WTF is twitter ? A Common Man’s guide to Tweets
From Scandals to great entertainment, from news to breaking news, from celebrities to yours truly, everyone seems to be getting on the Twitter bandwagon. But few of us really know what is twitter and how to use it ? Don’t fear, I am here, to help clear all doubts with twitter and how it is used. First things first, Twitter is a website that allows you to share or read information updates to and from other members all with the help of 140 characters only. Its like SMS for the internet (Except SMS is 160 characters). For, all of you who have been using Facebook, it is like your status update on Facebook. A service that helps people to update their status to everyone who is ‘following’ them.
So what’s the big deal, there is Facebook for it ?? Right ? Well most famous people who want to announce things to the world traditionally used press and emails, with the introduction of Social Networking Sites like Orkut, Facebook, My Space, people realised that they can connect directly with the people on the web without the need of the press, and thus these services slowly started being called Social Media.
As most rich and famous people do, they do not have the need to maintain a ‘profile’ on a Facebook or Orkut, however they were missing out on the opportunity to connect to the masses. So Twitter came up with a solution for everyone, Update you status but without having to maintain your entire profile in order to do so. The service also god a huge boost from the Mobile Industry, with more phones being capable of ’Data Services’ as well as being online all the time. People could be anywhere and update their status messages on their phones and let their other friends / followers know about it.
Unlike Facebook there is an advantage if you are a follower, you do not need the permission of a person to follow, where as in Facebook you need to accept friendship to be able to complete the Friend’s cycle. So it is not uncommon to see people with 1/2 Million followers. And people can just receive the updates of the person they are following. Then there are ‘direct messages’ that you can send to people which of course everyone can read, and the interaction between the people is visible to everyone who is following you. So that in a nut shell is twitter. It has been gaining a lot of momentum as websites allowing you to post Web Pages, pictures, videos have sprung up.. all maintaining within the 140 characters limit. The video here might make things clearer
Twitter Jargon
Twitter Jargon or acronyms are something that need to be learnt over time with usage, however I will try to list some of these here to help you out with them:
Tweet: A post made on Twitter by a user.
ReTweet or RT: Reposting something that has already been posted on the Twitter stream. RT usually precedes the original poster to give credit. E.g. RT @BillGates ImagineCup- over 325K students frm around the world w/great ideas for how technology can change the world. webcast 9am: http://bit.ly/abVAdj
DM: This is a Direct Message sent to a twitter user. One has to follow you in order to DM them. DMs don’t appear in the public twitter stream but go directly to the receiver’s inbox.
Via: This can sometimes be used in place of RT. E.g. What are some of the good alternatives to PayPal? via@stoneatwine
Follow: If someone’s tweets appear in your stream then you are following them.
Follower: Someone who is reading your tweets
Unfollow or De-Friend: This is when someone stops reading your tweets.
@ Reply: The @ symbol is used to reply to a twitter user. E.g. @StoneAtwine @normzo Orange Uganda is a very new entrant into that market & best of class, so they’re able to screw us over. #nocompetition
# (Hashtag):A hash symbol is used to comment about a certain topic in a tweet so that people searching for it can easily find it. Searching for #iran will give you all the tweets that contain news about Iran
Twitterer/Tweeter: Someone who uses Twitter
Tweeple: People who use Twitter
Tweeps: Twitter friends that one is constantly in touch with. Think about ‘Peeps’
Twitterati: A-list Twitter users or Twitter élite. These usually have a big number of followers and are somewhat famous and influential in Twitter circles. These include people like @chrisbrogan, @Scobleizer, @GuyKawasaki, @mashable, @aplusk and @britneyspears.
Twittosphere: The collective group of people who tweet.
Link: Including a URL in your tweet.
Twitter usage
You’ll see some people who say that Twitter shouldn’t be used for updates…that no one cares about what you’re doing or what you’re thinking right now. But the truth is there are plenty of people who use Twitter like this, and there are plenty of people who would be interested in knowing what you’re doing or thinking. In these cases, this could add a personality to your company. By all means, follow some common sense when using Twitter, and incorporate some of the best tips you come across. But at the same time, find your own way on Twitter. Figure out what works for you and your target audience.
If your followers aren’t interacting with you, ReTweeting your content, or paying attention to what you say, what’s the point? It’s better to focus on building a list of targeted, engaged followers than just trying to get a lot of people to follow you back.
The truth is Twitter isn’t a waste of time…at least not for everyone. Twitter isn’t about getting some magical results overnight. It’s about building a relationship with your audience over time. To be successful, you need to be committed to Twitter for the long term. Before you spend time signing up on Twitter and growing your presence, figure out if it actually serves a purpose for you or your business. Ask your target audience if they’re on Twitter, and if they aren’t, don’t waste your time using it.
Some Interesting Twitter Apps
Apps seems to be the key to the success of all services now, be it iPhone to Facebook, apps is the rage. However, Twitter does not have too many apps but there are many third party applications on twitter that are well, interesting to say the least. Most of the apps in twitter available are to enable people to tweet from anywhere, like a twitter client to help orgaize tweets, to find the most popular ones and also to help you tell whom to follow :
1. Google Replay
Yes it is well documented now that the best apps on twitter are made by people using Google tools, starting from Google Replay which you can zoom to any point in time and “replay” what people were saying publicly about a topic on Twitter. To try it out, click “Show options” on the search results page, then select “Updates.” The first page will show you the familiar latest and greatest short-form updates from a comprehensive set of sources, but now there’s a new chart at the top. In that chart, you can select the year, month or day, or click any point to view the tweets from that specific time period. Here we’ve searched for [golden gate park] and browsed to see March, 2010:
2. Google Follow Finder
With Google Follow Finder, simply enter your Twitter account name and you’ll see a list of people you might be interested in following. You can also get interesting suggestions by entering other Twitter user names. Here’s what it looks like:
If you see someone you want to follow, just click “Follow on Twitter,” log in, and they’ll be added to your following list in Twitter. This integration is based on Twitter’s new @anywhere frameworks, which make it easy for any site to add Twitter functionality.
3. Sleeping Time
There is another interesting application that is available for twitter, which is called Sleeping Time, you can actually look for when the people you follow go to sleep based on their twitter status updates, you can find Sleeping time here. Try using some of the tweeps like @iamsrk and @Sachin_rt for fun as well.
Further Reading
You can of course also check out these links for more information regarding twitter if you wanted to. Happy Tweeting.
Related posts:
Thanks for the great Twitter guide for Super Dummies!
Thanks NRI Blogger