Networking the Twitter way

Disabled businesswoman Tracey Proudlock finds tweeting good for more than idle chatter

I have been running my own business for seven years now and it’s incredible how technology has changed during that time.

Most companies have websites and online trading, but technology is now influencing how many of us reach our clients and market our services.

I’m talking about Twitter, the online social networking site that lets you chat about yourself and your business encounters in just 140 characters at a time.

Twitter has its critics but it now reaches some 200 million users across the globe. What business can afford to turn its back on an opportunity like that?

I started using Twitter for my business in January 2010. I began by following a few celebrities like Stephen Fry and Oprah Winfrey first, but then realised that they don’t follow back and that I didn’t care whether Oprah was having a cup of coffee.

I quickly realised that I needed to get my tweets read by people with an interest in disability and inclusion, in fact anyone who’d help me build my business and raise my profile, so I followed a lot of interesting people and they then followed me back. That was great for my ego and made me realise that there might be something in this Twitter thing after all.

The next question was what to tweet and when? As a newbie I didn’t know that I could schedule messages, and found myself asking how other people found the time to tweet all day long. Then I discovered Hootsuite and life became easier. I can now do research for my tweets over breakfast and schedule them through the day. When I get a chance I use TweetDeck to dip in and out of Twitter to comment on other posts and communicate with people. Tweeting about accessible toilets or their poor design seems to fire people up into a twitter-storm.

I soon learnt some basic dos and donts: always tweet as yourself and don’t use your tweets to sell sell sell. Twitter is a mix of chit chat, sharing great information and showing others your expertise and knowledge. During the course of a day it’s important to get the balance right. Think of Twitter as a party: you can’t expect to walk in and sign everyone up as clients.

Twitter has become a very valuable and useful tool for my business and I now have 400 followers and I’ve made new contacts with other diversity professionals and disabled people all over the world. I’ve also raised my profile.

Over the past year I’ve become a true Twitter convert, maybe even an addict! You can follow me on @TraceyProudlock. Sign yourself up and become a Twitter legend.