Twitter Is…

Feb 27, 2009 | blog

twitter-2 Since Twitter is the current social media darling, I thought I’d record a few thoughts I’ve had about one of my favorite online tools.  I’ve had the privilege of using Twitter for two years, and each and every person I’ve followed or had follow me along the way has taught me something new.  So here we go.

Twitter is…

  • a place for friends
  • a news outlet
  • a place to share your greatest failures & your most stunning achievements
  • an attention getter
  • a publishing platform
  • a customer service tool
  • a researcher’s dream
  • vulgar
  • the ace up your sleeve
  • brilliant
  • a new entertainment channel
  • a social network
  • a micro-blogging platform
  • a marketing tool
  • your community
  • overwhelming
  • 24x7x365 (always on)
  • a level playing field for your ideas
  • a sounding board for your thoughts
  • a comment reel for your new book
  • your starting place for your online excursions
  • the place for your organization to learn about it’s customers
  • a multicasting instant messenger
  • a game changer
  • a PR tool
  • a messaging infrastructure
  • a simple way to share & trade information
  • can be inane
  • is faster to publish to than anything else
  • is where you go to learn
  • your online “water cooler”
  • a conduit into the lives of others
  • a conduit into the idea stream of smart people

I’ve got a lot more input on what Twitter is than I could fit in this post, so I’ll work on fitting that into another format of some type.  What is Twitter to you?  I mean, what has Twitter brought to your life that you can’t believe you lived without before you discovered it?

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rickmahn

2008 – My Predictions

Jan 1, 2008 | blog

Well, It’s time I talked about what I think is going to be growing trends in 2008.  I’ve been amazed at the trends in 2007, with the rise of micro-blogging, Facebook, and other social-networking and social-media tools.  Seeing the interest, functionality and participation in these tools, to me, fosters ideas of how they can be leveraged in the enterprise.  It’s been a great ride, and I believe a lot of this will continue into 2008.

So here is what I think will be some of the trends and events in 2008.

  • Social Network tools & platforms make inroads into the enterprise.
  • Public micro-blogging tools continue their growth.
  • The original “New Media” disrupter, the blog, re-emerges as the focal point of many individual and businesses.
  • Personal Branding gains more mainstream understanding and acceptance
  • Video becomes more prevalent as a social media tool for posting, sharing, micro-blogging, and more
  • More, simple, social media tools (SocNets) become available for business or professional networking
  • Microsoft and Apple continue to look more alike in their successes and failures.
  • The use of “bite size” media becomes an easy to use building block for the average person

Well, that’s it for now – not a big list, and probably not many revelations there.  It’s probably more indicative of what I’m looking for and focusing on for the next few months anyway.  Cheers!

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The great Jeremiah Owyang Twitter expansion of 2007

Dec 11, 2007 | blog

Jeremiah OwyangI want to thank Jeremiah Owyang for his Some Conversations have shifted to Twitter blog post earlier today.  It gave literally hundreds of people the opportunity to find new people to interact with.

The post went up sometime before 10am (Central Time), and Jeremiah Tweeted about the post on Twitter shortly thereafter.  Within just a few minutes, there were over 20 comments on this post with people giving feedback and sharing their Twitter profile links, inviting others to follow them and join in their conversation.

twitterWithin three hours the comment count had climbed to over 160 with more streaming in constantly.  This desire to interact, to connect, share ideas, and communicate is nothing new, but what followed on Twitter is the bigger story.

We can talk numbers, and its at least someplace to start.  For example I found nearly 100 new people to follow, and about 80 people have chosen to follow my Twitter postings.  Fellow Twitters had similar experiences today and in some cases doubled their follower counts.

However, what’s at the root of this enormous expansion in Twitter following is the desire to build community.  To interact with more people, from different places and expand our peer networks.  The numbers are simply a statistic to track, but the real important part is that I was able to find 100 or more interesting, intelligent, fun people that I wanted to add to my daily or weekly conversations.  I’m also flattered to have so many people interested in what I bring to the table as well.

The net result for the next few days will be learning how to deal with a fire hose of Twitters, a constant barrage of information.  Currently I’m trying to read as much as possible as it passes by, but I’m quickly learning to skim and watch for the topics I should read and not absorb it all.

The post itself is a great piece about why Twitter is a useful tool, and should be read simply on it’s own.  But I bet if you go read the post, the comments will pull you in and soon you too will be a part of the community-building exercise that has morphed out of a good blog post.

By the way, at the time of this writing, there were in excess of 300 commenter’s, sharing and building their communities.  Are you?

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