Once again the wit and wisdom of the fourth largest city in Texas and the heart of the Paso del Norte corridor is disregarded as Twitter announces the addition of 100 more cities worldwide to its Trends list. Neither El Paso nor Juárez were included as an option in last week’s update of the Twitter feature that highlights the top conversation topics in a geographical area.

OK, granted the top trending topics in El Paso tend to be Whataburger, bars and weather (spring winds, summer heat and sunny, sunny, sunny), but that doesn’t mean we’re always going to be so predictable.  To the outsider, the El Paso Twitter network seems to be mostly chat about partying, sports and local breaking news. But follow the #elpaso tag and you’ll see a variety of announcements and some bits of conversation hinting at an emerging sophistication on Twitter underneath the noise of the local kids who blast out rapid-fire bored tweets as if their phones were machine guns.  More and more local community organizations and professionals are talking on Twitter, as well as journalists from area media outlets.

Twitter here on the border still looks like a one-way bulletin board where people post their observations about sunsets and lunch; businesses mostly make a pitch for you to stop by; and organizations ask for your help. But there are signs of connections being made and conversations growing as users take community tweeting to the next level toward a building a strong collaborative and informative network.  Social Media brings a great opportunity for a place like El Paso where the population is spread out over a large geographical area, yet we depend on each other for economic and cultural development.  Twitter can lay the groundwork for making new connections and help the community advance.

“Building collaborative communities means finding new and better ways to work together,” Journalist Scott London says in his report on Building Collaborative Communities. “We need to create spaces where people can find each other, share ideas, and discover common ground. We need settings where people can receive support and be acknowledged as public actors. And we need contexts in which people can begin to imagine and act from a new sense of possibility.”

Being able to easily see topics and subjects trending locally can help citizens connect more.

“By viewing Trends in these cities, it’s easier than ever before to find out what’s going on in your area and to get involved in the conversations,” Twitter says in a post announcing some of the cities in the United Kingdom that made the newest Twitter Trends selection.

Sure, we could use third-party sites like Trendsmap to see what Tweeps in El Paso and Juárez are talking about. Topping today’s list is the new UTEP football coach, the singer Jenni Rivera, and a lockdown at Beaumont Army Medical Hospital.

Trendsmap is a great tool with a lot of cool features, but it is most likely only going to be used by the more advanced social media user like businesses, journalists and organizations who will go out of their way to track conversations by location.

Many casual Twitter users tend to stick to just using Twitter.  So, being able to see trending topics automatically while using Twitter helps encourage more people to participate in discussions. And that can lead to a lot more ideas and connections that may benefit all of us.

So come on Twitter! Make El Paso your next Twitter Trends city and watch us take off.