This is my first ever blog post. A bit daunting the first time, I must admit, but I'm up for a challenge and this could just be it. To be honest, I would liken this first experience to how I felt when I first began using Twitter. I am now a self confessed addict of all things social media but when I first started using Twitter nothing could have been further from that.
I am not sure whether it is an accepted tradition with newcomers to Twitter, but I must have spent at least twelve months messing about over Twitter before I was finally converted. I deliberated for months about whether or not to use Twitter at all and when I finally plucked up the courage to send my first tweet I spent a further three months at least trying to fathom out how to work the darn thing. The time I must have spent staring at the computer screen watching other people chatting away to each other about everything from what they had eaten for breakfast to their views on rising tuition fees for students. I think the technical term for people who watch activity on Twitter but do not participate is known as "lurking". After a while I formed the view that my fellow tweeters (if that's the correct description) must either have instinctively known how to use Twitter or have been doggedly determined to conquer it.
Unfortunately, for my part, whilst I really liked the idea of social media and I could see that there were many many people clearly getting a great deal of satisfaction from Twitter I was not patient enough to stick with it in the early days. In the end I decided to put matters on hold and went back to Facebook. The turning point happened a couple of Christmases ago. I got involved with the famous Rage Against the Machine for Xmas Number One campaign. Admittedly, this was a Facebook campaign and had little to do with Twitter. What started out as a bit of fun for everyone involved ended in the defeat of the X Factor machine's quest for the coveted Xmas Number One. At the time, I was absolutely glued to my computer tracking the progress of the campaign and I developed the ability to function on very little sleep, sometimes only logging off my computer at five or six in the morning. I cannot even begin to tell you what an amazing experience this was, how much I learned or how many fantastic and interesting people I met along the way. Many of these people I am still in touch with. It was only after the campaign I began to realise just how powerful social media can be - not just as a means of connecting people who might never have become connected had it not been for this technology but in helping people join together to promote positive change. The possibilities are endless.
So after the campaign I made a conscious effort to have another go at Twitter. One hundred and ninety million users (or thereabouts) couldn't really be wrong now, could they? After the initial struggle, I have to say my persistence did eventually pay off. I now tweet regularly and I have met many more interesting characters. What has surprised me about Twitter is just how diverse a media it really is. The real beauty of Twitter is in the empowerment of the user to tap into any news or information as it happens and to spread that news or information around the globe in an instant. Very often I will turn to Twitter now as a source of news or information before any other media. Recently, I have followed the political crisis in Egypt, hearing first hand the views of the Egyptian people on their leadership. I witnessed the creativity and compassion of the internet generation as they fought to re-connect the Egyptian people to the outside world when their lines to the internet were cut and Al Jazeera were taken off air. Their government clearly understands the power of social media. Without Twitter I would never have been this informed. Television and newspapers are all well and good but you will never get a completely objective view on a news item from those sources. However, now I can listen to numerous sources and form my own view on what the true position is. How liberating is that?
I hear my friends talking about social media and a lot of them are now on Facebook. Very few of my friends in my social circle tweet. Some are reluctant to commit to another form of social networking and others simply do not understand how Twitter works and don't think it's worth the effort to learn. They have Facebook after all. I beg to differ. It did take me some twelve months to get my head round how to use Twitter to its full potential but I do not think this was time wasted at all. I now regularly speak with other lawyers, entrepreneurs, business owners and just about anybody who interests me on a professional or personal level. I discuss issues which concern me in connection with our business and I have received some quality incisive advice which has changed the way we work. I have also had a lot of fun in the process.
I started this blog with a degree of trepidation. Believe it or not, I even worried that I might not be able to think of anything to say. Honestly, if I can reap even half the rewards from a blog page as I have received from Twitter after investing over twelve months messing around with it, it is fair to say I will be one happy lawyer.
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