Twittering Isn’t So Bad After All

On July 5th I blogged about being new to Twitter and how I really didn’t want to Twitter but that I was going to give it a try for the sake of my business. My previous article talked about how I felt like I was being dragged into it kicking and screaming by some web design associates from my Women Designers Group.

It’s now July 14 so I’ve had a couple of weeks to play with it and to be very honest with you it’s really not so bad. In fact in a way I kinda like it, so all you gals who pushed me … this is me eating a little crow … thank you! I now find myself looking forward to opening my TweetDeck and seeing what people I’m following have to say. Yikes! I hope this isn’t the first sign of the onset of Twitter-Addiction!

I’m currently following 28 people and have 19 followers of my own. I’ve been slowing going over my Follower’s lists of people they follow and seeing which of their Twitter friends I want to follow. I’ve found some neat information and some new websites to bookmark. I’ve learned that Twitter *isn’t* just a time-waster unless you make it one because reading other people’s blog posts tends to give me ideas for my own web site. I hope some of my clients who tell me “I can’t think of anything more to say for my web site.” are reading this. Not to bad for two weeks worth of hanging around the Twitter Room!

What’s the Hardest Part of Twittering?

I ‘d have to say that for me … it’s trying to think of something to say … to actually open a conversation vs. replying to someone else. I don’t consider myself to be one of the world’s most sparkling conversationalists and so when I read some of these other blog entries that people are posting links to I get a little bit intimidated. Some of the blog posts I’ve read have been very impressive! Jill Whalen just posted a new article called “Opt Out of SEO at Your Own Peril” which is excellent! It also gave me my very first opportunity to do what’s called a “retweet.” Ok, simple things for simple minds, LOL! If it hadn’t been for Twitter, I probably would not have seen this article for awhile. It’s kind of like having a newspaper box in front of your face on your computer screen. The old kid on the street corner hollering “Extra Extra Read All About It” thing really comes into play on Twitter.

Aside from the fact that I had to weed out over 100 spammers the first couple of days … ugh! … I’m beginning to see how Twitter can be a valuable learning tool and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!  I’ve found some blog posts that validate my own SEO teachings and practices which is encouraging in itself! It’s always nice to find that there are “new to me” experts in the field who agree with my practices and have been telling clients for years. I always felt strongly that my SEO techniques were good because I learned them from experts who are familiar to me. It’s a “Right On Baby!” moment for me when I see these things in print. I found two books written by social media guru Joel Comm that I ordered and am currently awaiting delivery on and a few great new sites specializing in WordPress and WordPress themes which I’d never seen before. Great bookmarking material!

So, for the time being I will continue to make efforts to participate and to try to become someone who can think of something intelligent to say to a “roomful of people” most of them total strangers. The last thing I want to do is make an idiot of myself!