Talking about Twitter, learning about myself

I recently had a couple teleconferences with women entrepreneurs. The topic was Twitter. I offered to talk to them because I had a flash of insight: Twitter has been invaluable to me this year, and these women, who are part of a coaching group I’m in, might not yet know of its awesomeness. I’ve used Twitter and other forms of social media in a personal, semi-professional, and professional way for a few years, and I figured that my knowledge and experience could be useful to others. Part of me realized that having these conversations would be like market research, that is, a way for me to test whether I might want to do social media tutoring for money one day.

It turned out that over a dozen women expressed interest, and we arranged a couple group calls. I used FreeConferenceCall.com to host the calls, and that was a learning experience in itself. The first session had a handful of participants. I did some talking, some question answering, and hosted a bit of a discussion. One of the women on the call already uses Twitter for her business and she was generous about sharing her thoughts on the medium. The second session ended up being a two-person conversation, and that was a fun, rewarding experience, too. I will probably offer a third call, to anyone who wasn’t able to make the first two.

So, where does this leave me, business-thinking-wise? I enjoyed the conference call format, and liked speaking about how Twitter helps me find community and enables access to an incredible number of resources I would probably not otherwise find. I learned that I want to get some sort of Bluetooth device so I don’t have to actually hold my phone in my hand. I liked the interaction and hearing about different viewpoints and allowing those to guide the conversation. This probably means that I’d prefer to give workshops—in person, online, over the phone—rather than do more structured lecturing. And that makes sense: I thought the tutorials I lead as a teaching assistant were great fun. I never prepared formal presentations, believing that my classes were among the few opportunities students had to discuss their ideas and receive feedback. Interesting discussions about ideas that involve openness and sharing of information and opinions are among my very favourite things! (Shout out to my 12^th grade and OAC English classes, the master’s-level historiography seminar I took at Carleton University, and all the brilliant talks I’ve had with family, friends, and colleagues over the years.)

Can I get paid to have conversations? Better question: What specific kinds of conversations do I want to get paid to have? After the Twitter teleconferences, I think social media isn’t my passion, but that it excites me because it enables things I’m passionate about. Those things are . . .  personal empowerment, community building, sharing, and learning. Anything else? I’ll have to let you know.