What is this Twitter thing and How Do I Use It?

I get this question a lot when I say that I use Twitter, so I figured I would post a blog post and give my explanation on what I think it is and how it can be useful.

Twitter is essentially a microblogging tool; it is based around the concept of RSS which is what enables weblogging. For an explanation of RSS, please visit my previous post on the topic. The difference between Twitter and a blog is that you are limited to 140 characters for any Twitter post whereas a blog is essentially unlimited.

There are essentially two other things that make Twitter different from blogging.
1) @ replies – you can send messages in response or directed to a particular person and these responses can be viewed by the entire community
2) DMs – direct messages – you can send messages to another user that only they can see.

Because of these two features about Twitter, I’ve found that your Twitter experience will be greatly enriched by having more followers and following more people because the conversation aspect of replies and DMs is enriched by having more people to reply and DM with!

But what is Twitter for????
It’s just a tool! Much like a hammer, you can use Twitter for a productive purpose (pulling nails or hammering in nails) or for an unproductive purpose (eating your cereal), but the quality of the experience will be based on using the tool in the most productive fashion.

You can certainly post every mundane detail of your day, but if no one that is following you really cares, then you will think Twitter is useless. If you post information that is interesting and compelling to you and others and comment on other’s posts, then Twitter can be used to create community and help you become better informed and more connected with those you follow and who follow you.

Personally, I use it to post things that I find interesting and engage in conversation with those I’m interested in. For me, these are people in my local community and people who work in my field. I found these people through some of the tools out there, if you’d like to ask questions about those, please comment on this post. You can also google “twitter people finder” or something like that and should be able to find tools that will help you find people you want to connect with.

Twitter is another tool of web 2.0, like blogging, wikipedia, communities (facebook), and youtube where people can create a name and a community for themselves and create an individual online presence. These communities enable us to be personalized and connected in different ways. Please check out the TED talk from Clay Shirky if you want to see some social implications of these platforms:

Please let me know of other ways that you’re using Twitter or if you have any questions on how to make this or any other networking site personal to YOUR needs.