Getting people to use Twitter is like pulling teeth. Yesterday I tried to get my boyfriend to start using his Twitter account. Like most (even myself for a while), he didn’t quite “get it”. I even told him this morning that I was trading him in for a 2.0 model if he didn’t start loving social media as much as me (joke). Then I told him he wasn’t allowed to IM me today unless he initiated it through Twitter first. (I’m hard-core, right?) Tough love for the sake of social media.
Well none of these things are going to work, so I was thinking.. how did I get so into Twitter?
I started my account last April. I got two whole friends into it who, like me, used it for a month or so and abandoned the account.
This past April I attended PodCamp NYC where I was reintroduced to it. Now I’m that shy jerk at these events that doesn’t really talk to too many people unless they talk to me first. I didn’t even attend the nightly events, instead I nursed a White Castle burger while watching Ugly Betty at the Marriott.
However, I did take note of the speakers who almost always offered up their Twitter accounts. I casually added them and watched Twitter for a few days after the event. I also downloaded the Twitter client Twhirl which had a huge part in me actually following conversations.
From there things basically took off. My first real conversation on Twitter was with @robblatt, then I started following some of the people he was following. Then I started searching for bloggers that I admired, who all happened to be on Twitter. Like I’ve said before.. who needs Paris Hilton when you’ve got Mike Arrington, right?
Now I use it every day. With the help of Brightkite, I’m always connected, sending pictures when I’m in traffic, or something funny when noone else is around to see it. I can get answers to questions I have in a split second about any topic for the most part, and the people I follow have tons of great links that sometimes inspire blog posts which is always helpful.
The boyfriend still doesn’t get it though. I guess it’s futile to try and get someone to understand Twitter. I helped him find people he knows at the places where he works, and had him follow a few bloggers that have to do with gaming (he works at the video game studio that makes RockBand and worked at the studio that made BioShock before that).
Also, his first “follower” was a porn site. They’re like rabid animals on Twitter.
We’ll see how it goes. I think everyone should like Twitter as much as me 
His Twitter handle is @Tweakin0ut by the way (forgive him, that’s been his handle since age 13) so give him a shout out.
Glad I could be of service to the Twitter community!
It’s hard to make someone understand why they should be on Twitter. For my wife (@theambershow) it was seeing that Ira Glass was on Twitter and someone of her favorite bloggers too.
Yeah I’m still on the search for SOMEONE that he’ll want to follow and interact with.
I think when you try to describe Twitter to someone, it sounds like the dumbest thing on Earth. You can say it’s a way to talk to friends, it’s a microblog, it’s an, um… it’s cool. Really!!!!
Twitter, to me, is incredibly dumb. But that’s what I love about it. It is whatever you want it to be. Until you start using it, I think it’s really hard to find the value in it. Of course, like any social network, you need your gang of virtual friends.
I’ve been using Twitter over the past few months for a few purposes. One, is I can get news or announcements or information instantly. This proved very valuable. Another use is I can just throw out some ideas to a large group for feedback. Hell, I even found out that a small rumbling of my building turned out to be a minor earthquake.
I will say, you do have a lot of folks out there Twittering about their most recent sandwich (sometimes bite for bite). But, once you filter that out and follow the right people, you’ll begin to wonder how you ever got along without it.
I agree completely. And I honestly always say “I know it sounds dumb” pretty much every time I try to explain it to someone. It’s all about following the right people I guess!
I’ve got your Web 2.0 right here, woman! Aww yeah!
If it doesn’t work out with your boyfriend, feel free to follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/barce/