A surprising amount of people ask me just what exactly Twitter is. What is it good for? they say. Why would I want to know what you’re eating? What I usually tell them is that Twitter is like a big bag of cocaine: if you don’t have a use for it, it’s totally pointless to have it. However, as an expat it can come in really handy as a networking tool, a business tool and even – gasp! – become a vital part of your life. I should know – I once asked my friend why I should sign up for Twitter if I didn’t care to know what he was eating. I was way wrong.
So let’s get the basics out of the way real quick in case you still don’t really get Twitter (you’re not alone): When Bob sends a Tweet, only people who want to hear what Bob has to say (his followers) get that Tweet. Bob can choose to follow his followers, or he can choose not to. If I follow Bob and find out he Tweets about stupid crap I don’t want to hear (like what he ate), I can unfollow him. Bye bye, Bob. There are certain nuances to this, of course, but that’s about all you need to know. Essentially, all the Twitter messages that I get I get from people I want to hear from.
Most people follow their friends because they have something in common, or celebrities because they’re funny or cool, or businesses because they’re interested in what that business does. Some people have a few followers, others have over 4 million (like Ashton Kutcher, for some reason). You can also block people who follow you if you don’t like how their name sounds or their haircut. Despite what some people say, spammers are pretty easy to spot, and even easier to block.
Where Twitter’s real use comes in is as a spreader of information. Imagine how fast it would get around your high school if word got out that two of your hottest female teachers were caught making out. Naked. At school. Yeah, Twitter is like that but on a global scale. When Ashton Kutcher sends a Tweet, his 4 million + followers get that information immediately, and each of them can then forward that (re-Tweet) to the people that follow them and so on. Pretty dull when you Tweet about dinner, but pretty powerful when you Tweet about something with substance.
I’m the guy on the right. No, the other guy.
As an expat, I have been amazed at the opportunities that Twitter has provided me. Readership to this here little blog has gone way up since I started promoting it on Twitter, my information net has been cast just a bit wider thanks to the extra ears I have in the Twitterverse, and I may have even become a bit more productive. But where Twitter really shows its potential (for me) is in the social arena.
A city like Bangkok has its share of freaks and weirdos, and it’s often quite hard to meet people who share your interests, are relatively ‘normal’, and who are not here for a few weeks on their gap year. After 8 years in Thailand, I have a pretty solid group of friends with the above qualities, which I cherish. But with the socializing power of Twitter and the ease with which information flows from user to user about meetings, parties, networking events and the like, I’ve made a pretty sizable group of new friends over the past year. All of them very cool, intelligent, tech-savvy, and into most of the same things I am. Beyond them, I’ve made many new e-friends who live in various points around the world, gotten jobs, connected with old friends, and grown my social network in ways that are hard to do with traditional means.
A Halloween party of the Tweeple, for the Tweeple, by the Tweeple.
In short, Twitter is a very powerful tool for expats, allowing you to see below the flotsam and jetsam that floats on the surface of a city like Bangkok and make direct connections with people who actually might want to hear what you have to say. And once you get to know them, you might even forgive the odd Tweet about them eating fruit. Heh.
In reverse, following you expats living in Thailand gives us Thai expats living elsewhere a window back into our hometown.
AND a whole new group of people to meet and friends to hang out with when you visit home next time. 😉
Great article Greg,
I think it took me about 6 months to really realize the benefits and get use to using the social sharing aspect of twitter. When you get past the learning curve of telling people you “just brushed your teeth,” twitter is definitely is a great asset to publicizing information.
By the way, it will be necessary to send some insane food tweets out of Chinatown, and maybe a few twitpics too.
A serious question:
What is/are the benefits of twitter over facebook?
I am trying to work out how I can use these to help grow my fanbase and internet traffic to my blog and cooking show.
http://www.conanstevens.com
http://www.cookingwithconan.com
Thanks in advance…
PS. Did you get a video of the teachers making out?
PPS. I am eating watermelon.
Interesting question, Biggest Dude. There are a lot of good articles online about it, but this one is nice:
Let’s say you go to social gathering where lots of people know each other. The style and tone of communication there will be more like using Facebook; you chat with old friends and acquaintances, mixing and mingling in an intimate manner. Conversations are familiar and center on shared experiences and connections.
Now, when you go to a large social event where you don’t know most of the people in attendance, you will use a very different style of communication, more like Twitter; you want to meet people and somehow make yourself known, stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self promote and make new connections. Twitter is like getting the podium.
Anyway, I find Twitter to be a much more mobile and nimble way to communicate with a group of people. There are certainly places where they overlap with each other, but Twitter makes your communication with the people who follow you a bit more of a direct affair.
PS – Hopw you enjoyed the watermelon and no, unfortunately, no video. 🙁
Thanks Greg, looks like I am going to have to look into Twitter a bit more.
* And now I am eating beef stew.
This mango is amazing.
I retweeted an article about the release of the movie I wrote and acted in “Bangkok Adrenaline” finally getting it’s long awaited release in the West (UK to start with).
On the strength of that I gained 3 followers who are in the industry with a combined total of about 1000 followers amongst them.
Now I see the benefits of Twitter, if they retweet then that is 1000 more people reading about me and possibly visiting my site, then the further retweets could make that more.
This is suddenly interesting – mainly because if I double my website traffic I will be making enough income to live comfortably here rather than scraping by like I do now.