This is post was inspired by Justin McCullough. Justin is building an ebook about Twitter, for new users to embrace Twitter. He is building it together with other contributors. So feel free to jump in on the Twitter eBook Project. My contribution is about why You want to use Twitter.

At SOBCon 2010 I have first met Justin. It was a great event with many great people. The event is organized by the wonderful Liz Strauss and great Terry Starbucker. Pieter brought my attention to this ebook and there you have it.

What to do
Contribute 300 words or less in the form of best practices, a quote, advice, top 10 list, or blog post.

Purpose
Provide newbies and folks who are struggling to embrace twitter with short, concise, helpful instruction on what twitter is and how to use it. In short, this will help tell folks what we wish they knew about twitter so they are more fun, engaging, and twitter friendly!

So here is my contribution:

Why do you want to Twitter?

What is Twitter – is not very difficult to explain. You can also find great tutorials of How you can use Twitter. The most important question is of course Why you want to use Twitter. If someone is saying “You simply MUST use Twitter.”, let me share with you, they are wrong.

There is no need for you to be on Twitter. Even though it is a lot of fun. It is also one of the most easiest ways to meet new people and to find out if you like them or not. So it is also a very easy way for people to find out if they like you or not. Or better yet if they LOVE you.

Why do you want to use Twitter has a relation with Why you are in business, Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you do what you do? What is it that you bring to this world that makes it a better place for the people around you?

When you have the answer to that “Why?”, Twitter is a great platform to spread your message and find fans. Please remember that your website or blog on your own domain hosted by yourself is your first platform, your hub. Do not build a movement on a platform that is not yours because the risk that it will not be there one day is just to big. Or if the platform changes the rules in a way that does not support your message you should be able to give it up.

Why is Twitter such a great platform? You have only 140 characters to bring your message. Fans or haters have only 140 characters to respond to your message. You have to think about what you want to say because you only have 140 characters. It is easy to write book, but it is difficult to remove enough words so that the book becomes outstanding. So you have to think really hard what you want to say in 140 characters that will touch the people around you.

Reading @lizstrauss‘ tweets you will probably understand what I mean here.

So here is the 3 step plan:

1. Find your answer to the Why? question.
2. Build your website or blog, your Hub, to spread your message
3. Attract Fans on a platform like Twitter to come to your Hub.

This way you will build trust with your followers. Once we trust you, we can start to LOVE you. When people LOVE you they will follow you.

Erno Hannink helps independent professionals use social media to get more fans. ErnoHannink.com and @ernohannink