What was your first tweet?
As Twitter began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last week, I couldn’t help but consider how far this small, simple, fledgling network has come. Once mocked for being stupid and insipid, and plagued by its own persistent identity crisis, Twitter has nonetheless become a prominent and important part of our culture.
I just find to use another word other than “part” to describe Twitter in that last sentence. Because what is Twitter, exactly? Is it a news network? A social platform that connects us to friends, brands, celebrities? A discussion forum? I guess the answer is Yes.
(That’s the thing: What’s dumb-brilliant about Twitter is that it defies categorization. What is Twitter? It’s what you think it is.)
Twitter was founded in March of 2006. I started on Twitter in September 2007, when Jeremiah Owyang suggested that I should represent MarketingProfs there. (Eventually, I would also start tweeting from @annhandley.)
That was 200,000 followers and 40,000 tweets ago. Twitter’s IPO made me wonder what my first tweet was on my MarketingProfs handle, and here it is:
Peter Kim created the M20: Top Marketer Blogs list here: http://www.marketer20.com/ Nice, Pete!
— Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs) September 2, 2007
AdAge wondered the same thing about some large consumer brands, and last week it published the first tweets of the likes of Coke, Nike, Xbox, and the like.
But what about the business-to-business space? Let’s take a look back at the first tweets of some of most successful B2B brands on Twitter (according to a recent analysis by Leadtail and DNN Software as published on MarketingProfs) as well as some others I was curious about.
Some observations to consider, as you check out these early tweets:
Most companies were clearly completely devoid of a content or social media strategy. There’s a definite “Is this thing on?” awkward quality to the tweets – a kind of virtual throat-clearing while these companies figured out what the heck to do with this new platform. (And the terminology: Are we friending? Following? Or what?)
Broadcast trumped conversation on Twitter. Most of the brand’s first tweets read as 140-character press releases. Even @marketingprofs, I dedicated most of my tweets the first few months to simply shilling our content. (Almost every tweet started with “New post: …..”) Most tellingly, I didn’t even put my face on the account until a year or so in. Prior to that, I tweeted with the MarketingProfs bird logo.
There’s not a single hashtag in sight. That would come later, as Buffer points out.
There’s not much humor or any human touch to it, either. Most of us eventually figured out that Twitter could be a great listening and engagement tool, as well as a way to highlight personality and a brand’s humanity. But again, that would come later. These early tweets have a definitely standoff-nish to them. (Although it’s funny how Oracle uses the first-personn when it says, “…add me,”) a rare use of “me” from a brand that like most uses “us” and “we” today.)
Setting up Twitter. www.HubSpot.com — HubSpot (@HubSpot) July 25, 2008
@marketo, doing the demand gen thing — Marketo (@marketo) February 18, 2009
Welcome to the Oracle community on twitter. Add me as your friend. — Oracle (@Oracle) March 4, 2007
Recording and slides from webinar, Why Good Emails Go Bad: http://tinyurl.com/d2zehq — NetProspex (@NetProspex) March 19, 2009
RT @ZDNetBlogs Salesforce upgrades with case-sharing, new charts and more – http://tinyurl.com/poaq56 — salesforce.com (@salesforce) May 12, 2009
Move over, Emeril…: And meet Sam the Cooking Guy. We just heard the news that Sam Zien, one of th.. http://tinyurl.com/34aydf — Emma, Inc. (@emmaemail) September 6, 2007
@davidrisley You can use this link to get a 45 day trial of GoToWebinar http://bit.ly/16uEr6 — GoToWebinar (@gotowebinar) July 8, 2009
Hey! Vocus just recovered our handled ! Follow us @vocus and @vocuspr #pr — Vocus (@Vocus) June 22, 2009
Technology Enables Retailers to Succeed in Overseas Markets http://tinyurl.com/5ma5hz — Cisco (@Cisco) October 22, 2008
Eloqua was just named #1 provider of Lead Generation Suites and Email Tools Vendor by Direct Impact Marketing! http://tinyurl.com/5denbt — Eloqua (@Eloqua) December 16, 2008
Setting up accounts to facilitate communication at Forrester events
— Forrester Research (@forrester) July 27, 2007
LinkedIn Companion + Firefox 3 = Good Web 2.0 Karma http://tinyurl.com/6cj7vy
— LinkedIn (@LinkedIn) June 20, 2008
New Gartner research says there are more than 1 Billion PCs in use globally; 2 Billion by 2014 http://tinyurl.com/5jq3vo — Gartner (@Gartner_inc) June 25, 2008
Route 1to1 is heading to Miami and Boston next week! http://email.exacttarget.com/ETWeb/route1to1/ — ExactTarget (@ExactTarget) July 14, 2008
Come join us at our third annual Summit http://guest.summit.sd-2.com/ — SiriusDecisions (@siriusdecisions) March 27, 2008
After several weeks of negotiation, Facebook will not buy Twitter–but it tried. -GC – http://bit.ly/aWZR — HootSuite (@hootsuite) November 25, 2008
And finally, here are the first tweets of some familiar faces. Some of which are particularly awesome. (Laura Fitton, I’m looking at you. Because Laura eventually would write a book about and found a business around Twitter.)
