DISQUS

NeilOJWilliams · 12 months ago

I can really identify with this, as an anti-social / introverted geek who loves social media but whose actual friends - in spite of having saome pretty geeky pursuits themselves - are not participating with me.

I run a closed phpbb forum where we do talk to each other daily. But I'd love it if I could get them on Twitter, or to comment on my blog, or to blog themselves. No luck so far. In spite of 2 of them being programmers, 1 a semantic web search expert, and another a phd student in MMORPG psychology!

The only way to get people to grok this stuff is for them to have a go - but you can only lead the horse to water....

Phil Glockner · 11 months ago

Agreed. Even with the number of people on Twitter, it's just a tiny percentage of all the people out there, and those people either have no interest, haven't heard about it, or don't think it would be right for them.

So if you look at the long tail, there are going to be a lot of people who just won't want to use the service, even if it would benefit them personally.

robdiana · 12 months ago

Phil, excellent post! I have been struggling with the whole oil and water thing lately myself. One friend of mine put a message on my Facebook wall because he had no idea what the hell it was about. It contains stuff from SocialMedian and FriendFeed, so he was thoroughly confused. My real life and social media life are coming together very quickly. Now I need better filters on all these sites so that my updates can be segmented better.

Phil Glockner · 12 months ago

It's tough. My sister called me out on Facebook too, in a way. She commented on something SocialMedian posted to my FB stream and said basically, "What does this mean?" LOL.. I was at a loss to explain.

Adriana · 12 months ago

Louis, I have got to admit that I am new to all of this. I've been on Facebook for 2 1/2 years but its only been about a month on Friendfeed and a few months of Twitter.

I only use these for social purposes. I love sharing things with people and I find these great avenues to do so. I basically do it for "fun." However, I must say that every time you write something I read it thoroughly and I learn something new and inspiring.

I myself hadn't thought of Tweeter meetups or even getting my friends to join, but you do have a point there. I had read a few of your posts where you sounded like you were doing this for business more than anything else and it never has totally made sense to me how we mix business with pleasure as we do with social media, but the more I read of your posts, the more I understand and am getting excited about it!

I am interested in finding out how to do local twitter meetups. Any advice on how I can do this would be appreciated. Thanks!

Louis Gray · 12 months ago

Phil Glockner, the author of this post, did a great job expressing how
the social elements of social media can be separate from the social
elements you see in real life.

I am involved in these communities to learn more, interact with
technology leaders and end users. I haven't done any Twitter meetups,
but I have met with people at some blogging-related events and
continued the conversations we started online.

GrowMap · 12 months ago

No wonder I like your work; I'm an INTP. What do you think about proposing to Twitter that they create a local option? It would be great to have a way that Twitter users could switch between the current view and talking with Twitter users within so many miles of them.

Then you could go to Twitter and ask "does anyone know a good mobile mechanic" or "what's your favorite restaurant" and get instant personal recommendations.

Phil Glockner · 12 months ago

Twitter local.. that is a great concept! I'm totally with it! It would be great if Twitter had more resources for finding local folks and maybe scheduling meetups. And if that's a stretch, they could partner with, say, Craigslist in order to leverage the power of both platforms.

Great idea!

Sharon Dexter · 12 months ago

Great Post - I am like you, a classic introvert, who is finding social media a wonderful way to communicate.

Phil Glockner · 12 months ago

Thanks Sharon! Hope you have success meeting up with some of your social media friends in real life!

mikedibenedetto · 11 months ago

Despite having a few hundred followers (which isn't a lot) on Twitter, and having written for a few different blogs, most of my friends never got to see that part of me. In fact, none of my regular friends even knew what Twitter was until a few days ago. And then recently, I decided to merge my lives. It's early on but I like the encouragement from thinkers like you. Thanks for the post.