If you're already a Twitter aficionado, bear with me. (Oh! But if you are on Twitter and we haven't "followed" each other yet, then please consider clicking "Follow" now on my twitter page: @melaclaro. I'm usually good about following back.)
Anyway, the reason for this post is because it's part of a continuing campaign to change hearts and minds at my local Orange County ASTD chapter . My hope is to extend our local ASTD membership to an extended online community of connected professionals. (See: "Changing Hearts and Minds About Groups at Our Local ASTD Chapter.")
Yesterday, I issued an open challenge in the ASTD-OC forum on LinkedIn (note: free group membership may be required to read it) that I hope will get some of my local colleagues to branch out beyond their virtual comfort zone. The 3-step challenge was simple:
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Create a Twitter account and Follow me on Twitter. (Okay, that may have been two steps.)
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Post a comment in our discussion forum inviting others to follow you .
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Find me at a live meetup next week and introduce yourself as a fellow Tweep.
For those simple steps, I buy you a drink and hopefully we each get a new friend.
The First Two Things
So, this post is for you. Mr./Ms. New-Twitter-friend in the ASTD's local chapter in Orange County, CA. If you're not a member of ASTD, don't worry. Welcome! Please read on and feel free to add comments.
Here are the first two of thirteen things to help you get up to speed:
Thing #1: "Pretend," for a moment, that there's value to social media. This, I think, is a much overlooked first step. It speaks about a frame of mind.
All too often, folks join a well-trafficked social network "once or twice" or even "a few times" with no real expectation about getting any value from it.
Think about it. Wouldn't that sorta be like the guy who walks in at one of our monthly live networking events, stays for "a few minutes" with a 'tude that he's not going to meet anyone or get any value. And so he hangs out in a corner by himself and folds his arms with a smirk; maybe listening maybe not. Then, after 10 minutes, he walks out saying, "see, I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of it."
If you think it, so shall you reap. Recommendation: Give it a week. During that week, re-visit at least twice a day for at least 5 minutes each visit. At the end of that week, see Thing #9 (in a post coming tomorrow).
Thing #2: Create a (free) Twitter account. In physics, the formula "Force = Mass x Acceleration" is a basic relationship from which all other relationships in physics can be derived. (So they say. I wouldn't know, I got a D in Physics.) In social networks... well, you get the idea. Here's how to create a free Twitter account:
Step 1: Point your web browser to: http://twitter.com. The Twitter page will appear.
Step 2: On the Twitter page, click the "Get Started - Join!" button. (Green-looking button in the image above.) The "Create a Free Twitter Account " window will appear.
Step 3: In the "Create a Free Twitter Account " window:
Step 4: In the "Are your friends on Twitter" window, click "Skip".
(Note: I'm recommending that you skip inviting new friends for now until you've had a chance to get comfortable with Twitter, its navigation and its culture.) The "What are you doing? " window will appear.
Note: At this point, your account will have been created. You don't have to do anything else. But, what's the point in that? It's be sorta like going to a live networking event and going into an adjacent vacant room apart from where the main action is and waiting for something to happen.
You should follow at least one person or organization (yes! organizations and companies are using Twitter, too) to get any sort of value. So, you have my permission to use me as your test bed. (See Steps 5 and 6 below.) Full disclosure: You're actually benefitting me in Step 5 below by increasing my "Follower" count. You can "Unfollow" me at any time if I start getting too "noisy." But the gist is for you to see how updates from others flow into your "stream." If you'd rather not follow me, then at least follow a relatively "neutral" organization, such as NPR News. Simply replace the link in Step 5 below with: http://twitter.com/nprnews .
Step 5: Navigate to my profile at http://twitter.com/melaclaro. The "melaclaro " Twitter page will appear. (That's my page.)
Step 6: In the "melaclaro" Twitter page, click the "Follow " button. The "Follow" button will change to "Following".
What's Next?
In this post I talked about two "things." The importance of a networking mindset and how to create a free twitter account .
In the process of creating your free Twitter account, I also got you started with the opportunity to follow one or two relatively "safe" Twitter users who are unlikely to flood you with confusing spam. Hopefully, these two users will also serve as a worthy model for the culture of the Twitter community.
When I talked about the importance of a networking mindset, we also talked about the need to give this at least a week of due diligence. Logon at least twice a day for the next week before you render any decisions about the type of value (or not!) you feel you're getting from Twitter.
Tune in to my post tomorrow where I'll step you through some more "things" to know so that you're able to maximize this first week of due diligence.
In the meantime, feel free to comment by clicking the comments link below or in our ASTD-OC group forum on LinkedIn to let me know how you're getting along.
For others who may already be using Twitter, please feel free to add your comments about some things you think will help new Twitter users. Click the comments link below.
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