Twitter

It took only seven days for me to appreciate the conversational power of Twitter, and to see why fans use it to follow artists and businesses. As I entered my second week I wondered what I should be tweeting about. I’ve wrangled a consistent audience of blog readers for years, but could I be compelling in 140 character soundbites?

Therein lies the paradox of Twitter. Many people get followed for who they are, rather than what they’re saying. But if you’re not Ashton, Oprah, or even Amanda Palmer, the only people following you for who you are will be your friends and blog readers. Maybe your mom?

That means you need to create a reason to be followed. You need a niche.

Some people skip out on niche-ing and just follow everyone else that they can find, hoping for reciprocal attention. It works – to an extent. You certainly could wind up with a hefty list of followers that way, but what’s the use of 1500 followers you don’t care to read? Are you even writing anything for them to follow and interact with? Wouldn’t a consistent, engaging conversation with 300 be more fullfilling?

Toby Diva eschewed the brute force approach to define her own niche: she’s is using Twitter to write a micro-guide to social marketing, which she’ll subsequently publish as a tangible book.

The idea is original and the content is strong – if you have an interest in social marketing you’d be silly not to follow Toby. Additionally, she’s engaging in conversation – the first time I mentioned her she even wrote me an @ thank-you note for tweeting about her.

In short, Toby is succeeding at Twitter just for talking about the thing that interests her the most.

I realized midway through week two that my twitter-gimmick is the same as my CK gimmick, such as it is. I lead a strange and interesting life! Marketer by day, songwriter by night, and freelancer and non-profiteer on the side.

I leveraged my intense Wednesday as an experiment, first live-tweeting a Lyndzapalooza meeting for the LP twitter, and then offering a play-by-play while co-hosting our weekly open mic with Gina. Suddenly, I was the one people were @ing. Was I live-tweeting an open mic? Where was it? I highlighted the artists, conducted twitterviews, and kept meeting new tweeters as people sent me @s or followed me.

Twitter seemed much simpler to me the next morning. It’s the same as anything else – write what you know and enjoy, and write it well. Even if it’s inane. Converse with like–minded people. And use Twitter to influence what you write elsewhere.

You create a cohesive, compelling, digital identity for yourself – and get to make friends all around the world that you would have never met otherwise.

By the end of my second week on Twitter it was beginning to make sense to me, but I still wasn’t addicted. It took seven more days for that to happen. More on that tomorrow. In the meantime, follow me.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform brought to you by the evil geniuses behind original-flavor Blogger: Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey.

The concept is simple and has been beaten to death by the media all this month: answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less, and follow the updates of other people you’re interested in.

To claim that as the definition of Twitter is akin to defining America as a democratic union of states. You leave out all the fun bits of the story.

The most immediate analog to Twitter is the Facebook status box, and many people who use both networks elect to sync their Twitter to Facebook, doubly updating their status with regularity. I had arrived by day two:

is apparently writing an Elliott Smith hip hop tribute song? I don’t know. It’s really confusing.

As the week pressed on I continued to follow people – friends, friends of friends, media figures. The more I followed, the more I began to understand – Twitter is an ongoing, multi-part, real-time conversation – and I could jump in with a response at any time.

After feeling things out with friends, I wrote a message @jacobtwop and he @krisis back at me! I posed a question @AmandaPalmer and she replied, as did Neil Gaiman to another @query.

Week one ended with me completely sold on the power of Twitter to connect famous and infamous folks to their fans. But did it really matter what I was tweeting about myself?

Check back for the next installment, in which my idle interest starts to become a habit. And, while you wait, follow me on Twitter.