Follow Me! Creating a Personal Brand with Twitter

Chapter 1

A Twitter-Centric Landscape

“That I am touch’d with madness! Make not impossible that which seems unlike: ’tis not impossible.”

Measure for Measure

And for some it was just that: a decent into madness.

I was one of those people who, like so many, found my introduction to Twitter a perplexing one. I couldn’t quite get my head around why I would need a service that would allow me to send a message alerting others about my particular choice of breakfast cereal. An ideology based around what’s basically an online SMS service? Madness indeed!

To Tweet — Perchance to Dream

The one thing you can say for certain about Twitter is that it makes a terrible first impression. But, as millions have discovered, it turns out that Twitter has an unexpected depth, coined by the writer Clive Thompson, as “ambient awareness.” A strangely satisfying glimpse into those naked social segments of others, like a virtual peephole; but one where the observer knows he’s being watched and enjoys the attention.

Twitter has dramatically transformed the way in which new ideas are shared and spread. News and information that would traditionally have taken hours, days, or even weeks to go from one location to another can now occur in seconds Twitter’s power is both an ally to democracy and a mortal enemy ...