What is Twitter all about? Part 142
I was having dinner the other night with a college roommate and her husband, a newspaper editor. He’s on Facebook, (although he doesn’t really use his account), but he asked me what Twitter “is all about.”
PR 2.0 gives us the textbook definition. I plagiarize part of the post here:
“Twitter has influenced how:
– Media connects with audiences
– Businesses listen to and respond with customers
– Communications professionals, marketers, and advertisers connect with the new world of influencers
– Journalists, bloggers, analysts, event organizers can get help and answers from the community, instantly
– Everyday people can create an in-demand personal brand to open new doors and create new destinies
– People are made aware of news and important information from all over the world”
Here are some real-world examples of how one book publicist at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists uses Twitter. And here are some examples of how I use Twitter:
— The other day I posted about what not to have on a book website. A couple colleagues tweeted about my post and traffic spiked.
— Prior to posting, I’d asked for some thoughts about what people like and don’t like in book websites. A number of people following my Twitter feed responded and I incorporated their feedback into the post.
— At this point my RSS feed is pretty full (I probably shouldn’t have added 300 blogs) so while I check it every now and then, sometimes Twitter is the easiest way to pick up on breaking news, like when the editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly was let go, or when John Updike passed away.
— Sporadically I’ll “chat,” albeit in 140-character increments, with journalists, literary agents, authors and other book publicists, a good (and quick) way to “meet” people or keep in touch.
Of course, a lot of authors use Twitter to reach readers. And there you have it.
i love to tweet 🙂