What Twitter Does for Me

Twitter must be reaching some kind of critical mass–or at least it seems that way to me. Perhaps that’s because I’ve jumped in with both feet. But I get the impression that a lot of bloggers are blogging about Twitter, lately. Some of them love it, and can’t live without it, and some folks aren’t getting any real value out of it that they can see.

Let’s face it: we’re all looking out for ourselves. However, one of the best ways to look out for yourself is to look out for others. And social media is nothing without people willing to give for the benefit of the community. So I don’t think it’s wrong to make a decision about whether or not to use Twitter based on what you’ll get out of it, as long as you understand one thing: you’ll get out of it what you put into it. So trite and cliché, I know, but it’s also true. I have received tremendous benefits from being on Twitter, but only because I entered into it prepared to give, and give I do.

The number of people following me grows every day, and I am constantly adding to my list of people that I follow as well. When I find great links, I tweet them to all my followers. In the true spirit of a microblogging platform, I post short thoughts, musings, and ponderings that would be out of place here on Remarkablogger. I reply to the tweets of others, and even though Twitter technically isn’t chat, conversation does take place. I am constantly looking for ways to contribute value to the lives of those who follow me on Twitter. I want people to be glad they followed me, to not ever want me to stop tweeting (hey, blogs are the same way–I take the same approach to my blogging).

So because of this, here is exactly what I get out of Twitter:

• I have received offers to guest post on blogs that I respect
• I have received offers for paid blogging on blogs that I respect
• I have raised others’ opinions of me by helping them without hesitation or expectation of reward
• I have strengthened my relationships with people in my network
• There are a lot of well-known “A-list” type people on Twitter, and i find it helpful to follow them
• I often find out about new posts from bloggers on Twitter faster than by RSS, which means I can often be first to comment
• I have met a lot of new, wonderful people
• Many people are discovering me through their friends on Twitter
• I have noticed a higher-than-average increase in RSS subscribers since I joined Twitter
• I have made contact with potential clients as well, and it is only a matter of time before I get work through Twitter

What will Twitter do for you? That depends on what you do for others. If you would care to follow me on Twitter, you’ll find me at http://twitter.com/remarkablogger.