All Posts Tagged With: "Twitter"

I’ve fallen into Twitter and I can’t get up. Nor do I want to.

I’ve capitulated.

It was only six months ago that I expressed, right on this blog, my reservations about Twitter:

“I admit I’ve had mixed feelings about Twitter myself - I registered many months ago, but have really yet to post to it. Between my life, my job, my blog, and everything else, I haven’t been able to get to the point where I can chronicle my activities in that manner.”

I had it very wrong. It’s not just a “chronicle of activities“.

Here’s what I just said on a very, very good post about Twitter by Chris Cree:

“Ah yes, Twitter. You know what it is? It’s the “ticker tape of collective thoughts”. They stream in front of you in a way that is strangely relaxing, not unlike watching a real stream up in the mountains. I really resisted this too - really. I didn’t think telling people what I had for breakfast was really interesting (or relevant). But I missed the point. When I saw the fun people were having with it at Blogger Social in NY last month, I finally got it. And jumped into the stream. And now I’m flowing just like the rest of you. Life is strange, because it is so capable of surprising you. Twitter really surprised me.”

The thing that really locked me in was how we used Twitter at SOBCon08. I had just finished my opening comments on Saturday and sat down in front of my computer in the back of the room, and decided to check-in with the Twitter stream. Sure enough, there were attendees “Twitting” to each other about what they were seeing, hearing, and feeling.

“What a cool backchannel!” I thought. I jumped in, and in the process, also posed questions about the sound quality, the temperature in the room, and a host of other things I wanted to get immediate feedback on. And feedback I got. All good and useful, and I didn’t have to interrupt the flow of the conference to make needed adjustments.

We saved a ton of time simply because we opened this backchannel, and in the process we found “reason number 136 that Twitter is really useful” - as a “quiet” feedback mechanism for MC’s at conferences.

Yep, that’s a “business use” if I’ve ever heard one. Even if some people think it’s a cult

Ruth Marie Sylte came up with even more institutional uses for Twitter on this post. Even folk-rock stars are using Twitter!

I’m so pumped about Twitter now that I just HAVE to break out into song (to the Sinatra classic “Come Fly With Me”):

Come Twitt with me, lets Twitt lets Twitt away
If you can use, some exotic prose
Theres a blogger in far bombay
Come Twitt with me, well Twitt well Twitt away

Come Twitt with me, lets float down to peruse
In Twitter land, theres a blogging band
And they’ll toot their flutes for you
Come Twitt with me, well float down in the blue

Once I get you on there, where the air is rarefied
Well just glide, starry eyed
Once I get you on there, We’ll follow you so near
You may hear, posters cheer - you’re a Twitterer now!

Twitter wise its such a lovely day
You just post the words, and we’ll link the blurbs
In each and every way
Its perfect, for a social network swoon - they say
Come Twitt with me, well Twitt we’ll Twitt away

By the way, I’m @Starbucker, and I’m a Twitterer. Fully capitulated.