What Makes Me Happy. . .

It makes me happy when. . . .I wake up and the sun is shining. . .but it’s still sort of cold and crisp out.  When someone calls to say that someone else was raving about me and/or my product and that they would now like to work with me.  When someone I haven’t heard from in a while says that they’d like to work with me again.  My dog pulls all my product samples out of the closet.  Printed shirts and bags. . . everywhere.  My tedius “to do” list gets smaller and my list of pending client projects gets larger.  When one of my suppliers calls me and says “consider it taken care of”.  When one of my college friends shoots me an email just to tell me it’s baseball season.  When I go to get my teeth cleaned and as I’m walking out the door, the dentist says “Kim!  I need to call you. . I need more promo products”  When I realize the tulips I planted three years ago have shown their first bloom of the season.  All of these things happened to me today.  Makes for a good day.  What makes you happy?

To Tweet or not to Tweet?

It’s the million dollar question these days, isn’t it?   A few questions

• Are you on Twitter? 
• Do you even know what Twitter is? (hint: if you call it “twittering” rather than “tweeting”, you’re probably not so familiar)
• Do you think it’s effective for business?
• Or do you think its only good for celebrities?

Before I go on I’ll answer those for myself. 

• Yes, I’m on Twitter -  @nvpgirl  - go follow me – right now.
• Me being on it pretty much designates that yes, I know what it is. 
• Do I think it’s effective for business?  Well, let me get back to that. 
• The celebrities?  YES!  It’s spectacular for celebrities.  So much so that it exhausts me how much they tweet, and have actually stopped following a few because of it.

So back to the is it good for business question.  I’m not gonna lie.  I don’t really get it.  Twitter in general.  I mean, I GET it. . say what you want to say in 140 characters or less. . . . .preferably less because to get more exposure other Tweeps have to be able to RT you (that’s “re-tweet” for those of you new to Twitter).  If you’ve used up every last space, well, there’s no way you’re getting kudos for your mind blowing thoughts because they can’t fit the letters RT in there.

So as a concept, I get it, but I guess I just don’t really “get it, get it”.  I wonder every day how I can fit Twitter into our business and make it work for us.  I know that I need to be consistent and tweet some interesting stuff that other people want to hear about or find interesting, but I struggle with that.  I know no one cares that I had poached eggs for breakfast.  That’s sort of the joke isn’t it?  That’s what people who don’t get social media always say.  “Why do I care what so-in-so is having for breakfast?  Who cares!”  It’s a simple justification to not really wanting to change with the times and/or learn something new. . .some choose to just call it stupid and go on being oblivious to the changing world around us.

Well, I refused to do that, so I simply jumped right in.  I got a Twitter account and started following a few people.  Then it was like a symphony of crickets surrounded me.  “Now what?” I thought.  “Well, I guess I just start posting stuff; but what?”  Those crickets came back.  And so it went for a while.  I posted occassionaly, but my posts were never particularly interesting or anything that I even really cared about, let alone any of my few followers.  To be honest, I’m not even sure where those followers came from.  I picked up a few tips from an educational session I took at an industry trade show. My newfound knowledge worked a bit.  I started getting some followers, mostly because I was RT (re-tweeting remember?) other peoples stuff.  People like that and thank you publicly by, you guessed it, tweeting a thank you!

So yes, I use it. .  but not as often as I should, or as I want to.  I just don’t really know what I kind of info I should be sharing.  So, the past few weeks I’ve been on a recon mission.  I’m posting a tweet here and there, but really I’ve just been reading about what other people are tweeting.  Aside from my plethora of sports related information I’m getting and the occassional zinger from Denis Leary (@denisleary) or latest bit of humor from Brian Wilson (@BrianWilson38), most of the other people I’m following are business related.

Guess what I found?

The vast majority of people using Twitter for business are tweeting about tweeting!  And all those tweets are being retweeted.  WHUCK?! 

I’m confused.  So I ask you, soon to be loyal followers of my blog – what do YOU want to hear about?  I’d love your feedback.  It does NOT have to be specifically about Twitter, as I realize that not everyone has a Twitter account.  We have this website/blog now, and a Facebook Page too you know. . and we post stuff there all the time, but would like to know what our fans want to see more of or hear more about.  We can’t do this without you, so please comment below, shoot me an email, post a comment on our Facebook wall or, here’s a concept, TWEET me!  Leave feedback and we will send you a New Vintage Print ceramic coffee mug.  Promise.