Guest Blog Post by @leahjones

I’m sitting at a bar in Chicago called Matilda’s. When I was here last week, I came with @amyguth and then @lisrock joined us. Hooray! @amyguth and I have known each other for years, but it was the first time I’d met @lisrock in person. We didn’t plan to hang out, but we know the areas we hang out in and were able to have a martini together.

This is what I call Enabled Serendipity.

It sounds like extreme web 2.0 jargon but it has become my favorite things about Twitter. Because of Twitter, I avoid stories that end with, “Oh man, I was there too. If I’d known you were there, we would have had such an awesome time!”

Enabled Serendipity is being able to turn an almost-coincidence into seeing someone face to face.

Last winter I was in the Jet Blue Terminal of JFK and saw that @chrisbrogan was waiting to board a Jet Blue flight as well. A direct message—and quick text message to his phone, after getting his number from mobile Facebook—and we were having a beer. Without Twitter, we would have each had our lonely airport meal. Hell, without Twitter, @chrisbrogan wouldn’t be in my life.

In June I went to Israel for two weeks. The night I got to Tel Aviv, I missed my hosts and didn’t have their cell phone number to find them. It was a holiday, so making a last minute hotel reservation wasn’t going to happen. I dragged all of my luggage to a cafe, got on Twitter and said, “hmmm… no plan b and can’t find hosts. i’m near ben gurion and hadassah st, any suggestions?”

Within moments my phone lit-up and @taltalk came to rescue me. After getting promises that I wasn’t a murderer over twitter from the States, @taltalk came to get me and I stayed with her. That my friends, is Israeli and Twitterati hospitality.

A few days later I tweeted that I was walking around Tel Aviv, if anyone wanted to join. By 5PM, I was joined at Cuppa Joe by one of Israel’s biggest pop stars Ivri Lider. Hint: On Twitter he’s a little more incognito as @arturmon.

And these are just the recent stories. Due to the Enabled Serendipity of Twitter, I now have a global community. I’ve met people around the country and abroad. I’ve fallen in and out of something close to love. I’ve been able to make introductions that turned into jobs. I have a new group of friends in Chicago that don’t roll their eyes when I talk about nerdy-nerdy things and I’ve even got most of my family on Twitter including my mom @lindajones, twin sister @devivo, and older brother @ryjones.

But the most fun remains those moments when I can avoid saying “Oh man, you were there too?” and replace it with, “Remember when we met at a cafe in Tel Aviv?”

---

Guest post for Twitter Stars by @leahjones

Leah Jones is a writer, occasional talker, and the Digital-Culture Evangelist at Edelman Public Relations in Chicago.

More about Leah Jones can be found at:

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/authors.html

If you’ve enjoyed Leah’s guest post on digital culture, please consider reading some of the other articles she’s written or has appeared in on the web.

Leah Jones on Edelman’s Talkshop: Geeking Out in DC.

Leah Jones on Edelman Digital’s Authenticities.

Leah Jones on Chicago Tech Report.

Leah Jones on Liz Strauss’ Successful-blog.com.

Leah Jones on Twellow.com.

Leah Jones on Flickr.

I lean left politically, I’m a Zionist, I’m an observant, liberal Jew. I love Chicago, I love my friends. When I write about things I love, I probably wasn’t asked to write about it. Seriously, look at my stats, nobody really needs my help to sell their stuff. I write about Jewish stuff, dating stuff, writing stuff, friend stuff, weather stuff, event stuff, and weight stuff.

Tags: Chris Brogan, Edelman Public Relations, guest post, Leah Jones, Twitter, Web 2.0

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Behind the Blurbs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.