Twitter has forced me to confront head-on something I so fervently rail against: close-mindedness. It’s personal this time though. It was my own close-mindedness.

You see, I finally relented and joined Twitter last week – something I stubbornly refused to do for a few reasons, namely: I’m too busy, it’s too shallow/banal/narcissistic, and what’s the point really. Basically for the same short-sighted reasons that many railed against blogging waaaay back in the early naughts, I struggled to see the value of

Twitter (and its various apps) deliver a few valuable things. Firstly, it’s effectively a faster search engine than Google. Nowhere near as comprehensive but pretty useful for breaking news and the very latest links. Secondly, it is a shining example of the wisdom of crowds, identifying trends on anything – a marketer’s dream. Twitter’s real value is in what it provides in aggregate. Thirdly, it is a great launching pad out to deeper blog posts, media articles, and video clips (see Guy Kawasaki). This is what especially bugs me about having ignored Twitter for so long; that it is simply a very useful generalist tool for scanning ideas.

Anyways, you can follow me here. Not sure yet what I’ll post most about – probably a mix of personal, Creative Generalist, and WowWee. I’ll definitely never be a power user – too reserved/private for that – but I’ll certainly be following the brightest twitterers out there as I find them. Speaking of which, thanks to Pam and Mitch at Twist Image, leaders in the ___sphere, for the nudge.

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blogging close-minded social media Steve Hardy Twitter video