When I decided to bite the bullet and jump into the Twitter fray in earnest, I must admit it was for very self-centered reasons. It started out as an effort to gain knowledge. Frankly, I wanted to look learn more about this social media phenomenon that was exciting my coworkers and clients. With some time and experience, I got very excited about building my personal brand, gaining followers, being interesting to others. What I never really expected was the vast amount of information that is available to me in the home of little blue bird.  

I only started to realize the true power (and probably the future) of twitter on Saturday during the surreal anticipation of a tsunami hitting the shores of Hawaii.  Like many other folks on Saturday, I interrupted my day to check in on Hawaii. I did a quick check with CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS to see how those folks in Waikiki were doing in anticipation of the 4:05pm (Eastern) arrival of a tsunami triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile earlier in the day. I found myself sickly fascinated with the whole affair. Waiting, watching, hoping that it would come and hoping that it would not. The voyeur in me became very frustrated with the television news coverage and like any good attention deficit multitasking gal, I picked up my laptop and found myself on Twitter. In other words, I struck tsunami gold.

One glance at trending topics showed me that #hitsunami was the place to be. A quick search later and I was off to the races. There were 1000’s of tweets per minute with real people sharing real stories about what they were experiencing in that moment. I found accurate and up to the minute reports of what was really happening, pictures of a nearly empty Hilo Bay, links to local news, and people in Hawaii connecting with each other. I also discovered Hawaiians sharing news of how to navigate a city whose main highways were closed, information on evacuation routes, and tweets from loved ones on the mainland. My favorite moment was when the entire #hitsunami twitter community realized that their tweets were powering CNN’s television coverage. The validation that real people were not only reporting but also living and creating the news, in a whole new way energized everyone participating.

I have daily arguments with myself and others about the long-term value and future of Twitter. Why bother? It’s a great resource! Do I care what this random selection of ‘friends’ say? What I’ve now realized is that my relationship with Twitter is a lot like the Hawaiian tsunami of 2010.  Sometimes my enthusiasm is as empty as Hilo Bay was on Saturday, and sometimes it pours back in a slight three-foot wave. Twitter has not met my expectations. There, I said it.

However, I’m finding value that I personally never considered. Frankly, I never even imagined that a real time search engine powered by millions of real live people could even be possible, and now it is a reality. I am sure that reality will continue to shape us in ways that we cannot even imagine. Before Saturday, I couldn’t imagine tuning into television news to watch a natural disaster in real time. But I did, just like millions of others, and was horrified by my disappointment that the tsunami of 2010 was a non-event.

In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter: @teenord.

Teresa Nord