Twitter – it’s for the girls!

The naming of the micro-blogging service Twitter has been the subject of much-debate since the little bird flew into our lives.

Its apparent silliness, and easy to raise a smirk references (“twits”, “twatter”, ooh..er), cited as reasons why straight-laced organisations and po-faced news editors alike have been slow to embrace it.

But during a packed tweet up in Leeds last night, all became clear.

It’s  actually an acronym.

The Women’s Introduction Tool To Engineer Relationships.

Yes, it seems Twitter has become widely accepted as a female-friendly networking tool which got me thinking as to why that would be;

* Having small avatars often means that arriving at an event is less scary as there’s people that are easily recognised to say hello to. (Cats, dragons, cartoon characters and my avatar being the exceptions which prove the rule!).

* The conversational nature of tweets means offline introductions feel like a continuation, rather than an initiation, of a discussion.

* Armed with the sort of micro-information which is gathered over time on Twitter helps give the confidence to participate in discussions, having already been exposed to some of the arguments.

Perhaps its crediting Twitter with too much, but it seems to me that the increasing visibility of women at digital events I attend is at least in part due to the relationships being fostered online using such communication tools.

Does this ring true for you? I’d love to hear your experience and if you want to know why women rule on Twitter, this bloke thinks he knows why 😉