Social Media is a hot topic these days because it is “new,” but navigating the world of online interactions for your business effectively can certainly be a challenge. Social media offers more than handling business complaints and posting pictures of your favorite grandbaby—it creates opportunities to make real connections with people you may not met before.

Twitter offers a unique opportunity to grow your professional network. Twitter is no longer for the early adopter crowd; it has moved mainstream. Are you a part of it? Twitter is an open network. Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, you can follow almost anyone you want. (There are some locked accounts, but the majority of people on Twitter leave their feed open.) Because of this, the sky is the limit regarding whom you can meet and interact with.

Is there someone you respect professionally? You have the opportunity to follow him or her and gain insights into how they manage their days and what articles interest them. Twitter doesn’t have to be a play-by-play of the events in your day; you can manage a professional network of actively tweeting and responding to professionals in your field. You have the opportunity to add your voice to the professional discussions going on and create new relationships.

Don’t focus on how many people you are following and how many people follow you. Focus on creating the right relationships. You do need to grow your network enough to enable you to have an interactive conversation. (Following one or two people probably isn’t really going to do the trick.) Just remember, when building your professional network it isn’t a numbers game, it is a quality game.

Social media networking does not replace in-person networking; it enhances it. It gives you an early introduction to the people who will be at the networking events that you attend. Twitter does have a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth the time it takes to learn Twitter basics.

In fact, contact us at @womentechcncl and get your twitter name added to the Women Tech Council Twitter list that we just started at http://twitter.com/WomenTechCncl/womentechcouncil.

Amanda (Mandi) Hudson has been a member of the Women Tech Council for over two years and is the Online Marketing Manager at Western Governors University an accredited non-profit online university. Amanda holds a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Utah and an MBA in Information Technology Management from Western Governors University. You can connect with her on Linked In here, follow her blog Online Advertising Geek or interact with her on twitter @AdvertisingGeek.

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