Welcome to #2 in a series of posts about Twitter.
Have fun. Start Tweeting. Look at the people you follow to get a sense of what a 140 character Tweet looks like.
I have a few Twitter accounts that I operate for myself and for clients.
When looking for story ideas, and sources, my Twitter handle is @jennhardy. I found no benefit to coming up with a catchy alias. From this account, I work as a professional journalist. In my bio, I tell people I am a journalist, an executive member of PWAC Quebec, and that I’m mostly interested in reading tweets about the environment. Most of the people I follow from this account are either writers, media people, or lovers of all things green. This feed helps me generate story ideas and is a great place to find people to interview for my environment-related stories. Your profile also provides a place for you to tell people what your website URL is. I direct followers on this account to my journalism website and portfolio: again, no fancy alias, just www.jennhardy.com.
Another Twitter account I run is @mama_naturale. I use this account for a similar purpose as @jennhardy, but in this case, it’s mama-specific. Most of my followers and people I follow are other “Mom bloggers” and people interested in natural parenting. The main purpose of this account was to get people directed to my blog, www.mamanaturale.ca about natural pregnancy, parenting, and birth. But, I don’t just Tweet every time I have a new post up. That’s REALLY annoying, and a lot of users do it. I build relationships with my followers, ask questions and for feedback. This is my first time being pregnant, and I genuinely use this Twitter account as a way to get opinions from other women who have been there before. In return, I Tweet stories that I or other people have written about subjects my followers will enjoy.
For me, Twitter has been a lot of trial and error. Sometimes it feels like an awful waste of time, while other days I feel like there is actually some purpose to typing in 140 character blurbs. You’ll love it or you’ll hate it, but you’ll never know until you give it a shot.
Happy Tweeting!
Jenn Hardy is a journalist, blogger, and social media enthusiast. She is founder of Pork Pie Media, which offers smart, simple social media solutions for people and companies who are looking for a web presence. Pork Pie Media designs simple websites and sets up Twitter accounts. Jenn will advise you how to maintain your Twitter account or continue running it for you. She loves Twitter. You can follow her @jennhardy.
