Photo of me live tweeting an event at Maui Tropical Plantation for one of the Maui Business Brainstormers Event.

When you mention the word “Twitter” to a group of Maui Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, you will get a variety of reactions ranging from

“Huh? What’s that?” to

“Oh it’s great! It’s helps my biz a lot!“.

The sad thing is I hear more of the

“Oh I opened and account but never used it” and

“Oh I don’t understand how it works .. I see people posting their food and what they are doing – I don’t see how it can help my business – it seems a waste of time“.

Honestly, I am getting a little tired of hearing from some Maui Business owners saying it’s a waste of time because it isn’t.  Okay, granting that Twitter is not for everyone or every business, I’d dare say that  for many businesses it is helpful to be in. Given the nature that many of the businesses on Maui are tourism related, I will argue that Twitter is necessary for many of the businesses on Maui.

It is understandable if someone tried Twitter, spent time to learn, tried to really apply and then stopped because they realized that it’s really is not for their business.  What concerns me is seeing  many Maui business owners opening an account because they heard they need to do it, then abandoning the account without even trying to learn more about it and how to use it effectively for their biz.

When Grace Fung of Maui Business Brainstormers (MBB)  first asked me to teach a Twitter Class for MBB members, I was hesitant to say yes. I was hesitant for the following reasons:

1) I am very busy and I don’t think I should add another “to do” on my list.

2) I can sense that many of the MBB members are not really into Twitter.  Some (or many) MBB members don’t see the need or the importance of actively engaging in social media.  Some think it’s a waste of time.

The second reason, although a discouragement, was also a challenge….

And so I said yes

Yep, I said yes despite the fact that I am busy and this will occupy time on my already hectic schedule.

Yep, I said yes despite the fact that I know the class won’t have a big turn out. I was ready for only a few participants which is actually good for a “workshop” set-up.

I told Grace I will do it but I won’t do it for free. I want the participants to pay a registration fee because I feel that sometimes when it’s given free, people take it for granted.  The cost we agreed on was $12.00. It’s not much. It’s an inexpensive fee so as not to discourage those who are struggling with cash. However, for those who will pay to attend I know that they value my time as well as theirs.

At the time of writing there are eight (8) people registered.  I hope it will goes up to 10 by Saturday but it it does not, that’s ok.  I am very excited to teach about Twitter because it works for me and I know if Maui Biz owners do it right, it will work for them too. I am sharing about this here because I now many of you A Maui Blog readers discovered my blog through Twitter 🙂

I was told the Saturday morning was not a good schedule. Many of those who wants to attend are working that day/morning – at the Swap Meet, Farmers Market and Restaurants.  Saturday morning is a prime time. I apologize if you are one of those who can’t make it to the class because of the schedule.  Please contact me for a one on one session that might be convenient to you and we can make arrangements.

There are terms to learn (such as retweet, RT, hashtag, mentions, etc) and tricks to know and apply (who to follow, how to be followed, etc).  The are Twitter Etiquette that we need to be aware of.  In Twitter Workshop I will discuss all that…

We are going to be using hashtag #TweetMaui in case some of you wants to follow along.  We will also interact with the hashtag #KupuMaui3 – an event that is going on that morning.

Grace of MBB agreed to open up the registration to Non-Members and I am thankful she did.  There is a link to for non-members to register: https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=xzqZ8W9gz-fQtnFzHxVb8A

I didn’t have much time to promote this till now but that’s ok. Please share with your friends who may benefit from from workshop. Mahalo!

And for Maui Business Brainstormers, here is the link to register:

http://www.meetup.com/MauiBusinessBrainstormers/events/104257602/

I am very excited about this workshop and looking forward to connecting these new tweeps with you. Are you on Twitter? I am guessing we are already following each other. If we are not, write your Twitter handle on the comment section and I will sure follow you.

P.S.

The email that was sent out to the MBB members today has a little note from Grace about how at first she was against Twitter but has a change of mind after seeing it’s benefits. Thanks Grace for mentioning that 🙂

Particularly, I was against a Twitter account for MBB at that time (at the time I helped them set it up a few months ago); besides, it would add to the volunteer organizers workload, but now I see how Twitter helps to bring new business demographics to MBB.