So what exactly is Twitter? You can tweet a few lines every few seconds if you have a Twitter account. It allows people to know what you are doing or thinking
Those of you who are familiar with social networking sites such as myspace or facebook should know all about status updates. You’ll recognize updates like, “Steve Urkle is wondering if he really did do that” or “Brad DeLoatche is going camping”.
Well, twitter is this function alone. You can subscribe or “follow” any user’s updates.
Q: I understand what twitter is, but if these other sites already have a twitter function, why should I use twitter?
A: Most of your friends on these sites aren’t scratching the surface of this potentially great feature. Users of twitter are making the most of it.
Most people who use the status updaters on myspace or facebook fill it with mostly useless information about what they are doing. The most active and most followed users on twitter are those who consistently share quality links or news of a common theme.
For example, if you were to follow engadget, you would get technology updates. If you were to follow coldplay, you would get updates from the band.
So, in addition to following friends of whom you are interested in what they are doing, you can follow your heroes, your news sources, and your colleagues.
In the day and age of the "me" era, Twitter is set up so people can follow you and find out exactly what you are up to at any given point and time. You may be watching your local television news or even the national news and hear anchors talking about Twitter accounts. It's taking the nation by storm. As if someone is getting paid money to endorse Twitter, the widespread use is becoming a fast paced frenzy on it's way to Twitter mania.
Celebrities have jumped on board. Corporations are also getting involved in the Twitter revolution. Just call it one step marketing of yourself and/or your product. If you sign up for Twitter then people can follow you if they find you in a people search. Or you can follow someone else. You have followers and following. It's amazing who you can find on Twitter already. Famous athletes, politicians, professional teams and more are waiting to be followed so you can soak in the tweets. In some fashion, it's used as a marketing device to allow people to keep up with those products. Some just tweet exactly what they're thinking without throwing a commercial into the brief update.
There are still so many people who do not use the Internet to a large degree, so it is not that hard to understand the general confusion. Additionally, due to the popularity of Twitter, it has actually grown into so much more than even it's creators could have imagined. Twitter has become a fast method of spreading worldwide news and on the street reporting of major events as they occur. Reporting of news has become a blend of traditional journalism and eye witness reporting from anyone on the street with instant worldwide coverage. This has caused a deluge of various applications that have been created to work with Twitter, which adds to it's complexities. This is not an article to explain all of those complexities, but rather to speak to the phenomenon itself.
As the application has grown, so has the need for increased policies and security as the company struggles to keep up with the demands placed on the support of Twitter. Many times when a huge event or crisis occurs, there can be so many people throughout the world who begin to send out Twitter comments that the website can grind to nearly a complete stop.
The way to think of Twitter, is to think of it as a neighborhood. You are connecting to groups of people who you can think of as your neighbors, who you can say "hello" to, or "what are you doing today", or just anything you may comment to neighbors about. They don't have to all be good friends. They are just people you are being friendly to. When you take a walk in your neighborhood where you live, you would likely say "hello" to anyone you pass along the way. That is how I think of Twitter, at least in the beginning. As you progress, you will learn many nuances about Twitter, but the most effective marketing aspect you can utilize, is by tweaking the list of people you follow. You will learn that there are tools and methods that can help you locate groups of people with common interests, perhaps of topics that are your hobbies or career.
Will Twitter work for you? Being interactive as corporations and individuals is becoming increasingly important. It might be important to jump on the Twitter bandwagon revolution as soon as possible. We all need to network and market ourselves because no one else will for us. Unless we pay them of course. Twitter allows you give people an opportunity to be around you even when they are not. And it's free. You can post updates as to when certain events are coming up or just pose a hypothetical question for your followers to ponder.
The Twitter revolution is growing and growing and it's surpassed any chance of being a fad. Sure it's not like Facebook or Myspace in allowing picture and video posts. There are no games to be played. Just simple Tweeting. You can also twitter from your phone when you are on the road. You can also receive tweets.
Who is on Twitter? It's kind of random right now. Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer, is a twitterer. University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari twitters and provides a thought for the day. My guess is that eventually most people will own a twitter account where they, too, can post their thoughts or what they are doing at a given time.
It's simple, quick and let's other people(followers) know that you are still around. Some update their updates more often than others. So you might want to be careful who you follow because you will be bombarded with Tweets from one individual and miss the others.
Twitter can also be used to help promote your website. If you post tweets your followers might become followers of your website or your website followers might become followers of your twitter account. Sure it might sound confusing but every little bit helps in the day and age of self advertising and marketing.
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