Buying-in on Tweeting is more than a value-add

Like a lot of publications, Logistics Management has a Twitter feed: @LogisticsMgmtMag.

When we first started out with this “handle” in 2011, it was with the expectation of, um, not exactly really knowing what to expect. Our strategy for how to leverage Twitter was—and still is—largely the same.

It goes something like this: when we post a news item, we Tweet it, ditto for when we post the print edition of the most recent article of LM to our Web site. 

And for the latter, we Tweet each individual item.

To be sure, it is a basic strategy, but, as it turns out, it is also a very effective one when it comes to many things like getting more site traffic, gaining some insight on a specific topic we may be reporting on, or even picking up on something off the beaten trail that we had not thought of as well.

And this is bearing out in our numbers, too. As of this morning, @LogisticsMgmtMag has 14,814 followers and has posted 3,996 Tweets. Not too shabby considering that when we started doing this we were very unclear on how we would use Twitter and how we would grow it in terms of these aforementioned numbers.

But the thing is, for the way we use Twitter it has been as intuitive as it gets in that we are posting, make that Tweeting, whatever we are up to basically, making it a simple and effective way to approach what is becoming or has become (at least in this writer’s opinion) the most effective and relevant social networking tool out there. Sorry, Facebook, you just are a time drain with more sizzle than steak for me at this point.

If you had asked me back when we started this Twitter feed if I would be surprised how much traction it has gotten, my honest answer would definitely be yes. For me, Twitter was more of a peripheral thing that I did not pay much mind to at all. It was not a matter of being stubborn; it instead had more to do with the fact that I really had not invested the time to see what all the fuss was basically.

Looking back now, I am glad to say I took the plunge and am seeing the benefits on a daily basis, whether it is finding an interesting news lead on an industry-specific topic, a developing mainstream news item, or something on the other side relating to sports or pop culture maybe.

In this space last March, I wrote the following about social media:
“On the publishing side, mobile content and social media are terrific ways to get our content out there to more people, and it is working well for us. But at the same time, it has not fundamentally changed how we do things. It seems like it is more of a value add of sorts.”

To be sure, my thinking has changed as time goes on. Yes, it is still more of a value-add from my editorial perch, with this caveat: it is more of a “valuable” value-add, and I only expect that to increase as time goes on.

That said, if you are on Twitter and already following @LogisticsMgmtMag, thank you very much. If you are not following us, now is the time to get on board. Who doesn’t want to be in the know, you know?