After several inspiring posts from fellow writers and translators, solid advice from our resident web guru, and informal input from an online marketing guru friend, we decided we could no longer stay away from one of the fastest-growing social networking tools on the planet: Twitter. January 1, 2009, marked our entry into the Twitter universe.
We already have profiles on LinkedIn, Xing, Projo, MiGente (and 25+ other professional and social networks), so we were a bit hesitant about adding to our online lives. So far, so good: the amount put into it has been minimal, and of course we have barely scratched the surface of all the cool Twitter apps and add-ons. We have really enjoyed interacting with fellow translators, small business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers, travelers, etc., and have found the updates and exchanges quite fascinating. Many folks have started following us, and we have also discovered many great Twitterers to follow.
What have your experiences been so far? Has anyone had any fantastic experiences or even potential leads from Twitter? For now, we have linked this blog and one of our Facebook pages to Twitter, making it easier to update the "What are you doing now?" line (on one site versus two). We like the simple layout and the fact that it's an incredibly powerful tool that reaches millions of people in real time. Also, 140 characters is plenty, and we are happy to see that one of our favorite sites is getting a lot of use: www.tinyurl.com (Twitter converts links automatically to save space). At the moment, we are following Twitterquette to make sure we learn the ins and outs.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter (language_news)!
We already have profiles on LinkedIn, Xing, Projo, MiGente (and 25+ other professional and social networks), so we were a bit hesitant about adding to our online lives. So far, so good: the amount put into it has been minimal, and of course we have barely scratched the surface of all the cool Twitter apps and add-ons. We have really enjoyed interacting with fellow translators, small business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers, travelers, etc., and have found the updates and exchanges quite fascinating. Many folks have started following us, and we have also discovered many great Twitterers to follow.
What have your experiences been so far? Has anyone had any fantastic experiences or even potential leads from Twitter? For now, we have linked this blog and one of our Facebook pages to Twitter, making it easier to update the "What are you doing now?" line (on one site versus two). We like the simple layout and the fact that it's an incredibly powerful tool that reaches millions of people in real time. Also, 140 characters is plenty, and we are happy to see that one of our favorite sites is getting a lot of use: www.tinyurl.com (Twitter converts links automatically to save space). At the moment, we are following Twitterquette to make sure we learn the ins and outs.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter (language_news)!
2 comments:
I must admit to being a bit baffled by the Twitter phenomenon. What exactly are the advantages of a 140 character sound bite for us professionally?
@Kevin: the jury is still out for us, too. Basically, so far, we do on Twitter just like we are doing now: responding to threads, just shorter and all conveniently in one place. Many times, folks will link to interesting articles, etc. Many translators and small business owners follow our updates, and we have learned many interesting things. We like how quick and immediate the communication channel is. Contrary to our previous belief, it's not all just folks talking about what they had for lunch -- there's a lot of substance in the Twitter universe. We are still in the discovery phase and just like you, we weren't sure if we wanted to join the "revolution". So far, we are glad we did and are part of a growing online linguist community (more linguists are on Twitter rather than blogging; some do both). Might want to check it out and decide if Twitter is for you. :)
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