What is Twitter?

When I read the news, blogs, or watch TV.  I am constantly surrounded by Twitter.  Yet only about 10-15 of my friends are actually on it. I think that is partly because people don't understand what it is for or why they would want to use it, or even how to use it. I am going to give you an example of how I use Twitter and how you could or should use it. 

Twitter is a micro blogging website with an API that allows programmers to create software that works in conjunction with their website. That is how you can have an application on your iPhone, or you Blackberry, or Google Phone. This allows you to participate in the micro blogging daily.  Let me explain exactly what I mean by micro blogging.  You have 140 characters to say something about what you are doing, or what you are thinking.  For example:

goochdotcomI'm always afraid of what I'll find in my hotel room- and I blame CSI for that about 2 hours ago from TwitterBerry

This is one of my friends on Twitter and hopefully he doesn’t mind me posting one of his Twitter updates.  What normally happens when one person makes a statement that generates interest, similar to the one above, people will comment and post on their own Twitter page something like:

mklear: @goochdotcom you shouldn’t use the glasses in the bathroom they just rinse them out windex– and then by putting the @ symbol it will respond to what he said on your page, and he will get a notification that someone posted a reply to one of his updates.

Twitter has now evolved from making dumb statements or status updates about what people are doing.  Now companies have figured out that people are constantly checking Twitter, almost neurotically.  For example, some people will make posts every half hour, more than most would check their email.  So CNN will use Twitter as a platform to post new news blips, so I am constantly getting up to date news on my Twitter feed.  O'Hare airport will also twitter weather delays and the list goes on.

Then the next step of Twitter evolution is promoting your own business on Twitter. Studentnerds has a Twitter page where we make sure our Twitter followers receive our blog posts and any updates about our company.  Many companies use Twitter like this also one of our partners will Twitter about relevant info to their company like:

gimmegolf Ogilvy wins Accenture match play in a rout over Casey: http://tinyurl.com/ad5oszabout 12 hours ago from web

I hope this makes Twitter a little more clear, and hopefully this will inspire more people to start using Twitter so i can have more friends.  Hit me up on the twitter.com/mklear

twitter.com/studentnerds
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