Welcome to GTRA

Ok, I admit it... when I first heard of Twitter I thought to myself "What's the point?  I have Facebook, Texts, Linked-In, Second Life, E-mail groups.... do I really need ANOTHER social networking tool?" (and as you can see from my picture, I'm of the social networking generation, which makes my thoughts all the more blasphemous!).  Luckily, I gave in to social-networking peer pressure (and the urgings of our Operations Manger- thanks Annie!) and we signed up for a GTRA Twitter account along with a personal one for me.  The results speak for themselves:

In just a month, I already have over 100 followers and GTRA has over 200...and I am NOT a hardcore tweeter by any means... 3-4 tweets per week is it!  I've made contacts with federal executives I've never spoken with, have received feedback on work GTRA is doing, and driven traffic to GTRA's site (as much as 10% of our site's weekly traffic has come from Twitter!). In addition, the tweet's sent by those I follow have lead me to great articles, organizations and resources!  All this at the expense of probably 10 minutes per week... not a bad ROI!

So as you can see, if done correctly the value proposition for Twitter is undoubtedly there and can be made for any social networking tool.  Government Agencies too have seen unexpected success with Twitter.   However, don't think for a second that it's quite as simple as 'if you build it they will come".   Depending on the number of social networking tools you use, the frequency at which you use them and your goals, the key to success lies in creating a social networking strategy.  This especially holds true if you use social-networking for business goals vs. personal goals (or, like me, use them for both)

Here are some tips I've found over the years of using social networking both for social and professional use which I think can help drive success for any social-networking strategy, be it personal or professional:

1- Pick a Target Audience and Speak to them:  Most of us have various social circles we associate with: Clients, Colleagues, Family, Friends, etc...  Now, it's not to say that family doesn't care about your work, or friends don't care about your area of expertise, but let's be honest here, how many of your friends have asked you very in depth questions about your line of work?  Probably just a handful.  It's important that when using social networking you decide which tool will be used to speak to which social group and then stick to it.  My Twitter is all work, and as a result only 2-3 non-work contacts follow it.  On the flip-side, my Facebook is purely social and less than 10  "clients" are friends of mine on there.  And this is a GOOD thing!  Not only does it allow me to focus my social networking efforts only once per-group (versus having to post the same thing to multiple sites) but it allows for a separation of personal and professional life, which is a big concern among first-time social networkers.

2- You may not be as interesting as you think...   As much as I like to think everyone is interested in hearing about the fantastic ice cream I just ate or the fact that my plane is delayed and I'm stuck at DCA,  outside of my friends most people quite frankly don't care!  Users, especially new ones you are trying to attract, will not frequent your social networking sites unless the content  provides value or is of interest to them.  When using social networking for professional purposes, post links to resources like articles, videos and organizations which your network (and those you want to attract!) will find useful.  We all get FCW's daily updates... pick an article and tweet it... it will take you less than a minute and I guarantee that you will get 1-2 follower every time you do that! It's ok to throw in there some personal comments and items to let people know more about you, just be sure to keep it balanced.

3- Stay Active!!!  Today more than ever people have a short attention span.  We all know that if their first visit to your social networking site doesn't catch their attention they probably won't come back. Equally as important however is to give them a reason to keep coming back.   Get in the habit of posting updates daily or every other day to keep content fresh and your network excited as to what is next!   If social networking is not yet an ingrained part of your routine, don't be afraid to set reminders in your calendar.... no one will know besides you and the Outlook Gods!  :-)

Hopefully those three basic principals will give you the same results they have for me.  Give it a try and let me know!