THE PROMISE OF TWITTER
This is the homepage of the website twitter.com as of early May 2021.
This is the promise of Twitter:
- Follow your interest
- Hear what people are talking about
- Join the conversation
- See what’s happening in the world right now!
Twitter has been called the “Pulse of the Planet”
That’s a tall claim to make.
But one that it tries hard to live up to.
With 330 million active monthly users sending out 500 million Tweets every day – Twitter is the closest thing we have to the pulse of the planet.
More importantly, it is the place online where people come together during important moments of modern history.
Back in March 2020, COVID-19 was just breaking out.
Authentic information about the impact of the Coronavirus was hard to gather, and even harder to trust.
That’s when data journalist Norbert Elekes started sharing daily COVID updates on his Twitter profile.
I saw this Tweet and for the first time the gravity of the problem hit me.
I realized how widespread this was going to be.
We had all heard of how severe the disease can be once you get infected.
But we thought the virus would be controlled within a few geographies.
Everyone trusted the authorities to do their best to contain the virus.
And yet, here was this Tweet – The virus was spreading, it was spreading fast, and it was spreading wide.
Within days Elekes’ Twitter profile became my go to source for COVID-19 updates. I could trust his data because he was openly sharing it on a public platform.
If he made mistakes, he would be corrected immediately in the replies to his Tweets. In contrast, his Tweets were “Liked”, “Retweeted” and “Replied to” thousands of times every day.
This was all the social proof I needed.
Twitter was crowdsourcing Trust at a time when trust was hard to come by.
As COVID-19 was rampaging across the world, there was tension building up across the political spectrum.
Governments were expected to support their people in this critical fight. Help them stay indoors and survive the virus. Strict lockdowns were imposed, and guidelines issued to companies regarding worker safety and well-being.
And this is the reply she got.
“Message Received”
2 Words
1 Tweet
And a move that will change the face of Silicon Valley over the next decade.
Lorena got plenty of hate and love for the tweet, creating enough polarization among her followers to keep the conversation going for many days and months to come.
Something which may actually benefit her political career in the long run.
But Elon Musk had already decided to move on, this Tweet was just the final nail in the coffin.
Over the next few months, as tech companies adjusted to work remotely, the world saw a mini exodus from Silicon Valley on account of rising living expenses.
There was an opportunity for other cities & states to enable entrepreneurs to set up businesses in their regions.
One person who took the most advantage from this wave of change was Miami Mayor Francis Suarez
He started a trend where he would go to the tweets of entrepreneurs facing regulatory hurdles and reply to them — “How can I help?”
Suarez tried versions of this with Elon Musk as well.
And it resulted in Musk’s “Boring Company” setting up plans to dig underground tunnels through Miami.
Here’s how the exchange went on Twitter.
It’s worth noting here that Twitter is not just a networking tool for smart politicians and powerful CEOs.
Over the last few years, it has become the place for indie builders and creators to come up with new ideas, validate them and then market them.
Back in 2018, Eric Jorgenson ran a poll on Twitter.
He asked his followers if he should write a short e-book condensing the wisdom of the angel investor, modern philosopher Naval Ravikant.
The poll results were in favor of the book, but more importantly, Naval gave his approval to the book right there on the Tweet.
In one Tweet, he had validated the idea, got the blessings of the man himself, and was well on his way to a timeless bestseller.
All before even writing a single word.
Over time he collaborated with Jack Butcher of Visualize Value to do the visuals for the book, got Tim Ferris to write the foreword and was able to write one of the best non-fiction books of 2020 — Navalamanck – The Alamanack of Naval Ravikant.
And it all started with a single Tweet.
Not just idea validation and marketing, creators are leveraging Twitter to do social good as well.
As I write this in May 2021, my country India faces a terrible 2nd wave of the CoronaVirus.
There is a shortage of essential supplies across the country.
Volunteers are using Twitter to spread awareness about where supplies such as oxygen cylinders, ICU beds and medicine are available.
They are also raising money to help those in need. Especially to source more Oxygen Cylinders.
Jack Butcher had created several Non-fungible Tokens and auctioned them off to buyers before.
During this emergency, he raised money for oxygen supplies to India by creating and auctioning an NFT.
He called it Oxygen, and announced the auction on Twitter.
Within 24 hours he was able to raise more than $7300 in ETH.
Raising such money in some other time in history is unimaginable.
And even today, raising that kind of money without the Twitter network is next to impossible.
But not just creators, Twitter is the go-to platform for networkers and consumers of quality content as well.
Writer David Perell believes his Twitter account is worth more than his college degree. And I think that will be true for all creators going forward.
But here’s him explaining why Twitter is important for networkers and consumers as well. He quotes from a talk by investor Bill Gurley
Twitter has been used by politicians and superstars to talk to their fans for a long time now. But in recent times, it has become the platform of choice for creators to talk to their audience as well.
It is where Indie Hackers, builders and creators do their market research, build and release their products and even voice their politically incorrect opinions.
If you care about doing anything worthwhile in the 21st century, Twitter is a resource you must learn to leverage.
Either if you are a creator looking for your 1000 true fans, or if you are a consumer and want to learn from the best in the world. Or you are a networker, looking to collaborate with like-minded people, Twitter is the place to be for you, that’s where the action is happening.
I’ve spoken to hundreds of people over the course of writing this book, observed their Twitter habits, looked at the common patterns that make them effective.
One over arching lesson I’ve learned from them is that Twitter is not a social platform, it’s a public network of personal brands.
Your attitude towards Twitter changes, once you internalize this idea.
Twitter is the platform of the future, it is where ideas change hands today, and it is where money will change hands tomorrow.
And That’s The Promise of Twitter
If you liked this, you’re going to love our book – “7 Habits of Highly Effective Tweeple – The Wisdom of Twitter“
It is a single best resource to make the best use of Twitter as a:
- Creator 🎨 – Looking for your “1000 True Fans”
- Consumer 📘 – Do your own “Twitter MBA”
- Networker 🤝 – Work with like minded people on Twitter.
If you describer yourself as any of the above, get yourself a copy right now👇
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