May 21 2009
See Twitter inside your brain

If you’re “Twitter-friendly” already, you might consider sending this to those people in your life who just can’t understand what you’re talking about. You know, they make that face and get all flustered and say “but who has time for this?”
Okay, friends. Relax, take a breath, and imagine:
You walk into this big hall, where you see all kinds of diverse people, talking, working together, laughing. Everything looks so interesting.
As you glance around the hall, you see large, clear signs indicating areas of interest. “Dogs.” “Travel.” “Donuts.” “Star Trek.” “China.” “Autism.” “Wordpress.” “SEO.” “Blogging.” “Boomers.” “Party.” “White Sox.” “Follow Friday.”
A little weird. Seriously all over the map. Seems to be a lot of “following” going on.
In front of you is a console where you can enter your own words of interest. As you do this, all around the room, the signs change. You find you can instantly gather a group of people interested in your topic. Some want to learn from you. Some want to be your peer. Some want to help you with your goals. Some are just annoying old guard sales people, and with a click, you can make them disappear from your radar.
And what about that language? So many strange forms of punctuation. And those acronyms! No matter. Just ask. Someone will delight in explaining. They’re playful, and useful. This is a culture. It has its language.
You stand at your console for a moment, refining your areas of interest, and watching the signs around the room change. Soon you have a selection of topics that absolutely delights your brain. It’s a perfect amalgam of you, your life focus, what you enjoy, what supports you, and where you want to go next. You follow your heart.
As you travel through the various areas you’ve selected, you meet so many people who have surprising similarities of life and love. If you choose, you find people in proximity and you can meet them in person. Sometimes you realize an area of interest wasn’t at all what you hoped. Click! Off the radar with that one too. Mostly, though, you find your own brain expanding with the ideas, innovations, and offerings of others. New perspectives give you a boost in your own creativity. You realize you’re actually on to something.
The difficult thing about it all is the excitement. With the rising tide of possibility, you have to keep refining and making more focused choices. And all those new friends!
But you don’t have to stick around when it gets overwhelming. With a blink, you can find yourself at your familiar desk, getting on with other things. The difference is, you’ve tapped into a big, moving river of possibility, relationship, expansion, connections, innovation, and creativity. It’s there. It likes you. The welcome mat is out.
Get started, it’s not hard. Go on www.Twitter.com, enter the small steps to create an account, and then you can come follow me. Just to get going. I’m @brainmaker there on Twitter. We’d love to see you!
Suzanna Stinnett
Now that you’ve visited the hall, be sure you know about The Twalienator

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May 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
You’ve described Twitter for those who’ve never been there in a most clear and interesting way. I WILL share this with others.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Suzanna, you’ve done it again! Given birth to understanding via simplifying a technology tool. This time with Twitter. You are the tweetest thing around!
May 21st, 2009 at 4:24 pm
One of the nice things about twitter, in addition to the stuff you’ve described so well here, is that the tweets are short — each one limited to 140 characters — easy in, easy out, don’t have to feel guilty for not writing a novel each time.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 am
Nicely done. Good explanation.
May 25th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Nice metaphorizing! I love this description. I too remember that initial feeling of “wow, this is all exactly what I want to be reading about”… already tweeted it…
July 12th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hi Suzanna!!
I saw your note on WACCO about your Mon. class (which I don’t think I can make) but I love what you’re saying, so followed the link to your blog here. I have in fact been exploring Twitter, with wavering amounts of enthusiasm – I’ve hit another “whatever…” moment, out of being unclear what I want to follow and struck by the mindlessness of the top 10. Your blog here is so very inviting and re-opens the sense of possibility I recently had in it. I’ll be looking further into your blogs…
And it is so good to see your face (photo) and see what you are up to!!
July 16th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Hello Mary! And a warm welcome to my website.
Your ambivalence over Twitter is totally understandable, and the most common experience people have. In the beginning, it is hard to see anything but the superficial electricity zipping around. One thing to keep in mind is that the “Top 10″ topics represents a kind of mass demographic that actually has very little to do with Twitter itself. Twitter happens to be an easy and very quick way to engage any kind of pop culture, so that drives those numbers and hierarchies. On the other hand, Twitter is very flexible and diverse, so it can be used just as easily to engage the exact community you most want to serve or learn from. I pay no attention to the pop culture on Twitter. (But then I’m the one turning the Enquirer magazines around at the grocery store so I don’t have to look at the cover! Ha!)
It took me almost a year to really start using Twitter. Take your time, as you’re doing, and it will unfold.
Love
Suzanna