I’ve known about Twitter, Pownce, and other “microblogging” services for a while now, but honestly I’ve never felt the need to use them. I don’t even blog as much as I should, so I felt that I would never use a microblogging service.
I signed up for a Twitter account several months ago, and never really used it. I would login and update it from the website maybe once a month… not that accurate a description of what I’m up to.
Then I went to SXSW, and I found the real beauty behind Twitter. It seemed like everyone at SXSW was Twittering, and they were using it to keep up with all their friends, the conference and post back to everyone back home as to their status.
It was especially important at night, when you could get an invite to a semi-private party simply by Twitter. Or you could get valuable information in a message, like that some rock star just crashed a party.
After Twittering a good bit at SXSW, I decided it did have some actual benefits and I would do my best to give it a shot. Since I’ve been back, I honestly haven’t updated it that often, but then again I haven’t been up to much either.
I have, however, really enjoyed following all my friends on Twitter — especially the people I met in Austin.
I think my hangup with Twitter was because I was trying to use it from my dekstop. Once I was separated from my computer, and used Twitter from my iPhone I found its true potential. Keep up with people on the road, much quicker than using email (which isn’t even an option for most people who don’t have a smartphone), and much cheaper than mass texting.
I’ll be giving Twitter a real trial over the next couple of months to see if it fits my lifestyle. We’ll see.
