One Of Twitter’s Greatest Strengths

by | Twitter

Twitter can be problematic, but let me share one of its greatest strengths: its ability to translate and connect an “in real life” (IRL) connection in the digital domain.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you attend an in-person writing conference, and you hear a literary agent talk about something that interests you, such as an online resource for copy editing.

You go up to this literary agent (we will call her “Sally the Agent” who works at the XYZ agency) and thank her for sharing a great reference.

You now have made an IRL connection (granted, it’s weak, but it is face-to-face).

Next, after finding the Writers Conference Twitter handle (@WritersConference), Sally the Agent’s Twitter handle (@SallyTheAgent), Sally’s Employer Twitter handle (@XYZAgency), and the Twitter handle of the resource she shared (@CopyEditingResources), you create and send out the following tweet:

Attending @WritersConference. Just met @SallyTheAgent from @XYZAgency who generously shared @CopyEditingResources. It was so helpful!

(You could add a photo or a video to make this tweet even more interesting.)

You have now done the following:

  1. Complimented Sally The Agent.
  2. Let XYZ Agency know that Sally is hard at work.
  3. Let the Writers Conference know that Sally was a great speaker.
  4. Let Copy Editing Resources know that Sally The Agent speaks highly of them.
  5. Let all four of these entities know—to a small extent—that you exist.
  6. Strengthened the digital connections, ever so slightly, between all of these four of these entities.

Not bad for two minutes of typing on your iPhone!