Hi everyone! Today is my first Twitterversary: I have been using Twitter for exactly 1 year. And although I had no idea then how big this thing would get, I still made a point to mark the event with this blog post:
I finally started using twitter today, and I am pretty psyched about it.
If you’re one of the 6% of adult internet users currently microblogging (using twitter) to keep tabs on your friends and colleagues, put your seemingly time-wasting hobby to good use – or at least come up with a better justification for your twitter habit at work:
You – “Twitter? Yeah! I use it all the time! It’s a great research tool!”
Your boss – “Really? A research tool?”
You – “Suuuuuure! One could find out all sorts of things thanks to twitter, if they were so inclined.”
Enter tweetscan.com (the twitter ap that turns your geeky and questionable tweeter addiction into a pretty kickass “out of the box” initiative that will make you the envy of your cubiclemates).
If you want to find out what people are saying about ANYTHING, hit tweetscan and enter your keyword in the search box. Try it. Throw your name in there. Throw your company’s name in there too. Find out what people are saying about anything at all. Your new product. The airline you want to book a flight with. Your kids’ top 3 college picks. A restaurant you’ve been wanting to try. A new movie. Your latest customer program.
It’s very cool, pretty effective, and best of all, it’s free.
And fresh.
And they didn’t call it twitscan… which is a very good thing.
That’s what I loved about Twitter from the very beginning: The vast potential of the platform and the ocean of applications, from online reputation management to customer engagement and live peer-to-peer collaboration. Endless possibilities. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out, even back then.
Because of some social media restrictions at work, I didn’t get to truly start using Twitter until I left the world of cubicles and TPS reports last September. The stats since then (approx.):
Followers: 5,569
Following: 5,087
Updates: 11,366
My Twitter Grade: 100
My Twitter ranking: 263/1,766,380
More benefits:
About 200 new friends, colleagues and co-conspirators in the Greenville area alone.
A 20%+ increase in my blog’s readership every month.
24-hour access to the best articles and studies about marketing, design, business development on the planet.
Direct access to some of the industry’s best and brightest practitioners, from Ford’s Scott Monty to Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki.
Conversations, conversations, conversations: Twitter has taken the discussions started on this blog to a whole new level.
Knowing what everyone is doing, just in case I want to cyberstalk them.
A whole new category of services companies need help with.
Information: Faster, better and pre-filtered by people I trust.
Enhanced collaboration between fellow practitioners (using Twitter to plan book projects, lectures, seminars, etc.)
Contractor-sourcing (Oh yeah. Twitter is a great place to meet your next graphic or web designer.)
Tighter engagement with a few of my favorite (and least favorite) brands: Jet Blue, The Home Depot, Ikea, Whole Foods, Liquid Highway, Bi-Lo… It’s been pretty rewarding already. Can’t wait to see what 2010 will bring when Twitter becomes even more integrated.
The list goes on. Anyway, here’s to my first full year on Twitter. Thanks for having made it a good one. 
[...] Original post by Olivier Blanchard [...]
Happy Twitterversary
I passed mine a few months back and didn’t realize it. Time flies when you’re tweeting. Not that you need a reason to buy one, but you should have cake today.
@BrickandClick
Though it’s only been a few months since we connected, you’re definitely a valuable part of the Twitter community.
Look forward to more Twitterversaries
Thanks for the well-wishes. I will definitely get myself a little Twittercake to mark the day.
I made you a twittercake… but I tweeted it.
Congrats!
You and I nearly share the same Twitterversary. Mine is today, the 28th. I had no clue what I was going to do or how I was going to utilize it. Looking back – it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long while.
I get the restrictive atmosphere of the world of cubicles and TPS reports, man. I’m still languishing in that world myself. One day I hope to break free!
Great points on what Twitter is good for too. I sent this to one of my friends who has just asked me “what is Twitter”? That is such a loaded question.
Thanks for so much great advice– especially as it relates to up and coming social media! Your thoughts are spot on and I truly enjoy reading your blog!
Thanks, Emily.