I wouldn’t even have known that it was my fourth Twitter anniversary had it not been for a Twitterbot that popped up and announced it to me this morning.

Looking back I had always assumed that my first tweets came straight outta Nicaragua but that timing means I was still in Hanoi at the time.  I do recall Noodlepie preaching the way of the tweets while I was still ‘nam but I think my first forays were followed by the thoughts..so what?

In fact I do recall feeling like an outsider for the first couple of years on something that was used mostly by media techie types.  In those days my arguments that there was nothing more boring to use tech for than to write about tech were often rolled out.  They still are occasionally.

In Nicaragua, as it often was in the future, it became a way of passing the time and staying in touch despite limited communications.  Later when I returned to Newcastle it was blocked in my office despite the fact that I was working in the comms department.  Quite laughable now.

It was in Cameroon that I got to grips with it and started carrying a little more kudos on line.  For whatever reason I found my view on all things social media being actively pursued more often – particularly from NGO workers.  In bleak times there it was a friend.

Using Twitter, RSS and Flickr I set up assorted searches for any online mention of my host town “Bamenda”, part of me was looking for news but mostly I was looking for friends.  To a large extent it worked and I was happy to volunteer my services to any likeminds visting town.

Back in Vietnam I got a job via Twitter, although one that didn’t work out in the end.  I did talks for the World Bank, British Embassy and British Council on its use.  The latter indirectly leading to the job I have now.

In my inbox are further requests from a local business group and a University to do the same.

That said, I feel like I am slowly withdrawing from it.  Day by day I follow less people.

For me social media always used to be about promoting debate and, hopefully, winning arguments.  That has been a radical shift for me.  It’s proved a waste of time and old habits die hard but I’m trying to cut that out completely.

Four years old make  me a mature tweeter and like old gadgies everywhere I care less about what others think and less about if what I said is quietly ignored or retweeted.

I’m also revising thoughts on what makes for effective Twitter use.  One thing is clear is that by far the most successful accounts are personal ones.  Tweeting on behalf of someone else doesn’t work. At all.

But what I have come to realise is there is no right or wrong way.  Manning The Cart Twitter feed that pretty much just tweets the specials and responds when messaged has been an education. Sometimes people only sign up for the basics and that’s all they want. Nothing wrong with that.

Corporates should stop worrying about their Facebook pages and their Twitter feeds and concentrate on ensuring their comms output is good enough for people to want to share. Then let them get on with it.

Personally  in many ways it has all gone full circle.  My Dad signed up to Twitter recently and I increasingly tweet with him in mind.  I share photos via Tumblr on my day to day life. On the other hand I feel less comfortable tweeting my blog updates than before – Vietnamblogs can do that for me.

I’ve no longer any pretensions about my writing. I blog because I enjoy it. You know where to find what I do. Likewise I don’t link my Twitter account to my work role any more – the pressure to be professional would be just too much.

So happy birthday to my Twitter self.  Despite over 20,000 tweets and current thoughts about winding it all down – I still got way more out of it than I ever put it. Genuinely my life would have been radically different without it.

My advice remains that if you haven’t signed up to an account then you should.

But it’s no substitute for blogging.