Guest Post: A few months ago, I helped Jeff Wiener put together a new blog. Along the way, I also encouraged him to embrace Twitter as a part of his social media strategy. As a good client, Jeff took my advice but he admittedly didn’t really get Twitter until recently. Here is Jeff’s take on his Twitter epiphany:
Do you ever have that light bulb moment? Sometimes, it finally hits you. So often people talk about an event, product, restaurant, food or, in this case, technology, and you wonder to yourself what all the hype is about. It just doesn’t seem to make sense until – the light bulb moment.
I finally had that light bulb moment with Twitter. I’ve been posting to Twitter for the past two months, and now I’m up to 80 tweets and almost 1,700 followers.
I still didn’t get the Twitter concept until last Friday. I had been reading in the papers for the last while about the hype of Twitter, and how it could it one day replace (or at least diminish Google’s dominance) in the Web. I’d been speaking to people, and still, no light bulb. I wasn’t getting it.
Reading this makes me sound like a neophyte. I’m not. I just wasn’t getting Twitter. Friends would ask what I saw in Twitter, and, quite frankly, I didn’t know what to tell them. But, I diligently posted.
So, what happened. Why the light bulb? I write a telecom blog, and last Friday I was following some important business news that was expected to be announced: Nortel’s enterprise business is being sold by the courts, and all interested parties needed to have their bids submitted by noon.
At around 11 a.m., I went to Google, which until now has been my search engine of choice; typed in: “Nortel Enterprise News”, and up popped an article posted two hours prior, written the day before, talking about the next day’s 12 p.m. deadline. I clicked refresh at 11:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and nothing. No news.
Then, at 1:30 p.m., I decided to check Twitter. I typed in “Nortel”, and a beautiful stream of chatter, live discussion, thoughts, and real time events appeared. I went back to Google, and there, four hours later, was the same OLD post.
I realize that if I am looking for a “Fish and Chips” store near my house, or a movie write-up, Google/Yahoo are still the best options. It’s funny how I am considering Google search to be OLD search. And I now, finally, understand the importance of real time search and the power of Twitter.
Then it got me thinking about all the articles I had read about Twitter and how it could potentially threaten Google’s search dominance. And yes, it is possible. Twitter has so much potential.
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Twitter: The Light Bulb Moment!
Do you ever have that light bulb moment? Sometimes, it finally hits you. So often people talk about an event, product, restaurant, food or, in this case, technology, and you wonder to yourself what all the hype is about. It just doesn’t seem to make sense until – the light bulb moment.
I finally had that light bulb moment with Twitter. I’ve been posting to Twitter for the past two months, and now I’m up to 80 tweets and almost 1,700 followers.
I still didn’t get the Twitter concept until last Friday. I had been reading in the papers for the last while about the hype of Twitter, and how it could it one day replace (or at least diminish Google’s dominance) in the Web. I’d been speaking to people, and still, no light bulb. I wasn’t getting it.
Reading this makes me sound like a neophyte. I’m not. I just wasn’t getting Twitter. Friends would ask what I saw in Twitter, and, quite frankly, I didn’t know what to tell them. But, I diligently posted.
So, what happened. Why the light bulb? I write a telecom blog, and last Friday I was following some important business news that was expected to be announced: Nortel’s enterprise business is being sold by the courts, and all interested parties needed to have their bids submitted by noon.
At around 11 a.m., I went to Google, which until now has been my search engine of choice; typed in: “Nortel Enterprise News”, and up popped an article posted two hours prior, written the day before, talking about the next day’s 12 p.m. deadline. I clicked refresh at 11:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and nothing. No news.
Then, at 1:30 p.m., I decided to check Twitter. I typed in “Nortel”, and a beautiful stream of chatter, live discussion, thoughts, and real time events appeared. I went back to Google, and there, four hours later, was the same OLD post.
I realize that if I am looking for a “Fish and Chips” store near my house, or a movie write-up, Google/Yahoo are still the best options. It’s funny how I am considering Google search to be OLD search. And I now, finally, understand the importance of real time search and the power of Twitter.
Then it got me thinking about all the articles I had read about Twitter and how it could potentially threaten Google’s search dominance. And yes, it is possible. Twitter has so much potential.