I'm Only In It for the Cupcakes

There are two questions I get asked with annoying frequency:

1. Do you have anything to drink besides Dr Pepper?

and

2. Why are you on Twitter?

As you can imagine, the first question is usually asked by people who either a) don’t know me at all or b) or are having some kind of psychotic break with reality and are experiencing some kind of world where I would have something to drink other than Dr Pepper. (For those still trying to keep up, the short answer? No, I don’t have anything other than Dr Pepper).

The second, unfortunately, is usually asked by people by own age who could actually benefit by expanding their social media horizons – aka not just being on Facebook. It’s funny too, because you would think I wouldn’t have to twist peoples’ arms in the PR INDUSTRY to explore other facets of the media – crazy, I know.

The short version of my “Why You Should Be On Twitter” speech goes a little something like this:

“Twitter is better than Facebook because (NOTE: always start a speech like this; because now people are actually listening) there aren’t nearly the technical difficulties when you’re only dealing with 140 character updates. Also, Twitter actually cares about its users because tweets were made for the mobile age – 140 characters is the maximum for most phone companies for characters in a single text message – therefore saving your minutes and texts per month.

If you’re on Facebook to stalk (and let’s face it, you probably are), Twitter will open a whole new world to you. No longer are your favorite celebrities limited to fan pages and “likes.” No, you can “follow” them and read their tweets as they tweet them! Never again will you wonder what your favorite celeb is eating for lunch – oh no. You’ll know, and what’s better? They will probably be a twitpic too! Ever wonder what’s running through your celebs mind when he/she’s out partying or when he/she is about to go to bed (Kristin Chenoweth is particularly funny – especially when she takes Ambien)? Now. you’ll. know. Simple, yes?

Now for my less superficial, more philanthropic reasons: thankfully, non-profits are some of the most adept at adapting to new technologies. For example, To Write Love On Her Arms (@TWLOHA) and Invisible Children (@Invisible) are very active on Twitter. I follow the organizations, their founders, and the people they work with. It keeps me up to date on what’s going on, what they have coming up, etc.

Last, but certainly not least – actually, this is probably the most important reason – I’m only in it for the cupcakes.

Yep, you read that right – cupcakes. Thanks to a friend, I was introduced to Sweet Wishes Cafe (@SweetWishesCafe) on Twitter. It’s kind of sad, but there is nothing I love more than (no, not cupcakes) seeing local businesses using social networking. And other businesses need to take note and pay attention, because SWC is raising the bar – they just offered me cupcakes for free when I come by to visit.

Now if that’s not good PR, I don’t know what is.

Like I said, pay attention.

(And yes, that was the short version of my speech.)

Oh, what am I thinking? You’re probably still too busy trying to figure out why you only have so many fans on your business’ fan page or why Facebook chat keeps signing off on you to read this blog. Meanwhile, Sweet Wishes Cafe has a guaranteed new customer and a lifelong Twitter follower.

Your loss.

For more information on SWC, check out their web site here: http://www.sweetwishescafe.com/. Or send them a tweet - they'd be happy to talk to you!

@ClaireMBiggs