If there's one thing that Twitter has very clearly accomplished since its 2006 creation, it's that the social networking site has created a growing number of people very comfortable with sharing their every move and thought.
Musicians in particular use the tool to regurgitate reminders about upcoming performances and to plead with fans to buy their music. But many of them go beyond that. Many of them run legitimate, personally maintained Twitter accounts through which they interact with the public in much the same manner as everyone else.
And their fans love them for it.
Enter Kelly Crisp, one half of the core duo that comprises alternative indie rockers, The Rosebuds. She acts as the band's de facto "tweeter" and primary social media voice. One doesn't have to follow her Twitter feeds very long to see that she is one of the small population of musicians on Twitter who really "gets it." Crisp posts in an authentic voice that draws people into her world and, in a word, entertains.
She also uses Twitter to communicate with her bandmate, Ivan Howard.
"Twitter does make it easy," she says. "There are details that I will now try and update with Ivan that, before, I would have called or just text-messaged him about. Twitter forces you to communicate in an intimate way, even though you are potentially communicating it to a lot of people."
And there is a darker side to such sharing: the potential for abuse. Nefarious persons can be quickly and easily armed with intimate knowledge of your movements.
"I have to remember that it's dangerous to share too many details regarding exactly what you're doing," Crisp says. "People might be keeping tabs on you when you're alone. I became aware at one point of someone, a creepy neighbor, that kept very close tabs of tweets I made about things like taking Ivan to the airport. It's not something I like to think about too much. It freaked me out. I can't forget that it's not just my friends that follow me on Twitter. The downside of Twitter is that people know where I am. The up side? My friends know where I am."
And she knows where they are, too—something that can be useful when your main bandmate is in another band, too, as is the case with Crisp's partner in crime, Howard, who also performs in the supergroup GAYNGS.
Far more important, though, is the fact that Crisp, and The Rosebuds in general, have directly benefited from using the networking site, and using it well.
"It works," she says. "You need to be able to reach people and tell them that you have something new for them. If they're interested and want to be reached, then it's there for them."