’t have the time to do it themselves.
I learned from class how twitter is a big part of society now and had it reiterated in the blog. I think it is wonderful for you to teach Baby Boomers how to get in touch with the online community.
I was interested in this blog since I want to find the mid point on talking about a serious subject, but also being fun.
Chris seem to have compassion for promoting other people’s products more than he does his and also replying back to people who asks a question or comment. As i scroll down at the commenting section, i also realize that I’m the first person to comment!
I always thought mixing personal with business is sort of awkward, but it is still interesting to see the personal side of everyone else besides the one we see at school/work.