Yesterday I struggled all day with a breastfeeding problem. Smallest had spent two nights feeding every 40 minutes, then gone back just as suddenly to 3 or 4 hours, and somehow over night I think I missed a left feed. So I woke up to a very sore and distended breast, and despite trying to feed frequently off it, by evening I was almost crying when it was touched.
I hoped it would be better this morning, but it wasn’t, so I reached for support via twitter. I was inundated with helpful responses, from friends and strangers as we discussed warm flannels, cold cabbage, mastitis, blocked ducts and thrush.
And in the middle of it, I got one raised eyebrow, with a smile, from a business follower, surprised to have his stream suddenly take on such a personal bent. He was fine about it (he really was, please don’t hunt him down and shout!), but it got me thinking.
I’ve read a lot in the last few days about twitter stats. How there’s a tiny minority of power users creating all the content that the rest of us apparently just mindlessly retweet. It made me feel a bit confused tbh, it may just be that I don’t follow the power users in question, but that’s not my experience of twitter at all.
When I started using it, it still sent texts out to your phone. So we used it, me and some rl friends, to coordinate ourselves when out and about – much cheaper and easier than sending texts to each individual. When the texts went, so did we, to another service that kept them going a little longer. And since then twitter (and technology) has changed – the advent of smartphones means we don’t really need the texts a lot of the time, and there’s an awful lot more ppl on twitter. It’s being used for marketing, brand awareness, sponsored tweets. I know that twitter needs to make money, to keep the service going, but I don’t like the way they are driving it.
I like the social stuff. I like the small talk when I’m still awake at 1 o’clock in the morning. I enjoy the fun bits, and yes, I do some comps and some blog pimping too. Think they are a very small percentage of my stream though 😉 I’d love it if more ppl were using it that way – and it might keep twitter a little safer for the rest of us, rather than it just turning into yet another boring marketing tool. Great, lets have the marketing too, but lets remember the social bit first and foremost. Next time you’re planning on pimping, how about you stick some small talk in and around it too?
So what do you think? Are there things you won’t say on twitter? Do you split your personal and business accounts apart – is that a particularly male thing to do? Did you unfollow me because I talked about breastfeeding? (Or would you have done if you had been following?)
And to those who helped this morning, thank you. I’ve showered, dangled and now smell slightly of cabbage. I’ll let you know if any of it helps. On twitter, obviously.
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