I know Twitter's been having a hard time with capacity, but it is still a useful tool in my mind. Last time I discussed Twitter I gave a general overview. This time I want to look more in-depth at what Twitter can do for business owners.

Time Warp

First of all, know that Twitter is an investment. Just like real life networking, it takes a certain amount of patience and persistence. It takes relationship building. Strangely enough, many business owners write off services like Twitter because they "can't reach their audience" or they "don't have time". And yet they are willing to sit through a two hour luncheon, talk about their business for 30 second and get one or two leads (maybe). Pause and consider this for a moment; if that is good networking, how can Twitter not be? Twitter will list your activities for the whole world to see 24 hours a day. Even if you update just once a day and make 5-6 replies... you're still building your brand! If you still think this is time misspent, check out Problogger's argument about how all forms of communication can be a waste of time when handled inappropriately.

Follow the Leader

Once you've made up your mind to get on Twitter you might not know where to start. Who do you follow? How do you get people to follow you? Rule #1: Never, ever try to follow 20,000 people and see who subscribes back. Just don't. Its just another form of spam. You may be completely legit but most serious business owners will dismiss you. I suggest searching for people with similar interests. Check out some names in your industry who you admire. Find posts that interest you, and give them some feedback (Remember: the Golden Rule is Networking!). If you need some more help, check out some useful tools like Twellow. Or find people in your area with TwitterLocal. There are lots more!

Quality over Quantity

Some people post 40-50 times a day on Twitter. That's fine if you want to and have the time. However, I suggest making quality posts about your business, your website, your blog - just a few times a day and giving lots of replies back. Follow one or two new people everyday. If you talk about what interests you, maybe ask some questions, you should start building worthwhile relationships. Not only will people respond to you on Twitter but you should start seeing increased traffic to your blog, articles and website.

The Niche Glitch

I've mentioned previously that social media is a lush garden of opportunity for tech-inclined individuals. This does not mean if you aren't a techie you aren't welcome. In fact, I love finding writers, stay-at-home moms and students: they give some of the most meaningful feedback. I was just commenting the other day how I wish more "everyday" businesses would create corporate Twitter accounts; I'd follow them in heartbeat. If Barnes & Noble put up book deals on Twitter, I'd check my feed every hour! But not just big business, small ones too. If the owner of Dunn Brother's Coffee Shop in Addison had a Twitter account, I'd promote them constantly!

Twitterpated

You don't need to be twitterpated (or smitten, for the Disney illiterate) to appreciate Twitter. It is a tool. You don't have to write about how you got stuck in traffic or the 5 different salad dressings offered at lunch. But you can write about events you're attending, sales, opportunities or just what makes you passionate about what you do. You'll be pleasantly surprised that being real with people on the internet, might just close a sale.

Feel free to follow me: http://twitter.com/Veribatim

When I first wrote about my experiences with Plurk, the social media site was still very new, and I had only been toying with it for a few days. Now that its been a month, I wanted to write a follow up post.

Plurk and Twitter: The Continued Saga

Everyday I see someone on Plurk post a blog or other entry comparing Plurk and Twitter. Overall, most of the social media savvy say that the two websites are very different and not comparable.

Bitter Twitter

Are Twitter users boycotting Plurk? Its a rumor in Plurkland. Obviously, not everyone will like Plurk. The rapid pace and disjointed time line can be more than one ADD person can handle. However, many Twitter users are trying plurk on for size. The Twitter community is full of techies and early adopters, most of them will at least use Plurk before they knock it.

Plurkopia

It is true, that many "Tweeple" have left Twitter in favor of Plurk. I do not believe Plurk is stealing Twitter user. Many people have become fed up with Twitter's lack-of reliability and were bound to leave anyhow. Plurk just happened to offer a vibrant, similar experience.

