Twitter: What Am I Doing??
March 19th, 2009 by Leo Wurschmidt
I had lunch a few days ago with Jonathan Scott, my life coach.. uh, my one-on-one motivational speaker… uh, my good friend and LifeGroup handler/director. During our conversation we talked about Twitter. I tried my best to explain Twitter and why people use it:
Well you see Jonathan, Twitter allows you to tell people what you are doing. It is in a similar vein to Facebook’s status update, but it is so much more than that. Through these frequent back-and-forth updates, Twitter allows you to really engage in conversations with other people. All of this helps to build a solid online community of friends and peers.
That explanation adequately describes Twitter and how it operates, but it occurred to me that you cannot truly understand what Twitter is until you dive in.
I Feel A Little Stupid
I was listening to a great web developer podcast a few weeks ago when I heard the following conversation. The conversation reinforces my aforementioned thought. The excerpt from the podcast is when two of the co-hosts were talking about President Obama using Twitter during his campaign.
Brad Williams:
Now, you can’t tell me that he [President Obama] didn’t think Twitter was a little stupid when he first heard what exactly it was.
I think everyone that signs up on Twitter has to question what they are doing when they first sign up.
Kevin Yank
Step one of Twitter: acceptance.
And there it is:
- You will probably feel stupid as you sign up for Twitter.
- You will definitely wonder what use you will ever get out of Twitter.
- You may think how it will probably be a waste of time.
Join the Crazy Community
However, once you accept that you are just as crazy as the millions of other Twitter users then you will find a vibrant, exciting community. And from a web marketing perspective, this community is important to help build your brand, reputation, and relationships. All of which are necessary components of an ongoing web marketing campaign.
The Twitter icons are courtesy of Smashing Magazine and Mirjami Manninen.
Tags: branding, community, relationships, twitter
March 19th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Haha, that is too funny. I completely understand. I cannot get my wife on Twitter at all. She just got on Facebook and loves it, but she is slow to adopt new social media outlets like a lot of people.
Thanks for the comment, Derek!
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
A youth pastor friend of mine is in the same boat this past week. He can not get his head around Twitter given how deeply he is rooted in Facebook. In his case, and I have seen this with my nieces and nephews as well, teenagers know about Twitter but default to texting or Facebook. I think Twitter seems to have a niche at the moment with the 20-45 crowd in business. Would you agree?
March 26th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Yes, I would agree with you that this is definitely in the 20 – 45 crowd, which is probably why it works so well as a marketing tool in a lot of the genres surrounding that age group.
I do find it funny that people who are so entrenched with Facebook just cannot wrap their minds around Twitter. I have seen that situation on more than a few occasions.
Thanks for the comment, David!
April 1st, 2009 at 12:15 am
Totally true…you do feel kinda stupid when you first tiptoe into Twitter. It's like you're walking into someone else's party uninvited. But then you start to meet a few folks and it ain't half bad.
Great post.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Haha. Great simile! Yeah, you begin to make friends and before you know it you are the life of the party.