The internet has a massive amount of information on it, and it’s great to have the use of services like Twitter to help find things, people, companies, and websites of interest to you.
You may have seen it being talked about or used on CBC or CNN, or as a blue icon or bird logo on many popular websites or blogs. If you’re not tech-savvy, you likely just ignored it, thinking of it as just another tool on the internet, which it is, but it’s one of the more useful tools, and it’s seriously worth taking a look at.
The internet is no longer just about going to a website and reading articles. Users are leaving comments, and in a lot of cases, the comments on articles are more interesting and thought-provoking then the news stories themselves.
People are using tools such as Delicious.com, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Twitter, among others, to share their findings with friends and family, and the people they know online. It’s faster and far easier than simply e-mailing something of interest, and much less annoying, as we all hate sifting through email.
Most of us use Facebook on a regular basis, and we update our “status” as we check the latest news of what’s going on in the life of friends and family. Twitter uses a similar function, but eliminates the extra stuff, like applications, and focuses solely on those small status messages.
Facebook’s status messages are among a mix of other news feed items, not a part of an ongoing conversation between “friends”. Facebook does not have a simple way to view status messages over time. Twitter, on the other hand, is an ongoing, easy to follow conversation between “friends”.
Twitter uses the same concept that text messages use, using a max of 140 characters to say what you want, and is completely free, unlike text messages. You can use your phone, too, but you must have a “smart phone”, like an iPhone or Blackberry (in Canada, anyway, they allow text messages in the U.S.).
One of the most loved components of Twitter is that it’s instant. Last month, when a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York City (no one died), people living in the area started “tweeting” about it a full half-hour before news organizations started talking about it.
The reason I enjoying using Twitter is because it’s like a hive mind, with knowledge, websites links, current events, and more being shared on a real-time basis within the online community. Such items may not be newsworthy, but it‘s of interest to me. Obviously, you’re not going share personal details about yourself, though you can talk to other users directly through private messages, if you wish to.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter can communicate with desktop programs designed to work with the service, such as Tweetdeck, or my personal favourite, Twhirl. So, as I’m working or playing on my computer, I can see what my friends (people I “follow”) are saying in real-time.
It’s also a great marketing tool. Companies can monitor Twitter conversations through the search function, and respond to what is being said about their company or a product. Ever hear the saying, if people have a bad experience, they’ll tell 10 of their friends? If they have 1000 friends on Twitter, that could be a public relations nightmare.
It’s also an awesome tool to get mass-opinions and perspective on issues in real-time, whether it is thoughts on a new law, or a new trend.
Hash tags (i.e.: #lethbridgehurricanes) are often used to make searching for terms and topics easier. To send another user a message, type “@username” (without the quotes). For example, @kevinlcc (my username).
Barack Obama used Twitter (and Facebook) to communicate with those using the services and to reach the younger crowd who use the internet in their daily lives.
There’s no point in joining Twitter if you’re only going to post things like “I had soup for lunch”. That’s what Facebook’s status updates are for. Twitter is about creating conversation. Instead, say “I’m about to have lunch at Moxies. What the best thing on the menu?”
Its best not to start “following” everyone you can find. Use http://search.twitter.com to find a topic of interest, and ”follow” people who are talking about things you care about, and follow who they follow, and so forth. If you end up following thousands of people, and don’t have many people following you, your account can be deleted for abusing the service, so engage in conversations to avoid this.
Even though Twitter’s page asks “What are you doing?” think of it as asking, “What has your interest?”
Originally posted 2009-02-28 20:00:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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