What I learned about Twitter from Bryce Gruber

I just got off the phone with Bryce Gruber. For those of you who may not know, she's an NYC socialite, but more importantly (or should I say impressively), she owns her own marketing company, IntenCity Global, and is the founder of the 19th most successful blog in the world, The Luxury Spot. Oh, and she's only 25 years-old. No biggie.

I've interviewed a gazillion celebrities, so the fact that I was nervous talking to Bryce and got all tongue-tied a few times during our conversation is beyond me. Seriously, Ellen? I'm not sure why exactly. It's been quite a while since I've actually done an interview, so I guess I was a little rusty. Plus, while successful people intrigue me, they are intimidating, too. Bryce is to the social media world what I am to the emotional eating world: a champion. No one does it better. (She was uber-nice though, btw!)

So, on to the Twitter topic. The #1 thing I learned from Bryce about Twitter is: It ain't shit. "I do it begrudgingly. There's too much hype around it," she admitted to me. And all this time I thought if I could just be successful at Twitter, I'd blow up and be able to finally cross world-domination off of my To-Do list. Not true, apparently. Bryce made me realize that Facebook status updates are a more time-worthy investment. "You're in people's news feed whether they like it or not, so they're bound to see what you're up to. Facebook status updates are more visible because the comments are stacked, but Twitter isn't as in-your-face—you have to search for it," she added.

Well that certainly makes sense--as long as I'm not using Facebook status updates as an opportunity to tell the world that I just ate my feelings, again, or that I need a lip wax, that is. "Your updates should create a dialogue. If I say that I'm going to brunch at a certain place, people will comment back and say something like, 'Ohh, you have to try the eggs benedict!' It can be fun, but there should be a purpose to it, too," Gruber said. Gotcha.

So, I don't think I'm going to totally give up on Twitter just yet, but I must admit that it was refreshing for me to learn that it's not pertinent to my success. I am going to take Bryce's advice though and start tweeting about more specific things, like sports teams, celebrity gossip and things happening in the news. (Apparently no one actually cares about my crush on Nick Jonas or the fact that the T.O. Show had me in tears last night).

Tell me: Do you like Twitter? Do you get the hype?

I have a terrible disease. It's called Blogitis.

Last night Liza witnessed me having a minor breakdown as I tried to fix the font colors in my last blog. It was 7:15 and I had to pick up my laundry at the cleaners by 7:30 (it's just around the corner), but I just couldn't bring myself to leave the apartment until the problem was fixed. I finally figured it out and rushed out the door. I made it just in time. When I came back, Liza and I turned on a movie. I told myself that I was going to keep my computer turned off, but after 20 minutes, I was typing away. "I feel like we're an old married couple! We never talk and have fun anymore," she said. Ouch, that stung. But, I kinda laughed it off and didn't think much more about it. 

Until...this morning. I was in a really grumpy mood, and when Liza told me she thought my blog was taking over my life, I blew up. I started yelling and crying loud enough for my neighbors to confirm the fact that yes, the girl in 5A needs professional help. I was really tired, and as looked around my messy apartment trying to remember the last time Liza and I really laughed together, I knew she was right. 

Someone else that has suffered from this strange disease called Blogitis is Amy Adams's character, Julie, in the movie Julie and Julia. She was obsessed with her food blog. It made her cranky, and even almost destroyed her marriage. Yikes, I can't go down that path!

I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be hard to spend less time on the computer and thinking about my blog. I was doing OK until I checked my email as I was on my way out the door to go to the gym, and saw that NYC socialite/online marketing guru, Bryce Gruber, is now following me on Twitter. My tweets totally suck, so I spent the entire hour and a half at the gym brainstorming ways to improve my tweeting skills so that cool people like Bryce won't de-friend me after two days. 

Yowzers, this is going to be harder than I thought. I told Liza I wasn't going to blog today, but here I am blogging about not blogging. Does anyone know of a 12-step program I can follow? I need help!!!