I’m On Twitter! Why Should You Care?

I finally did it.  After many months of testing the waters, I finally dove into the Twitter ocean and created an account for Y.F.N.C.G.  For the sake of full disclosure, however, this isn’t actually my maiden voyage on Twitter.  I’ve been tweeting for about a month now for my music website, but I thought it was about time to create a special twitter account for my blogging/computer repair/small business owner persona. Why did I go through the trouble of creating another Twitter account?  What do I think the benefit will be to me and, more importantly, to you?

Let me explain.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is one of a myriad of popular Web 2.0 sites that seems to have withstood the test of time (a couple years) and has grown immensity popular, especially among bloggers and web professionals. The basic function of Twitter is simply to answer one question, what are you doing right now? The practical uses of the website go far beyond that one question, but that’s the gist of it. It’s kind of like a mix between instant messaging and blogging. I’m not going to waste a lot of time explaining what Twitter is and instead point you to some articles that can do a much better job of it than I can:

Official Twitter FAQ

Twitter on Wikipedia

Tweeternet – One page with everything you need to know about Twitter

What has it done for me in the past?

When I first heard about Twitter, maybe a year or so ago, I immediately judged it as a pointless waste of my time. And, honestly, at that time in my life it was. But in the year since then, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about this little Internet 2.0 phenomenon and I finally reached a point in my life where I had something valuable to “tweet”.

As some of you know, besides being an aspiring business owner and computer geek, I’m also a fledgling independent singer/songwriter.  I finally decided to give Twitter a try last month, thinking that it would provide a great opportunity for me to connect with others in the music business and start building momentum and excitement towards the release of my first album later this year.

Since then, I’ve used Twitter liberally and found that it’s really a wonderfully in-depth tool. It’s a great way for me to post quick updates about what I’m doing musically and distribute those updates to various social media websites like MySpace and Facebook via plug-ins. I’m following other music business professionals that I trust and I’m able to engage with them on a much more personal level.

What can it do for me in the future?

Twitter is what you make of it.  For Y.F.N.C.G. I plan to have a much more active role. I’m going to follow more people and engage with them more than my other Twitter account. I’m going to spend the next month or so figuring out what I can use Twitter for with Y.F.N.C.G.  At the very least, I’ll update my followers with my latest blog posts, guest posts, updates about my business, and random weirdness.

Why should you care?

Honestly…you shouldn’t, not unless you own a business, blog, or care about anyone who owns a business or blog. You shouldn’t care that I’m on Twitter unless you are already on Twitter, or can find value in being there. I’m not going to tell you to join Twitter just so you can follow me. That would be dumb, because as soon as you realize there’s no value in it for you, you’ll quickly stop using it.

To find value in Twitter you’ll need to have the desire to do one, or all, of the following four things:

• Find out what your favorite people, or businesses, are up to.  This includes any special deals they may offer to a select few individuals.  Dell offers great exclusive deals via Twitter.
• To have an opportunity to ask questions of people in your interest group/niche/hobby/clique.  And they may actually answer!  I asked one of my music business heroes, Derek Sivers, a question last week and he actually answered me!  Fun stuff.
• Let people know what you, or your business, are up to.   Make sure you have something to say.
• Promote something.  B it blog, book, album, business, website, or other commodity, keep it in the minds of people by tweeting about it!

So, without further ado, I ask you to follow me on Twitter, if you dare:  @YFNCG.

Do you use Twitter?  If so, why?  If not, why not?