The number one benefit I’ve found with Twitter is that it is a cheap and easy way to remind people that you exist, and what you do. It’s great if you have some grand marketing plan for Twitter, but you don’t need one. My Twitter username is cm_writereditor, which tells anyone seeing a Tweet or a ReTweet who I am and what I do, very quickly, plus a headshot of me. And if they follow me to my Twitter homepage, they’ll see my full name and a link to my homepage. And I don’t have to write some huge, insightful blog post everyday to remind all my followers I’m there — just 140 characters. It’s also a good way to practice concise writing.

When I needed a logo for my site, I tweeted that I was looking for someone to design it. With an hour I had three offers. I ended up working with a designer from Sweden! (That’s a long haul from NYC!)

I’ve struck up relationships and conversations with interesting people from all over the globe and networked with people in the film music industry that I never would have met otherwise. Where it will all lead remains to be seen. But I’m enjoying the ride as long as it lasts.

To answer your first commenter’s question, it’s very easy to build a following, with or without a platform. You just search for topics that are relevant to you, see who’s talking about said topics, and follow them. There is no fancy etiquette to negotiate, as you notice as soon as you are followed by a metric ton of “internet marketers” and misc. scammers. You don’t have to follow them back.

I maintain separate Twitter accounts for different purposes (one for my blogging/book/travel life, one for my historical site, and a personal one); I view them on Splitweet (www.splitweet.com) which does what I need. I can read all or some of my streams there. Others use desktop clients like Seesmic, but I don’t. They require Flash, and I don’t run Flash. I check in at least twice a day to make sure I reply to my direct messages (the ones that aren’t spam) and direct replies (public replies) and use http://www.topify.com to manage subscriptions, new adds, etc by email.

I’ve noticed an increase in numbers of visitors to my blogs and sites; I have also been able to plug into what people are talking about and feel more connected–that water cooler effect is quite valuable. Additionally, feedback is easier to come by. I have been auto-tweeting new posts, but I am learning that you get better results if you actually go out there and promote them personally.

I think Twitter opens doors where they might be closed before; for example, as I run a history site, I like to follow museums, and when they follow back you start a dialog, and find ways to help each other out, and that’s really an exciting thing.

I also updated my blog to outline my personal guidelines for using Twitter. For anyone thinking of joining Twitter, I recommend doing something similar.

It was an interesting process to really stop and think about why I intend to use Twitter and how I think I should use it. I don’t want to mindlessly post a stream of thoughts for the world to see without having a least a minimal outline as to what my ultimate goals are.

PB

Since my actual name was taken (by a guy who lives about 30 minutes away from me… small world), I went with my occupation: dmdesigner (direct market designer)

I still don’t know how I’m going to work with this. I run into interesting resources for designers, so I guess I’ll start there.

Twitter is already being dishonest with me… no matter what I throw up as my picture (and I’ve toyed with many), Twitter always tells me, “That’s a nice picture.” Soon it will be telling me how good I look and asking if I’ve lost some weight. I can see the next order of business is coming up with a background that doesn’t looks so… blah.

As I think about it, this blog and any other is sort of like Twitter, but without the character limit. I think if I approach Twitter in a similar way – contributing what is hopefully a useful opinion on topics I’m interested in – I may be able to ease myself into it.

I appreciate the mention of tools that people are using. I’ll have to look into all of them. That TweetLater is interesting.

While I’ve been terribly skeptical of Twitter’s value, I have to admit success in getting a new client from it. I did one tiny job ($150) for them *but* this is my first client outside of my geographic area. It’s one of my 2009 goals to spread my clients out to avoid being tied to any one local economy too much. Now they’re talking about hiring me for several other projects, all much bigger than the first. Guess I’ll have to dial down my skepticism!

Jessica
Twitter @jjpool and @houstonkids

I am writing Twitter and Facebook copy for one of my clients, a mental health agency. We’re still developing our plan, but in essence we’ll be building a “conversation” with various stakeholders — clients, donors, media, legislators, other mental health professionals. We’re just getting started, but we’re having a lot of fun with it.

@catherinedold on twitter

I keep getting good reviews of Twitter so I’m guessing I’ll have to give it a shot at some point. Thanks for weighing in!

PB