Be interesting

I promise there is someone out there in the Twitterverse who is actually interested in something you have to say.
I know it sounds crazy. After all, what kind of ego does one have to have to think that anyone out there sees any value in what they would have to say. But I find that the best part of this “Social Revolution” is that people are going back to their niches. And they are out there looking for someone who shares a common interest and adds value to the conversation. But don’t think that being interesting is all about having a better fish story than the last person. Remember, we’re not here to be anyone but ourselves.
So, it stands to reason that the first thing you should do is figure out what are your interests. As for myself, I tend to focus my tweeting on just a few subjects that I’m interested in. Marketing, PR, Social Media are all regular subject that you’ll find me tweeting about. However, WordPress and CSS do occasionally find their way into my Twitter feed.
Companies tend to have it easy in this respect because they can show interest in their particular field. For instance, a community manager for a BBQ joint might show interest in cooking, grilling, smoking, BBQ competitions, and sporting events. Notice they aren’t limiting themselves to one thing. All of these are somewhat related and would represent most of the BBQ restaurants I’ve event at, well ever.
Once you know what you’re interested in, I’m willing to bet you’re going to want to know more about it. And it’s surprisingly simple to learn more about in what you’re interested. Follow others who are interested in the same thing. Believe it or not, it’s how I’ve built my modest, but interactive Twitter following.
Now, it was actually something that @ChrisBrogan said back when I heard him speak @NMAtl really struck a cord and changed just exactly how I find interesting people using Twitter. Up until that point, I’d been following the people who I either had met in real life, or had found through ReTweets from those people. It worked to some extent since I was attending and networking at conferences related to my interests. But when @ChrisBrogan actually said that a lot of his use of Twitter was using search.twitter.com, it was kind of like an “duh” moment for me. Of course, I knew how to search Twitter. But, until that point, it hadn’t occurred to me to use Twitter as a way to actually find others around the world with my same interests.
You’d be surprised how much following others who are interested in the same things will inspire you. It’s kind of like working out of a co-working office. Having been an infrequent member of one for the the past year, I’ve always found valuable conversation and great insights on the days that I was there. Differing views on subjects were the norm and great conversation was the standard. The great thing about Twitter is that I can get the same thing, except on specific subjects that I’m interested in and at just about anytime of day I choose to do it.
But the most important about being interesting is that you feel that you’re adding value to the conversation. If you’re just spouting off at the mouth, selling your insurance, or not interacting with others, you’re not adding value to you’re community. And adding value to the current conversation has some great side effects. By adding to the conversation, you interact with interesting people, breed and become trusted to offer new ideas on a subject, and draw interest from the followers of those interesting people, spreading your influence and leveraging their networks. Pretty sweet, eh?
So, how are you adding value to your interactions on Twitter?