While I was getting ready to head to New York City a couple of weeks ago for WordCamp NY, I was puzzled and a bit PO’d at a tweet I saw. What I was most irritated with was the fact this particular person, who was “teaching” others about twitter, was saying. And this is what so many businesses and professional firms are getting wrong with twitter. Instead of focusing on what they can do for others, this “teacher” was basically saying, what is in it for you. What can you get out of it and how it can benefit you.

Folks, if you want to get anything out of twitter, you have to take the YOU out of the equation. Here is the tweet I threw up quickly out of my frustration.

Twitter is not about what you are doing. It’s about how can I help you do what you are doing, better.

I think it is safe to say most of my frustration may have to do with all of the dumb-butt direct messages most of us have seen lately. And the marketers who are telling these new people on twitter to do the auto-DM’s are doing them a disservice too. I firmly believe this practice is directly linked to the attitude of using twitter for the main purpose of “what’s in it for me.” Remember, it is not about you.

Some like to compare twitter to a cocktail party.

If that is what you want to do then let’s look at what happens sometimes at one of these parties. How many times have you gone to a cocktail party or a dinner party for that matter, and end up talking to the guy who loves to talk about himself. You know, the guy who corners you next to the bar and spends 30 minutes trying to sell you some piece of crap life insurance policy. After you get done talking to them you almost want to leave and go home and take a shower.

Now, let me stop you all right here. And before any of you who sell insurance send me an inbox full of hate mail. There is a place in this world for good, what can I do for you, insurance salesmen. My point is that this salesman doesn’t get the cocktail party any more than some are not getting twitter.

Take the time to watch those who do get it

If you want to get the most out of twitter, you need to spend some time watching those who get it. While I am not going to give you any specific twitter users to follow, I will tell you, you will know them when you see them. Watch how they tweet and what they tweet. Yes, some of us do tweet our own stuff. However, the key is this is not all we do. I am also amazed that some of the business and/or professional services firms who have multiple accounts and tweet the same crap out over and over again. Again, you are going to know who they are when you see them.

Start off on the right foot with twitter

New to twitter or been using it for a while and just not getting anything out of it? I will bet you, you are spending too much time on you. And not spending any time seeing what you can do to make others’ lives and/or businesses better. You will quickly find if you help others and expect nothing in return, the return will come back to you time and time again.

You can not expect to build a loyal community or “tribe” on twitter if you don’t approach it from the standpoint of helping others. Yes, you will build a community of followers. But it will be a community of twitter spammers and others who are only looking out for what is in it for them

Finally thoughts

I apologize if you found this post to be a bit of a bitch session. But, I have been watching some of the crap being posted hourly on twitter the last couple of weeks and it is getting to the point I just might clean house and get rid of a few thousand people in my twitter stream. If you are listening to a self-proclaimed twitter expert and they are telling you to spam twitter with all of your stuff, stop it and fire them. They are doing you a disservice and you will be disappointed with the return on your investment in twitter.