So you have to ask yourself a few questions:

1. Why I do want to microblog? What are my expectations, in terms of a return on investment?
2. Do I have plan for using Twitter?
3. Is my plan feasible, or am I trying to accomplish too much too soon?
4. Do I really believe Twitter will help me/ my business/ organization?
5. Do I have the discipline to persist, even when the ROI (Return on Investment) appears miniscule?
6. Am I sharing information that anyone actually wants?
7. Am I building my network?
8. Do I have the support of workmates, bosses and/or colleagues?

Most of the above questions actually apply to any type of social media and their use in online marketing. All of them are important to consider not only before you start Twittering but also every so often (weeky, monthly, quarterly) to see how your plan is being fulfilled – or not.

The problem with Twitter is that it looks so darn easy to use, but it takes a lot more persistent, consistent effort to use effectively.

The answer to that question is less simple. Just as not every business needs a website, even in this decade, I don’t feel that every business needs to twitter. At least not yet anyway. Unless your business is based online. Then it’s a necessity in your SMM (Social Media Marketing) toolkit, unless you have more effective means of consistently promoting your business and website.

If you’re not sure what to do, check out David Berkowitz article, Ten Ways to Decide if Your Business Should Twitter, over at Social Media Insider. Also consider reading Geekpreneur’s free ebook, A Geek’s Guide to Promoting Yourself and Your Online Business in 140 Characters or Less with Twitter.

Not familiar with microblogging? Either you haven’t spent much time on the Internet in the last two years, or you don’t watch Oprah’s talk show regularly. (Twitter.com was recently showcased, causing a backlash from some early adopters who resented the seeming commercialization – or other possible reasons.)

That aside, microblogging is a means of communicating tidbits of information in much the same way you might text message someone with your cell phone. In fact, Twitter – the current king of microblogging services – is modelled on the same principle. With true microblogging services, you have up to 140 characters per message to say whatever you want, share links, report a tidbit of news.

Should You Microblog?
Not everyone is going to find value in microblogging. But the small percentage of users who do “get” its value for promoting their business or themselves – be they entrepreneurs or celebrities.

Reports around the blogosphere are that microblogging sites have a high “bounce” rate. That is, people sign up but often don’t use their account, or abandon it after a few months, never to return. My own experience is ignoring my accounts – I use a few services – for several months, exploring a bit, ignoring, then diving in full throttle. Or at least half-throttle. The fact is, if you’re going to use a microblogging service such as Twitter to promote yourself, the value increases with the size of your network. If no one is following your microblogging stream of updates, then you are not going to get much ROI (Return on Investment) for your efforts.

As a result, since new users have to learn how to build their network, it wouldn’t be surprising if the widespread of adoption of microblogging for promoting online (or offline) projects/ causes/ businesses/ organizations takes a few years. It took a long time for websites to be a “necessity” for most businesses, too.

Microblogging Platform Choices
Twitter, Facebook (status updates), Plurk, and Identi.ca are just a few of the microblogging options available. (The Pownce microblogging platform has been sold and the team absorbed into Six Apart.)

In terms of true microblogging platform, all indications are that Twitter is the most popular. However, with reports that maybe 10% of tweeters make up 80-90% of the content on Twitter, it seems that the service is not so widespread in use. Facebook, it could be argued, has wider penetration as a microblogging tool. However, since it allows for more than 140 characters in status messages, it’s not a true microblogging tool.

This performance is very good news considering that Twitter just passed social voting site Digg in market share.

What do you think? Would that even work – as in be any more monetizable than Twitter? Keep in mind that a similar service, Pownce, got purchased by Six Apart and for the most part is getting buried. Seems standalone microblogging services will have a hard time against Twitter. But integrate a micromessaging service with another app – such as the way the status message is on each user’s Facebook wall – and then it becomes very useful.

So if Twitter decided to license out their technology to be integrated with the likes of, say, LinkedIn, MySpace, and so on, then you have a potential way to monetize. But where does that leave Twitter competitors such as Identi.ca? Well, I’m predicting the rise of BuddyPress-powered niche social networks, so you might see Identi.ca’s Open Source version integrate into there, in the form of plugins. Whether the latter can be monetized any better than Twitter remains to be seen. The key issue is where hosting will be done and whether people are going to want to have to remember multiple login account details.

Given that news, don’t be surprised if Twitter soon monetizes by offering premium/ business accounts with more features – for a price. They probably needed proof of concept before they can roll out such an offering. (That is, would there be any incentive for anyone to want to pay for Twitter?)

As a reluctant user of microblogging (aka micromessaging services such as Twitter, Plurk and my Facebook status msg/ wall, I’ve kept tight control of how many of these sites I use. So when Pownce had been launched by the minds at Digg, I saw no reason to use yet another microblogging service (YAMS?). Maybe others felt the same way – despite that you could share files with Pownce – because the site will be shut down in three weeks and be integrated into Six Apart’s Typepad hosted-blogging service.

If you’re someone who understands the value of social media websites and applications, you might find some value in Plurk, a Twitter-like site in concept, but which has a more interactive feel to it and a different interface. (Plurk uses a timeline whereas Twitter has a running stream/ river of items.)

If you want to learn more about Plurk, please check out my indepth review of the Plurk micro-blogging application and the environment, over at FreelanceSwitch. However, there wasn’t room in that article to talk about some of the brilliant features of Plurk, as far as social media interaction go. So here are a few things to consider:

1. Six degrees of separation.
2. Widening your circles of interaction.

One of the fascinating social media features of Plurk is that it becomes very easy to get to know other members. This is because person B and C can both respond and interact in their mutual friend, A’s, messages. So if you and I do not know each other but have both “friended” person A and tend to write regular responses in person A’s message threads, we might get to know each other and become “friends.” That in turn means that we might introduce each other to our other Plurk friends, thus in turn expanding our circles of interaction. As a person who long ago set a goal of either meeting or interacting with over two million people in my lifetime, that’s an important feature – ideal for anyone who uses social media to promote themselves and their work.

Now that’s not so different from the interactions that go on in a Facebook member’s “Wall”. However, that isn’t quite as interactive as the conversations on Plurk. The Plurk environment is more like a limitless collection of conversations that you can tap into via multiple IM chat-like windows. It’s also easier to first “fan” and then later “friend” Plurk members, if you enjoy what they write. On Facebook, some people have a rule of not friending people if they don’t know them in real life.

Overall, Plurk has a lot of potential to be a big player in the online social media sphere, even if the atmosphere is more decidely friendly rather than the more professional environment of Twitter.

By now, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. If you haven’t, I recommend picking up the free Twitter ebook from Geekpreneur, which I described here in a screencast earlier this year. If you have, then you know that Twitter is a communication tool used mostly as a broadcasting medium. Most people seem to either be using it to “tweet” little tidbits about their life and work day, or to announce/ share articles or events or products and services relevant to them and their “followers”.

For the most part, Twitter is not being used as a conversational medium. For social media conversations, I believe Plurk is a better choice. In fact, Twitter just does not seem cut out as a conversation channel except between members who already know each other well. My own experience is that maybe 95% of the tweet queries I send “strangers” do not get replied to. And that’s even when they have asked “strangers” to get in touch with them, or someone else has.

So the truth is, I have yet to find a valuable use for Twitter myself, but that does not mean I won’t or you won’t, eventually. If you want to follow me on either Twitter, I am “talespinner“. On Plurk, I’m much more informal, so I generally don’t give my username out, but it’s not hard to find me.

Add GeekCast epi#1 to your page

]]> http://www.rajdash.com/free-promotion-by-twitter-e-book-from-geekpreneur/feed/ 0