March :: 2008 :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

I’m not sure when I started using the social networking tool Twitter, but it must have been at least a year ago, in view of the fact that I was posting about it in April last year.

At the time I was ambivalent about whether for me it was a distraction or helpful to business.

Part of my concern back then was that I focused too much on the conceptual premise of Twitter, that it was a means of answering, succinctly (within 140 characters) the question “What are you doing?”. That’s the social networking side of things and you could – no doubt many do – use Twitter just for socializing, knowing what your friends are up to and letting them know when you are having a coffee, going to a movie, feeling glum or ecstatic or whatever.

But for many of us, Twitter has also – or more of – a role in how we manage our working/business day. Off the top of my head, here are five that work for me:

working solo, it is an excellent way to get help with developing an idea or finding a piece of information, without having to put that on any one person or use the much more cumbersome and slow process of sending emails or phoning people up
it is an excellent way of overcoming some of the mental echo chamber effect of working solo
it is often a very practical tool for connecting with colleagues across time zones and geographical boundaries – if I want to talk to a colleague in China or the USA and I see them posting a message on Twitter I know they are around and somewhat available, even if it is not a time when I would feel that it’s civilized or even rational to phone – I can send a message on the open thread or a direct message via Twitter or other DM tool
it’s a terrific way of finding out from people you trust about events, new software or new online tools
because my contacts have conversations with other people who are or may one day be colleagues or otherwise significant in my line of work, I can “follow” them for a while and often they will reciprocate and “follow” me, which for me is a more “loosely coupled”, less intrusive way of us getting to know one another than, say, “friending” someone on Facebook or other social networking sites (actually I think “friending” on Facebook has quite trivialized the meaning of the word “friend”, but that’s another post, some day, maybe)

So a year on, I am quite sure it is good for my business, or at least for “my life in business”.

(Update: I meant to acknowledge that this post was prompted by the thoughts Shel Israel shared in his post on his policy about Twitter followers.)

What about you? Have you used Twitter? Do you find it a time-waster or is it somehow helpful for your business, even if that is just from the “having company while you work solo” aspect?

If, like most or all of us solo home business crowd, you sometimes wonder how to keep track of all the cats you are herding, you’ll be interested in this post.

My friend, solo marketing diva Shirley George Frazier, has come up with a practical, common sense way to have a project planning sheet that works for you. And she shares how to produce it. Typically, it’s a gift from this smart and generous woman. It’s deceptively simple.

But first, have you ever tried to use off-the-shelf project planning tools and then stopped using them?

Have you had lessons in project planning and come away with tools the instructor had crafted and which looked really good during the session but which you used a few times and now couldn’t find if you were offered a hundred dollars and an iPod thrown in for them?

Join the club.

But where to start?

Easy. Make a cup of tea or coffee, then head on over to Shirley’s Solo Business Marketing site and watch the brief but informative video on her very neat Solo Business Marketing TV setup.

It’s in the left sidebar, under Solo Business Tips. Four, five minutes of your day – well worth it.