I know that many of us are already on twitter or using twitter daily as part of our practice but it also seems that there are just as many VAs or newbie VAs who have recently joined twitter or are considering it. I thought some of these links might be helpful to some of you who are just joining.
The Big Juicy Twitter Guide- by Caroline Middlebrook. She's a great blogger and is good at explaining things simply. Her guide is a good one to get you started if you are brand new to Twitter.
The Twitter Handbook by Warren Whitlock and Deb Micek. These guys are social media marketing gurus and provide a lots of good information for using twitter to marketing yourself and your business. They also have a blog with interesting and helpful posts about twitter. Another good blog for keeping up on the latest uses and advice on using twitter is
TwitTip.
Once you've set up your account and have started tweeting, I recommend posting a profile at this site:
Just Tweet It: The Twitter Directory
Plenty of people will use a directory site to find people to follow either in their own field or in a field that are interested in (such as Virtual Assistance.) I can almost always tell when someone has done a specific search for virtual assistants on Twitter as they will begin following many of us at the same time...(proof that people will use twitter to look for a VA.)
You can also sign up for
Twitterfeed to feed your blog entries directly to twitter automatically.
I highly recommend checking out the two twitter guides to get a good feel for how twitter works and how you can join into the conversation in a constructive way that helps you generate connections and possible leads with other people. There are tons of other twitter tools and sites out there to play with and you'll probably come across them as you get more and more into your twittering.
Most of all have fun with it. Think of it as a big room full of people networking at a cocktail party and this is your chance to let people get to know you.