Do you think that Twitter is about the Kardashians? Is it just noise that you think doesn’t matter to you or your business? When I started to realize the power of Twitter, I was at an educational conference, and Laura Fitton was one of the keynoters. She had co-authored a book “Twitter for Dummies”, but that wasn’t what made me a believer. This is a woman that went from homebound mom of two babies under two to solidly booked, traveling around the world and extremely well networked. How did she do it? Through Twitter. She became a keynoter thru Twitter, and that definitely got my attention.
You’ve hear the phrase “to be successful, surround yourself with successful people”, right? Laura Fitton did this using Twitter. You don’t have to “know” someone, or run into them at a meeting, you can connect with them via Twitter, ask for help, ask for answers, and not be confined by a physical location or network.
Laura Fitton (2nd from right)
me (2nd from left) and 2 of my colleagues
I watched Laura Fitton at that conference, even bought her book and got it autographed, and made a note in my mind to explore this thing called Twitter. Twitter didn’t make it to the top of my priority list though, because I work in a large bureaucratic organization that didn’t “believe”. Still we tried to push the envelope, and eventually made baby steps.
However, I still hadn’t made Twitter part of my life routines. I hadn’t “drunk the Kool-Aid”. Fast forward a few years, and I was stuck in Honolulu at the airport. The computers crashed on United Airlines, and if you hadn’t pre-printed your boarding pass, you were in a very long line at the ticket desks. After a couple hours and half of an iphone battery I was frustrated and tired. I wanted to whine, and I wanted people to hear me. I took some pictures, and started tweeting about the lines, and the people waiting in the lines. Some sassy, some whiney tweets left my fingers and my Twitter account. All of a sudden, I was getting questions from reporters (via Twitter). Reporters were getting information about the United Airlines computer crash, by reading tweets from people who were stranded. I became a believer. I drank the Kool Aid. I didn’t need Twitter to follow the Kardashian empire, but I had found that Twitter could connect me with people in unique ways. I could use Twitter to learn, to meet people, to whine, or get recommendations. Twitter became a powerful tool for me.
I read this blog on Laura Fitton’s consulting firm’s website. She wrote it in 2007, but it’s still making the rounds and being quoted, and I think everyone can relate to it no matter what year it is. When we are introduced to Twitter we may laugh at it, we evolve to where we know it’s an influencer, but we’re not sure how to engrain it in our lives. Then some event is the event that triggers your “I drank the Twitter Kool Aid” moment!
Did you have an “I drank the Twitter Kool Aid moment” yet? I’d love to hear about it — just respond in the comments below – or tweet it to me @FarmGirlMktg!
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