Lessons on Leveraging Twitter from Ice-T

Most of us know celebrity Ice-T as a rapper and as Detective Fin Tutuola on NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (my wife’s favorite show).

Few of us would think of him as an expert on social networking using Twitter. But after watching his appearance on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien the other night, I think he may be on to something, sharing his “street sense” about how to best leverage Twitter. These lessons may be the key to more fully leveraging Twitter as a learning tool.

Here’s a quick summary of the interview.

Conan O’Brien pointed out that the goal of most celebrities is to create as large of a Twitter following as possible. To which Ice-T interjected, “I’m trying to get as few [as possible].” That’s the line that caught my attention.

He then went on to outline his strategy. The reason he started tweeting is to create a virtual, online “gang.” While most celebrities are trying to reach 1 million followers, he told Conan that he has 21,000 very dedicated followers. He said he routinely kicks followers off his list. “I curse them. I threaten them and every day you see people leaving.” He also said that he is trying to make the list even tighter by having “roll calls” and “mandatory attendance at online events.”

Why? Here’s the main lesson. He suggests that by creating dedicated followers you have a greater ability to call them to action. Here’s an example he shared (Yes, I know this is all just in fun, but it is an interesting concept). He said, “If someone says something bad about us, we can hit ‘em. I can have 21,000 people show up at your Twitter door step (he called this a “Twitter drive by”) because all of my Twitter follower are hard core.” Summary: The whole point and purpose of tweeting is to develop a community of people who share the same interest, values and activities.

His final challenge to the audience was “If you want to follow me; if you think you have what it takes, you can follow me at @FinalLevel. Join up. But we will kick you out if you say something and we disagree. You’re out.”

Just a hunch, but I’ll bet lots of people joined up after hearing the interview!

So, what lessons can we learn from Ice-T that can be applied to learning situations. Here are a few that came to mind for me.

1. Have a purpose for Twittering. Take a position and stick to it.

2. It’s not how many people you have, it’s all about developing “hard core” followers.

3. Hard core followers = the ability to call people to action. This was my number 1 takeaway from the interview.

4. Don’t be afraid to kick people off your list if they don’t fit with the flow of your tweets. Seems counter intuitive in a time when having the most followers or the most friends is the norm, but it makes lots of sense.

5. Be challenging. Be exclusive. Make it a cool thing to be a part of your Twitter experience.

Click here to watch the entire interview. The part on Twittering starts at 2:09 on the counter. Enjoy.