TJ Gamble

I guess this is just one of those things that has to grow on you.  It wasn’t two days ago I was thinking of giving up Twitter.  A good week of tweeting and I was ready to call it quits.  I had no use for just rambling to myself.  However, as we often do after a bad breakup, I’ve seen the light.  I’ve been a bad twitterer.  I didn’t appreciate your specialness and now, I hope you can forgive me. 

Twitter, you mean so much to me, and I just want to apologize.  I spent that last several days taking your advice and following more people and adding a few followers of my own.  In doing so, I discovered what makes you so special.   Below is a brief summary of what I have been getting from you that helps make me better at what I do. 

Inspiration
The level of interaction with people I don’t truly know is fantastic.  Through Twitter, I have a general idea of how other, more well known people in my industry spend segments of their day.  There is no other way I could have gotten this information.  It is too mundane to blog those details, and with most of these people that is our only contact with them. 

For me, this interaction is the most inspirational part of Twitter.  It makes industry celebrities into humans.  I can see that those slightly ahead of me on the success curve struggle with the same things I do.  I can see that most have more opportunities and ideas than they have time.  I know that there are others that are having to worry about distractions such as kids getting to school before they start their day.  I know that I am not far from being where these people are and that they are not super human or have some extraordinary ability to get things done that I don’t possess.  The only difference is that more people know their name and they have been doing it longer than I have. 

Constant Updates
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be in a video conference with the owner of JohnCow.com.  It was a fun, entertaining, and moderately informational look into someone else’s world. The chat lasted an hour or so, and the only way I knew about it was that I follow John Cow on Twitter.

These constant updates are what really provides the power behind Twitter.  As soon as I post this blog, my followers will be instantly messaged updates letting them know I have something new to read. Using Twitter, I am more easily able to stay up on the latest industry news and projects that my fellow associates are working on. I have learned more about other people in my industry over the last several days than I knew about them in the last 10 years I have been building websites in isolation.   

Twitter, hopefully you can see that I have learned my lesson and will never forsake your usefullness again.  Please forgive me.