For the uninitated twitter looks like spam in a different format. It\u2019s got a mix of people\u2019s personal self-indulgent messages, trite comments and a slew of self-promotional tweets. So why should you bother with Twitter?<\/p>\n
Personally, I\u2019ve wondered the same thing for a while. I had my assistant set up a Twitter account and even paid a so called social media expert to work on it \u2013 with the result that I got a ton of twitter trash \u2013 the types of messages outlined above.<\/p>\n
But… that was because I didn\u2019t get it until I interviewed Derek Fredrickson last week. During my conversation with Derek, the lightbulb went off in my head and I realized how easy it is to use Twitter.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, Twitter is a networking tool. Follow people you admire, people you\u2019d like to know about. And UNFOLLOW everybody else. With Twitter it\u2019s easy just to get rid of all the annoying tweets by unfollowing the people who are sending them.<\/p>\n
That way you can put yourself in the midst of the conversation with the thought leaders in your field. Once I started just following smart people I wanted to hear from, I discovered two things. First, I was learning a lot from my colleagues and customers. And, people started following me in droves.<\/p>\n