Twestival Home

Guest post by Tamera Clark (QA & Systems Analyst, Twitter enthusiast)

By day, I am an IT professional, and during the rest of my waking hours I am an IT junkie. I blog, Tweet, Yelp, Dopplr and spend many hours just surfing. I have a Web-enabled phone, a netbook just for my purse and machines all over my house, including the kitchen.

Just this week I paused for a moment and thought to myself, “OMG, what did we do before the web?!” I will admit that when I first started using Twitter, I just thought of it as fun, really short instant messaging that EVERYONE can read. My, how my thoughts have changed over the last several months; I now have begun to think of Twitter as a necessary tool in my everyday life.

For instance, I am currently trying to develop stronger MS SQL skills mostly relating to being a DBA and report writer. So I started following several people on Twitter that are professionals in that field. Since then, I have come to know them as real people who are not just professionals but outstanding professionals in their fields (@SQLRockstar) who have written books(@PaulRandal), who are MS MVPs (@kimberlytripp) and are willing to help. Through these connections I have had opportunities to attend FREE training, which is huge when travel and training budgets are being slashed. I have seen people post real issues and get help solving their problems quickly, unlike most tech support these days.

But Twitter doesn’t just stop there being a helpful tool for work. I am a foodie (according to Wikipedia, a foodie is an armature who simply loves food for consumption, study, preparation, and news). I dedicate most of my blogging to food that I have prepared or that I have consumed while traveling. So of course I found a few other foodies on Twitter who also have blogs. Just last week I found someone (@theNoviceChef) who’s already broken down a recipe to make pumpkin spice lattes and she is the wife of someone else (@SQLchicken) I followed for killer SQL skills. Kind of sounds like the Kevin Bacon game.

Back in February this year, Twitter fans did the first global fundraiser called Twestival. This was to raise funds and awareness for a global issue: clean water. This time it is up to each location having a Twestival to pick a local organization to support. Lafayette has chosen, by vote, United Way of Greater Lafayette. This is a wonderful organization and with so many organizations in need it was hard to pick. If I had to guess, these Twestivals came about because there were so many “Tweetups” happening. A Tweetup is where several people who may not know each other, but have connected on Twitter, decide to meet. Sometimes these are because you are visiting from out of town, traveling on business and don’t want to eat alone or it’s just a good social activity right here at home. If people are already Tweeting-up, why not put those to good use.

The biggest thing that Twitter has done for me is that it has inspired me to be better. I am learning new skills that will help me grow professionally and will help me get ahead. I am motivated to become a better blogger and to write better posts. Twitter has increased the traffic to my blog so I recently started looking for ways to improve it. I started a project to revamp the site and to fine-tune (or find) writing skills. How? Following people on Twitter who know (like @BrentOzar, he’s an SQL guy too).

So get out there and start Twittering. I know there is someone out there that shares your interest. And if you are already Twittering ask yourself this, “Am I helping anyone? Am I learning anything? Am I having fun?” If you said, “No”, change that.

- Tamera M. Clark

You may RSVP for the Greater Lafayette Twestival 2009 here.