Twitter

[JoeKitchen]

I recently started using Twitter and although I have not gotten any jobs from it yet, I feel that it has great potential.  About a month ago I just started posting what I was doing, comments on news and the economy (especially with regards to the construction market), things about architecture and interior design (with links to blogs), same kind of stuff on hospitality, and other seemingly random stuff.  I also want to say that I have never directly sold my business and make plans to.  I have started to get a following of people who would be in my group of potential prospect and even have had conversation with them.  

Also, I started blogging again.  When I first started a blog I had no traffic and could not think of a way to get people there, so I stopped.  Now I feel Twitter can be a way to pull people to my blog.  

I also am going to try creating my own stock site and use twitter to market, just not totally certain how I will be doing it without seeming self centered.  

http://twitter.com/jmkphoto    is my Twitter address.  


How are you using it?  Would love to hear other ways it can help with business.

[wolfnowl]

Hi Joe:  My wife and I invest a lot of time on Twitter, but not much for business.  You might find some links of interest here:
Our Twitter Site

Mike. (@wolfnowl / @tomarciamae)

P.S.  Seth Godin speaks about social networking on his blog from time to time.  This one, although not specifically related to Twitter, is a good idea:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/20...id-pro-quo.html

[revaaron]

I use it to tweet the shows I'm shooting that night, changes in the shows, and post after shows are over and pictures are up. I also @ it to bands and labels to RT.

[K.C.]

Here's a little info you might find pertinent. At least if your target clients are over 34.

PEW released an interesting document on twitter demographics along with some other interesting information.  For example, did you know that 11% of online adults use twitter or a service like twitter to update their status online?

Here are the key stats from the PEW study regarding the demographic of twitter users:

19% of online adults age 18-24 have used twitter or something like it
20% of online adults age 25-34 have used twitter or something like it
10% of online adults age 35-44 “    “     “    “
5% of online adults age 45-54  “    “    “   “
4% of online adults age 55-64  “    “    “   “
2% of online adults 65+  “    “    “   “
Other interesting twitter stats:

35% of twitter users live in urban areas
9% live in rural areas
online american who live in lower income housing are more likely to use twitter
17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 tweet
10% of internet users in households earning more than $75,000 tweet
76% of twitter users use the internet wirelessly

[JoeKitchen]

Here's a little info you might find pertinent. At least if your target clients are over 34.

PEW released an interesting document on twitter demographics along with some other interesting information.  For example, did you know that 11% of online adults use twitter or a service like twitter to update their status online?

Here are the key stats from the PEW study regarding the demographic of twitter users:

19% of online adults age 18-24 have used twitter or something like it
20% of online adults age 25-34 have used twitter or something like it
10% of online adults age 35-44 “    “     “    “
5% of online adults age 45-54  “    “    “   “
4% of online adults age 55-64  “    “    “   “
2% of online adults 65+  “    “    “   “
Other interesting twitter stats:

35% of twitter users live in urban areas
9% live in rural areas
online american who live in lower income housing are more likely to use twitter
17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 tweet
10% of internet users in households earning more than $75,000 tweet
76% of twitter users use the internet wirelessly

If you feel it is not worth your time right now to establish an online presence because most of your clients and/or decision makers may be over 34, then thats kind of short sited, especially if you plan on being in business 10 years from now.  Most people grow to older ages and eventually those 18 to 30 year olds will be in a position to buy your services.  And although technologies are adapted by younger individuals, those individuals do not stop using them when they suddenly turn 35.   Last my target audience is designers and hospitality professionals.  For the most part designers or hospitality professionals aren't rich, neither are creative directors, but they are the decision makers.

[Luis Argerich]

Here's mine
I try to post when I upload a new picture to my site or a flickr gallery. When I travel, etc etc.

http://twitter.com/lrargerich

[Frank Doorhof]

Here's mine, www.twitter.com/frankdoorhof

I try to be very active online (also on twitter).
Some people will say that you don't need to be because.........
I think that's shortsighted and oldfashioned.

Reality is that most people are connecting online, are surfing the web and are enjoying shorter news and gossip topics.
Twitter is a place were a lot of rubbish is posted but some people are making a difference and that group is growing.
The attraction for me is that you don't have to type a lot, but you can make short and in that way quick posts to draw attention to your work.

