As someone who has always embraced social media, I found myself avoiding Twitter until very recently. My husband, a chef at Vino Paradiso in Portland's Pearl District, had always avoided social media sites until about 4 months ago when he announced that he had created a Twitter account. Shocked, I asked why, and he was quick to respond that it was solely for the purpose of work. So of course I, in turn, created an account so I could follow his tweets.
In time I saw his followers grow and consistently re-tweet his food specials, wine dinners and general food news and comments. Soon came connections with other chefs, farmers and food writers in and around Portland. As it turned out, the people with the pulse on the Portland restaurant and food scene tweet constantly!
The recent study by ExactTarget confirms just this fact, that while Twitter has only 14 million active users, those individuals are an outspoken bunch and are quite active on other social media, forums, blogs or even main stream media. Daily Twitter users comment and/or upload twice as much as general internet users, are four times as likely to blog and six times as likely to upload articles. So capturing an audience of daily tweeters can reach those individuals hungry for information who are eager to share it.
Morgan Stewart, a Principal at ExactTarget, clearly believes that daily Twitter users hold a key to online influence. "The concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivaled-it's become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet."
So now that we have confirmation that Twitter is a powerful tool for business, the next question is how do we attract followers? If I examine my husband's success in Twitter thus far, I can easily say that it is all about regular interaction and support of those in your target community who matter. While you can't force people to join Twitter and become daily participants, you can seek out those already there and work to build relationships and recognize their content. Yes, it takes work and time, but if my husband can crack the seemingly impenetrable Portland food scene through Twitter, anything is possible.
For those of you curious about my husband, his philosophy on food and what he's cooking, you can follow him on Twitter @PLoschPDX
"As someone who has always embraced social media, I found myself avoiding Twitter until very recently." If you have always embraced social media- then wouldn't you have already had a twitter account?
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point has a nice discussion on Mavens vs Connectors (Paul Revere) that dovetails into the phenom of Twitter quite nicely.