The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur

Those who haven’t tried the micro-blogging tool Twitter - and even some who have - wonder how it can be useful. If you’re Tweeting 140 characters into the ether, how does that help you build relationships?

It took me a while to figure it out, but now that I know the secret, I’ve found Twitter to be an extremely powerful networking tool.

Think of Twitter a little like getting introduced at a cocktail party or networking event. The introduction is just the start. From there you have to put in some work to get to know a person and build a relationship.

Same goes for Twitter. When someone knew starts following me, I try to look at their Twitter profile. Since their profile is brief, I also click on their website link to learn more about them. Unless they are obviously not a fit for my personality, I usually start following them as well.

Next, send a direct message. This message is only seen by them and is not public, but starts a conversation. Most people send a generic “thanks for following”. However, I recently discovered a very powerful use of this follow-up message that I plan to start emulating immediately.

I recently started following DrCraigS,who offers a free gift to all new followers. His direct message includes a link to a sign-up page. Give up your email address and you get a page of free reports with some VERY valuable information. In fact, I plan to implement one of his ideas within the next week.

Occasionally, if I feel like we’ll be a good fit, I contact new followers outside of Twitter. When I visit their website, there’s usually an email address. I send a brief email stating we just “met” via Twitter and was hoping we could get to know each other better. This usually starts a conversation.

As you are going about your day and updating your Tweets, read what others are doing. When appropriate, send an @reply to someone’s Tweet with a comment about what they wrote or what they are doing, remembering that @replies are public. The idea is to make Twitter a conversation.

Like all networking tools, Twitter is not going to give you overnight income. But by using it as one step in a relationship building process, I think you’ll find Twitter to be extremely useful in building your network and ultimately your business.

Andrea J. Stenberg