Thursday, April 30, 2009

I'm a Twitterer. Are you?

The Dallas Morning News has a weekly supplement they insert every Thursday into subscribers papers that's called neighborsGo!. It's a community based insert featuring neighborhood news that's relevant to communities but maybe not to the Dallas area at large.

Today, I got a nice tweet (message) letting me know that I had been selected as their featured Twitterer! It's so nice to be recognized. And for something I'm good at! Usually I'm in the spotlightout for blurting out an inappropriate comment in a sales meeting like, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

There's a lot of confusion and questions about Twitter. What is it? And why do I need to be on it? I am completely ADDICTED to Twitter. So much so that I probably only check Facebook once a day of late. Mostly, I find Twitter useful for information.

Yeah, there's people (Twitterers) on there posting about how they just ate a slice of pizza. Who cares. I follow a group of Media types who post really interesting links to articles that can help me with my job. I also follow different entertainment and dining venues around town and get information about deals and discounts that other people don't. And yeah, I also follow friends and hear about what they had for lunch!

Here's my analogy of these new forms of Social Media:
Your website is like an online brochure (stagnant but informative)
A blog is like a phone-call (chatty, fun and informal)
Facebook is like an e-mail (good for relaying photos and brief updates)
Twitter is like a text or an IM (What's up in 140 characters or less)

They provide different ways of establishing an emotional connection with your viewers/friends/audience. It's all about how you want to use it. Who knows, you might like it - give it a try!

Oh, and if you do... Follow me at www.twitter.com/OhSoCynthia You might be surprised at what you see me tweet about.