This blog post will generate my 1001st tweet.  It seems to me that 1000 tweets is a milestone.  I’ll celebrate it here.  I estimate that each tweet averages about 45 seconds to write.  When you do the math, it turns out that I have spent about half of day (12 hours) of my life generating these short messages.  So the obvious question: to what end?

I have made many new acquaintances, learned a myriad of new things and immersed myself in the current ways of modern culture from these concise quips.  Learning to convey complex thoughts in 140 characters or less has taught me the skill of brevity.  The iOS version of the Twitter App includes a pretty handy analytics feature that shows you what subjects your followers find most interesting. Honestly though, I mostly tweet what I find interesting.

One of the people I have met on Twitter is Pamela Walaski.  She is an EHS Consultant and active member of the ASSE.  She has been active on Twitter since 2008.  I enjoy reading her Tweets.  Pam has done some formal work on studying the value of social media in general, and Twitter in particular, during crisis situations.  The work culminated in the publication of a comprehensive article in the  journal Professional Safety titled:  Social Media: Powerful Tools for SH&E Professionals.  It’s a great article that it well worth your time to read.

What I love most is the river of ideas that flows each hour through the medium.  I focus on EHS, Leadership, Aviation and Industrial topics.  Those I follow post frequently on these subjects.  Literally every day I see something that deepens my understanding of these topics.  I have also noticed that news breaks first on Twitter.  Many times it is a tweet from the scene of the news written in real time.

Finally, as I approach the Back Nine of my career, I recognize the need to stay current with the new ideas and methods.  This is especially true in the area of Technology.  Twitter is a good tool for spotting emerging trends as well.  It also allows me to identify emerging issues that my existing knowledge base can be applied to.

I’ll sum up by saying that I see value in the effort that went into my thousand tweets.  I have enjoyed the conversations it has generated with people from literally all over the world.  I am well informed on the current happenings in the topics of interest to me.  My involvement in the medium enhances my feeling of involvement in the communities I am interested in.

This tweet starts my journey to the next thousand.

Additional resource:  25 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Twitter