Leveraging Your Twitter Account to Achieve Fame and Fortune?

Leveraging your Twitter stream can be archived in a number of ways, but avoiding the negative connotation of being spammy or being labeled as a gimmick can be the tricky thing. Some tweet for a cause in order to ensure that their online actions aren’t perceived in bad light. The upside? You’re actually tweeting for a good cause. Now isn’t that a win-win?

It’s a lesson driven home by Franny Syufy over at About.com. She notes the current Twitter trend that Sockington started, which was little more than a curious return to the cat-blogging phenomenon that Twitter once was. Drilling down to the origin of Sockington’s fame or the purpose behind Sockington’s website is even more of a curiosity, as we can all scratch our heads and wonder at the necessity and purpose of Sockington at all.

Sockington’s owner, however, has the benefit of turning Sockington’s popularity into revenue, as he sells t-shirts. But what happens when his celebrity status dies down? Will Sockington’s owner need to come up with a string of publicity stunts in order to extend Sockington’s 15 seconds of Twitter fame?

Not that Twitter can’t be used for publicity stunts, leveraging the microblog for profit and popularity. But another Twitter user is leveraging her stream for a good cause. Caroline Golin has been on Twitter for about as long as Sockington, but uses her community-driven activity in order to raise money for animal charity. For each person that followers her Twitter stream, Golin donates 5 cents to animal charity.

This particular take on participating in Twitter activity is not only a good example of how Twitter can be leveraged for an alternative action, but it really exemplifies the viral nature of web-based communities. Golin’s actions has caught the eye of corporations that have sponsored her, and are matching her donations to a certain degree.

This boils down to similar community-driven activity we see on Facebook, where individuals can rally around a cause and continue to take particular actions from there. Moving beyond redirecting followers to other websites through your bio URL or links shared via tweets, the action-oriented behavior that can arise from your Twitter stream is a testimony to the next level leveraging that can occur as a result of your own Twitter activity.

While Golin’s cause is rather specific, the concept behind it can be applied to you as a blogger. Find a way to incorporate action-oriented prods into your Twitter profile and your update stream. Encourage your followers to take a specific action or follow your example. Even if it’s not for a non-profit or charity cause, you can still take the next step in leveraging your Twitter stream by incorporating these action items into the core of what your Twitter stream is all about.

Written by Kristen Nicole from Kristen Nicole
Posted on July 1st, 2009 and filed under Blogging
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