Back on July 16th I wrote The Twitter Monologue. It started out as a joke, but eventually became a post on my serious disenchantment with Twitter. I had only been using Twitter for about two months when I engaged in The Twitter Monologue…so it only seems fair that almost five months into using Twitter I provide an update.

I was wrong about Twitter. There I said it. And it’s not hard to admit.

Originally I stated that Twitter “offered minimal value to me either on a personal level or as a Marketer (except to pimp my blog).” Wow, I was REALLY wrong there!

So what happened?

First, there was one person who insisted that there was indeed conversation on Twitter and set out to prove it to me. We had our spats (in jest, of course!), we antagonized each other (Twitter vs. Plurk), and she shared her friends with me (albeit to gang up and wear their protest berets). But after all that, I consider a Lisa Dilg (@pprlisa) a friend and I am thankful to her for digging in her heels to prove a point and a valuable one at that! 

Second, the other interesting thing was that a lot of the folks who I met on Plurk would make their way over to Twitter (usually due to some technical issue) where we would commence our conversations (although not threaded and hard to keep up with). Part of me wonders if folks not on Plurk enjoyed seeing the conversation and banter back on Twitter.

Third, I started following more (and different) people and just starting asking simple questions like ‘how are you?’ and ‘what are you working on?’ Sometimes a simple question is all it takes.

Fourth, I started sharing parts of my life. I still haven’t ventured into ‘diary’ mode, but I started sharing more of myself and tried having a bit of fun from time-to-time (okay, maybe a bit too much fun on occasion).

And finally, I got to meet a lot of people on Twitter face-to-face. It’s simply amazing to watch Twitter come to life!

What’s the lesson to be learned here for marketers and companies who want to utilize Twitter as part of their social media strategy?

• Listen (not just for a day or week, but for months)
• Respect the time it takes to acclimate (patience is a virtue!)
• Share before you take
• Engage & add value to the conversation
• Be human
• Be transparent
• Be honest
• Embrace the community (on- and off-line)
• Respect the influencers

That’s just my list. Can you offer any other lessons or best practices for utilizing Twitter?