Why and how to tweet?

I was talking to one of my friends the other day and he asked me, “Hey, do you know about the junk website everybody is talking about? Twitter?”. That is what Twitter has done to the world – Polarization. Like every great phenomena, anything that polarizes people is bound to spread, talked about and cross barriers. Like several million people, for me tweeting was not a no brainer and hence this late start.

Why Twitter in the first place? Yes, it let you stay connected and is cool, but why should you twitter?  Here are ten reasons.

• Many tweets are more often status updates. They give you a personality.
• People following you are interested in knowing what you are up to. This may give a sense of importance.
• You can be perceived as a boring or a happening person. Depending on what and how you tweet.
• The more followers you have, the more people you reach (directly and indirectly) about an interesting thing you have done like writing books, blog posts, charity or …
• When people want to hear what you are doing, you want to do important and non-trivial things.
• You have a chance to promote your ideas to change the world.
• You have a chance to get more ideas to change the world.
• It gives you a sense of what people around you are doing and where the world is heading in general.
• It follows every definition of society as defined in Merriam-Webster.
• It is lot of fun to stay connected with the world.

What is the right way to tweet? I have just started experimenting this. However, looking at the successful tweets and the other kind, this is my general understanding.

• Don’t make your tweets a kitchen sink. Don’t dilute your tweets by tweeting about everything.
• If you are a Guy Kawasaki and have 90,000+ followers, we want to know where to find you giving your next speech. Until then, don’t tweet that you will be in Midas for an oil change for your car.
• If you are gathering a lot of followers, people are getting interested in you. Don’t drive them away by tweeting on unimportant stuff.
• If your tweet adds personality or wow factor to you, then it is a good tweet.
• Get followers and keep them. Getting followers is hard and keeping them is harder. The secret sauce is to continue building a good web personality.
• Use tweets to sneeze great products and experiences.

If you have more thoughts and ideas, feel free to pitch in..Happy tweeting.

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It is efficiency everywhere

I have been traveling this month a lot for conferences, training and most importantly demoing Chip Lead’s office tool. It has been a wonderful experience so far. I am writing this blog from the Phoenix airport .

One of the most important aspect of collaborating with somebody is the efficiency you can bring to their table. The problems you can solve for them, the benefits you can provide them, the relief you can bring them, and the contacts you can bring to their table. It is always about them! I have found this attitude to help me a great deal in getting the ideas across and open new avenues and problems to solve. The month I have met some wonderful people, in and outside Qualcomm. These people have brainstormed with me, have criticized my ideas, constructed my mindset, opened my mind towards problems that I was taking for granted and helped me become professionally grow.

There are challenges everywhere if we look carefully. Everyday is an opportunity to solve something new, make the world around us a better place.

As an intrapreneur, it is more important to be aware of the problems your company is trying solve. Talking to people on different sites or teams or mindsets helps a great deal. What you think is the least significant can actually be the most significant problem. Another thing, an intrapreneur has to remember is the motivation to solve something. If your motivation is personal glory, you won’t get far. You will get into emotional battles on insignificant issues. The real reason I want to solve a problem in my company is to relish the challenge, and be a signficant part of the next step ahead. This will win friends and supporters who love the copany as much as you do and who love solving problems as much as you do.  Remember that a selfish person can never be an intrapreneur.

Anyway, my apologies for a long delay in posting. I should be more regular here onwards!!

Find friends

Is is very important to find friends inside the system. If you are in the middle of executing your project, the last thing you want is visibility! I was lucky that I got the support of two of my friends. One was also a mentor (who luckily become my manager). Lot of times, he shielded me from “bad” things. I was very lucky in that regard.

Friends are important. Do not gossip with them if you can help it, but offer and seek professional help. Strengthen your bond by offering help even when they don’t ask for it. This is a simple rule that has been mentioned in several places numerous times and it still is ever-green.