My former Director at MPC would giggle every time I said things like, “Mike, I need you to Twitter your Utterz”.  What I was referring to would be a mini-podcast that Mike did on Utterz (now Utterli) via his BB and he needed to get it messaged out to his tweets on Twitter.  

I was at CCC today listening to J.Glerum & Josh Woodard from Valitics  talk about SM & business.  Afterward, I spoke to Jeff Reynolds (quick correction, thanks @brharrison) who is not an advocate for Twitter because he just doesn’t see the point…yet, hasn’t tried it (I see a motherly lesson here having to do with brocolli) but by the end of our conversation he said “for you, I will try it!”.  It’s not for everyone, for instance Seth Godin is not on Twitter, nor is he active on a lot of SM sites…he writes books and his blog.  I, too, was not a Twitter advocate for at least a year before I jumped on board in December of ’07.  Now, I believe in the power that is Twitter.  

Twitter is what you want it to be.  Personal, business, promotional or a replacement for your RSS feed – these are all possibilities.  Where I get upset is when someone tries to spam or jumps in with-out thinking their promotional plan through, or as @MikeBoss puts it “It strikes me as a big hunk ‘o SM cheese”.  Meaning: give me your voice.  Yes, we do need to give business that jump in credit for trying a new SM device, but don’t spam me, con me or try to get me to look at nudie pics of your cat or a house w/o connecting in a human way first.  I have no problem with @ktvb sending out their stories (1x a day is enough though, thank you), but what I want from them is a voice…who are you, what are you doing?  Our local Fox station @Fox12 does the best out of all the local media outlets – good job!

Twitter for business 101: you are communicating with potential and current clients.  Don’t pitch, sell & pimp your product.  I want to know you for you.  This is simply another tool to open up dialog.  Don’t be that guy 100 years ago that said, “The tele-phone? It will never be a good tool for business!”

Social/New Media in general is the new way of marketing your company.  It can be intertwined with your traditional marketing through percise, honest messaging and tools to make a 3 second impression last as long as you want to ride the wave.