I saw this great post by Robert Swanwick, aka Swan, @spkrinteractive, @swanwick, or @twchat (definitely check him out, he has some great stuff) about the stages people go through as they find Twitter and begin to use it. The stages were great, but we tweaked a few based on what we see happening in our social media classes and among clients. Any of these stages sound like you?
Stage 1: This seems silly…why are there a bunch of people on here talking about nothing? What does ‘Follow’ mean? Are those my friends? How do I message people or put up pictures? 140 characters! That’s nothing! Who is everyone talking to!?
Stage 2: I guess Twitter must be popular for a reason, I guess I’ll stick with it for a while longer and log in once in a while and see what happens. I still feel like people are just shouting into space, but…
Stage 3: Hey there are some interesting things out in the twittersphere. Finally some awesome people to follow! TweetDeck is awesome! I am starting to make Twitter a part of my social networking habits.
Stage 4: Twitter is actually really useful for getting to great content and stories! Hashtags and listening channels help me organize the crazy world of tweets and lookey here, I have a good number of my own followers! My @ tags must be working!
Stage 5: The power of Twitter is pretty apparent, I am starting to use it to draw my followers to content and maybe advertise for my business. Twittergrader is telling me whats up and I have one of the great mobile apps on my phone so I can always be ready to tweet and see my mentions.
Stage 6: Twitter has become an essential tool for building relationships and finding conversations my business and I want to be part of. I have built teams in Hootsuite and made real connections through Twitter and my network is active and supporting.
What do you think? Where are you in your Twitter development? Need a little help getting to your Twitter (or other social media) goals? Let us know how you are progressing or if you think there are more stages!