If My Wife Can Get On Twitter, So Can You

I get the opportunity to speak a lot about social media and HR. One of the things I ask is how many people are using social media tools. Twitter is the one that gets the most non-responses. When I follow up, most people say they don’t participate because they don’t get it or they don’t have time. They say they aren’t tech savvy or don’t have an interest at all.

I understand of course. Being an HR person is a tough thing. Being the only HR person is even tougher. I didn’t take long vacations when I was a single HR person at an organization.

My wife was in the same boat until she decided to open an account. First though, a little background.

Jen is extremely intelligent but not overly social. That’s a good match for my lack of intelligence and my talk too much, too loud sort of personality. So while this post may seem like a knock on her, it isn’t. It’s just that:

1. She wasn’t interested in Twitter
2. She doesn’t have access to a computer most of the day
3. She doesn’t like computer stuff like I do
4. She didn’t feel like she had time

While she could tell me all day about Burgundy blends, the correct yeasts to use with Cabernet Blanc or what SO2 levels are appropriate for in-tank storage, she didn’t want anything to do with connecting with people via Twitter.

Sounds a lot like my fellow HR pros.

So what did I do? I followed a few Northwest US wineries on Twitter. Just did a search for the ones I knew on Google with the word “twitter” after each one (so like northstar winery twitter), followed them and put them all in a group on Tweetdeck.

Then I would drop nuggets of information about what was going on at wineries around the Northwest. Instantly, I was more in the know than her because I simply checked that group every day or so to see where people were going and what were they doing.

She finally got tired of me telling her what was going on and she wanted to know how to sign up. So I just helped her get signed up and get an app installed on her Blackberry.

And that was it.

As you know, I’m not big on over-engineering social media. I didn’t send her any of the many do’s and don’ts I see people write about online about using Twitter. She asked me if I thought she should do #followfriday (an event on Twitter every Friday where you share who people should follow). I told her she should do it if she wants to. She asked me if she should retweet something she agreed with or if she should just reply back. I asked her what she would want done in that situation. She’s spent most of the time simply monitoring what’s going on and figuring out how other people do it.

Has she made a ton of connections? No, but she has made useful ones with people in her industry and in her region. She knows what’s going on, what other people are doing and is able to apply some of that back to what she does. All without spending a ton of time on it.

If HR people have a desire, they could be in the same position. All it took was seeing some of the value that could, a bit of interest and it propelled her. She doesn’t have to have 10,000 followers to be successful and to get value. She has 60. She connects with those folks, listens to what they say and they read what she does too.

I think that too often, you see examples of super users or arguments that only work when you have thousands of followers. There is value at the sub 100 level too. Even if you don’t tweet every day. Even if you can only check it a couple minutes each day. I know this because that’s how my wife uses it. And it is how you can use it too.

You can follow her on Twitter too but there’s no guarantee she’ll follow you back. It’s just not her strategy to follow back most of the people that follow her (even if they aren’t spammers). That’s the great thing about Twitter. The rules are simple: use it the way you want to. Period.