Twitter for the entrepreneurial physician business owner

Okay - I know it's alarming to have to contend having me in your face with Facebook and LinkedIn, so if you are already overwhelmed by that much social networking, it's time to shut your ears or step away from this page right now.

I'm about to tell you about Twitter! So hang in, if you are intrigued by this contemporary marketing and social networking stuff. Otherwise, goodbye - have a nice weekend.

From Wikipedia:

Twitter is a free social networking and "micro-blogging" service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

At first, I didn't get it. "My dog ate my kid's homework" -- arghhh! "Off to the movies now" -- oh boy. Who cares?

Until I realized that these were phrases snatched from the midst of a dialog between a twitterer and his or her followers.

And that Twitter was where I could get the latest updates on the election or our Southern California fires, or links to top-notch articles of interest to physicians, or information about new technology I was considering using.

As I started to build my small "tribe" of followers, I could ask questions, search for resources ("Anyone know anything about the new google phone? How happy are you with it?") and just reveal who I am and have some fun. I won't say I am addicted and I try to post mostly relevant stuff (like every new blog post!), but my Twitter page is open all day and I refresh it and browse it many times a day. I like feeling connected and discovering all kinds of fascinating information "out there".

As long as I can do it succinctly in 140 characters (including spaces) or less.

I'm not going to do the heavy lifting of explaining Twitter here. Instead, I'm going to let other experts do it for you, via some great resources. Not only will they tell you what Twitter is, but also why you should care about it as a tool to communicate about your business to those who choose to follow you!

This is the ultimate in permission-based marketing.

Here are the best that I have come across:

How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR

How I Use Twitter to Promote My Blog

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

Twitter: Use it Productively

Any other good ones to share?

And if you want to send me a tweet, I'm @pippak on Twitter!

(Reminder - here's a "how-to" post devoted to LinkedIn)