Oh, Twitter, right back atcha with that #love!

Oh, Twitter, right back atcha with that #love!

Some of you may find the following fact unastonishing: Today is the 10-year anniversary of Twitter.

Happy birthday, Twitter. I’m happy you’re here!

That most agile of social media channels has had some growing pains in the past year, and I am rooting for it to emerge stronger than ever.

The reason I’m a fan has everything to do with reader engagement—and the ability to learn news as it’s happening, rather than when a news conglomerate decides to drip-drip-drip out information.

Yes, in fact, Twitter does have a signature.

Yes, in fact, Twitter does have a signature.

Here at Arizona Attorney Magazine, Twitter was a game-changer. It has allowed us to know what was happening in real time. And it allowed us to share news as it broke. Pre-Twitter, unless you were the Associated Press, a TV channel, or a major daily newspaper, you were pretty much sidelined from breaking news, even in your own beat. But sweet sweet Twitter changed all that.

It’s helped in other ways. This past Friday, I presented to hundreds of legal leaders at the American Bar Association’s Bar Leadership Institute. I also invited continued dialogue on Twitter, and promised a gift of a terrific book to the best tweeter from the session. (More on that later.) No surprise, engagement spiked.

Because the digital world is all-knowable and all-knowing, I was able to look up my very first tweet, way back on August 12, 2009 (you can see it below). I was relieved that I did NOT launch my Twitter brief with a mention about my lunch. Instead, my inaugural tweet happens to combine a few of my fondest interests: lawyers and legal affairs, human rights, and historic preservation. A social-media trifecta!

my first tweet 08-2009-page0001

My first tweet: 140 characters pack a punch.

That was almost 25,000 tweets ago, and I am looking forward to all the conversations to come.

Feel free to follow me here; I’m pretty sure we’ll have a blast together!