DennisDemori.com

Pretty cool visualization of my Twitter friends I created using Twitter Mosaic:

Get your twitter mosaic here.

Found out about this through @misentropy

To follow me on Twitter click here or search @DennisDemori

via jmilles

I’m just going to dive right in and assume you know what Twitter is. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, view the links at the bottom of this post.

My first Tweet was back on Sept. 10th, 2008. It took a few months to really start getting a hang of it. If you’re not following (and being followed) by at least a couple dozen people I think it’s hard to wrap your head around it.

Originally I used Twhirl for a couple weeks but then I switched to TweetDeck and I couldn’t be happier. I also use TwitterBerry occasionally on my Blackberry. The interface on TweetDeck is terrific and it makes it MUCH easier to segment people and track certain conversations. Right now I’ve set up two special groups – in one group I only follow Planners (to network and keep abreast of what’s going on in the Planning community) and in the other I follow non-Planners.

The majority of people I follow are Account Planners, work at Ad agencies, or are involved in Branding, Marketing and/or Social Media. I also follow a few companies like Evernote and Drop.io to stay aware of product updates.

So here’s the main ways I’m using Twitter right now:

• First and foremost, I try to focus on creating value for others. I think karma will somehow work its way back to me.
• As a second RSS Feed: There’s a lots of conversations and links being passed around Twitter. This is a great way for me to stay current on news, industry trends, etc. I think of Twitter as a chat room on steroids. When I find something of value, I often share it by retweeting, emailing or posting on other sites and/or bookmarking it on Delicious for future reference.
• To share items I find interesting: articles, pics, news, stories, etc.
• To take polls/surveys: This is something I started doing recently and I think it’s a great way to do a quick “focus group.”
• I use search.twitter.com when I want to find out about specific topics. I’m in school right now, and Twitter has been useful when I want to get some consumer opinions on clients I’m working on, like Red Mango or Mtn Dew.
• Building my network: I occassionally use Twitter to direct people to my other online locations, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and my blog.
• Originally I was a spectator on the sidelines, but over the past few months I’ve started to join the conversation.

What I don’t do:

• I don’t follow everyone just because they follow me. I’m sorry. There’s just NO way I could possibly follow thousands of people. I don’t have the time or the interest. Twitter’s just another social networking tool – it’s not my life. There’s certain topics/industries that I’m just not interested in either. In fairness to time – mine and yours – I can’t follow everyone. I prefer to keep my focus on who I follow because I want to build stronger relationships within those circles.
• I rarely talk about day-to-day activities. You won’t know what time I woke up or that I’m bored/tired/sleepy/hungry. Again, I think the best way to use Twitter is by constantly adding value.

Even though we can get caught up in the technology aspect, I think at the core of Twitter or any other social site is information sharing and relationship building. The people who take advantage of these two principles will be able to get the most out of the site.

You can follow me here on Twitter.

For further info, check out Jeremiah Owyang’s excellent blog post: Web Strategy, What The Web Strategist Should Know About Twitter

Twitter on Wikipedia

Beginner’s Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to Using Twitter by Zappos.com  CEO Tony Hsieh

Chris Brogan: Newbies Guide to Twitter

Chris Brogan: 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

UPDATE – FEB. 15th, 2009

Excellent new post from Brian Solis: Finding The Tweet Spot, Top Tips For Building Twitter Relationships