Twitterpated

Seems like I hear something new every day about Twitter, so I thought I’d blog about it. I just signed up a few weeks ago and have been pretty amazed. For those unfamiliar, Twitter allows you to send quick updates on your life (at the gym, just got in a wreck, in love, etc) and then allows you to follow your friends, celebrities, companies, bands, etc.

The thing that I have been most impressed with is the accessibility to musicians. I have chosen to follow John Mayer. The man constantly sends Twitter updates (and his publicist says he is the one doing the updates, not some record company). Some are hilarious (ex. Larry King twits from his Atari Lynx). Others provide sort of an inside scoop (ex. just recorded on the new spinal top record). And others just make you feel that John Mayer is a friend of yours and is sharing his daily life with you.

The Twitter platform is a must for musicians or bands. It is probably the single most direct way to connect with all of your fans with relatively little work on your part. Twitter applications are available on the iPhone and Blackberries, so you can update your status on the go. If you don’t have a smart phone, you can also text message your updates in. Twitter can be connected to Facebook as well so that all Tweets are simultaneously broadcast to your Facebook status.

Twitter has also made news recently in some interesting ways. Dave Matthews used Twitter to release an exclusive, free download from his new album. And Ashton Kutcher has challenged CNN to see who can hit 1,000,000 Twitter followers first. CNN is leading right now with 930k compared to Ashton’s 872k. But think about that. One man has nearly as many Twitter followers as an entire company that broadcasts breaking news.

That is the power of Twitter.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com