Twittersize Me
Posted by George Pasley on June 25, 2008
Well, I’ve finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. I must admit, like others, I just didn’t see the point at first. I mean, who cares if I’m at line at Firehouse Subs? Now that I’ve spent almost a month on it, I’m beginning to see the appeal.
Twitter has been great for late breaking news. Keeping up with WWDC was wonderful while I was on the road. Also, I’ve met some local Tweeters and found out about local get-togethers. For instance, some Lowcountry Bloggers and Tweeters recently got together to hear about the Charleston Parks Conservancy. If not for Twitter, I would have missed out on learning about a great program that will help improve the many parks in Charleston. Plus, I got a local flower as a gift for my mother-in-law (can we say brownie points?)
In addition, Twitter has already helped me out at work. Currently, we have a wellness program where we “Walk The Appalachian Trail”. After fruitless searching, I “twittered” a message asking for a detailed map of the trail. Somehow, someone I didn’t know sent me a link to a Google map of the trail (thanks @jeckles).
From what I’ve seen, if you want to use Twitter for a business purpose, you have to weed out the noise. It can be a great source of pertinent information. I’ve also noticed that the credit union community is very active on Twitter. Through them, I’ve learned about some concepts and ideas they’ve heard from the different workshops and conferences they’ve attended. Hopefully, I’ll see more bankers sharing news and ideas. You can follow me here.
Mike Templeton said
Glad to see you join the Twitter masses. I’ve been a firm believer since day one, but as of late I’ve been doing a lot more filtering of the “noise” on Twitter. Though what you describe in the start of your post about updating Twitter with messages like “I’m eating lunch,” is what the Twitter founders originally described it as being used for, I think the wider Twitter community (especially those active in the business world) have started using it in a more meaningful way.
The best part about Twitter for me is that it keeps me in the loop with what is happening. Also, like you, I too use Twitter as a sounding board or a quick source of information. I rely on the people I follow to help me find information or to answer questions. Its one big knowledge base sitting at my fingertips.
I’m on Twitter here and you can find the company account I started here.
Lyn Mettler said
I too thought Twitter was pretty ridiculous and selfish, really, with the whole “what I’m doing every second of the day” thing. But once I uploaded Twitter Fox on Firefox and really started watching the conversations over the period of a day, I definitely started to get this new social dynamic.
And after a few days, I felt I started to find “my voice” on Twitter. It truly is useful for bouncing ideas off people, sending out quick notes on blog updates, interesting articles, cool photos, event invitations, etc. Thumbs up on Twitter from me!
If you are so inclined, I’m asking folks to upload a video of themselves on my YouTube channel (youtube/lynmettler) noting their favorite Web 2.0 tool. Maybe Twitter is yours?!