TWITTER MILESTONE

Just hit a Twitter milestone last night by having the 1,000th follower find me organically. I started this Twitter account in February and have followed an organic natural approach to developing a "Tribe". I believe that each Tweeter needs to develop a strategy for their account, whether it is for personal or business usage. This particular account is my personal account and I tweet a variety of messages, both business (social media & marketing related) and general messages (comments on current events, great quotes, etc.). The emphasis here is on "conversation" and building relationships with interesting and knowledgeable people around the globe. I began with four categories of people that I wanted to follow personally:

• Social Media "Experts" like @GuyKawasaki, @Mashable, @Scobleizer
• Writers- both local and nationally published
• Cincinnatians- interesting folks who give off a vibe of what's going on in the city
• Media/Companies like: @Huffingtonpost, @WSJ, @FastCompany

Some follow back and some don't. I occasionally ask a follower how they found me and the answers are quite varied. I have never used an auto-follower or any type of auto-reply message. When someone follows me, I check out their tweets, bio, stats (do they tweet 100X/day, cus I don't want that much noise in my life!!) and their web-site. If they fit one of my four criteria above or seem to be incredibly interesting, then I follow back and send a personal message thanking them for the follow. I always include their name and some tidbit from their page so they will know that it is not an automated response. I enjoy engaging in discussion with other Tweeters. I have built some great on-line and off-line friendships as well as discovered business opportunities and created some partnerships.

The most exciting thing is attending a live networking event, and meeting someone that you have been in conversation with for a while on Twitter. There is always the feeling that you have known the person for a long time, even though you are meeting for the first time! I have no idea what it will feel like to have 2,000 followers or even 10,000 followers, but for now things feel manageable for this personal account.

A business account is a completely different animal and requires a much different strategy both for following and obtaining followers. Note the emphasis on the word "obtaining"-with a business account, you would be foolish to let things happen organically. Business accounts demand tribe development- after all, aren't you selling something???


Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009