Red Pill Leadership: Wake up and be a better leader

Before I answer ‘why’, let me answer ‘what’. What is Twitter?

Think of Twitter as a stream of conversations, random thoughts, and news worthy information. To plug into the conversation you “follow” individuals and organizations. When that specific person or entity submits a message (called a “tweet”), followers will instantly get that message through the Twitter website or a third-party application such as TweetDeck. As a Twitter user, you not only consume information from those you follow, but you in turn will have followers. Therefore, you become a publisher of information as well.

Here’s an example.

You are on Twitter and you start to follow the UB/Towson MBA. A moment after you begin to follow, I post a message regarding an MBA event. The next time you login or refresh Twitter, the message I just published shows up on your Twitter page. If you use TweetDeck and are logged on, you’ll be notified of the new message immediately. Soon, I notice that you are following our MBA program so I begin to follow you. If you post a message, I’ll see it (as will everyone else who is following you).

So why use Twitter?

I thought Twitter would be a colossal waste of time. But recently, I have come to realize that Twitter is a great productivity, business, and marketing tool if used correctly. I’m just starting to use it personally (@rdesi) but I do use it for the UB/Towson MBA program (@ubtowsonmba). Here are some reasons why I use Twitter for our MBA program.

Incredible insights. If you follow the right people and organizations, there is a ton of new knowledge you can pick-up each and every hour.

Engage our current students. I usually tweet news and information regarding the MBA program before I send an email to students. Why? It’s faster. Most of our students work full-time and attend our MBA program part-time so Twitter helps them stay connected.

Engage prospective students. When a prospective student follows us on Twitter, they are tuned into our program. The UB/Towson MBA becomes a part of their life through Twitter. It’s not invasive since they chose to follow us and can stop following us whenever they want. Prospective students can see how we communicate with current students via social media and the level of engagement we have with current students. In addition, they see that our program is engaged in conversation with innovative organizations.

Engage the community. One thing I noticed immediately upon joining Twitter was that many local businesses and organizations (and their employees and executives) were active members of the Twitter community. I started to follow them. In turn, they started following @ubtowsonmba! So every time I tweet, we are on their radar.

Showcase our MBA program. As an MBA program we have a lot of great things to share. We want to promote events and program, student and faculty achievements.

Promote our partners. Twitter is a great way to share good news about partners and what great things they are doing. When I see that an organization we work with is having an event or has great news to pass along I tweet or retweet it.

These are a few of the big reasons why we use Twitter. In future articles I’ll discuss how I fit twittering into my already busy and hectic schedule.