“What I have discovered about Twitter..”

Sharing personal discoveries about Twitter

It was sometime December 2008. I just left my previous and last employer after more than 8 years, because of “a difference of opinion about the direction” of the Business Unit I was leading. This happened in our company quite regularly, but it’s always different when it involves yourself directly.

One of my best friends in real life (@espaapen) did something only true friends think of, when you actually need to take some time for yourself. He invited me for a long weekend in Antwerp (Belgium). He thought I needed that! So we did and had the best of times for 48 hours, eating wonderful food, walking scenic and not so scenic routes in this perfect city, talking and drinking great beers and wines. It was the best way I can imagine to get my mind refreshed after a stressful period. This long weekend got me completely recharged and I owe it to my friend to thank him for that awesome idea.

Over one of our meals my friend started talking about Twitter and how this would be something for me too. I do not remember what he said exactly, but it persuaded me to give it a try.. at least..

not before we finished the weekend, the Christmas holidays with the family and a two week vacation early January this year with my wife and kids. And not before I picked up working as a self employed Consultant early March. I got my first position through another great friend and former colleague. A position for 3 months only, but I was fortunate enough to see the position evolve into another at the same company. I was hired by @fredzimny. A forward thinking Operational Manager, responsible for the Customer Services Contact Center of one of Dutch largest Health Insurance firms. A very intelligent man and ahead of his colleagues when we talk about enterprise 2.0 , web 2.0 and CRM 2.0. A very active blogger (syndication mostly, but with a great eye for connecting dots I might say).

@fredzimny is the one that really inspired me to take on blogging and tweeting. Just a week after I started working for him I wrote my first tweet and soon after I started blogging too. At first in Dutch, but I changed that quickly into English, because I started to have these great conversations on Twitter with likeminded. I too started to follow other peoples blogs and posted comments there. Before I knew it I spent all my evenings reading, tweeting, writing and discussing topics like Contact Centers, Customer Satisfaction, NPS, metrics, Co-creation, Social Media, Social CRM and even stuff I did not have any opinion on,  like innovation and Service Dominant Logic.

I can really remember how proud I felt when a great person like @ekolsky commented on one of my first English posts. I felt like a child in a candy store. Why? I’m almost 38 now and also pretty confident about what I can do. I think partly recognition plays a role, moreover it was the excitement that it is nowadays possible to, within the time it takes to open a Twitter account, start a blog and engage with a few smart people on the other side of the planet, have all these meaningful conversations.

Quickly it developed further. @GrahamHill came into play somehow. He engaged in a specific way, which he would later provide with a name: “discombobulating” (I vote this to be my personal favorite word of 2009 ;-) As it seems @GrahamHill was working on a project in Amsterdam, and it took just a few weeks before I experienced my first tweet-up. Some nice drinks and food in Amsterdam and moreover stimulating talks and discussions on the future of Social CRM. Several tweet-ups have followed since and @grahamhill introduced me to some great people like @designthinkers, @greenbizstartup and @frans_vd_putte). Over these dinners we share personal stories, business stories and have some discussions as well. Always inspirational, relaxing and fun evenings.

Through @designthinkers I also connected with other wonderful people from the (service) design (thinking) world. A few months ago we organized our first #miniunconference (best explained as a > 140 chars discussion at the watercooler in real life) in Delft (The Netherlands) with around 10 tweeps. Currently we are planning the sequel in Germany.

How exciting it was too to meet Paul Greenberg (@Pgreenbe) in Amsterdam this fall, when he was speaking on the Dutch CRM Association annual CRM award-event. He approached both @MarkTamis and me to have dinner with him and get free access to the event. @PGreenbe just turned 60 this week, yet he is still one the forefront of advancement of customer relationship centric thinking. Apart from that he is a wonderful person too.

In the meantime of meeting all these wonderful people through Twitter and some as you can see, in real life too, even when they live and work on the other side of the world, I’ve been exposed to what I think is some of the best thinking on business in general, and social business in particular. Not only by the guru’s, more even by people like me. People with valuable experiences, willing to share and willing to think, write on and explore new thinking and practices, without prejudice and most importantly: with respect for differing opinions.

So, what have I discovered about Twitter?

For me personally it has been Social Networking in the fourth dimension. It has brought me new friends, connections, thoughts, insights and ideas in a pace I could not have thought possible as little as one year ago. Some of these new friends might even become business partners in 2010. I’m grateful to all the people I mentioned in this post. They are the true connectors in my network. I’m also grateful to the people who follow my tweets and who engage with me. There are too many to mention here, really. And I thank Twitter for making this all possible.

Yep, I’m a Twitter Promoter, with one small difference to the NPS version ;-) I did promote it already, numerous times. And I have all the intentions to continue to do so, unless… (let’s not get into that.. it would spoil the good feeling and it’s a totally different post itself..)

Thanks for reading my Twitter story. Care to share yours? Please do so on our own blog or in the comments here. Don’t forget to tweet the link and tag it #MonTwit