The 43-Year-Old Virgin

This is kind of embarrassing, so please be patient as I stammer out the words.

I've never Tweeted.

I know, it's 2009, and I'm Director of PR at an integrated marketing agency pushing to be at the forefront of all things digital. But for the life of me, I couldn't see the value of tapping into the stream of consciousness of the collective digerati. I mean, do I really care what some teenager in Spokane just ordered at Starbucks?

Then yesterday, I had an epiphany (note to self -- I need to have more epiphanies). I was in a cab headed to Midway with two MARC USA colleagues: Vivek Saran, who heads up account planning; and Adam Kmiec, our new wunderkind head of interactive. As Adam mindlessly tapped on his iPhone, Vivek asked him if he knew of an iPhone app that would allow him to work on Microsoft Office documents. "Nope," was all Adam said.

Then Adam tapped his phone and, I promise, not 30 seconds later chimed in with the answer. I don't even remember what it was . . . I was just struck by how quickly and easily he arrived at the solution by tweeting his fellow Twitterers.

You see, Twitter's not about indulgent self-expression. It's about connectivity, plain and simple. It's a pure expression of the power of the digital realm: by "crowdsourcing," Adam was able to tap a knowledge base broader than his own.

The implications for professional communicators are profound. The opportunities to tap this human network for delivering information are limitless. And I can't wait to start the journey with my first tweet.