Why Do I Tweet?

1. Use it as an “announcement’ based micro-blog.
2. To engage in conversations with key people efficiently. I’ve found the best way to control and engage in conversations is through HootSuite which gives you a great Dashboard to manage the tweets from people you follow in one column, then add a column for each community you care about, clients, SMBs, Gurus, and one for your own tweets so you can instantly see what you have said.
3. To spot tweets on key subjects say on Software as a Service (SaaS) by typing #SaaS in the search box along the top. Twitter arranges stuff using # prior to words as a signal to trap those words.
4. People that follow you and that you follow are now connected. Therefore you can now Direct Message them eg say you are going to a function that evening and you want to know whether IanDSmith is going too!
5. The paid version of HootSuite allows me to send a tweet simultaneously to my LinkedIn groups, twitter universe and Google +.
6.  I look for tweeters that share my interests and start to follow them.
7. I focus my tweets on ideas, quotes, articles, information that will help owners scale their business.
8. I’m looking for remarkable thinking, action, making things happen.
9. To maximize the impact of my 140 characters, I use the shrink function in HootSuite to shorten my links, thus maximizing my ability to say something useful.
10. Really good stuff is Re-Tweeted by me, as I spot it.
11. Occasionally I’ll give a personal update on my hobby of competitive masters track.
12. It’s another opportunity to get your manifesto out there, to add value to your community, to give something back, to add value
13.  It incentivizes me to stay current, blogs, FT, WSJ, HBR, Inc Magazine etc. Once read I grab great content and tweet it.
14. It allows me to cross-reference stuff happening on my web site or my blog.
15.  It allows me to join conversations on events in real time. (Although clearly full scale blogging is better)
16.  I can follow the companies I’m working with and spot conversations they are having and thus stay on point when I’m making observations.
17. I expected to meet like minded entrepreneurs and I have: and because some of them were East Coast based, I was able to meet for coffee and start collaborations on a personal level.

Fears Overcome:

1.  A big time suck: solution, I try to keep tweets to 10 minutes every day around lunchtime.
2. Watch spammers: I don’t follow everyone who follows me.
3. Nothing to say: Solution, surprise yourself. I think it forces you to define what your strong coat is, what you really feel passionate about.