People often ask me what is the point of Twitter. What do I get out of it. The answer to those questions change from day to day. Here is today’s answer.
Tonight I’m going to see the Twisted Christmas show at the Barbican. It features a number of performers taking a slightly different look at christmas. Before leaving for work this morning I twittered that I was looking forward to the evening. I only had 140 characters so I just mentioned that the show included Polly Scattergood and Eliza Carthy. There are, of course, many other great acts performing as well.
Before long I had a reply from a Twitterer called FiddlersMrs. She’s with a band called Flaming June who are supporting Eliza Carthy at a gig next March. I was considering going to that gig too, but I hadn’t got round to buying a ticket yet. FiddlersMrs pointed out that through their web site they were selling a limited number of tickets for £8 rather than the normal price of £17. That made up my mind and I bought one of their reduced price tickets. I also followed both FiddlersMrs and flamingjuneuk on Twitter.
So within a couple of hours of getting up today I had bought tickets for a gig at less than half price, discovered an interesting-sounding new band and made a couple of new friends on Twitter. I call that a successful start to the day.
That’s just one reason why I find Twitter useful. But I have a story like that to tell every couple of days. A different story every time, but something just as useful. Connections like that are being made all the time on Twitter. It’s the immediacy of the contact that is so useful. It’s simple to find people who are talking about the same things as you and to get in touch with them.
I’m largely preaching to the converted here. Most of my blog readers are, I’m sure, already Twitter users. You probably already have your own little stories about how it’s made your life better in lots of tiny ways. But if you haven’t, why not give it a try?
I’m @davorg on Twitter. Feel free to follow me.
Oh, and why not come and see Eliza Carthy and Flaming June on 18th March. Tickets (while they last) are only £8 from the Flaming June web site.