The Heart of the Twitter Matter

To paraphrase Don Henley, “I got the call today, I DID want to hear and I knew that it would come.” Yes, Terri Norvell is going to Twitter. And the Henley song just keeps ringing in our ears – especially the part, “All the things I thought I knew, I’m learning again.”

Terri Norvell is the resident president over at MultiFamilyPerformance. She trains managers to think like business owners, develop leadership skills and create value for their customers. She’s also a good friend – so we don’t want her to be thrown to the “Twitter wolves” – or Twolves, as we might call them.

Twitter (you might know) is an online social networking tool that was designed originally to connect friends. Now, in a few short years, it’s become the much-touted, newest messiah of business success.

In fact, the over-hype for Twitter is just beginning. You’ll soon see a torrent of “bestselling” books streaming from the printing presses of both major and minor publishers.

Terri, like the rest of us, doesn’t want to miss out on the next technological savior, so you can now find her at @TerriNorvell.

As a beginner, Terri is, understandably, focused on “how does Twitter work?” And, jillions of people want to tell her how to “work” Twitter. They are lining up on every street corner to tell her that she can get speaking gigs with Twitter, explode her business with Twitter and tons of similar Twhype.

And, we just keep humming Henley’s tune: “The more you know, the less you understand.”

So, our advice to Terri is – Don’t worry. You’ll learn the ‘how to’ stuff. In fact, Twitter is so new that anyone who tells you “how to” is full of some sort of shirt starch, anyway.

Here’s our advice – without the starch. Follow what you already know, especially the kinds of things that Debra and Sarah teach (below):

Debra Fine – The Fine Art of Small Talk

Twitter is a tool that allows you to become part of the conversation. Effective conversation is Debra Fine’s expertise – and you must read her book (or re-read it) if you are going to learn our version of “The Fine Art of <Internet> Small Talk.”

We’ve written about her in two articles over on our HiddenSpeakerTreasures blog – which we cleverly titled, “The Fine Art of Internet Small Talk – Part 1 and Part 2.”

Take, just for instance, a few of her “Fifty Ways to Fuel a Conversation” – and see if you don’t agree that Terri will learn more about Twitter success from Debra than she will from all the marketing/PR types hanging out there.

• • Let the natural person in you come out when talking to others
  • Include everyone in the group in conversation whenever possible
  • Seek out other’s opinions
  • Make an effort to help people if you can

And that’s just a handful of the “50 Ways” – and those 50 are just a page or two of the whole book.

Sarah Michel – Perfecting Connecting

Twitter allows you to connect quickly to people around the globe. So, if Terri is going to truly connect on Twitter, she should remember what she’s already learned from Sarah Michel over at Perfecting Connecting.

The essence of Sarah Michel’s message is this phrase:

Find out what people need and then figure out a way to give it to them.

We’ve written so much about Sarah it’s hard to send you to one article (so search both blogs for her name), but here’s Sarah:

I enjoy connecting people, but I don’t give to get. That’s ‘transactional networking,’ which is not what I’m about. I practice ‘intentional connecting.’ Intentional connecting is connecting people with the intention of helping them first.

The Bottom Line

Most people on Twitter are either selling, beating their chest or just hanging out. Almost none of them are “social networking.”

Even so, Twitter, like any other place where people gather, is overflowing with abundance. There are moments of grace on Twitter just as there are wherever humans get together.

Which is why Terri will do her best job with Twitter only if we change those Henley words again to “All the things she thought she knew… she did!” You go, Terri. You’re ready for Twitter.

Note: The photo of Don Henley up top is courtesy of Alan Light over on Flickr. Thank you Creative Commons!