So, what are you doing?

I’ve just started using twitter, which bills itself as a “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”  Not heard of it? Well, according to Wikipedia, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets" …) to the Twitter website, via …cell phone… instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.”

Since signing up, I’ve provided several updates, though nothing profound (after all, you only get 140 characters to work with). On twitter you can “follow” people, organizations, and media outlets. I’ve started following several people, and get to see their updates on my twitter home page. Mostly, I follow people I know, and they follow me. Yet,  I’ve discovered it’s easy to follow people you don’t know – and in some cases, they’ll follow you back!

In this first week, I’ve seen the power of twitter to break stories fast; for example, tweets from  Robert Scoble on the earthquake in China. I’ve also received tweets pointing to posts by some of my favorite bloggers and career and marketing experts. Mostly, I’ve thought this is a cool way to deepen our connections with others and know what’s going on in the world. Of course, I’ve also wondered – to borrow from an Andy Warhol quote – if twitter is just a way to become more “deeply superficial.”

On the whole, however, I’ve decided that twitter offers a few of career management beneifts. First, it’s a great way to share your thinking with people already in your network. Second, it’s a way to begin learning about people you’d like to know more about – especially thought leaders in your industry. Third, as you attract followers, it can increase your visibility with people who need to know about you.

Of course, I do have this recommendation (in less than 140 characters): if you're planning to raise your profile, you'll want to make sure to communicate in a way that is congruent with your personal brand.

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Comments

[Miriam Salpeter]

Walter - As a recent Twitter convert myself, I believe that you've summed it up well. I enjoy the benefits of learning what other professionals in the field are thinking and writing about. I'm less interested in how long they are standing in line for lunch (or what they are eating), but I guess that is all part of the "open book" transparency that some bloggers value. How that adds to (or detracts from) their personal brand is a subject I continue to ponder!

Miriam Salpeter
Keppie Careers

[Walter Akana]

Hi Miriam!

Thanks for your wonderful feedback. Clearly we agree on where twitter offers the most value. Interestingly, I find that on Facebook, it’s fun to get “daily-living” updates from my friends – probably because they are part of the mosaic of an already existing real-world relationship. I can imagine that on twitter, those nuggets can actually converge, over time, into a pattern that gives insights into people I want to get to know better – and can lead to deeper relationships!

In fact, over at Career Hub, Barbara Safani has written a terrific post on twitter (http://snipurl.com/28svl) that makes that point; she says: “Knowing these little nuggets of information about people helps me forge new conversations with them and deepen the relationship. And my "tweets" to them help keep me on their radar as well.” So, I suppose as twitter “newbies” we’ll have plenty of time to appreciate its full value.