When I first joined Twitter I had no idea how it would change my life. If you’re not a fan, I understand (and even respect) your decision to avoid jumping into the fray. It’s not for everyone and frankly that’s okay.
I can only account for my experiences and one could argue that the resulting outcomes have been phenomenal and even atypical. That being said, Twitter has served as a an incredibly powerful tool in four specific areas:
- Networking: This is the most obvious. Through Twitter I’ve had the pleasure of building trusted and meaningful relationships with a wide variety of individuals, most of whom I never would have been privy to otherwise. This has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally.
- Business: My firm has secured multiple opportunities as a direct result of my Twitter presence. For example, I sent a tweet that clicked through to one of my blog posts. As a result of those 140 characters we were able to win a sole-source contract with one of the most powerful firms in the world. All of that happened in less than a week.
- Exposure: Twitter has allowed me to raise my profile in a significant way. My ideas and observations are distributed to a much broader audience than traditional marketing and the only cost is time. This is critically important if you are interested in stimulating dialogue and driving innovation.
- Philanthropy: As most of you know, JobAngels began with a single message on Twitter. To this day Twitter continues to serve as an emerging platform for helping those in need. This shows the power of the platform for social responsibility, ideation and impact.
My catalyst for writing this short post is the achievement of a milestone of sorts – my 5,000th follower. The means that over five thousand people are seeing what I tweet on a daily basis. It may not seem like much, but the reach of those followers is in the millions and that is why the network effect of Twitter is so powerful.
To show you how cool Twitter can be, let me describe my 5,000th follower in more detail. His name is Adam Lewis and he is COO of a young firm out of London by the name of Innovate CV. Their solution involves the creation and distribution of multi-media resumes/CVs to help job seekers stand out from the crowd. It can incorporate audio and video, include samples of your work, certificates and the like. It also integrates directly with recruiting firms and agencies to allow for a seamless candidate management experience. Pretty slick stuff. As for Adam himself, he’s a very bright guy whose prior work experience covers the who’s-who of the European financial markets, including HSBC, ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and a consulting stint with Accenture.
I would never have met Adam if not for Twitter and I think that’s pretty cool.
So what about you? How has Twitter changed your life? Who are some of the fascinating and interesting people you’ve met along the way? Share your thoughts below, be sure to follow me on Twitter and let’s keep the online and offline conversation going.
A major value for me from Twitter has been the coverage by very smart people of conferences which I just can’t attend, e.g. SapphireNow. Over and above their blog posts, and the pointers to them on Twitter, the twitterstreams from these conferences, where many smart people are contributing their realtime impressions as well as capturing the content, are enormously valuable.
Mark – first, it’s been great to meet and connect with you through Twitter. One of many relationships I wouldn’t have had otherwise!
As a young professional, there is another reason that access to a wider network has been beneficial … the learning process. I have been able to not only meet HR professionals across the globe but observe and become a part of the conversations taking place around our field. This has provided me with invaluable knowledge and wonderful learning opportunities. I feel very strongly that more college students should be taking advantage of this.
Not to mention the fact I now live in Texas, with the love of my life … neither of which would be without Twitter.
A cheesy answer, but Twitter has change me both personally and professionally. I tend to be very shy when meeting people the first time, but on Twitter, I get more amped when I see the person the first time when we meet on Twitter and found that cool.
There’s a lot to choose form who I met in over the past year, but the most interesting one has to be Cindy Boren, sports editor for the Washington Post (@cindyboren, @redskinsinsider). Came out from a meeting and took a lunch break. I didn’t realize the place was next to the Washington Post building. I tweeted where I was and Cindy came down and had a 15 minute chat about stories about Kornheiser and Wilbon and others.
That’s the power of Twitter.
Totally agree. Especially the networking part — I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve struck up just in the last 3 months at events where I met people who followed me or whom I followed on Twitter.
Any online tool that can start offline conversations, I’m all for.
As long as you use it with clear goals in mind, Twitter can be an effective way to further your career.
I just did a blog posting on that topic today, about a woman who found a job using Twitter and now uses it to hire others -
http://www.gm4jh.com/how-to-find-a-job-using-twitter-case-study/
I couldn’t agree more. I might have never met you if not for Twitter and that would have been a huge loss for me. Even more so than my blog, Twitter has lead to many fun and exciting opportunities I would have never experienced otherwise.
