As I near my 600th follower on Twitter, I figure that I can safely call myself an expert in the social media field, fit to give presentations to stadiums full of people on how to amass gazillions of followers on social media.
All joking aside, every new follower feels like a new achievement, because it is another person (or sometimes a bot with hot singles who want to CHAT RIGHT NOW) who I can get to know and have some fun and meaningful conversations with about topics we all care about.

The power of social media shouldn’t be measured in how fast we can get the news before it is fact checked by a reputable news organization, or how we can catch up on celebrity gossip, although those are both great things. I didn’t even need to watch the Golden Globes last night to hear about every moment, from the poetic ramblings of Jodie Foster to the unimpressed Tommy Lee Jones, or Adele high fiving Daniel Craig.

Instead we should see social media as a great tool for kicking off meaningful conversations, and hilariously silly ones too, with people we would have never been able to talk to otherwise. That’s where the real magic happens, and how I can have people I consider my Twitter friends. If I saw them in real life l wouldn’t even hesitate to give them a hug and to continue our conversation right where we left off online.

That is why my 600th follower is going to get a song from me. Because I don’t just want to take from Twitter, I want to give to it to. I’ll write a song based on the topic of that followers choosing (I will try to keep it clean), and I’ll post a video of it on YouTube. In fact, I will do it when I reach 700 and every hundred followers after that.

People can claim that social media is for growing your business, or that social media is for networking. But all these networks aren’t just utilitarian tools to make more money. They’re for making personal connections, and honestly, isn’t that how the most successful business deals are made anyway? We can get so much from others and give back so much too, and it’s not a bad thing if all it takes is a tweet. That tweet can become so much more.

That’s why I use Twitter, because followers give some of the best hugs.