@Joey7Barton is always listening

I have always been sceptical of the value of Twitter, after what of value can be said in so few characters? Who would be interested in what I have to say? However through the encouragement of the Leicester Award for Employability, and due in part to the enthusiasm for the medium of a business colleague I decided to take the plunge and open an account.

It would be fair to say I had low expectations and accordingly set myself simple goals for the project; to better understand how Twitter is used and how it could be useful for me.

Being a technically minded person, in the past I have found it helpful to understand how the mechanism works and then concentrate on content and I used the guides provided through the Award to understand how the platform was organised.

The first step was to find some people to ‘follow’. This was fairly easily accomplished as twitter has become de riguer for any high profile celebrity and I found many people that proved suitable. I set criteria in that I felt it would be less productive to follow random people so I chose a variety such as prolific writers, comedians and sports men and women. I decided to follow not only those who were celebrated for using Twitter but also those who were berated for their outbursts. I felt that this would give me a greater understanding of what not to do!

What I found was that Twitter has its own rhythm and cadence and it’s an art getting your point across in so little space. I also discovered that despite its simplicity, the medium can provide valuable and up to date information but at the same time its immediacy can be destructive as some footballers have found out.

The surprising thing was that I gained followers. Not many, but some people I followed, followed me back and some people I suspect were using a paid for service to follow a lot of random people simply to gain interest and some were people that I actually knew.

What became clear was that the medium is a busy and vibrant place where getting your voice heard is more than about simply shouting ‘me too!’

Twitter was all at the same time everything I thought it would be and nothing like it. It can be a place full of trolls with only negative thoughts but also people with good hearts and intentions. As someone famous must have once said - all of human life is there.

It is also plain to see that it can be a very useful tool for business to interact with their customers and to this end I will start to use Twitter more, initially on a stream of consciousness basis but also late moving towards a more targeted audience with a specific message. This should help with the development of my own business as it will allow me to speak directly with my customers. I’ll use it with caution though as @Joey7Barton has taught me you need to be careful what you say as someone is always listening!