Effective use of social media sites for traffic development can be a tremendous boon
to sole practitioner bloggers or a tremendous bane to them. Organization, tools and a
system followed with discipline are essential to accomplishing positive results and a
good ROI. That’s just to get the traffic. The work to get the sales is beyond that.

Today, we are just talking generally about developing a strategy for effective use of
social media. We will go into this strategy more in posts to follow. That strategy must
follow from a clear picture and plan for your mission. What are you and your writing
about? What do you want to accomplish? Know your purpose. Know your strategy.
Then go about developing an implementation plan.

On Wednesday of this week (021109), I am launching a blog called Twitter Uses.
This blog will examine the different ways individuals and businesses are utilizing
the Web 2.0 social networking site - Twitter

I am not going to go into any detail here today but I can assure you that my
research has my head spinning with the possibilities. Not only do you see the
specifics of the uses, you get a glimpse into the thinking underlying the uses and
what needs it satisfies as well as the value they add to the person or business.

It is amazing what can be accomplished through the judicious and consistent use
of those 140 character limited “tweets”. I must admit I was skeptical when I first
heard about Twitter and it took me a while to get to know how to use it and how
to observe the proper “Twittiquette” in doing so. Yes, there is some unusual
Twitter vocabulary and Twitter “shorthand” to get the most message out of the
140 characters. I know - I tend to be a bit wordy in my writing - so tweeting has
been good practice for me. One gets very careful with one’s words with a 140
character limit.

You just have to realize that the size of the message, or its format for that
matter, are not what’s important - it is the connection, the relationship being
built, the value of the link or message being delivered and the long term value
of the network being established. And, it is not just the two networks being
connected by that one tweet or the ongoing relationship - it is also the network
of networks and viral nature of these mini-messages in the context of these
networks.

I do go on - will stop here by just again inviting you to the launch on Wednesday.

The wave you don't want to miss!

Twitter Uses - http://twitteruses.com

I repeat - in surfer parlance, “Dude, this is the wave you don’t want to miss!”

Tomorrow, I’ll give you a few examples of these twitter uses to show you the
power and variety available for both business and personal purposes.

- Val Spangler, Mister Senior Blogger.

You'll be glad you did!