Sunday, February 6, 2011

A introduction to #usguys: The Global, Twitter Hashtag tribe.

A while back I was helping my good friend Kate Madonna Hindes ( AKA @girlmeetsgeek ) with some problems she was having with Tmobile at the time and It looks like someone Stephen Caggiano took notice and invited me to #usguys on twitter. On twitter, hashtags can be used a lot of different ways. One way is for emotional context in the often emotionless context of text. The primary use is to link topics together into one huge stream. services like Tweetchat have sprung up to help you follow these hashtag conversations. #usguys is one of the later.

#usguys as I would define it is a Global community of marketing, social media and creative people wanting to promote each other, social media and to motivate conversation on those topics.

We were recently poised the question, on whether twitter was a pulpit or was it a network? Why can it not be both? One must not underestimate the benefits of building rapport. Thanks to Twitter I now know a bunch of people in the fields in which I am interested, that is a very valuable network. Twitter also lets me get the message out about things and ideas of which I care. Twitter is also a Choir. Surely #usguys represents that. A hundred people, singing in one voice, in different keys with the occasional solo, but we are all singing about the same thing.

When it comes down to it, Twitter is a means of communication, what you do with that means, is up to you.
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5 comments:

  1. AllisonFebruary 7, 2011 at 7:57 PM

    I really enjoyed your last paragraph! Network, Podium and !!Choir!!! Excellent! Very nicely put!

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:01 PM

    Hey, what do You mean "someone" invited You?.....Hmmm

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  3. Robert HeadleyFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:04 PM

    ehem, updated.

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  4. libbytalksFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:05 PM

    Thank you for a great post Robert. I love it that you prefaced it with a brief explanation of #usguys for the reader caught unaware. I also thought your paragraph on Twitter being both a network and a podium was excellent!

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  5. StephenFebruary 7, 2011 at 9:29 PM

    I think your last sentence nails it, Robert: Twitter is what you make it. When any platform gains mass acceptance, there will always be a section of users that want to create a definitive way to use it. Closing off potential uses stifles creativity, though, so it's not in the best interests of most users to be limited by the perspectives of others, regardless of how long they've been signed up.

    That said, my personal preference is to blend just a little self-promotion in with a lot more content curation and recommending the work of others. In turn, that builds the network and choir facets of Twitter that you mention, as we begin to connect with others and discuss the topics that content raises.

    I'm just learning of #usguys and it seems like a great group of individuals sharing smart conversation. Thanks for writing about it!

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