Saturday, February 26, 2011

How Twitter Has Been An Impact On Me In Last 2.5 Years

As I write this post, I am nearing 50,000 tweets sent out from my @markvanbaale account over the course of 2.5 years. I joined Twitter way back in August 27, 2008 and since then, Twitter has been a major part of my life in how I interact and connect with people online. I joined Twitter right around the time I went to my first tweetup (off-line meeting with those you interact with online) when I had been living in the Kansas City area for little over a year and I wanted to attempt to reach out and get to know more people in the area. At that time also, I had reached out to Ed Roberts and Zena Weist (founders) to find out more about a Social Media Club of Kansas City group they were starting. Ed and Zena told me that this group was just getting ready to start up and I joined the group right in its infancy stage when there was maybe 10-15 people going to the first breakfast meetings.

It was exciting times back then to connect and meet all of these new people via Twitter and the Social Media Club. Social media was really starting to present itself then as a viable channel to show your true self to others via the updates you chose to post online and get to know others virtually. Before the rise of social media and tools like Twitter, the best we had for connecting with people we had never met before was maybe by going to an event and talking to others. Or by a friend introducing us to others. Social media has opened up a vast world of possible connections to so many people all over the world. We are no longer limited by geographic distance or by knowing someone already. Twitter makes it incredibly easy to reach out and send a reply to someone you don't even know to connect with them. Over time, if you connect with many people and start to build relationships, this can spill over to becoming friends off-line also. I have connected to so many wonderful people that I first met via Twitter and it resulted in good friendships in real life.

In the first year I was engaged on Twitter from August 2008 to September 2009, I was involved in Social Media Club of KC and frequently attended the monthly breakfast meeting and got to know many wonderful people. There are still people who are part of this club that I associate with today. Those who decided to respect me and my differing opinions on things are the ones who I still stay in contact with. 2009 was an interesting year as I was really starting to dip my toes into what social media was all about and how effective it could be establishing relationships and sharing information with people.

When I moved on from my job in September 2009, it was not lost on me that the network I had established in the last year via Twitter would be helpful to me as I started to search for my next job. Tips for those just starting out on Twitter would be to slowly build relationships with those you engage with online and take time to ask others about their life, what they do, their passions, etc. People want to just feel valued and appreciated for who they are and when you take time to get to know others online and then have this spill over to in-person meetings, if possible, then you have extended yourself as a valuable contributer to someone's life.

I connected with my followers and let many know I was searching for my next full-time position and I had awesome support from so many as they helped give encouragement through this time. It was a year ago in March 2010 when I did have a brief stint with a local company that I will not get into, but for those who know the story, it did not work out. Truthfully, it was just not a good fit at all and after a few other issues crept in from exchanges I had with others via Twitter that escalated into nastiness, it was best to move on. To this day, I am glad I made the decision to move on to where I would be a much better fit with a company that respected me.

It has not been lost on me that 2010 was a very tough year for me in more ways than one and I will not get into details of what all transpired as most who know me know the incidents. I will just say that I was tested mentally and emotionally through various issues and as I look back on what transpired, I can only give praise to God for pulling me through each test and making me a better, stronger person as a result. I have always been the type of person where I do tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve and when you interact with people on Twitter or have people send you replies you are not ready for, it can be a challenge to deal with them in a calm and respectful manner. I will admit that I messed up many times in how I responded to some people on Twitter and that is the danger of the immediacy of this tool. If you let loose your thoughts about someone or something and don't take time to think about what or how you should say something, it can bite you. And bite you hard! I went through this lesson numerous times in 2010.

Social media is truly amazing in how it gives you the ability to share whatever is on your mind immediately and with a large audience. However, with this capability, there is the dark side that we all have to be aware of all the time. And that is that we can spread rumors or accusations far and wide if we let exchanges with others or opinions we have about issues rear their ugly head. Take it from me...always take time to think about what you wish to post before hitting that Submit button. If you are frustrated or upset about what someone said to or about you, step back and evaluate the situation. Try to look at it from the other person's point of view. Did you say or do something that may have contributed to them being mad or in how they react to you? Did you joke around a little too much and it was taken in a different light by them? We do not know the whole story about someone else and why they may share specific things online and to make an assumption or joke about these cases, we are only setting up ourselves for a possible confrontation. Believe me, I speak on these issues from experience and many of them are times I am not proud of being involved in. Many times our past experiences with others plays a major role in how we view them and when situations arise that can cause conflict, we tend to only concentrate on "what is on our screen" from past interactions and overlook anything good or positive about the other person. This can cause major problems between people and only lead to more strife and continued battles. There are still a few who dislike me from past experiences with me and that is something I cannot change. Eventually it is my hope that with time, we can see more eye to eye, but I also know there are some who will never want to make amends with me and I am fine with that. My identity is not shaped or influenced by what others think about me if they want to continue to look down on me. My identity is safe in Christ. It is through him who gives me my focus and path in life.

The start of 2011 brought a new opportunity for me as I was offered a job with a local company as an Online Marketing Specialist. It is pretty cool to me that I am also involved back in the Agricultural market as part of this job and it was a LinkedIn contact who works at this company who really helped me get my feet into the door. She cannot be thanked enough. :) Once again, it shows that leveraging your network when you are job searching can make a huge difference. Cultivating relationships with others and taking time to interact and learn about others can go a long way to helping you often in life when you need people to help.

In light of a new beginning for me in my career to start off 2011, I have spent much time in the last few weeks evaluating how I wish to continue to use Twitter. Some recent clashes with a select few has contributed some to how I view interactions with others and my openness that I have alway exhibited via my @markvanbaale account. Anytime you have an open account where you share your thoughts means you will get some naysayers or trolls who want to try and poke you to get a reaction. The type of people who do this feed off negativity and/or strife and they love to get a rise out of others in some sick and twisted way. God have mercy on their poor souls for this type of behavior. But, I have dealt with enough of this type of ridiculousness over the last year and realized I need to change how I use my time on Twitter. Here is where the following changes will happen...

My @markvanbaale Twitter account will still be an open account where anyone can read or follow me as they wish. I will be using this account to share links to articles I find interesting that I feel others would find value in also. I will also be using this account when I participate in Twitter chats like #agchat, etc. I will also continue to share any job openings I hear about in the KC area via this account and links to job leads and networking events that I share often on the KC Job Seekers blog. In addition, I will use my @markvanbale account in interacting with farmers, ranchers, other Ag professionals when I have questions tied to my job. That way, they can see my tweets when they are tagged with #Ag, #agchat, or #farm.

As for interactions with others and daily chatting, I will be doing all of that via my @mvanbaale account. This account is locked down (protected status) and will stay this way. I wish to interact with people who wish to have civil conversations with me and who I wish to connect with. If I feel we have had positive interactions in the past or if we did not, but made amends over time, then I will most likely accept your follower request to the @mvanbaale account. Those who have been nothing but trouble for me or who continue to spew false rumors or lies will not be accepted into following me and what I share via this account. I want to have as many positive, fulfilling conversations/interactions with others as I can and still do this via Twitter. But those who are nothing but negative can stay away for their own good and mine too. Those who I follow on Twitter are people who I want to learn from and share my life's moments over time so we can each strengthen our relationship. That is the essence of the beauty of Twitter in being able to do this.

With this all being said, I look forward to these new changes and what they will bring. For those who currently follow my @markvanbaale account and you wish to interact with me outside of when I share links/articles, make sure to follow @mvanbaale. Here is to more connections and positive outcomes for 2011! Thanks! :)