Come to the 140 Characters Conference, save $75
Posted on April 29th, 2009 by Jackie Danicki
Thanks to Jeff Pulver for asking me to be one of the 140 characters at his 140 Characters Conference. As the name suggests, this conference is all about Twitter and its impact.
Me with Twitter founder Evan Williams, one of my entrepreneurial heroes
I sometimes get a little exasperated with all of the press attention and non-stop talk of Twitter in Silicon Valley. But the truth is, Twitter is a fascinating service that is worthy of close analysis. As with blogging, it’s what people do with the medium that is so interesting and engaging. I also have a slight obsession with how Ev, Biz, and Jack run their business; Ev created both Blogger and Twitter, which makes him a legend no matter what. I’m looking forward to two days of enthusiastic discussion of all this with some of the smartest people in the business.
The conference happens in New York on June 16 and 17. You can save $75 off your ticket by using my personal discount code: R3IIYBOR. (You can buy tickets here.) And please let me know if you’ll be there - I want to meet as many of you as I can!
Filed under: Life
Most the people I work with can’t understand why I twitter. I explain that no, I don’t have a huge following, nor do I follow many people, but I enjoy the overall aspect and I see how great a thing twitter is and can be. When I finally get unlimited texting on my phone it will change the way I use it entirely.
When I’m out on the job now (giving tours to whiny 8th graders) I wish businesses had Twitter. I want to get a 140 character update that the Capitol Visitor Center is going to be closed today and so that I don’t walk 250 people up the hill and find out at the doors.
Yeah, it’s annoying that so many people think Twitter is about collecting a huge number of followers. What a load of dick-waving. Twitter is about conversation and getting a more intimate connection with people you may already know.
For example, I can definitely say that getting to know my friend Pat Phelan much better through our Twitter conversations is the reason I have my wonderful job at Qik - he recommended me to them as someone who should be testing the product, and they ended up hiring me two months later.
Pat and I knew one another via our blogs and emails for a few years before Twitter came along, and suddenly we knew one another a lot better - the mundane, the humorous, the opinions on industry issues.
There aren’t predictable outcomes with Twitter, but the point is to engage with people on a human level. What use is having 1 million followers if you only follow seven people and don’t have genuine conversation with them?