My Twitter Journey ( so far)
To think a year ago I did not know Twitter existed. Now it is as much of my daily life as my e-mail.
But so many people I speak to still tell me they are not interested in what Stephen Fry has to say or what somebody has had for breakfast. And I find myself launching into why Twitter has been so useful to my – both personally and for business reasons.
Speaking to my very good (pre Twitter) friend @bethedberg – a face to face networking phenomenon in her own right- yesterday made me think and I wanted to jot down my thoughts in a post so that I can look back at some point in the future and see how I was thinking in April 2009 ( I do this regularly with old blog posts. It is good practice and often makes me smile).
As I write this I have about 470 followers and I am following just over 500. That in itself is hard to imagine. Now in practice what I do is read the tweets that appear on Tweetdeck when I am online – so some of my twitter friends and I are never on at the same time. Some were friends and contacts pre Twitter through my blog and other online activities and I from time to time I will look a their tweet stream just like I check blog feeds. Finding Tweetdeck was a turning point for managing my groups. I have a few different reasons for online social networking and sorting friends into columns has made keeping up so much easier – whether it is to listen to the chat in HR/coaching circles, see what my teacher and educationalist friends are up to , get the heads up on new research and reporting on various journals or just finding out what is going on in people I care about’s lives.
My home is my workbase. When I am with clients I am in their space. One of my friends who also works from home called Twitter their coffee machine chat replacement – and I really get that. When I did work in an office the best connections I made were with random people from other departments as we made our coffee selection. The coffee is much better now ( loving my Nespresso machine!) but until Twitter the chance to bump into people had pretty much gone. Now I can be inspired by a 140 character comment and take that off in all sorts of directions. And I have been touched by the warmth of best wishes from my Twitter friends in celebrating good news and support when things are a little less sunny.
For business development it has been hugely beneficial. After delivering many in-house sessions I recently ran my first public speaking skills open programme in Edinburgh. I found a route to advertising this and one of the delegates through Twitter. I have met other coaches and speakers who are happy to share experiences – all great for my CPD. I can get views on business sectors I don’t know well from people on the inside. And I can find people who know the people I would like to get to know.
One of the other benefits is that I can find out about things that are happening in the wider community. The Red Nose Day Twitter feeds were fun. I follow a few charities’s tweets ( an more should be jumping in to raise awareness). I have an eclectic mix of big business “friends” from British Airways to ING and a smattering of politicians. It has given me a whole load of useful ( depending on your point of view) information to talk about at social gatherings when I actually see the people I am speaking to.
So what next then? Well I have already spoken to one group about online social networking and have been invited to do a similar talk to a group of businesswomen. That will be fun – hopefully for them too! And to ensure that I still benefit I have decided to be a bit more discriminating about who I follow. It is nice to be nice – I know – but my stream is in danger of getting cluttered with stuff that has no relevance to me and is, in reality, never likely to. I now that there might be some gem lurking that I will miss but I will take that chance.
I am looking forward to seeing how this develops in the next year and wondering what I will think about this post then!
Tags: Twitter
Apr 09, 2009
Hi Jackie, Isn’t Twitter a nice way to combine business and fun? I really enjoy our brief early morning chats (early morning for me, that is!). I’m not big on chit chat, but I find that on Twitter a little bit of friendly conversation makes it much easier to talk to folks when something important comes up.
Apr 09, 2009
Your experience mirrors mine as well, Jackie. I signed up while at SOBCon08 last year, just because everyone was raving about it. I had little desire to hear about Joe’s breakfast, though, but it seemed like there could be more, so I took a shot. Now it’s hard to even sit at the computer without “checking out” what’s up. And it’s not gossip – it’s news, business tips, great inspirational quotes, links to powerful posts – it’s a never ending stream of knowledge that would be just passing me by if I hadn’t at least given it a try.
Whew! Guess I’m sold.
Apr 09, 2009
Brad – that’s a nice way to look at it. Having broken the ice then those important discussions are easier to start. Thanks for that!
Robert – there are indeed limitless possiblities. I guess one of the biggest challenges is to set some limits – for time and sanity sake!
Apr 09, 2009
Setting limits definitely has been a challenge. There is so much energy, i just want to be in it all the time. Fortunately (or not) I am unable to check in during the day from the office so have started doing what you stated – following the stream in front of me when I am on line. I had tried to go back to early in the day and follow the progression but that’s like jumping onto a train that already left the station
Great post -capturing the essence and realities of Twitter.
Apr 09, 2009
I think you hit the head on the ol’ nail there!
Apr 10, 2009
Hi Jackie, Twitter not only connects us to bloggers we already know, but opened a whole world to us. Great that you have made connections through groups and that you plan for more.
I’m curious about something. Do you think you spend more time “talking to” friends about ideas in Twitter than you do now in commenting to others on blogs. I fear that when I spend a lot of time in Twitter that I don’t have as much time for the other. It would be fun to do a poll on that.
Apr 10, 2009
Jackie, this is a great summary of the benefits of twitter – I’ll circulate it once I get back on to Twitter
I also found that Tweetdeck helped me enormously, though I only have one group (of friends) – that way I can keep up with them and just dip into the stream when I want to. That way I can tolerate a bit more irrelevant stuff.
I do however unfollow anyone who’s bugging or boring me, and I only follow those who chat, or who seem interesting. I am totally not into follow = follow, unfollow = unfollow. It’s not a game. And our stream is our stream – we get to shape it just the way we want.
Which is one of the reasons I love it so much – we take responsibility for our own experience.
See you on twitter soon!
Apr 10, 2009
I love that picture – jumping on a train when it’s already left the station. It says so much. Since I limited myself to what is going on in the moment – or for the time I am on – I feel it has been far more valuable. It is about finding your own way I think
Apr 10, 2009
Robyn- that question really made me think. I don’t think I comment less on blogs but I do chip ( or chirp!) in on Twitter more “in the moment” . The way that my work pattern has changed lately means that I have limited myself to reading blog feeds once a week – unless there is a link to a new post in a tweet from a blogger I follow. That’s interesting now that I come to think of it. I am probably visiting a wider variety of blogs on an ad hoc basis . Still have the old favourites though – l like Brain Based Biz of course
Apr 10, 2009
HI Joanna – your comment really made me think. In the early days I was encouraged by the number of followers and how that was growing and then I stopped noticing. Using Mr Tweet I was recommended to follow people I had not followed back that had followed me. I was surprised as I thought I pretty much followed everyone back but realised that I have always made decisions about whether to follow or not based on the profile and the last few tweets in their stream. I have only actively unfollowed one person – and that was because they DM’ed me with a sales pitch. I am hit my more and more of these and think that is a good plan.
I like the idea of owning your own stream, allowing it to be what we want and taking from it what we need and find interesting.
Thanks again for getting my old grey cells moving!
Apr 11, 2009
Jackie,
Good to hear you Twitter efforts get you results. I am still struggling to figure out how it can be more helpful vs just noise. But you gave me few ideas on how I can improve it
Apr 12, 2009
Hi Alik
I think I got to a point where I was in control and could see the wood for the trees – so hang on in there! And happy to share or bounce ideas too