When our newspaper’s fashion expert and restaurant reviewer Nadine Kam introduced me to Twitter in 2007, I was dubious at best.

"This is the wave of the future of how people will communicate," she said. "You should get on now."

I made a funny face. "The last time someone told me that, they were trying to get me onto MySpace, and I’m glad I said no. Now you want me to join something called ‘Twitter’? It doesn’t even look cool."

"Trust me," Nadine said.

I did, and at times I wish I hadn’t — especially in the early-going, when there wasn’t a whole lot of sports-related stuff on Twitter … mostly assorted egomaniacs and public relations people (a group, interestingly, whose jobs Twitter can make irrelevant or more relevant) jabbering about stuff in which I often had little interest.

But Twitter grew and has been good to me. I get more personal enjoyment and news tips from Facebook, but Twitter and its cousin Instagram are the social media venues of choice for younger people, including college and professional athletes.

And that last bit is a big part of why 67-year-old Dave Shoji’s decision to announce he is returning as University of Hawaii volleyball coach for his 40th season in 2014 is a stroke of genius. Whether intended or not.

The most important group Shoji had to reassure he’d be back — his players and potential recruits — get a lot of their news from social media. And everything they had to know (or that he wanted them to know) is right there in a few simple words from his Twitter handle (@DaveShoji): "Announcing that I am returning for 40th season in 2014! Go bows!"

That appeared a few minutes after a picture of him skiing in the Austrian Alps, around 1 a.m. Hawaii time.

Shoji usually tweets just a couple of times a month. I had to double-check to make sure it was really him. After looking at what had been posted previously I was convinced (the tweet thanking someone for putting a Dodgers pennant in his mailbox in August was the clincher).

The news itself is important, but hardly a surprise.

IF THERE were any doubt he would be back, it was erased for me by the way UH was swept at home by Brigham Young in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — not the way you want to go out, especially against a rival school.

Tweeting while on vacation means not having to answer questions (yet), getting it out of the way, controlling the message.

In a word, brilliant.

"How he would announce it was always up to him," UH athletic director Ben Jay told me (by personal message on Twitter, incidentally). Shoji had told Jay that he actually wanted MORE to do, and as we reported last month, he will be assisting the AD as a consultant.

Jay himself has had some ups and downs on Twitter.

"Twitter allows me to speak to our fans, provide facts, talk about upcoming events. Promote games and support our teams instantaneously," he said. "After metaphoric ‘lightbulb’ tweets, I have learned to be less impulsive, but it hasn’t stopped my passion for what we’re trying to get done."

The lightbulb tweets were about having to change some himself because of the decaying maintenance of lower campus, and rankled a higher-up.

Not all coaches tweet. Surprisingly, basketball coach Gib Arnold does not. His point guard Keith Shamburger’s (@HoopndKicks) followers have increased by 60 percent since the ‘Bows got hot the past month. Forward Aaron Valdes (@gumby_32) is the team’s most active tweeter.

"It’s a fun way to communicate," Valdes said. "But it could get you into a lot of trouble, no cussing. You have to be careful, especially with injuries, keep quiet about it."

And as Dave Shoji showed Saturday, it can be an effective way to break the news — even if you’re the subject of it.

———
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.