Tweeting for Dollars

Hey, business owner, think twice before avoiding social media sites, says USF Sarasota-Manatee management professor Delaney Kirk, who last fall was named one of the Top 100 Twitterers in Academia by Onlineschools.org. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, locally, Fast Pitch and Energize My Biz, represent “a fundamental shift in the way we communicate,” she says.

How widespread and influential have they become? With more than 300 million active users across the globe, “If Facebook were a country,” she says, “it would be the fourth largest in the world.” 

Kirk, who came to USF three years ago from Drake University, teaches management, leadership, human resources and diversity classes in the business school. She is developing a course for USF M.B.A. students on social media that will start next year. “Universities are picking up that this is a skill we can teach our students to give them a leg up,” she says, “because a lot of companies are looking to hire people who can help expand their social networking presence.”

Kirk jumped into social media first in 2006 by offering teaching tips for college professors through her blog, delaneykirk.com, and started using Twitter in 2008. In November, wefollow.com listed her as the No. 1 most influential professor on Twitter, even though she had 881 followers—far fewer than many other profs on Twitter.

“I look at them as 881 research assistants,” she says. “I send a call for information and someone will respond with a link. It’s the same thing with your business: Put something out there and people will respond, but only if you’re part of the community. I just can’t spam them; it just can’t be all about me, me, me.”

Twenty percent of all tweets—600,000 per day—are directly related to products and services, she says. She calls Twitter “the water cooler of the Internet.” It’s immediate, brief—and free. A small restaurant owner, for example, can send a tweet about upcoming weekend specials.