5 Years on Twitter: What I've Learned

is on the Twitter Bandwagon, lets see how long this lasts
— Evan Barnes (@evan_b) January 13, 2009

That was my first tweet. January 12, 2009. I had no idea what to expect after I got convinced to join Twitter by my friend Bree. I remember thinking "Is this just like posting status updates or what?" and it'd be a fad I'd give up since I was so into Facebook.

Five years later, Twitter's become everything Facebook was back in 09-10 and more. A news source. An outlet of emotions. A way of interacting with people you'd never meet everyday. A community. And for me, it's been as much a part of life since 2009 as anything.

Back in 2009, I was looking for a spark. 2008 was a huge year for my newspaper and I wondered what the year would hold now that Barack Obama was President. Personally, I was slowly recovering from a breakup and wondering how I would start meeting people outside of work. 2 1/2 years out of college, I still had yet to find a consistent circle of friends to hang out with besides church.

That's when Twitter came along. I only knew that one friend and I ended up following President Obama and Dart Adams, a writer who had inspired me with his site Poisonous Paragraphs. I didn't know what to expect but I figured it was a bold new world. Plus I was just about to start this blog so the timing was perfect.

Social Media as Branding: Effective or Slightly Flawed?

 (Photo by Evan Barnes - Taken from 2012 NABJ Convention Program)

Is Brand Identity More Important than the Person Behind It?

I thought about this when I attended the recent meeting for the Black Journalists Association of Southern California and our speaker’s topic was on using social media to better market you as a journalist. It built off a panel I attended at NABJ that discussed the same thing.

I’ve heard people talk about branding for the last few years. Whether it be on Twitter, at conferences or wherever, that seems to be the new buzz word. I’ve always resisted it and a friend made it clear when he said brands are products but people are people.

Sure I promote myself as a former journalist/current writer who has ethics and a nose for being right before fast, cutting the BS and talking straight about what I’m passionate about. But I figure that’s just something I do naturally, not in an attempt to market myself.

Even when I worked at the LA Sentinel, my boss would often talk about branding myself as a HS sports guy and writing columns because that would give me an identity.

NABJ 12 Recap (Long Read but Worth It - I Promise)

So folks have asked me how did I enjoy my 1^st experience at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention & Career Fair in New Orleans? I compare it to attending your first college party – you absorb so much all at once. You shake hands, chat up strangers, make a few friends, take in the sights and sounds and somehow try to sleep afterwards.

Repeat this for 3-4 days and once it starts to become normal, you have to leave and readjust back to your life. But what a fun, amazing experience it was to finally be around so many people in your profession and learn from them.

I’ll keep it simple by just doing recaps of my 3 days there – I won’t count getting there Tuesday where I discovered 1) Gas is 70 cents cheaper – 3.15!!!!, 2) Bourbon Street was a mere 5/6 blocks away from the hotel, 3) An old mentor of mine (Mike Terry, formerly of the LA Times) was also in attendance.