Now for an odd question: is it “Twittering” or is it “tweeting”?

Reading or hearing someone say “Twittering” is like hearing nails down a chalkboard to me. Am I being overly sensitive, or do people tweet on Twitter?

If we’re not intentional about it, it’s just a big time suck. But people ARE looking for role models and leadership. Twitter is an effective tool when used with intention. No doubt. Thanks for the post!!

Twitter allow you to do all that… so go on demonstrate your knowledge, your epxertise, show up on a regular basis and in time you will become known as the go to person.. there are 2 ways to catch butterflies in your garden…. go out with a huge net or grow really nice flowers and become a very attractive person…. Twitter allows you to do all of that…

Mark Shaw

If you had to answer the question, “Why tweet?” in a concise package… let’s say 140 characters or less… what would you say? :)

Enjoy your blog immensely! God bless.

I also have recently figured out that Twitter is a great way to get down a few thoughts in rapid succession (in 3 or 4 tweets) when I don’t have to time to blog. Both of my blogs have Twitter embedded in them so anyone can read them. It keeps the blog looking active until I can find the time to post again. Often I will put links in back to my sites and publicize them on Facebook as well.

Michael, your tweets coupled with the ease of reading Twitter on my iTouch vs on the computer opened up Twitter for me. Thanks!

One of the challenges of reaching ‘doubters’ like this is overcoming their preconceived notions of what Twitter is for. And that’s largely because of how it’s misused by some. (Of course, I use the term ‘misused’ loosely; it’s a platform anybody can use how they see fit.)

Tweeting about your life that’s being lived on-purpose, as you put it, works great–if one knows where to draw the line. Telling me that you’re taking a break to spend time with your family = good and helpful. It challenges me to think about my priorities. Telling me you’re at the gas station = a waste of my time.

It’s the difference between a leadership account (where the person intentionally provides value in each tweet) or a vanity account (where the person assumes that every aspect of his life is inherently valuable to readers). That’s not to say that a leadership account can’t have some personality to it, of course.

The nice thing about Twitter lists is that it’s pretty easy to show someone a collection of good examples. That’s one place I start when I’m trying to teach people how Twitter can be useful.

As John Maxwell says, "Leadership is influence. Nothing more… nothing less."

Utilizing twitter to share nuggets of leadership gold is a great idea.

One of the things I love about twitter is that it levels the playing field. If you want to know someone's "position" or "status" you have to look for it – it is not right in front of you like the name plate on a big office door. Everyone's tweet has equal space on the page. Your influence grows based on the quality of what you have to say and the way in which you interact with people.

I think of people in leadership positions could learn a lot about themselves and their leadership by using twitter. It can be both humbling and very enlightening to build your identity from scratch when you have spent your career building your identity within organizations. Interacting with people who don't know who you are or who don't ascribe importance based on your level is a unique opportunity to look into a mirror of sorts and see who you have actually become.

… 'welcome to my world'
… value adding
… connection