I have a confession to make.
I love Twitter.
As in, I seriously L.O.V.E. it.
It all started back in February 2008 when I joined Twitter. At first, I wasn't sure if I really liked that little blue bird. I mean, it was cute and friendly and seemed to have a good purpose. But I just wasn't sure if it was meant for me. I had a long-standing, serious love affair with another social networking site (ah-hem, Facebook) and we were quite smitten.
But I gave this Twitter thing a chance.
I flirted with it for a while...testing those sometimes murky social media waters.
I tweeted, some people responded.
It was OK fun.
I would get a few new followers every week or so. I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing or if anyone was actually reading what I was tweeting. Most of the time it felt as if I was talking to myself.
But I kept on tweeting, thinking that maybe someday it would all click for me.
And it did in June 2009.
I had recently lost a job and found solace in Twitter. I would tweet out a few things every day and people would respond. I started following more people and those people followed me and it just kept growing and growing.
And by the end of that year I was having a full-blown love affair with this thing called Twitter. I tried to explain it to everyone I could - and most of the time they looked at me as if to say "you're crazy!" The most common response was "why do I want to tell people what I'm doing?"
Oh yes, they didn't get it. They didn't understand what a magical, wonderful conversation tool Twitter really is.
Because for me, that's what it is all about - conversation. Talking with people. Talking to people. Saying "good morning, hope you all have a wonderful day!" - I don't know how many people actually read that tweet, but at least it's out there. At least I made the effort to start that conversation.
I love when people say "good morning!" or "sweet dreams" or just ask "how is your day going?" - it's those little things that spark a conversation. I ask for advice on Twitter. I vent my frustrations sometimes. I "live tweet" reality shows just for fun. And, I get support from my friends - even at 2 a.m. one night last year when my husband had to take my youngest to the ER for stomach pains. I had a group of friends and strangers talking me down from the heights of a mother's anxiety and keeping me company with reassuring tweets until my husband called and said all was OK.
Twitter is so much more than just a place to talk about what you're doing or what you had for lunch. It's about the people and the place and the brands who are out there every day - making a connection.
I have made so many amazing connections thanks to Twitter. And, I have created life-long friendships with people I've met on Twitter. People I never would have met if not for this wonderful, crazy, incredible social media world. It might sound silly to some, but my life is bigger and better and more fun thanks to a few thousand tweets.
You can find me on Twitter @TraciLeigh.
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