Twitter: It’s only as useful as you’re prepared to be

As Twitter grows in popularity and becomes the must-have shiny thing for mainstream companies, organisations and individuals (despite the apparent recently reported plateauing) this simple maxim becomes more important.

If you’re just getting to Twitter now and you’re wondering how to start out, there are some great resources available online from sources such as Mashable and Chris Brogan, or in print in the form of the recently published Twitter Marketing for Dummies.

Just bear this one thing in mind – for some people (news outlets and the like) Twitter can work as a one-way medium. For everyone else, you’d better be prepared to take part in your community, listen to and interact with others. If you can be entertaining too, that’s a plus.

Don’t start out with ‘what can I push out on Twitter?’ think ‘who can I be useful to?’.

Image credit: caribb, via Flickr.

Related posts:

• Why Twitter needs to take credit for links
• Why Twitter really isn’t about the numbers