Kalalau Lookout on the western side of Kauai

When I buckled my seatbelt low and tight recently on US Airways flight #146 to Hawaii and flipped open the in-flight magazine to an article by Dan Tynan on Twitter, I knew it was time to blog it. Two nights before, 100 other people and I packed into my friend Mike Schinkel’s buzzing Atlanta Web Entrepreneur’s meeting about…Twitter, including a video conference with Robert Scoble. For a Twitter tutorial, Mike’s slides are the best.

Twitter is a technique, an Instant Messenger-like micro-blog using 140 characters, a social networking platform, a birdsong. That said, concentrate on the relationships, not the technologies [thanks, Charlene Li in her book Groundswell, pg 18.].

Speaking of relationships, you might wonder: are your customers talking on Twitter without you? To find out, go to www.twitter.com and search for your company name.  Want to try out Twitter? Will it help your company reach its strategic objectives?  Set up a free account and keep these three things in mind:

1. Set your intention; why do you want to use Twitter?
2. Listen first.
3. Remember it is more important who you follow = where you’re getting your input, than who follows you [per Robert Scoble]
   

Thanks to my friend Desiree Scales for her 3-part blog series on “How to Make Twitter Work for You.”  Included is Darren Rowse’s “Twitter for Beginners–5 Things to do as a New Twitter User.”

Twitter rules in the Networked Economy, Rule #9, that is: 9) Relationship Tech. “As the soft trumps the hard, the most powerful technologies are those that enhance, amplify, extend, augment, distill, recall, expand, and develop soft relationships of all types.”

I have to be careful with all these new media options (remember the chameleon who crawled into a box of crayolas and exploded?); and for now have decided to join the conversation via FaceBook for family, Twitter (@Juliesquires) for business friends and this blog.

[Update:  Sept 5, Just received our copy of Federal Computer Week.  Cover story?  "What's the Buzz about Twitter?"  See Heather Hayes' story, "Psst!  Are You Twittering Yet?" ]

[Updated Oct 13, 2008:  Thanks, Debbie Reale, for pointing me to this blog "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business." Short and sweet.]

[Updated Dec 1, 2008:  Thanks to Tim O'Reilly who wrote, during Thanksgiving down time, "Why I love Twitter."    You remember Tim; he coined the "Web 2.0" phrase.]

[Updated Dec 13, 2008:  Twitter for Beginners. ]

[Updated Mar 9, 2009: The Washington Post's Kim Hart: "Firms Take to The Tweetable Business Model"]

[Updated Mar 12, 2009: Thanks Tammy Farley with The Rainmaker Group:“100 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals"]

[Updated April 17, 2009:  Excellent article by my friend and colleague, Joab Jackson - senior technology editor with Government Compute News: Twitter Tools on the Rise. ]

Enjoy and Aloha.