I don’t think I would have expanded much beyond my Greater Cincinnati area if I had not started to use Twitter. Thanks to Jennifer McClure who encouarged me to try and has always patiently answered my questions. Twitter led me to some amazing blogs and both HRevolutions which have expanded and enriched my network beyond my wildest dreams.
My firm has a mini JobAngels thing going in Cincinnati geared towards HR pros in transition or looking to make a change — the HR Careers Network. We are regularly giving back to our HR community, asking only that we be kept apprised of their results. Almost weekly, we hear back from a “graduate” that they have landed in a new position. It feeds a place in my heart and is very rewarding.
Great article, Mark. And thanks for mentioning Innovate CV! It’s an honor to be your 5000th follower! I came across your blog through a mutual contact re-tweeting one of your tweets.
As you mentioned, our firm has just been established, and as such, we’re in the initial stages of building our presence on twitter.
We’re amazed at the platform’s reach. There are just so many inspiring recruitment and HR professionals to get in touch with, such as yourself, and we’d love to connect and follow even more! It’s an amazing world of recruitment on Twitter.
Adam Lewis
Twitter: adam_innovatecv
@Naomi – Great point Naomi. I obviously see great value in this as well and should have included it in my list.
@Kelly – Meeting you, watching you learn and having you meet Michael have been wonderful to behold!
@Tracy – Great story about the Washington Post. That’s awesome.
@Kevin – I think you touch on an important point, namely using these tools to drive offline conversations. So many mistakenly believe this is all about the online experience. Thanks for weighing in.
@Shauna – I’m so glad we met. This goes back a few years now (seems like a lifetime ago).
@Penina – The Careers Network sounds like such a wonderful movement. Congratulations on that and here’s hoping for more “graduates” soon.
@Adam – I’m thrilled that you were my 5,000th follower and love the problem your new company is trying to address.
Mark – I’m still relatively new to Twitter and the HR social media landscape in general, but every day brings some validation of the long hours spent pointing and clicking. It’s exposed me to the world of blogging and the very cool (and smart) people out there sharing their diverse perspectives on everything-under-the-sun. And it’s expanded my network in ways I never imagined. I recently hit the job market after losing my job to restructuring. Luckily I had 5 months of tweeting and blogging under my belt at that point…it has made the transition to the world of looking for work so much easier…and fun. Thanks!
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I’ve met hundreds of people through Twitter, but the most important connection I made was with an acquaintance that became a good friend.
I met my friend Ellison at a mutual friend’s party. Right off the bat we seemed to get along well, but for some reason without the mutual friend, we could never hang out.
After I went away to college in the east coast, he and I started tweeting more. Our friendship grew, and it led to us hanging out for the first time outside of a group setting.
I’ve also developed closer relationship between other classmates and co-workers because of Twitter because it allows everyone to be free.
Whether it’s sharing your favorite articles, funny videos or how crap the food your eating is, it’s an insight that you would’ve never got without it.
So why does Twitter matter? It strengthens relationships in real life.
Hi Mark,
. Right now for me, Twitter is a broadcast network competing with existing broadcast channels.
I am very new to Twitter and am exploring use cases, I do agree with your comments in general, not that is so important
I would like to add additional dimensions of culture, social, sport and business Twittering.
I would be interested in the Twitter usage in Europe where there are more languages and social cultures which impact how people use Twitter.
Celebrity following on Twitter is a trend which must be hurting gossip magazine circulation?
Sorry to use these marketing terms but they do apply, segmenting Twitter users, slicing and dicing the Twitter data would be very revealing and is one of the reasons Twitter is potentially going to carry a huge $ valuation if Twitter goes to the stock market.
I am still learning and not going to give up.
Thanks for the comment Peter and please don’t give up! There are some wonderful examples of how Twitter can help you socially, personally and professionally and I encourage to keep at it. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
guys. but why. if i’m sign in twitter. always on error. i’m sick of it. help please. twitter is really cool. but slow loading & plus always on error i need to refresh, refresh & keep on refresh till the page is done.