Plurk has many of Twitter's good points. In fact, users often grow to love (and obsess) over their Plurkiness. Will the utopia of Plurk last? Maybe. Plurk grew quite rapidly the past few weeks and though it hasn't experienced anything like Twitter's Failwhale, there have been a number of small glitches. Is it due to over-capacity? Or is the Plurk team working hard to prevent the problems Plurk developed? Its hard to say.

Plurk Fever

Over the past month I plurked a few questions to take Plurk's temperature, so to speak. At the beginning of June I asked how people felt about the service. I asked a similar question last week. Some of the answered varied in that period of time, for example:
June 5th:

And then on June 23rd:

Many people who plurk regularly think website takes up a lot of time and becomes addicting. But more people toward the end of the month felt like they had adjusted to plurking reguarly and were enjoying it. Some commented that the interface took time to adjust to (I felt the same way). But overall, Plurkers feel positive about Plurk.

Plurking: Serious Business

I'd like to end on how I think businesses can benefit from Plurk. After discussing business ideas with an internet postcard company, I realized how much they could benefit from plurking about their concept. Most plurkers are early-adopters and many of them have a business closely tied to the internet. So if your business can be marketed to knowledgeable internet users, welcome to your perfect market! Plurk, at the moment, is mostly a niche market. Not all companies have the time to devote to social media as it is, and would not be able to build relationships with other Plurkers. But if you use the internet on a regular basis and so do your clients... isn't one of the keys to marketing, go where your clients are?

If you have also written an article about Plurk please put a link in the comments. I love reading other Plurkers views.

So, I've been following the rabbit hole of online social networking (which they should just shorten to OSN already) for a while now. It took me awhile to get on board with twitter but once I did, I loved the potential. When twitter started having the "fail whale" appear lots of people began to look for a new playground.

That's when I started to hear about Plurk.

Potential:

I'm still trying out its potential for business owners. It is far more lucrative than twitter, but the ability to have conversations in real time is an awesome power. I'm hearing a lot about Plurk "replacing" Twitter but I have to disagree. Twitter allows you to search for people in your industry and follow them through microblogging. Plurk lets you start conversations, meet other people in your friend's network through mutual interests as well as answer the eternal question: what are you doing?

What Plurk is like:

Plurk is not a linear format like Twitter which threw me off at first. Instead it is more of a web type design. You can click on plurks you want to read and then reply. Other people can reply too, so you can have a huge meeting of mind in a 5 minute span of time just to answer one question. While on Twitter you can have an instant response, watching it all be threaded in one box is pretty exhilarating.

I will admit, my first day on Plurk, I wasn't impressed. The colors bothered me, the timeline confused me and I thought the random plurk creatures were creepy.

[Caption] Is that a headless dog? Who designed this?

Plurk vs. Twitter:

But, like any new experience, it took me a few hours to get used it and soon I felt compulsively drawn to Plurk. The great thing about instant interaction is that after a few days with Plurk I felt like I knew my friends better than with 3 weeks of twitter. Both will have their ups and downs, but both can be important tools.

Personally, I hope someone makes a site or application that combines them. They should call it pitter because it sounds like raindrops and that is the essence of both these sites: the little droplets of conversation and thought that make up a storm.

Contagious Media:

I saw someone comment on Plurk that the willingness of so many twitters to try this new site was interesting. I think so too. It took me months to give in and sign up for twitter but only a day or to to try Plurk.

This, I believe, is a trend that we are seeing and will continue to see, in regard to new interactive mediums. MySpace took a while to catch on, Facebook, much less. Perhaps this is an offshoot of Moore's law that the speed of technology acceptance grows exponentially. As Generation Y's influence grows and their desire to be immersed in the power of social internet has more power, more people outside of that generation will get involved as well. And as people as a whole discover that the "new" is nothing to be afraid of, they will more rapidly get involved with things that previously frightened them.

These are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think about the acceptance of new technology. Am I just becoming an early adopter or is this a trend? Will Plurk and Twitter go head-to-head? I'm sure there will be more on this as I continue to discover and learn.