Ten years on Twitter
It’s been ten years, 163,346 tweets and 10,341 followers since I joined Twitter.
Happy twitter-versary to me!
For those of you who still don’t “get” Twitter, you are missing out.
Twitter isn’t about what we ate for breakfast (although there are A LOT of food tweets!). It’s not about selling stuff. It’s not about advertising. It’s not about self-promotion.
Twitter is a platform built on relationships.
It’s about community, connection, collaboration.
It’s about people.
It’s about friendship.
And it’s about building trust.
Over the last ten years, so many of these amazing, wonderful and talented people have made me laugh, made me cry and made me think. They have shared and celebrated my personal and professional highs and they have cried with me during times of intense grief. They have sparked my curiosity, which has broadened and deepened my thinking.
My beautiful community on Twitter encouraged me to start my food blog, The Cook’s Notebook, which led to many incredible food-related experiences including meeting some of my food heroes – Maggie Beer and Luke Nguyen. They encouraged me to podcast, which led to new friendships and business opportunities. They provided me with guidance, advice and many relevant research links when I was studying for my Master of Public Health.
From a business perspective, a conservative 30% of my revenue in the last ten years has come from people who have known me from twitter and either engaged me or referred me. Being active on Twitter in those early months led to my first speaking engagements when I was asked to talk about using Twitter and social media for business. And yes, I can now admit I had to Google how to do that…
Many, many friendships developed in the aftermath of my parent’s deaths as hundreds of people reached out over Twitter with love, kindness and support. Deb Peralta from Dello Mano, who I had never met, sent my father a box of her spectacular brownies. Tucked away in the box was a sample of her new ginger cookies – little did she know ginger was his favourite. It was a bright moment during our family’s bleakest time, and a kindness I will never forget.
Yes, you can use Twitter for business. But the main reason you should be using it is for the people. Because these people can change your world. Like they have helped me change mine.
So to all my Twitter friends and connections, thank you. It’s been ten years with shared laughter, joy, frustration and sorrow, and you have all enriched my life enormously. I look forward to many, many more conversations over the next ten years.
And to those of you I’m not yet connected to, please reach out, I’m @melkettle.
