How Twitter Saved My Life; Not Really, but Maybe?
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My Ignite session for ASAE's annual conference, August 6-10 in St. Louis. The presentation is my story of how I used Twitter to save my life. It's really about turning online relationships into offline friends and networks. The Youtube video of this presentation is available after the last slide.
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How Twitter Saved My Life; Not Really, but Maybe?
Editor's Notes
- 1b) When I moved to DC, I knew I had a lot to learn. Not only personally but professionally as well. I learned r-e-a-l-l-y quickly that DC wasn’t going to be a walk on the beach. I was going to have to figure things out the hard way.
- 1b) When I moved to DC, I knew I had a lot to learn. Not only personally but professionally as well. I learned r-e-a-l-l-y quickly that DC wasn’t going to be a walk on the beach. I was going to have to figure things out the hard way.
- 1c) When I arrived in DC I didn't have any friends. <slow speed> As much as I valued my co-workers; we weren't exactly the same age doing the same things after work. <pause> Frankly <pause>, I was pretty lonely at that point. So what did I do?
- 1d) For 10 months I tried meeting new people through sports leagues, volunteering, and online meet up sites. I was faced same problem every time; it's awkward. It’s weird. It's tense. It's basically like being on a first date - ALL THE TIME.
- 2a) I thought about quitting my job and moving back to California. Ultimately, I decided to give it another year. I finally realized the problem. <pause> How do you create meaningful connections in a city full of strangers?
- 2b) Well, It turns out there's this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G tool called Twitter. It's the kind of place where everyone wants to get to know your name. A place full of wonderful people to meet. Basically! <pause> It's the world’s biggest happy hour.
- 2c) So what is twitter? It’s a free social networking service that allows users to send updates, known as tweets from their cell phones, tablets, or computers. You post short messages about what you’re doing, share links, and meet new people.
- 2d) How do you find people to follow or share with? One way is with a hashtag. The # symbol is called a hashtag on twitter. People use it before keywords in their tweets to categorize them and make their tweets searchable by other people.
- 3a) If you’re on twitter and would like to connect with other association professionals while you’re in St. Louis. Follow the #asae11 hashtag. When you’re back in your office, join #assnchat on Tuesdays at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern.
- 3b) I started following people on twitter and kept seeing this hashtag #dctweetup. It was a happy hour organized through twitter. The question was, “How was I going to make this different than all the other things I tried?”
- 3c) The great thing about tweetups is when you sign up, you include your twitter name. This makes it easier to connect before and after the tweetup. A step that had been missing at other events. Isn’t it always easier to talk into a room of people you know?
- 3d) It also helped I was willing to admit I was new to DC and it was my first tweetup. For some reason, people on twitter love meeting people NEW to twitter. I think it's because we're like shiny new toys for them to play with.
- 4a) The more events I went to, the more people I started to follow on twitter. The more people I followed, the more events I went to. Eventually, I was at a point where I was overwhelmed with events. A welcome change from my first year in DC.
- 4b) What else is there besides happy hour? Well, You can organize other events. For example, we started doing #footballonthemall. For 16 weeks we organized football games on the national mall. These were anywhere from 3 on 3 to huge 12 on 12 games!
- 4c) How does this work? Think about the conversations you’ve had at happy hours. You start talking to one person, someone else adds their opinion, and the conversation grows in a viral manner. Ideally, on twitter, this leads to following new people and making new connections.
- 4d) So what did I learn? The real power isn't in just connecting to people on twitter. That's like collecting business cards. The REAL power is when you take it offline and gather with online friends, start meeting new contacts, and have a few drinks in the process
- 5a) I kept meeting amazing people through twitter. People who follow the same sports teams. People who went to my college. People I would eventually call roommates. Even <pause> people I would later call.. ok actually tweet…to help…ME… move!
- 5b) The reason I'm standing in front of you right now is because of the friends, connections, and networks I made through twitter. These people have added so much value to my life since moving to DC. I don’t know where I’d be without them.
- 5c) I asked some of them to tell me why THEY love twitter SO much and what it has done for them. I would like share with you what they told me. <Silence>
- 5d) So maybe twitter didn't save my life. But it sure made it a whole lot more fun for me. It kept me from leaving DC and my association job. And, it kept me from moving back home with mom; for which we’re both pretty thankful.