One of my most favorite parts about social online networking is how helpful people can be! I subscribe to a Blogger Request ezine (more on that in another post) and posted a request for guest bloggers. Next thing you know, I’m posting ideas from Phyllis Zimbler Miller, and now, Yael K. Miller.
If you’re not on Twitter, and you’re an introvert, this blogpost by Yael will get you there:
Twitter: An Introvert’s Heaven
I am a classic introvert — I prefer staying home to going out. I’m not a misanthrope; I like people. In fact, there are very few things I like more than intelligent conversation. However, I get nervous in large gatherings – especially networking events.
In a networking event, I can muster up courage to go over to someone standing alone and try to talk to that person. But when the conversation seems to stop or the person talks about something I’m not interested in, I’m always thinking how do I exit this person gracefully? I leave but I never manage to leave gracefully.
Then when there are two people talking to each other I don’t go over because I worry that they might be having a private conversation.
Then there’s the group of people standing in a tight circle. How do I enter the circle/conversation? And when I stand there I feel like I’m being creepy and eavesdropping on the conversation.
Twitter solves all these problems easily.
• Any tweet that can be seen is public and I can respond to it. And if someone’s tweeting something I’m not interested in I don’t have to respond.
I interned in a small department at a large company. I would run into technical issues and ask the person sitting next to me. But I’d feel badly because I’d be interrupting the person’s work.
• With Twitter I can ask a question and know that, if someone answers, it’s because the person wants to help and I’m not interrupting.
Maybe it’s because I’m a introvert or maybe it’s because I’m a writer but I tend to narrate in my head what I’m doing. Not “This lunch is good” but “I finally finished that project.” If you do that then Twitter is for you.
• Just tweet the stuff you narrate in your head. If it’s about work that you’re doing, someone else might reply back to you and start a conversation.
As I said earlier, I am interested in what people are doing but it’s hard to work up the courage to go up to someone and ask.
• With Twitter I can follow people who are doing things I’m interested in and I don’t have to ask what they’re doing because they’re tweeting about it.
• And I can ask if I want to. The conversation is usually quick and, when I have nothing more to say, I stop tweeting. No awkward physically disengaging from talking to the person.
If you’re an introvert and haven’t joined Twitter yet, I strongly urge you to do so right now. And you can follow me at www.twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC.
For more information about setting up Twitter and ways to use to it, check out my collection of links on the subject when you follow me there.
- How perfect are these ideas for the introvert?
Don’t you think they balance our need for alone-time, structure and deciding with whom we want to build deeper relationships with?
What do you think?