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An acquaintance contacted me a few weeks ago, anxious to get together. The urgency for the meeting seemed odd. We have many connections in common and these related folks urged us to meet, so we did.

This person – accomplished and very lovely – wanted to know if I was aware of issues related to her business. She wanted to know if I was watching her channel.

Maybe she was relieved when I told her that I was not aware of the issues she mentioned. We had a nice chat and that was that. When I left our meeting, I could not help but wonder why she thought her firm’s channel was on my radar. If I am in a position of influence, then her firm had done nothing to get me to tune into their message – or listen to her channel.

Too many companies assume that customers, prospects and influencers are watching their channel. Identifying the right audience – through extensive market research – and fine-tuning the message so that it will create market leadership is what gets people to pay attention to your channel. Most importantly, it takes diligence and consistency to create a channel worth watching.

We get bombarded with invitations to watching far too many channels. Audience targeting, focused messaging, and diligence is the key factor in getting the right audience for your channel.

I started Twittering – along with the rest of the MMG team – last year. It was still fairly new and I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Now I am addicted.

It’s sort of like being a voyeur – I get a glimpse into what people are thinking. It’s also my best news channel. I get great links to blog posts I may never find on my own. Twitter is also a wonderful re-connector. I follow people that I’ve know for years but haven’t seen in ages.

And when our friend Rick Turoczy got the big spread in the Oregonian last Sunday thousands more certainly signed up.

Like all social media, it has a big downside. There is too much of it. I can’t following thousands of people and get anything out of the relationship. And the technology is not perfect. Scalability is a big issues and users have to be very patient.

Lessons learned from Twitter? Like all good communications, it is best when it is focused.

You can follow me on Twitter and see what I am up to.