Tweetworks Gives Twitter Focus

One of the challenges of Twitter is managing the stream of seemingly unrelated content that flows by from the people I follow. How do you find the conversations you want to follow or the exact people with whom to have that conversation? Yesterday, I learned about Tweetworks from my pal Mari Smith who always seems to know the latest and greatest in social media.

This is a twitter tool that has huge potential.

Tweetworks is designed to make micro-blogging more useful for people and businesses. Tweetworks is based on the simple premise that people like to talk about stuff with other people. And it is the stuff (ideas, questions, politics, sports, arts and so on) that brings people together and around which they form community.

The big deal about Tweetworks is that you can create and participate in groups. And groups can be public or private. Plus the conversations you have in the groups are threaded so you can follow the discussion AND you can choose whether or not your conversations get pushed out to your twitter stream for all your followers to see.

I got pretty excited about the prospect of having private groups...

If you teach classes, you can set up your participants in a private group and essentially use Tweetworks like an instant messaging discussion list.

You can set up your clients on a private group to give more support and intimacy and access to you. That could be a huge benefit for your clients.

As far as public groups go, you can set up a group for your town or neighborhood. It's a great way to find local connections.

Set up a group that addresses your area of expertise.

I set up a public group called BusinessBloggers. Within a couple of minutes nine people had joined the group. Big deal you might think, but today, there are 24 members and we're beginning to have focused conversations about the ins and outs of business blogging.

I'm connecting with people who I did not know before. They're connecting with me and if we can help each other, that can only benefit all of us in the long run. The conversation is direct and focused. I choose to make the conversations visible on the main twitter stream so I can attract more people to the group.

The limitations of the application for me are 1) I have to go to yet another site to participate in a conversation and 2) you can only have one private group, unless you pay a very tiny fee of $24/year, so I guess that's not really a limitation.

One more limitation: you can't search for existing groups by keyword. You have to browse by alphabetically by group name and frankly it's pretty hard to figure out how people name things. I have no doubt that will change.

Since I started using Twitter seriously for my business in February or March, I've come to realize the power of this tiny micro-blogging tool. If you want to connect with more people who share your interests and could benefit from your expertise, I STRONGLY recommend you get started on twitter. Set up your profile today. Get Twitter Revolution to learn from the masters and start participating.

Follow me on Twitter and join the BusinessBloggers group if you want to hone your skills as a better business blogger.

Comments

[Peggy Dolane]

Not wild about how Tweetworks broadcasts your groups when you join them. While I've seen many people Tweet they've joined groups here, I've yet to hear that anything worth visiting is actually going on it Tweetworks. Am I missing something?

[Denise Wakeman]

Peggy, I agree there is often little activity worth pursuing in these groups. However, I would suggest that in order to have worthwhile conversations and connections, one has to participate. If one waits for others, nothing will happen.

I found on the BusinessBloggers group, that when I actively post and reply, the discussion gets going and can be useful.

http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/BusinessBloggers

[Mike Langford]

Denise,

Thank you very much for this nice write up on Tweetworks. I am glad you are enjoying our little creation.

Just a couple quick notes on a few things:

1. All users are granted free limited access to private groups. You may form one and participate in up to three private groups for free. Unlimited private groups are available for the small $24.95 annual fee you mentioned above.

2. We'll be adding some advanced search options in the next month or so to help you find what you are looking for with more ease. Things have taken off a little faster than expected so we are responding to user needs as quick as possible.

3. Our API will be available in mid January so you should expect to see Tweetworks integration with other applications soon there after.

Thanks again for using Tweetworks. It is an honor to be your host.

Warmest,

Mike

[Denise Wakeman]

Thanks for your response, Mike. Glad to hear advanced search is on it's way. I'm enjoying the focus that tweetworks provides for conversations.

[Dr Charles Parker]

Denise and Mike,
Many thanks for this interesting and potentially helpful tool... so many need a place to raise legitimate questions about the med challenges.

I started a TweetWork Group over there - ADDMedsFocus, and will keep it hopping for more folks interested in the topic.

Looking forward to the next iterations,
Chuck