One of the great mysteries of the universe is how we will all use social media to make money. We know that the Millenials, that often elusive group of future recruits and current employees who grew up with technology, use social media incessantly. Baby Boomers who occupy the senior management ranks of most companies have caught on to the business appeal of LinkedIn, which is used as a recruiting tool and as a way of connecting with a company's alumni. (They also worry that employees are using it as a job search and professional networking tool and they're right about that.) They now know what Facebook is because their children and increasingly their friends are some of Facebook's 200 million users. Facebook has for the most part been a tool that people use with their social, not their business network, but a work agenda for Facebook is beginning to emerge, especially as a recruiting tool. But the new game in town is Twitter and some Boomers are learning how to play...or to tweet, in Twitter-talk.
For those who don't know, Twitter is a vehicle for sending short messages -- 140 characters in length -- to a group of "followers" who have signed up to receive your tweets. Messages are called "tweets." Think of it as a way to broadcast text, photos and videos quickly without needing to address your messages each time you send them. People can see the tweets on their computer, blackberries, iphones and telephones. Expert Joel Comm, author of Twitter Powercharacterizes Twitter as the "water cooler of the 21st century."
I recently attended Joel's online seminar, Twitter for Executives, which made a compelling case for why executives should care about Twitter. Thirty five percent of the Fortune 500 now has a presence on Twitter, often with a focus on customer support and marketing. Several CEOs tweet -- Richard Branson and Michael Hyatt are among them. Many of the early corporate movers are companies that clearly appeal to a younger demographic -- MTV, Starbucks, Dell, JetBlue and Direct TV, among others. Companies are using Twitter to build relationship, enhance their brands and ultimately to grow their bottom line. What's also emerging is the use of Twitter as a sales and marketing tool for small businesses, which in many cases use this vehicle instead of building a website. It's free, very fast and easy to use -- all characteristics that make it very attractive to a wide variety of businesses.
You may or may not work in a company that is currently using Twitter. If you do, it's easy to see what's going on by establishing a personal Twitter account and then "following" your company. Or follow your competitors. Even if your company doesn't have a Twitter presence, there may be other companies, sports personalities, entertainers, politicians or friends who are of interest to you who you may want to follow. Choose a few and check out their tweets over a few days. You can always eliminate them from your follower list if they're boring, overly commercial or incomprehensible.
You may be a Luddite and happy to ignore Twitter and other social media. That's fine unless you don't want to be on the sidelines as these issues are debated in your company, your professional associations or your family. Twitter is likely to grow exponentially and there are already rumors about big companies who want to buy it to get their hands on the superior search engine inherent in Twitter. Given that the retirement time line for most Boomers has been extended as a result of the recent meltdown, we would be well-served by getting with the social media program. At a minimum, we don't want to appear to be obsolete and incapable of learning and growth.
How do get started? Go to www.twitter.com. There are clear instructions on the site that will quickly and easily let you establish an account and choose people and companies to follow. Jump in and see what this is about -- it's only your experience that will tell you if this is "another way to waste time at work" or the next big thing in marketing and connecting.