I wasn’t kidding when I said Twitter has come a long way, indeed! And so, of course, have all of us.
OK, I’ve finally succumbed. — David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) March 8, 2008
Setting up twitter to keep track of the real story on Zadi and her cell phone — Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) February 16, 2007
is about to get obsessed with Twitter me things. Help me out people, I’m new!
— Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) April 14, 2008
watching my kids eat insane amounts of jellybeans
— Jay Baer (@jaybaer) March 23, 2008
Getting ready for my trip to London
— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) November 15, 2006
checking email.— Amber Naslund (@AmberCadabra) February 23, 2008
I’m booking a trip to “The Culinary Destination of the Year” … any idea where that might be? — Joe Chernov (@jchernov) January 21, 2009
writing
— Tim Washer (@timwasher) April 11, 2008
@bryanrhoads I am here
— Ekaterina Walter (@Ekaterina) July 30, 2009
Watching Ohio State win
— Mack Collier (@MackCollier) March 31, 2007
going to bridgeport brewing for lunch with Alex and Jeff
— Dylan Boyd (@dtboyd) July 26, 2007
Damn you Dylan T Boyd! — DJ Waldow (@djwaldow) March 27, 2008
hey bsk…first twitter post ever…i’m so behind the times. we need to catch coffee soon… — Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) December 12, 2007
wondering if twitter is worth it… — Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) April 5, 2007
I’m trying to figure out how to send this thing from my phone — David Armano (@armano) February 6, 2007
Jumping in to Twitter after just following for months
— Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael) October 15, 2009
I’m writing content for Video on the Net and chatting with Julien Smith.
— Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) October 24, 2006
getting ready to take a much-needed SHOWER!
— Shelly Kramer (@ShellyKramer) December 29, 2008
Working on 2321 emails
— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) May 4, 2007
figuring out twitter
— Lee Odden (@leeodden) March 10, 2007
Surfing the web — Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) December 19, 2006
So what was your first tweet?
And add it in the comments below.
Ha! How revealing first tweets can be! Sort of like looking at your 1st grade picture. Here’s mine (on 14 May 2009):
“Attending a social media marketing seminar and Twitter is being explained, but I still have a lot to learn.”
https://twitter.com/DouglasBurdett/status/1796681487
I still feel that way, every day. (A lot to learn!)
Ha! what a fun walk into history. I remember my two buddies at IBM bugging me about getting on Twitter, and it just didn’t make sense to me. After I finally got on board, we ended up using DMs more often than our internal tools (e.g. Lotus) to communicate. Thanks for the creative post, Ann.
Thanks, Tim. I remember being terrified of Twitter: What could I possibly have to say there? So I just started tweeting headlines (broadcasting). It was months before I used the word “I.”
Tim, did you hit ‘return’ by accident in your first tweet?
Mine was political — thinking this Obama guy just might be credible (but not letting myself believe yet).
You should see my first blog post! Talk about clueless…
Love this post! Very timely and also good for brands looking to put a toe in the water. I thinks it’s easy to feel like everyone’s an expert already but everyone feels it out a bit at first. FWIW – my first tweet = (@NickWestergaard) “feels like playing hooky”
Exactly, Nick! I worried that brands/people here would think I was mocking their early efforts… but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We all started somewhere — and it’s interesting to me to see how people and brands have evolved.
All I can say is – Wow. Seems like 100 years ago.
It kind of was, Joe. Since one internet year = roughly a dog year. 🙂
Seems so long ago, but really wasn’t you know? Jellybeans, FTW!
You never talk about jellybeans any more. What’s happened to us?!
This is Delightful.
Great post! I had just browsed through AdAge’s post when I saw this!
My first tweet – March 11, 2009 – “Curiosity lead to my breakdown to finally join the Twitter world…”
Ha!! And here we are.
Gosh this is priceless Ann. I laughed my way through this list and you’re right, we all started somewhere – overnight successes are so over rated 🙂 My first tweet was “setting up an account on twit-ah” and I remember I signed up after reading a Copyblogger article about how twitter could make you a better writer. Brevity FTW!
I think I read that same article, Salma.
The other funny thing was that even though I joined in 2007, I abandoned it soon after for about 6 months, before circling back. I had no idea what to do there, really. It seemed pointless. 🙂
Mine was “Finally getting a twitter account” (https://twitter.com/jeffreylcohen/status/367324702) in October 2007, because I struggled with a username for months. Anonymous still ruled the day and I was trying to use my old blog name (Digital Papercuts), which was too long. On this day, I settled on @dgtlpapercuts. Because I changed my Twitter ID to my proper name account in December 2009, the old Tweets show that they were posted from my current name.
