Coming late to the party: My social media “wow” moment

I just had my first social media “wow” moment. Before I explain what happened, I’ve got to tell you that I’m borrowing the phrase “social media ‘wow’ moment” from Kenji_Onozawa and his website, Seattle Social Media Profiles. In his written interviews to the folks that he interviews, that’s one of his questions. If you’re a Northwesterner or just a plain ol’ person who engages in social media, this site is awesome; it really helps put social media and the local people involved in it in perspective!

Oh, that’s right… So on to my story.

I was on Twitter, reading some updates and responding to some of the tweets that I had favorited throughout the day (I typically don’t tweet during the weekdays because I’m too busy at work), and one of my friends, Bloglue, retweeted a question that he had posted the day before asking about programming and the use of 24-hour clocks and AM/PM settings. Since I follow a decent amount of programmers/developers, I figured at least one person might be able to answer… and answer he did! noahcoad answered within 10 minutes of me retweeting Bloglue’s message. 10 minutes! It just blew me away.

It’s just proof that reaching out to others and actively searching for answers for yourself and for others really works online. But you know what? It’s even sweeter when you can meet these people at social events and other types of meetups.

I’m still amazed at how much more I “got it” today. I think I’ll use this as my own proof point for when people want me to explain what the significance of social media is. Now, let’s see how many more online tools I can use to help others…