The Future Of Twitter – How Long Will The World Be Tweeting

It seems like the whole world is Tweeting. You watch television and they mention Twitter addresses. You head out to a networking group, and every speaker is talking about social media and Twitter.

But is it really the way of the future? twitter-logo

The key to making it an integral part of our society is to have people embrace the technology.

According to the Participatory Marketing Network and reported on Marketing Charts, even though 99% of Gen Y consumers (18-24 year olds) report being active on at least one social site, only 22% of this group said they were currently on Twitter.

So it’s not the younger generation who is using it.

It seems if you’re using social to follow friends, Twitter isn’t a choice. Yet.

Where Twitter does well is for those of us already established in our careers, and out there looking for a new way to market our business, connect with people, and build relationships that will ultimately lead to new business, careers, or even friendships.

Once people are on Twitter, they tend to use it in several ways.

1. Conversation
What’s your passion? What do you love doing every single week? I know for my husband, it’s all about sailing. But in our family, there aren’t a whole lot of sailors he can talk to. He heads out to the pond every week, and sails with his buddies. But outside of that, the rest of us can’t carry on a long conversation about sailing. Thanks to social, he can find a ton of people – from anywhere in the world – that share his passion for sailing. He can share ideas, find out new places to visit, keep up to date on races, and find some cool products and services all based around his love of sailing. It doesn’t’ matter if they are 5 minutes or 5,000 miles away – it’s easy to start a conversation and find others willing to join in.

2. Expertise builder
Want to spread the word about your expertise? Twitter is the place. Tweet daily about things in your field, tips to use, and strategies you’ve found helpful. Provide statistics and helpful links. And along the way connect up with people with common interests, and can provide you with exposure based on your qualifications. It can happen quickly in the Twitter world, with only time as your hurdle. No costs. No big leaders to stand in your way. Just you and the world as your audience.

3. Relationship builder
Showcasing what you do and your knowledge base is important in today’s world. But equally important is building up relationships with the people in your circle of influence. Your clients. Your prospects. Your vendors. Your friends. The people in the same industry. Twitter makes it easy to reach out to all these and more, and share not only resources with them, but personal items that show a whole different side to you. It’s the newest way of asking, “How’s your family?” that occurs in all face to face sales calls around the world. It’s a way of finding commonality with people you may have never known up until now, and would probably never meet under normal circumstances.

Twitter is changing the way we do business, and the way we market ourselves, our products and services. Will Twitter be around years from now? Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: we’re learning a whole new way of communicating, and that will never stop. By learning these skills now, you’re miles ahead of your competition, and will be that much more prepared when the next generation moves in.

Look out world here we come.