Start using Twitter to both follow AND meet industry professionals.

Oh the beast called Twitter.  How do you meet someone you’ve never met in under 140 characters?  Lol. It can be done.  And I’ll share with you as one business owner to another – it’s a powerful tool to really establish your brand – both in your industry and in circles that you follow  – trends, groups and associations you like, causes you believe in, etc.

I recommend that you challenge yourself to meet industry professionals on Twitter.

And don’t just follow them.  Start a conversation.

How?

Easy.  Keep sharing something of value for THEM.

• If you are under 1,000 followers – Pick someone you want to meet in your industry.  Check out Twitter lists like wefollow.com or other directories to find new experts.
• If you are over 1,000 followers – find someone that has engaged with you who has an interesting profile…and you haven’t spoken directly to them.

In both examples, don’t ask the person for anything.  Find out some things that interest them – recent news, areas of interest – and share information that will be helpful to THEM.

One of the simplest ways to start this is RT a few of their links. Read their material and see what causes matter to them.  Do you know any points of intersection? People you could introduce them to? Articles that you read they might find helpful?

I’ve done this several times and been pleasantly surprised when person reaches out to me directly.  Often when they connect, we don’t have the awkward “Who are you?”  dance.   I’ve already learned some things about them and we probably chatted informally so they know something about me as well.  Without trying hard,  I’ve had contacts share coupon codes for events, freebies via a link, and the best one – advice on how to handle a situation I was dealing with.  All because I continued to build a relationship by sharing something of value to the other person.

Building partnership and long term contacts takes some work to stay engaged.  If you find out what other people value and stay interested in them, you’ll definitely stay top of mind for them!