How Twitter Helped Me Settle in to Tulsa

I created my Twitter handle back in 2009. I suppose I was a bit of an early-adopter, as the Twitter boom didn't really hit until a couple years later. My first tweet was actually a song lyric (so cliché, I know.) Not reeeallly sure what my sentiments were at that moment in time, but obviously I chose that lyric to express my most profound of emotions. 

Anyway...

As the new kid in town, it's not always easy to jump in to a community that you are unfamiliar with right away. It takes some time, some research, some feeling out if you will, of your new surroundings. Twitter proved to be an invaluable tool for this sort of thing. 

In the weeks leading up to my big move to Tulsa, I began following local news publications, restaurants, shops, and individual people who lived in the city, and then started to engage the top influencers and those active in the social scene. If they mentioned an affinity for Martha Stewart recipes, their favorite "Top 25" lists on Buzzfeed, or consuming borderline inappropriate amounts of wine, I clicked “follow.” Simply letting people know I was new to town opened up doors. Followers whom I had never met have direct messaged me with the names of people they suggested I meet, or places that I should check out. Those people introduced me to more people and so on.

In my line of work—marketing and PR, social media is a huge deal. It is not only critical that you have a voice, but that you utilize that voice as a means to connect with others in a way that sets you up to learn from your peers in whatever discipline you're in, or to use it as a platform to share content so you can build awareness of your own professional brand. 

Not knowing the Tulsa job market in the slightest, I used Twitter to search for prominent companies in the area as well as employees of those companies to forward my resume along to. I literally searched keywords like "Tulsa", "marketing", and "advertising" and was lead to a much more personal and engaging picture of local companies identities than plain old Google could afford me. This paid off immensely, as I ended up landing a job at a top Oklahoma advertising firm in a matter of about three weeks. 

Upon moving, we bought an adorable Mid-Century Modern home that was just dying to be filled up with vintage treasures, so I started following any locally owned consignment or vintage shops I could find. One day, I decided to pop into one of the stores, Retro Den Tulsa. The fun-loving, adorable girls that ran the shop greeted me and asked me if there was anything in particular that they could help me find. I mentioned that I had just moved to Tulsa, and that I had discovered them on Twitter, and just like that, we struck up a conversation that ended up lasting for the better part of an hour. Needless to say, we've grabbed a few cocktails together since. :) 

The way I figure, you never know who’s listening (or reading in this case) so why not put yourself out there? (Another reason I decided to start this blog.) The overall lesson I learned is to tweet relevant messages that align with your goals and engage with people who can help you. Because guess what? Moving to a new city is scary. Sometimes you need all the help you can get.