For some people, the idea of social media can seem overwhelming and pointless. For those who have taken the time to utilize it, social media can be an important, useful tool to add to our marketing and PR toolkits as well as our everyday lives.

I am an active Facebook enthusiast and becoming an increasingly strong advocate of LinkedIn. However, I’ll be honest; I am considered an “inactive user” on Twitter. I never understood nor have felt the need to post statuses about myself. Why would people want to read about what I was doing? I especially despised the statuses going over EVERY detail of someone’s life: Waking up, brushing my teeth, doing my laundry, gym, back to bed. Flash forward to my internship with Springboard Public Relations and I am beginning to understand the intrinsic value of social media and specifically Twitter. What I have come to learn is that Twitter provides a mutually beneficial relationship between followers and followees (aka following). It is less about us (me) and more about the relationships we develop.

We can utilize sites such as Twitter to pass on educational, important or simply fun information pertaining to our interests and tastes. Through these carefully chosen online connections, we are cultivating relationships with others who share common interests and goals, independent of where they are geographically located, what their profession is, age, etc.

As I currently utilize Twitter and other social media sites to support several projects and convey business initiatives and messages, I am truly beginning to understand and appreciate its purpose. These sites are about sharing knowledge — bouncing ideas off of others to gain new perspectives. We can use Twitter to follow not just people and companies, but rather to chase ideas and knowledge. By making the right connections, we can develop relationships and learn from one another.  

So how do you make the right connections? Here are three simple tips on how to follow and be followed:

• Define your digital persona: Ask yourself two questions—what message am I looking to convey? What can my followers expect to get out of following me? Craft your statuses and profile information to correspond with this information.
• Walk the walk; talk the talk: Stay true to your profile’s focus. By tailoring your status updates and information to the messages you hope to convey, you will develop passionate, interested followers who share common interests. 
• Meformer vs. Informer: On average, 25 percent of your tweets should be self-serving, allowing for 75 percent to be informative by sharing content, retweeting etc.
• Engage: As you follow people, engage them the same way you would in person. Remember, Twitter is all about conversations. 

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