Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself

5. Twitter: Sharing in the Conversation

Imagine a social networking site where millions of people connect on a daily basis. You are throwing yourself into a networking event with millions of people chatting in succinct 3–5 second conversations. In 140 characters or less, they update the world on everything from the vital to the mundane, from the inspirational to the just plain silly, from the passions that drive them to what their pet ate for breakfast (which can be extremely entertaining and valuable).

We’re either talking about a weird Alfred Hitchcock meets Adam Sandler movie, or Twitter. We know it sounds odd (Twitter and Alfred). We know the site is a little weird and hard to understand. We know you have no idea where to begin. It’s also ...