You’ve heard the hype… maybe you’ve even created a twitter account… but you still don’t see the value or you don’t know how to get twitter and microblogging into your normal routine. Here’s a few suggestions based on my personal experience.

Why even bother…. what’s the value?
I mostly use twitter because it brings ME value. Me me me!!! Here’s a few ways I’ve gotten some practical and tangible value since I joined twitter in May 2007.

1. Stay informed with ease
   Undoubtedly my favorite benefit from twitter is that I can stay informed on many different things without having to discover them all for myself. Often people will tweet about fresh news, a great article, an upcoming event, etc. The sheer fact that someone else in my network found something to be valuable increases the likelihood I’ll find it valuable. In a sense, twitter helps to filter all the data simply by being validated by the people I have chosen to follow. Another example is people tweeting from a conference I was unable to attend…. by following their tweets I can gain some value from that event as well.

2. Pick what you want to overhear
   I decide. I decide who I want to follow (and stop following). As I build a network of individuals I follow on twitter, I am implicitly deciding I am interested in what they have to say. For example, I’m interested in enterprise 2.0 for work so I’ve decided to follow @dhinchcliffe. Similarly, I can follow other users who are focused on topics of interest to me whether it’s people that live in my town, work at my company, went to my school, have similar hobbies, etc.

3. Pick when I want to listen
   I love that I can access twitter when I want to. Although it can be powerful for real-time conversation, I mostly use twitter in asynchronous mode where time is not of the essence. Not sitting in front of my computer…. no problem. Standing in line at the coffee bar I can catch up on tweets from my phone.

4. Build relationships and grow my network
   Through the course of following individuals and their twitter postings (also called tweets), you can get additional depth about who that person is. You can learn they have kids, like soccer, travel often, etc. This creates additional dimensions through which you can better connect with that person. Likewise, they can also learn more about me. One can also establish new relationships with ‘friends of a friend’ or other community members that have a shared interest. For example, about 50% of the people I follow on twitter I’ve never met in person or worked with but I have come to know them in some way or another. You can also have conversations via twitter (by using @username) to engage specific people as well.

5. Enhance my reputation
   Through the sharing of my personal insights and happenings via my tweets, my reputation with others can be enhanced. Followers can seek my advice or suggestion on something they perceive me to be knowledgeable about. Folks can also retweet (or forward) one of my postings to a broader groups of followers that can ultimately lead to a larger unknown group of people that can benefit from something I originally posted.

6. Social help desk in real time
   Whether you need help picking a restaurant, getting suggestions for a movie, or finding a piece of code… twitter can help you. A great feature of twitter is turning to your network for advice, opinion, and assistance.

7. My file cabinet
   I have almost abandoned bookmarking since I can use twitter as a way to “store stuff” I might want to revisit at some point in the future. Whether its a great quote, an interesting insight, or an incredibly funny video…. I know if I tweet it I’ll be able to get my hands on it again if I ever need to.

8. Simple and fun
   Another great value for me is the occasional wisecrack or rant someone tweets. Others send links to fun new games. Many tweet about random things they overheard. All of these things add up to a bit of hilarity and lightness when reading your tweets. I like that!

How can I get started? Who should I follow?
Here’s a few simple ways you can learn more about twitter and how to establish an initial list of folks you wish to follow. Before long, you’ll have not only created a list of people you follow but you’ll also grow a list of people that follow you and your tweets.

1. Watch twitter in plain english
   Brief video provides a very high level overview of what twitter is. Please keep in mind that this video is geared more towards social use rather than business use but it provides a good context of twitter’s capabilities.

2. Create a twitter account
   Creating a twitter account is as simple as picking a username and password. Keep it short if you can. I also recommend you upload a picture or avatar for yourself after all, twitter is fundamentally a place where people can talk so having a personal element to your twitter account is crucial.

3. Follow a few of your coworkers
   I work for IBM and there are lots of IBMers that twitter so I can search and find a few that interest me and then follow them. For example, a simple search for “ibm” on the twitter site yields 64 different accounts. Once you find a few coworkers, look at who they follow and chances are you’ll come across even more folks you know.

4. Find a few non-work people to follow
   We all have different interests so why not find some fellow twitters who share some of yours? Maybe you like knitting, the Yankees, Shaq, or even your local library…. search around a find a few others that you might find interesting. I follow a few different folks that range from industry thought leaders (@timoreilly) to funny stuff (@someecards) to book authors to conferences/events. I even follow one or two folks from my town that I don’t know… kind of interesting to see what they think of that new restaurant down the street.

Is it safe? Should I protect my updates?
In today’s society it’s important to keep in mind that many of the social tools available are by default public and open. This is a good thing and helps you to get value from those you know as well as those you don’t know. However, there are plenty of stories and speculation out there about how twitter and other status-driven tools can be used maliciously. Fortunately I haven’t had any problems (nor has anyone I know) but here’s a few tips just in case.

1. Be mindful about what you twitter
   Make a conscious decision about what you will and won’t tweet about. You can keep your tweets totally personal, totally business, or some mix of both. Then you can decide whether you’d want the checkout clerk at the grocery store or your mom to see what you tweet about. Keeping your tweets public allows the entire twitter community (and other applications that use twitter’s API) to view whatever wisdom you care to share. This can help you build a reputation in the community and lead to more and more followers.

2. Update your twitter settings to be protected
   I have small kids and like to sometimes tweet about them and our family stuff. For these reasons, I’ve chosen to protect my twitter updates. By protecting my updates, only those people I approve receive my updates. My tweets do not appear on the public timeline. Although the value I provide back to the twitter community is diminished, I still can keep twitter optimized for me me me.

How can I fit twitter into my day-to-day life?
We’re already buried with too much stuff…. do I really need more stuff from twitter? There are a few simple ways you can integrate twitter into your normal routine and you can decide how much you wish to.

1. Visit your twitter home page
   When you’re at your computer, you can always visit http://twitter.com/home when online.

2. Access twitter from your phone
   My favorite way to catch up on twitter is on my blackberry. Any mobile device that has a browser will work. Just add http://m.twitter.com as a bookmark and visit it when you have time. I like to view twitter updates on my schedule so having a quick read when I’m standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for something suits me perfectly. Sure the visuals are minimized but I like twitter for the content so not seeing a person’s picture is OK with me most of the time. There are lots of different cheap/free mobile applications you can install to get a more powerful experience on your phone (like Twitterberry) but I’ve found most of what I need is available from m.twitter.com anyway.

3. Setup up notices on your twitter account
   On your twitter settings, you can set up how you’d like to get twitter update notices. You can have text messages sent. You can have emails sent. You pick how you want to be alerted.

4. Install a twitter helper application
   You can also take advantage of many cheap/free helper applications to embed twitter into some of your desktop experience. There are browser plug-ins/extensions like TwitterFox allow you to add twitter postings to your browser. There are also plug-ins for Lotus Notes, such as TwitNotes, that allow you to display twitter postings right in your Notes workspace. There’s many more too so you can start by looking at the Twitter Apps page or Read Write Web’s Definitive List of the Top Twitter Clients to find something that works for you.

Well, that should be enough to get you started. Good luck!

http://twitter.com/wolfc