When I am given professional advice, I like to stick to it but this time I am not so sure. I have been advised to Tweet far more regularly.  If I do, it will not only increase my existing workload but also how I go about my daily life, I believe… – and for what?

I am told that I need to increase the number of my followers on Twitter and in order to do this I need to Tweet at least once per day, in fact I should be tweeting whenever I see or hear anything interesting.

Reality is that almost all through the day I am seeing and hearing interesting things, my life is extremely varied: one minute I am interviewing a potential new Associate, the next I am looking at a painting or discussing.

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Or maybe I am in my garden building a new shelter for our latest batch of chickens. Or maybe I am working at a client on a topic that although interesting, I am sure they would not want me publicizing via Twitter!  The tricky bit seems to be that when I am doing these things I am not thinking about who would be interested in what I am doing. And to make that switch, I think would be difficult.

So my strategy must be, I suppose, to focus on a certain cluster of topics and Tweet them in the hope that they may be of interest to a definable group of people, rather like advertising? But to do this I would need to consciously narrow down my thought processes and be constantly on the lookout for material to keep my ‘followers’ nourished.

Another thing my advisors tell me is that when someone comments on my blog or on Facebook or Twitter, I should reply back immediately. I used to try and do that but eventually I found myself in conversations that demanded a great deal of time and often spiraled into a meaningless dialogue between two people that may have better been served by a phone call, or even better still , a meeting.

Please don’t get me wrong, I love it when people comment (it inspires me to keep writing) and I hope that it inspires others to comment too – but Twitter, I humbly ask you, what’s your opinion?  Should I Tweet or not and if so when and how often?

I see that Richard Branson Tweets – but I am told that he doesn’t do it himself but a PR specialist does it in his name. If this is true – what’s the point?

Please help me if I am missing something here.

Have a good week,

Harley