Twitter: Not just for sandwiches anymore!

Last Friday I found myself sitting around after work with some colleagues and we were talking about/debating the movie "The Social Network" over a few beverages. Eventually I groaned, "Ugh. Facebook. I'm more of a Twitter person myself." Which prompted the inevitable and anticipated barrage of "What the heck is Twitter anyways?" "Why does the world need to know I am eating a sandwich?"

So I launched into what has become my recent explanation or advice on getting the most out of Twitter. That is, find the community around your interests and passions. Like cars? Start with your favorite car company, products, shows, etc. Eventually you'll start to get a sense for who is interacting around that topic perhaps some will be celebrities but many will just be other people with the same interest, start following them, see who and what they're talking about and it will build from there. This is what my Twitter experience has evolved into over the last few years and it has been by far the most rewarding.

It's also occured to me recently that Twitter has for a long time had a pretty big PR problem and for a company building a product all about enabling PR and communication it is a bit ironic. Twitter being a small company it is probably a bit unfair to blame them but you only get one first impression. The problem is the first impression Americans got of Twitter was as the but of late night talk show monolouge writers looking for quick and easy laughs. Enter the "Why does anyone care that I am eating a sandwich?" I don't know meme, perception, impression. 

That was it. That is Twitter's brand forever. It doesn't matter how many Oprahs or Gaga's they have that was the average American's first impression of Twitter.  To be fair about a couple of things... First back in those days Twitter had much bigger things to worry about than PR like for example staying online for more than ten minutes at a time. Also Twitter was about the sandwiches and coffees and the mundanity of life for about three seconds then it became something else all together.

Twitter isn't for everyone. In fact Twitter probably isn't for a lot of people. It has though become a very powerful tool for connecting with more than just the world, breaking events, or the latest pop-star (though it is VERY good for all of those things). In my opinion what Twitter has become when it's at its most effective is a means of turning passionate individuals into at least the seeds of something bigger. For that it would seem it deserves at least a second look and perhaps a bit of thought before being dismissed so quickly.