I try to twitter about :
The work we are doing at the moment, backstage videos and photos (shot with the iPhone in realtime), finished work and of course blogposts when I post them.
I've seen a boost on my blog of over 500% since I've been using twitter, but also my website and portfolio got much more hits.

When posting that you twitter on some sites you will get a response that twitter is for people without work who have time, with me it's the opposite, I sometimes really don't know where to find time, however twitter is done in between sessions, in a few free minutes or whatever (it's that quick). The people saying this however are often claiming they are rather free at the moment and have time for sessions for free work.
My opinion is that if you still think the phone will ring you are going to be out of a job in a few years.
The first week I got on Twitter I got two assignments due to my presence there including shooting a band from Norway which I normally would have never known.

The web is here to stay and will in the future be our MAIN form of conversation, advertising and networking, people not jumping on will be left behind and will loose eventually all connections to the market.
Look at products like the Blackberry, iPad, iPhone etc. 5 years ago my mobile phone was used for making telephone calls and receiving them, at the moment my contact with clients is over Twitter, MSN, Mail or other forms of digital means, it works way faster and you can immediately show results/ideas/moodboards etc.

IF twitter will be there in 2-3-4 years I don't know, just like myspace it will probably be replaced by Twitter 2.0 or something else but the way of communicating is changing VERY rapidly, and I strongly believe it's a matter of getting on board or drown.

Good examples are people like Chase Jarvis who thanks to his online presence has made his succes.

[revaaron]

facebook update streams are what I like, but

http://twitter.com/returntothepit

[revaaron]

also, I use www.hootsuite.com to update FB/twitter at the same time.  Then my myspace is updated when my twitter is updated.

[Kirk Gittings]

also, I use www.hootsuite.com to update FB/twitter at the same time.  Then my myspace is updated when my twitter is updated.

That is a great app. Thanks for that.

[revaaron]

they need to make an iPad version of the mobile app. I dislike the iphone app on the iPad thing.

[JoeKitchen]

Have you used TweetDeck.  Great program, you can update your Twitter, Facebook Personal, Facebook Fanpage, and Linkedin Account individually or all at once.  Also, you can have columns for each of your list and a column that only shows posts that are responses to yourself from someone else.  Really cool.

[revaaron]

I've had a linked in account for years and have no clue what to do with it... or right now, how to log into it.

[Bernhard]

I used it but I prefer facebook much more, twitter is like using word pad as browser, missing the visual feeling facebook has

http://twitter.com/bernhardkristin

[wolfnowl]

Have you used TweetDeck.  Great program, you can update your Twitter, Facebook Personal, Facebook Fanpage, and Linkedin Account individually or all at once.  Also, you can have columns for each of your list and a column that only shows posts that are responses to yourself from someone else.  Really cool.

Looking through the responses and thinking I should have mentioned Tweetdeck.  Glad you mentioned it!

Mike.

[K.C.]

If you feel it is not worth your time right now to establish an online presence because most of your clients and/or decision makers may be over 34, then thats kind of short sited, especially if you plan on being in business 10 years from now.

Your assumption is what's rather short sited here.

I was offering what should be useful information about Twitter.

[JoeKitchen]

Your assumption is what's rather short sited here.

I was offering what should be useful information about Twitter.

Sorry, I thought you were going somewhere else with that.

[Adam L]

I fall into the Twitter is a waste of time camp.

I do maintain an account and I do use it from time to time when on my blackberry.    I am following journalists, reporters, political leaders, and jazz musicians.   When on the road I read their posts but never post or reply.  I provide no personal information and have location mapping turned off.  I find that this setup works for me as I enjoy hearing about breaking stories before they make it to the broadcast news.   I'm a jazz nut too so I stay on top of bands that are visiting my town.

I don't feel that this has any business potential at the moment.  Dollar for dollar and hour for hour there are countless other ways to reach an audience at a lower cost.  

I did find that I stopped following people that used Twitter to promote their services.  The nature of twitter forces them to create multiple posts which I found to be annoying at best.  And the robot posts are just terrible.   Twitter is running on a shoe sting, always over capacity and crashing.   Given that they cannot stay on top of their internal growth, it also concerns me that they are short cutting security.  I would recommend not clicking on those short URLs as you really don't have any idea where it leads until its to late.   They were just hacked by Iran this week and put out a little found note that recommends you change your password.   Important:  IF you use the same password on other sites as well, consider changing all passwords as they are now at risk.