A Year With Twitter

Mar 4, 2008 | blog

twitter-2 So today marks a full year of Twitter use for me. I posted my first Tweet on 3/4/2007… something about reading feeds.

But that isn’t what I really want to talk about. Rather, I’ve been thinking of how integral Twitter has become as a part of my communications toolkit. It’s changed how I interact with my online friends, heck it’s provided the means to really meet most of them. It provides insight into my fellow social media explorers, and personal branding experts that I follow. It is just as critical to my daily comms as my mobile phone and email.

However, it’s not changed how I communicate with family, or old friends, or some corporate types since they don’t “get it” – or so they say. (That’s another discussion altogether.) However, it has made for interesting conversations with many of these folks. For many the constant barrage of messages, many from people one doesn’t interact with much, seems like a waste of time. They also can’t conceive of a reason that they would want to share their current activities with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people at once.

Of course those points miss the boat. As I’ve followed more and more people on Twitter, and have more people follow me, I’ve grown in my ability to absorb the data stream. I’ve become accustomed to having bits of information stream past all day. I find it interesting when someone chooses to vent frustrations. I’m invigorated by the short conversations on topics I rarely think about. I get excited to be able to answer someone’s question. I’m happy when I hear good things happen to these people who are familiar to me. I’m proud of the way the community itself pulls together and makes things happen.

Imagine, all this is captured and shared in 140 characters or less.

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Two years and counting: RickMahn.com

Feb 17, 2008 | blog

RickMahn-Logo Yep, two years ago today I posted my first post here on RickMahn.com.  Friends and coworkers thought it was a tad self-centered at the time, and I did feel a little uncomfortable launching a blog with my name.  However, starting my third year with this site, I think the content I generate (when I’m productive 😉 ), fits more than just my own needs.  The experience working on my own personal brand and career allows me to share what I learn, and meet many, many more interesting and knowledgeable people.

So, my first post was on February 17th, 2006 where I said hello:

Welcome to the culmination of my blogging efforts for the past year.  RickMahn.com is the place where I will talk about daily events in the technology space and blogosphere.  About work, a little about life, and sprinkled with a few rants on occasion.

The reason for starting a new blog is both simple and complex.  I’ve been using a number of blogging tools (Blogger, WordPress.com, MSN Spaces) with differing results.  I’ve come to the conclusion that Blogger.com currently was the most flexible, WordPress.com the most powerful, and MSN Spaces – well… oh my, look at the time.

So after a lot of research, learning new technologies, blogging, thinking, and figuring costs and such, I’ve set up shop here at www.rickmahn.com.  I’ll be here mostly every day posting on things that I find interesting, interacting in the blogosphere, commenting on others’ posts and so on.

So, come on back from time to time and check out what I’m doing – drop a line and let me know what’s good and what’s bad.  See ya round the ‘net!

 

So, that’s a quick look back to the beginning of my personal blog, though I did start blogging a little over a year earlier in December of 2004 with a MSN Spaces blog.  Learned a lot since then! 😛

I’d like to take a minute and thank everyone who continues to stop by.  I plan on keeping relevant content on social media, personal branding, some technology stuff, and a few selfish posts on what makes me happy.  Cheers folks and onward into year three!

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