Brian Grey Blog

New beginnings are exciting — doing a restart can be energizing.  With that spirit in mind, and prompted by a blog post forwarded to me by my pal VCMike, I have decided to do a “Twitter Restart”.  What’s a Twitter Restart?  Well, basically I have decided to sign up anew on Twitter using a new user name.

Why do this?

Well, for one reason, I don’t feel as though I’ve really given Twitter that “old college try” as they say.  I kind of stumbled in to it last summer and then stumbled in a bit more in the fall when I moved back to SF and started up with Polaris.  A Twitter Restart gives me a chance to experience Twitter as a “newbee”.  I get to feel the rush of a user who found out about Twitter at a cocktail party in Pacific Heights — or at a Michael Phelps-esque party in the Haight? — and then raced home that night a little buzzed to sign on to Twitter to see what all the Twitter-hype was about.

I’m so giddy right now…

Another driver for the TR (can I be introducing a new acronym in to the Web2.0 lexicon?) is the opportunity to really put my “true” identity out in the Twittersphere:  bgrey.  You see, “bgrey” has been my Internet moniker since I got my first email address back in 1939 (ok, 1995, but it feels like 70 years ago).  Most of my colleagues from places I’ve stopped at in the past — UCLA, Netscape, Shutterfly, Yahoo!, Fox, etc. — know me as “bgrey”.  So may as well make the TR switchover to the brand people know (and trust)!

That post I referenced above is from Max Kalehoff on his blog and Max talks about the importance of not just having a brand voice on Twitter — but also the distinction of having that voice come from a real person versus some “oracle” for the brand.  For example, being able to follow @TonyHsieh talking about Zappos would provide more punch than just following @Zappos.  The former would be authentic, the latter viewed skeptically by Twitterers thinking that it was just filtered corporate speak.

Oh, there is one last reason for the TR.  You see, that mystery “L” that was inserted in to my original Twitter identity has created an issue back on the home front.  Turns out that my dad, for whom the “L” in my middle name comes, feels that I am treading on his brand.  So I am removing it lest I get slapped with some type of Twitter induced trademark infringement lawsuit.  Damn those parents who start paying attention to their own brands in the digital realm!  [Note:  My dad isn't really going to sue me -- he has to learn to type before he can actually use the Web]

So here we go.  A Twitter Restart.  Fresh and new.  An opportunity to dive in to Twittermania again for the “very first time” as Madonna might sing.  Now I just have to figure out how to rewire all the places where my old “blgrey” Twitter account is wired up.

Ugh, I feel the excitement already dissipating…