10 Reasons Why You Should Tweet (on Twitter).

People ask me why I tweet on Twitter. "Why would you want to fill out 130 characters and send it out to the world?" For 10 good reasons:

1. You can get great customer service from companies. My Delta flights were changed, and I wasn't sure if there would be a fee to change flights that Delta changed (got that?), so I tweeted Delta. Got an answer immediately. Cool beans. Some companies also tweet about deals before they are available to the general public.

2. It's a great way to promote your business and learn more about your specialty. One way to find Tweeters in your field (and topics that interest you) is to use WeFollow (website), (Twitter page). There are a lot of ADHD Tweeters, and WomenwithADHD and MNT_ADHD are two of my favorites.

3. You can network with people in your community. I've met local people on Twitter and we have become good friends and supported each others' businesses. I've created a list on my Twitter account called "South Florida" where I have all local people and businesses in one place. The Boca Police Twitter page is helpful, and the Palm Beach Post tweets about traffic issues as they happen. This is a Godsend in South Florida.

4. You can get more involved in your cause. I'm into pet rescue, and there are a lot of groups on Twitter that support that cause. Petfinder and ASPCA are on Twitter, and they are two of my favorite pet rescue sites.

5. You learn a lot of trivia. This can be useful at cocktail parties and just generally impressing people. And you can win bets. :) FactsandTrivia has some interesting stuff.

6. You can look up tweets specifically on subjects such as mental health issues. I use Tweetdeck (website), (Twitter page), and I have a search set up that sends me all the tweets on ADHD/ADD and psychology. I also like the tweets posted at Scientific American and Science Daily.

7. You can connect your Twitter account to your blog and Facebook. So when I tweet, it shows up in a column on my blog, and it shows up on my Facebook fan page. Pretty nifty and efficient.

8. If you are traveling somewhere, looking up tweets and communicating with people from your destination is a great planning tool. It also helps you out when you are in that city - you can meet up with people, and Twitter can also give you last minute details about city traffic, events, and warnings. Thursdays are "Traveler's Night In" on Twitter, and you can talk with fellow travelers from all over the world. Gadling and TravelDudes are two of my favorite travel tweeters.

9. You get additional support. Getting "real life" support from family and friends is the great, and it's also nice to know there are other people out there that support each other. Justthe10 is a mom of 8 kids and lives in Michigan. She is a lot of fun to chat with and I've learned a lot about kids from her!

10. You get connected to the world. I follow Twitter users from around the world - it's an eye-opener to see how other people live and what issues they face day-to-day. You can see "trending topics" in the U.S. and worldwide - it's amazing how much they can differ. The UN started following me, and besides that being extremely cool, they have some great tweets about global issues.

So hop on Twitter and check it out!

Stephanie Sarkis PhD on Twitter Facebook YouTube Blog