About 12 hours later I posted, “Wondering how much I’ll use twitter.”
That’s funny Jeff. I remember the trend to NOT use real name. I think that’s how I ended up @marketingprofs. It seemed to make more sense… because what did @annhandley have to talk about?
“Researching Twitter.” June 4, 2008 < Yikes. So boring! (But it got better.)
https://twitter.com/carmenhill/status/827185819
Yes, it did, Carmen!
Fun post! Yup, we’ve all come a long way since our first tweets. In mine, I quoted Admiral James Stockdale … https://twitter.com/martinlieberman/status/5109745975
Suffice it to say, in some ways, I’m still searching. 🙂
I had to favorite that tweet, Martin.
Love how we all answered the ‘What Are You Doing?’ question 🙂
Great idea for a post, Ann. That was a fun look back. I was intrigued to discover that my 1st dozen tweets were all @Replies (I think I was afraid I didn’t have anything to contribute) but I’m also sure the 1st would have been more of the “I’m here!” variety had I not lurked for my first 6 months on Twitter.
Interesting to note that despite being lauded for conquering the interwebz with their real-time Super Bowl tweet, @Oreo had a rather inauspicious beginning, just like the rest of us: https://twitter.com/oreo/status/20149501858
Whoa. That’s amazing, Dave. Nice find. Every brand manager who still feels overwhelmed and lost on social media should print Oreo tweet out and hang it above their desks, as a reminder that even the great have humble beginnings.
DJ’s especially made me laugh out loud.
My first tweet was in 2008 and…. “Desk work until I can go play outside.”
Figures.
Mine apparently was: “Don’t know why I’m signing up for this. Barely have time to breath. Much less tell the whole world what i’m doing every waking moment.”
How little did I know that tweeting would actually become ingrained in nearly every waking moment of the next seven years. 🙂
My 2nd tweet was the more predictable “Hello.” It appears to come from SMS, while the first was web, so I guess I was just testing the two ways we had back then to tweet.
That is hilarious, Laura! > “I don’t have time for this!”
From March 13, 2009: “tony faustino signed up for twitter, invited a bunch of friends, and is sending out his first tweet”
Ann, I look at that tweet & can’t help but #Cringe #ThinkLame #Laugh
This is as bad as finding a box of awkward high school photos. Ha! Thanks Ann.
Ha! Pretty close. Good analogy.
Mack Collier has the key point in the comments — the Twitter prompt used to be “What are you doing”, and I’m pretty sure Brian Solis was the first person I saw who pointed out that it’s a stupid question: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/on-twitter-what-are-you-doing-is-the-wrong-question/
They later changed it to “What’s happening,” which is slightly better I suppose; now of course it says “Compose new Tweet”. I say “of course”, but I had to look it up 🙂
Yes — I thought Mack’s point was a good one, too, Kirk. (And I didn’t know what the current Twitter call to action was, either!)
Thanks Ann for sharung this. I was able to see my own first tweet on Topsy!
I started three years back and am still loving twitter!
Me too, Sunita. Thanks for chiming in here. What was your first tweet?
Funny how twitter evolve from the hashtag-less post to twitter pics that makes the said social media network more interesting today.
Love this….
My first personal tweet (@dougcohen10 – https://twitter.com/dougcohen10/status/1186361351): Doug is listening to In Absentia by Porcupine Tree – what an amazing album. If you don’t own it – GET IT and let it grow…
First tweet for our studio (tweeted by my wife Ally) – Oy vey… (@frameablefaces – https://twitter.com/FrameableFaces/status/1279456066): I’m editing product sheets and final images! Can’t wait to be finished! Then off to select new images to showcase in the studio. Woo Hoo!
Both of those were in early 2009…
From May 18, 2008:
“I’ve now officially set up an Aquent-specific Twitter stream. Boy howdy! I’m wondering what web designers REALLY want.”
https://twitter.com/MattTGrant/status/811148265
kirsteno @kirsteno
Thanking Michael Arrington for his DuelAdapter reco. Finally can use my TMobile PCMCIA Card with my new computer ExpressCard slot.
8:24 AM Mar 30th, 2008
Amazing how much technology has changed.
The @siriusdecisions tweet would have been me since I was the only one tweeting from that account until a few years ago.
The first from my own @jblock account: “Going to take a walk in the unseasonably warm.” Jan. 9, 2008
Fun post Ann! IT took me awhile to find my first tweet, as Twitter seems to only lend out the ability to go back 3500 in their API to all those “first tweet apps”. I actually ended up getting it from Twitter > Settings > Archive.
Brad
http://www.bradfordhines.com