Psst: Want Some Twitter? I’m A Pusher!

It’s confession time. I’m a Twitter dealer, a pusher — a guy who wants to hook you on the Big T, as it’s known on the street. Need some Tweet? I think you do. I’ve corrupted two notable people and just scored a third this week. Got him hooked not two minutes after swearing Twitter was a waste of time.

@mattcutts was my first. To hook him, I actually registered an account in his name nearly two years ago and started merrily twittering away as if I was him. I do a fair imitation of Matt, by the way. Someday, I want my own version of a Turing test. Put Matt and I both behind curtains with voice changers. Ask us difficult questions about the Google search algorithm and see if you can tell which is the real Matt providing that answer that later when you think about it wasn’t an answer at all. Love ya, Matt — you know I do!

After I gave Matt the keys when my April Fool’s Day CuttsCon joke was over, he made his first real tweet:

I’m not sure I believe in twitter.

See, denial. He didn’t want to admit he was hooked. He started tweeting away but all protected. Then it was a few months ago — maybe longer (I’m pretty sure Matt will come along and post the exact time), he opened up to the world and fully engaged in Twitterdom. Now look at the dude — closing on 2,000 twits and nearly 15,000 followers.

@johnbattelle was my next notable victim. It was April of last year, and I wanted to mention him in a Twitter tweet I was making. But John had no account. Time to push him over the edge. I signed him up and sent the keys. John soon wrote:

It might mean the beginning of another Searchblog like obsession

Indeed, it sure didn’t take him long to get into it. He sports numbers similar to Matt, nearly 2,000 tweets (tweets, twits, I like both terms!) and nearly 11,000 followers.

@allandick was a fun convert yesterday. For those who don’t know Allan, he runs Vintage Tub & Bath. That gives him an encyclopedic knowledge of plumbing fixtures, but he’s notable for running his famous “Allan Dinners” in conjunction with search conferences like our SMX: Search Marketing Expo events. Allan Dinners for speakers, sponsors and others sometimes feature cool speakers; they always include fun and games and a good time.

Allan’s also an excellent presenter on online marketing — and he was talking about this at the Omniture Summit this week. I was there too, and we got to chatting in the lobby last night. Allan was going on and on about how people have to be so immediate these days — how he watched so many people glued to their BlackBerries in sessions, checking email or twittering away. He just didn’t see why anyone would use Twitter.

In some ways, I agreed with him. We all started riffing on what would have happened if Twitter had existed during the first moon landing. Could you see it? Neil Armstrong exits the lunar lander and just before stepping off twitters:

@nasa @world i’m just about to take one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. see you soon @buzzaldrin #moonlanding

Or course, #moonlanding would have been the required hash tag for that event.

After more laughs, I swooped in. Hey Allan, come over here and look at my iPhone. Maybe you’d like a peek at my Twitter feed. I started scrolling. See, I just learned about this news here. Allan went ooohh. See, @sugarrae is pissed at someone for something again. There’s always some drama with someone on Twitter. See, this person’s asking me a question — I can help answer this. See, I know this other person is here at the conference.

Allan kept oooohhing, and I made my move. Hey Allan, let’s sign you up right now. There was a public terminal where we were talking, and away we went. Got his name. Put in a short bio. Noticed Twitter somehow magically automatically had him follow two people he actually knew (still don’t know how Twitter did that). But it worked — Allan was impressed and started getting more interested.

He started doing his first post. Mentioned me using my real name. No no, Allan! You gotta use Twitter handles. I’m @dannysullivan if you’re talking to me, and when people @allandick about you, you’ll see what they say showing up in your Replies tab. He got that fast.

Then I twittered that Allan was out there. Immediately, people took notice. Within five minutes, he’d gained 7 followers (@oilman the first to welcome him to Twitter). I kept refreshing the page so he could see his follower count grow. More ooohhing. And even more as he saw his feed begin to change as those he was following started to update.

Oh, and he was following people. How quickly he learned. When he saw @oilman was following him, he glanced at me and @elisabethos (who was helping me push that day) with a look of “what do I do?” Oh — you’d better follow @oilman. You know him, and he’ll probably be sad if you don’t friend him after being your first follower.

He knew a few other people, and it was the same thing — do you know these people? Are you interested in what they say? He was, and he followed them. Then there was someone he didn’t know. What to do? I told him to look at the person’s feed and profile. If it seemed interesting, he might want to add them. Allan, growing up fast, decided no. “You do want to be selective.”

Yes, my little pretty — come into the Twitterworld. @elisabethos and I joked he’d be back to his hotel room in no time, twittering away. And so he was — as well as adding his picture and a cool background that has gone away (I bet, knowing Allan, he has someone whipping up an even better one).

I can’t convert them all, of course. So go out, find your friends, your coworkers, your family members. Push them a little of the Big T. And enjoy watching how they uniquely grow into it. I can assure you, even if they’re doubters, they’ll almost certainly change. Just consider Allan’s most recent twit:

Perhaps – just perhaps – I was (what is the word) wrong about Twitter?

The best thing Allan was watching him firsthand fall into Twitter? Got your own stories of taking someone’s Twitter virginity away? Love to hear them!

Postscript: Saw via Techmeme that Shaq is on Twitter and great story of meeting up with some new Twitter friends.

Postscript 2: Also on Techmeme, the Los Angeles Times notes how Twitter’s “suggested users” has caused those users to spike upwards dramatically with followers. I noticed this new feature for the first time when signing Allan up — and like the LA Times points out, couldn’t help but think how cool it would be to be a suggested person. Allan actually chose to go past all of them, since none were particularly relevant. As I said above, what was far more interesting was how Twitter actually picked two people he really did know and automatically had him following them. Still want to know how that worked — all Twitter knew about Allan was his email address, at that point.