This post could have been titled: “Twitter Influence”
But I thought it looked more ‘interesting’ with this instead:
The story is as fascinating as the heading suggests. It’s a blogger’s dream. Imagine typing a few words into a box, clicking a button - and as a result, having access to 82,000 readers.Well, that’s what happened.
The first part was in late December 2007. I had just noticed Darren ‘Problogger’ Rowse had joined Twitter, the micro-blogging service that’s oh-so-much more. And ‘followed’ him.
We had a few exchanges of messages on Twitter - and not really hoping for much, I showed him a short draft I had written about ‘The Influence of Death’. He liked it, and asked if I could modify it a bit to fit the theme of his blog. The result was:
It was a thrill being featured on the busy Problogger blog’s homepage for close to a week, and getting 45 comments from the thousands of readers who saw the post.
And again, this week, I had a ‘repeat performance’ - almost identical to the first one.
I wrote a short list of “10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With a Non-Profit” - and showed it to Darren through a Twitter ‘direct message’. As you well know, Twitter limits each message to 140 characters (my message was even shorter!)
This time, Darren liked it and asked if I was happy to have him publish it ‘as is’.
I was. And yesterday the post was on Problogger’s homepage!
10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With a Non-Profit
Again, instant exposure to Problogger’s 41,000+ readers!
Better still, the context of the message is PERFECT to mention my own upcoming non-profit awareness building event, A DAY FOR HEARTS - Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day!
Why blog about this?
Because anyone can do what I did - without much work or stress. And not just with Problogger - there are many more bloggers, with busy blogs followed by thousands of readers, who will gladly post your guest content - if it is relevant, useful and fits the theme of their blogs.
How to do it?
* Get on Twitter.
* Type 140 characters into a box.
* Click on the UPDATE button.
And if the planets are in the right alignment, you too may get instant exposure to 82,000 readers - or more! 
That’s Twitter Influence - and still many people will miss this opportunity and go:
Loading ...
3 Comments Received
February 1st, 2008 @1:33 pm
You make it sound like it was the Twitter update you posted that got you this result and it wasn’t. It was direct contact with Darren and you could have done that without Twitter. There’s no Twitter effect here, just a simple case of networking which we should all be doing and don’t need Twitter to do.
February 1st, 2008 @5:09 pm
“…and it wasn’t”
It was, actually. I hadn’t contacted Darren in any other way about this.
“you could have done that without Twitter.”
Sure, never said this was the ONLY way, just ‘one way’.
“There’s no Twitter effect here”
Not sure just what the ‘Twitter effect’ means. I just pointed out one way using Twitter got me great exposure.
I’m not quite clear about what you are driving at? Is it that Twitter isn’t the only/best way to do it? You may be right - and again, for some people, it may work.
Some folks aren’t sure what Twitter can do, what it can be used for. This post was to highlight one potential way it can be leveraged - to make contacts, to nurture relationships, to reach wider audiences.
That’s all. Now go out and use Twitter for this if you like - or use it in any other way better suited to meet your goals.
Or ignore it with an “Oh, Twitter”
All success
Dr.Mani
February 1st, 2008 @7:02 pm
Great article. I have only just begun using Twitter and getting the hang og it. So stories like this are rather inspiring.
Leave A Reply