A little birdie told me...

I saw a quote recently that said, "Twitter makes me like people I don't know more and Facebook makes me like people I do know less." While this is obviously a generalization and isn't universally true, it fairly accurately describes my sentiments regarding the two social media sites these days. This could be due in large part to the fact that my Facebook usage is predominantly social/personal, whereas only a handful of the folks I follow on Twitter are friends. I have no doubt that many people share the same inane updates about themselves on Twitter as my Facebook friends do on that site and perhaps that's why I've made a concerted effort to restrict my Twitter followings to personal and professional interests rather than another means through which to connect to my friends.

I thought a recent tweet, shared by @itsgoodell, illustrated an interesting point about a major difference between Twitter and its counterparts. The tweet read (in part), "LinkedIn is your Rolodex. Facebook is your scrapbook. Twitter is your lifestream idea generator." LinkedIn & Facebook, while incredibly useful, functional, and sometimes even enjoyable are much more easily defined/categorized than Twitter. Twitter seems, to me at least, to serve many more functions to people than other social media sites. It's an aggregate of countless RSS feeds. It's a marketing/public relations/promotional tool. It's a vehicle for companies to provide customer service. I personally was initially attracted because it was one-stop shopping for all of the sports news and updates that were leading me all over the web, a slave to the refresh button. I very quickly discovered its value in various other capacities. Along those lines, I thought I'd share two recent examples of interesting and effective uses of Twitter that caught my eye.

Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyanTV), Executive Producer of hit TV shows such as The Shield, The Unit, and the upcoming The Chicago Code found an interesting way to commiserate with fans over the cancellation of his critically acclaimed FX Network show, Terriers. He held what he referred to as a "Twitter Wake" for the show, allowing fans to ask him all the lingering questions they had about that show that would normally have gone unanswered. I thought this was a great way to engage with fans and reward a loyal (albeit insufficiently large) following of the show. For a sampling of the wake, you can peruse the postpost (a story for a future blog post) I created here (scroll down to the 10 PM on 12/16 tweet to start from the beginning).

My second example of outside the box Twitter usage involves multiple Twitter accounts and also falls under the category of fan engagement. It's also of great local interest. The Celtics, despite being one of the oldest teams in the NBA, are also one the league's most active in social media. In addition to Shaq (@The_Real_Shaq), who practically pioneered the role of athletes on Twitter, players such as Nate Robinson (@nate_robinson), Jermaine O'Neal (@jermaineoneal), Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo), and Paul Pierce (@PaulPierce34) are frequent tweeters. On multiple occasions, a few of these players have offered their tickets to a game to their followers on Twitter, often with the winner being decided by Twitter-based trivia contests. Giving up two personal tickets and running a quick trivia contest via Twitter takes minimal effort on the part of the players, but goes to a long way to engendering good will with their fans.

Feel free to share feedback about this post, or let me know examples of things you've encountered on Twitter that caught your eye and are worth sharing.

Happy Holidays to all of you and hope you're staying warm.

Meet the author

So, in case you hadn't noticed by now, my name is Dave Cutler. With this being my first foray into blogging, I'll ask that you bear with me as I find my voice and learn as I go. I welcome your feedback and advice. While this is my personal blog, my intention is for this space to be used to discuss both personal and professional interests and in some instances a hybrid of the two. My passions are my family (dogs included), marketing, and all things Boston sports. I have a background in sports marketing so you'll find my viewpoint about sports vacillating between that of a fan and a sports marketer.

My goal is to establish my personal brand for those of you who aren't already familiar with it through my blog posts. If you're interested in finding out the basic ABC's of DC, please feel free click any of the links you see along the right-hand side of this page. For those of you who are more visual, or perhaps are looking for more information, see below for a quick PowerPoint slideshow overview. It should sufficiently (if not beyond) bring you up to speed both personally and professionally.

About Dave Cutler

View more presentations from Dave Cutler.

For two quick examples of SI ads which I especially enjoyed making because of personal rooting interests, watch the following videos:

DC SI Pats Ad from Dave Cutler on Vimeo.

DC SI Sox Ad from Dave Cutler on Vimeo.

I promise a more substantive post in the near future. I wanted to dispense with the introductions first. In the interim, I invite you check out my Tweets as I think they offer a fairly good window into my daily interests.

I'll close by offering you a quick sample of my self-deprecating sense of humor, love of 80s movies, and obsession with basketball, all rolled into one. While I am a passionate fan of most major sports, at my core, I'm a hoops junkie. Basketball was my first love (how could it not be, growing up in the Larry Bird era) and it remains an important of my life today. I drag myself out on the court once or twice a week to play and while in my head, this is still me:

On the court, I more closely resemble this these days (tip of the cap to you 80s movie fans who recognize the photo).

Till next time....