Tardy to Tweet, but I'm No Twit

I know, I know, I'm a little late getting on this bandwagon. I have used Twitter before as a researcher, and it has been a great tool for tracking trends and searching for information. But I intentionally stopped short of joining it personally up until now because it always seemed a bit narcissistic. Facebook can be great to keep in touch with people you actually know, but to broadcast your thoughts to the entire world and try to get more "followers" out of people you don't actually know? I'm not sure it's possible to create a tool more driven by narcissism.

In the last couple of months that I have had to play around with Twitter, though, while it is true that narcissism is alive and well in some users (and there seems to be almost a game among many to see how many followers they can get), I have actually come to like it and appreciate it for reasons I did not quite realize before I hopped on the bandwagon.

1.  Sharing content. This reason I was already aware of through previous research work that I've done, but it's quite different to see it in action. It's overwhelming the amounts and variety of content that is available on Twitter, and it spans as far as your imagination can reach. I can see how it would be possible to obsess over watching your Twitter feed constantly over hours at a time, but I've avoided that so far and hope I never reach that point.
2.  Making new connections.  Like many people, I would imagine, I utilize Facebook mainly for personal connections, and LinkedIn mainly for professional connections. But in both cases, I don't often interact with people I don't know. In LinkedIn I may get contacted from time to time by headhunters and such, but when I share information there, I highly doubt many people pay attention--even those I am actually connected to. But with Twitter, the more valuable the content that I share and the more ways I find to share that content with appropriate audiences directly and engage with key people in my industry, the more exposure I get within my industry and the more valuable connections I am able to make with my peers. By sharing one article, I got myself featured in one industry newsletter's website for the day, and while that is a small accomplishment, it astounded me by the power and possibility that Twitter has.
3.  Building a personal/professional brand.  I have always believed in the importance of making a name for yourself and developing a digital brand. This blog is the result of that, and even though I don't find the time to update it as often as I'd like, it is an outlet I keep for sharing my thoughts and showing the digital world who I am. There are many outlets for digital branding, and Twitter is another one. The difference is, whereas it is difficult to find time to write a blog entry, it is quite easy to throw something out in 140 characters, and I find it a good way to show a little bit of both my personal and professional persona, as a good businesswoman can be her true self in both capacities, and someone is much more interesting to do business with if you get to know him or her a little bit on a more personal level.

These are just a few of my initial thoughts on Twitter. I am sure I have only scratched the surface on what it is capable of (especially since this only really covers the individual level and not the business/corporate brand level), so I look forward to exploring it a bit more.

P.S. If you haven't already found me on Twitter, you can check me out @beckybmw