Confessions of a Twitter Virgin

Written on May 27, 2010 by Ali Davies in Business Success Blog
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Confessions of a Twitter VirginWhat are your views of Twitter? Raving fan? Can’t stand it? Not interested? Don’t care?

I ventured into Twitterland last year as part of checking out all this new fangled social media malarchy. OK, I confess – up until then I had been somewhat of a social media dinosaur.

When I first signed up for Twitter I fell into the “so what” category. I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I gather that this is quite common for people losing their Twitter virginity.

However, before writing it off completely, I decided to get educated on it’s potential business benefits – why I should be doing it, how I should be doing it, strategy and so on.

Suffice to say I now “get” its power and potential in a business context. I have morphed from the “so what” brigade to bordering on raving fan!

Confession time!

But for me, the real power of twitter and what I really love about it has got nothing to do with business. There, I’ve said it.

Yes, I know it is a powerful business tool but I have come to realise it’s real power lies in its ability to bring out what is good in human nature.

Sound like a whole load of soppy sentimental nonsense? Well, let me explain:

Last week my husband was in hospital for a big operation. The operation took a lot longer than I had been told it would take. Every minute felt like an hour. The days following the operation were a challenge.

During that time I received loads of messages via twitter from people all over the world. Messages of support, messages to make me smile, messages checking we were OK. I can’t tell you how much of a boost those messages gave me during what was a very difficult week.

There is much talk in the world of social media about measuring return on investment. And as I business owner I totally get that. In those terms, last week the personal return on investment I got from Twitter was priceless.

And that for me is the real power of twitter – humanness first, business second.

Please don’t think I have come over all rose tinted spectacles. There is much on twitter I don’t like. To find out more read Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

What about you? What are your thoughts and feelings on twitter? Come on – ‘fess up!

Related posts:

1.Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

2.Confessions of a Blogging Virgin!

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  • I'm glad you've found people being humane and reaching out on Twitter. I actually really liked Twitter for those reasons at first: it was nice to be able to reach out to people myself and help out.

    The reason I'm not using Twitter right now is that it sucks up time like there's no tomorrow (literally). Twitter works by cultivating relationships, and you typically want to talk to someone that has 10k followers not for traffic or promotion reasons, but because that person uses Twitter. Unfortunately, that turns Twitter into a giant chatroom that one may have to commit hours to.

    I think Twitter can be really awesome. But I also think there's something about Twitter and a general lack of attentiveness that bugs me. The people that stay close to me I'm not always in touch with. But I do remember what they had to say, and don't require their attention all the time, immediately.

    But again, your experience with Twitter sounds quite awesome, and I hope it keeps up. Hope your husband is okay; fingers crossed for times that must be trying.
  • Thanks for your good wishes for my husband. Much appreciated. He is doing well. When I first joined twitter I found the same as you - a real time sucker. But then I realised that I was allowing that to happen. So now I set myself small time windows when I am on Twitter and when the time is up, I come off. Works a lot better and stops it becoming the huge time drainer it could become.
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