Twittle Me This

I have a little riddle for you…

What has 140 words or less, resembles a bird, and is all over the world at the same time?

If you haven’t guessed Twitter yet, you’re either living under a rock or I just suck at riddles. (I’m guessing the latter)

Believe it or not, Twitter has been around for 4 years now and has rocked the world’s casbah like no tomorrow. Ranked as one of the top 50 most popular websites worldwide, Twitter has over 75 million users worldwide.

When I first jumped on the Social Media Platform last year in Ghana, I think my first few tweets said it all about my initial impressions. The first tweet went along the lines of “Why am I using Twitter? TBD…” and maybe a month later it was “This is dumb.” I thought to myself, why the heck would I want to update my status every hour? Who Cares! I actually remember planning to mock the whole idea and for a week just tweet my exact movements .. i.e. “I am sitting”, “I am now walking down the stairs”, etc. If there’s one thing for sure, had I done that, I would have no followers.. followers.. that’s the other thing,.. who– ok I better stop, otherwise I could go on forever. Let’s just say, initially I wasn’t a big fan of this whole Twitter bonanza.

Lesson Learnt…

After a few months in Canada I began to realize something… Twitter is about how you use it, not about what it ‘is’. What I mean by that is Twitter can, and has proven to be, a very powerful force in society today. For example, Dell has reported more than $6.5 Million in sales thanks to Twitter and even Rogers uses it as a primary platform for interacting with customers. Go figure!

Although these are all nice, nothing really ever compares to witnessing the power of twitter first hand…

Part 1

One random day, I came across a re-tweet (i.e. tweet re-posted by someone I follow) from a guy, Jeff, who I wasn’t following. It was pretty interesting and dealt with my interest in marketing, so I decided to ‘follow’ him.

PaRt 2

I attend an awesome Social Media event at Centennial College, Talk is Cheap, and meet my friend Debbie. While catching up she tells me she’s looking for a PR internship so to keep my eyes peeled. As usual, I throw out corny joke, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep my eyes more peeled than an onion”. (Not sure if that even makes sense, but common you know.. onion.. peel…Hizzah!)

Part 3

While sitting through the first discussion panel, I’m busy listening to what is said, tweeting about it, and reading other tweets. You see, for those of you who haven’t been to a social media event yet, it’s kind of unprofessional to NOT have your phone out tweeting throughout. Anyways, all of a sudden I realize that the guy in Part 1, Jeff, happens to be tweeting about the same event. Looks like we’ve crossed paths… cool!

Part 4

Near the end of the session I read a re-tweet by Jeff, from a lady named Julie, that says something along the lines of “Looking for a PR Intern…” … My eyes are fully PEELED (get it).. AH hA!

Part 5

“Check This Out!” I exclaim to Debbie right after the session ends. We both try to pinpoint someone we’ve bother never met, just based on their display pic. Voila.. a lucky guess and we finally meet Jeff! We all begin to chat with similar interests, and Debbie with potential leads.

If that wasn’t crazy enough for ya, the next day I was welcoming Julie (the lady who tweeted about the internship) to her first Raptors game, once again thanks to twitter!

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that sure Twitter can be a silly over-hyped tool, but like any other tool, not if you use it wisely. You can meet some great people (like I have), discover many opportunities, and learn a ton of new things!

I was fortunate enough to meet with Julie yesterday to learn more about marketing and social media. She provided 2 really valuable tips for twitter I thought I’d share:

Engage – Twitter has become a sort of communication platform that involves people engaging in conversation. What that means is tweeting is good, but it’s even more important to listen to others tweets. Interact with people using Twitter and you’ll find the experience much more valuable.
Be Careful what you tweet – If you want people to listen to what you write, you have to a) make it of interest and b) make it of value… ‘a)’ you can’t control really control because whatever you tweet about is usually your interests, and you’ll usually get followers who have similar interests; but ‘b)’ you do have control over. Make sure you keep in mind your followers when tweeting and re-tweeting and don’t spam!