Six takeaways from my eight years on Twitter

This week marks my 8th anniversary on Twitter.

The early months I spent on the platform – from November 2007 to roughly mid-2008 – were somewhat odd and often punctuated with me feeling: “What the heck is this stupid thing?”

Fast forward to today and the combination of Twitter and LinkedIn has formed my ‘one-two punch’ as far as professional social networking channels are concerned.

With that, here are some observations and key takeaways gleaned after 50,000+ tweets and eight active years on Twitter.

1. Twitter is a bit of a paradox. 

On the one hand, of all the major social networks Twitter is the simplest and most intuitive to use; on the other, conceptually, it can be the most difficult for people to grasp.

Basically, people tend to over-think Twitter. Maybe it’s because it’s public, real-time and spits out 140 characters (plus visuals these days) in staccato-like bursts.

To continue this paradox theme, Twitter in Australia has (only) 2.8 million active users compared to Facebook’s 14 million. On a global scale, Twitter boasts 320 million monthly active users, behind Instagram with 400 million users, LinkedIn (also 400 million) and Facebook (1.55 billion).

So while Twitter sits behind the other big three networks in terms of numbers, it punches above its weight because it is public and real-time and full of influencers such as journalists, bloggers, celebrities and politicians – plus people are sending 500 million tweets per day. Often, the media will use Twitter as a source for their news stories. There is no doubt journalists are using the platform for news-gathering as well as watching with hawk-eyes any Twitter trends (or corporate/celebrity mishaps) that occur.

2. Twitter is like your local bar

One of my earliest recollections of Twitter is when someone referred to the platform as like your local bar; Facebook, in comparison, is your lounge room, somewhere where you’d invite friends in for a cup of tea and some scones, while LinkedIn is your Chamber of Commerce.

The bar analogy works. Show up regularly, pull up a stool and greet people warmly; add value to conversations, have a laugh and connect like-minded people with one another and I think you’ll find you’ll be embraced by that bar’s community over time. However, be loud and/or obnoxious, always big-noting yourself and shoving your business card under people’s noses and, well, we all know how that will go down.

3. If you’re not using Twitter to humanise your brand, you’re missing the point.

Perhaps the biggest opportunity Twitter affords companies and organisations is to show their human side, to inject some personality into their outward-facing communications.

Encourage your people to use Twitter personally, empower them to talk freely about your organisation (within certain guidelines, of course) – what you’re doing, what it’s like to work there; use the channel to take people behind the scenes, give them a warts-and-all flavour of what goes on behind ‘reception’.

4. Get Twitter right and the rest of social media will follow

Okay, this might spark a bit of debate, but I’m of the opinion the companies, organisations and individuals that ‘get’ Twitter and use the platform to its full potential, chances are they will probably get the other social channels right as well. Not sure why that is, but probably has something to do with some of what I outlined earlier i.e. it’s public, real-time, full of people with opinions who often won’t hold back if they feel a company has done them a disservice.

It’s scary, because the people are in charge, and many business owners and senior executives hate that fact. But those who embrace this uncertainty with positivity and pragmatism generally succeed on the other less wild ‘n’ woolly social channels.

5. Businesses still use Twitter to talk about themselves

I still see so much chest-beating on Twitter; in fact, I think it’s probably worse than it’s ever been!

Businesses essentially have taken their old practices (i.e. shouting at people with their promotional messages) and transporting them to their social channels.

I wrote this piece last year – ‘The one massive opportunity most businesses are missing on Twitter’ – and it still holds true today, more than one year later. People may say nice things about a brand, and what happens? Those in charge of the company’s Twitter account will favourite the person’s tweet, and retweet it, but not actually interact with the tweeter. As I said, a massive opportunity lost. I see it time and time again on Twitter.

6. Twitter will make you smarter

I wrote this article last year – the main reason you need to be on Twitter is to follow (and take note of) smart people.

I wrote it from the perspective of an individual; my contention is it’s a great way to start building an online ‘brains trust’ that will serve you well over your professional journey!

Are you on Twitter? Do you love it, or find it a chore? Is it helping you raise your professional profile and build your network of connections?

THIS IS AN EDITED VERSION OF AN ORIGINAL POST PUBLISHED ON PRWARRIOR.COM