Does Twitter Really Matter In Your Personal Branding Campaign?

Twitter is on track to hit 33 Billion — with a "B" — Tweets per year. Earlier this week Twitter said users send out 90 million tweets on a daily basis.

Tweets per day are up to 90 million per day, according to Twitter CEO Ev Williams. That is an increase of 450% from under 20 million a year ago.

MyMark and Twitter

Twitter On Track for 33 Billion Tweets This Year

Business Insider, 2010

Great, but how many of us actually use www.twitter.com to manage our Tweets? I use HooteSuite and MyMark to read and send Tweets. The traffic to www.tweet.com only grew 100% during the same growth period while Tweets grew about 450%. Why does Twitter care? At some point they need to start making money. The money comes from advertising. Advertising dollars come from visitors to twitter.com.

So, what is Twitter doing about it? They are doing some redesigns to their site. They want to get me back to their site by adding more value and incorporating features into the site that have been provided by others. For example, now Twitter will show their photos and videos right on Twitter. Will they win me back? Probably not, however, it is likely I will actually go there more often to take advantage of specific features. While Twitter is adding features, companies like MyMark are not standing still. I prefer to manage all my social media efforts from a single place.

Twitter is a great broadcast site with some opportunity for dialog. Using Twitter to broadcast your news and to read the news of others seems to be the most common use. If I want to engage in a dialog I typically follow a link back to a blog or other social media forum. Occasionally I will engage on a open forum dialog right on Twitter. It really depends on the topic.

Twitter is continuing to grow. It is a critical element in any personal branding and professional networking strategy. It is an essential compliment to Blog Marketing and Article Marketing campaigns. The words of a trusted friend are as true today as they were a few years ago when I asked him advice on how to effectively use Twitter and Blogging for business. He simply said "write a blog and then tweet about it." Essentially, write a blog of interest to an audience and then write a micro-blog (Tweet) about your blog. The broadcast of your micro-blog will reach hundreds or millions and drive traffic back to your blog where those interested can read the entire blog and begin a dialog.

Keep blogging and micro-blogging about your blog. The world really does want to learn from you!