I asked myself that very same question many times. Then I asked, “Would Twitter have any benefit for me?” My first answer was no way. Then I decided to try it, and now I’m hooked.
Twitter.com is a web based service that lets its users post a maximum of 140 character (that includes punctuation and spaces) messages. The messages can include links to web pages and links to pictures. Some people call this micro-blogging since the resulting web page is personalized and shows a chronology of the persons posts or tweets. Since Twitter is a relatively new service, there aren’t many rules other than the 140 character limit.
It seems that most people use it to post a quick sentence or two about what they are seeing at the moment, thinking at the moment, or a cool find like a good coffee shop or bbq place. And many others, use it to announce new articles on their web sites or a cool web sites they have found. Once you figure out a few people to follow (the term for getting updates from people you sign up to see their tweets).
For me, it is fulfilling a dream I had about the Riding Shotgun feature (now more than 500 articles deep) I started a few years ago. For that feature, I envisioned that I would write a short article about what I did that day on the job. Since I help computer users in homes and small offices every single day, I come across a lot of situations that may benefit others and wanted to share that on my web site. I wanted to give readers an idea of what it would be like to ride shotgun with me on any given day.
As the day wears on, I don’t always remember what I want to write about, but Twitter gives me the opportunity to quickly update my web page via a short, precise comment almost exactly at the time I have the thought!
For me, Twitter has also become a virtual water cooler. Since I work alone, my daily interaction is only with my phone and my clients. Sometimes, it is fun to bounce ideas, jokes, thoughts, and tips off a co-worker. Twitter has become that co-worker for me. And anyone following me can participate as well.
You can see my tweets in the lower right hand side of any page on the site listed under Rick’s though stream. If interested, you can sign up for Twitter (it’s free) and then follow me there.
I’m really glad you like twitter so much and see how useful it is 🙂 People either seem to get and really enjoy it and not and think it’s a waste of time. I’ve found about half my freelance jobs through twitter – not too bad. Plus it can be really fun.
I think once I start freelancing full time in a couple of weeks I will become even more dependent on it for social interaction.
I will totally admit that I was extremely leery of what Twitter was and how I could use it, but I’m sold now!
Told ya, Brother Rick! Another interesting facet of Twitter is that you can learn quite a bit about somebody just by seeing who they are following and by whom they are being followed.
It is now very literally my #1 real-time “mashup” news source, even though I tweet relatively infrequently myself. New posts happen exponentially faster than on even useful news mashup sites like Drudge. I can always find something interesting to surf by scrolling down the first three or four pages of tweets. In fact I often don’t get past the first page before I’m off and running/learning.
If you check out the Tweeters I’m following, you will readily see how it can be used as a POWERFUL source of news, URLs and surfing ideas.
Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread. I wish I’d thought of it!
I do wish they’d stay on top of bandwidth demands more aggressively, though.
I hear you John. I find that Twitter is just right for my attention span. I actually feel like I’m getting more info in less time!
Comments are closed.