The New Face of Communication

I started using Twitter a year ago and like 99% of the people that first start using it, I thought  ”What a waste of time. Who would use this?”  This isn’t another post on the top 10 apps/widgets/tricks to make Twitter work for you.  There are hundreds of blog posts about that from people that are probably far more qualified than I to talk about it. 

If you haven’t heard of Twitter, Wikipedia defines the site as ”a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”  I know 140 characters doesn’t seem like much can be accomplished, but it makes for more precise thought as well as random tangents depending on the user.

It was about four months ago that I became an active user.  After moving to Sweden last year, it was just a way to keep up with friends that are in America.  Then as I expanded my interest, it became more about meeting new people and learning more about social marketing.  Once I moved beyond my friends, the doors opened and I saw the power of this simple site.  A day doesn’t go by that I don’t find something on Twitter that helps me out in my in my profession or make a new connection.

While I was at Web 2.0 Expo Berlin, Twitter was a huge asset. It allowed me to find people in the sessions I attended.  Twitter told me when a lecture was canceled because a presenter wasn’t there.  It let me know where a person was so I could find them in a crowd of about 800 people.  It helped introduce me to new connections that I never would have made otherwise. 

On top of that, it gave people that couldn’t travel to Berlin a chance to find out what was happening and what people were talking about.  In the past you would have to wait for someone to write up an article about events that took place.  Now they are instantly conveyed to everyone the moment they happen.  How powerful is that?

For any upcoming convention that I can’t attend, I can follow what is happening thanks to hash tags for that event (for Web 2.0 Berlin, #w2eb was used).  LeWeb in France will be here in a few weeks and you can bet I’ll stay up todate at that convention by following the tweets. 

The possibilities for conversations are limitless.  With more and events and corporations joining the site, Twitter is becoming the ”go to” site for direct contact with end users.  There are hundred of stories like mine.  It's not until it happens to you that you can see how important social media can be.  How do you see Twitter changing the way you communicate?