Before I joined SHIFT, I heard that Twitter was becoming obsolete and didn’t stand a chance against all of the other social media sites. Much to my dismay at the time, I finally succumbed to colleague pressure and began tweeting towards the end of June. I can honestly say that I am now practically a Twitter addict who tweets constantly, uploaded twhirl and even checks in on the weekends!
Last month I attended the Mashable Monthly party at Roe in San Francisco. After circling the jam packed main room of bloggers, social media gurus, PR reps and a few reporters, I decided to see if I could sneak into the exclusive Blogger Lounge downstairs. Luckily I ran into someone I met at a previous event, Mark Yamasaki. He helped fellow SHIFTers Marissa Schwartz, Dan Gould and I get past the velvet ropes and into the lounge by telling the bouncer we were bloggers and needed wristbands.
Marissa and I hanging out in the main room
As soon as I stepped into the lounge, I noticed Pete Cashmore and Karen Hartline from Mashable both chatting with fellow VIP’s. Before long, an incredibly nice woman, Laura Iriarte, and I began to talk. The first two questions she asked me were, “Where are you from? What’s your Twitter name?” Astounded by the introduction, we quickly began to discuss our shared love for Twitter and the growth of social media. From our lengthy conversation, I learned that Laura began her blog lauralovesart.com and the Web site “The Smart Mom’s Network” this year and in just a few months came into contact with a list of bloggers including Scoble, Pete Cashmore and Brian Solis. Still getting used to this new world, here’s a quick video of Laura explaining her role as a blogger and outlook on social media:
After chatting with Laura, the party dwindled down, and Marissa and I left to check out the upstairs party one final time (and get away from the bloggers who were trying to hit on her). After realizing there was only a small group left at the party, the night came to a close around 10 p.m. with a new outlook on Twitter and a determination to start my own blog.
My final takeaway – Twitter is clearly not obsolete. It’s not only a social networking tool, but an outlet for those of us on the frontier of what the business world is yet to become. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the next Scoble or featured on Valleywag!
Slice 