Have you ever considered the conditions in which you might find yourself should a catastrophe of epic magnitudes occur? We here at Border7 have. This line of thought, stems from the most notable of the end-of-days plays / radio broadcasts / movies : War of the Worlds. But this most recent iteration is, as with  everything else that is so richly avant-garde these days, online, and in this case on Twitter. In a sense, it isn’t quite a play, or a recitation; it is people actively improving and building upon something old to make something entirely new and awesome. All the Web’s a stage, and these people are playing their parts. I highly recommend you check this out.

But I digress, don’t I?

Our next avenue of thought led us to wondering just how much of our infrastructure would last in such an event; just how far would the extent be not just to our ways of communication (which we agreed is the first to go out), but how it would affect our daily routines, our functions, indeed our consciousness. How many devices could you go without and still remain you?

I finally got around to reading some old RSS subscriptions and I came across the following article: Real Life Examples of Business Owners Using Social Media from Small Business Trends and I was intrigued. I really wish I could have gone to the event. It would have been nice to have learn and listen to everyone who had attended. I love the fact that this article discusses the positive ways of using Social Media and also how so many people question it.

One thing that I do agree with is that you should definitely pick a few outlets and focus on them. Make sure they fit your target market. Also, the time aspect can be a problem. You can always outsource to people who know what they’re doing, or you can make it a company project and have everyone contribute (this works really well for Blogs). The main reason why I personally love Social Media is that the company no longer is just a company, but its something more personable and approachable regardless of the medium someone would find them through.

Twitter, my new personal favorite medium, is a great tool that I find that a lot of companies are under-utilizing. There are a lot of users, and although its fairly new (not really, about a year plus old), everyone is still learning the best techniques.

@37signals is a provider for a lot of the online applications that Border7 uses. I believe that everyone of their staff is also on Twitter (I am following quite a few of them). They use their Twitter account to notify their users of any downtime on their various products, and I am notified by at least 4-5 tweets telling me so.

@LessAccounting created a website (We All Hate QuickBooks) that displays a live feed of all Tweets that mention Quickbooks. The website is unfiltered, so it shows positive and (mostly) negative comments that people are making of one of LessAccounting’s competitors. Its a genius marketing strategy in my opinion. Also, I would never have found them if it wasn’t for Twitter. I was looking for other accounting providers, and they started a discussion with me (Twitter can be a great sales tool).

Which brings me to my next point. @Freshbooks saw that I was looking at other providers, and they used Twitter as a retention tool and talked me into staying with them as well. Fortunately, I needed something from both companies that only each uniquely provided.

@Zappos (I do not follow them since I’m afraid I’ll waste my entire paychecks shopping with them) is also a prime example of how to make your company personable. Almost everyone who works for them utilizes Twitter and they are encouraged to discuss what they’re doing, what is working for them, and what is not. The CEO is the one who runs the main Twitter account (I believe, so don’t hold me to this) and they respond to people, plug products or blog posts, and all in all, just make the company that much more approachable.

And with that, if you’re a Twitter user, I would suggest following @Border7 for all the Border7 news. If you want to get to know me (do so at your own risk) you can follow me @kamylynn.

Also, if you just want to read some general demographics, refer to the recent Time’s article on Twitter.

I am a developing fan of Twitter. I have signed up for a personal account, set it to go to my cell phone (one aspect that I find really useful), and will slowly start Tweeting (follow me at @kamylynn). I signed up for an account with Border7 (@border7) and am still trying to figure out what to do with it. However, I see the potential for this tool and am really excited to get started on it.

1. Network Building
2. Exposure for your links
3. Find Breaking News
4. Keep in Touch
5. Great Q&A
6. Efficient Communication
7. Exposure for yourself
8. Microblogging
9. Fast!
10. Fun!

I was reading Inc this month and they had an article on Evan Willaims - the guy who created Blogger. I recall using Blogger before blogging was the thing to do (back when I was a freshman in high school living in Japan - wow that was a long time ago!). He and his team of engineers have created something out of a nonsensical idea called Twitter.

Twitter allows you to broadcast a message to a group of people. It truly is a nonsensical idea, but it has brought in a crazy amount of people to it in the past few months. Its virtually sending an IM to a group of people - your followers  - and them responding. Its an open forum where anyone (as long as you do not have your updates locked) can view your conversations, your day to day habits, etc and respond on it. It makes notifying a group of people painless, and asking for answers for general advice or questions simple to get.

Unfortunately I’m still trying to get in the habit of blogging. Hopefully I’ll get to use Twitter and all its glory soon.