Yesterday I have talked about “what” is twitter, lets get on to “Why” twitter today.

Why Twitter?

Twitter has become a phenomenal success over the last year although it has been around since 3 years now.  Popular social networking sites like facebook and twitter were struggling to find a standing three years back with tough competition from gmail and yahoo. But now they have surpassed these internet giants.  Mainstream Media is now defined by Social Media. Dosent it make one wonder why such a sudden interest in social networking or social media among people?

Celebrities, political figures, companies, NGO’s all are tweeting about their current and even future incidents on a real time basis. News and events get posted first on twitter then on other networking forums. The key is to start online conversations instantly to influence your listeners.

Twitter has taken over several areas of the society already, here are some real life examples:

Election results first come out on twitter. Celebrities cover their every move on twitter so that their followers can keep a track of their movements. Plane crashes, stock prices are posted on Twitter seconds before they actually happen. This is the influence of twitter on our lives.

Twitter’s Unwritten Rules:

Want to make the most of twitter for all those who are contemplating to leave or have just got their new twitter ids, follow these ground rules and there will be no looking back in creating your own audience.

1. Engage in honest conversations- people wont be interested in fake identities and status updates for a long time.

2. Say only what you truly believe in.

3. For companies: never fudge your identity and industry.

4. You do not have to follow those who have followed you. This may be contradictory to the usual decorum in twitter but attaining the 1:10 ratio of following versus followers ratio cannot be achieved if you start following everyone who follows you. Analyze the people who you want to keep a track of and take your decision accordingly.

5. Actively listen to conversations happening around you then contribute in those discussions before leading your own conversations.

For companies who have chosen twitter, the foremost important thing is to LISTEN first. Proactively listen and understand what your stakeholders – customers, employees, and associates are talking about your company and brand on various social network forums, blogs. There is no limit to listening. The more you listen the more you understand the chatter around you, your company and brand.

After listening and understanding the context of the comments and discussions around your company and brand you are ready to join these discussions. Participate but do not push your marketing efforts. Listen while participating in sensible and transparent comments and discussions with your audience. This is pave way in creating a community around you from even the remote places in twitter.

Once your have listened and participated whilst creating a band of followers, you can now slowly push company news, updates, events, links and even company initiatives to create more faith in your already loyal audience. But be sure your are posting information and updates relevant to your audience. Now is the time to Lead your followers with your thoughts.

You can tweet anything as long as you engage your listeners with conversations that are of some relevance to them.

Twittering is all about influencing your audience. Stay tuned and Subscribe to this blog (so that they will come to your email directly) and keep reading this Wisdom Series on Social Media.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter account @sbharatam

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