So check it out. Twitter is the tool of the end of 2008 and for sure the tool of the year for 2009.  twitterpassionLet’s face it, America is a branded society and everything we do, eat, speak and sleep on is a brand.  The time to build it is now.  Your Brand Equity will determine your success in 2009.

Follow me: @ryanleary

If you haven’t read the first article in the series check it out HERE. If you have than you already know my top 5 twitter tools I love to use. Chances are they have changed already, but whatever, it works. Each day I get emails about branding, and how can I build my brand? I have a blog, but nobody reads it, what can I do? I can’t answer that, heck I really don’t have a 50K views either, but the people who read my stuff like it, and they read it regularly; and that’s what I want.

My brand is my life line, and if you are reading this you obviously agree that yours can be too. So let’s talk about twitter and how we can leverage this tool to help build and MARKET your brand.

Those who I speak with or who have heard me speak, know that I like to throw the 4C’s out there. Collaboration, Communication, Conversation, Community. Though all are important let’s just focus on two. Conversation and Community.

Conversation simply refers to joining the talk, joining the chatter and contributing your views. Forget about you for a moment and understand that the true power of media or “social media” is really the ability to market or distribute your knowledge to your audience. You have to participate to accomplish this.

So if we are talking about Twitter, it seems simple right? Follow like 5k people and start replying to there post. Maybe, but that won’t be all that effective. It might get you a few looks but let’s be real, let’s be genuine. And to accomplish this, you have to understand your passion and be able to produce some high quality content that readers are going to not just enjoy, but gain something from. If someone is investing 5 minutes to read your post, they better walk away with something or your bounce rate will hit the 90% mark quick. Try turning that around. It’s tough. Ask Pete Rose, who can’t enter the Hall of Fame.

I don’t care what your passion is, if you love it, join it. I am a recruiter at heart. I love strategy and technology. In its simplest form I love to help and create game plans. That’s it. So what do I do?

I connect with every recruiter I can and share knowledge. I join the conversation. I comment on other recruiters blogs. I watch their videos and let them know what I think, bad or good. Now, I do this because I love it and I can be found damn near ever Friday and Saturday night mid morning (1-3am) online leaving a comment. Why? Do I really need to answer this?

BUT…

This is about twitter. It’s about following the right crowd. There is no need to hang out at the basketball courts drinking beers if your crowd is not there. Search and Follow the right crowd and you will have no shortage of comments or content you can contribute. Check out some tools HERE. Contribute some quality and genuine content and your ROI will be amazing.

The second piece to this is community. I can write about this for days and days, heck I’ve talked about it for longer. If you are in this game to win it, you must 100% understand the true value of a community. Gathering 35K members in a LinkedIn Group, or your Facebook fan page is useless if you do not capitalize on the conversation piece. Get it?

If you generate it, they will come. High Quality output = Higher quality Input.

I know I will get 40 emails today with comments similar to: But how can I do this with Twitter?” I will answer each and everyone. It’s my community I’ve built and I will answer you and your friend, and their friend and answer you again if needed. Do you get it now?

No matter how you slice it, there is no special sauce that will magically make you king. But here is a break down of how Twitter can help.

  • Follow the right Crowd. Drink your beers with the right crowd, they are much more welcoming.
  • Pump out some high quality content that is relevant to…YOU. If you are in the right crowd forget about morphing your posts and content to their liking. They will feel the passion and love it regardless.
  • It’s Twitter…RT RT  RT – Share your content and share your groups content. Great information goes a long way in building strong meaningful relationships
  • Understand that this is not about you. If your twitter story is about how many followers you can get, you’re screwed. Listen, it’s no longer about who you know. It’s about who they know. “social media” success stories are built on helping your community achieve their goals. When this happens everyone succeeds. Trust me, you will see the rewards.
  • Do not abuse the system and spam. There is no need to post your links on every comment you leave or post tweet you put out there. (Except this one)

Listen, in the end, your passion is a passion, and you will succeed. Twitter is just a tool to help push forward that passion and connect you with the right crowd. By the way – If you haven’t figured it out yet:

Your Passion = Your Brand

Thanks for the time and please let me know your thoughts and feel free to RT this to the world! Digg it, Stumple it whatever you want!

Recruiting Tools
Social Media Twitter Video
By Noel Cocca

CEO/Founder RecruitingDaily and avid skier, coach and avid father of two trying to keep up with my altruistic wife. Producing at the sweet spot talent acquisition to create great content for the living breathing human beings in recruiting and hiring. I try to ease the biggest to smallest problems from start-ups to enterprise. Founder of RecruitingDaily and our merry band of rabble-rousers.