Twitter, what to make of it?  What’s the point?  I don’t care that you are walking the dog, doing laundry or are bored.  Who should I follow?  Who do I want following me?  What to post?  My gosh, the questions just keep coming.  I am committed to learning more, in time.  I am permitting others “in the lab” to distill the value and figure out how to best use this tool.  I do think I have figured out one of my questions and that is who I wish to follow.

I mused that during the day I communicate with my professional counterparts and colleagues that I am connected to and for that the LinkedIn status works just fine.  My social persona connects with my friends those I connect with via Facebook.  So, if I have a means to communicate with my workday world and my social world, then who is the crowd that I communicate with on Twitter?  They’re not business related nor friends.  They are everyone else.  They’re business colleagues and friends not yet met I suppose.   I have chosen to think of them this way.  I also think of this as a sort of personal news channel.  I follow people of interest to me in fields of interest to me.  How did I find them?  Read on.

Yes, that’s it.  How did I choose who I follow?  I read on and on.  I follow those I am reading.  Why?  First, they write therefore they probably tweet and blog.   Following those who do not participare, what’s the point?  I read books on social media, an area of interest.  I browse Amazon and visit library websites browsing for topical books of interest.  I use Amazon reviews and ratings to guide my reading.

Step two in my process is to lookup the authors I have read on Twitter.    Interesting that some who write on social media sometimes are not found there by name.   When found, I also note when they last posted on Twitter and browse their recent posting as a guide to their activity.  So, for now I’ve solved one Twitter question.  I may learn more and modify this approach, but for now I’ve found it helpful in guiding me.

By the way, when I add those heavily followed, many others begin to follow.  Sheep!  I appreciate the follow you back of those I am following, but am a little less inclined to follow most who follow me simply because they can.  I only follow those with content of interest until I learn of value otherwise.