Paul and Twitter – Old Friends, New Friends and Endless Opportunity

I logged in to Twitter over lunchtime today and the first thing I saw was a familiar face smiling back at me from the ‘Who to follow’ box. That face belonged to Tom Page, a great friend and house mate throughout my time at Warwick Uni and part of the reason most of my First Year at is a memory black hole (but that, dear reader, is another story for another day). Sadly, I’d lost touch with Tom after graduation and had resigned myself to the fact I might not see him again, but suddenly there he was. I sent him a tweet and a few hours later we were talking on the phone, catching up on old times and what we’ve each done since leaving University. I find myself saying this a lot, but Twitter has been a string of near endless opportunities like this for me and this is the story I’ve been meaning to tell for a while. This is a story about Me and Twitter.

In the Beginning

To begin with I was very sceptical of Twitter, it struck me for a long time as being rather elitist due to the fact that you’re going to need a smartphone to get the most out of the platform. At the time, smartphones were not as numerous as they are now (and I didn’t have one), so I felt fairly confident in my opinions, until one day all that changed.

A Chance Meeting with Our Man Inside

Sometimes it’s a chance meeting with a stranger that helps us the most. The person who I always give full credit for changing my opinion of Twitter is Christian Payne, who I met by sheer good fortune through a mutual friend we have. I can’t speak highly enough of Christian, if you don’t already then I highl;y recommend that you follow him and any opportunity to hear him speak should never be passed-over. You can find his website here: Documentally.com.

Anyway, me and Christian got talking and he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I worked in PR and he immediately asked what my Twitter username was and looked shocked when I told him I didn’t have one. I’ll never forget what he said next: ‘then you won’t be as good at your job as you could be!’ I was shocked and a little offended and questioned him on what he meant. At great and fascinating length he began to tell me all the amazing opportunities that Twitter offered to PR professionals and all the doors it had opened up for him, the work he had got and the friends he had made. It was hard to argue with the case he was making and that same day I set up my Twitter account, which I ran using the web-based Twitter before finally getting a smartphone.

Without Twitter

I described earlier ‘a string of near-endless opportunities’ and the superlative soup was well justified. If I was to list all the amazing things that I’ve gained through engaging on Twitter this post would be huge, but here are some of the things I have Twitter to thank for:

Without Twitter I would not have learnt as much as I have about PR and met so many people facing similar challenges as me. Christian was right, if I hadn’t joined Twitter I would not be as good at my job as potential would allow. Thanks to the amazing people that I follow, I learn  new things every day and that is exciting.

Without Twitter, I would not have been able to be involved in so many interesting discussion with other people working in Local Authorities and in Social Care all over the country. There is a fabulous community to be found on Twitter in both areas and they have always treated me with nothing but kindness and warmth.

Without Twitter, I wouldn’t have had anywhere to complain that my phone was unlikely to last, on a single battery charge, for the duration of the March for the Alternative last year. I would not have been contacted by Sasha Taylor with the offer of borrowing a portable mobile recharger and therefore would have been unable to do the Audioboos that I did during the March. Sasha and I would not have become friends and collaborators; I would have not helped organise Warwick 4am project or BlueLightCamp and therefore I would not have met David White or John Bracey or Louise Matthews and we would not have been stood in Manchester gazing up at the International Space Station while Radiovicky captured the moment.

Without Twitter I may never have visited Tring and certainly have never met thinkingfox and had a fun visit to the natural history museum in the town. I would not have met Millymoo (who is a fabulous Orwell Prize shortlisted legal blogger) and Jules.

There is so much more I could list, but instead I will say thank you. To the people I follow who make Twitter fizz with potential and all the people I’ve chatted to, laughed with, met and will meet. You’re all awesome!

But really…

Twitter Doesn’t Matter

It’s just a tool people, it’s an amazing tool that started something, but it is just a tool. It’s People that matter. We matter. Twitter may one day not exist but, in my opinion, it has enabled a form of instant global communication, collaboration and sharing that will transcend it. I’m not excited by Twitter, the thought that every day I will wake up and learn something new, join a tribe or, who knows one day, maybe lead one.

Who to Follow

I’ve made some recommendations of people that I like to follow on Twitter, based on area of interest, you can read those posts below:

That Friday Follow Thing: Social Care and Health

Anyway, friends, you know the score, if you don’t like these thoughts then please do stick around, I have others.

Change Communication: Rumour Watch

Following on from my post about Change (My favourite word beginning with C) I’ve been giving some though to the common issues that arise during a Change process and some potential tools that could be used to overcome them. Today I’m thinking about Rumours.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Rumour’ as thus:

Rumour (Noun): Information, often a mixture of truth and untruth, passed around verbally.

My experience is The Organisation is afraid of rumours, they see them as an issue that should be eradicated and come up with a number of solutions to this end that, invariably, will fail. It strikes me you’re as likely to succeed stamping out rumours with reactionary activity as you are to prevent the flow of glacial ice by giving it a stern talking-t0. I think, all-too-often The Organisation looks at rumours in the wrong way.

For me rumours are a good indication of two things about any organisation. Firstly, on the positive side, I always see rumours as a good indication of organisational health, the desire to pass on a piece of information points to an informal information sharing network, which only tend to spring up when you have a workforce who care about the work they do. Rather than worrying that you have rumours in your organisation, start to worry you don’t and no one cares enough to informally pass on information.

The more negative side of rumour is that they often become most prevalent at a time when staff do not feel like they are getting enough information about things that are taking place. During a change process, information is often the most valuable currency; if you’re going through change and suddenly see an increase in the number of rumours circulating throughout the organisation, I would be be inclined to see this as a very clear message from staff: We do not have the information we need around this process. There is no doubt, in this interpretation, that rumours can be damaging to the Change process and, in extreme cases, increase the time it takes staff to engage, but how can you combat the rumours?

One thought I had for helping The Organisation to address rumours during the change process is to run a organisation wide Rumour Watch scheme. Just to say I’ve searched to see if there are any accounts of company’s using anything similar and have not managed to find any, but that doesn’t mean there are not. Likewise, if you like the sound of this idea by all means take it and make it your own; I’m not precious, if it’s used somewhere and  proven to be effective then I will be happy!

The Idea

• Using existing channels, encourage staff to send in the rumours that they have hard circulating around change in the organisation. It would need to be made clear that no areas should be seen as taboo and that no questions will go unanswered, while reassuring that those who wish it will allowed to remain anonymous.

• It might be difficult to encourage people to be honest about the rumours they have heard to begin with, so perhaps start by addressing rumours that have already come to the attention of managers.

• Once you have rumours coming in, it’s time to start answering them. Pick somewhere well used, such as intranet or electronic notice board, and publish the rumours and explanations of the reality on a weekly basis, drawing staff attention to this through normal internal communication channels.

This approach will only work if you are prepared to be completely honest with your workforce. Sometimes rumours will be raised that are entirely accurate but that you were not expecting your staff be aware of yet, deal with it! If they do know about something you thought was secret, then there is little use continuing to pretend that they don’t or that no one else will find out, all the effort you make trying to prevent it will be futile, the evil of the world cannot be forced back into Pandora’s Box!

Love to hear if people have any thoughts on this: Does it seem like an good solution to the ‘problem’ of rumours within organisations? Do you know of similar schemes being operated by organisations during Change? Do you have any organisation rumour horror stories? I’d be interested to hear from you, why not post me a comment below.

Please note: I make frequent references to ‘The Organisation’, this is used as a generic term, it does not immediately (or logically) follow that I am necessarily referring to the organisation that I work for or any other particular organisation.