Tag Archives: twitter

Twitter Gets Even Weirder

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Well, it seems that the world of Twitter just got slightly stranger as Geordie LaForge (also known as LeVar Burton, his real name) from Star Trek decided to use Twitter to plan an impromptu meetup with some of his Twitter followers in Toronto.  He tweeted that he was looking for a pub in Toronto to go to for a beer after an interview on CBC’s The Hour.  He got some suggestions, and then he said, ok I will be at this one in 45 minutes, meet me there for a beer.  And some people actually did.  By all accounts it was a rather awkward meeting, since no-one knew anyone else, and the folks that could actually get there were only mostly casual fans, not his typical hard-core Trek fans.  Still, this shows that Twitter allows a previously impossible level of immediacy to this sort of thing.  It really would be a dream for a marketer to say to the followers of a strong brand “Be in the market at the corner of George in 20 minutes for some free ice cream”.  Some folks would probably show, if they were interested, and if the story was compelling enough.

It’s a strange, twittery world out there people.  You should get involved, it’s still new enough to be fun, and it’s definitely new enough to be changing things as it goes along.

Twitter

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As a geek, I have naturally noticed the presence of the Twitter phenomenon as it appeared on the web a year ago or so.  It’s a micro-blogging service, you get 140 characters to type something that your followers will get to see.  It’s a little like instant messaging, except that anyone can follow you, so instead of a relatively private conversation, you are shouting across a crowded room.  It’s hard to describe until you try it.

Anyway, since it has exploded in growth recently, it’s hard to miss.  Lots of people are writing and talking about it.  Still, although I joined over a year ago and sent one lonely tweet (as updates are called), I decided I didn’t have time to get into it, and since I knew no-one else who used the thing, I forgot about it.

Then good cousin PJ mentioned that he and the rest of guys from Crush Luther would be recording their new album this week and would be Twittering updates from the studio.  Since Nikki and I were away on our weekend getaway, I thought it might be fun to see if I could get their updates on the iPhone.  Silly question naturally, a few minutes of hardcore geekery later I had rediscovered my dormant Twitter account and had located their Twitter account (crushluther, imagine that) and we were in the loop.  Way cool.  TwitterFon is the app for the iPhone that seemed to work best of the few I tried.  Anyway, over the last few days I have been slowly adding a few people here and there just for fun, and sure enough it’s really pretty cool.  The only thing about it is the urge to post a Facebook-style status update every once in a while, which I guess you could do, but it seems to be a lot less personal than just my Facebook friends, although there are lots of people on there that I know only in passing and they all get my inane status updates.  Maybe I’m still just a noob.  Anyway, if you decide to check it out be sure to add me so I can find you, on Twitter I’m known as _court.