This week I passed one-thousand updates on my Twitter stream. In celebration of the occassion, I thought I would take another stab at explaining Twitter to the lay person.
Explaining what Twitter is is easy (i.e. it’s Facebook status updates without the rest of Facebook getting in the way); however, explaining why anyone would want to share their life in 140 character “tweets” is another story.
So, rather than philophosizing about why one would want to “Twitter,” I’m going to take a different angle in this post and introduce you to some of the great people I’ve met during my first year on Twitter. These are all people I suspect I wouldn’t have met otherwise; however, Twitter has been our natural bridge for starting relationships, many of which have spilled over into real-world connections.
Meet Some of my “Tweeple”
Jack Lail
Jack was one of the first people to start “following” me on Twitter. At the time I was just checking Twitter out to become more informed, so I didn’t know that “following” someone was a good thing. However, I clicked over to Jack’s profile and saw that we work in the same industry (i.e. he’s the News Director of Innovation for the Knoxville News Sentinel). I followed Jack back, and since that time he has been educating me on the world of print and online journalism.
Knoxify
Around the time I started using Twitter, I was looking to expand my involvement in our community. I came across Knoxify and their post, “Follow Us on Twitter, And We’ll Follow You Back.” So I started following Casey, Brandon and Patrick. More on them later…
Chad Parizman
Somewhere in all of my early days of “tweeting” and “following”, Chad Parizman came up on my radar. He was one of the first, if not the first, to suggest that we have a Knoxville Tweet-up. So, back on April 9th, 2008, 12 of us gathered at the Lakeside Tavern for lunch. Since that time, I’ve collaborated with Chad on a project over at Scripps, and he was kind enough to treat me for lunch at Taste of Thai this past fall in return for some of my hard work.
Zane Hagy
Zane and I were seated next to each other at the first Knoxville Tweet-up. My impression of Zane is that he’s the kind of guy who’s hard not to like. Any time I run into him, I enjoy catching up on what he’s doing. His day job (which often spills into the night according to his tweets) is running Z11 Communications. He helps businesses and organizations navigate the complicated world of today’s Inter-webs.
Suzy Trotta
I met Suzy at the second Knoxville Tweet-Up. Suzy is a realtor who keeps her own real estate blog with a surprising twist: It’s actually interesting. I’ve enjoyed watching how she’s used social media to share her expertise in a natural and winsome fashion.
Casey Peters and Brandon Clarke
Casey and Brandon are the master-minds behind Knoxify.com. Knoxify is a Knoxville focused blog which serves as “the insider’s take on what makes Knoxville great.”
The positive focus of Knoxify was exactly what I was looking for as I began making my forays into more community involvment. As a part of that quest, I started writing more Knoxville-focused posts on this blog, and that led to Casey inviting me to write for Knoxify. Since that time I’ve had the chance to meet with Casey and Brandon and the rest of the Knoxify crew to work on furthering our collective vision for helping make our fair city a great place to work and live.
Social Media – Use the Force Wisely
As social media has garnered more and more attention in the national media, there’s been a lot of philophosizing about what it is and what it isn’t. Like any other powerful tool or resource, it all depends on your motives and how you use it as to what side you fall on. Can Twittering be an exercise in narcissism or blatant marketing and spamming? Sure. But, from the examples I’ve listed above, you can see it is also a tool for building virtual relationships which extend into the real world.
Twitter’s Third Wave
So far, I think Twitter has mainly been the domain of social media early adopters. As more and more people come to know what it is, I think it’s important for other people to understand why we use it. This post is a part of my answer to that question.
While I don’t think Twitter is for everyone, I do think that it would be a great asset to a lot more people. This next phase of Twitter’s growth will be what I call Twitter’s Third Wave. First there were technologists who invented it. They were followed by a steady stream of tech savvy early adopters. Now, I think we’ll start seeing more and more typical Internet users harnessing its power.
So, if you’re not Twittering, why not try it out? Give me a follow, and everyone I’ve mentioned above is worth a follow too.
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Finally, as I currently follow 131 people on Twitter, I’ve left a lot of people out. As with any acceptance speech considering an achievement of this magnitude (1000 tweets people!), there simply isn’t enough time to thank everyone. So, I’ll end saying thanks to all those I follow and who follow me back. I couldn’t have done it without you! 