Twitter and Me – My Trip ‘Round The Twitterverse

(Twitter icon bird set, created by Mirjami Manninen, can be downloaded here)

It’s been about a month now that I’ve been using the Twitter social-networking platform and I have to admit, it’s been an interesting study of how human communication is evolving through our interaction and usage of new software communication platforms. Now to be truthful, I’ve been wary of starting up a Twitter account because like anyone else viewing it from the outside, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Indeed, the most common question posed when someone hears you’re “on Twitter” is what exactly is Twitter. The most common explanations are that Twitter is a “micro-blogging platform” due to its restricting entries to no more than 140 characters or that’s it’s just another social networking outlet to stay in touch with a group of friends/acquaintances. Although my experience with Twitter is still new and thus, rather limited, I think this other definition sums up Twitter best – Twitter is whatever you make it out to be. Confused enough? Well, let me share my own experience with this platform to shed some light on this.

Now as I mentioned above, I wasn’t very keen on joining Twitter simply because the few times I perused the site, I was either confused in trying to figure out how to follow the various conversation streams going on over multiple accounts or being rather put-off with the numerous entries by various users sharing details of what they were eating for lunch or dinner (I still can’t comprehend why anyone would think that others are so interested in hearing what you’re eating. I wonder how many of them would bother to pick the phone and call a friend to tell them “Hey, guess what? I decided to have the roast beef au jus with stir-fried zucchini and a glass of Merlot. Just thought you’d be interested”). So, there didn’t seem to be anything of note within Twitter that would spur my interest in either joining or participating in such a social networking site. That is, until I realized that two bloggers who I enjoy reading and interacting with via our respective blogs were rather proliferative in their interactions and sharing their thoughts on Twitter. And so, I figured I’d give Twitter a try if not for the fact that it would allow me to interact with these bloggers outside of our blogs and maybe have an opportunity to talk about other subjects than those we usually discuss on our respective blogging outlets.

But after some small exchanges and welcomes from these familiar faces to the Twitterverse, I found myself facing the very question that anyone whose pondering joining Twitter would have – now what do I do? What information, ideas, or events do I share? And more importantly, who do I converse about them with? After all, that is one of the points about being on Twitter – that unlike a regular blog where its the content that attracts people to visit your site, on Twitter, it’s about the interaction with others. Sure, some use it to hawk their other sites or even worse, using it to share details about how wonderful the piece of fish they cooked for dinner is. But the truth is, when used to its fullest potential, Twitter is about making connections with others, be it in the personal and/or professional realms. It can also be used to get outside of one’s comfort zone in terms of who one normally socializes with and meet and interact with people from completely different areas of work, expertise or knowledge.

While I’m sure those of you reading this are now anticipating my own list of the “10 Things you can do to maximize your Twitter experience” or how to find people to follow or who you should follow and such, the reality is that I simply don’t have such a list to proffer. After all, I’ve been using Twitter for only a month now, so I clearly lack any expertise on how one should manage or develop their “Twitter experience”. What I can tell you is that in the short time that I’ve been on Twitter, I have participated in conversations with writers, technologists, product marketers, journalists, musicians, project managers, fellow parents, sci-fi enthusiasts, and the list goes on. Also, in my first month of using Twitter, I’ve been provided links to a wealth of information on a variety of topics as well as useful tools to improve productivity and efficiency. I’ve been able to help others with some technical problems they’ve been having or even providing some input on which option would best serve their requirements. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know people and foster new friendships and potentially some professional ones for down the road. And all of this accomplished over the period of one month of usage. Granted, this is not to say that this is the norm as I’m sure others have had an even greater or lesser degree of attaining benefits from utilizing Twitter over the same duration of time. In the end, there really can’t be any sure-fire rules here since it ultimately boils down to how one chooses to interact with others.

With the increasing exposure in mainstream media about Twitter, it’s not uncommon to hear commentators either writing Twitter off as a waste of time, while others are heralding it as the next big thing to hit the Net. So which one is it? Well, if ask me, this all comes back to what I said at the start – Twitter is whatever you – the user – make it out to be.

Some other posts you may enjoy:

1. What Twitter Can Teach Leaders About Effective Communication
2. Connecting Through The Power Of A Hug
3. I’m More Than Just A Number
4. Telling The Story Of Ourselves
5. Empathy in Leadership – 10 Reasons Why It Matters

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