What’s in it for Your Followers? How to be Useful on Twitter

Have you ever stopped to ponder what value you are creating for your followers on Twitter?I’ve written numerous times about the benefits of Twitter to me– what I get out of it – but perhaps a more pertinent question forTwitter users to be asking is not what THEY get OUT of Twitter – butwhat THEY put INTO Twitter.Don’t get me wrong – Twitter is a medium which can significantlybenefit YOU and enhance your life in many ways – however when you talkto most successful Twitter users you find that they’ve discovered onething:



I’ve seen this to be true many times in my own 1 year journey withTwitter. The more you put in, the more helpful you are, the more valueyou bring, the more effort you put in to enhancing the lives of others– the more comes back to you.On the flip side – the more you ‘use’ your followers, the more youtake, the more selfish your tweets are and the more pointless yourtweets become – the less comes back to you.So lets come back to my original question above:

• How are you enhancing your followers lives?
  
• What are you ‘giving’ them?
  
• What do they value you for?
  

Get a handle on some of these questions and deliver on them and Isuspect your use of Twitter will become more and more successful.How to be a Useful Twitter User

OK – so we have to be useful, helpful and add value for those that follow us. What does that look like?The reality is that useful Twittering will look quite different foreach of us depending upon our own situation – but here are a couple ofsimple questions that will help you to get to the heart of it.






Another similar question.








If you are solving a problem or fulfilling a need that someone has – you’re being useful.That’s probably one of the most obvious statements I’ve ever made –yet so many people fail to apply it to their lives – and so many arefailing to apply it to their use of Twitter. Most Power users ofTwitter (and all forms of social media) ‘get’ this and are successfulbecause of it.Addressing Needs and Problems neednot look the same for all of us – in fact it can look incrediblydiverse once you begin to think about and tap into the the lives ofthose that follow us.What do people need? What problems do they have?The answers to these questions are diverse.

• Some people have a need for information.
  
• Others have a need for entertainment.
  
• Some have the problem of loneliness.
  
• Others have problems with getting their heads around certain technologies.
  
• Others have a desire to connect with a community learning about an interest that they have.
  
• Some want to find the latest news in a niche
  
• Others want advice on buying or doing certain things
  
• Some just want to laugh
  
• Some want to have a vigorous discussion or debate on a deep issue
  

The list could go on and on and become very specific from topic to topic that we might cover.Once you’ve ascertained a need or problem that you’re addressingwith your use of Twitter (or more than one) you’ll then find otherquestions begin to answer themselves. Question like ‘what should Itweet?’ and ‘who should I connect with?’But it all comes down to knowing why you’re using Twitter andcommitting yourself to keep your use of the medium relatively on topic.This doesn’t mean every Tweet you do has to be fulfilling a need(Twitter is a playful and forgiving medium) but you should keep comingback to fulfilling those needs and problems and adding value over time.If you do this your become and more and more important part of yourfollowers lives and ultimately will benefit more and more from themedium yourself.

thank you