Changing Your Mind About Twitter

After rolling my eyes and playing dead over all of the twitter hoopla, I am now a memorized fan. Yes, I shifted my stubborn stance and changed my mind…….whew Six months ago I said to Sandy Jones-Kaminski, the Miss Manners of networking and early Twitter fan, “I mentioned Twitter to my kids and they asked, What is that?” Now my recent college graduate tweets every day….all day! As I write, I hear the tweet of her TweetDeck. I showed her the possibilities and then I had the delicious pleasure of hearing tell a friend, “My Mom knows more about Tweeting than I do”. That girl used to call me techno-babe and roll her eyes. OK. End of my mid-life bloviation. What is so fascinating about Twitter? and TweetDeck? Well, TweetDeck is the mother lode of eavesdropping. Do you want to know what is the word on the street for iPhones? a book? a movie, traffic, the Tour de France, the MJ special you weren’t watching. You can find out in real time. And it keeps at it while you are off doing other things. Search anything: At&T, organic cherries, Wii Fit and find out what people are really saying. Do you have any idea how many people put Wii Fit back in the box after it calls them obese? You can easily make twitter a personalized news feed. Your own international and local associated press feed without interference. Whatever weird eclectic interest you have that you wish you had someone, anyone to talk to about, you can find that someone on Twitter. Facebook is a virtual neighborhood. You create a community and you put on your Mr. Rogers sweater and check in to see what your friends are doing. You are at your neighbor’s kitchen table, or on the front porch in a small town and you learn a lot about what is going on, but your virtual neighborhood can span the globe. Twitter has the potential to open your world a few more big notches. What will it become? Will it last? Who knows? If the internet is the Wild West, then Twitter could be San Francisco. You might want to check it out. I am off to check my Tweet Deck searches. I hope I find you there. Check out my Upcoming class for the unemployed looking for some cheer.