Why Twitter Is Important to Me

Yesterday I had the privilege of interviewing Matt Bredel of The Web Reviewer and Tru-Guru on my Blog Talk Radio show. It was exciting for me because Matt is the reason I got into Internet Marketing in the first place…well indirectly anyway. After my company was sold, my sister (Rebecca Wilcox of Rolling T Stores) sent me a link to a webinar hosted by Lisa Suttora of What Do I Sell and Matt was her guest talking about affiliate marketing. I was fascinated because I never really had heard of affiliate marketing. I thought to myself, “I can do that!” and off I went into a whole new (and very different) world.

What does this have to do with Twitter you ask? Indulge me while I tell you my Twitter story. Actually, my congressman got me started with Twitter. John Culberson had to be one of first politicians to embrace social media and he would send tweets and Qik videos from Washington to keep his constituents updated. So he was the first person I followed and that followed me back. It is quite interesting to scroll back to the first couple of pages of your followers to see where it all began, but I digress…

Several months later, I attended the first NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems) conference in Atlanta. I think I had 35 followers at that time and really didn’t see why you would want to spend much time with Twitter. During the conference, Jeff Herring led a workshop during which we all wrote at least one article, posted it to an article directory and then sent a tweet with a link to the article using the hashtag #NAMS. In 5 minutes 30 people had viewed my article! Wow! How powerful is that! I was sold on Twitter.

Now back to my interview with Matt… After NAMS I spent time following people that I knew in Internet Marketing including Matt and because I felt this connection with him, conversed about things, retweeted some of his tweets and even was invited by him to review a new project he was working on. He returned the conversation–not because he knew who I was, but because I reached out to engage him in a business friendship. One day he tweeted about a conference he was attending and how he was getting re-focused on his business. I found that very interesting and asked if he would like to talk about his business on my show. Lucky for me he said, “Yes” and during the show, he revealed that it was our Twitter friendship that allowed him to get to know me, like me, trust me enough to agree to do the show. For me, Twitter is the online version of breakfast clubs, networking meetings or other places you would meet people face-to-face in the offline world.

So when people ask, why do you spend time on Twitter, what do you say? Do you have any Twitter stories to share? Please feel free to give us some of your Twitter insights.

If you are new to Twitter and want to learn some valuable tips and shortcuts on the right way to drive traffic to your blog and how to save hundreds of hours of research, check out Underground Twitter Secrets Manifesto.