After about 3 months of twittering as an office (@VandiverGroup) and on a personal account for 6 months (@EileenMaclean) I wanted to take a moment and look back at what I’ve learned about the “it” social media venue of the moment.

If you are not familiar with Twitter check out this article from The Wall Street Journal describing the site. Originally toted as a site for “micro-blogging,” I think, for better or worse, Twitter has become so much more.

My personal Twitter evolution:
A Newbie: I first created a Twitter account in May 2008 out of curiosity and to share thoughts with a few colleagues, I was still connecting with the vast majority of my friends online through Facebook. In the first months, I was slow to embrace Twitter. I was only sharing with people I saw on a daily basis, so I was skeptical of the practical applications, let alone business purpose for this emerging site.

Working from Home: Then in July I moved to a brand new city (New Orleans) and started working from home. I found myself turning to Twitter more and more to feel connected to the marketing and PR world, as I was deprived of the day-to-day sharing and stimulation of the TVG office.

Making new “friends”: Often an introverted person in the real world, I am also introverted when it comes to “following” or “friending” people on social networks. However, come fall I started to come out of my shell and see the real value of sharing and listening to these perfect strangers. As I expanded my network I started to learn more from experts in the marketing, PR, journalism and business worlds. I had tapped into this wealth of knowledge, and it was free and friendly!

Getting down to business: Come September, TVG decided to jump in. I was wary at first. Because Twitter is really a personal network at its core, it is not always friendly or useful to a corporate identity. But above all, we saw Twitter as a new medium in the communications world- one to learn, share and continually build our company personality. We don’t have a customer base to monitor, such as companies like JetBlue or Dell might, but we have a voice and wanted to join a conversation about our industry, the St. Louis region and the business world in general.

Where’s the $$ at?: TVG is having a great time utilizing Twitter as a professional development tool. Those comfortable with the site provide updates, those less comfortable share update ideas via e-mail for others to upload, and in return, users e-mail the staff great blog posts, case studies and news found from those we follow. But at the end of the day, as a company you have to ask, where is the bottom line value in this?

The business value of Twitter has been well documented in the industry as it emerges – staying in tune with customers, virally publicizing campaigns and promotions, journalists finding story leads, executives creating stronger public personas and brands. So, TVG now has to be able to recognize those clients who have the time and enthusiasm to invest in yet another social network.

Finding the time: As discussed by Seth Godin and Chris Brogan back in November, Twitter can be a time- consuming platform with a lot of noise and a lot of misunderstanding. It is inherent in its format and 140 character limit. So it can take a lot of man-hours to truly use Twitter effectively and gain significant value. Just think about it — listening to hundreds of people (sometimes thousands, depending on your following size) speak all at once, all day long! But under the confusion lies true value for our clients to build a stronger brand personality and more direct connection with their customers. They just need to be aware it is not just something to casually add to their to-do list because “everyone else is doing it.” Twitter requires time for a learning curve, building an audience, developing meaningful content to share and above all, hands-on participation.