Twitter - There’s No Time to Talk About It. – Part 1

I’ve been meaning to blog about Twitter for a month. But the minute I think I’ve got things figured out – they change. First, let me set the record straight- I'm not a geek. I’m just a guy who makes his living by rearranging familiar ideas into new ones so that people remember things differently. It's not really all that geeky. A bit strange perhaps, but not geeky. Over the years though, I've been forced to learn new mediums and their residual technologies as part of my job. During the last quarter of 08, I invested as much time as possible in learning basic concepts of social media as possible. It started innocently enough by finally updating my Linkedin profile that had been open a couple of years. From Linkedin, I decided to give Facebook a try (thanks Obama). Note: I didn’t go to college until I was 30 and we only had enough $$ for limited time, so I jammed 3 years of studies into 1 year and totally missed out on the college Facebook experience. Anyway, after stumbling my way through FB's amazing social landscape, I decided to look into this Twitter thing.  I had no idea what it was in October. And still don't. I suppose I never will either. It's a communications device that's morphing by the minute. And it's beautiful.
 
So what is Twitter? Simply stated, Twitter is a medium for real-time dialogue. That's it. Think CB radios with highly filtered noise. Oh, and no lonely truckers singing songs that prevent others from communicating. Sure, there are likely a few lonely truckers on Twitter, but they're limited to 140 character sound bites. And you don’t have to follow them if you chose not to. But essentially, Twitter is a CB radio with millions of channels.

Since Twitter is dialogue, when you write something that other people are interested in, you gain 'followers.' Likewise, when you read interesting ideas from other people, you subscribe to their dialogue feeds and become their 'follower.' It's reciprocal love on a whole new level. The result is real-time correspondence with people you want to engage in dialogue.

And the best part is that Twitter provides access to some of the brightest people on the planet. People who clearly understand that 140 characters can be a lifetime if you’re efficient enough. As for any naysayers who may think Twitter is just good fun for the technically inclined, check out Twitter’s massive growth rate in 2008. Then think about how the best advertising is not sometimes, but always ‘word of mouth.’ Which brings us back to Twitter’s core concept - dialogue. The stuff that kept truckers awake on long, lonely nights 30 years ago.

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Jim Mitchem

Comments

[Nichole (@napril1023)]

This is so true. What I am getting from being on twitter is so much more (and better) than I first intended.

Originally I just wanted to follow a few pundits, journalists and politicos, but I barely remember that now. The super-duper connections and the dialogue have helped me "up" my game.

I look forward to where it takes us.

[edward boches]

Agree with all. It is that and more indeed. But what's truly remarkable is what you can get out of it. Connections to people across continents and generations. Ideas for products and services. Answers to questions. Crowd sourcing in real time. Examples of generosity. The realization that there is always someone who knows more than you but will share that knowledge. And a never ending stream of ideas and ways to get better what you do, whatever that may be. Oh, and did I mention it makes you sharper in your own critical thinking.

I'm sure there's more, but I've already gone way over 140 characters.