Thursday, July 28, 2011

Remember the days of no Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google +, etc?



I remember the first time I heard about Twitter. My wonderful cousin Serenity *ahem* http://serenitybohon.com/ asked me if I knew about it. I said, what is Twitter?

A few years later I'm 10,040 tweets in, following 811 people, with 738 followers of my own, and listed 56 times. Oh internet, I really do like you most of the time.

I didn't have a goal in mind, and still don't mind you, that first day I created my profile. I can't remember now what my first tweet was. But I am sure there is some nifty tool out there that could tell me what I tweeted the first time. I do remember having no idea what I was doing. But it didn't take long to get the hang of it. I'm known to say that Twitter is my news source, and I'm serious. It really is. I learn what's happening in the world, very quickly with Twitter.

It took me a while, but I learned that connecting with people and sharing ideas, thoughts, funny stories, or even simple mundane details of my day, was a very cool thing. I didn't ask anyone to follow me. I think if the goal is to have many followers, the idea is to build relationships.
I just engaged with who I was interested in connecting with. I did apply what I consider important Twitter etiquette, the courteous "Follow Back" when someone began following me. It's very easy to decide later on, that the person or business is not for me, and simply click "UnFolllow". It's not personal. It's okay to unfollow someone. If someone "retweets" something that I have shared, a thank you is definitely in order.
 
I've met some really cool people in person that I would have never met if it hadn't been for Twitter. While I think people should be careful when meeting someone they haven't met before but have connected with online, if the setting is right, it's definitely a great thing. A group of people meeting, especially when a few of them already know each other, is okay. I also think that if the person has honest tweets, being true to themselves and what they believe in, when you meet them in real life, it just gets better.

I also think it's a really cool reminder, as I have a short conversation with someone in London, that we are all connected.

Remember the days of  no Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google +, etc?

Yeah I don't either. We've come a long way baby!

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS @apiphany tweets often, if she's not too busy. Sometimes she takes a break too. Give Twitter a Go, I think you might like it!

5 comments:

Life, Food & Cooking said...

I think it is cool that you have been able to connect to so many people. Twitter is an awesome way to talk to new people in different areas that you would probably never meet in person.
I definitely do have agenda when I am on there, unfortunately. I am sure that is obvious lol, and I probably annoy people too. Without twitter, my food blog wouldn't have received as much attention as it has in a week. So, I like the social media aspect of it for sure.

Anonymous said...

I love that your blog has taken off so well! I knew Twitter would help. Just keep engaging with all of the foodies out there, you're doing a great job my friend. =)

Serenity said...

I didn't remember I turned you on to this thing you have TAKEN BY STORM. I still love twitter best, even more than Google+, though I plan to use them similarly. I have a work twitter too and used a much different strategy - follow ALL the travel peeps basically. Many followed back, and I have 900 followers or so on there. I'm just at 300 with my personal account and haven't yet tried the strategy there. I've only recently gotten brave with the Unfollow, which has freed me up immensely to follow back in the beginning. You should have taught me that tip long ago! The twitter protege has become the twitter pro.

Serenity said...

Also, I found this: myfirsttweet.com, but it can only find your first tweet if you have fewer than 3200 or something! Here's mine:

serenitylive: Watching engaging video tutorials about web 2.0. After this, I plan to look up the word "engaging".

Aren't I cute? I'm still trying to figure out how to find yours. There MUST be a way!

Anonymous said...

Well, dear Seren, I always did say you were the sweetest person I know. I like being right about things. I tried the link anyway and received "Sorry, something went wrong. This is what I have recorded as your error: Too Many Tweets"
I need to be twitter quiet eh? ha! Just kidding. I have too much to say. I love your first tweet.