Twitter, Twitter, Twitter

Twitter, twitter, twitter, now a days, it's all you seem to hear about, but why? Why is it people feel the need to 'tweet' about what they had for breakfast or what song their listening to or whom their talking to? How is twitter becoming so popular in 2009 suddenly and what is the future of Twitter? Any how the heck do you manage to post only 140 character limited 'tweets' and manage to communicate with the world, and who the heck is even listening?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

But how can Twitter help you? What can you do with twitter? Why bother even signing up for an account? Here is a good article to help explain these answers.

5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good

I’m a big fan of Twitter, and have been using it heavily since the outset. For those of you not yet using it, Twitter is a communications gateway that asks the question: “What are you doing now?” Users can answer and hear their friends’ answers via SMS, via IM, or on a webpage. Updates have to be under 140 characters. Think somewhere between IRC and IM and that’s Twitter.

Twitter is a constant pulse product, meaning it can really sap your attention span. That seems antithetical to life-hacking, or at least to Getting Things Done. So how is it useful? Here are my tricks.

Using Twitter for Good

* Quick Human Answers- Ask folks on your friend’s list which digital camera to buy for under $300 US, and you’ll get back a stream of responses.
* Conference / News Briefings- The last several major tech events were covered by Twitter. I heard about the Apple iPhone faster through Twitter than I would via blog surfing. Similarly, I’ve watched people in San Francisco report earthquakes that took news sources hours to confirm.
* Friendsourcing- Last Tuesday, I asked about a web designer for a project. I got back 14 emails in 10 minutes from different sources on Twitter. It’s a great place to find folks to help with things. We once helped a friend out of a bind when he got stuck at an airport, strictly by Twitter. (I write about friendsourcing on my blog).
* Micro-Attention-Sharing- Lots of us use Twitter to direct folks to blog posts we’ve written, news we find needs sharing, or entertaining things we’ve found on the web (Twitter has a built in function to use tinyurl.com to shrink URLs to keep it under 140 characters). It’s *like* using del.icio.us to share, but it’s instant, and you wouldn’t drop 100 links on someone in Twitter in a given day.
* Direct People to Good Causes- I’ve seen plenty of posts of someone doing a walk for hunger or a collection for diabetes. Twitter allows people to use their friend lists to propagate that information faster, and try to draw more direct help down to a problem.
* Bonus- As advertised, Twitter answers the question “What are you doing?” It means that you can stay in touch with others without being intrusive. Just follow their twitters.

Twitter can be distracting, but it can be useful. It’s up to you.

Twitter Humor

Sally speaking to answering machine:

Hey Nancy, Twitter was down this morning, when you get this message can you call, I'm dying to know what you had for breakfast? Thanks.

- - -

Twitter Novice to friend:

Hey Deborah, I don't get it, if Twitter only allows 140 characters, why is it so popular. Most good Disney cartoons have more characters than that?

- - -

Twitter-head Explaining Twitter to a Newbie:

OK, let me paint a picture in your head... Twitter is like cramming 140 of the whackiest characters you know in to a little room with turquoise walls, and then asking them to sing like the Birdman of Alcatraz in falsetto.

We are on Twitter, FaceBook & MySpace, please check it out...

Jyot Financial & Insurance Services, Inc. 14726 Ramona Avenue #410 Chino, CA 91710 909-548-7444 T 909-548-7435 F CA Insurance License #0D95511 Jyot Financial & Insurance Services, Inc. is not a subsidiary of nor controlled by ING Financial Partners, Inc. Registered Representative of and securities offered through ING Financial Partners, Inc. Member SIPC.

PLEASE NOTE: The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of the web sites provided here, you are leaving this web site. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these web sites. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, web sites, information and programs made available through this web site. When you access one of these web sites, you are leaving our web site and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the web sites you are linking to.