Basically, I hadn’t the time to spend writing on my Blog, Facebook and Twitter.
I had to devote all my time to my clients.

Now that I’m not as busy, I see the need for this blog post on Social Networking and Priorities.

Yes, Social Networking is a fantastic business and personal tool … but if you are in business, you can’t take time that should be used for a client and use it to update your Blog, Facebook or Twitter.

“But“, I hear you say, “what about getting new clients?”

Many people fail to notice that keeping existing clients and getting more business from existing clients is far easier than getting a new client.

So it’s all down to Priorities.

Your existing clients should be your Number One priority, next would be getting new clients, which would include Social Networking.

When I realised that I hadn’t the time to do work to get new clients, I got a little anxious, until I realised that even if I didn’t …
I wouldn’t have the time to work with them.

So I relaxed, stopped doing anything that was not part of an existing project and finished projects on time.

So if you find that you haven’t the time to blog or tweet, don’t panic, review your time management and let reality be your gauge.

What do you think?

comment below.

How do you keep an eye on the people on Twitter that you really want to get updates from?

There are two method that I have used.

The first is using Twitter Profiles. basically, you just go to the person’s Twitter Profile and bookmark the page, in it’s own special folder. Then, when you get the time to catch up, just use the bookmark to go to profile and read the person’s past messages.

The second method is to use software to do the job, the best so far seems to be Tweetdeck.

After you install it, it allows you to make groups, and you can move followers into smaller groups in the software, to minimise the clutter.

A great feature of Tweetdeck is it opens automatically opens windows for your @replies and direct messages sent to you, so you don’t miss a message from someone.

As I mentioned before, I’ve been using Twitter since 2007, so I’ve had time to find what works best for me and personally, I’ve found bookmarking better,  but I do think it depends on the individual, as many people couldn’t do without Tweetdeck.

Who will Follow you & How do you get Followers?

Basically, people will normally follow others based on their profile …
so, for example, if your profile gives a link to your “Bee keeping” web site, or you mention “Bee keeping” in your profile …  most of the people that follow you will be interested in ….
… yes … “Bee keeping”

If you post interesting sites you have visited, relating to “Bee keeping”, and “Bee keeping” information, then people will probably keep following you and even look out for your posts.

You can of course post about your “Bee keeping” web site or blog also, but not all the time.

So your Twitter Profile is very important, make sure you have a link and some information about who you are.

You can also find interesting “Twitters” to follow, Use http://search.twitter.com/ to search for something you have interest in and you’ll be surprised what you find.

Other ways to use Twitter

Twitter has a lot of uses, none of them obvious until you start using it.

Say for example I need information on a topic, I can send a message via twitter to my friends and if any of them know anything about it, they send back a message.

I see this happen all the time on Twitter and you’d be surprised how fast you get the information you needed.

In business, it can be used to keep in contact with clients or customers that are on twitter, but you need to be careful and never sell to people on Twitter, or people will stop following you.

The very point of Twitter is that anyone can just follow you, and un-follow you, so any slip up can cause you to see followers disappearing.

Twitter Etiquette

With regard to Twitter Etiquette, the main one is that if you are responding to someone on Twitter and the conversation is of no value to anyone else, it’s better to use direct message instead.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, it’s called micro-blogging because all posts must be 140 characters or less.
It can also be used as an Instant Messenger, if the person you are contacting in online.

Twitter is so new, that the only way to really understand Twitter is to get an account and use it.

So if you haven’t got a Twitter account, go to http://twitter.com and first watch the video.

Then click on the What? Why? & How? links.
This information will help to explain what Twitter is.
Next … join Twitter.

You will be asked for a User name, e-Mial address and password.

For your user name, I suggest you use your own name, with no spaces, so if your name is John Smith, your user name would be johnsmith.

Be sure to fill out your Twitter Profile. To do this, LogIn to Twitter and look to the top right of your screen, for “Settings”.

For “More Info URL:”, I suggest you put a link to your blog or website.
For “One Line Bio:”, write a short bio about yourself, make it interesting, especially if you want people to follow you.

What next?

Twitter is based on “Followers” and “Following”

“Followers” are people that have decided to Follow your updates.

“Following” are the people your decided to Follow their updates.

In order for someone to see a message you send to them, they must be following you.
So people that are your “Followers” can read your messages, but unless you are also following them, they can send a message to you.

There is a way around this, that I will show you later.

When you want to send a message (called a Tweet in Twitter slang) to someone, you use the @ symbol + their User name.

My username is eoinoleary, so to send a message to me, you would start the message with @eoinoleary

Remember I wrote that in order for someone to see a message you send to them, they must be following you? and that there is a way around this?

Well if you send a message to anyone on Twitter, using the @ symbol + their User name, it will show up in their “Replies” section, that you can find on the Right, under Home.
However, many people don’t check their replies, so there is no guarantee that they will see it.

Using Twitter

To use Twitter, you need to do is to find people to Follow and people to Follow you. The best way to do this is to find people you know on Twitter,.
You will also be able to see how they are using Twitter and maybe send messages to each other.

To do this, login to Twitter and look to the top right of your screen, for Find People.

You have three choices.
1) Find On Twitter: Which is good if already know someone you know is on Twitter.

2) Invite from other networks: If you have an online e-mail account, you might be able to find people you already know by letting Twitter take a look.
At the moment Twitter can automatically check Gmail, Yahoo mail, AOL, Hotmail or MSN.

3) Invite by e-mail: This is easy, just send an e-mail to people you know, asking them to join.

You can also look for celebrities on Twitter, like Barack Obama, http://twitter.com/BarackObama, who used Twitter during the 2008 US Presidential election.

Be aware that you will find that many celebrity Twitter Accounts are fake accounts, so before you follow them, be sure to take a look at their posts and their profile.
A fake account should be obvious.

I’ve been using Twitter since 2007 and I find it interesting to see what people do with it.

Twitter can be used in many ways, but I’ve observed some interesting characteristics.

The people that have been on Twitter for a few months seem to have adapted Twitter for their needs, posting frequently, with a high percentage of useful information.
Most of these people have a large number of followers, at least 500 but probably far more.

Now I know that “useful information” is dependent on the individual, but why would you follow someone that always posts useless information?

Then you have the people new to Twitter, the majority seem to spend their time feverishly running around trying to build their Followers. I was guilty of this in the past myself.

Posting Useful information is the main tip for Twitter, but Following and Interacting is the real secret of Twitter.

If you follow people that you genuinely want to receive tweets (posts) from, and interact with them, you will start to see Twitter in a whole new light.

This is by no means a full Twitter how to, but it should get you started and don’t forget to follow me, eoinoleary on Twitter.

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