Friending people on twitter

I have noticed that whereas someone would normally search for their friends on twitter for purpose of following them, it is also possible to use twitter as a marketing tool and a community building tool. So, for example, if I had a service that might be of interest to web designers, for example, then my twitter profile message could be worded to describe that service. Then, I could search for twitter participants whose profile description included the words "web designer" or "web design" and then "follow" them. Each of those people would then be notified by twitter that I was following them, and they would be given a link that they could click on to learn about my twitter account. Upon reading my twitter profile they might choose to click on my own website link from within my twitter profile to learn more about me and my service. Moreover, they might choose to follow me in order to receive my twitter postings, which may be on subjects that they would find interesting. I noticed other people doing this sort of thing, so I tried it myself in relation to my music-related website. If you follow me on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jdargan), then you can see how I post information that is of interest to musicians and people who love music and the music community.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Dargan on November 8, 2009 at 11:20pm
Here are some more points about the twitter strategy. First, it is a quick way to reach people. Second, it is a free service. Third, you may find that you learn a lot from the people you "friend" on twitter, and they may actually become great friends of yours over time. Fourth, in your tweets you can periodically provide a link to some newly-added content on your website, and then if people are interested, then will be able to click on the link to see your blog, article, photo, video, etc., which will help boost traffic on your website. Lastly, if your link is too long for a "tweet", then you can use a service such as www.tinyurl.com to shorten it.
Permalink Reply by John Dargan on November 8, 2009 at 11:25pm
Another thought about the twitter strategy. I have noticed that experienced twitter users often direct messages to certain friends using the "@" symbol, such as "I am looking forward to collaborating with @jdargan tomorrow". So then you can look at the friend's twitter page and read their profile. Very often you will want to follow the friend as well, since the friend is a member of the same community of interest as the one you are trying to reach.

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