8 years ago yesterday, I set up my Twitter account and it has, without any hint of exaggeration, changed my life.

• I’ve made new friends
• I’ve met new people
• I’ve experienced activities I’d never had before
• I’ve extended my professional network
• I’ve discovered new ideas
• I’ve been privileged to connect with and listen to people I admire
• It gave me a place to vent
• It gave me another place to laugh
• It gave me another place to be helped (and help)
• It created social opportunities
• It created work opportunities

I see it as a key network to develop my practice, challenge my assumptions and call me out when I’m barking up one of the many wrong trees I discover.

If this is the case, why is it SO hard to help people understand that the networks and connections we make outside of our functions, organisations, professions, countries, etc are there to move things forward? The reason for asking is that I’m trying to establish a Twitter chat and it feels like a Sisyphean task.

Help me out – how do we shift the perception that Twitter so people trust it as professional, of value, and developmental? #ItStartsWithMe