Gatecrashed parties are the best, don’t you agree?
Twitter swooped me up one Wednesday night four years ago when I gatecrashed a party by mistake. Before I knew it, Samantha Kelly had welcomed me aboard Irish Biz Party, which was in full swing. I was hooked in 140 characters! Delighted and intrigued, I realised that I loved it, and as a total newbie, needed to quickly find out how to work this Tweeting machine.
Never one to waste time, I signed up with Sam next day – to run my 3-follower account, and for a private Twitter course with her. Pulling no punches, she informed me that my clever Twitter handle was crap: “You’re an expert in fertility and helping people get pregnant,” she said. “Tell people what you do, connect with them, share, be kind and have a laugh.” Sam interviewed me about my career as a midwife, hypnotherapist and fertility coach – wanting to know everything about me: ‘Keep it real, what you’re about, what your values are, what you believe in. Under her dynamic tutelage and as the rather mortifying @FertilityExpert, I trended as StarBiz a scant couple of months later!
The best part of joining the Twitterers is meet ups with people whom I now count as friends. I love connecting with all kinds of people I’d never normally meet as a therapist in private practice, who spends a lot of time on Skype consults with clients. There’s a serendipitous magic about it all and I get so many lovely opportunities to talk about my favourite things – fertility and philosophy.
I’ve been asked via Twitter to provide comment on current fertility and IVF issues: on national radio, Charity Radio and local radio all around the country. I’ve featured in Sheila Lambe’s UK magazine ‘My Fertility Specialist’, The Irish Times, The Indo and Country Living. I’ve been on Cavan TV …and TV3. And there’s guest blogging, which is fun, too.
A tweet of mine about Barry’s Tea was picked up by superb journo, Lois Kapila, @LoKapila, at The Dublin Enquirer – six whole months later! She featured my view on the ethics of tea producing and kindly gave me masses of research info, which I used for one of my 5,000-word Ethics MA essays last year. Got a nice grade, too!
Philosophers are ‘taking’ to Twitter – it’s a super platform to share research and get discussions going all around the world. I connect with academic researchers on Twitter and went to Leicester in May for my first visit to DE Montfort University’s brand new Reproduction Studies Centre. Sunlight streamed in through the church (yes, actual church!) windows as we heard all the latest research papers from experts from around the world. Soundtracked by buzzing bees from the monastery garden, and the soft clack of bowling balls on the green outside, it had more than a whiff of Midsomer Murders about it! Two days later, invited by my Twitter dentist pal, Dr.Richard Lee Kin, I attended The Future Health Summit, a fascinating 2-day medical conference held in City West. More to follow on the connection with oral health and fertility…
My favourite programme, BBC Countryfile retweeted me on Sunday and it reached 6,000 people in 20 minutes!
During a lunchtime rainstorm today I tweeted a request for a few bars of my favourite song, Despacito, to young classical guitarist, Michael Stedman. Less than 5 minutes later @MStedmanGuitar had tweeted me a beautiful rendition on video that made my day. That, my friends, is the magic of Twitter for me.
Women Inspire Network meet-ups and conferences are a lovely way to keep in touch, put faces to names and cross-pollinate information and updates. Most of all, it’s a friendly, welcoming place of great folk who love what they do, and simply can’t resist tweeting about it.
You are so welcome aboard!
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