Disclaimer: Written by a twitter n00b
What is Twitter?
I don’t know. It is so simple yet so difficult to explain.
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
That was taken from the twitter website. But that still doesn’t explain it that well. They call it “micro-blogging”, I guess. Basically twitter lets you provide small updates (140 characters max) and they make it convenient to do so. You can update via email, on your Iphone or Blackberry, on the twitter website, through 3rd party applications or websites, really almost anywhere. Nice and convenient.
Who uses Twitter?
Everybody! Celebrities like Shaq and Britney Spears. For the record, Shaq is hilarious. Politicians like Al Gore and Barack Obama. Authors like Tim Ferris and Steve Pavlina. University Professors and researchers. Companies like Starbucks and Marvel Entertainment. Sports teams like the San Diego Chargers and the Chicago Bulls.
They come from all walks of life!
So far so good. But why use Twitter?
Because its fun! You can let your friends and family know what you are doing and what’s on your mind. You can share funny things you find across the web. You can ask questions and get quick replies. It can be an extremely useful tool.
A snowboarder that went missing in the Swiss Alps was found with the help of the GPS signal from his iPhone, while his friends were raising awareness about the accident on Twitter. His friend, unfortunately, was found dead after an extensive search.
Taken from Mashable
When Gmail went down a couple of weeks ago, Tweeters were the first to report it. Slowdowns on the public transportation you rely on? Check Twitter, I bet there is news about what is going on. Companies are starting to pay attention to what Tweeter’s have to say. If customers have a complaint, these companies want to gather this information to satisfy their customers.
In short, twitter has past the tipping point and has hit critical mass. There are enough people using it that you can get real time information very very quickly. It can be used almost like a real time search engine, where the information comes in fast and furious.
How do you use Twitter?
Simple, go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. Then you are ready to start tweeting. You will need to follow some people to see their updates, and they’ll need to follow you to see yours. If you don’t hide your tweets, they will also be a part of the public timeline so everybody can see them.
You can tweet from the website itself, or you can download apps for your Iphone, or extensions for your browser. For example, I use Digsby as my IM client on Windows. This has twitter integration and so I am able to see what other people are tweeting about and reply if want to. I usually tweet using the Ubiquity Firefox extension. The two most popular desktop applications I keep hearing about are Twhirl and Tweetdeck, although I haven’t used them myself. Its all supposed to make tweeting easier, not more complicated so don’t get overwhelmed. If you are confused then just stick to the website for now until you get your bearings on it.
Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the web right now. Facebook tried to acquire them and failed. Very soon, your going to start seeing some changes on Facebook’s homepage. This is a likely a direct challenge to twitter’s emergence, as Facebook will try to beat twitter at its own game. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.