Web Ramblings

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on my own blog, and this post has actually taken me weeks to write. When I first launched this blog, my first post was about Twitter and a great friend I made that sadly passed away. If you missed it you can read it here.

Since that first post, a lot in my life has changed, I split up with my boyfriend of nearly 10 years, I’ve attended too many funerals, I moved to Shrewsbury and, I quit my stable, full time job as a php web developer to set up on my own. With all these changes happening, I wanted to revisit how Twitter has affected me.

Despite how the last paragraph reads, I am actually really happy at the moment. It has been nearly 8 months since I made the (slightly terrifying) leap from fully employed web developer to running my own web business. And, although it was terrifying (have I said it was a terrifying decision? ~ grin!) I can honestly say that I have loved every second of my new freelance life, even the times where I have thought ‘oh my god! What am I doing??’

And what made all of this possible for me?

Twitter.

I’ve gushed many times about how much I love Twitter. But without it, I would probably still be in a life that didn’t really feel quite like mine. In the early days I used Twitter just to chat with other people within the same industry as me and started to make some new friends through @shropgeek.

As my freelance work started to take off, somehow I managed to develop a reputation as a good web developer, I still have no idea how I managed that when most of my tweets were about cups of tea and marmite on toast! ~ grin! . But, this reputation allowed my business to grow to the point that I no longer had time to sleep. That couldn’t have happened without Twitter, I had no time to attend networking events, all of my early clients came from recommendations and contacts I had made on Twitter.

Since then, the whole experience has been an amazing rollercoaster. I’ve watched with interest as the popularity of Twitter in Shropshire has literally exploded.  This could be due to any number of reasons, maybe because Shropshire is so rural and spread out it is an easy way for people to keep in touch. Or maybe because of the recession there are so many more small businesses and sole traders around that can’t afford the traditional advertising methods. Who knows for sure.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on using Twitter for business. I use Twitter for me, if it benefits my business as well, then fantastic! Otherwise, I still get to chat with some amazing people.

Twitter continues to enhance nearly every aspect of my life. I’ve met some awesome people, many of which I consider to be really good friends. The Shropgeek event we ran in September was an amazing success (to the point that I’m still being asked when the next will be), and the monthly shropgeek meetups continue to grow.

I enjoy attending the Shropshire Jelly events which I would never of heard about without Twitter. I’m also starting to enjoy attending many of the networking events now, because I get to meet people I’ve only ever ‘tweeted’ with (don’t tell anyone though, I have a ‘geeky’ reputation to maintain! ~ grin!)

And, as well as all that I run my own website for Shropshire, called Imagine Shropshire which is proving extremely popular. And, my business is going really well. I could go on and on about all the ways Twitter has changed things for me but instead …

Here is my ode to Twitter in exactly 140 characters:

Twitter, you have introduced me to a whole new world where I now think in 140 characters and emphasize my emotions by using a hastag ~ grin!