I've just completed my first week on Twitter - and what do I think? Well i quite like it. I started off by (like alot of other people) ignoring it. Everyone I speak too tell me:
1. They have heard of it - and don't get it
2. They have clients - who have never heard of it - so what's the point?
3. It's just the next fad - Facebook, Myspace, etc. and why be part of it?
So straight away Twitter is losing 3-0.
But I stop and think.
Rewind 6 weeks ago. I am walking my dog down the park and I bump in to a fellow dog walker. Conversation revolves around business. I run a small graphic design company called Pacific Shack. He has just taken over a local wine shop. He tells me he has now placed 100% of his marketing spend to online - and 0% for print. Well - what a sign of the times.
And then he mentions Twitter. Infact he doesn't mention it - he raves about it.
Back to present day and I read about the impact Twitter is having in the local press. My thoughts are with my friends who have told me why bother - and the local entrepreneur who runs the wine shop.
Well with nothing to loose - I decide to start an account. That was easy - and straight forward.
And then the addiction kicked in. I found how easy it was to find people with similar interest to me. I love the web and I love graphic design and making things work. So very quickly I find myself in bed with my laptop at midnight one night surfing Twitter. I am searching for others and finding them easily. And then I start learning what they know.
I read their posts - and quickly discover Twitter is not just about what you are doing in between lunch and dinner. It's also about sharing information. I start reading what fellow Twitterers have to say and I'm soon looking at their links and finding all sorts of useful stuff which is useful to my job. I am gaining more knowledge which I can use to help my clients.
So I start following them - and they start following me.
Cool! I am getting followers. That must mean something? So I learn about them. What do I find?
Well most of them are people who want to learn what I might post. I did get a few to begin with who were offering me promises of saving heaps of $$$ on my tax - if I lived in the US. Are these Twitter spammers? They soon drop off. Who are my other followers?
They are people like me. They enjoy finding out new ways of online marketing, SEO, coding and the latest cool looking websites. Some loves Macs - others love PCs. Some are from New Zealand - some are overseas.
So at the end of the first week I am now following 100 and I have 95 followers. Cool! This is very neat! Twitter is helping me to build a new network. Fantastic!
Twitter has also:
1. Put me intouch with someone who has invited me to a local business network.
2. Allowed me to get in touch with Judge Jules on Radio 1. I 'Twittered" him - and he gave me a mention during the show.
3. Given me local weather information from a local weather station on the next street where I live and work.
4. Connect my Tweets back to my website and my blog.
So to sum up what do I think of Twitter?
It's brilliant. It's texting on the web.
