What on Earth is Twitter?

[Neo]

One has heard the word "twitter", especially in conjunction with the chirping of birds, but people twittering on Twitter is a new idea for a majority of people.

You may have seen many ads on TV, requesting you to "Tweet Us." And you might be afraid of asking people about "what are these guys talking about, tweet us,' because you do not want to be labeled totally "uncool." I was also under the assumption that if I asked anybody what twittering and getting to know more about the social media was all about, I would be laughed at or given a stare of, "man, get a life." The moment I got over the fear of this ridicule, I managed to get some answers. And here are the answers that you want to know, about Twitter.

Come on get on with it, what on earth is twittering, twitter, Tweeting and every sort of tweet word combination, got to do with TV advertisements, you might ask.

A website like Twitter allows you to do micro-blogging. Micro blogging can be considered to be blogging in its mini form. You are going to text small amounts of content, and the moment they go online, they can be reviewed by everybody or by people who belong to just one particular social group.

These little messages are known as Tweets. You can submit them upon twitter through e-mail, SMS messages, instant messaging, or just through the web. If you want to communicate with just one person, you are going to send the
message to him by putting a symbol @ before his username.
You can also do a little talking with other group members. Once you join Twitter you can send direct messages to people of your group through the Twitter interface.

You can either follow or be a friend of Tweeple (Twitter + people!) through the twitter interface. This allows you to Receive Tweets, twits or even Twitters, call these messages with whatever name you prefer. Following or adding a friend to your network is just as if you have added a friend on MSN or Facebook.

Why is Twitter getting to be so popular, you may ask. Well, people who share similar dislikes and likes can get to know exactly what you are on about. You are going to express your sentiments in less than 140 characters. Self-expression gone micromini is the name of the game. So from single comments to rants and from boring descriptions of day-to-day activities to talking about newsworthy items and events, you can twit about almost anything.

Some Tweets are focused upon making money, by posting links to blogs and websites. The idea is to make people look at sales coupons, blog entries, events, and other happenings. Businesspeople can take advantage of this target market, which is interested in one particular product.

Twitter has many uses. Ask advice, talk about a cause, give somebody some help, promote your services and products, and even promote the awareness of some major event. All you need to do is twitter on Twitter in small emotional bursts. So when are we going to see you on Twitter?