Like many people have of late, I’ve decided to weigh into the debate about Twitter. Anybody looking for a general description of what Twitter is and how you use it, this probably isn’t for you, this is more my observations of what Twitter is about rather than what Twitter is. If you want to know what Twitter is, I suggest you head over to the website, and read the about pages. It also isn’t a business-oriented view of Twitter – primarily because I’m a student at the moment and that is my key focus, so I don’t have a lot of sound advice to offer on the business side of things. So, if you’re still with me, we’ll continue:

Last Thursday, I went to a Twitter meet-up in Melbourne called @tweetupmellers. It was the first social-media-inspired meet-up I’ve been to, and I was pleasantly surprised. I won’t lie – there was a bit of the nervous anticipation that comes from meeting people that you know only through what on the face of things looks to be a limited protocol for interpersonal communication. So before I revisit the meet-up, I’m going to talk more about why those negative face impressions many people have of of Twitter are completely wrong!

I’m far from being the longest lived or most experienced user at Twitter – I’ve had an account since May 2008 and only really started using the site properly in mid-December. I guess that means I had an account before the real explosion, but only started using it when I could ride the shockwaves of Twitter’s success.

Since I started using the service in December I’ve built up roughly 1800 tweets, 250 followers and am following 170 people myself. In the ‘Twitterverse’ I would class myself as a fairly conservative number, but I’ve never been too aggressive about getting followers – I follow people whose tweets interest me and I tweet what interests me as well.

That, I think, goes to the root of what Twitter is about – and others have said this before me I know – but Twitter really is all about the people you follow and engaging with them in meaningful ways. This doesn’t by any stretch mean that you have to be interested in everything they say, agree with everything they say, or engage with them every time you’re on Twitter. It’s about tapping into the vast amount of interesting personalities, information and experiences of people all around the world, and trying to engage with them and work with what you get to yours and the community’s benefit. When this happens, which it almost always does, a vibrant network forms to which you can talk, read along with and end up knowing quite a lot about, both individually and collectively – and that’s all in 140 character bites.

So, to get back to where I started, the whole idea of a Twitter meetup is to take these relationships to the next level and meet up in the flesh. @tweetupmellers was a good opportunity to meet people that I’ve been talking to for a while on Twitter, and meet some new people who I’ve since followed on Twitter. My nervous anticipation was somewhat misplaced. The whole thing was a fantastic success, and it’s amazing how much of an icebreaker Twitter can be (there was a lot of “Hi! What’s your name on Twitter?” going around, especially with me being the resident palm frond and all). It was a great way to connect with the Twitter community and totally flies in the face of the idea that social networking is anti-social – the favourite catch-cry of a fairly significant portion of the popular media.

If you want to see with your own eyes what Twitter is capable of, visit the site, and visit http://tweetupmellers.wordpress.com/ and see for yourself.

I’m sure this is only the beginning, not just of @tweetupmellers, but of Twitter in general and my experience of it. There’s no conclusion to this post, and by now I’m probably only talking to the converted. If I’m not – http://twitter.com/signup. Go there, now. You won’t regret it.

Signing off for now,

@mr_billiam.

Comment if you have your own Twitter stories or want to comment on mine. Oh, and if you have any corrections, too, because I’m sure it’s riddled with typos and such!