I’ve been on Twit­ter for quite a while now.  For a while, I felt sat­is­fied (for lack of a bet­ter word) with my par­tic­i­pa­tion if I updated my sta­tus once a day.  I won­dered what the appeal of it was.  I had actu­ally known some peo­ple who said they had fallen in love with it.  They said they were addicted.  I won­dered what I was missing.

This sum­mer, I attended BlogHer’09, and at BlogHer, I met so many won­der­ful and inter­est­ing peo­ple.  At that time, I was hav­ing a really hard time keep­ing up with read­ing all the blogs I had in my reader, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep track of all the peo­ple I had met and seen at BlogHer.  Then, I real­ized Twit­ter was my answer.  Instead of inform­ing peo­ple about what I was doing, I could par­tic­i­pate in a con­ver­sa­tion.  A cou­ple months ago, I was talk­ing with friends and they were won­der­ing what the pur­pose of Twit­ter was.  They were happy with Face­book, and they weren’t sure why they would want to join one more social net­work to talk with their same friends.  At that point, I had a hard time explain­ing what I found to be the difference.

Now that I’ve thought about it a bit, I think I can explain the dif­fer­ence (for me).  Most of my Face­book friends are friends from high school, col­lege, or activ­i­ties I’ve been a part of.  They are peo­ple who I have had a per­sonal rela­tion­ship with for a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time.  I can see pic­tures of them and their fam­i­lies.  I can read about their day to day activ­i­ties.  I can send an invi­ta­tion to a get together, say hi, or catch up with some­one quickly and eas­ily.  Twit­ter is a bit dif­fer­ent for me.  Most of the peo­ple I fol­low and those who fol­low me are not peo­ple I know per­son­ally.  Many are experts in their area or blog­gers I enjoy and respect.  Some are com­pa­nies whose prod­ucts I use and enjoy.  Some are friends and fam­ily mem­bers, too.  I also real­ized that for me, my Face­book page is more about me.  It is what I am doing right now, my fam­ily, pic­tures of us, and links I like.  Twit­ter (again, for me) has become more about being a part of a con­ver­sa­tion.  I still make my posts about what I am doing or some­thing cute my kids have said.  How­ever, more and more, I am read­ing posts about top­ics I might not oth­er­wise encounter.  I can ask ques­tions of peo­ple with dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences and resources.  I can still share inter­est­ing arti­cles and blog posts.

Over the past 6 months, I have come to really enjoy Twit­ter, and I’m always look­ing for new peo­ple to fol­low.  I am CBerbs.  Who are you and who do you fol­low that you enjoy?