10,000 Twitter followers and it seems like only yesterday when we started.

Minuteman Press Bristol have had a Twitter account since 2009 (I know, we were relatively late starters!) and the time has flown by. Tweeting is an activity that all of the print centre team are involved with and gain much pleasure from. The key with Twitter, in our humble opinion, is that you must enjoy the experience. Experiment, create images and upload, become a journalist, find your Twitter voice.

We write about lots of diverse topics, and for us, right from the start, Twitter was never intended to be a commercial activity or tool; indeed we were often asked when we met Twitter friends in real life why our Tweets were not more commercially focussed. The feedback from face-to-face conversations is that by not being heavy on the commercial it makes our @MinutemanPress Twitter account more attractive and enlightening to Followers – Tweets are somewhat more interesting than the tedious ‘5000 leaflets for £xx’, etc. Of course we do Tweet such messages on occasions, but those commercial messages should remain in the minority.

For us Twitter has been and is about making new friends. Some of those friends we work with and subsequently recommend, some we drink coffee with (made with a quality cafetiere using the finest FairTrade coffee), some buy from us, some invite us to parties, some we provide consultancy to, and so it goes on.

Twitter has also been about getting to know old friends better. It has been great to gain an increased insight into the lives and activities of our customers and supplier partners. So many stories, so many events, it has been an emotional experience and continues to be so, we’re delighted to say. Twitter is global, but somehow makes the world smaller, allowing communication with lots of people with very busy lives.

Twitter has been a real revelation, a learning curve which continues and from which we become a little more sophisticated in its use each week.