Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

I love any tool that helps build a community and helps me connect with people. Twitter has become a very active tool in my superhero belt. Every day I can check in at any time and see what people are up to and what is sparking their interest. It’s my #1 way I discover hot new videos, links to important articles and even breaking news from time to time.

Here is a picture of the people I follow that I took the other day.

Now, I have more people following me then I follow. I’ve talked about this before and the reason is that I only follow people who:

1. I know personally
2. I have some sort of connection with
3. That post continual good links, content and other pieces of information that I want to know about
4. Is someone that I want to see what they are using Twitter for

But, when I look at this picture of little avatars faces pop out at me. I recognize them. I know them. It makes me wonder what they are up to and the great thing is that I can find out.

Twitter can be time consuming. Many times I won’t leave it up while I do other things because it distracts me. I will pop in every so often and see what is up. I don’t worry about missing things. If it is truly important then someone will either direct message me, use the @cc_chapman prefix so I see it in my replies tab (a huge thanks for that one twitter!) or drop me an e-mail. The fire hose of information that I miss I don’t worry about. If I miss a link that is really cool you can bet I’ll see it somewhere else later in the day from another Twitter or on someone’s blog.

Between Bloglines and Twitter I get all the information I need in one day.It’s a constant stream of information that I can consume and react to when I need to. I like the passive approach very much.

I also love that I can throw out a question like I did the other night of “what is the best desktop cooling stand option for my MacBook Pro” and within minutes get tons of answers to the question. Sure, I was out using Google looking for the same answer, but I like real world recommendations better when I can get them. I also love that I can passively “watch” the Red Sox game through their Twitter as well.

The concept behind Twitter, Jaiku and all the other applications like this is a powerful one and I’m looking forward

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