Thread: How does Twitter help?

So this is sort've a spin off from the Integrating social media to your site. Since more and more people are talking about and joining twitter. How does that help? For the dancers who are on it, have you gotten leads using twitter? My friend who is in PR is telling me (at least once a week) that I need to get on Twitter but I want to know some fellow dancers experience with it. Inquiring minds wants to know!

I'm new to twitter so I'm not sure how it will help me, but I do love having my twitter feed on my website. I also have my fan page on Facebook linked with my twitter feed, so that any time I post a status update to my FB fanpage, it automatically updates my feed.

It remains to be seen how much "help" it will be, but I am hoping to get students and potential clients excited by the feed.

Your PR friend needs to take a breath. Twitter is not an instant route to fame and fortune.
But it can be useful. Dell kicked Outlet Sales up more than one notch with judicious use of Twitter. Another guy got 150K of downloads for his mixtape from promoting on Twitter.

But it takes building an audience, providing a product that transmits well online, and so forth. One thing both Suhaila and Ava Fleming have started doing is posting daily drills via Twitter, which helps get and retain people on their feeds. It also opens up people to other parts of their conversations -- including where they'll be next, and new videos or other items to get.

This doesn't work for everyone. The balance between "just chatting" and "networking" and "selling" is one you have to pay some attention to. The bonus, if you do, is breaking open in a new media that has strong potential for growth, and for opening doors.

If you want more, I collect links on this kind of stuff on Delicious; i esp. recommend the Twitter Guide.

Thanks for the links Asim, I will definitely read them.

I don't teach nor do I have any plans to teach, I like strictly performing and taking classes. I can see how Twitter would be good for dancers who teach (Suhaila and Ava Fleming posting daily drills is cool!) but not sure how that Twitter would work for me. I'm definitely going to read your links.

interesting. I have been wondering what the potential for twitter was. I hear about it but have not tried it yet. I have heard in the publishing world, publishers are looking for people who have large social networking followings so they are almost guaranteed a return on their investment if they publish said persons book.

What Asim said.

You probably have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning on your way to cash a giant Publisher's Clearing House check for $1 million than getting leads on Twitter. At least in our field and for our purposes.

BUT....it's nice for branding, for quickie updates that aren't blogworthy, and for keeping in touch with friends and clients.

As for me? My feed is front and center on my website. It's fun to tweet about a great workshop I took, or how much fun I had at my party, or to go check out the latest updates to my Flickr gallery. Sometimes, you have something to say, but you're not in a blogging mood! And as with any social media platform, it adds that element of real-ness and friendliness that isn't always conveyed in our sterile, serious 3rd person web copy. "Approachability" is one of the number one factors clients like about me, so I figure I must be doing something right!

If you're not going to integrate it into a marketing program, I'd say you're not missing out on much. But as part of a well-rounded plan, Twitter can be a nice supplement to everything else you're already doing on the web.

If you're not sure where to start with twitter, I'd suggest starting with following a couple of other dancers who are already out there to see what they tweet about.

I'm not convinced that tweeting on twitter has much to offer a dancer who is hoping to generate leads for performing gigs. I think someone who already has a local following could use tweeting to let her fans know where she'll be performing in the near future, and a teacher can use it to let her students know stuff about upcoming class schedules and such.

I use twitter for the following:

1) Posting the occasional dance-related "quote of the day"
2) Posting the occasional dance tip
3) Posting announcements about new stuff on Shira.net
4) Posting announcements about upcoming workshops I'm teaching
5) Posting the occasional dance-related thought that people might be able to relate to, such as noting that my fall session has ended and enjoying the chance for a bit of down time or feeling good about a gig I just did.

I try to focus most of my tweets around items 1 through 3, to motivate other dancers to find my tweets worth following. #4 is, of course, my "commercials". And #5 is more of a personal glimpse into me, the person.

The key is to figure out what commercial benefit you hope to gain from twitter, then figure out what types of followers you need to attract in order to achieve that gain, then figure out what you need to tweet about in order to attract and retain such followers.

I think Twitter is just another venue to reach out to people. As a consumer of dance (student), I have to admit I am more likely to take a class or workshop from someone I perceive as friendly and active on Bhuz (or Twitter even). I use Twitter to find out about events, too, or find out if people I know are going to them.

If you're strictly performing, I'm not entirely convinced Twitter will be that useful towards you, unless you want to direct people to your latest photos/video or other things to generate traffic to your site.