On March 21, 2006, an automated "just setting up my twttr" message was sent by Jack Dorsey. He followed that message up with the first "human" tweet -- "inviting coworkers."
On March 21, 2011, a “human” tweet was sent from my account “I am starting this week waaaay to tired. On the plus side, bootcamp at lunch today. On the downside, bootcamp at lunch today.” I don’t want to brag, but I think MY tweet was much funnier than Jack’s.
I’m kind of laughing to myself today, not because of my joke, but because a few years ago I was SO anti-Twitter and pro-facebook, and now I’ve changed my stance completely. Facebook is great, but it’s a little too time intensive for me. Twitter on the other hand, gives me instant access to people and information in a convenient 140 characters or less.
Twitter fills the gap between my online life and my offline life. Even though I am a member of several message board sites, when I have a question like “what colour shirt goes with these pants?”, or “is it normal for my son to sound like he’s speaking another language when he’s angry?” I now turn to Twitter and have an answer within minutes. If I asked those questions on a message board, I’d have to wait for an answer, but with Twitter I can almost feel the people on the other side.
I started out on Twitter following a few celebrities, and then realized that I didn’t really care enough to follow what they were saying and I wasn’t going to get anything out of following them. That’s when I kind of dropped Twitter for a while. At the time I thought twitter was a tool for narcissistic celebrities, and let’s face it, Ashton Kutcher is never going to ‘add value’ to my life.
At that point, I re-evaluated my Twitter strategy and started following a few local moms and tech people that would add value to my life, and now I’m connected to a few hundred amazing people. This week I’m even heading to a major tweetup (Twitter meet-up) in the city to meet all these people face to face!
Bottom line is, Twitter can add value to you in so many ways – networking, news/media aggregation, or following people in an industry that interests you. For me it’s become a connection to smart, funny, interesting people that I’m not only happy to know, but also really looking forward to knowing more about.
So Happy Birthday Twitter. I’m excited to see what you’ll have to offer us over the next 5 years – hopefully a little less Charlie Sheen, and a little more real life.
Muah!
@ksswansong.
P.s. If you're new to Twitter, you can view a piece that Erica (@yummymummyclub) and Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) put together about twitter 101 by clicking here: http://yummymummyclub.ca/twitter-101
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