I have to say I feel like a bit of a laggard when it comes to Twitter. I had wrongly made the assumption that I would hate it, and for a long time just couldn’t see the point of it at all.

But in the last few days that I’ve been a member, it’s opened up a whole new world. And I love it.

I love the fact that I can follow people (without them having to follow me back). I love that it’s so open and not (the majority of the time) permission based.

I love that we don’t have to ‘make friends’ – but rather we are naturally making relevant connections – which, one day, may indeed turn into friendships.

I love how fluid it is. I spent 3 hours on Friday evening following folk who people I respect are following. In the past I would have thought ‘how sad’ and what a waste of a Friday evening. But it was really enjoyable! And interesting… and I learned a whole bunch of stuff too.

I love how expansive it is. So far I haven’t come across any annoying bottlenecks.

It’s informal.

It seems that there are absolutely tons of people on twitter with whom I’d like to connect.

Already, I’m being introduced to innovative and relevant companies for my business through tweets made by business owners I’m following, that I simply wouldn’t have heard about in the past.

For some reason, to me twitter doesn’t feel as showy as facebook, or as formal as linkedin. It’s pitched, as far as I’m concerned, perfectly for me. And that’s the beauty of it, other people who are nothing like me will feel the same.

I feel comfortable with it; whereas I’ve never felt comfortable with facebook (as much as I tried) and I’ve never proactively used linkedin (in spite of being connected to business people through it).

I have Linda Urquhart, CEO of Morton Fraser to thank for this. I recently attended one of Linda’s business women’s network events where Coach, Jackie Cameron gave a great talk on social networking. Jackie, in spite of not having internet access at the venue, managed to change my world!

I mostly love the fact that twitter mixes business with pleasure; that as well as providing a platform for businesses to share stuff that they’re working on, I also get to read the personal tweets made by business owners I’m following – and I feel like I’m getting to know them and seeing behind the scenes of their business. I can see how twitter is making business a friendlier arena to be.

I may be preaching to the converted here and you may be thinking, “how sweet, she’s just discovered Twitter, the social networking site that everyone on planet earth, apart from her, is using”. But if you’re not… and you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, jump on board – it’s fun!

ThisisKaye