A ton of my friends – primarily those back in the Yorkville/Chicagoland area – have inquired about Twitter after seeing my mentions of it on
Facebook,
Myspace and even
Flickr. What is it? Why bother with it? How is it better than the other, more mainstream social networks?
Well, here it is…
Twitter is a social network and micro-blogging site where users post and read text-based updates. It’s often likened to status updates on Facebook in that users are sharing the answer to the common question, “What are you doing?” Twitter postings, or tweets, are a maximum of 140 characters, which results in an immediate-but-brief collaboration of information.
Tweets may be made through
the Twitter website, via text message, or through third-party applications such as
Tweetdeck,
Twhirl or
Twitterfox and they appear immediately on the poster’s homepage and in the stream of anyone following him/her. Users choose whom they follow, and are not obligated to follow whoever follows them. This helps deter spammers, as they’re unlikely to gain or retain many followers if their tweets are all self-promotional.
Twitter’s most unique and valuable feature is its ability to connect people. While sites like Facebook and Myspace are focused on reconnecting people, Twitter is a tool for meeting new people. It has grown into a massive community of like-minded individuals — down the street and around the world — who are all looking to reach out. It’s an amazing resource for job leads, news, gossip, product reviews, new product announcements, general knowledge, and new friendships. It’s been almost a year since
I joined Twitter, and in that time I’ve learned about news-worthy happenings before news sources had the story, followed sporting events play-by-play, received weather updates, read reviews on anything from shoes to web apps to movies, heard of jobs and freelance opportunities, scored free tickets to events, won $100 in a trivia contest, participated in many heated discussions, and developed countless meaningful business and personal relationships.
Fortunately for me, Des Moines happens to have a very active and expanding
Twitter community. We get together, somewhat spontaneously, usually at a bar, about once or twice a month. The first tweetup (meeting of Twitter users) that I attended, around April ‘08, drew 20-30 people. I was pleased to finally meet the people who’d been helping me in my job hunt and keeping me entertained during my unemployment. At our most
recent tweetup, we had right around 100 in attendance. And who are all these people? Tweeps seem to share a general interest in technology and/or social media, but come from a wide variety of professions. While I know many tweeting web developers, programmers and graphic designers, I also know a food technician, several radio DJs, a social worker, a lawyer, teachers, writers, someone in the tattoo-ing industry, someone in architecture, realtors, people in financing, musicians, artists, actors/actresses and the list goes on and on. Amazing, open-minded, forward-thinking, fun, fun people!
Next time…!
Oh, also, because it’s completely awesome and sums up Twitter really well, I HAVE to promote this short video:
Twitter in Plain English
Yes, that’s right – exactly like potential franchisees. Just because someone is financially fit to own a piece of your concept, doesn’t mean they are going to work culturally. Apply these same rules to your Twitter followers and follow-backers. It’s not all about numbers. Picking the right people makes much more sense.