What is Twitter?
by Sylvia on 01/01/09 at 3:22 pm
What is it?
Twitter is a social networking site, or as some people now call it: a micro blogging service. It allows users to exchange short messages (tweets) and send direct messages.
The big difference with sites such as Facebook and MySpace is that you can only send messages of 140 characters. There is also not much else you can do on Twitter. You can spice up your page with your own background, write a (very short) bio, search for tweets and that’s about it.
Another difference is that there is no opt in system for friends or followers as they are called in Twitter. People can find you and follow you if they want. They don’t have to ask you first. However, you will get a message that someone is now following you and if you want, you can block them.
So why do I need it?
I’m fairly new to Twitter and am only just starting to use it myself, but I find Twitter is a great networking and research tool. It’s a bit mindboggling to use at first but if you give it a try you may start to really enjoy it. What do I use it for?
- To share ideas, ask questions, and look for people with the same interest as me.
- To network: as opposed to Facebook, which I’m keeping private, I find Twitter much more suitable for networking with like minded people. There is a lot more interaction and I usually get a few ideas or pointers to interesting websites.
- To ask questions. If you want to do a bit of research or have a technical problem you can tweet it. Very often you will get an instant reply.
- Through tools such as tweetdeck you can monitor tweets on a particular keyword. For example I can open a search group for web design Singapore. Whenever someone would tweet about needing a web designer I could reply to them. Many companies now have these monitors for their products so they can provide instant technical support, should someone tweet about a problem.
- Create little twitter quizes with twtpoll
- Keep everyone up-to-date with the latest articles on my website. There is a good tool for this too: twtterfeed
How can I start using it?
Signing up is really easy. Just visit Twitter.com and register. It’s free and very quick! Choose a good username and off you go. Now you will just need to follow people and get some followers and start tweeting. You can use the twitter.com website to tweet, but there are also applications for your phone or other applications like Tweetdeck that you can use.
But how do I follow or get followers?
Twitter has a tool that checks if any of your friends are already using Twitter. Another thing you can do is to go to people you admire and follow the people that follow this person. Many people that you follow will follow you back. Be selective though with the people you follow as you don’t want too many people just tweeting about their coffee habits. You can also do a search for particular keywords. If you find people that interest you, start following them. You can also reply to tweets that you find.
Many websites, like this one, also have links on their website to their Twitter account. On this site just click on the follow me on Twitter button/link. This will take you to my profile. Now you just click on ‘follow’ and you will get all my updates in your twitterfeed. If you want to reply to one of my tweets, just click on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the tweet and type your message.
Where can I find more information
A blog I like about Twitter is twitip.com. Many useful tips here, a source for all the latest Twitter applications, and many ideas on how to use Twitter.
Have fun and don’t forget to follow bestlifeweb!
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