The Power of Twitter: A True Story
Hey! Joe the Blogger here. You remember Joe the Plumber? Well, I’m Joe the Blogger. Just call me Joe. I want to pull on your coat about something from my blogging experience that was very moving for me, and an example of social media in action.
I lived and worked in Chongqing, China for the better part of four years. I was an educator. I returned to the states in ’07.
I had an idea for an article shortly after I began blogging and I just let it live in my head for awhile thinking no one would be interested in it anyway.
And one day a reader left a comment on my blog. She must have been reading my mind because she suggested a post on the very idea that was living in my head. She said why don’t you do a post about blogging in China and what they blog about?
So I decided to run with it.
The result of that was an article entitled "The Internet Experience and Blogging Behind The Great Firewall." On May 23rd I posted it. On May 28th The Gods of the Blogosphere decided that the article was to be promoted to the front page of WordPress and featured in Freshly Pressed.
So two days short of one month I learned what it meant when a post goes viral. I’m not bragging because I’m not that type of person. Actually I don’t do compliments well and certainly wasn’t looking for attention. Though getting attention is not new to me, as I had my share working as a musician for 18 years.
I remember a few days after I posted that article, I went on Twitter and sought out Ai WeiWei, a world renowned artist, architect and Chinese activist. I tweeted him the link to my post. He thought enough about what I wrote to RT my tweet. This guy has 40,000 followers! I was shocked. After that, I was befriended by a young married couple from Shanghai who were moved by my article. The young woman offered to translate my article so I could repost it for the benefit of Chinese bloggers and Twitterers. I said, sure, that would be great. She's an influential Tweeter in China.
Continued on the next page
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