Are You Who You Say You Are [on Twitter]?

One of the great things about Twitter is that other people get to peek through a tiny, 140-character-sized window into your life a few times a day. Most of us have a purpose behind our Twitter use, professional networking, personal branding or just for fun. Our followers recognize where we fit and overlap among these three options and can choose to unfollow or hang around.

It’s common perception that those who constantly self-promote will fail at professional networking or even personal branding on (and off) Twitter, whether it’s in the form of no follow-backs or poor quality of followers. Those using Twitter just for fun, to connect with real-life friends and other reasons, have nothing to lose.

I heard Guy Kawasaki say on a webinar that Twitter is a marketing tool, so why shouldn’t it be okay to  self-promote? Guy uses his Twitter account to promote his site Alltop fairly frequently and I still follow him because he lets through some great info in between the Alltop tweets. Guy is also very well known and respected among industry peers, an impression I’ve gathered from other well known marketers referencing Guy on a regular basis.

Guy is promoting a useful site, not himself. After following Guy for months, I have no reason to believe that Twitter Guy Kawasaki is unlike the real life Guy Kawasaki. And I like that. I don’t want to be deceived.

On the other hand, you have people tweeting in the same way as Guy, but, instead of promoting a tool that helps someone, they promote themselves. Of course, this is viewed by many as a Twitter faux pas, and rightly so. If you’re not helping anyone else, why would we listen to you.

But what about those who promote the idea of idea sharing, yet seem to contradict themselves?

Is it possible that this is an unfair snapshot of Scott’s Twitter usage? Sure. But I’ve followed Scott for months, and it’s always bothered me how he seems to contradict the very advice he gives daily. Is Scott a great guy in person? I’m sure he is. But this is also Twitter, and either Scott or Guy could have bodies locked up in their basements and I’ll never know.

My point is that I feel like I have a good grasp on Guy without ever having met him. Because of his inconsistencies, I can’t say the same for Scott. Does any of this really matter? In the long run, probably not. But this is part of the process I use to not just follow someone, but to take their information, links, data, and tweets seriously.

I’m always looking to learn more, whether it’s about online marketing or green building.  I use those I follow on Twitter as experienced guides and resources. I suspect many do the same, not everyone has the pleasure of sharing an office with Chris Brogan.

Can I trust what your telling me, who you are?