Meeting strangers becomes familiar

"Facebook is for friends who are now strangers. Twitter is for strangers that should be your friends."

So goes the anonymous saying that's been floating around cyberspace, and I think it's particularly apt.

Twitter is not only a great way to connect with friends and family, but also perfect strangers. Is it weird to follow strangers? I don't think so.

You share the same interests with the people you follow on Twitter, just as your followers share interests with you. As you spend more time on Twitter, you gain more followers, and you in turn follow more people to expand your network of like-minded folks. It's only natural that many of them are people you've never actually met.

Building on your similarities with others, you start to diversify as you're exposed to new interests.

I believe the Internet and Twitter are making the world smaller, bringing people closer to share and learn new things. So I choose to follow all different kinds of people: marketers, actors, diplomats, programmers, journalists, doctors, musicians, game geeks, nerds and even party animals. No wonder my timeline is like a variety show with so many types of content. Sometimes there's drama!

I spend a lot of time going through my Twitter timeline each day, keeping abreast of the "in trend" topics. I've shared and seen a lot of great tweets, comments, interesting news, viral videos and loads of crazy stuff.

Besides being the place to explore new things, Twitter is also an effective way to spread the news in a short period of time.

Lots of marketing managers take advantage of Twitter to connect, create and build relationships with customers. Some of them use Twitter to promote themselves and attract new fans.

But it's not just commercial - Twitter can actually help society. An example is @SiamArsa, a small organisation in Thailand that has efficiently used Twitter to broadcast news about activities to assist people who have been affected by the floods and other natural disasters.

Twitter is a medium that give us an opportunity to learn new things, to get different opinions, to share experiences and to help others. Don't limit yourself. Make an effort to follow others outside your circle. You might find many people who have intriguing things to say.