If I am being honest, I used to be one of those SEO’s that was totally against all things social media. I saw it as a waste of time, a distraction from work and more importantly, a place where a lot of people just got together and noted every single movement they made.

I gave up on Facebook as it seemed a place where I just seemed to get involved with old friends that I hardly spoke to at school and, if I am honest, had no interest in anyway. Besides, if someone really wanted to write on my wall the main circle of friends and family know where I live.

twitter filters The Twitter Turnaround

Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrotcreative/

Never Gonna Give You Up

After being forced into signing up to Twitter I have to say that after a couple of weeks I wasn’t impressed, I was sadly already following Stephen Fry and his antics and had managed to get a couple of followers through asking people in the office to follow me. In case you didn’t know it would seem Fry is the Pied Piper of Twitter. It is around this time I thought about giving up on the service.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

It has now been around a month and a half since I signed up to the service and I am starting to see the benefits from it. I have around 40 followers which isn’t massive amount but it isn’t bad for someone that was completely against Twitter just a couple of months previously.

I have found it is great for getting information on the industry as soon as it is released and on many occasions it pops up on Twitter a lot faster than national newspapers and even sites like the BBC can get it out.

Content Push

When it comes to writing blog posts I have found it excellent for getting an increase in traffic to the posts because the people I am following and the people following me are going to be interested in what I am writing about. Although you cannot guarantee much traffic with 40 followers I have no doubt that in a few months I am going to see better results from this and the fact is, I am getting readers from it.

Respect

It would also seem that if you have a large amount of followers you are going to not only be more recognised in the industry that you are in but have more respect from them too. So many people are regarded experts in their field of work thanks to the fact they are massively followed on Twitter and are constantly updating their status with decent material.

Personal Touch

When it comes to Twitter I thought it would be something I simply used at work but I have found it has become a valuable source of reliable information for my main hobby outside of work, gaming. The E3 conference was a couple of weeks ago (see http://www.freshegg.com/blog/e3-2010_3982) and information on the conference was reported through Twitter. It made it easier for me as I did not have to watch every single conference live (something I couldn’t have done with all of them as I was working).

Put simply, Twitter is not the “I am now making coffee” update process that I thought it would be, it is clever, tactical and every single update that the people I follow make is of some use to me. I would like to think the same about what I am putting on there as well.

Of course if you want to follow me you can find me @ryanogs  http://twitter.com/ryanogs